“And, be that as it may, the discussion is moot. We have flown extensive search patterns around every energy-use our instruments could detect. Only Tombs as unguarded as the one in which we woke were discovered. We have found no surface life, aside from the forms mentioned. Evidence suggests that the Bell of the Hyades has been here operating since A.D. 10484, and has already swept the globe clean of developed life.”
Illiance blinked owlishly. “As best we can tell, there are no Currents. The world is empty of Man in any form. The Bell has swept it all away. We Simple Men shall inherit and repopulate the Earth once the Bell departs again into heaven.”
6. Darwinian Competition
Menelaus had trouble translating this, merely because he kept pausing to swear and grind his teeth.
At the end of it, the bewigged Judge of Ages wore an odd expression: that of a man trying to look blank-faced because he was pondering, and hiding the blankness of his face because he was confused and clueless. He nodded sagely, obviously unable to imagine what these things meant.
Menelaus said to the Judge of Ages in English, “Say something, sir. Ah, something judicial. Use some legal phrases.”
“Writ of Certiorari. Cloture. Acclamation. Ways and Means. Breach of Privilege. Division. Dissolution. Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. Ah … Bicameralism? Oh, here is a good one: antidisestablishmentarianism.” The Judge of Ages raised an eyebrow. “You said they were going to record and review the conversation. Are events going to move too swiftly for that?”
Menelaus said to him in English, “If the Montrose luck holds out, sir.”
Menelaus turned and said to Illiance in Iatric, “The Judge of Ages notices what he calls signs of haste surrounding your whole setup here, and wants to know what the hurry is. Why were you in such a rush to find him?”
Illiance widened his eyes in surprise, and looked at the dog things and automata in the chamber with him. “He was able to determine this by one glance at our equipment?”
Menelaus said without cracking a smile, “I am only reporting what he asked, Preceptor. If his brain is a posthuman neural array, it may be capable of unique structures of thought or intuitive logic. Don’t let’s keep him waiting—with someone at his brain speed, each moment might seem like an hour’s worth of boredom.”
Illiance said, “In that case, I am surprised the answer is one he could not deduce without error. Tell him that it was necessary to find the Judge of Ages, and within a very short period of time, because we need his permission and blessing to replenish and colonize the surface of the Earth with biological forms from our own time, which we have reason to believe exist within his archives and mausoleums. We also would be advantaged by his aid in finding all members of our order entombed anywhere in the world.”
Menelaus said to the Judge of Ages, “Keep it going.”
The Judge of Ages said, “Quorum. Filibuster. Sine Die.”
Menelaus spoke in Iatric, “The Judge of Ages wishes to know by what justification you hindered the liberty and converted the property of his clients, the other Thaws here?”
“Naturally, because we prefer our race to inherit the Earth rather than older and more primitive forms, we were not at liberty to allow previous generations we unearthed their freedom, lest we fail in the Darwinian competition against more fertile races. We are particularly loath that the Locusts be released into the ecosphere or whatever infosphere may soon take shape.”
Menelaus said in English, “One more time.”
The Judge of Ages said, “I am running out of law Latin. Corpus Juris. In vi et armis.”
Menelaus turned to Illiance. “He demands if this is the reason why you killed the Locusts Crucxit, Axcit, and Litcec?”
“It was a contributory cause, of course. The more direct cause was that they attempted to induce a hypnogogic state in our docents, which we interpret as an act of rapine.”
Menelaus said in English, “Once more.”
“You really have to, ah, Lex Parliamenti, tell me your scheme, if you want me to continue the, ah, playing-along-ness. Ejusdem generis.”
Menelaus answered, “Just trying to get both of us out of here alive, sir.”
The bewigged man nodded regally. “Make it snappy. I am not sure how long I can keep up my public speech face in a live event like this. Usually my soul helps me.”
