Ruins

learned a lot about the unexpected, damaging changes you could make. And that was before Umbo learned how to physically transport more than an image of himself into the past.

“What if one of them isn’t dead?” asked Olivenko.

“They’re dead,” said Rigg.

“How can you be sure from up here?”

“Their paths don’t go off the bridge,” said Rigg. “They were dead before they fell.”

“Careless of the expendable,” said Loaf.

“If you kill a discarded copy of a time-shifter,” said Olivenko, “is it murder?”

“By all means, let’s discuss the definition of murder,” said Loaf.

“You’re the one who said all soldiers are philosophers.”

“There’s a time and place,” said Loaf.

Olivenko grinned.

Rigg led them into the ship.

Umbo’s path led by the shortest possible route directly to the control room. The jewel-reader was open—if Umbo had done what Swims-in-the-Air said he did, this is where he would have attempted to take control of the ship.

Umbo’s path moved around in the room and sat in the pilot’s seat twice. But ultimately the path left the control room. Rigg and the others followed.

Umbo was apparently touring various key areas of the ship—inspecting? Verifying? Or making changes? Impossible for Rigg to know without jumping back in time to see.

They turned a corner and there was Odinex—or so they assumed—walking away from them down the corridor. They were among the storage units where colonists had lain in stasis during the voyage.

“I know you’re there,” said Odinex. “I knew when you entered the ship, and the ship informed Umbo.” But Odinex did not turn around. He was carrying something on a tray in front of him.

Odinex turned where Umbo’s path had turned.

Rigg knew the place at once, as soon as they entered behind the expendable. It was the chamber where colonists were revived from stasis or received medical attention. Umbo didn’t even look up when they came in. The expendable was laying out lunch on a small table—apparently the tray he had been carrying could sprout legs when it needed to.

“Checking up on me?” asked Umbo. He took a bite of his food.

“Swims-in-the-Air seemed anxious to tell me that you had taken control of the ship,” said Rigg. “Is the food any good?”

“So on her word alone, you come here to put me in my place,” said Umbo.

“I came to see if her word bore any relation to the truth,” said Rigg, annoyed that Umbo would leap to the conclusion that Rigg had believed the Odinfolder’s story.

“Well, it does,” said Umbo. “The jewels in the knife are just as effective as the jewels you have. And I took control of the ship.”

The words hung in the air.

“Interesting,” said Rigg. “What do you plan to do with it?”

“What I came to do,” said Umbo. “Study it. See what I can get it to do.”

“And in this room,” said Rigg. “Do you plan to see if you can bring the murdered copies of yourself back to life?”

Umbo leapt to his feet, knocking the table over. The expendable caught it with a swooping motion that kept all the food still on the tray. Very good reflexes, Rigg noted.

“So you went back in time to check on me!” he shouted at Rigg.

“I don’t have to go back in time!” Rigg shouted back. “I can see your path and the bodies aren’t exactly invisible!”

“Did I suffer much when I died?” asked Umbo. “Did you enjoy watching that?”

“Stop it,” said Olivenko. “The two of you are acting like . . .”

Loaf chuckled. “They are children, Olivenko. But in this case, it’s Umbo who’s acting like the biggest baby.”

Umbo whirled on him. “It’s nice to know what a facemask thinks of me!”

Loaf slapped Umbo across the face.

Umbo staggered under the blow, and he began to cry as he held a hand to the cheek that had been slapped. “Why me?” he said. “Why is it my fault?”

“Because you’re the liar who wanted to pick a fight, and Rigg is not,” said Loaf.

“I didn’t lie!” cried Umbo.

“You shouldn’t have hit him,” said Rigg. “I shouldn’t have gotten angry at him, either.”

“I’m not angry with him,” said Loaf. “But it was time for him to start paying attention. Time for both of you. This nonsense between you has to stop, and it has to stop now. Don’t you understand that our lives are at stake? Not just some general warning about the end of the world, but your lives, right now, in this place. Umbo has died twice today. When will the two of you start acting like comrades, even if you can’t act like friends anymore?”

“I have no friends,” said Umbo. “I thought I did, but—”

“You ended our friendship when you began asking me whether it was me or the facemask talking, months ago,” said Loaf. “And you ended your friendship with Rigg when you openly rebelled against him months ago for his crime of keeping the whole company alive when you were incompetent to find your way thirty feet without getting lost.”

“So it’s all my fault!”

“Yes,” said Loaf. “And you know it. When Rigg came in here, you deliberately misunderstood his motive for coming. You knew what he had said, and you chose to take offense as if he had said something else. And then you lied.”

“I did not lie!”

“It was a lie to say that you had taken control of the ship, when in fact you only took control of this ship, and only as Rigg’s subordinate.”

Umbo fell silent and looked Loaf in the eye. “How did you know that?”

Loaf smiled. “Oh, so you haven’t lost your ability to hear accurately what other people say.”

Umbo turned to Rigg. “The ship wouldn’t give me control because you were the commander. But Odinex was killing every Umbo he could find, and I had to stop him. So yes, I found a way to get control and stop him. But I’m not admitting that I’m subordinate to you, and I wasn’t about to say so. You would have leapt to false conclusions.”

Rigg had no answer; the loathing in Umbo’s face and voice were beyond his ability to understand or to deal with.

“The only reason the ship respected my control of the jewels on the knife was because you gave it to me,” said Umbo bitterly. “I only exist because you condescend to allow my existence.”

In answer, Rigg held out the bag of jewels. “Here,” he said. “Let the ship witness. Let this murderous expendable witness. I give the jewels to you.”

“I don’t want them!” cried Umbo. “I don’t want anything from you! I only used the knife because it was the only way to stay alive, I—”

At this point Umbo had drawn the knife, and Rigg saw that he was not holding it by the point, as if to offer it to Rigg, but rather as a weapon, ready for use. That was when Loaf’s hand lashed out—every bit as fast as the expendable’s had been, catching the table—and took the knife from him, leaving Umbo holding a painful wrist as he fell back onto his buttocks on the floor.

“Rigg, take up those jewels at once,” said Loaf. “And assert your control of them, right now.”

Rigg could see that Loaf was looking at the expendable, and without turning to see what Loaf was seeing, Rigg grasped the jewels and said, “I rescind my statement. I am still in command of this ship, and all ships; this expendable, and all expendables.”

Only then did he turn toward Odinex, who stood perfectly calmly, holding the tray.

“He was reaching for you,” said Olivenko, “until you spoke.”