Ruins (Pathfinder 2)

“This does that?” asked Umbo, looking at the knife. “It still looks like a knife.”

“My friend says that it’s in constant communication with the orbiter,” said Loaf. “The whole time you’ve had it, it’s been transmitting everything we said and did to the starship computers.”

Umbo flung it away from him. “It’s been spying on us.”

“It’s been keeping you connected to the rest of the world,” said Olivenko.

“Is there anything else it does?” asked Rigg, picking up the knife.

“Cuts meat,” said Loaf.

“Was that your joke, or the mouse’s?” asked Umbo.

“Mine,” said Loaf. “The mouse says the orbital phone was all they could fit into the hilt.”

“It must be a primitive design,” said Umbo acidly.

“Yes,” said Loaf. “It was made and sent back to you more than a hundred years ago.”

“But we only got it two years—” and then Umbo interrupted himself and fell silent. They got the knife two years ago, but with time-sending, that had nothing to do with when it was sent. Umbo blushed.

“We’re all still trying to figure it all out,” said Rigg. “So the knife is a communicator. No wonder the expendables in every wallfold knew all ab

out what we were doing.”

“Well, they knew all about me and Loaf,” said Umbo. “During those months I had the knife and you were in Aressa Sessamo.” Then Umbo blushed again, thinking of the prank he had played, stealing one of the jewels from the bag before Loaf hid it near the Tower of O. What a child he had been. No wonder Loaf got so impatient with him.

Does the fact that I feel embarrassed about it now mean that I’m growing up? Umbo decided not to ask the question aloud. He had a feeling he knew what Loaf’s answer would be.

They waited an hour or so as Rigg tracked Param’s path down the ramp. As soon as she was clear of the flyer, Rigg took off, heading for their original entry point into Odinfold. Umbo stayed there on the knoll, holding the knife, talking to Rigg continuously. He knew that when he sent Rigg back in time, he kept hold of him, not with his eyes, but with some other sense, a deep knowledge of where and when Rigg was located. They had found each other in Aressa Sessamo without being able to see each other, and Umbo had pushed Rigg back and forth in time. But the distance now would be far greater, and there was that problem of line-of-sight. If Rigg couldn’t track paths through the curvature of Garden, could Umbo hold on to Rigg despite the thickness of rock and earth between them?

It took hours to complete the voyage, but Rigg and Umbo were still talking and, more to the point, Umbo could still feel whatever part of Rigg he felt when he had a grip on his timeflow.

“Make sure you take the flyer with you,” said Umbo.

“I definitely don’t want to walk back, if that’s what you’re thinking,” said Rigg. “By the way, I have a mouse on my shoulder.”

“And I have a flea on my butt,” said Umbo. “Have you locked onto the path you want?”

“Yes,” said Rigg. “Do it.”

Umbo threw Rigg back in time, and Rigg’s own connection with the path put him exactly where he needed to be. Umbo could never have found that moment with such precision, but he recognized the distance in time when he felt it. Yes, that is when we were, and where.

Keeping his focus on Rigg during the return voyage was much harder, if only because they couldn’t talk. The orbital phone only communicated with the ships and expendables that existed at the same time, not with a flyer moving over the prairie and woods a year ago.

But Umbo did not fail; he held on to Rigg. And while he could not trace paths, he knew when Rigg was back in place. It was a sense of rightness, of nearness. The flyer had completed its journey; now it was a fact that the flyer had landed nearby a year ago, and if Umbo brought Rigg back to the present, he would leave a path behind him, in the right place, at the right time.

The mouse, too, no doubt.

“I’m doing it now,” said Umbo to Loaf and Olivenko. “I wish I knew where Param was.”

“It’s been long enough that she could be anywhere,” said Loaf.

“With our luck, she’ll be stubborn and angry enough to have perched in the center of where the flyer was when she got out of it,” said Olivenko.

“Can you tell where Rigg will appear?” asked Loaf.

“He’ll appear wherever he is in the time that’s ‘now’ to him,” said Umbo. “I know he’s close, but I can’t say where for sure.”