Menelaus turned and called out in Iatric, “The Judge of Ages demands to know whether you have anything further to say in your defense, to mitigate the atrocious crimes you have committed, trespassing in his stronghold which is the sanctuary for all who are ill or exiled of time, murdering his guests and clients, robbing and despoiling their goods, assaulting their persons, imprisoning and kidnapping them, extracting slave labor from them. The crimes are doubly inexcusable because you yourself are his clients, under his protection, and therefore know full well how solemn is the sanctuary of this power, and took full advantage, while it was offered to you, of the asylum and refuge from the passing years these Tombs offer—a right of sanctuary you have violated in your neighboring and fellow slumbering dead.”
The Blue Men began to murmur frantically among themselves in their own language of hissing and twitters until the Judge of Ages brought his black glass sword blade down with a ringing clash on metal floor panels. “Order!”
Preceptor Illiance, still seated at his feet, raised a hand. “Tell His Honor that our actions, under ordinary circumstances, would have no excuse, and that his anger, under ordinary circumstances, would need none.
“But we have reason to believe that the Tomb site here will be destroyed in less than a full day, and therefore we offer as our defense this mitigation: that by acting as we did, we found the Judge of Ages as quickly as we could, enabling him, with such help as we can provide, to preserve the remaining coffins and buried materials, as well as to take himself from the area and therefore to preserve his life. Had we been respectful of your property and privacy, and left you and these other to slumber, you and they would have perished without waking.”
Menelaus said to the Judge of Ages in English, “Say something longer. Any unusual grammatical constructions might be, uh, not unhelpful.”
“Anything to make translating less easy, eh?
But see where the Hermetic vessel flies, loftier than pride itself, whose wings of light, fraught with sorrows, wheel and mount the air more lucid than the crystal sea before the Judgment Seat feigned of old to crown the high empyrean, wherein the blessed quench the tears of life. Is there no drop of those heavenly waters to slake the sorrow burning as hot as those aeronautical fires that mount the upper night? Man breaks the dour chain of mundane gravity and time, and, lo, the zenith is appalled at that supreme ascendance. Rally, spirits, and gather to the shining banners of my pride! I am not less in dream than such stature as the brave Hermetic soars; by my sacred name and the blood within my veins, I swear the future times shall be more golden and majestic than times of old. Tomorrows of glory, Hail! Receive the salute of one who vows your forefather to be, shades of heroes unborn, heroic years uncounted!
And if they can puzzle out what that means, many years be added to them, because my classics tutor could never untangle that argle-bargle argot to me as he beat it into me.”
Menelaus knew these were words penned as a monologue in a historical play honoring him by a poet named Peerworthy at the patronage of the Cryonarchs claiming descent from the Montrose line. Menelaus thought it somehow unfair to have words put in his mouth by historians while he slumbered, especially such high-sounding words as he’d never use.
During this gush of poetical excess, Menelaus put a look of fear upon his face, and bowed very low to the bewigged man, and turning to Illiance, he said, “The Judge of Ages is inclined to be most severe, and to locate and annihilate each member of your race and every cell in any genetic base that might be used to reconstruct them, sparing only a few of you, or only one, to survive and carry the tale to other generations.”
Preceptor Illiance
seemed surprised. “Then, that we acted so as to preserve him and also all this Tomb site accounts for no mitigation?”
Menelaus said, “I don’t pretend to understand his posthuman reasoning process, but you must realize that you could have found a way to find him without robbing and enslaving his clients!”
Illiance said, “Not a way that economized our effort. Naturally we acted also to advantage ourselves: if there is no mutual benefit to mutual action, congruence or cooperation of mingled actions is impossible. Does he seek to impose a verdict that will discourage future contemplation of such mutuality?”
There was a murmur of agreement from the other Blue Men in the room. Their voices held a note of surprise, even indignation.
