“I haven’t done it yet.”
“You came through this entire process and no warning from yourself came to stop you.”
“Because this is the first time I’ve done it,” said Rigg. “There has to be a first time, when everything goes wrong, so that we’ll know what to warn ourselves about.”
“This is not the first time,” said the ship’s computer.
“How would you know? Only the time-shifter knows.”
“Because Umbo warned himself not to accompany you into the ship.”
“Umbo had a warning, and he didn’t tell me?” Rigg had known Umbo was unhappy with Rigg’s leadership, but he didn’t know it would extend to such disloyalty.
“The fact that Umbo came back and warned everyone except you and Loaf suggests that on some previous time path, something very bad resulted from a different combination of events.”
“Yes, the bad thing was that Umbo’s resentment of me got completely out of control,” said Rigg. “He wanted this to be a disaster.”
“Would Umbo do anything that might lead to causing harm to Loaf?” asked the voice.
“He didn’t know that Loaf would . . .” But Rigg didn’t need to finish the thought. Rigg couldn’t know exactly what future-Umbo knew, but he had to assume that he knew more than Rigg knew now. “Are you saying that I’m supposed to let that thing stay in control of Loaf’s mind?”
“I don’t know what Umbo intended when he gave himself warning.”
“Neither do I! Neither does anybody. I don’t even know for myself that Umbo gave a warning.”
“When you go back outside, you can ask him.”
“Why am I even in here? I’m supposed to turn off the Wall so we can leave here without having to go back t
o a time before the Wall existed. But the main reason for doing it was so Loaf could go home to Leaky. I can’t send him home like this.”
The ship’s computer said nothing.
“Come on, give me some help here.”
“That is a dilemma that is beyond my competence. We can provide you with information, but the decisions are yours.”
“So inform me!”
“About what?”
“I don’t know enough to know what questions I need to ask you!”
“That is true,” said the ship’s computer.
“So tell me what I need to know?”
“I don’t know what information you need,” said the voice.
Rigg saw the circularity of the situation but he saw no solution for it. “Tell me what’s within my power to do. Can I turn off all the Walls?”
“If you take control of all the ships.”
Rigg pulled the bag of jewels from his waist. “I can control them all at once?”
“You can try,” said the ship’s computer. “I can see only a few reasons why any of the ships would reject the protocol.”
“What are those reasons?”