Button in the Fabric of Time (13 page)

“When the people began recovering from the
great devastation, this was one of the areas that had suffered
most. The summer heat was unrelenting. Clear glass radiated the sun
and made it difficult to build structures that were comfortable, so
molten sand was infused into the glass, giving the blocks the
appearance of sandstone. Everybody liked that look, because it was
what they were used to. The blocks had most of the advantages of
clear glass but not the disadvantage of radiating heat. The custom
of sand-infused glass caught on and continues, even though they
control the environment here, as we do at Alpha-1. Most people
liked the sand color because it provided a contrast and makes the
cities more interesting.”

“Jan,” I commented, not wanting to use her
more formal name, “I’d like to walk along one of their avenues and
experience the contrast. Would you join me?”

“I’d love to walk the corridors with you”
Jan-3 said, smiling like a little girl, “and I like your use of my
informal name. It seems more intimate for when we are alone, but it
would be better if you use my full name in the presence of others.
To use my informal name could cause confusion.”

She was so lovable; I couldn’t resist taking
her in my arms and hugging her. Again she laughed like an innocent
child and said, “I love our intimate moments. They make me realize
that we’ve lost a lot, by making everything so formal. We’ve made
everything safe and secure, but we’ve lost the feeling of adventure
and the wonder of discovery. You’ve brought us more than the
button!”

She had just paid me a wonderful compliment,
but I didn’t know how to reply, so I just kissed her.

“Now, that’s what I mean,” she beamed, as she
kissed me back.

* * * * *

Chapter 18

Roc-2 and the Council of Twelve were holding
one of their regular meetings, considering complaints and
suggestions. Their method of handling complaints was simple and
effective. If the complaint seemed justified, they turned it over
to a specialized committee. The committee would then work with the
complainant until he or she was satisfied that his or her rights
had been acknowledged.

An idea or suggestion, if it were deemed to
be meritorious, was discussed with men and/or women who specialized
in the field. They worked with the one making the suggestion, to
see if they could turn the idea into a reality. If the ideas
advanced, or enhanced the people’s way of life, the one who
conceived the idea was acknowledged and rewarded. This system,
simple though it was, motivated people to strive for better things,
because they were recognized for their achievements and treated
fairly.

When the Council was ready to adjourn,
everyone heard a hum and felt a tingling vibration. They saw,
through an outside opening of their council room, a vague blue
apparition hanging over the ocean, and then they heard a voice—not
with their ears, but in their minds:
“Bring Gus!”

* * *

I had asked Roc-2 to contact me if the blue
presence appeared, but right now was an inconvenient time. I was on
a mission of discovery with Jan-3, but because I was wearing the
ring Roc-2 had given me, he knew where I was.

Before Roc-2 could speak, the voice in his
head said:
“Thank you for telling us where Gus is. Now bring him
to us.”

Roc-2 and all of the council members were
astonished. They had all heard the voice in their minds.

“Who are you? And why do you want Gus?” Roc-2
asked.

Again the voice thundered in their heads:
“I am Ulto, leader of the Antons. We brought Gus to you, now you
must bring Gus to us. We want to negotiate with you, but we will do
it only in the presence of Gus. He will act as our
emissary.”

“We have an army of robots with weapons
trained on you,” Roc-2 said in a commanding voice. He didn’t like
the threatening tone of the silent speaker. "Should you harm Gus or
anyone else, we will fire.”

“
Your weapons can hurt us, but we urge you
not to be so foolish. Should you fire upon us, we will destroy
Earth and everything on it.”

Roc-2 was sure that was no idle threat, so he
said, “Gus asked me to let him know if you showed up. He and Jan-3
are on the other side of Earth; it will take them about an hour to
get here.”

“
We can have them here in an instant,”
the voice said.
“Gus will understand the method of travel, but
you must tell his companion what we are doing. We don’t want to
render either Gus or his companion useless by frightening
them.”

Realizing that he didn’t need to voice a
reply, Roc-2 pressed the ruby on his communication ring. The ruby
on my ring lit up and emitted a soft tone.

