(urth) Pike's ghost

[Roy C. Lackey]

James Wynn quoted Gerry and wrote:

> > If Silk slit his wrists a long time previously, did Mucor time
> > travel?  Or see SilkHorn stumbling around Viron?  If it was long
> > enough ago he might have been already in Gaon, of course.
>
> It would be the most self-evidently convenient if he met Mucor "on
> mission" after he arrived at Blanco.

Gerry has anticipated me.

We are told at the beginning of OBW that the next Conjunction is two years
away. There is no getting around this fact. It is important and I will come
back to it. It can't be explained away by time travel. I could cite page
numbers, but it seems to be largely a waste of my time, so I will outline
the situation briefly.

It was summer when Horn left Lizard. The time period from when Horn left
Mucor's Rock until he left for Green on the Pajarocu lander was a span of
months, but probably less than six months. That was followed by no more than
a few weeks on the lander. From his arrival on Green until his death in
another lander on Green was about six months. That adds up to about a year
of time from the start of Horn's journey to his spirit being sent into
Silk's body on the LSW.

The time spent by Silkhorn on the LSW, after Horn's spirit was sent into
Silk's body, was less than two weeks. Allow a few more weeks for travel back
to Blue on Hari Mau's lander. No more than six weeks after Horn died on
Green, Silkhorn was sitting pretty as the Rajan of Gaon. Soon after arrival
in Gaon, Oreb flew away and was gone for about a year. There was time spent
on the war with Han. Winter had just begun when Silkhorn left Gaon.
Conjunction came while Silkhorn was in Gaon.

Winter came on while Silkhorn was in Blanko and continued while he was in
Dorp. It was still very cold when he reached New Viron, but spring was not
far away. No matter how you cut it, more that two years elapsed on Blue
between Horn's departure from Lizard and Silkhorn's arrival in New Viron, as
determined by Conjunction.

As I have said, I do not believe that dream travel involves time travel.
Neither do I believe that what Mucor does when she sends her spirit forth is
the same thing that Silkhorn does when he dream travels. After all, her
talent was a genetic freak that had nothing to do with Neighbors or inhumi.
Be that as it may, if Mucor sent her spirit to the LSW, that day at Mucor's
Rock, as the text has it, she would have found both Silk and Hy to be alive.
If you want to postulate that she sent her spirit back in time to any moment
before Horn's death on Green, an event which was still a year in her future,
Silkhorn simply would not yet exist.

That paradox aside, if you postulate that she went back in time to when
Silkhorn was in Blanko, then Hy had already been dead for at least two years
and Horn's proposed trip to the LSW could not possibly have put her or Silk
in jeopardy because he wasn't there and she was dead. Further, Mucor did
contact Silkhorn twice while he was in Blanko, both times about Babbie and
both times in "real time", i.e. the "present" of the story.

-Roy