“Not really,” said Noxon. “Because you’ll still have the ability you have right now—to move objects and manipulate things as tiny as genes, in both space and time.”

“They can do that?” asked Deborah.

“They’re very talented,” said Ram Odin.

“So everybody is completely at their mercy,” said Wheaton.

“That’s why we’re making this deal now, while there are still only twenty of them,” said Noxon.

“But they’ll lie,” said Ram Odin.

“I think they won’t,” said Noxon. “Because they can see that this is the best long-term protection for their descendants as well as ours.”

“Why?” said Ram. “How? We can’t develop our tech past a certain point, while theirs is invisible and already far beyond anything we can do.”

“Because every human colony will start with a Ram Odin and a Noxon,” said Noxon. “And that means that we’ll have the power to go back in time and undo whatever the mice do wrong. Or even undo the original placement of the mice into the ­colonies. Because part of the deal is this: The mice go into stasis during the colony founding, and they don’t get colonies of their own until at least three hundred years. And the release of the mice into each wallfold they’re allowed to enter will take place in public, and under circumstances that will make it easy for future human timeshapers to come back and prevent it.”

“That’s not foolproof,” said Wheaton. “I can think of—”

“So can the mice,” said Noxon. “But whatever they think of, we can probably think of a way to get around them and undo it. If we choose to spend our futures in stupid competition with each other. But maybe we won’t. Maybe the mice will see that keeping promises works out better for them than going to war with timeshaping humans.”

“I see it already,” said the alpha mouse. “And so will all my descendants.”

“Come on,” said Noxon. “The reason your testes aren’t visible is because you’ve been castrated. You won’t have any descendants.”

“Not me personally,” said the alpha mouse. “I think of all the babies in their uteruses to be my children, so to speak.”

“Well, Father of Great Nations, answer me: Will you accept this plan and abide by whatever decision I make when we reach the alien world?”

“I accept the plan and I promise to abide by your decision,” said the alpha mouse.

“How is that different from what you would say if you were already determined to break every promise and take over the world and the ship and everything?” asked Noxon.

“It isn’t different,” said the alpha mouse. “But I mean it. And you’ll see that I mean it because I will no longer seize every opportunity to subvert you.”

“So our alliance is set?” asked Noxon.

“We have only one condition,” said the alpha mouse.

“Which is?” asked Noxon.