FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  
grain of dust misplaced--will transform the whole future. It is a long while before we accept with our minds as well as our intellects the law of the Conservation of Reality: that when the past is changed, the future changes barely enough to adjust, barely enough to admit the new data. The Change Winds meet maximum resistance always. Otherwise the first operation in Babylonia would have wiped out New Orleans, Sheffield, Stuttgart, and Maud Davies' birthplace on Ganymede! "Note how the gap left by Rome's collapse was filled by the imperialistic and Christianized Germans. Only an expert Demon historian can tell the difference in most ages between the former Latin and the present Gothic Catholic Church. As you yourself, sir, said of Greece, it is as if an old melody were shifted into a slightly different key. In the wake of a Big Change, cultures and individuals are transposed, it's true, yet in the main they continue much as they were, except for the usual scattering of unfortunate but statistically meaningless accidents." "All right, you bloody savants--maybe I pushed my point too far," Bruce growled. "But if you want variety, give a thought to the rotten methods we use in our wonderful Change War. Poisoning Churchill and Cleopatra. Kidnapping Einstein when he's a baby." "The Snakes did it first," I reminded him. "Yes, and we copied them. How resourceful does that make us?" he retorted, arguing like a woman. "If we need Einstein, why don't we Resurrect him, deal with him as a man?" * * * * * Beau said, serving his culture in slightly thicker slices, "_Pardonnez-moi_, but when you have enjoyed your status as Doubleganger a _soupcon_ longer, you will understand that great men can rarely be Resurrected. Their beings are too crystallized, sir, their lifelines too tough." "Pardon me, but I think that's rot. I believe that most great men refuse to make the bargain with the Snakes, or with us Spiders either. They scorn Resurrection at the price demanded." "Brother, they ain't that great," I whispered, while Beau glided on with, "However that may be, you have accepted Resurrection, sir, and so incurred an obligation which you as a gentleman must honor." "I accepted Resurrection all right," Bruce said, a glare coming into his eyes. "When they pulled me out of my line at Passchendaele in '17 ten minutes before I died, I grabbed at the offer of life like a drunkard grabs at a drin
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39  
40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Change

 

Resurrection

 

slightly

 

accepted

 

future

 

Snakes

 
Einstein
 

barely

 

understand

 
thicker

longer

 

slices

 

culture

 

enjoyed

 
Doubleganger
 

status

 
soupcon
 

Pardonnez

 

reminded

 

copied


Poisoning
 

Churchill

 

Cleopatra

 

Kidnapping

 

resourceful

 
Resurrect
 

retorted

 

arguing

 

serving

 

crystallized


coming

 

gentleman

 

incurred

 

obligation

 

pulled

 
drunkard
 

grabbed

 
Passchendaele
 

minutes

 

However


glided

 
Pardon
 

lifelines

 

Resurrected

 

rarely

 

beings

 
refuse
 

bargain

 
demanded
 
Brother