City Beyond Time: Tales of the Fall of Metachronopolis by John C. Wright Read Free Book Online Page A

He's not the real Inventor, is he?”
    “There is no Inventor. Time travel cannot be invented–how could it be? Illogical things cannot be discovered through the orderly process of science. He's just the first man who went back in time and gave the original set of destiny crystals to his younger self, who then went back and gave them to himself again, in turn. We suspect that he was no more the first than any of the others. He was just a little more ruthless about tracking down and eliminating the competition. But there was never a first inventor. Time travel, by its very nature, can have no cause. It is spontaneously created in the flux of nothingness surrounding the core timeline, and, if men do not seek to exploit it, it vanishes just as spontaneously.”
    “But–isn't there some way, any way at all, to put time travel to a good use?” This was the question that I had wanted to ask them before, but hadn't thought to ask in time. “Like–what if everyone had it? If we made everyone into Time Wardens, they could…”
    “You are assuming they all would not immediately go to war? That they would have some sort of covenant or civilized process to handle differences of opinion?”
    “Sure.”
    “But such a covenant could exist if, and only if, they all abided by an agreement not to interfere with each other's pasts, correct?”
    “I guess.”
    “And that would require that they could not change even their own pasts in any particular which might ever affect another person, correct? Since every event affects every other, the range of these prohibitions would have to include all external events, no matter how small or private. And, to enforce this agreement, they might have to resort to an amnesia block, not unlike the one we gave you the night you visited us in our headquarters. This block would make all their memories of alternate timelines seem like daydreams, but all memories of the future appear to be forethought, good judgment, or even prophecy. Correct?”
    “I suppose so.”
    “Can you think of any other fair way of doing it?”
    “Not off-hand.”
    “But, my good man–what else do you think the core timeline is? It is the alternate where everyone has the great and omnipotent gift of being a time traveler, but everyone has volunteered to foreswear and forget that selfish and self-defeating power. It is the world where hope is possible.”
    “And if someone refused to volunteer?”
    “That is always a possibility. But one would hope the warning would reach him in time.”
    “But if you know better, I mean
really know better
, then why not?”
    “Why not what? Coerce their choice? Force the future to come out as planned?" He nodded toward the icy thrones of the Time Wardens. All were now empty.
    Beyond the line of desolate thrones, I saw the wide vista of emptiness. There was no land and no sea. All was dark blue sky above, and below a floor of wrinkled white, which was the tops of mist banks smothering the globe from pole to pole. The whole world was a void.
    “The Time Wardens, knowing the future,
really knew better
than the men they treated like pawns. Ask them how it worked out,” D'Artagnan said sardonically.
    That was good enough for me. I tossed my smartgun aside, glad to be rid of the weight, and stared into the black crystal card.
    Deeply, deeply, I stared past the surface, and for a moment, my imagination went blank…

2.
     
    This time, she slapped my face. And maybe I leaned a little into the blow. After all, I did deserve it.
    I saw her slender shadow through the glass of the door after she slammed it.
    She packed quite a wallop. I rubbed my jaw ruefully, knowing I'd never see her again. There was no way to turn back time and undo what I'd done, no way to unsay what I'd said.
    I looked up. I heard her heels clashing against the floorboards, receding.
    On the other hand–why had she hesitated for a moment outside? And why was I so quick to say never? It's not like anyone knows what