"Then, what can I do to avert it?"
"You must help us," said Blaine. "Will you?"
"I'll do anything. But if this is an extension of 'Time', how can the
future be changed?"
"This is just a most certain probability; intervention may change it."
Ackerman sat down weakly, and was thankful for the oversized jolt of
scotch that Laurie handed him. "I'm still puzzled; it seems to me
that this splitting-off in 'time' must go on constantly. A tree might
grow either to the left or to the right. Do not these offer different
world-line endings?"
"By and large," said Blaine, "they do. But you must remember that
most incidents are unimportant to the complex. We have two living
possibilities due to your unfortunate accident. You see, Ackerman, it
is true that a tree may grow either to the left or to the right; it
does not grow both ways. When the 'time' comes for the decision to
be made, the forces that work toward causing that decision have been
in force for some duration and the tree takes the most logical move;
therefore only one future ensues. Even in the decision of a possible
dictator of all humanity, the decisions he makes are dependent upon his
past experience. Grand Chance is not a matter of tossing dice; men have
a free will, Ackerman. Yet their lives are fairly well cast ahead of
time by the course of their pasts. The formula that caused World War II
to grow out of World War I was evident enough to prevent World War III;
yet in no way could Adolph Hitler have been averted because he rose out
of a situation already created."
"It still sounds like predestination--and the futility of all effort."
"Not so. You are a free will, Lester--yet your actions are conditioned
by your past. By 'free will', I mean you have a choice of alternatives
within the frame of conditions around you. The only ones whose actions
are not dictated by solid experience are the insane. And they, even by
the Ancients, were termed 'Unpredictable'."
Ackerman nodded. Once you knew a man, you could make a fair prediction
of how he would react to a given set of conditions, starting no major
alterations in his motives and view points, etc. Perhaps if you knew
him very well, your prediction would be better. Les smiled grimly. No
man knew another that well.
_In fact_, he admitted silently, _no man knew himself well enough to
predict his own reaction to an entirely unprecedented situation!_
* * * * *
Outside, the terrible earth-glow had become intense. It was expanding
like a misshapen balloon. Wispy clouds of high-energy were fingering
out into space, followed shortly by the main mass as it dispersed. It
was ten times the original diameter now, and increasing rapidly.
"It will take days," said Blaine. "Of our accelerated 'time'. But you
know the end-point."
Ackerman knew. The end-point of this was a blank space in the solar
system and a gradual re-establishment of the energy-distribution of the
solar system to make up for the missing mass-energy and attraction of
the destroyed earth.
"What can I do?" he asked helplessly.
"How did they hit the earth?"
"I don't know," answered Ackerman.
"They had observers, just as we are. They got here by penetrating the
no-world between the world-lines as we have done. We--you--must develop
a means of our doing that. You, Ackerman, are really the only one in
historic time who knows the secret of temperon."
"No, I do not."
Calvin Blaine smiled tolerantly. "I am of the destroyed earth," he
said sadly. "We do not know how to penetrate the barrier."
"But you are here," said Les.
Blaine nodded very slowly. "Yes--because you, Les Ackerman, know that
secret."
"But I don't--I don't!"
"You will recall it. You will work; you will succeed. And once you
succeed in penetrating the secret of the barrier between the twin
possibilities, you will help us. Then we will be able to come through
into this temporal freedom of this unreal existance--to help you!"
Ackerman groaned. "I am the man," he said quizzically, "who travels
backwards in 'time' to write himself a set of plans on how to build a
'time machine' which he is now using to deliver the letter."
"Indeed."
"And so," Laurie said, smiling, "you reach down, grasp yourself by the
shoelaces, and lift."
"Ridiculous.... But I will help!"
Calvin Blaine caught Ackerman's hand in a firm grasp. Laurie pressed
his other arm against her in a gesture of real affection. Ackerman
felt, within him, the beginnings of a glow of success--
And at that precise moment the ship lurched, throwing them all off
balance.
5
Calvin Blaine cursed, strove to disentangle himself from Ackerman, who
was trying to raise both his weight and that of Blaine from Laurie, who
was pressed harshly across the heavy desk; its edge was cutting into
her spine.
The lurch changed direction and hurled them all from the desk and
across the tiny room against the wall. This time the combined weight of
Laurie and Ackerman crushed Blaine to the wall, and drove the breath
from him. He struggled weakly; Laurie slipped to the floor, gasping.
Ackerman, cushioned first by the girl and second by her father, was
dizzy, but not harmed. Blaine slipped to the floor as Les Ackerman
stooped and lifted the girl to her feet.
