Prescience is not omniscience. When Lynx leads the attack on Avildaro, he already knows that:
a small group led by his younger self will escape from the village during the confusion of the attack;
before leaving, his younger self will free the Ranger Brann from the interrogation machine, will kill the Warden Hu and will appropriate Hu's energy gun which the older Lynx now holds.
Thus, when Lynx fights Hu, both using the same gun, Lynx is able to let Hu escape, knowing that the latter will very soon be killed in any case.
That leaves only Storm with her energy gun and the local warriors loyal to her. Lynx does not foreknow the outcome of this battle. In fact, he captures her and his men defeat hers. The final twist of the knife is that Storm, now a prisoner bound and helpless, is strangled by the dying Brann who has only just been freed by the younger Lynx. Destiny is now complete.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It was grimly appropriate that both Brann and Storm caused each other's deaths.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: agreed. Mutual elimination!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And real history has shown me times times I wished various groups of very bad people would have similarly eliminated each other.
Ad astra! Sean
Well, Hitler and Stalin... you could say that Hitler crucially weakened the. Soviet Union -- that it never really recovered from the enormous slaughters of 1941-45.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, but it wasn't just the horrendous losses due to WW II which ruined Russia. The never ending reign of terror, purges, and the gulags of Lenin and Stalin killed even more Russians.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: true. In 1938, Stalin purged his census bureau because they pointed out that the USSR's population was declining.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
It can be so dangerous to be messengers bearing bad news!
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment