"I see I've made what I fondly hope is an uncharacteristic error," the snake told them.
It was a separable "messenger" tentacle, outfitted for an excursion on land with a transparent plastic covering. Like a snake, it arranged one end in a supporting coil, raising the remainder of its length to human eye level. Unlike a snake, it tapered from that base, as thick as Toya's upper leg, to a finger-slender tip. She could see the dark patch of a thin-film transducer that was the electronic source of Mister Thoggosh's voice.
Toya knew that originally a limb like this had evolved in nautiloids, as it had in other cephalopods, as a specialized auxiliary sexual organ that detached itself from the owner's body to carry sperm to the female. In the Elders (who, like human beings, had changed their reproductive habits about the same time they'd developed sapience) it had become a sort of built-in "gofer," controlled by the same radio waves the nautiloids generated for speech. It was the organ to which symbionts like Sam had been intended as an analog.
"So much," Mister Thoggosh continued, "for the well-laid plans of molluscs and men. I fear `gang aft aglay' doesn't express the half of it. Preoccupied with what I foolishly believed my own safe secrets, I failed to perceive the figurative hot breath of two detectives on my even more figurative neck."
Sam looked to Toya. Toya looked to Sam. Both wondered which had been left out of the Proprietor's calculations.
"Three detectives, sir," Eichra Oren offered, turning a palm up. "You simply made a mistake nonscientists often do, of thinking of scientific facts as if they were some arcane ritual knowledge. You, more than anyone, should know that trade and defense secrets derived from objective reality never last very long."
Gutierrez grinned and shook his head, but kept comment to himself.
"Indeed. Good afternoon, Dlee Raftan Saon, General Gutierrez." The tentacle slithered closer to the little group around the table. "Toya, Eichra Oren, Sam, my congratulations to all three of you, then. Although I am scarcely to be blamed for such a mistake as you suggest if, in truth, I made it. Nautiloid physics and metaphysics have long been rooted in concepts which are often rather mystical sounding to other sapients."
The breeze blew the doorflap open and shut again, momentarily dazzling the eye. From somewhere outside, they heard the screech of protesting machinery, followed by the shouting of workers. It wasn't the first time they'd heard it, nor would it be the last.
"You're referring," the physician stretched three hands to the tabletop and switched his antique machinery off, "to the `Twelve Elementals'?"
The tentacle-tip bobbed affirmation. "That I am, Raftan, although in point of fact, that magnificently breathtaking concept lies about as far from the realm of mysticism as it can and still relate to its primary context, the field of natural philosophy which our human guests call cosmology."
More mechanical and vocal noise filtered in from outside. Toya wondered if they were having another of the failures which had plagued Mister Thoggosh on this asteroid. Without being asked, Eichra Oren went to the back of the tent and began unstacking several folding objects of tubular metal and fabric which could be adjusted to support any one of a number of species. As soon as Gutierrez saw what he was doing, he went back to help.
"Refresh my memory on cosmology," the general asked over his shoulder, "if you don't mind."
The end of the appendage, bent over at an angle, pointed at him. "Gladly, sir. It's that field of intellectual inquiry concerned with the fundamental nature, especially the origin, of the universe. More than any other, it straddles the fence your people have mistakenly erected between the scientific discipline of physics and the philosophical discipline of metaphysics."
"We humans can't do anything right." Gutierrez placed two folding chairs near the table. To match his sarcastic tone there was a skeptical look on his face. "You think there's really something to all that nonsense about reincarnation, extrasensory perception, spirit mediums, and crystal gazing?"
The tentacle conveyed a shudder. "Dear me, I'd forgotten quite how badly contaminated certain words have become on your world. Metaphysics, my dear fellow, is an ancient and honored discipline rather like cosmology, except that it asks, and tries to answer, questions about the fundamental nature of reality."
" `Reality,' " Gutierrez sat beside Toya, "as opposed to `the universe'?"
From Eichra Oren, Dlee Raftan Saon accepted a chair, folded in a different pattern to accommodate his insectile anatomy. He fished in a pocket of his lab coat and extracted an ordinary-looking briar pipe, stuffed it with what appeared to be tobacco, lit it, and puffed. Apparently, Toya thought, his species had outgrown spiracles. Aromatic smoke filled the tent. "The difference, General, is subtle, but significant."
Gutierrez grinned and pulled a pack of smuggled cigarettes from his own breast pocket. Giving it a characteristically American toss, he offered one to Eichra Oren, who raised a palm and shook his head politely. The Antarctican was sitting in a chair of his own, Sam on the floor at his knee as if he were an ordinary dog. Lighting his cigarette, the general said, "I'll take your word for it."
"Very well," declared the tentacle, settling itself lower on a second coil, "I suppose the place to begin, the first thing you should understand, is that the shrewdest among our philosophers who concern themselves with the origin and nature of the universe are presently in my employ. You might say I've recently taken a sort of `crash course' in the subject myself, although I'm still attempting to absorb the more slippery concepts involved. In any event, according to them, the universe possesses only six known fundamental forces."
"Is this anything human physics knows about?" Gutierrez inhaled smoke.
The surrogate gave the general another nod. "Three are known as the `Outer Forces,' familiar to you as gravity, magnetism, and electricity. Three more are the `Inner Forces': the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and what is still to humanity a `hidden' nuclear force often, and erroneously, referred to as the `fifth' force."
Gutierrez exhaled. "Why erroneously?"
"The name, General, overlooks the epochal work of your own Michael Faraday, or at least its cosmological significance. For you, the existence of this force has been inferred from other data. For us, it is an essential part of the machinery that brought us here. Together the two sets of forces, Inner and Outer, balance one another, creating a harmonious whole which your theorists would call symmetrical or `beautiful'. . . ."
"Beauty," Dlee Raftan Saon added, making clicking noises with his mouth parts which Toya knew signified amusement, "being in the optical receptor of the beholder." The insect-being drew on his pipe and exhaled a smoke-ring, making Toya think of the hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.
"Indeed," responded Mister Thoggosh with a trace of annoyance. "Likewise, General, the universe has long been known to possess six dimensions. Three are the familiar dimensions of space: breadth, depth, and height. Three are dimensions of time, the first and most familiar of which we call `duration.' The second is `probability,' along which we all traveledall of us except your partyto arrive on this asteroid."
"And the third?" Toya startled herself by blurting the question. Embarrassed, she sank back in her chair, determined not to interrupt again. Beside her, Eichra Oren gave her hand a reassuring touch.
The snakelike object standing in for Mister Thoggosh was unperturbed. "The third, Toya, remains unknown, even to us. It is the `hidden' dimension of time. Nobody knows quite what this last mysterious dimension might consist of, even (I might say `especially') our philosophers, although they're certain it is something already quite familiar which everyone has overlooked."
"I'm not sure I understand, sir," Toya admitted, unable to help herself.
"Well, reconsider the second dimension of time. Didn't your people wager with one another long before Monsieur Pascal formally discovered the laws of probability? I assure you that they did in my version of reality."
"Mine, as well." The surgeon nodded, knocking his pipe out in an oddly shaped bowl he and Gutierrez had been sharing as an ashtray. Toya was sure it was some sort of bedpan. "In fact I'll wager that our guests would enjoy a bit of refreshment, perhaps even lunch. Is anyone else as hungry as I am?"
For a few minutes, the dissertation on metaphysics and cosmology was interrupted as their orders were relayed to the camp caterer via implant. The general put his cigarette out and asked for a cheeseburger, knowing it was a dish the nautiloids had recently discovered. Toya asked the physician to make it two. Sam and Eichra Oren sent their own requests. Whatever energy it drew from Mister Thoggosh's body, the appendage was incapable of refueling itself and continued lecturing while they waited for lunch.
"These two pairs of three forces and three dimensions comprise the twelve presumed `Elementals.' Just as we have found the hidden nuclear forceas your scientists have not yetwe all fondly hope to find the hidden dimension of time on 5023 Eris. It is believed by some, having done that, that we may discover yet another set of sixor even twelve`hidden' Elementals."
Before anyone could ask him to explain, the meal arrived in insulated boxes carried by trainable insectile nonsapients. Except for the number of limbs, they bore little resemblance to the highly sapient Dlee Raftan Saon. Food was distributed as Mister Thoggosh went on.
