The Temporal Knights (6 page)

“Target area clear,” Gardner reported watching the progress of the men below.

“Move,” Sergeant Moore yelled, and eight men jumped quickly out of the safety of their vehicles and made for the south and north ends of the nearest shack. As they rushed forward, they were covered closely by the men manning the M60’s. The building was low only about five feet to the edge of the thatched roof, and there were no windows on the visible side. Sergeant
Moore led his men in practiced movements toward the north end, while Sergeant Sadao covered the south. They were all in full battle gear, very alert, their adrenaline flowing. The position of every soldier in the squad now appeared in green on everyone’s face shield. As a safety precaution against friendly fire, no weapon linked into the system could fire while the crosshairs were aimed at a soldier in battle gear.

Sadao found a low wooden door on the south end and stopped his men on either side.

“Heartbeats,” he instructed his computer and with the help of very powerful directional microphones mounted to every weapon in the squad, the heartbeats of any potential enemies would appear on the screen of the face shield. Instantly, two strong heartbeats appeared on the screen. They were located in the far, partially collapsed building. The heartbeats were steady and unmoving. Sergeant Moore angled his squad across to the second building, but their attention was on the building with the heartbeats.

“Search,” he ordered Sadao and two men instantly moved into the first building, ducking to get through the small door.

“Night vision,” Corporal Hernandez whispered, and looked around expectantly.

The building was empty except for a crude counter of sorts that held a variety of strange tools, and a lopsided bench that looked like it was built by children. There were no people inside.

“Clear,” Hernandez reported and both he and Private Dosland were careful to go off of night vision before stepping out into daylight. Building two was just as empty of life, but was crammed from floor to ceiling with hay and cut grass. It had a strong musky, sweet smell. The heartbeats still registered in the third and were stationary.

“Target area clear,” Gardner said.

Both groups rejoined for a moment then split again as they reached the last building. Sadao and his team moved along the long north end of the building, while Moore and his team crept along the shorter eastern wall.

“Southern wall has a large open section,” Gardner said from above.

“Roger,” Moore replied and held his weapon out, looking around the corner with the M18’s built in video camera. Above Gardner now flew with only half of his virtual display, on the other half he ordered his computer to show him what Moore was seeing. Back at camp, everyone hooked up to the battle computer, did likewise. All they saw was an empty length of building. Moore turned the corner and headed toward the breech in the wall. He passed another small door, and left Killian to guard it, just in case. The heartbeats did not move as Sadao appeared around the corner on the far side of the breach. Everyone at camp was silent and breathless, just as if their own lives were in imminent danger. Again Moore held out his weapon and aimed his weapon into the building. Almost immediately his TVD was filled with the large, docile face of a cow. Everyone at camp laughed, but Moore did not, at least not until Sadao picked up the other heartbeat, a worn out mule. Everyone relaxed and headed out in front of the breach, both the cow and the mule watched them with obvious interest, and then mule even moved over and smelled Sadao.

“Clear,” Moore reported.

“Roger,” Peebles replied and the Sergeant could hear his smile through his helmet. “Human beings built these buildings Sergeant, and they stocked them. These animals are clearly domesticated and belong to someone. Let’s find out who owns them.”

“Roger,” Moore said and they began to move back toward the hummers.

“Oh God...Oh God,” Captain Gardner suddenly yelled from above. “I’ve got people,” he reported, and the squad below immediately broke into a sprint, running toward their vehicles. Sergeant Moore looked up and spotted the plane maybe a mile southwest of their present position and losing altitude rapidly.

“Captain, maintain your altitude and position,” Moore ordered just as he reached his seat. His driver immediately took off down the rut of a road. Captain Gardner did not respond at first as his Bot continued to fall from the sky, and a few seconds later the plane disappeared from view.

“Gardner, raise your altitude...” Moore yelled with equal excitement, as the hummers raced down the road. “We cannot see your position.”

“Roger...roger...maybe three miles to the southwest...flying over now...”

“Negative!” both Moore and Lemay yelled at the same time, but Peebles kept quiet, just listening, understanding exactly what the report meant...people. He looked up and found Major Thane staring back at him in rapture. On old Earth there were no people, save dead ones. They’d made it...somewhere at least.

“I...
is it possible?” Robertson said in disbelief, though he’d built the damn thing that brought them here. It was entirely too much for even the knowing mind to comprehend, like walking through the gates of heaven, everyone wanted to believe, most said so, few truly did.

“...ying over...holy mother Mary!
They’ve spotted me,” Gardner added, not purposefully ignoring the orders coming through his headset. He just wasn’t listening to them.

“Captain raise...”

“Women! I see women...two, maybe three of the contacts are wearing dresses...coming around...there are females here,” he confirmed and a great roar went up around the command tent.

“What are they doing?” Peebles asked. They were patched into Gardner’s helmet but the jerking motion of the plane and pilot’s head gave a distorted picture.

“Uh…running...and screaming,” Gardner admitted.

The hummers topped a rise and spotted Gardner’s plane, maybe two miles away and turning sharply.

“Magnify forty,” Moore said and his visor complied.

“Patch into Moore,” Peebles ordered and his screen immediately filled with the same thing Moore saw...people in the distance running, obviously for their lives.

“Captain, raise your altitude now,” Peebles said without shouting, though the order somehow came out that way, “before you give them all a heart attack.”

“Roger,” Gardner answered, finally hearing something other than his own heart hammering in his chest. As he pulled back on the stick he was surprised to find that he was sporting a powerful erection. His plane immediately began to climb, but his eyes were still on the people…the women, below.

