Time's Last Gift by Philip José Farmer
The lioness was next, and she ripped the side off a hyena before she died. The survivors began eating at once, and the wolves and birds moved in closer, waiting for their chance. Thammash ordered some of his men to follow him in an effort to drive off the hyenas. He wanted the two heads and the tails. The rest the hyenas could have, since there was already so much meat harvested. The hyenas retreated reluctantly but did not attack. The heads and tails were hacked off and brought back triumphantly.
‘This has been a great day!’ Thammash cried. ‘You have brought us much good fortune, Koorik!’
Thammash did not think the fortune was so good when the people moved on to the site of the dead rhinoceros. He and the three strangers and half of his tribe were moving across the plain to the rhinoceroses when they saw three men racing toward them. Thammash ran out to meet them. Gribardsun followed. He was in time to hear Shimkoobt, a man of about forty, gasp out the end of his story.
While the six Wota’shaimg were cutting up one of the rhinos, they were attacked by fourteen Wotagrub. These sprang out from the heavy growth, yelling and throwing spears and boomerangs. Treekram had fallen with a spear sticking out of his thigh. The remaining five had thrown their spears without effect. The invaders had then thrown a second volley, and Lramg’bud had been hit in the neck with a heavy boomerang. The Wotagrub had been charged, and the four had turned and fled. But another boomerang struck Kwakamg on a leg and he fell down. Before he could get up, he was speared.
The news was a great shock. The loss of the meat was not so much, since they had two mammoths at the other site. But the loss of four men in one day was a terrible blow to the Wota’shaimg.
The women, on hearing the news, started to wail. Thammash told them to keep quiet and get back to their work. He detailed Angrogrim and Shivkaet to follow him and set off. Gribardsun and von Billmann went with him; Silverstein stayed behind to guard.
Gribardsun had wondered for only a few seconds why the chief took only two men with him against the invaders. But then he saw that Thammash expected Gribardsun and von Billmann to use their magical weapons against the Wotagrub. The Englishman was now carrying the express rifle.
On seeing them at a distance of half a mile, however, the Wotagrub ran off; but not without taking those parts of the rhinoceros which the Wota’shaimg had already cut off.
All of the bodies, including Thrimk’s, had been mutilated and the heads removed. Von Billmann took some films of these and then vomited.
Thammash stood silent for a long time. Then he spoke to Gribardsun.
‘Shouldn’t we go after them and kill them?’
Gribardsun did not reply at once. The deaths of the men had affected him, since he was coming to know them as individuals and even becoming fond of several. Moreover, if the killings were unpunished, the Wotagrub would try again. And if the tribe lost many more men, it would be in a critical situation. ‘
However, he did not like to take on the powers of a god. He would have liked to stand to one side and study the relationships of the two tribes. Let them work out their own histories; if one perished, then that was too bad. But that was also the way things were. And he also hoped to be able to make friends with the Wotagrub and study them. He could not do so if he killed their men.
‘Once you’re involved, you have to take a stand,’ he told von Billmann in English. ‘If we take the lives of their enemies, we’ll become one of the Wota’shaimg. Literally, because I’m sure they’ll adopt us. That is, if they have the custom of adoption.’
He asked Thammash if the tribe ever made aliens members of their people.
Thammash said, ‘I have never heard of such a thing.’
Evidently these people were not as advanced as, say, the North American Indian of pre-Columbian times.
‘If you capture a baby,’ Gribardsun said, ‘what do you do with him? Kill him?’
Thammash’s face brightened. He said, ‘No, of course not, if he is healthy. We raise him to be a warrior and a hunter. But that is different. A baby is not an enemy. Nor even a Wota’shaimg.’
A Wota’shaimg was a human being. A non-Wota’shaimg was not fully human.
‘He becomes a Wota’shaimg when he goes through the initiation of manhood,’ Thammash said.
Gribardsun knew that he could not turn down the request for help. The relationship between the explorers and the tribe would never be the same again. And there was the strong urging of his own feelings to consider. He was outraged, and even touched by grief, at the death and the mutilation of his tribesmen.
His tribesmen! he thought.
He said, ‘Very well. We’ll trail them.’
And we’ll see what happens then, he thought.
The four - Gribardsun, Thammash, von Billmann, and Shivkaet - set out. They avoided ambush in the heavy growth by climbing above it on the hillside. Gribardsun thought it unlikely that the Wotagrub would dare to try an ambush, but there was no sense taking chances. They trotted along swiftly but looked for tracks or other signs of the pursued. They found a few that led toward the overhang under which the Wotagrub lived. Rather, it was the overhang under which they had lived. When they cautiously approached the site, they found the tents gone and cold ashes in the hearths.
‘They must have moved some time ago,’ Gribardsun said.
They cast about on all sides, including the hill above the overhang. But the frequent spring rains tended to wash out footprints and to carry off bits of fur caught on plants or dropped objects.
‘Give me the 32 and its ammo,’ Gribardsun said to von Billmann. ‘I’m going after those fellows, and I don’t want to be held back by slow runners.’
