wanted to be,” Wiz replied, collapsing onto a bench before his legs gave
out.
“You know,” Jerry said, “this may not work after all.”
Danny collapsed on the bench next to Wiz. “Right now, I’m just glad
everything’s back to normal.”
“Oh yeah?” Jerry said, “look.”
Wiz followed his pointing finger. Where the Emacs had been stood twenty
mice, all dressed in blue-and-red band uniforms, complete with frogged
jackets and plumed shakos, and carrying musical instruments. The
twenty-first mouse, wearing a tall bearskin hat, raised his baton. The
mouse bass drummer struck three quick, sharp beats and the entire mouse
marching band charged into song.
Who’s the leader of the club . . .
“UNDO!” Wiz, Jerry and Danny yelled simultaneously.
It was afternoon the next day when a tired, dispirited team of programmers
met with Moira, Bal-Simba and Duke Aelric.
” . . . and we still don’t know what happened,” Wiz concluded. “One minute
everything is fine and the next minute the world goes crazy.”
Aelric looked at him strangely. “You honestly do not know?”
Suddenly Wiz had the feeling they had missed something very obvious.
The elf duke sighed. “Forgive me, Sparrow. I had forgotten I was dealing
with mortals and I simply assumed . . .”
“What did happen?” Jerry asked.
Aelric paused, weighing his words. “The object we call the key is in some
sense a representation not only of the gate, but of this World as well. As
your spell moved closer and closer to producing the shape of the key it
began to have an ever-stronger effect because it became an ever-more exact
replica of the World.”
“And by the Law of Similarity, like things affect each other,” Wiz said.
“So it began to affect the universe.”
“That is-ah-a not incorrect way of putting it. Quite frankly I wondered
how you would deal with the problem. It never occurred to me you had not
realized what would happen.”
“Why didn’t the shape have any effect when you showed it to us?”
“What I showed you is powerful enough, believe me, Sparrow. But it was
incomplete; only the part between the Bubble World’s creation and that
moment. I did not attempt to reproduce the entire shape of the key.”
“I told you guys it was a hardware bug,” Danny said, running his hand
through his disheveled hair.
“The question is, how do we fix it?” Jerry said.
“I know of no way to fix it,” Aelric said. “Any spell which can produce
that shape must inevitably affect the World in a chaotic fashion.”
For a minute no one said anything.
“You know,” Jerry said finally. “This thing acts like some kind of quantum
effect at a macro level.”
“So maybe we need a quantum mechanic,” Wiz said. Jerry groaned, Danny
scowled and Moira and Bal-Simba looked blank.
“Just trying to lighten the mood a little. Sorry.”
“You should be,” Jerry told him.
“Sparrow, there are times I think it is a blessing I do not always
understand you,” Bal-Simba rumbled. “But I take it that this approach is
not practical?”
“I guess not,” Wiz said. “Damn! And it looked so perfect.”
“Just a minute,” Jerry said. “You say that it is the spell which affects
the World?”
Aelric inclined his head. “Just so.”
“Well, suppose we did it without using a spell?”
Aelric thought hard. “You mean using no magic at all? Yes, I suppose that
would be possible.”
“The calculations could be done by hand,” Jerry said.
Danny snorted. “Man, there isn’t that much time in the universe. What we
need is a Cray or something.”
“Computers won’t work here,” Wiz protested. “Nothing high-tech works in
this world.”
“Craig and Mikey seem to be doing all right.”
“Yeah, but they’re not in this world, they’re in that bubble universe.”
Danny shrugged. “So we get ourselves a supercomputer and we set it up in
our own bubble universe.”
“Do you know how to create such a thing?” Bal-Simba asked.
“No,” admitted Danny.
“Nor do I,” said Bal-Simba.
Everyone turned to look at Aelric.
“It, ah, would not be practical for us to do it either.”
“Whoever is helping those two is powerful indeed,” Bal-Simba said.