Aiken led her into an unoccupied window-sided cubicle that apparently served as a worker"s lounge. There were soft seats and a table, and a few spartan refreshment amenities. Then he delivered a polite telepathic summons to Hagen and Cloud Remillard. The brother and sister came into the lounge, closing the door behind them. Their curiosity at the presence of the untorced female visitor was imperfectly concealed. Both of them wore white coveralls not much different from those of the other workers. Their hair was the same reddish-gold colour, but otherwise they were not particularly alike. Cloud had a high, rounded Celtic forehead that appeared almost polished, and nearly invisible brows. Her eyes were deep-set, of a piercing greenish blue, and fringed with sooty lashes. Her skin was transparent, lightly freckled, and her nose curved slightly, like a small, delicate blade. Seeing her in the flesh, Elizabeth could strip away certain characteristics inherited from Marc and perceive the ghostly image of a woman long dead. Hagen Remillard had his father"s aquiline profile and powerful build, but there was something raw, almost blurred about his features. His aura was one of suppressed rage, without a trace of Marc"s magnetic urbanity.
At the brief, hot touch of his mind, Elizabeth felt both pity and apprehension. From Cloud, in contrast, came open empathy.
Then the mental walls shut down, and the pair of them stood with empty smiles waiting upon the King"s pleasure.
"May I present the Grand Master Redactor and Fa.r.s.ensor Elizabeth Orme," Aiken said. "She is an honorary member of my High Table and serves as de facto dirigent of Pliocene Earth."
Hagen and Cloud responded formally. The King bade everyone be seated and served them tea and biscuits with his own royal hands while asking brief questions about this or that aspect of the project. The young Remillards replied with terse competence. They expressed hope that the geological expedition would be successful in tracking down the critical ores.
"The aircraft should rendezvous with the land party tomorrow," said the King. "Now those prospectors can comb Fennoscandia properly, from the air, without having to constantly keep on the lookout for trolls and Yotunag."
"Well, they"d better get a move on," Hagen said. "We"ve managed to cannibalize the niobium we need from other devices, but there"s no way we"ll get the rare-earth metal except through ores. Half the d.a.m.n gazebo cables have cores woven of niobiumdysprosium wire."
"Once you have the wire, how long might it take to complete the device?" Elizabeth asked.
Hagen gave her a penetrating look. "Thinking of joining the exodus, Grand Master?"
Elizabeth flushed. She said levelly, "I had considered it, yes."
Hagen chuckled. "Then I hope you use your good offices to stave off Marc-or I"m afraid our chances of re-entering the Milieu are rather slim."
She looked at him in silence for a moment. "I"d forgotten you were born there ... But the others of the younger generation are all Pliocene natives?"
"And all at least three years younger than Hagen and I," said Cloud. She gave her brother a reproving frown. "To answer your question, it might take us a month or more to complete the device, given the core wire. We have the most talented scientists in the Many-Coloured Land at work here, with manufacturing equipment of every description. It"s incredible what some time-travellers thought to bring to the Pliocene! And, of course, we ransacked Papa"s store of materiel before we left Ocala-"
Hagen interrupted her. "The Grand Master knows that, Cloudie. She knows all about us."
There was a pregnant pause. Hagen faced Elizabeth defiantly.
"Would the Milieu let us in-knowing who we are?"
"Yes," said Elizabeth.
"Knowing what we helped Felice to do?" the young man added softly.
"If you hope to be embraced by the Unity, you"ll have to pay your debt. The circ.u.mstances were extraordinary, but your act was still a crime."
"Not against free human beings," Hagen said. "Against exotic oppressors and their corrupt minions!"
"Nearly fifty thousand people perished in the Gibraltar Flood," Elizabeth said. "Many of them were entirely innocent."
"We only intended to kill the exotics. It"s not as though they were human beings-"
"Both Tanu and Firvulag will contribute to the h.o.m.o sapiens stem," Elizabeth said. "I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that remnants of both groups persisted on Earth almost into historic times, mating with human stock just as they have mated with time-travellers here in the Pliocene. Our myths and legends and the other heritage of the collective unconscious confirm it."
"But that"s impossible!" Cloud cried. "There are no fossils, no other concrete evidence-"
Elizabeth was unperturbed by the shocked reaction of the Remillards. She noted that Aiken seemed similarly equable.
"Have you any idea," she asked them, "how scanty the fossil evidence is for the supposedly well known races of early hominids? For Ramapithecus? For h.o.m.o erectus? For the Neanderthaler race of sapiens? ... A pathetic handful of fragments for the first. Only scattered skulls and broken bones for the second.
And fewer than eighty specimens of Neanderthal Man left of the millions who must have walked Pleistocene Earth!"
"You"d think at least one specimen of Tanu or Firvulag would have turned up," Hagen protested.
"Anomalies have been found," Elizabeth told him. "Many of them. And not only skeletal remains. King Aiken-Lugonn"s computer library has admirable references that I"ve been able to consult over the past few months. But since the atypical finds didn"t fit in with more acceptable data, they were dismissed.
Other explanations were put forth to account for the anomalies, so as not to discompose the scientific establishment." A mischievous expression came over her face. "It"s one of the more tempting motives one could have for returning to the Milieu.
To watch the cat among the paleontological pigeons."
Cloud was sombre as she returned to the serious matter at hand. "But we would be punished for helping Felice."
"The world you wish to enter is very different from the one Marc and his Rebels left. There"s still crime and there"s still punishment. But for those who are genuinely sorry, the atonement consists largely of reeducation and public service."
The brother and sister looked at Elizabeth dubiously. Aiken said, "No statute of limitations? Extenuating circ.u.mstances?
Non compos mentis?"
"It would be up to the forensic redactors to determine individual culpability," Elizabeth said.
"And they"d know?" asked Hagen.
"Oh, yes," the Grand Master replied.
"But after we-atoned," Cioud said. "Then they"d accept us into the Unity?"
"I"m certain of it," said Elizabeth.
"There you are, kids!" Aiken vouchsafed the pair a bright smile. "If we take our licks, we get to join the grownups. Still think it would be worth it?"
Hagen was bland. "Do you, High King?"
"Who knows what I"ll do?" Aiken replied airily. "You haven"t built the time-gate yet, and Night may not fall."
"And Papa may still figure out some way to use that brainroasting CE rig of his to blast us all to kingdom come," Hagen said.
Elizabeth"s concern embraced the three of them. "That"s why I came here tonight to speak to you. Marc"s d-jump faculty now includes the ability to transport significant quant.i.ties of matter in a field generated outside of his cerebroenergetic enhancer.
He"s transported a living man without harming him, and before too long he"ll be able to do considerably better than that."
Hagen barked a bitter obscenity and she held up a monitory hand. "You know that Marc has always maintained his love for you children. He also possesses no malice toward Aiken. He"s asked me to act as his emissary and mediator, so that we can resolve the present crisis peaceably. He"d like you to meet with him in my chalet on Black Crag."
"Not on your life!" Hagen exclaimed. "We told him once before-he can farspeak any deal he has in mind. I"m not getting within three air kloms or a twenty-power sigma of dear Papa.
No more coercing!"
"He gives his solemn word that he won"t try it," Elizabeth said. "And he let me probe him, so I know he spoke the truth.