Umbo got to his feet. He could see himself and Rigg standing at the top of the ramp, talking to Rigg and Param.
Something bad must have happened, and he and Rigg had come back together to prevent it.
“I won’t,” said Rigg-of-the-present. “I never would.”
“You did,” said Rigg-of-the-past.
Umbo-of-the-past said, “But I’m glad you’re still my friend.” Then he turned a little and shouted into the air. “And Loaf is not my father!”
Then the apparitions of Umbo and Rigg disappeared.
Rigg and Param stood there in the doorway of the flyer. Param glared at Rigg. “You were going to push me down the ramp?”
“Don’t ever talk to my friend that way again,” said Rigg to Param. “I trust him a lot more than I trust you.” Rigg walked down the ramp. “Are you all right?” he asked Umbo.
“I am now,” said Umbo. “Worth the fall.”
“I thought you were my brother!” said Param. And then she disappeared.
Loaf and Olivenko appeared in the doorway of the flyer. “I don’t know what you two came back to prevent,” said Olivenko, “but it must have been a catastrophe, if this is better.”
“It’s not my fault if Param decides to disappear,” said Rigg.
“She’s your sister,” said Olivenko. “And someday she’ll be Queen-in-the-Tent.”
“And Umbo is a powerful time-shifter,” said Rigg. “Maybe she should remember that when she starts talking about peasant boys. Where I grew up, peasant boys were way above my station!”
“Seems to me none of you has grown up,” said Loaf.
Umbo had a pretty good idea of why his apparition had declared that Loaf was not his father. “Are we going to do what I suggested?” asked Umbo. “You fly back there and hook onto the past, and then fly here, and then I bring you and the flyer back?”
“Can you hold on to me that far?” asked Rigg.
“I don’t know.”
“So how will I know if you can bring me back to the present?”
Loaf held up his hand. There was a mouse on his shoulder, talking to him. “Our friend suggests you use the orbital phone to talk to each other when Rigg is at the other place.”
Umbo had no idea what Loaf was talking about. The term “orbital phone” meant nothing to him. That is, he understood both of the words, but had no idea what physical object they might be referring to, or how it would work.
“The knife,” said Loaf.
“Knife?” asked Umbo.
“It’s an orbital phone,” said Loaf.
“You knew this?” asked Umbo.
“I had no idea,” said Loaf.
“What’s an orbital phone?”
“I have no idea,” said Loaf.
Umbo pulled the knife from its sheath at his belt. “I thought this was a duplicate set of ships’ logs.”
“The jewels are a duplicate set,” said Loaf, who was apparently getting an explanation from the mouse. “But the hilt under it is a communicator. Wherever you are, it connects to the starship of that wallfold by transmitting a signal to the orbiter, which relays it to the starship, and back and forth like that.”