Pathspace: The Space of Paths (5 page)

“
But didn't the ice melt?”

“
Sure did. But there were men who delivered ice right to your
door, from horse-drawn trucks. When the ice block melted you put
another one in. That worked for a long time, and then men invented
electric refrigeration, a way of using pumps to cool down the
icebox without ice. You had to have wires to bring the electricity
to every house, and people had to pay for the electricity that ran
in the wires, but they could go on trips and not worry about the
food warming up, because their refrigerators kept running all the
time, staying cold. The ice delivery men were out of business, of
course.

“
But then along came the Tourists, and they could take a box,
any box, and put their magic on it. Then it would stay cold without
ice or electricity. Thanks to the coldboxes, we didn't need to make
refrigerators anymore. So more companies went out of
business.”

“
Is the everflame one of the Gifts from the Tourists,
too?”

“
It sure is.” Xander shook his head. “It really made a lot of
people happy. No more pumping oil out of the ground or cutting
trees down for firewood, no more burning oil, no more electric
heaters for houses to have hot water. Just get the Tourists to work
their magic on a piece of metal and you could have heat anytime for
free. Saved tremendous amounts of time and work and money. Guess
what happened because of it?”

Now he was beginning to see a pattern.
“The people who cut firewood and pumped oil out of the ground went
out of business?”

“
Theres a price for everything, son. Never forget that, like
Mankind did. If all a man knows how to do is cut firewood or mine
coal for people to burn, guess what happens when people don't need
firewood or coal? If he doesn't get another job, his kids starve.
Or the government has to pay to feed them for him.”

Lester swallowed. “What you're saying
is, the Tourists hurt us by helping us.” He thought about that for
a moment. He had never realized that you could do that – could
actually hurt someone by helping them. It sounded crazy, but when
you thought of whole countries instead of single people, it made
more sense. He thought of families starving because their fathers
were too old to learn a new trade, and shivered in the cooling
evening air. No one wants an old apprentice. If they lost the inn,
Gerrold would be laughed out of town if he went to the smith and
asked to be accepted as a blacksmith apprentice.

“
Hurt us tremendously,” Xander agreed. “Civilization fell,
almost back to the Middle Ages level. We lost all of the high
technology that it took hundreds of years to develop. Now we're
back to peasants and crossbows. All the old low tech still works.
Farming with horses, blacksmithing metal tools, weaving cloth with
hand looms, and poultices instead of pills.”

“
But why? Why didn't we just adapt? Why did things go so
wrong?”

The old man didn't answer immediately.
An uncomfortable silence grew for long moments before he
spoke.

“
Two reasons,” he said finally. “The first was, we let the
infrastructure rot away.”

“
The what?”

“
We used to have a thing called a tractor that we used instead
of horses to pull plows. You can still find them here and there,
rusting away. But tractors were made in factories, and the
factories all ran on electricity. In the factories, people and
machines made all sort of things. Cars that didn't need horses
because they burned oil to make the wheels turn. Refrigerators to
keep food cold. Radios so people could talk to each other across
long distances.

“
But once we didn't need to burn oil any more, once we didn't
need fridges to keep food cold, people got the idea that we could
make our planet 'greener' by changing over to more and more to
things based on the Gifts. They sort of figured somehow that the
Tourists would hang around forever, making coldboxes and everflames
and all the other magic things we were coming to rely on. We could
get rid of the machines and processes that took so much work to
build and tended to create pollution for the air and water. When
you burn oil or wood or coal, you see, it makes smoke – and that
smoke is poisonous, and has to go somewhere or you end up breathing
it in.”

“
But wasn't that a good idea? Making the world
cleaner?”

“
Of course it was! No one like to eat and drink poison. But
I'm coming to the second reason that really did us in. The Tourists
made the Gifts for us, but they never taught us how to make 'em
ourselves, or how to keep them working. They gave us the products
of a whole new technology, but not the technicians and
infrastructure needed to keep it working for the long term. And
when the Tourists finally left, off to visit their next port of
call, guess what happened? Some of those magic Gifts began to break
down. Even the magic of the Tourists doesn't last
forever.”

“
Why not? Our coldbox and everflame still work just
fine.”

“
Some of them lasted longer than others. But they all break
down eventually if they're not maintained. When it was first made,
that coldbox in your father's inn could freeze water into ice. Now
it just keeps beer cold. The thing the Tourists did to make the
gifts had very little to do with the matter they were anchored in.
you could make a coldbox out of
paper
if you wanted to – the
important thing is the change in the space around it. But that
change is a little like combing hair. The change in the space stays
straight for a while. Years, maybe even a century. But eventually
it gets un-straightened again, goes random, like your hair is in
the morning when you wake up. And we didn't know how to comb the
space straight again. If you want to call it magic instead of
psionics, fine. But they didn't train any magicians. So it all
started to fall apart. And since we'd changed over to depending on
it, our whole civilization fell apart.”

“
Why didn't they teach us their magic?” Lester
asked.

“
Simple economics. It takes a long time to collect the DNA
cookbooks of a whole planet, you see. If they'd taught us how to
make the Gifts for ourselves, well, we wouldn't need the Tourists
anymore. We might stop trading with them. They might miss out on a
plant or animal species that would turn out to be a lifesaver. They
couldn't risk that. So they kept their secrets. Made all the
coldboxes we asked for, all the everflames and swizzles and all the
little shortcuts we were greedy for. Then they left, taking their
secrets with them.”

The mosquitoes were beginning to come
out.. Lester swatted one and grimaced as he wiped his hand on the
flat bed of the cart. “How do you know all this, anyway? Did you
see it happen?”

