Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(93)
“That’s why we put it there. We had dozens of these stations all over the solar system. This particular depot was particularly well stocked, since every other faction had written the moon off as useless.”
“Someone must have found it. There were traces of battle when I found the ruins.”
“The space-forsaken Neptune Divinities had caught on to these depots ten years earlier and were hunting them down one by one. They must have eventually found this one. Tell me there are descendants of those shits. After I cure the planet for your girl, I’d like to spend the rest of my days grinding them to dust.”
“A little long to hold a grudge, High Scion.”
“Call me Grace. My time with the TIs is over.”
In the two weeks since he had retrieved Grace Priestly, he had gone back in three more times: this time to retrieve raw materials from the TI depot, once for a cache of food, and once for someone widely considered the greatest geneticist to have ever lived. Unfortunately for that last run, Zing Ri decided he’d rather stay with his plants than heed the warning of a stranger. His plants ate him six minutes later.
Truth be told, none of these was the actual best option. They were just jumps that Grace and Smitt were able to identify as viable targets that wouldn’t cause large enough ripples in the chronostream. Though he had already broken the most egregious of the Time Laws, James really was still trying his best to stay within the spirit of them.
James made sure the containment of his netherstore was still intact when the collie pulled up next to him. Hopefully, this was the last find that Elise and Grace needed for a while. He had to rest, or at least get his hands on some miasma pills soon. The recent continuous trips had taken a toll on him physically as well as mentally. If he wasn’t careful, James was either going to lose his mind or have a severe cascading organ failure, possibly both.
Grace had taken over the role as his permanent handler, but hadn’t mentioned anything about his lag sickness yet. In her time, the longer-term consequences of excessive time travel hadn’t been discovered yet. She had to know something was wrong with him, or at least suspect he was ill. As long as Elise didn’t know, he didn’t care what the hell anyone else thought.
James entered the collie and plugged the netherstore into the ship’s power source. It was still several days’ journey back to Earth. He would also have to be more careful with his entry. ChronoCom’s surveillance and patrol activities had picked up of late.
The collie kicked on and began to skim through the black of space. Now was a good time to sleep. James had had very little rest recently and even less since he had picked up Grace. In the two months since the Elfreth had adopted their purpose, the tribe had prospered. Several of the smaller tribes had even asked to join. Now, the Elfreth’s numbers had swollen to over three hundred, more than any other time in recent memory. It worried James, though. It was just more mouths to feed and more supplies to maintain.
“Pet,” Grace asked in his head. “Why are you still so careful with my Time Laws? You’ve already broken the most important one. Why not just do what must be done at this point?”
“Because I still believe in them, or at least most of them,” he said. “The laws are there to protect the chronostream and not alter our natural progression, are they not?”
“Actually,” Grace said, “I winged several of them based on best estimates of quantum theory. You have to realize, time travel was still very new, and wasn’t as exact a science back then as it is now. I’ve been studying some of the annals of ChronoCom. I agree with most of it, but there are several theories that seem to defy physics. Like that Vallis Bouvard Disaster. It makes no sense for someone to implode that way.”
“Well, that and the fact that both you and Elise haven’t melted yet,” said James. It was a huge relief, actually. He had spent the first few days half-expecting Elise to one night combust into a fireball. “So there is no danger of that? I was worried about that with bringing you back as well.”
“I see no logical reason why. Take many of the Time Laws, both from myself and from ChronoCom, with a grain of salt. I was drinking heavily the night before I came up with the majority of them. Keep in mind that they are mostly there as a precaution. The technology has devastating effects if used incorrectly after all.”
James lay down on the bench and stared at the ceiling, his eyes tracing scars and blemishes that lined the interior. Each of them had a history. One particular jagged point on the side panel still had his dried blood on it from an ill-planned ambush by two bandits after a night of drinking on Despina Station. That dent on the floor was from the time he smashed his head when Puck pirates attacked the collie while he was in cryo.
“Grace,” he asked. “Why did you write the first Time Law? Why shouldn’t we bring people back from the past?”
He heard an audible sigh. “Of all the risks time traveling poses, bringing living beings back from the past is the greatest. The likelihood of a more advanced civilization abusing a more primitive one is high. What’s to prevent a government from going back to the day before Vesuvius buries Pompeii and enslaving the population? What about the Neptune Divinity Savior trying to back his dead son, or the Kuma Faction trying to undo their blunder at the Star Fortress? The Time Laws are there to ensure the integrity of the chronostream.”
“But I brought you and Elise back.”