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“There are wallfolds where technology is very advanced,” said the voice. “But none of the wallfolds started with this technology and built on it.”
“Why not?”
“Because we did not want any wallfold to develop the field technology that would allow them to bring down the Wall.”
Oh. That made sense.
“And we could not allow any wallfold to develop starflight and run the risk of encountering the human race on Earth before it was ready to receive visitors from another world.”
“Why not?” asked Rigg.
“Because we know that we did not,” said the ship. “In our timestream, humans from Garden never made any contact with Earth prior to the launching of this ship. Therefore we could not allow starflight to develop.”
“So you gave us eleven thousand years of development, but made sure we did not develop,” said Rigg.
“In certain areas.”
“But those might be precisely the areas where it was most important for us to develop if we were going to counter a threat from Earth,” said Rigg.
“Ram suggests that we say, ‘Now you’re thinking, Rigg.’ He also suggested that we tell you he suggested it.”
Rigg couldn’t help it. Angry as he was at his father—and he was very angry—a bit of praise from him still had the power to suffuse him with warmth and pride. He hated it that a machine had that kind of power over him. At the same time, he longed to see his father and sit down and talk with him, instead of this disembodied voice.
“What would you advise me to do right now?”
“Take control of all the other wallfolds,” said the voice.
“And then what?”
“Make your own decisions.”
“Then I’ll decide to go back in time and prevent that facemask from getting Loaf.”
“But that would prevent you from entering this room and having this conversation,” said the voice.
“You could still tell me all this without my coming here. You could have Vadesh tell me when we first meet him.”
“We cannot go back in time,” said the voice. “If you prevent yourself from coming here, you won’t be in command of this starship, and none of the commands you give us now will be in force back then.”
This was so obvious that Rigg was embarrassed that he had not thought of it. But time control was still so new to him that it was impossible for him not to revert to the normal human way of thinking about time.
“You want it this way,” said Rigg. “You want Loaf to have the facemask.”
“Vadesh needed to know how his new human-adapted facemask would work. And we needed you to know.”
“But it’s a monstrous, terrible, evil thing to do to my friend,” said Rigg. “I can’t allow that to remain in place when it’s in my power to eliminate it.”
“Now you know why the humans from Earth will be dangerous to the people of Garden,” said the voice.
“No, I don’t know,” said Rigg. “I don’t know anything.”
But even as he spoke, he understood the point that the voice—that Father—was making. The same revulsion and fear that Rigg felt about the facemask might be felt by the people of Earth when they learned about what Rigg and Umbo and Param could do with the flow of time. Fear, revulsion, rejection. And there might be things in the other wallfolds that Rigg didn’t know about yet, things that would make the facemask look like a cute pet.
“I have to visit the other wallfolds before anybody gets here from Earth,” said Rigg. “I have to know what they’re going to discover about us. I have to know what resources we can call on to resist them if they decide to suppress us or control us or destroy us.”
“That is a very good list,” said the voice.
“Did Father tell you to say that?”
