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“But you didn’t,” said Deborah.
“And we didn’t check to see if they were still in the box,” said Noxon. “In case they weren’t. Because that would mean we came back here and liberated them. As we’re doing.”
; “And you didn’t want to know?” asked Wheaton. “I can’t imagine wanting not to know something.”
“If we knew,” said Noxon, “we’d make guesses about why we came back and that might change our behavior. Which might erase whatever future had previously ensued. Or might duplicate us.”
“You have to be very careful,” Deborah observed.
“Everything has unforeseen consequences,” said Noxon. “And every attempt to make some things better is likely to make other things worse.”
“Saving me?” asked Deborah.
“So far,” said Noxon, “that’s working out pretty well. But duplicating the professor, here? I’m not sure he’s thrilled about the philologist version of himself.”
Wheaton shrugged. “It’s like finding out what I’d be like if I had never grown up.”
“I liked him,” said Deborah.
“How ironic,” said Wheaton, “since it’s clearly you that made me different from him.”
“I have much to answer for,” said Deborah.
“Should I open the box?” asked Ram.
“They can hear us already,” said Noxon. “So here are the rules. The mice will all come out of the box and stay in a group, approaching nobody. Ram will close the box and rebury it.”
“I have to do all the manual labor?”
“You’re the trained pilot,” said Noxon. “I have no skills.”
Ram grinned.
“If the mice deviate from these instructions,” said Noxon, “I’ll kill them all.”
Deborah looked skeptical. “Have you ever tried to catch mice?” she asked.
“In my previous life as a cat, yes,” said Noxon.
“The facemask makes him very, very quick,” said Ram.
“And I could go back and kill them in the past,” said Noxon. “They understand that.”
Ram opened the lid.
The mice swarmed out and formed a writhing heap on the bare dirt in front of the box.
“They look perfectly ordinary.”
“Look again,” said Noxon. “Their heads are quite large, for mice, and their bones and musculature are sturdier in order to bear the added brain weight. Also, they have tiny electrical connectors at the tip of each toe. Or finger. Or whatever. They can stick their paws into computer sockets and link up directly to their brains.”
“So they’re all computer peripherals?” asked Wheaton.
“No,” said Noxon. “All computers are mouse peripherals.”
“You came back,” said a mouse.