“We’ve done it,” Dr. Rice said and his eyes sparkled with unbridled excitement. All around men were either cheering loudly, or standing silently in stunned disbelief. Two men fainted dead away and half a dozen others were throwing up, but even these men were happy beyond all imagining.

“We’ve done something,” Peebles answered.

“Women,” Matt said and felt a tug at his groin. He looked down and then up, smiling sheepishly at the others.

Peebles, an older man, just laughed at him, but felt the very same stirrings.

“Gardner climb higher and see if you can spot any possible destinations,” Sergeant Moore ordered calmly, bringing the command team back to the present situation.  His vehicles were quickly closing in on the position of the fleeing people, though everything was still hidden by a distant rise.

“Roger...
climbing. The…targets are fleeing along the road to the south and west...climbing,” Gardner paused for a moment then continued. “Yes! I see it across a small creek, back in some timberland, a small town...walled and surrounded by cultivated fields. Hold on, getting a reading, 5.52 miles away.

“The people?”
Peebles asked, though he could now see them in the distance through Moore’s face shield.

“Still running...”

“How far would you estimate the town is from camp?” Colonel Lemay asked.

“Not far, ten or twelve miles tops. I’ll get a more accurate reading on the return trip,” Gardner said now back to his normal, professional self.

“Return to base,” Peebles immediately cut in. “I say again, Captain, Sergeant, return to base.”

“Yes Sir,” Moore said and without another word both hummers slowed and turned back toward the northeast.

“Yes Sir,” Gardner said and everyone could hear the reluctance in his voice, but within moments he was directly over Moore and the rest of the team, circling and keeping watch. He landed thirty minutes later and was immediately surrounding by the excited camp.

“Sorry Sir,” Gardner immediately apologized and saluted as he approached the General.

“Nothing to be sorry for son,” Peebles answered, returning the salute. “It’s not every day someone confirms that they’ve just gone back in time.”

Once again they all dropped into silence as the enormity of the accomplishment hit them, and suddenly everyone was cheering again, and laughing and pounding Captain Gardner on the back as the hummers pulled into the midst of the happy crowd.

“We’ve done it then?” Moore asked excitedly as he climbed out of his seat.

Peebles, Lemay, Rice and Robertson all looked at each other. “It looks like we may have done it; if Robertson and his team are right we should be in England, sometime around 880.”

“My God,” someone yelled.

“I wish Cummings were here,” Robertson finally said. “He was sure it was going to work from the very beginning.” Everyone grew quiet again as they remembered their comrades so recently left behind. Cummings, the builder and chief engineer of the Door was one of them, but there were so, so many more.

“Let’s get these trucks fixed,” Peebles finally yelled breaking the spell. “We have people to meet...our people.” Everyone cheered again, then like the disciplined soldiers they were, they immediately returned to work, but now they worked with much more hope and with much more happiness that any had felt in the last five years.

§

The next morning found them with three more operational trucks and one hummer. General Peebles woke to find many of his men already up and eagerly working.

‘I have the easiest job of the bunch,’
he thought and felt vast pride for his men, for himself and for all of humanity.
‘We’re not finished yet!’

He made his way quickly to the central fire and poured himself a cup of coffee, which was watered down, strictly rationed. He didn’t mind and it didn’t dampen his good mood, nor did he mind the gloomy overcast morning. It had grown chilly again with the smell of rain in the air, like a promise, but it was great to be alive…and free. A few men shouted greetings, which he returned, then started back to his tent to begin work for the day. Colonel Lemay met him on the way.

“Good morning Sir,” the usually stoic Colonel said with a broad smile.

“Isn’t it though.
Status?”

“One more truck is just about finished, which will be all for them. That will leave three more hummers...and of course the ship. No change there. Blish and Turnbull are the only grumpy people in the camp this morning.”

Peebles laughed, but felt a twinge of worry over the ship’s condition. Repairing it was a very important part of the plan to stop the Skawp’s future attack; actually it was the primary part. They needed that ship, badly. Moving to, and living in the past, was just a backup plan, a hedge against the primary objective, a surprise and devastating preemptive strike. Few truly believed that the progress of Man could be changed drastically enough to contend with the upcoming Skawp attack, even with twelve hundred years to prepare. History would likely prove very hard to change with less than four hundred men.

“Any progress on the ship at all?” he asked finally and frowned when the Colonel just shook his head. “Have Blish report to me this afternoon. I want to know exactly what’s going on.”

“Yes Sir,” Lemay said. “And Sir, I think we should stretch the perimeter by at least a klick, and probably expect visitors.”

Peebles nodded, slightly surprised, but he trusted Lemay’s tactical mind, which was undoubtedly the best in the group.

“Let’s expand by half a klick, remember this is not a very mobile era,” the General finally replied, silently chiding himself for not having thought of the possibility. He needed to pull himself out of the future and begin to live in the past. He needed to understand the people of the times. It was a guarantee that those currently in power would not be happy about their arrival, and in fact most would probably resent and resist it.

“Have two hummer crews constantly on alert, just in case we underestimate them,” he added.

“Caution,” was all Lemay said, agreeing.

“I’m no scholar of history, but I have a feeling that the men of this era will be aggressive against us and our mission; very aggressive, probably overly so, at least until we teach them a little caution,” Peebles added. “Send for Rice. I’d like to know as much as possible about this time and its people.”

Rice appeared about five minutes later, saluting as he entered. “You wanted to see me Sir.”