Read Vestiges of Time for Free Online

hadn’t always been of the most pleasant nature.
    How would this one turn out? I wondered.
    The BrathelLanza's Proposal
    “Master HarkosNor,” AkweNema began over tall goblets of white wine after the meal was finished, a “snack,” he had said, which had consisted of several courses of fish and fowl and flesh, “we know that you are a stranger in our land and have been among our people for only a short while, and we know that you have come here in the hope of gaining for yourself one of the so-called time machines that our technicians supposedly have built and are testing.”
    “Chronal-displacement devices,” KaphNo threw in, his voice a bitter grumbling. I think it was the first time he’d spoken since we’d arrived in AkweNema’s suite. ~
    “I stand corrected,” AkweNema said, smiling. “Chronal-displacement devices.” The smile went away. “And for what purpose you wish one we do not know. It is no concern of ours.” His face said differently; and I wondered what he thought a barbarian warrior like HarkosNor wanted with a time machine—to go back into time to save his people from the humiliation of subjugation, or merely to get away to a simpler world where a warrior stood in higher honor? “But we may be able to help you get one, since that is your wish,” he was saying.
    “I thought that was what RyoNa was in the process of doing fearlier today,” I said, letting my voice sound as bitter and angry as I dared.
    “I can understand your feelings,” AkweNema said, “and I understand your anger at us. Your anger may seem justified to you now, but please hold it in abey-
    ance for a while.” He paused, sighed, then continued: “I am afraid that RyoNa lied to you in several respects. There is no time—no chronal-displacement device in all of NakrehVatee, nor in all the world, that is not under the heaviest of guard. There are, in fact, only four of them in existence, and they do not work nearly as well as the popular imagination would lead you to believe, and may never—and, in addition, it would be impossible for you to gain one of them, imperfect as they are, without the aid of an army, or without the aid of a new government in power in NakrehVatee.”
    I gave him back stare for stare but didn’t speak.
    “Which brings me to my point,” he said. “With your aid, we can provide you with both—an army and a new government.
    “As a newcomer to our land, you may be ignorant of the many injustices that now exist in our nation. We may be the greatest power on Earth today, but as things stand now our society is rotten to the core. Over the years the caste system, which has many good and truly admirable points, has been abused by certain groups in positions of power. The castes themselves have multiplied and subdivided to such an extent that the whole system has become unwieldy and at times even self-destructive.
    “New castes have been formed as offshoots of older castes to serve new functions as society has developed, which is well and good; but older castes whose functions have ceased to be of value continue to exist, and those born into them, some of the lower ones, have no way out of them, save through death and hopefully a better change during their next reincarnation, if they as individuals have earned the karma for another chance at life.”
    The eyes of the others in the room were more on me than on AkweNema. I hoped my face looked as noncommittal as I was trying to make it look.
    “We have, on the one extreme,” AkweNema was saying, “castes in positions of power and wealth that have no useful function and are only parasitic to society, consuming vast quantities of goods and services, yet contributing nothing. And on the other extreme are castes which have fallen far down the scale of society and now exist to no good purpose, consuming little, but with their members doomed to live in poverty and hunger, with no hope of ever finding gainful employment in their present lives. They are