Von Billmann did as he was requested without protest. Gribardsun told the two tribesmen what he planned to do. They protested that they wanted to be in on the death. The Englishman refused to allow them to go with him.
‘Your people need you,’ he said. ‘Now. Every hand available should be carrying the meat and the tusks of the beasts.’
‘You are a very strong man,’ Thammash said. ‘You could carry much meat.’
Gribardsun smiled and said, ‘True. But it is more important that I convince the Wotagrub that they should leave us alone.’
Von Billmann said, ‘I can see the necessity of ensuring that our subjects are protected so we can study them. But you shouldn’t go alone.’
‘But I am,’ Gribardsun said. He ran off down the hillside and was soon lost to sight as he made his way back up the hill to the top.
The two tribesmen poked around the camp for anything of value the enemy might have left behind. And then the three departed.
* * *
THREE
Rachel Silverstein was very disturbed by the account of the hunt, Gribardsun’s narrow escape, and the killings and mutilations. But she was most upset by the report of his lone expedition.
‘Why did you let him go?’
Von Billmann shrugged and said, ‘I’m not strong enough to force him to return. Besides, he is the leader.’
‘But he’s out alone in that savage wilderness! Anything could happen to him! We might never see him again, not even know what happened!’
‘That’s true,’ von Billmann said. ‘And he knows it. But I’m not worried. Not much, anyway. He can take care of himself. If anybody can, he can. Would you like to see the films of the hunt? You’ll see what I mean then.’
Drummond Silverstein said, ‘Rachel, if I had gone, would you be as concerned?’
Von Billmann, embarrassed, walked away. He looked back a moment later and saw them face to face, their skins flushed and their mouths writhing.
The last of the carcasses was brought in after dusk. Everybody except the babies went to bed very late that night. They cooked a great quantity of the meat and ate with good appetite, despite the wails and tears of the mourning women and children. Some of these ate greedily between fits of grief. And racks of wood were prepared and meat placed over them to be smoked. The meat was scraped off the rhino sku
On the other hand, the high death rate among females of childbearing age gave the secondary wives a chance to become first. Life was hard and insecure for everybody.
Four days went by. The three fretted. Rachel and Drummond hardly spoke to each other until the morning of the fourth. Then they became civil and kissed each other good morning. Apparently they had had some form of reconciliation that night, though probably not until after some verbal violence.
Von Billmann said, ‘Too much time has gone by. I’m going out to look for him tomorrow. Would you two want to come along?’
‘Of course we will,’ Rachel said.
‘He should have taken along a radio,’ Drummond said. ‘His idea of going native was stupid. He could at least have taken a radio and we’d know where he was and if he was all right.’
‘It was stupid of us not to think of it,’ von Billmann said. ‘But I was too excited, and he just doesn’t think about such things as keeping people informed of his whereabouts. He’s a strange man, no doubt of that. There’s something very peculiar about his being picked to go on this expedition, you know. Almost sinister, though I hate to say that about Gribardsun.’
‘I would think so!’ Rachel said. She made no attempt to hide her anger. ‘How can you say anything bad about him? What’s he done? Let’s hear it!’
‘Your emotions are showing,’ Drummond said in a dull voice.
‘Why shouldn’t they?’ she said. ‘Isn’t it natural for me to get upset if any one of us should be missing? Isn’t it right?’
‘I’m sorry I said anything,’ he replied.
‘What did you mean, almost sinister?’ Rachel said to von Billmann. ‘And why is there anything strange about his being chosen? He’s certainly qualified, isn’t he?’
‘I don’t think there’s any doubt about that now,’ von Billmann said. ‘But when the expedition was first proposed, de Longnors was the outstanding candidate as the leader. He was a brilliant medical doctor, both as diagnostician and researcher. He also had written many outstanding - some of them classic - works on physical anthropology, and he had done brilliant work as an archeologist and botanist. He was just the type of man needed, one who could carry out superb research in a number of fields.’
‘I had heard that he was considered,’ Drummond said. ‘But I thought that he was finally rejected because he was too hard to get along with.’
‘That did go against him, but nobody else had his brilliance. John Gribardsun was one of the other candidates considered. He had the same versatile background as de Longnors but he had not been famous in any of them. He had published very little, and his medical practice was limited to taking care of the natives on the Inner Kenyan Sanctuary, where he lived so many years. But then the name of Gribardsun was heard more and more often in the news media and the guests shows. And he appeared on various guest panels, you know, and charmed his audience.’
‘Hypnotized them, you mean,’ Drummond said.
‘In a way perhaps; he does have some curiously magnetic quality,’ von Billmann said. ‘Anyway,’ he went on, ‘we people interested in the project, in the know about the scene behind the curtains, you might say, soon found out that he was being considered as de Longnors’ backup. There were other men even more qualified who had been bypassed.’
‘How do you know they were more qualified?’ Rachel said.
