Page:Astounding Science Fiction (1950-01).djvu/59

 trip from the warehouse and lived.

"We're about twelve hundred miles from the warehouse now. No, you didn't come that far by belt, of course. The conveyor goes into the warehouse, hits a Transmatter—a matter projector—that reassembles inside the tunnel leading to the first cave.

"I see you are willing to accept the idea of the Transmatter. You should—Never mind, however. In the first tunnel there are usually rays in operation to kill all living matter on the belt. It was shut off so that you might come through safely. I was, and am, of the opinion that you must live.

"We're in what once was a series of natural caverns. They've been made over and enlarged rather effectively, as you can see. You only saw the first of the series. Beyond this, where the belt goes, are the storage caverns."

Del pointed to the viewers on the wall. Tredel looked to see that a full score of the scenes were of huge caverns, perhaps larger than the first one in which he had found himself. In each cavern were tremendous stacks of cartons, similar to those he had seen enter the warehouse. He turned back to Del.

"I can't understand—Why?"

"I imagine, Mr. Tredel, that almost every possible solution has occurred to you, and been rejected, except the true one. These are weapons for the future."

"Future!"

"Yes. They will not be used for more than a thousand years, but will sit here, waiting."

Tredel's first mental move was one of absolute negation. "That assumes ... assumes—"

"Yes. It assumes several things, possibly. One that I am making impossible plans for the future, on the strength of a warped mentality. Or that I might know, actually, what will happen in the future. Or, that I am from the future."

Tredel eyed Del without speaking. There were certain rules his father had given him for solving the problem of a whole. He was trying to remove them from the mechanical class, make them apply to less tangible, less concrete realities.

"Not time travel, Mr. Tredel. Not time travel. Not as you might think of it. I was born in the future, raised in the future, and I guess I died in the future. Yet I am here doing the work of the future. But the I is only my ego. It is a body and brain horn to this time that I am controlling.

"That was a secret we had for some time and—

"I'll tell the story a different way. I'm rather anxious to get your acceptance of myself. I want as little doubt in your mind as possible before—

"You must understand that the Earth of a thousand years from now is very different from the world of today, Mr. Tredel. There are no longer nations and governments. There is one government over all— NOT TO BE OPENED—