Warrior

5

As the sun went down, Wayne began to shiver uncontrollably in the brush outside a barbarian village. In the twilight, he had watched the villagers stir their dinners over their fires. He had even heard one tall, hulking man addressed repeatedly by the Latin name “Arminius,” though the rest of the language was completely beyond him.

He was hoping that perhaps after everyone went to sleep, he could sneak into the village and find some old clothes to steal, along with some leftover food. All evening, a light but cold breeze had blown the smoke and the scent of cooking meat to him from the village.

He watched the fur-clad people in the village as they slowly covered their fires and put out their torches. They were retiring into their huts for the night. The wind shifted slightly, no longer blowing in his face but from behind him.

Suddenly a dog in the village, its nose twitching, turned toward him. It began to bark, and ran in his direction. In a moment, every dog in the village was barking furiously, following the first one. Shouts rose up from the villagers.

Belatedly realizing that the dogs had caught his scent, Wayne turned and tried to run. He stumbled through the underbrush, crashing into tree branches in the darkness, his legs stiff from the cold. He flailed through the leaves and pine needles as he heard heavy footsteps and barking dogs close in on him.

Strong hands grabbed Wayne from behind as young men shouted to each other in a harsh, guttural language. He felt himself yanked backward, his arms pinned behind him. Then he was marched roughly back through the woods toward the village.

Hunter and his team accepted a hut for the night in the village of Odover. At Vicinius’s bidding, the young family to whom it belonged had vacated it to share a hut that belonged to some neighbors. Hunter moved his sleeping pallet, made of pine boughs covered with a soft deer hide, so that it blocked the door of the hut.

“Are you afraid of something in particular?” Steve asked, as he arranged his own bedding.

“No,” said Hunter. “This is just a precaution.”

“Aren’t we intruding too much?” Jane asked. “I mean, under chaos theory, displacing an entire family here means that we’ve interfered.”

“Vicinius just wants to stay on the good side of rich Roman merchants,” said Gene. “Besides, this was his idea. We would be more disruptive if we refused their hospitality.”

“Anyhow, we know now that chaos theory isn’t right in its most extreme form,” said Steve. “Hunter, you admitted that after our first two missions.”

“Correct,” said Hunter. “It is now clear that our presence in the past in and of itself does not cause significant changes. Nor does consuming small amounts of food and water and interacting with the local people. However, I must remind all of you that at some point, more significant actions that we take might truly change the future.”

“How much would we have to do to create permanent change?” Gene asked. “I mean, sure, if we assassinated an emperor, the change would be pretty big, I suppose.”

“A greater danger would be introducing new technology,” said Hunter. “This is why I made certain that the silverwork we brought was consistent with this time and place. But to answer your question, I do not know where the threshold of creating permanent change begins. So we must still try to avoid unnecessary changes as much as possible.”

“The Romans have to be ambushed in Teutoburger Wald.” Gene nodded grimly. “I understand.”

“Did our gifts impress them?” Jane asked. “They didn’t seem all that excited to me.”

“Definitely,” said Gene. “That reserve is part of their negotiating; they don’t really want to let on just how valuable they consider decorative gifts of silver. But their return gifts are the proof.”

“Furs, spears, and a dagger?” Steve sounded skeptical. “Aren’t those just routine belongings for them?”

“Yes and no,” said Gene. “Furs represent all the effort and danger of a hunt. And the spears all have metal tips. The Germans still get most of their metal from the Romans right now. If you look around the village tomorrow, you’ll see that swords are very rare and that most of the spears simply have fire-hardened wooden points, with no metal at all. Giving us metal-pointed spears and offering a dagger to Jane were a great honor and sacrifice for them.”

“They don’t even have any horses to speak of,” said Steve. “Just a couple. Is that normal? Doesn’t everybody ride horseback in this time?”

“No,” said Gene. “It’s a question of wealth. They know how to breed and train and ride, of course. But these German tribes are only beginning to accumulate herds of horses. By the time of Emperor Constantine the Great, in a few more centuries, German mercenary cavalry will be the finest in the Roman military. Another century after that, they will bring down the Western Roman Empire, roughly everything west of the Balkans. But that’s still in the future.”

“They’re hoping we’ll bring more silver later,” said Jane. “But we aren’t coming back. That’s going to be disruptive. Won’t they feel we betrayed their friendship?”

“Not with the battle of Teutoburger Forest coming up,” said Gene. “After that, they’ll just figure we were scared to come back, or prohibited by the Roman authorities.”

