The Time Traders Andre Norton (electric book reader .TXT) đ
- Author: Andre Norton
Book online «The Time Traders Andre Norton (electric book reader .TXT) đ». Author Andre Norton
The door to Rossâs cell room clicked, and he swung his feet to the floor, sitting up on his bunk to face his future. This time he made no attempt to put on an act. He was not in the least sorry he had tried to get away. Had Kurt been on the level, it would have been a bright play. That Kurt was not, was just plain bad luck.
Kelgarries and Ashe entered, and at the sight of Ashe the taut feeling in Rossâs middle loosened a bit. The major might come by himself to pass sentence, but he would not bring Ashe along if the sentence was a really harsh one.
âYou got off to a bad start here, Murdock.â The major sat down on the edge of the wall shelf which doubled as a table. âYouâre going to have a second chance, so consider yourself lucky. We know you arenât another plant of our enemies, a fact that saves your neck. Do you have anything to add to your story?â
âNo, sir.â He was not adding that âsirâ to curry any favor; it came naturally when one answered Kelgarries.
âBut you have some questions?â
Ross met that with the truth. âA lot of them.â
âWhy donât you ask them?â
Ross smiled thinly, an expression far removed and years older than his bashful boyâs grin of the shy act. âA wise guy doesnât spill his ignorance. He uses his eyes and ears and keeps his trap shutâ ââ
âAnd goes off half cocked as a resultâ ââ âŠâ the major added. âI donât think you would have enjoyed the company of Kurtâs paymaster.â
âI didnât know about him thenâ ânot when I left here.â
âYes, and when you discovered the truth, you took steps. Why?â For the first time there was a trace of feeling in the majorâs voice.
âBecause I donât like the lineup on his side of the fence.â
âThat single fact has saved your neck this time, Murdock. Step out of line once more, and nothing will help you. But just so we wonât have to worry about that, suppose you ask a few of those questions.â
âHow much of what Kurt fed me is the truth?â Ross blurted out. âI mean all that stuff about shooting back in time.â
âAll of it.â The major said it so quietly that it carried complete conviction.
âBut whyâ âhowâ â?â
âYou have us on a spot, Murdock. Because of your little expedition, we have to tell you more now than we tell any of our men before the final briefing. Listen, and then forget all of it except what applies to the job at hand.
âThe Reds shot up Sputnik and then Muttnikâ ââ ⊠Whenâ â? Twenty-five years ago. We got up our answers a little later. There were a couple of spectacular crashes on the moon, then that space station that didnât stay in orbit, after thatâ âstalemate. In the past quarter century weâve had no voyages into space, nothing that was prophesied. Too many bugs, too many costly failures. Finally we began to get hints of something big, bigger than any football roaming the heavens.
âAny discovery in science comes about by steps. It can be traced back through those steps by another scientist. But suppose you were confronted by a result which apparently had been produced without any preliminaries. What would be your guess concerning it?â
Ross stared at the major. Although he didnât see what all this had to do with time-jumping, he sensed that Kelgarries was waiting for a serious answer, that somehow Ross would be judged by his reply.
âEither that the steps were kept strictly secret,â he said slowly, âor that the result didnât rightfully belong to the man who said he discovered it.â
For the first time the major regarded him with approval. âSuppose this discovery was vital to your lifeâ âwhat would you do?â
âTry to find the source!â
âThere you have it! Within the past five years our friends across the way have come up with three such discoveries. One we were able to trace, duplicate, and use, with a few refinements of our own. The other two remain rootless; yet they are linked with the first. We are now attempting to solve that problem, and the time grows late. For some reason, though the Reds now have their super, super gadgets, they are not yet ready to use them. Sometimes the things work, and sometimes they fail. Everything points to the fact that the Reds are now experimenting with discoveries which are not basically their ownâ ââ
âWhere did they get them? From another world?â Rossâs imagination came to life. Had a successful space voyage been kept secret? Had there been contact made with another intelligent race?
âIn a way itâs another world, but the world of timeâ ânot space. Seven years ago we got a man out of East Berlin. He was almost dead, but he lived long enough to record on tape some amazing data, so wild it was almost dismissed as the ravings of delirium. But that was after Sputnik, and we didnât dare disregard any hints from the other side of the Iron Curtain. So the recording was turned over to our scientists, who proved it had a core of truth.
âTime travel has been written up in fiction; it has been discussed otherwise as an impossibility. Then we discover that the Reds have it workingâ ââ
âYou mean, they go into the future and bring back machines to use now.â
The major shook his head. âNot the future, the past.â
Was this an elaborate joke? Somewhat heatedly Ross snapped out the answer to that. âLook here, I know I havenât the education of your big brains, but I do know that the farther back you go into history the simpler things are. We ride in cars; only a hundred years ago men drove horses. We have guns; go back a little and youâll find them waving swords and shooting guys with bows and arrowsâ âthose that donât wear tin plate on them to stop being puncturedâ ââ
âOnly they were, after all,â commented Ashe. âLook at Agincourt, mâlad, and remember what arrows did to the
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