Marooned in Realtime

some crazy personal reason, and terribly regrets the necessity. But now that it's done, she's going to use it to destroy all opposition to the great Korolev plan.'

'Um.' He, W. W. Brierson, might be the cause of Marta's death. Suppose Yelen conceived that she was losing her love to another. For some disturbed souls, such a loss was logically equivalent to the death of the beloved. They could murder and then honestly blame the loss on others.... Wil remembered the irrational hatred in Yelen's eyes when he walked into her library.

He looked at Tammy with new respect. She'd never seemed this bright before. In fact... he felt just a little bit manipulated. For all her terror, the girl was a very cool character. 'Tammy,' he said quietly, 'just how old are you, really?'

'I-'The tear-streaked adolescent face froze for a second. Then: 'I've lived ninety years, Wil.'

Forty years longer than I. Some daughter figure.

'B-but that's not a secret.' New tears filled her eyes. 'I'd've told anyone who asked. A-and I'm not faking my personality. I try to keep a fresh, open mind. We're going to live a long time, and Daddy says it helps if we grow up slowly, if we don't freeze into adult mind-sets like they did in the old days.'

The Lu creature gave one of her strange little laughs. 'That depends on how long you plan to live,' she said to no one in particular.

Brierson suddenly realized that it was wishful thinking to regard himself an expert on human nature. Once he had been: now that expertise might be as obsolete as the rest of his knowledge. When he left civilization, life-prolonging medicine had been just a few decades old. At that time, Tammy's deception would have been almost impossible. Yelen Korolev had had about two hundred years to teach herself to lie. Della Lu was so disconnected from humanity, it was hard to make sense of her at all. How could he judge what such people said?

Might as well continue the sympathetic role. He patted Tammy's hand. 'Okay, Tam. I'm glad you told us.'

She smiled halfheartedly. 'Don't you see, Wil? My dad's a suspect because we disagreed with Marta. We left to protect the family; my staying behind shows we're not running from an investigation.... But Yelen is. On the way down, Della Lu told me how Yelen wants you back in stasis right away. She'll be left all alone at the scene of the crime. By the time you two come out, the evidence will be tens of thousands years stale-heck, what evidence there is will've been manufactured by her.

'Now, I brought the family records for the weeks before our party. You and Della Lu should study them. They may be dull, but at least they're the truth.'

Wil nodded. It was obvious the Robinsons had their story together. He let the interview go on another fifteen minutes, until Tammy seemed calm and almost relaxed. Lu spoke occasionally, her interjections sometimes perceptive, more often obscure. It was evident that-in itself-clearing the family l name me was of little importance to the Robinsons. When they were headed, present opinion would be less than dust. But the family still wanted recruits. Tammy's parents were convinced that the people of Town Korolev would eventually realize that settling in the present was a dead end, and that time itself was 11 the proper place for humanity. It might take a few decades, but ;f Tammy could survive the murder investigation, she would be f re e to wait and persuade. And eventually she would catch up With her family. Her parents had set a number of rendezvous in the megayears to come. Their exact locations were something she refused to reveal.

'You want to pace your lives, and live as long as the universe?' asked Lu.

'At least.'

The spacer giggled. 'And what will you do at the end?'

'That depends on how it ends.' Tammy's eyes lit. 'Daddy thinks that all the mysteries people have ever wondered on-even the Extinction-may be revealed there. It's the ultimate rendezvous for all thinking beings. If time is cyclic, we'll bobble through to the beginning and Man will be universal.'

'And if the universe is open and dies forever?'

'Then perhaps we and the others can change that.' Tammy shrugged. 'But if we can't-well, we'll still be there. We will have seen it all. Daddy says we'll raise a glass and toast the memory of all of you that went before.' She was still smiling.

And Brierson wondered if this might be the craziest of all his new acquaintances.

Afterwards, Wil tried to plan out the investigation with Della Lu. It was not easy.

'Was Ms. Robinson distressed at the beginning of the interview?' asked Lu.

Wil rolled his eyes heavenward. 'Yes, I believe she was.'

'Ah. I thought so, too.'

'Look, uh, Della. What Tammy says about Yelen makes sense. It's absurd for the cops-us-to leave the murder scene like this. Back in Michigan, we would have dropped any customer who demanded such a thing. Now, Yelen is right that ink, hanging around to investigate the physical evidence would be amateurish. But your equipment is as good as hers —'

'Better.'

'-and she should be willing to let you postpone bobbling long enough to gather evidence.'

Lu was silent for a moment-talking through her headband' '1-Is. Korolev wants to be alone for emotional reasons.'