Pathfinder (Pathfinder 1)

“We’ll see how that works out for you,” said the expendable. He stood up and started to walk away.

“Wait!” called Loaf.

The expendable kept walking.

“You say it,” said Loaf. “You make him wait, Rigg.”

“Wait,” said Rigg. “Come back.”

The expendable came back. “I hate this,” murmured Rigg as the expendable approached. “I don’t want to command anybody.”

“If it’s any consolation,” said Umbo, “you don’t have any authority at all over us.”

“We need your help just to survive here,” said Rigg. “We don’t speak the languages.”

“Yes you do,” said the expendable.

“We didn’t understand a word you were saying before,” said Rigg.

“Nevertheless, all the languages ever spoken in the world are contained within the Wall. If it were not so, it could not speak to you.”

“So the Wall knows the languages,” said Rigg.

“And having passed through the Wall, so do you,” said the expendable. “It may take time for any particular language to recognize itself and waken in your memory, but it will be there.”

“I’m hungry,” said Loaf. “I’ve had enough talk.”

“Let’s get out of sight of General Citizen and his clowns,” said Olivenko. “I’m done with them.”

“For now,” said Param. “Till we go back.”

“And why would we go back?” asked Loaf.

“To get the last jewel,” said Param. “To shut off this last Wall.”

“So you think we should do what these expendables intend for us to do?” asked Rigg.

“I think they’ll give us no peace until we do,” said Param. “I think his supposed obedience is a fraud, and they’re going to keep controlling us the way they’ve been doing all along.”

“In case anyone’s forgotten,” said Olivenko, “not all the people in other wallfolds are nice. Not even the people in our wallfold are nice. What would General Citizen do, if this Wall disappeared right now?”

“Come over here and kill us all,” said Umbo.

“Not if I killed him first,” said Loaf.

“Wars of conquest,” said Olivenko. “Until now, the great achievement of the Sessamoto was to unite the entire wallfold under a single government. But if the walls disappear, how long before we try to conquer the world? Or the people of some other wallfold try to conquer us? Humans are humans, I assume, in every wallfold.” He turned to the expendable. “Or has human nature changed in any of them? Is there a version of the human race that has abandoned predation and territoriality?”

“I wouldn’t know,” said the expendable. “We pretty much stick to learning about our own wallfold.”

Rigg said, “Then ask the others. Find out. If you want us to take down the Walls, we have to know the consequences.”

“I think that’s something that you’ll need to discover for yourselves,” said the expendable.

“So much for obedience,” said Param.

The expendable turned to her. “The Walls have never been shut off before, or crossed, until the five of you. We don’t know how the human beings of each wallfold will react. I cannot tell you what I do not know. I told you that I would obey any command that I had the power to obey.”

“So the responsibility for the whole world is in our hands,” said Rigg.