Jan-3 noticed and immediately said, “Gus!
Roc-2 is calling you!”

I pressed the ruby on my ring, and said,
“Yeah, Roc-2, what’s up?”

Even though the call was deadly serious,
Roc-2 couldn’t suppress a smile at the quaintness of my reply when
he said, “The blue presence is here, and they want you to attend a
meeting right away.”

“Roc-2,” Jan-3 replied, “we’re over Istanbul.
It’ll take an hour to get back.”

“The Antons are here,” Roc-2 said, “and they
want Gus. They say they can have you here in an instant, but they
wanted me to let you know what they are going to do, so you
wouldn’t be frightened.”

“Who are the Antons?” I asked.

“They are the entities you called the blue
presence,” Roc-2 replied.

“Jan,” I said, “we’ll be traveling at the
speed of thought—are you willing to do this?”

“If you say it’s all right, then, yes, of
course I’m willing, but I’m disappointed. I was enjoying seeing the
world through your eyes. You’ve given the word, life, a new meaning
for me. . . . Can we complete our exploring another time?”

“I hope so, but we’d better see what Roc-2
has for us to do first.”

Jan-3’s brow furrowed when she asked, “Do we
have a choice?”

Shaking my head slowly, I said, “I doubt
it.”

“Then let’s go!” she said.

Pleased by her courage, I said to Roc-2,
“Tell the Antons to let’er rip. We’re ready.”

* * *

Jan-3 and I were next aware of standing in
the chamber with Roc-2 and the Council. We acknowledged each
other’s presence with a nod and, not knowing what to expect, I
called out, “I’m Gus, and I’m here as you requested. Who are you,
and what do you want from me?”

The voice in my head immediately reminded me
of the voice I had heard in my motel room telling me to take the
shortcut through the desert. I thought I had been selected for a
specific reason, and I was right. I was right also when I thought
that I was being guided in the use of the button. Almost as though
I was thinking it, rather than hearing it, the voice said:

“
We are the Antons from planet Duos in
Galaxy 3. We placed the petrified wood beside the device you call
the “button” when we first contacted you to give you a sense of
time. We come from far seeking your help. We once lived on planet
Ergo in Galaxy 7. Planet Ergo was much like planet Earth. It had
oceans, jungles, deserts, and plains. Life formed there, much as it
did on Earth. We evolved on Ergo, similar to the way you did on
Earth until—due to religious ignorance and economic greed—we
destroyed our planet. A few survived, and we accidentally stumbled
upon a method of time travel. The method was crude, but it was good
enough to allow us to find a new planet in a small galaxy we named
“Galaxy-3.” We named it Galaxy-3 because it had only 330 billion
solar systems. We named the new planet “Duos,” because it had two
moons.

“
Before the Great War, two races of people
lived on planet Ergo. We called ourselves “Antons,” and the others
called themselves “Ergons.” A great war occurred. We were fighting
for our right to exist, but we were losing, so we used atomic
weapons. After the war, even though the planet was contaminated
with atomic radiation, the Ergons adapted to the radiation by
mutating and decided to remain on planet Ergo. We Antons fought
against the mutation and tried to remain human. To escape the
radiation, we searched for, and found, planet Duos. We Antons and
Ergons had always been in conflict, so we were not disappointed
when the Ergons said that they would not be going with us to planet
Duos.

“
After moving to planet Duos, we Antons
developed technologically, and since we didn’t have the Ergons for
labor, we manufactured robots. We developed mentally, but we failed
to eliminate our greed, and we were again in danger of destroying
our planet.

“
You, the people of Earth, also had a
Great War, and for the same reason, but you overcame your problems
by ridding the earth of radiation and then, by creating a simple
law, you vastly improved human behavior. By adopting a system of
cooperation, you built not only a paradise on earth, but you
overcame your health problems. You now have perfect bodies that
allow you to enjoy the paradise you built.

