Stryker #5, At the End of Eternity – Chapter 8

“One thing that’s really puzzled me about Tikal is that we haven’t found any personal effects. I’m sure that countless people once lived in this ruin, but they have left behind no traces. There is no clothing in the closets, or books on the shelves, or toys scattered on the floor. The cupboards contain no dishes and the offices contain no computers. It’s as if everyone moved out before the collapse happened. Some argue that the city was looted before it was buried, but the problem with that theory is that none of the wiring or machinery was taken. Why would looters take the paintings off the walls and leave all of the priceless ancient technology behind? It just doesn’t make sense!”
–Noel Lawson
June 19, 7243
 

Later that morning Monroe Araiza was sitting in his living room, reading a book. On the end table next to him was a pencil and a pad of paper. Every now and then the scribe set the book aside, jotted down a few notes, and then resumed reading. He spent most of the morning engrossed in study and lost all track of time. When he suddenly heard a knock on his front door he looked up, startled. Then he glanced at the clock on the wall and realized what time it was.

“Come in, Doyle,” he called out.

As his friend walked into the room Monroe put his book down. “You’re running a bit late today,” the scribe commented. “It’s almost eleven o’clock! Did you run into trouble?”

“Not exactly,” Doyle replied, as he settled into his customary seat. “I just thought you’d be in your office this morning. I searched everywhere for you and couldn’t find you. I thought that maybe you were in a meeting or something, until Elwood told me that you had left some time ago. From what I gathered the two of you had some kind of disagreement.”

“Yes, you could call it that. I made a trip to the office earlier this morning to gather some research materials. While I was there I ran into Elwood, and we had a rather sharp disagreement. The bottom line is that he supports genocide and I do not. Apparently my defense of innocent life makes me an unpopular man. So I retreated here so that I might study in peace.”

“So it’s confirmed, then. The Order is fully behind the general?”

“I am afraid so,” Monroe sighed. “I already knew that, of course, but it’s still depressing to have it confirmed. I had some small hope that I might be able to reason with them and convince them to come to their senses, but that proved to be futile. Maldonado, it seems, has won the day. The general seems to have the unconditional support of everyone.”

“I suppose that’s true, for the time being. But that may yet change. Something might still turn up.”

Monroe laughed. “You always were the optimist! Somehow you have always managed to see a glimmer of hope, even when there was no hope to be had. You are truly the king of wishful thinkers. But in this case you may be right. It’s possible that the situation has already changed.”

“Oh? Did something happen last night that I missed? I didn’t see anything in the news this morning – not that you can trust the news, but still.”

“This wasn’t on the news. Do you remember that girl I asked you about in the debate hall? Well, she paid me a visit last night. She told me that her name was Amy. She didn’t give a last name.”

“Amy…” Doyle repeated thoughtfully. “I don’t think I know an Amy. Not in our circles, anyway. I’m pretty sure that I’ve never seen her before. She hasn’t been to any of our meetings, and she didn’t look familiar.”

“That’s because she’s not from Earth,” Monroe replied. “I’m pretty sure she’s an emissary from the Rangers. At least, that’s my theory. I’ve spent the entire morning brushing up on my ancient history. The main thing I’m trying to figure out is where she might be from. I’m sure that the Ranger civilization has expanded enormously over the past five millennia, but there was something about her that looked almost familiar. For some reason I feel like I ought to be able to pinpoint her home planet. She had this distinctive look that I know I’ve seen before, somewhere. The problem is I haven’t been able to track it down.”

Doyle thought for a moment. “Have you checked The History of Martian Dog Breeders by Judith Aguilar? That book might be able to shed some light on the matter.”

“Dog breeders!” Monroe exclaimed. “How could that possibly help? I’m quite sure that she is not a canine, and I do not care if she breeds dogs or not!”

His friend smiled. “You need to start thinking a little more creatively. Amy did seem to have some alien features about her. We haven’t had contact with anyone since the Wall was erected, so if she looks familiar she must resemble some race that existed five thousand years ago. The only unique race that was around back then was the Martian race, which developed a set of distinctive genetic traits after the ancient Mayan colonists were stranded on Mars for nearly a thousand years. I only glimpsed Amy briefly, but her features do strike me as being vaguely Martian. The reason that book might help is because it contains photographs of ancient Martian dog breeders, some of whom were descendents of the ancient Maya colonists. All you have to do is browse through the book and see if any of them share Amy’s features.”

