All he could do now was get himself back to the moment of transition, when one ship became nineteen. He had to look for that twentieth ship, the one moving backward. It might be the only object in the history of the universe that had ever moved upstream through time. It was quite possible that it blew up immediately and didn’t actually exist for longer than a micro­second. Or it might be that Noxon could be there in that moment and not see it. Not perceive the backward-flowing path.

Maybe the jump through the fold in space would make it impossible for him to see Ram Odin’s path. Seeing it, after all, would require spanning a lightyears-wide gap. The only reason he had any hope was that the ship’s computer had assured him that in that instant, there was no gap at all. There should be a ­single continuous path from every one of the nineteen Ram Odins back across the fold to the one original pre-jump Ram Odin. And somewhere—no, exactly where the original Ram Odin’s path was and reaching back to the Earth he had left behind—there should be another Ram Odin hurtling toward Earth, moving the wrong way through time. That backward Ram should be dancing circles around the forward one.

Either Noxon would see it and seize it, or he would not. But it was time to graduate from his and Param’s school of mutual ignorance, and find out whether he could do the only thing he could think of that had a chance of saving this world without wiping out the other.

A few more days of practice with Param, to make sure she really had it without any help from him at all, and then he could go. There was no reason to wait. Not even to say good-bye to Umbo or Rigg or Loaf or Olivenko. They knew he was going, and if he waited for anything it would be a sign of his own dread. He couldn’t let fear slow him down now.

Chapter 8: Negotiating with Mice

CHAPTER 8

Negotiating with Mice

“I’d be grateful if you would stay here,” said Noxon. “Not here, but in this time.”

“I’m not afraid of the mice,” said Param.

“Foolish of you. They already killed you once.”

“But now I can jump back in time.”

“Yes—with six pregnant mice hiding in your clothes,” said Noxon.

“I heard their tunes,” she said.

“We brought them into Larfold, but we mustn’t bring them too far into Larfold’s past. We dare not take them anywhere else. Or anywhen else.”

“So why talk to them?” asked Param.

“To see if I can negotiate a way for them to come with me to Earth.”

“So they can wipe out the human race?”

“We don’t know that,” said Noxon.