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the fateful meeting, and if I
hadn't acted, they would have shot him, having him in the right time and place
so they could go to the very spot."
She nodded. "It was the only way to be sure, since so much of Marx's early
life isn't really known."
A funny thought struck him. "They said Soviet generals rediscovered the time
project. The idea of Soviet officers ordering the death of Marx and a German
victory over Russia just doesn't ring true."
"No, it doesn't," Herb put in, coming over and joining the conversation. "They
would never allow such a thing. That's what makes Eric so fascinating. He's
the wild card in the game.
They trusted him, and he double-crossed them as well, although there are no
consequences, of course, because there now never were any Soviet generals. We
don't know what kind of game he's playing, but it's one to win, that's for
sure. Win for Earth and win for him, too. I suspect, at the expense of his
bosses." He paused a moment.
"Um, I see you two have met."
He looked over at the woman. "I still don't know your name," he pointed out.
"When you've nightsided past your trip point, you may as well pick any name,"
she told him. "I call myself
Dawn, because it's a new start and I kind of like the sound of it. I have lots
of other names, but they don't mean nothing to me anymore."
He liked her, felt a strange attraction for her, although he couldn't really
say why. She reminded him of a lot of people, but he couldn't really put his
finger on even one. Certainly she was no looker, but there was a lot inside
there, including much that was probably never revealed to anyone, yet that
spark showed through.
And she had raised an interesting question. "What's this trip point business?"
"You can reach a trip point in several ways," Herb told him. "One way is to
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become so damn many people you're more them than you.
It's an occupational hazard. Another way is to stay in a time period too long,
so that your self-identity is changed. Despite the folks you've been, you're
still Ron Moosic, because at the core of your mind that's who you are. But if
another personality became dominant, got into that core, then you wouldn't be
Moosic anymore; rather, you'd be somebody else."
He thought of Sister Nobody, who was still very much a part of him, and grew
nervous. "I had one that I
couldn't really fight," he told them. "If I hadn't been attacked by those
creatures, I might never have gotten control. So, you mean that if I stayed as
her too long, then she'd be the dominant personality?"
Herb nodded. "Yes, indeed. And Ron Moosic would become one of the subordinate
elements but he could never rise again. The only reason we were able to get
you here with your old body intact was that you still are Ron Moosic. You see,
that's what makes you different than any of us. We none of us are the folks we
started out as being. And the more you're somebody else, the less real that
original fellow becomes."
He began to understand Dawn's problem now. She was still new at this herself,
she'd said, so she wasn't long, perhaps, past her trip point. Somewhere, deep
down, there was an identity crisis that she was only just starting to be able
to handle. He sympathized, and realized with a ner-vous start that it was
probably his
fate, too. He frowned, a sudden thought striking him as he realized the extent
of Dawn's comment on the insanity of time. "Uh is there, or was there, a Ron
Moosic in my own time now?"
Herb shrugged. "Beats the hell out of me. If there is, you could go home but
to a nastier America than you left, and a dirtier world. You'd just merge with
him and fade out the old you. Certainly, the time project still exists, but it
sure wasn't invaded by any Marxist fanatics. There aren't any anymore. I heard
her explain that to you."
"Wait a minute! If Sandoval and I never went back, nobody was there to kill
Marx! This is crazy!"
"Oh, there's a logic to it; it's just not the kind you're used to. No, time
rippled from the event and flattened out at the edge. The main line now has [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]