‘The project executives thought so,’ von Billmann said. ‘At first, anyway. I was told that the test ratings indicated Gribardsun was about sixth on the list. But, suddenly, he was second. There was a good deal of talk about that. Some people thought Gribardsun must have found out something about some of the top executives, or some of the politicians connected with the project, and was blackmailing them.’
‘That’s a terrible thing to say!’ Rachel said. ‘How could anybody believe it?’
‘You know how people are,’ von Billmann said. ‘You’ll have to admit that it was mysterious. It’s still mysterious. Though there’s no doubt in my mind that the right man was chosen. The question is, were the right methods used to pick him? Or, rather, did he use the proper channels and procedures to get chosen?’
‘Did he?’ Rachel said.
Von Billmann shrugged and said, ‘I do not know. It was all so odd and so sudden. De Longnors disappears…’
‘We knew about that, of course,’ Drummond said.
‘And after a while the executives announce that John Gribardsun has been chosen to take his place. Then, a week later, de Longnors is found wandering on the seventh level of Center Paris. He is incoherent and suffering from amnesia. He recovers somewhat in that he remembers everything except the period of his disappearance. That is a blank. By then, the vessel was scheduled for launch. De Longnors had missed too much of the necessary training. Besides, he might be mentally unstable. So he was left behind.’
Rachel was ‘furious but controlling herself. She said, ‘Are you hinting that John might have had something to do with de Longnors’ disappearance and his amnesia? That he was abducted and drugged?’
‘No, I’m not hinting that John had anything to do with it. As you must know by now, I have nothing but the greatest admiration for John Gribardsun. I’m glad that he, and not de Longnors, was picked. All I’m saying is that something strange was going on at the time. And that, a year before the vessel was launched, John Gribardsun had little chance of being on it.
‘It’s a tremendously important thing to be chosen as one of the crew of the H. G. Wells,’ von Billmann continued. ‘This is a unique voyage. There will be other trips into time, but none this far back again. We are indeed fortunate. I’ve thanked whatever gods there are that I was one of the four chosen out of thousands who qualified. And that brings up another thing. John once told me that he started training for this trip over twenty years ago, when it was first proposed that the theory of time travel might be made a reality. He was already a cultural anthropologist; he had a Ph.D., though he had never taught. So he figured out what type of man would be needed on an expedition into the past, and he became an M.D., and then got a doctor’s degree in archeology and botany and several master’s degrees in related fields.
‘Now, a man that determined to get a berth on the time ship, one who sets out twenty years before it is established that there will be a ship - that man isn’t going to let a kidnapping and a drugging get in his way.’
‘You make me furious!’ Rachel said. ‘First you tell us all these sinister bits of information. Then you say they’re just guesses, and you worship Gribardsun, and then…’
‘I admire and respect him very much. I didn’t say anything about worshipping him. You must understand. I don’t want to think any ill of John. I like him too much for that. But I am a scientist, and I have to consider certain theories. Especially when certain facts start to build up a certain picture. But nothing is proved anyway. Or probably ever will be.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t blame him if he had played a dirty trick on de Longnors,’ Drummond said.
Rachel looked surprised. Her husband said, ‘Nor would I have blamed de Longnors if Gribardsun had been in his place and he was the one who did the abducting and drugging. The crew of the H. G. Wells I will be famous forever.’
‘That would at least be honest,’ Rachel said.
‘But not womanly,’ Drummond said.
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Just a thought,’ Drummond said. ‘It doesn’t apply to you, of course, since you’re so outspoken.’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Perhaps we should reconsider. If he felt that we suspected him of underhandedness - of, in fact, criminal behavior - wouldn’t that make things difficult? It’s bad enough as it is, being forced into intimate contact for four years, never seeing any other human beings. Real human beings, I mean,’ she said, as von Billmann opened his mouth to protest.
Drummond laughed.
‘You know what I mean!’ she said. ‘Civilized men, then! People who think as we do! But, really, what good will it do? You don’t expect him to admit anything dishonest, do you? And what if he did? Or didn’t, for that matter? What then? What good would it do? I’ve changed my mind. I think we ought to keep such suspicions to ourselves.’
‘I don’t,’ von Billmann said. ‘John isn’t the kind who likes festering secrets. He’d rather bring them out in the open.’
‘I think it should be discussed,’ Drummond said, looking strangely at Rachel.
The funeral rites took most of one day. The dead men were placed side by side in a single shallow grave. They were placed on their right sides, knees drawn up against their bellies and arms down their sides, the fingers touching the ankles. They were clad in full skin suits, their necks hung with chains of perforated stones and pierced bear teeth and claws. Their stones and wooden weapons were placed beside them and pieces of mammoth and rhino meat were placed near the mouths. The bodies were then covered with bearskins and more bear teeth strewn over the skins. Dirt was piled over the skins while the widows and their children, along with Thrimk’s parents, circled the grave widdershins. They wailed and wept and beat their breasts with their fists and sometimes called on Wota’aimgkrimq, the Great She-Bear. Later, Rachel would ask them what they thought about the afterlife. But they, like the civilized and savage people of the time-travelers own period, had only a vague and often contradictory concept of what happened after they died.