wrong? What if the mere fact of our presence in the past made us a part of the original scenario,' whether we did anything disruptive or not?'
'I'm not sure I understand,' said Andre. 'How does that change anything?”
'In some ways, it doesn't, ' said Delaney. 'It still allows us to effect temporal adjustments, and in fact, it supports our ability to go back into the past without disrupting it significantly, by lessening the temporal impact of our presence. It might account for the continued resiliency of the timestream considering the growing influence of the Time Wars over the years and the potentially disruptive presence of such things as the Network and the Underground, not to mention the confluence effect.'
'But how does that relate to me?' said Lucas.
'I was getting to that,' said Finn. 'If, by going back into the past, you become part of the past, not just a potentially external influence, but an internal one as well, then anything that happens to you could be potentially disruptive to the scenario, but necessarily from our standpoint, but from the standpoint of the future. Because what we're concerned with is what happened to you in the period between your so-called death in 1897 and right now. But people a hundred years from now would be concerned with what happened in 19th Century
Afghanistan and its effect on the timestream all the way down the line to where they are, or will be, and that includes not only anything we do right now, but anything we might do, or be meant to do, for the remainder of our lives, because that will be part of their past. '
'I see,' said Forrester. 'So what you're saying is that Priest's death might have been the temporal disruption, not his survival?'
'It's possible,' Delaney said. 'And the more I think about it, the more sense it seems to make. He's survived and there hasn't been a timestream split as a result of that, so far as we can tell. Now maybe that's because he wasn't historically significant enough for his survival to have caused a serious temporal disruption.
But on the other hand, maybe his death would have resulted in a temporal disruption further up the timeline, as a result of something he wouldn't have been able to do if he hadn't lived, something he hasn't done yet. In that case, what
Darkness did in saving him would be a temporal adjustment to restore the continuity of the timeline. '
'Wait a minute,' Lucas said. 'If that's the case, then that would mean that Darkness knew my death would cause a temporal disruption.'
Delaney nodded. 'Think about it,' he said. 'Consider everything that he's accomplished, Lucas. Consider what he's done to you. Consider that our most brilliant scientists can't even begin to understand the principles behind some of his discoveries. Hasn't it occurred to you that Dr. Darkness could be from the future?'
'Wow,' said Andre.
'I never even thought of that,' said Steiger. 'But you could be right. Assume that, and everything else falls right into place. All the things he knows, everything he's done, all the questions' about him that we've never had any answers for…
'Yes, and speaking of answers,' Forrester said, 'Darkness has a lot to answer for.'
'You might as well forget it,' Steiger said. 'Knowing him, he probably wouldn't tell you anything, especially if what Finn just said is true.'
'Where is he, Lucas?' Andre said. 'I never saw him again after what happened at the club.'
Lucas shook his head. 'I don't know where he is. Back at his secret headquarters out beyond the galaxy. Maybe he's discorporated, which would mean he's everywhere. Or maybe he's standing right here beside us, vibrating faster than light and laughing up his sleeve. Who knows?'
'Well, whatever the truth may be,' said Steiger, 'I'm glad to have you back, Lucas.
And you can have your old job as exec back anytime.'
'I'll be the one who decides that,' Forrester said. 'And I don't think I want to change things. Right now, nobody outside this room knows that Lucas is alive and I'd like to keep it that way for now. It might give us an edge.' He glanced at Lucas.
'Besides, I don't think you'd care much to have every scientist on this planet wanting to examine you.'
'No, I think I'll pass on that,' said Lucas, 'But what about
Gulliver?'
Forrester picked up his communicator and spoke into it. 'Is he here yet?'
'He's been waiting for the past ten minutes, sir,' came the reply.
'Send him in.'
A moment later, Dr. Lemuel Gulliver, dressed in smartly creased, black base fatigues and wearing the single chevron of a Pfc., came into the room, snapped to attention and saluted.
Forrester retumed his salute and said, 'At ease, Private.' He glanced at the surprised expressions on the faces of the others and smiled. 'I'd like you all to meet the newest member of the Temporal Observer Corps. He'll be clocking back home soon to assume his new post. Sit down, Gulliver, and have a drink.'
Forrester waited until the greetings and congratulations had stopped, then he continued with the debriefing.
'That still leaves us with some very disturbing loose ends,' he said, and they all fell silent.
'First and foremost, there's Drakov.' Forrester never referred to him as his son anymore. 'You can imagine how I felt when leamed that he was still alive. I thought that was all finished, but now apparently he's replicated himself and the threat's been multiplied. I've issued orders to all Observer outposts and every team in the field to keep a lookout for him or any of his hominoid selves, with orders to shoot to kill on sight. I fear we haven't heard the last of him. Or the Network.
But at least we've driven them out of the agency. All loyal personnel are volunteering to be scanned and the rest of them are going underground. Still, they're not finished with us, and in many ways our job is bigger now than it ever was before. But I'm resolved to see it through.'
They all nodded in silent agreement.
'Last, but not least, there's the question of the liIliputians.'
Forrester said. 'Your report says that they're unaccounted for. What the devil do you mean, they're unaccounted for?'
'Well, after the battle in the club, we never saw any of them again,' Delaney said.
'The two groups of liIliputians went at each other pretty hard. I'd guess that most of them were killed and the survivors perished in the fire.'
'You'd guess?'
'A guess is the best that any of us can do, sir,' Andre said.
'That's why, officially, the report reads that any possible survivors were unaccounted for.'
Forrester sighed and shook his head. 'I'll have to assign extra Observers to that time zone and have them keep an eye out. Although how they'll ever find any
Lilliputians in a warren like New York City is beyond me. Still, it'll have to be attempted. If any of them survived, and if they should start to reproduce.. '
'I'm not sure that we have anything to worry about there, sir,' Lucas said. 'All the lilliputians we saw were male. That doesn't mean there aren't any female lilliputians hidden away somewhere, but it would stand to reason that Drakov would want to control their population and not encumber himself with lilliputian offspring.
Besides, all the hominoids we've ever encountered have been mules, incapable of reproduction. '
'And if any of them did live through the fire,' Delaney said, 'I feel sorry for the little bastards. 20th Century New York is a hard city to survive in if you're normal sized. They'll have to keep out of sight and struggle for survival, with not only humans to be wary of, but stray cats and dogs, and the city's teeming rat population…' He shook his head. 'I wouldn't give you much for their chances of survival…
'Tyler! Seth! What was all that noise?'
'Nothing, Mom!'
She opened up the door to the boys' bedroom and saw them sitting on the floor, surrounded by all their G.I. Joe and Rambo action figures and all the military paraphernalia that went along with them.
'What was that crash I heard?' she said.
'Oh, nothing, Mom,' said Tyler. 'We were just playing.' She gave a quick glance around the room to see if anything was broken.