"Which it will besix, twelve, or noneis the subject of the most sanguine debate since those culminating in the Great Restitution. Careers are made, unmade, and remade every day depending on who's currently winning. Lifelong friends are known to stop speaking for centuries. It doesn't seem to matter that, so far, there are no hard facts to base an opinion on."
"Just like academics back home," Gutierrez observed around a bite of burger. Like Toya, he held the plastic container on his lap. The sandwich had come with lettuce, tomato, onion, and a pickle. Nor were French fries forgotten. A tall glass of lemonade stood beside his elbow on the computer table.
"Regrettably so. I even know of a duel fought over the subject."
"Now there's an idea for establishing priority!" Gutierrez laughed. Toya was unsure what he found so funny. "What do you think it is, six or twelve?"
"I've no idea whatever, General. However it turns out, these new Elementals are likely to be arrayed in either two or four subsets of three Elementals each, bringing the universe into full symmetry. These extra Elementals, like the hidden time dimension, can possibly be inferred from the workings of the Predecessors' Virtual Drive, our understanding and operation of which, it seems, depends on accepting an even more bizarre idea."
He waited for some reaction. Eichra Oren's attention seemed to be on his food, some unrecognizable but vaguely Chinese-looking dish. Sam was eating the same sort of thing from a container on the floor. Toya's hamburger was better than anything she'd ever had back home. She couldn't bring herself to examine too closely whatever Dlee Raftan Saon was sucking through the tube he'd inserted in one side of his food container. She was certain that all three were in fact focused intently on the nautiloid's words.
"Mass, as such, my associates inform me, doesn't really exist. Unlike the question of how many Elementals there are, nobody in the philosophical community seems to disagree with this idea, which, I confess, seems ridiculous to me. Subatomic particles, they say, are merely probabilistic ripples on the matrix of space-time. This includes, of course, those particles comprising sapient beings who wish to travel from place to place."
Sam looked up from his plate. "How's that?" It was the first time Toya had seen him eating and she understood now why he was shy about it. Lacking hands, he was reduced by the process to the animal nature he'd otherwise transcended.
The tentacle leaned over to address the dog. "As I understand it, Oasam, quantum physics holds that these particles are no more statistically likely to do their rippling in any one place than in any other. However intelligent and curious one may be, the concept almost makes one's brain ache."
"In other words," the dog offered, "if some particle can exist `here'"
"By which I take it you mean the traveler's presumed point of departure . . ."
"Rightthen why not over `there'?" Sam lowered his head to lap some liquid from a compartment of his plate.
"His intended destination?" The tentacle assumed a twisted posture, then relaxed. "According to physics, the two phenomena amount to the same thing. In theory, getting `there' should be no greater a problem than simply staying `here.' And after all, people and other objects seem to do the latter on a regular basis without difficulty, don't they?"
"Zen teleportation." Eichra Oren spoke for the first time in a while. "What you're saying, sir, is that the Predecessors traveled from one place to another more or less simply by changing the way they looked at things."
"And a pinch of pixie dust," Sam suggested.
Mister Thoggosh's answer began with a long pause. "One of the difficulties I find with this concept, gentlebeings, and I assure you that I find many, is that it sounds suspiciously like a free lunch. Over the course of a long career and an even longer lifetime, I've learned to distrust such propositions."
"Still, if it were true," Dlee Raftan Saon mused, "it would be a wonderful thing, brimming with possibilities."
"Indeed it would, Raftan. The concept, you see, doesn't involve real acceleration or its concomitant, uncomfortable, and rather inconvenient inertial and relativistic effects. It seems to be a matter of avoiding the speed of light, rather than exceeding it."
"Better yet," Sam suggested, "from a businessman's point of view, the process consumes no fuel."
"That thought had occurred to me, yes," replied the mollusc. "These would all seem to be costs of complying with what now look like merely local laws of physics. However, theory to one side for the time being, and from a strictly practical standpoint, things haven't been going smoothly for our enterprise here, which is why I've decided to tell you all the full truth and enlist your aid."
"About damned time!" Sam exclaimed, then looked up sheepishly at Eichra Oren. "Sorry, Boss."
"Don't be, Sam. I was about to say the same thing myself."