“We also do not understand this insistence on privacy of property: that all property should be held in common is a moral absolute,” Illiance continued. “We treated the relicts, his clientele, with as much civility as was possible given the needs of the task before us. Examining the historical record, we knew that they all came from cultures where conscription to public use of levies of laborers was allowed or even encouraged, with the exception of the Nymphs, whom we therefore did not force to labor. All these rest are slavekeepers, and hence have consented, in principle, to the institution. Likewise, in the case of the Locusts, after their attempt, we merely applied to them the laws and customs of their own native era, which would have likewise penalized interruption of interdicted thoughtspace as a capital crime.
“This line of questioning disorients. Are you certain you translate correctly? I am not sure in what respect we did wrong, or what prohibition we offended. He hid his resting place, and we sought among our fellow revenants to see if any had knowledge thereof. We did not allow them their liberty because they are dangerous creatures from barbarous aeons. I emphasize again that we had no other practical means to preserve the Tombs from annihilation!
“Tell the Judge of Ages, if he is unaware, that an instrumentality of the Hyades is at large, sweeping over the surface of the globe, and drawing into its hollow interior any ruins, artifacts, or forms of higher life it finds. It was in operation before we woke. We assume all of the current-day races of mankind have already been taken into the interior.”
7. Summoning Other Witnesses
Illiance continued: “The leading edge of the Bell will be over the Tomb site in an hour. There is no reason to believe it will not act here as it has acted heretofore, and draw up the persons and materials found here.
“Moreover, tell the Judge of Ages that we have been cautious enough to bring his other clients underground with us. We have located his depthtrain launching platform, but have been unable to restore it to function. We propose that he unlock the depthtrain, and carry us and his other clients to some remote distance beneath the surface of the Earth, where the Hyades instrument cannot reach.
“Finally, tell the Judge of Ages that he must mitigate his severity toward us, on the grounds that our acts performed in the attempt to locate and thaw him were committed to save him, and his clients, and us, from annihilation or capture. Had it not been for our acts, the Bell would have descended upon him unawares, unforeseen.
“For our benevolent act of waking him and warning him of the impending danger from the Hyades, we anticipate that, in return, once the Hyades instrument departs and returns to deep space, our order and our ecosphere will be released from his Tomb sites here and elsewhere, and be biologically adjusted to become the sole inheritors of the Earth.”
Montrose translated all this to the figure on the throne.
The Judge of Ages made a steeple of his fingers, and seemed to be brooding. He said softly to Menelaus, “I cannot fix the depthtrain system. It stopped working in the first half of the 2400s. About a zillion years ago. I don’t know how to find whatever other slumbering blue people there are, and I cannot restore the ecology, and I cannot fight the Hyades. Do you have any suggestions? I am completely out of ideas.” He said this very calmly and very softly.
Menelaus said, “Not to worry, sonny. I am never out of ideas. They get me in trouble, sometimes, but I’m never out.”
“Never out of ideas or never out of trouble?” asked the throned man wryly.
“Both.” Menelaus turned and proclaimed in High Iatric, “Men of the Order of Simplified Vulnerary Aetiology! The Judge of Ages has heard your plea! He decrees that it is unlawful and unwise to wake him from his slumbers, but that you, his petitioners, claim to have done so seeking his justice, wishing your era and aeon, species and ecosystem, to be vindicated and restored. However, there can be no hearing, and no justice done, while the Blue Men rob others of the right they themselves seek to exercise. Men of other ages and eras have been thawed, and are being held in confinement against their will.
“He commands you to gather all here into this, his presence chamber, that he may examine them before determining your fate, and theirs!”
8. An Eye for Detail
There was a murmuring from several Blue Men when they heard the command.
Preceptor Ydmoy stepped closer, saying, “There are security considerations involved. The minds of the before-men are strange and undomesticated: odd and eccentric behavior is to be expected. The suggestion of gathering all here is less than wise.”
Menelaus turned to Illiance, saying, “Preceptor, if I translate that last stupid comment to the Judge, he might destroy everyone in this chamber.”
Illiance said, “On what grounds do you conclude he has such an ability?”