“We must also consider Wayne,” said Hunter. “I have been thinking about his disappearance. I now suspect that Wayne has the same information I have for finding the fugitive robots, taken from the console of the sphere.”

“We left Ishihara in Room F-12 to nab him,” said Steve. “That sphere is the only time travel machine he has. He’ll show up there sooner or later.”

“I have considered the situation,” said Hunter. “He may have met trouble in Jamaica, in which case he may never return to our time. However, he may also have learned to move from one time period to another without returning to Room F-12 between trips.”

“Can he do that?” Jane asked.

“I have not risked altering my own device to find out,” said Hunter. “However, I have thought about the design of the controls in both my unit and also in the console itself. Theoretically, it may be possible.”

“Why don’t you find out for sure?” Gene asked.

“The First Law prevents me from taking the risk of harming the unit,” said Hunter. “As long as you are with me here in this time, I do not dare take it apart. Perhaps when we return home again, I shall examine it carefully.”

“So you really believe Wayne may be here,” said Jane. “Or about to arrive.”

“I believe it is a realistic possibility,” said Hunter.

“Then we’ll have to look for him, too,” said Steve. “I’d like to nab the guy once and for all. These missions would be a lot easier without him interfering. We could take him home and lock him up or something.”

“That would pose a legal problem,” said Hunter. “We can arrange to detain him without harm in this time, if we catch him. We cannot imprison him at home without becoming guilty of kidnapping. Nothing he has done on these missions to the past can be used against him without revealing the existence of time travel.”

“Not to mention the question of legal jurisdiction,” Jane said wryly. “Would a court in, say, California in our century indict him for kidnapping Rita in the Caribbean in the seventeenth century? I wouldn’t count on it.”

“All right,” said Steve. “So we take him home and simply guard Room F-12 so he can’t get near the place. That would do, I guess.”

“I have another worry,” said Hunter. “MC 3 may already be full-sized and active in one of the Roman forts on the Rhine, where Governor Varus lives.”

“Varus has three legions, I believe,” said Gene. “The Romans, might be fairly close to this village. We could separate, to see if MC 3 is with them.”

Steve laughed.

“I don’t think Hunter will go for that,” said Jane.

“No?”

“We have had problems in our earlier missions when we separated,” said Hunter.

“Then why did you give us these lapel pin communicators?” Gene asked. “You must have anticipated some need for them.”

“We may have to separate at some point,” said Hunter. “Or we may become separated by events beyond our control. For now, however, we shall not separate unnecessarily.”

“Got it,” said Gene. “But in that case, what will our plan of action be?”

“When exactly was the battle in Teutoburger Forest?”

“I don’t have a date,” said Gene. “I’ve never seen the exact day mentioned in the records. A historian named Dio Cassius wrote the most precise account of the event. But it was in the fall, so we aren’t too far off the mark. Since the villagers here have no particular concern over our origins in Roman Gaul, I would say it hasn’t happened yet.”

“Hold it,” said Steve. “If you don’t know the date, then what are we doing here?”

“We did not come to this time specifically for the battle,” Hunter reminded him. “I calculated that MC 3 would return to full size about this time. The battle is just my biggest concern. If MC 3 tries to prevent it under the First Law, he may change history in the way we discussed earlier. Gene, do you think the battle is coming up soon?”

“Yes, I would say so. Winter weather comes on early in these northern mountains. Autumn is fairly short.”

“Tomorrow, I shall ask Vicinius to take us on a search for MC 3,” said Hunter.

The next morning, just after dawn, the team rose, wearing the warmer tunics and cloaks their hosts had given them. The sky was overcast and the surrounding trees were lost in fog. Vicinius greeted his guests around the cookfire again, wearing his new silver pendant around his neck. Odover also joined them again, his silver armband glistening on his arm. Breakfast was a gruel made of various seeds and forest vegetation. Steve found it tolerable, but not as good as the meaty stew had been the night before,

“Vicinius,” said Hunter. “I know this is the rainy season, but it has not begun to fall today. We would like to search for our lost friend.”

“Of course,” said Vicinius. “My friends and I had poor fortune on our hunt yesterday. Today they must tend the village cattle, but I will take you through the forest. Maybe I will find some prey today.” He picked up his spear and slung the strap of the steer horn over his shoulder again.

Steve was glad to have the heavier clothing as Vicinius led the team out of the village along a well-worn path. Jane wore her new dagger in her belt and the others all carried their spears. Some of the children and dogs in the village ran alongside them for a while, but they eventually returned home.

