Nobody’s Fool by Terry Dowling We in some unknown Power’s employ Move on a rigorous line Can neither when we will enjoy Nor when we will resign. — Matthew ArnoldWORMWOOD WAS BROUGHT TO EARTH a little after midday on 4 June 2023. It camethrough the sky down a magnetic funnel held and handled by a dozen Nobodoi ‘ships’.That was the only time we ever saw Nobodoi ‘ships’—straits they were later called. Theother vessels in the skies of Earth that day were either Hoproi or Matta preparing todestroy Human civilisation waiting to unload troops. Many of us realised early that they had a neutron fragment in tow cradled andfocused by the straits with their vast counter-energies. All of Nature threw up its heartas that dreadful mass came down. And more terrifying than Wormwood itself was thathere was someone who could control such forces. 1Aspen Dirk was a boggler. He knew the Nobodoi as few other Humans could. Leave himalone in a room with a Nobodoi artifact and within an hour he would have intuited itspurpose. That was his special gift. Aspen Dirk was also a boruk. A third of his body had been warped out of thiscontinuum into another a tragic result of one of those few times when his talent hadnot served him well. Consequently to look at Aspen Dirk was something of a trial. His torso did not seemto exist. His head neck and left shoulder slumped across his groin. He looked like awalking head with one arm. Folded away protruding onto another reality plane