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“People on Earth do this kind of thing all the time,” said Umbo.
“Well if we had eleven thousand years here,” said Leaky, “and you say that humans on Earth got technologies like this only ten thousand years after inventing agriculture—”
“Ten thousand, give or take,” said Loaf.
“Why haven’t we done any better?”
“We’re blocked,” said Umbo. “It’s one of the things the expendables do. And the ships’ computers. They choke off any line of development that might lead to high technology. Except in Odinfold, and that’s because Ram Odin gave it an exemption, up to a point.”
“The thing’s almost as big as the roadhouse, and it flew,” said Leaky again.
“And here we’ve gotten used to it and think of it as nothing special,” said Loaf. “You’re reminding me how miraculous it really is.”
“Don’t go yet, Vadeshex,” said Umbo. “I think I may be needing a ride back to Larfold, where my fiancee is waiting.”
“Stay with us,” said Leaky. “You hardly visited.”
“I’ll be back,” said Umbo. “The question is, when?”
“Give us a couple of years,” said Loaf. “That’s time enough. Check back and see how we’re doing.”
“I could go right now into the future and find out.”
“Then you’d be tempted to tell us,” said Loaf. “No, go somewhere else and have something like a life—whatever’s possible with the lovely Queen of Nothing Much and her Kingdom of Nowhere.”
“In other words, you’d like me to try to accomplish something before I come back pestering you.”
“No, we just don’t want you getting jealous of how in love we are,” said Loaf.
“Thank you for everything, Umbo,” said Leaky. “Especially the warning. I wish it had worked. But I’m glad that you kept me from giving up my life for nothing.”
“Thanks for trusting me enough to believe my warning,” said Umbo. He turned to Vadeshex. “Take me back to Param?”
“Wherever and whenever she is,” said Vadeshex.
“Get me to the where, and I’ll work on the when myself.”
CHAPTER 13
Where Not to Go
“Have I ever resisted your visiting any of the wallfolds?” asked Ram Odin.
“We’ve only been to two,” said Rigg.
“Well, we happen to have come rather early to the one that I will advise you not to visit.”
“You understand that it makes me all the more determined to go there.”
“I took that into account,” said Ram Odin. “But I have no choice. Janefold is as interesting as any of the others. It has only one statistical quirk.”
“Which is?”
“The life expectancy is about half that of other wallfolds.”
“And why is that?”
“Disease,” said Ram Odin. “This is the place where plagues begin.”
