Free Time Past by Maxine McArthur Page B

come. I couldn’t maintain life support in
Calypso II
by myself for five months.”
    I told him how I’d ended up on Earth, ending with where Grace took me in.
    “We can’t get back through that jump point without Invidi help,” I went on, “either to repair
Calypso II
or lend us another ship. And unless we go back through that jump point, we can’t get back to Jocasta in 2122. At least, I assume the point is stable now, since you came through it.”
    “Yeah, that’s weird, isn’t it? I’d assumed it took you to wherever the Sleepers in
Calypso
had jumped from.”
    “That’s what I thought, too.”
    “So what happened? How did we come through the jump point in this year if that point hasn’t been created yet?”
    I rubbed my neck where the Seouras implant formed a roughly circular, raised area under the skin. “I don’t know. That same question’s been driving me mad. All I can think of is that the correspondence was somehow shortened when
Calypso
jumped. Or lengthened when we jumped. Another thing I can’t work out is why it takes the Invidi so long to get here.”
    He thought about that one for a moment, then scratched his head tiredly. “Come again?”
    “Think about it—neither of us came through the Central-Earth jump point, right?”
    “The point we did come through is on a different jump network?”
    “Exactly. But we’ve always been told that’s impossible. There is no other jump network. So either the Invidi have been putting one over on all of us...”
    “Or some of us. The rest of the Four might be in on this.”
    “Maybe. Or...” My voice trailed off.
    “Or what?”
    “Or, I don’t know. Something else. Something to do with the jump being fixed now but not when
Calypso
went through it. My point is that an off-network jump point being opened ought to have brought the Invidi rushing here to investigate immediately, not five months later. Unless,” I said, half to myself, “this was as close as they could calibrate it. After all, their time scale is presumably hundreds of thousands of years, so five months is incredibly accurate.”
    Murdoch stared at me. “Hang on. You’re saying
we
brought the Invidi here?”
    “Too big a coincidence otherwise. Jump point opens, they pick it up, come to investigate by opening a jump point on their own network between here and Central. Earth is then connected to the other worlds on the network.”
    “Whoa.” He leaned back, nearly fell out of the chair, and righted himself. In the blue pale light of dawn his face looked pasty. “Doesn’t that bother you? That we’re responsible for the single most cataclysmic change in recent human history?”
    I shrugged. “It did at first. Now I try to see it from An Serat’s point of view.”
    “Which is?”
    “He knows I build
Calypso II
using
Calypso
’s engines and come back here. He sends you here from 2122 because he knows he met us here in the past and he needs us to be here so his past self knows to send
Calypso.
”
    “That’s a circle.”
    I nodded. Whichever domino you tip, they’ll all fall eventually.
    “Halley, why’d you do it?”
    I could see the line of dominoes clattering down. One, two, three, four... “Do what?”
    “Take
Calypso II
through the jump.”
    I met his eyes. They were honestly puzzled, and a little hurt. I didn’t want to hurt Murdoch.
    “I had to know if it would work. If it really was a jump drive in
Calypso.
”
    He frowned and spread his hands helplessly. “What now? You’ve found out it is. What if the Invidi in this time help us get home—what are you going to do with the drive then?”
    “Make sure everyone has it. That way the Four don’t have their stranglehold over us. We might finally have some equality within the Confederacy.”
    He chewed his lip doubtfully. “Dunno how that’s going to help the neutrality vote. Only thirty-nine days to go.”
    “Thirty-nine?” So little time. Ten days until the Invidi arrived here. If we couldn’t contact