Revenge for "General Production Fault"

	I stare into the fire.  I ought to go to sleep; miles still separate me
from the capital, and I need to be in position before the betrothal ceremony
begins.  I don't move; I know she'll come.  Actually, I don't.  I can't
imagine her not coming, but her actions are my one blind spot, as mine is
her's.  Still, when one of us shifts the future so drastically, the other
takes notice.  She'll come.

	I feel the time gate open behind me.  I smile; it's been a few years.  "You
could have made a nicer camp," she says dryly behind me.  It's an old joke;
she knows I would have if I could, and therefore I can't, but she knows this
only by deduction.

	"Any traces of magic will bring the high king's mages down upon me in an
instant.  That would rather crimp my plant Pluto."  I gesture to the log on
the other side of my fire, "Sit down.  I'm afraid I don't have anything to
eat at the moment, but I'm glad to share my fire."  She sits, resting the
time staff across her knees.

	"You're going to do it, aren't you?" she asks.  I nod.  "There are
alternatives."  Right, alternatives.  I laugh sardonically.  We each can see
every possible alternative, and the effects of each one.  All too often
there is only one we can allow to pass.

	"There are always alternatives.  But assuming I don't want this world
destroyed, there are only two choices.  Ensure Ragamoth loves his new bride
and ensure their son's survival, or destroy a large army of peasants in
twenty years.  Should I tell the dead 'I just don't like making people fall
in love'?  What's the one of the last shreds of my ethics against their
lives?"  She nodded, and I knew she understood.  "Who am I to whine, you've
had it worse; you didn't even have someone to whine to."  

	We're silent for a while, and I decide what the hey, I'll venture into
uncharted territory.  "So how'd you get into this biz anyway?"  I get a
glare, but don't retract the question.  Finally she answers.

	"When the Elder Gods retired from the worlds, they needed to make them
self-correcting, lest minor flaws destroy their integrity.  I was fortunate
enough to have the right personality."  I nod at the bitter tone of her last
sentence.  I understand exactly what she means, just as well as I know she
expects me to return the favor.

	"I was a college student.  My world touched many others, and most of the
fiction was actually visions of those other worlds.  I was one of a few that
wrote stories using other people's 'characters.'  Turns out our writing gave
the people in the other world incredibly real visions.  Problem was many of
our stories were rather depressing."  Pluto's frowning now.  "I see you
remember.  Were you the one to lower the barrier between our dimensions?"
She scowls.

	"The visions were side-effects of the merging of your dimensional barriers.
It took me time and effort to reestablish the walls around my favorites."
The mystical silver crystal multi-verses.  Well, it's not like I don't have
my pet projects, and a universe that doesn't need any intervention after a
certain point is a truly blessed place.  Of course, keeping her Serenities
alive long enough to get there . . . 

	"Anyway, I'd written this short little piece about a universe where reality
is run by a computer, and the systems admin is a Goddess who grants wishes.
A guy wishes for his wish not to be granted, and lock the computer up.
Turns out I'd hit a nerve, because Urd actually had locked reality up once.
So when she gets the chance at revenge, she takes it.  Several minor
godlings were looking for a champion, and I got drafted.   I expected to be
utterly embarrassed and romantically destroyed when Urd met me at the door.
Instead she gave me a gift."  Pluto smiles bitterly.

	"That's right.  All of a sudden I knew all the possible futures of all the
multi-verses.  I knew the effect every action would have, and near godly
powers to affect those changes.  And then I realized her revenge.  Like you,
no matter what I have to do, no matter what it does to me, I have to
intervene.  I found I couldn't just sit there and let life happen, because I
knew exactly what could be done, and could do it.  'Power brings
responsibility' and I couldn't make myself fail that responsibility."  

	An infinite number of infinitely long time streams, and we two have to live
them all through and come out on the other side.  Living, in general, under
miserable conditions, helping make other peoples' lives better.   And not
because of some curse or geas, but because I can't bring myself to watch so
many tragedies I know I could prevent.  To top it all off, the only person
whose every action through out all of time I don't know has the same damn
sense of duty I do, so we couldn't even try to go beyond 'just friends' if
we wanted to.  Guess it wouldn't be revenge if I actually found love.

	Pluto stands suddenly.  I felt the shift in the futures as well as she did.
"Go.  I can brood alone just as effectively, and you've a lose end to tie
up.  I told you not to let the Atlaneans create a planet before they died.
You know we can't see the power of wishes anymore than we can see each
other's work.  Now we both have planets to save."  She nods and opens her
gate with the time staff, then steps through.  I bank the fire and curl up
in my bed roll.  I've miles to walk tomorrow morning, and I'll need sleep to
do it.





        This came out of musing on time travel and Pluto.  If she knows
exactly how everything she does will affect all of the future, then she is
responsable for every effect she creates.  More to the point, she knows
exactly what she must do if she wants certain things (like Crystal Tokyo) to
become reality.  Essentially, if Pluto wants a certain future, she has no
free will over her actions; she knows what she must do for it to happen.
                              ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-._      
      Bastet's Chosen          `6_ 6  )   `-.  (     ).`-.__.`)
   matthew.lewis@Yale.edu      (_Y_.)'  ._   )  `._ `. ``-..-'
                             _..`--'_..-_/  /--'_.' ,'
                           (il).-''  (li).'  ((!.-'


Beware of organizations that proclaim their devotion to the light without 
embracing, bowing to the dark; for when they idealize half the world they 
must devalue the rest.
                           -Miriam Simos