“
Lord, no,” Xander laughed. “It was long before my time. But
records were kept. People always gossip and there were reporters of
news back then, just as now. People who saw what was happening
couldn't stop it but they could write it down so someone would
remember. So I remember things I never saw. And I'm trying to do
something about it.”

“
What are you going to do?”

“
We'll get to that,” the old man said. “And you'll be a part
of it.”

“
Me? Why me? I'm nobody. I pump water and wait on
tables.”

“
Well, your pumping days are over, son. They'll have to get
along without you at the inn from now on. You're my new
apprentice.”

The letter his envoy brought back from
Denver was hardly satisfactory. Peter read it again, sometimes
snorting, sometimes chuckling. She hadn't changed a bit.

“
To: His Excellency Peter
Martinez, the Honcho of Texas

Greetings.

We trust this missive find you in robust
health as usual. We are the same, and expect this condition to hold
for the foreseeable future. So don't go getting hopeful! Here are a
few points to bear in mind:

1. We both know that armies have to be
exercised or they get soft. But must it really come to this, after
all that we've both accomplished? I am well aware of the advantage
you believe yourself to possess from your discovery of the
apparently untouched weapons cache hidden under the remains of
Abilene. Let us not pretend that we do not both of us have our
spies in foreign soil. I will only say that I, also, have certain
advantages that you would be well advised to take into
consideration in your own deliberations. Think carefully, and
reconsider.

2. I can only agree with you that the
current fractured condition of the former United States of America
must not be allowed to continue indefinitely. We disagree only in
the means by which it should be ended. Shall it be restoration,
albeit with a radically new infrastructure? Or, instead, as you
suggest, should it be replaced by a different form of government
altogether, a continent-wide empire, with you as the first of a
line of hereditary American monarchs?

You should be able to predict my answer by
now. We have known each other for a long time. If, however, you
cannot, then let these words answer.

I am perfectly aware that my present
position as absolute ruler of the former State of Colorado is
contrary in spirit to that form of government first created on this
continent so long ago. I am equally aware of the many millions who
have died over the centuries protecting that dream, until the chaos
of the Fall seemingly demolished it forever.

But a dream cannot die. Not until the very
last person who cherishes it dies or abandons the noble ambitions
it embodies. And my late husband the General entrusted me with
it.

I assure you that I have not died. Nor have
I abandoned the Dream, even if it might seem so because I do not
yet have the means to rekindle it in enough hearts and minds to
make it manifest and tangible again for all.

3. Please be aware, therefore, that I shall
do all in my power to nurture and foster the Dream in my
associates. If I do not manage to bring about its restoration in my
own lifetime, then I shall do my utmost to ensure that those who
continue after me vow to do the same.

Respectfully,

Her Excellency, Kristana D'Arcy, the
Governor of Colorado.”

He tossed the letter on his desk and turned
to Brutus. “You have to admire such determined foolishness. She's
dedicated, if misguided. I'll be sad to see her go. How are the
preparations coming?”

His most senior officer twirled his mustache
before answering. “Quite well, Excellency. As you know, once we
were able to finally disable all of the booby traps and enter the
Armory, our most learned scholars began studying the manuals and
diagrams. I won't pretend there isn't a lot to learn about all of
it, but the documentation is meticulous. It's only a matter of time
before we know enough to use any of the ancient weapons.”

Peter leaned back in his chair. “Knowing
isn't the same thing as being able to apply that knowledge,” he
said. “What use is it to have armored vehicles if we don't have the
fuel that was used to power them?”

Brutus leaned forward and lit his pipe from
one of the candles on the desk. Peter did not exactly approve of
the habit, but allowed the trade with the Eastern potentates in
Dixie because it was one of several ways of infiltrating his spies
into the region on the other side of the Mississippi.

“
As to that,” he said, “I
believe that we have a couple of solutions. First, our records
indicate that alternative fuels can be fashioned. We can ferment
plant material and animal dung to produce a flammable gas
called
methane
which the ancient
vehicles could be converted to use instead of gasoline or diesel.
Or we could use crops with sugar in them such as corn to ferment
and make alcohol and use that as fuel.”

“
Don't we need the dung
for fertilizer, and the crops to feed our people and livestock?”
Peter shook his head. “We don't want to win a war at the price of
causing a famine. What's the second option?”

“
It's potentially easier,
but a little more controversial. We do have the ancient oil wells
which the alien witchcraft made unnecessary. We could start using
them again. We still have the ancient records to tell us how to
refine diesel and gasoline from oil pumped from the
ground.”

Peter thought about that. “Just how would we
go about that? We have no working pumps to pull the oil out of the
ground. If I remember my history, the oil was useless until it was
processed in refineries. And we have no refineries left! Nothing
but rust and old buildings. Even if we could rebuild one, there
would be no way to power it.”

“
Actually, your
Excellency,” Brutus said smoothly, “that turns out not to be the
case.”

Peter stared at him. “All right. What do you
know that I don't?”

Brutus took a deep breath.
“This is where it gets controversial,” he said. “Although we have
no pumps, there are some leftover
swizzles
here and there. We could use them to suck the oil
out of the wells that still have oil in them. And it's an
oversimplification, but the refineries basically boiled the
different fractions like gasoline, kerosene, and diesel out of the
crude oil. We could always replace the heat source for the
refineries with
everflames
to heat
up the crude oil. My engineers tell me it could all be done with
what we have, without having to sacrifice crops or
fertilizer.”