Menelaus said, “On the grounds of the terrible weapon he commands. Do you not see that sword in his hand?”
Ull spoke up, saying, “The sword is ceremonial, and not of much danger should he use it.”
“The danger is should he not use it. That sword represents his justice. He is called the Judge of Ages because all he need do to condemn an age to oblivion is to fail to act to preserve it. Time will pass, and you will be extinct. His power so simple in its operation even you Simple Men must be impressed with the elegance: to kill you and kill your dreams, all he need do is nothing at all.”
He paused to let that sink in.
Then he said, “Gentlemen, you are here asking him for help, remember? Begging? If he refuses to hear your case, all your effort is for nothing.” Menelaus looked down at Illiance.
Illiance was staring at Ull with a look of suspicion on his normally serene features, perhaps a hint of anger. Illiance said, “We have followed your leadership without doubt, Mentor Ull, and it has led us to this situation. Instead of finding an architect of the Tomb System willing and eager to aid us, we face recriminations and possible extinction for our acts. Our only reasonable course is to make amends and cooperate unreservedly. Yet now your words and actions cannot be reconciled with your expressed and apparent purposes.”
Ull scowled, and put his hand under his coat. It was an ominous gesture, as if he were reaching for his weapon. But Ull said only, “As a Simplifier, it is beneath me to practice deception. Words conform to thoughts, which conform to reality. That is our code.”
Illiance said, “Then let the other relicts be brought in.”
Menelaus spoke up, saying, “His wording was specific: every prisoner must be brought here, including those imprisoned, despite their full health, in your field hospital.” (There was a slight stir of wonder among the Blue Men at this, not being able to fathom how the Judge of Ages knew their secret deeds). “The Judge of Ages must be assured that his clients are safe before any hearing can proceed.”
Illiance said fretfully, “But what fashion of hearing? We are simple men, not accustomed to formality and ritual.”
Menelaus said, “He will investigate, and decide among all the races of man, and all the aeons of history, and render judgment which age is most worthy to inherit the barren and deracinated Earth. Your conduct now before him will weigh heavily on that judgment.”
9. Scipio
Illiance, Ull, and the blue triplets departed the chamber to oversee gat
hering the Thaws. Naar and Aarthroy and Aanwen and the other Blue Men were near the door.
The Judge of Ages said softly to Menelaus, “Is the young Mastermind of the Moon telling the truth about the Hyades, Captain Sterling? They are not due yet for four centuries. I don’t care how advanced they are: no one can jinx Einstein.”
“My name is Beta Corporal Sterling, not Captain. His name is Illiance. I think the Bell is an artifact of the current civilization. Man-made. I don’t think Illiance is lying; but I think there are two layers of deception involved here. The Hermetic Order has an agent or agents somewhere on the scene, and they are looking for the Judge of Ages—the real one. The Currents are hiding. The world is coated with logic crystal nanomachines in the shape of ice glaciers. Has it made radio contract with you?”
“No. The, ah, ice coating the world hasn’t talked to me. I hope you are not a crazy person, because I am relying on you to have a plan. The blue dwarfs took over the Tomb because they woke first?”
Menelaus nodded slightly.
“Who woke them?”
“I don’t know. I think it was the Hermeticists.”
“So where are the Knights of Malta? The armed men who are supposed to be in charge of this icebox? Our jailers?”
The man was a penal hibernation case, then. Menelaus said, “The Tombs are damaged, and the thaw systems are not being triggered correctly. You are a Savant, aren’t you? A Machinist? You mentioned your soul helping you. That is your Ghost. You were expecting it to be alive to greet you when you woke. You expected to be put in contact with the infosphere, because you assumed the version of you recorded there might still be alive? Hate to disappoint you, but all the Ghosts died in A.D. 2525. That was a long, long time ago.”
The Judge of Ages raised his hand as if to stroke his chin in thought, and his hand covered the expression of his mouth. “I am a Savant. What gave me away?”