“
We made the mistake of going the other
way. It took us too long to find a new planet, so our bodies
mutated until they were no longer useful. But as long as we were in
those bodies we had bodily needs and desires that caused us to be
competitive and aggressive. New conflicts developed, and to prevent
destroying ourselves again, we eliminated the desire for pleasure
by doing away with the ability to feel pleasure. Eventually, we
discarded our bodies altogether.

“
Now we are a society of minds. We have
knowledge beyond your measuring, and we have the entire universe to
explore and enjoy mentally, but we cannot feel bodily pleasure. If
we could find a way to retain our near-perfect minds, while
acquiring your near-perfect bodies, we will be within reach of what
our religious leaders have been telling us for millions of years.
They have told us that we can have life eternal in a perfect
place.

“
We mean you no harm. We need your help.
If you help us, we will help you. If you fail to help us, we will
take by force that which you deny and completely destroy Earth to
prevent you from destroying us some day.”

Roc-2, asked, “Will you allow us to question
you with the help of our robots?”

Ulto, leader of the Antons, replied: “
You
may examine us, anyway you wish, but if you harm even one of us, we
will take from you what we need and then destroy you.”

“Before we can agree to your terms,” Roc-2
said, “the Council must meet in private.”

“
Council all you want,”
Ulto voiced,
“
but because we read your thoughts, we cannot grant you privacy.
When you talk among yourselves, speak in voices, so that your
listeners can understand, but to communicate with us, all you have
to do is to think. We will know what you are thinking.”

“Then how can we know in advance, what you
might consider harmful?” Roc-2 asked vocally so that the people
around him could understand also.

Ulto silently asked:
“Is there one among
you who will serve as a hostage?”

Knowing what hung in the balance, I stepped
forward without hesitation.

“No!” Jan-3 cried out. “We can’t lose Gus!
Without him we can’t advance to time travel.”

“I agree with Jan-3,” Roc-2 exclaimed. “If we
lose Gus, we lose too much.”

“
Gus is not a satisfactory hostage for us,
either,”
Ulto’s voice radiated. “
We need him also, and we
wouldn’t want to eliminate him if you fail to meet our
terms.”

“Those are the very reasons that I
must
be the hostage,” I insisted. “Because
of my uniqueness, I am the only one who can serve both sides.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Ulto said:
“He is right! We accept him as a hostage, and if he is lost, we
both lose. We will know in advance what you plan to do and will let
you know if it is unacceptable.”

Roc-2’s expression showed his concern when he
asked me, “Are you aware of what you propose? If the negotiations
fail, you will be gone forever.”

“If the negotiations fail,
Earth
will
be gone forever,” I replied. “For the people of Earth, this is the
culmination of all that has gone before. If we fail, we will be
taken over and ultimately destroyed. The people of planet Duos will
not get what they want unless these negotiations succeed.
Therefore, because there is so much to lose on both sides, I will
serve as hostage.”

“Then, reluctantly, I agree,” Roc-2 said.

Ulto read Roc-2’s thoughts and said:
“Bring on your thought-reading robots.”

Because the Antons had so little of what the
robots were programmed to use to determine truthfulness, the
questioning had to cover a lot.

The third man of the Council of Twelve asked,
“Ulto, are you the blue presence that appeared to Gus in the
desert?”

“
Yes, we made the decision to use Gus for
our purpose, so we set him up to receive the time-travel button.
Then we helped him learn to use it. We are a collective of pure
thought. We have developed, what to you, would be far into the
future. We can travel anywhere in the universe. We have no bodies,
so atmospheric conditions are not a factor. And since we move at
the speed of thought, time is not a factor.”

“Why did you choose Gus as your emissary?”
another Council member asked.

“
Gus was selected because he was
physically strong and has above-average intelligence. He is mature,
his body is healthy, and his genes function properly, so he has
normal sex drives and his motivations for achieving are normal. He
grew up on a farm where he learned about plants and animals, and he
learned to work with his hands. He was innovative when it came to
doing for himself that tools and machines could not do for him. He
was trained to build, and he was able to understand how humans’
bodies and minds were being taken over and diminished by machines.
He is single, and has no deeply established emotional
ties.”