“Of course!” Monroe exclaimed. “Brilliant! I never would have thought of it. That brings up another question: just where did I put my copy of that book?”

The scribe stood up, thought for a moment, and then walked across the living room to a giant bookshelf. He then removed some of the books off the third shelf and grabbed a book that had been hidden behind them. “Ah, here we go. Let me see. Here’s one! This picture was taken at the Tikal Dog Show on October 3, 1853. It shows the first, second, and third-place winners, along with their owners. And just look at those features! Look at the cheekbones, the forehead, the skull shape! Yes, Doyle, you have done it again. This is exactly what we were looking for. Amy is a descendent of the ancient Martians!”

Monroe walked back to his chair and handed the book to his friend, so he could see the evidence as well. The scribe then sat back down and grabbed his notebook. “This is quite exciting – quite exciting! It’s all starting to come together now. Three years ago the Rangers brought down the Wall and made a trip to Mars. The journey must have been a favorable one, because while they were there they terraformed the planet and brought it back to life. During that time they must have had extensive contact with the locals, and possibly even hired some of them. Amy must be one of these new hires. The Rangers have taken her from Mars and have sent her here to evaluate this planet.”

“So you believe that the Rangers still exist, after all this time?”

“Certainly!” Monroe replied. “Oh, they might not call themselves the Rangers anymore. Five thousand years is a very long time, and there could have been countless political changes. The galaxy may be unified under one government, or it might be a loose federation of countless nations. There’s no telling how many distinct political entities there are out there these days. What is quite clear is that they are the descendents of what we once called the Rangers, and that they have come back. Mars has already rejoined the galactic civilization, and now we are being evaluated for membership as well.”

“Are you sure?” Doyle asked doubtfully. “Amy just seems a bit young to me. Why would the Rangers send us a teenager? Doesn’t that strike you as a bit strange?”

“Appearances can be quite deceiving. She may actually be a great deal older than she looks; the appearance of youth might be a clever disguise. As it turns out, we can use simple logic to prove that she was sent here by the Rangers. It all goes back to a single point: why are there now stars in the night sky?”

“Well, because the Wall is gone,” Doyle replied. “It’s really kind of obvious.”

“Yes, yes, I know. But why is the Wall gone? Who shut it down? We all know it cannot be terminated from within. The public believes that it collapsed due to an equipment failure, but that is preposterous. In 6197 Merlin Hardin wrote a treatise on what would happen if the Wall suddenly became unstable and collapsed. His theories were reviewed extensively by the mathematicians and physicists of his day and they could see no flaw in his argument. If the Wall collapsed on his own, without being shut down in a very careful and controlled fashion, its collapse would utterly destroy everything inside the Wall. Our entire planet – along with everything else in the Solar System – would be annihilated in a microsecond! This was proven beyond a doubt. So then, when the Wall suddenly disappears, what do people do? They say ‘Oh, Hardin must have been wrong after all. The Wall is gone and we’re still alive! He just didn’t know what he was talking about.’ Preposterous! Absolutely preposterous.”

“You’ll get no argument from me,” Doyle replied. “I quite agree. The public’s perception of these things is not terribly well-informed.”

“Of course it’s not! They simply don’t care. They are far more interested in fashion trends, celebrity gossip, and the outcome of some utterly meaningless sports contest. It’s madness! They ignore things that have a tremendous impact on their future, and consume themselves with things that have no practical importance whatsoever. Their understanding of history is especially appalling. The Order has preserved countless historical documents from the Spanish Empire, but people today can’t be bothered to actually read them. If you ask most people why the Wall was built they’ll tell you that the Spanish Emperor shot a sparrow out of the sky, and it angered the star-gods so much that they imprisoned mankind as punishment. That is the extent of their knowledge, and they do not care to know more.”

“And yet, that mythical account is not too far from the truth,” Doyle pointed out. “The archives do agree that the Empire provoked the Rangers for years, until the Rangers finally decided they had had enough and declared war. The war only lasted a couple hours and the Spanish Empire was decisively defeated. The Rangers then put a Wall around Sol. After the Wall appeared, the Empire lasted only a few more weeks before it utterly disintegrated into chaos and anarchy.”

