My regret is that I live. I have outlived my life.

13

The Testament of Rada Lwa the Scholar

1. The Death of Coronimas

Ctesibius was left by himself, his face too stern to show grief or despair, but he was left unguarded, and the opening to the corridor had no door, no lock. Menelaus realized that the man was in a prison more complete than any camp the Blue Men could throw around him. Montrose touched the man’s shoulder, beckoning him to rise, but he did not move, except to draw away with a squint of distaste from the familiarity.

Montrose and Illiance descended the slope back to the next level.

Illiance said, “More evidence accumulates that the myths surround and grow out of some basis of fact. I allow that it is possible that an individual man from the Second Space Age was the sole architect of the Tomb system. We now have a fairly clear idea of the psychology of the Judge of Ages.”

“Uh? That he is a madman and a monster?”

“Obviously we correct for the distortions of a biased witness by making a theoretical emulation of his personality matrix, one free from the distorting bias, and compare its mentality against the original in an undistorted area to form a baseline of comparison, and countercompensate.”

“Obviously.”

“The Judge of Ages is an idealist who holds it a point of pride directly to engage a problem, and due to his neurotic obsession with his lost mate is ergo reckless, almost suicidal, in his disregard of personal danger.”

“Um. Do you have this math written out anywhere? I’d like to think you dropped a decimal point—”

“Unlikely! The calculus involved is trivial. That he is in this camp, at this dig, cannot now be doubted. He could not leave this area undefended without some attempt to interfere.”

“Unless he’s an idiot,” said Menelaus thoughtfully.

“Not an idiot. We have indirect evidence that he was a posthuman, and a member of the legendary Hermeticist Order, who are known for their mental acuity.”

Menelaus said, “Legendary? How can you still regard the Hermeticists as legend? Soorm testified that Reyes y Pastor was ruling his era; and Oenoe said Sarmento i Illa D’Or founded hers; and Kine Larz said the same of Narcís D’Aragó.”

“Interesting. You are proposing that the character and personality of each Hermeticist who is promoted to posthumanity must influence his view of the optimal outcome for history when he matches wits with the Judge of Ages, because he will continue to introduce factors changing history ever more closely to realize his worldview?”

“I didn’t rightly say that, but now that you mention it…”

“Hence, the Chimerae represent the external expression of the internal philosophy and mental environment of Narcís D’Aragó, the militarist; the Nymphs are an externalization of the philosophy of Sarmento i Illa d’Or, the hedonist; the Hormagaunts likewise of Reyes y Pastor, whose philosophy requires the ongoing clash of hostile elements in order to promote evolution.”

“Nietzschean.”

“Cogent meaning fails to be conveyed.”

“The philosophy is called Nietzscheanism, named after some guy named Fred Nietzsche from before the First Space Age who popularized it. I bet he’d be puffed up smug to know that his ideas were still influencing events, and causing chaos and destruction, so long after his death.”

Illiance nodded somberly. “It might be unsimplistic of me, but I cannot help but happen to wonder—”

“Yes?”

“—which of the Hermeticists my people, my way of life, my world, is nothing but the outward manifestation of some inner worldview or vision of his?”

“How can you wonder? Jaume Coronimas.”

“How did you happen to know his name?”

“Isn’t he a famous historical character?”

“He is.”

“Then what is he famous for?”

Illiance at first looked like he was going to object to being asked the question, but then he shrugged philosophically. “Coronimas was well known for three reasons: First, as the author of the neural unity protocol which you mentioned. Second, as an historical oddity—his was the first successful attempt to form a wide-spectrum neural link. In effect, he was the first and oldest imaginable Locust. He was preserved in hibernation until quite recently, and is one of the earliest men every known to have survived ultra-long-term hibernation. Third, his was a notorious unsolved murder recorded into the Noösphere—his assailant came upon him while he was relieving himself in the head of a robotic submarine. While his trousers were about his ankles, the assailant confronted him, proffered him a hand weapon, and offered to duel him while seated in the stall opposite. The weapons would have been at point-blank range. Coronimas, however, could not see the assailant. He could not see nor recollect his face, and whenever the assailant was not speaking, Coronimas could not recollect having seen him. The man was a phantasm. Had Coronimas stayed on the toilet, his chance of hitting the assailant, seated opposite him, even an invisible one, would have been as good as one could expect. However, his last thought was of his attempt to stand and flee, but the moment he stood, he could not recall why or whom he fled. Strangely, all the other systems in the ship were likewise reporting that no second individual was aboard. The death was ruled to be a suicide, perhaps during an episode of vivid hallucinations, because the Noösphere records could find no trace of the murderer.”

“Spooky. I can solve that mystery for you.”

“Unlikely. The event happened in A.D. 7985, some seven hundred and fifty-five years before I was born, and I have described none of the details, nor the dispositions of the various investigations—”

“The Judge of Ages killed him.”

“What?”

“Just like he did Narcís D’Aragó, the Iron Hermeticist. Just like he tried to do with Sarmento i Illa D’Or, but failed. The method was the same, the means used was the same.”

“And his motive?” asked Illiance, his eyes bright and intent.

Menelaus shrugged. “You’d have to ask him. If you find him. Why are you looking for him, again, exactly?”

“The motive I can deduce,” said Illiance. “At least in this last case. During the Age of the Scorpions, rival groups of Locusts were hunting one another to extinction, including those who took refuge in long-term hibernation. There was, only four years before the murder, a worldwide effort to seize control of all known Tombs sites, to allow the Noösphere a more rational control over the ratio of population numbers hibernating versus thawed.”

“Gee, you mean this famous Coronimas guy got good and beefed dead because he trespassed on the Tomb system? Do you suppose he dug up coffins, and stole stuff from people? What in the world could ever, oh, ever have driven the Judge of Ages to such a random and unforeseeable act of violence?”

“The question also perturbs me,” said Illiance, his face earnest. “It is to determine the contours of the psychology of this Judge of Ages that we here and now gather the testimony of the final of the ancient relicts.

“We have determined,” Illiance continued, “at least in part, the meaning of the Judgments of the Judge of Ages from relict Ctesibius Zant; likewise, the other question, referring to the meaning of the manipulation of history, may well be answered by the other surviving ancient relict.

“Ah, we are arrived!” Illiance interrupted himself. “The interment date on his coffin is given as A.D. 3090, but we disregard this, for we have cause to believe this was merely the final in a series of hibernations, since DNA analysis places his generation in the late 2400s, making him the earliest relict recovered so far, and his information correspondingly valuable. This one proved tremendously recalcitrant: We were moved to fearsome measures.”