Then there was a metallic, grinding sound; shortly afterwards three men
strode in and snapped handcuffs over the wrists of Laurie and Calvin
Blaine.
"You're lucky," one of them said to Ackerman.
"Lucky?" snorted Ackerman. "That's what he told me when he met Tansie
and me."
"You're luckier this time," laughed the leader. "I'm Barry Ford. The
guy with the manacles and the policeman's mien is Tod Laplane. He who
fondles the firearm is a trigger by the name of Louis Ford. He is
fortunate enough to share the same parents with me."
Louis grinned cheerfully. "Sharing a fine set of parents has but one
drawback," he told Ackerman. "It requires that I acknowledge Barry as
my blood brother. It shouldn't happen to a salamander, let along a dog."
Barry smiled genially. "Well," he said, "you're luckier--and have
always been in better company--than I am--and have been."
Laplane turned away from his handiwork. "Shall it be pistols and coffee
at daybreak?" he laughed.
"Look," said Ackerman, interested in the horseplay but annoyed by the
entire occurrence, "Suppose you jokers forget your unreal animosities
and tell me what's going on."
"All's fair--" said Barry Ford.
"--In love and war," finished his brother Louis.
"Is that what this is?" demanded Ackerman.
"By and large," agreed Barry. "You've just witnessed the destruction of
a world; their world," he added, pointing at Laurie and Calvin Blaine.
"That, I must admit, was engineered by our world." To the latter word
Barry added the gesture of pointing to his brother and the other man,
Laplane.
"It was not a pretty sight," snapped Ackerman; "are you going to try to
justify it?"
Blaine grunted angrily. "No one can justify wanton destruction.
"Remember, Ackerman, that what you have just observed is but a close
probability. Believe this because we cannot prove it right now--we will
later--but we have as interesting a scene to show you concerning our
world. Engineered, I might say, by Blaine and his very lovely daughter."
"He told me that I was the man who could avert that affair."
"Uh-huh," grinned Barry wolfishly. "You are. You were well on the way
to averting it. Look, Ackerman, how long do you think this unnatural
splitting of the 'time-stream' can continue?"
"I don't know."
"Well, not much longer. This unreal 'time-space' comes to an end not
far from here, Ackerman. The ending of 'time-space'--this unreal
existance between two probabilities ends; and he who lets the
normal passage of 'time' catch up with him is, at the end of this
'time-space', trapped in the natural world. That is the 'future' and
will always be the 'future' to those of us who roam this 'time-space'
in the hope of averting the tragedy. When we all have succeeded, we
will all come to the end of 'time-space', here and not long hence, and
permit ourselves to be caught up with the natural pattern of life. Your
friends here--my enemies--were about to accomplish their purpose."
"Purpose?" said Ackerman trying to follow the other man's reasoning.
"Is it a foul purpose to try to prevent the death of a world?"
* * * * *
Ford nodded. "You, Ackerman, are destined to save the situation. Blaine
and Blaine, here, were about to permit you--with them--to be caught
up with the ending of this 'time-space'. Then the brilliant Lester
Ackerman would be lost to 'time-space' forever. The real tragedy would
come, but the minor tragedy that only they consider worthy, would have
been averted. So long as you remain in 'time-space', Ackerman, the
destruction of their earth is a definite probability."
"Sounds like a good reason for leaving."
"Yes? Then listen: So long as you remain in 'time-space' the
destruction of my world is improbable."
Calvin Blaine glared, and he spoke up. "Ackerman, what he says is true,
in part; because he intends to use you to develop a means of destroying
my world. If you pass into the future, our own scientists will succeed
first and therefore be able to destroy his world."
"You're in the middle," said Laurie in a sympathetic voice. "No matter
which you do, you've got the fate of a world on your head. I believe,"
she added wistfully, through welling eyes, "that I might have been able
to make you forget that. In fact, had it been mine to say, you'd have
been spared knowing that upon your shoulders lies the decision as to
which existance should be saved. It is a question that no mortal should
ever be called upon to decide."
"Come," said Barry Ford to Ackerman. He ignored the girl's plea. "We've
got to get out and into our own ship. This one is drifting toward the
end of 'time-space'; we'll be caught."
"Even now," said Laurie in a voice that wrenched Ackerman's heart,
"I could ease the hurt; make you forget that such a problem once was
yours. He'll leave us to drift, Les. We'll be caught and taken from
this life. If you decide--please come. To--me?"