“Which is curious in itself,” Monroe commented. “What destroyed the Empire was not the Rangers but the Wall. The Empire was apparently intact when the Wall was erected. Apparently the mere effect of being cut off from the Rangers was enough to destroy all civilization around Sol. Personally, I’ve always wondered why the Rangers handled things that way. If the Empire lost – and they must have, for the Wall was imposed upon them from the outside – then why didn’t the Rangers simply take over Sol and rule it for themselves? After all, there are no reports that the Emperor was able to damage so much as a single Ranger colony, and the Rangers apparently defeated them the same day that hostilities broke out. For that matter, one wonders why the Rangers allowed the Empire to taunt them for so long. Given the Ranger’s obviously superior strength and technology, I am amazed that the Emperor did not exercise more discretion.”

“I suppose that is something we will never know,” Doyle replied. “Perhaps the planets around Sol were so poisoned and devastated by the attack that the Rangers believed they were worthless, and they put up the Wall to keep the poison from spreading. They may have believed that there was simply nothing here worth their time – especially when they had a hundred billion other stars to explore.”

“Perhaps. The other mystery, I suppose, is where the popular legend came from. I find it very difficult to believe that the Rangers declared war on the Empire just because the Emperor shot a bird out of the sky. That is hardly grounds for war. Therefore, if it existed at all, this ‘sparrow’ must be metaphorical. Perhaps the Empire assassinated someone, or something along those lines. That may be something that we’ll have to ask Amy. As an agent of the Rangers she should have access to all of their historical documents. If not, perhaps she could put us in touch with someone who does. Assuming Earth passes its test, of course. She seems quite upset with Maldonado at the moment.”

“So she’s on our side?” Doyle asked, surprised. “That is certainly welcome news – assuming she is a Ranger, that is, and actually has some power. Do you think she’ll be able to stop the genocide?”

“I don’t know. She certainly believed that she could. The girl looked harmless enough to me, but her confidence was extraordinary! She really believed that she wielded great power. When she stated that she was going to stop the general she said it as if it was a small matter – like an adult restraining a helpless infant. She was not the least bit concerned about the general’s military might. If she is an agent of the Rangers then I can understand why. I’m sure that the armed forces of Adrasta are nothing compared to the armadas of a galactic civilization. We are probably outnumbered trillions to one.”

“Isn’t that a bit troubling?” Doyle asked. “I admit that we could use their help in saving the tribes, but do we really want to be at the mercy of a galactic civilization?”

“It’s not as troubling as it seems,” Monroe replied. “The fact of the matter is that if the Rangers really are out there – and I think the evidence for that is quite solid – then we are at their mercy, whether we wish to be or not. Moreover, the Rangers have had three years to conquer us and they have not done so. All they have done is sent a single non-threatening girl to this planet to see what we are doing, and all she wants to do is save the tribes – and, possibly, save us as well.”

“Save us?” Doyle asked. “Save us from what?”

“From our impending genetic doom, of course! Based on what Amy told me last night, the Rangers have a cure for our infertility. The problem is that she doesn’t know whether we should be cured. She was worried that if she cured us, we would use our future to try to wipe out other races. She doesn’t want to cure a race of genocidal monsters.”

“I can hardly blame her,” Doyle said. “But I do not know if I should be comforted or disturbed. It’s a bit frightening realizing that your future rests in the hands of strangers that you can’t see. I’m not sure that I want my future to depend on the whims of those who dwell among the stars.”

Monroe laughed. “What happened to your unbridled optimism? You’re beginning to sound like me!”

“I don’t think I’m quite that bad,” Doyle replied. “Besides, despite what you might think, my optimism is not blind. I’m just not willing to say that all is lost until all really is lost. Until the tribes are actually massacred there is always a chance that something might come up. As long as they are still alive there is still hope that the Lord might hear our prayers and intervene. I simply refuse to give up hope until it is actually over. All I am saying here is that I’m a bit nervous about the true intentions of the Rangers. Historically speaking, powerful civilizations tend to crush and enslave weaker ones. If you want an example just look at what we’re doing to the tribes! I find it hard to believe that this time, the more powerful party has come solve our problems and then vanish, like some kind of fairy godmother. Does that really seem likely to you?”

Monroe thought for a moment. “Look at it this way. Had I not told you about Amy’s visit last night, you would not have even know that they were here. The Rangers are operating with a very light touch. So far they have not interfered with anything that we’ve done, nor have they come in force and taken over. I do not see that they have taken any steps that we can criticize them for. Besides, as far as I can tell the Rangers are our only hope for survival. If they do not cure us then we will assuredly die out. Frankly, we don’t have a lot of options.”

“I suppose not,” Doyle agreed. “It’s just troubling. I wish we knew more about them.”

“Perhaps, in time, we will,” Monroe replied.