“Where are we going?” Steve asked. “Hunter, we aren’t just going to wander all over the mountain at random, are we?”

“What do you suggest, Vicinius?” Hunter asked. “Where should we look first?”

“Along the river,” said Vicinius. “He will need water. And if he is hungry, fishing will be easier than hunting. His tracks will be clear in the mud, too.”

Steve allowed Vicinius to move up a little on the trail, then lowered his voice and switched to English. “Jane, is MC 3 going to care about going to the river? A human needs food and water, but a robot doesn’t. Are we going to be wandering off to the river for nothing?”

“I don’t know. You’re right that the component robots get their energy from the tiny solar converters in their skin. But they do need small amounts of water to replace their simulated saliva and sweat.”

“I just don’t want to go all the way down to some river for nothing.”

“I think we have to,” said Gene quietly. “Vicinius’s argument is sound from his point of view. Unless we get some specific clue as to MC 3’s whereabouts that we can show him, we can’t reasonably refuse to go along with him.”

Steve nodded and hurried after Vicinius and Hunter.

As the morning wore on, the fog gradually lifted over the treetops. The sky remained gray and dark, however, and drizzle fell intermittently. They all raised their hoods against it. Steve was more glad than ever that he had the fur cloak, with its residual animal oils, to keep the dampness off him.

Suddenly Vicinius stopped up ahead. He stood motionless, staring across a ravine into the distance. Hunter joined him first, then the others caught up.

Steve moved around Hunter to see what they were looking at. In the distance, a line of soldiers was marching along a mountain road. At the rear of the line, he could see horse-drawn wagons. Each soldier wore armor and a helmet with a bright red crest. A short distance past them, Steve could see a bend in the river. Even he knew that they were Roman legionaries.

“Their camp is not far,” said Vicinius casually. “We will go around it to reach the river.”

“They build a fortified camp every night,” said Gene.

“Where are they going?” Hunter asked.

“Roman business,” Vicinius said shortly. He pushed on down the trail, ignoring the Romans.

Steve looked at Gene in surprise. He definitely had the feeling that Vicinius knew more about the Romans than he was telling. Gene merely shrugged.

The trail wound down the mountain slope. The Weser was often visible through the trees below. Steve could see birds in the trees, but he only heard small animals fleeing from them in the underbrush.

They had almost reached the edge of the forest down in the river valley when Vicinius stopped abruptly again. This time he pointed to the ground. Steve hurried forward, hoping to see the small footprints of MC 3. Instead, he found animal tracks in the soft ground.

“Wild boar tracks,” said Gene.

“Yes,” said Vicinius. “They are a challenge to hunt and kill, but the meat is very fine.” He grinned. “And the tracks are fresh.”

“How can you tell?” Jane asked.

“The shape is very clear, meaning that the drizzle hasn’t had time to blur the edges,” said Steve.

“It is very near,” said Hunter. Vicinius looked at him in surprise. “I see no immediate sign of it.”

“I hear it digging in the soil,” said Hunter. “It has not noticed us yet.”

“They have no fear,” said Vicinius, still looking at Hunter. “Your hearing must be very good.”

“We have no experience as hunters,” said Hunter. “We shall remain here out of danger if you wish to pursue it.”

Vicinius nodded, adjusting his grip on his spear. He crept off the trail into the brush, following the tracks. Even Steve could see the trail of trampled weeds and broken branches the boar had left.

“What if it hurts him?” Gene asked Hunter. “He wouldn’t have found these tracks if he hadn’t been taking us down to the river. Haven’t we altered his plans?”

“Yes,” said Hunter. “Stay here.” He followed Vicinius, also moving quietly and hefting his spear into position to throw it if necessary.

“It’s a difficult choice for him,” said Jane. “Ordinarily, the First Law tells him not to change history-if a boar is going to injure Vicinius, he should allow it. But if we’re responsible for creating the danger, the First Law is open to some interpretation about what he has to do.”

Suddenly a loud snorting reached them, and Vicinius whooped, taunting his prey. Steve heard the snapping of twigs, branches, and underbrush. Gene hurried after Hunter.

“Watch it!” Steve yelled, following him into the trees off the trail.

Jane joined him.

The boar had trampled a small clearing for itself a short distance in front of Hunter and Vicinius. It looked huge to Steve; he had never seen a wild boar, and this one was at least as big as the biggest modem hog he had ever seen. This boar, however, was a shaggy dark brown instead of pink, and it sported long, curved tusks curling forward from its face. With fast-moving eyes, it warily watched its tormentors.