Time's Chariot

the last month.’

‘There is one field computer matching that criterion,’ said the voice of Records.

‘Request its present location.’

‘That item is not presently located in the Home Time.’

‘To whom is it signed out?’

‘Commissioner Li Daiho.’

‘Commissioner Daiho is dead.’

‘Commissioner Daiho was the last individual to sign the computer out.’

‘So where is it?’

‘That item is not presently located in the Home Time.’

‘Request details of the last transference involving that computer.’

‘That computer has not been involved in a transference since Field Op Garron returned it to Stores.’

‘So where is it?’

‘It is not presently located in the Home Time.’

‘This is ridiculous.’ Marje realized she was pacing about the room, and she made herself stop. There was a way of breaking this loop… but no, surely it was abuse of power…

But she was a Commissioner, so…

‘Register, please,’ she said.

The Register’s eidolon appeared in front of her, looking quizzical. It was outlined in blue to show it was a projection of an artificial personality, and the appearance it took was of a middle-aged white male. It was as Jean Morbern had looked at the height of his career. ‘Marje?’ it said.

‘Register, I’m sorry to use you for such a trivial matter…’

The Register smiled. ‘You’re a Commissioner. Rank has its privileges.’

‘I thought I’d use them,’ Marje said, relieved. ‘I’m tracing a computer signed out recently by Li Daiho and Field Op Garron.’

‘Records can’t help?’

‘You try it!’ Marje said with feeling.

‘If you like.’ The Register paused for half a second. ‘I see your point. How annoying.’

‘So where’s it got to?’

‘I have no idea. Records would try and trace it through the symb network. It’s not responding to the signal, so it must be faulty. It was last seen with Commissioner Daiho, so perhaps you should check his things. His apartment has been reallocated but his effects will have been stored.’

‘That’s been tried,’ Marje said.

‘By Op Garron. I know — I gave him the authorization. But that is all I can suggest.’

Then Marje remembered. Garron had indeed been there, but he had said, didn’t have time.

‘Where are the things stored?’ she said.

‘Here at the College.’

‘Right,’ Marje said. She knew how she could help Garron and she was going to, whether he liked it or not.

SEVEN

And then,’ said Rico, ‘just to really rub it in, she offered me sponsorship.’

‘Shocking,’ said Su.

Looking like a man and woman of the reasonably prosperous merchant classes, they strolled arm in arm in the July sunshine along the footpath beside the Danube Canal, through the Prater park in the Vienna of 1508, capital of the Khanate of Austria.

This was the gamma stream, one of several parallel Earth histories inadvertently created by Jean Morbern on his first trips into the past. The alpha stream was the ‘official’ history, the one Morbern would have recognized. In both alpha and gamma, the Golden Horde of Batu Khan had overrun eastern Europe in the thirteenth century. In the gamma stream, they had stayed.

Here, Paulus Khan, many-times great grandson of the original Genghis, was the latest Khan to hold sway over the Khanate of Austria. The new empire was a happy blend of east and west, having made its peace with the Christians, and Rico and Su were often chosen for missions to this particular time: a Caucasian and an Asian together, apparently husband and wife, would raise no eyebrows. No one would have guessed that her flowing robes and scarf, his tunic and breeches weren’t the work of the best tailors of the city but were imitations wrought by the gelfabric of their fieldsuits.

By this world’s twentieth century, the College would be openly running the place. Eventually it would take over all the worlds. After the creation of the Home Time in the twenty-sixth century, they would all be spliced back into the alpha stream and the populations of all the streams merged. But that was a long time in anyone’s future. For now, the people of the College kept their heads down.

‘I mean,’ Rico said, ‘insult or what?’

‘Terrible,’ Su said.

‘She calls me up, she… yeah, OK, she says sorry, that’s good of her, but then—’

‘Appalling,’ said Su.

Her tone was finally seeping through Rico’s indignation. ‘Su, why do I think you’re not taking this seriously?’

‘I don’t know. Why do you think I’m not taking this seriously?’

‘You’re not, are you?’

Su smiled sweetly and nodded at a couple passing in the other direction, then turned her head to glare at him. ‘A Commissioner of the College contacts you, off her own bat, and apologizes for a wrong that was done to you, and offers to find your precious computer, and offers you something that others would kill for, and you’re angry with her?’

‘Well…’ Rico suddenly became aware of how ephemeral his indignation was and became doubly resolved to hang on to it. ‘She thought she could buy me off that way.’

‘No, she didn’t.’ Su jabbed a finger into his chest to punctuate each word. ‘She was trying to help you!’

‘Ow.’ Rico rubbed his sternum resentfully.

‘Your record probably doesn’t mention that you’re the prickliest man on Earth so she couldn’t have known that. She doesn’t know a thing about you and in the absence of a large sign saying 'I’ve got a massive chip on my shoulder' she made the mistake of treating you like someone normal. Like herself, really.’

Rico was silent for some seconds. ‘So what do I do, then?’

‘Apologize to her. You don’t have to do it face to face, you can leave her a message. Thank her for her generous offer, tell her that it’s really appreciated but it’s not necessary. And don’t sound like you’re saying it by rote, try and put some meaning into it.’

‘Right.’ Another pause. ‘This generous offer thing — are we talking computers or sponsorship here?’

‘You let her work that out.’

‘Oh.’

A symbed chime sounded in both their minds, and Su pulled a face. ‘Work, work, always work. Come on, let’s go.’

They walked towards the Innere Stadt, using the spire of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral as their guide through the narrow and irregular streets. The inner city of Vienna enfolded them. It felt odd to be surrounded by buildings so small and yet so crowded.

The bulk of the cathedral loomed over them. The Bishop there no doubt thought he was master of all he surveyed, second only to the Khan: he had no idea that one of his junior priests was the Home Time superintendent