Hostage of Time (Beacons of Time Book 1)
Page 15
When they were finally alone, he asked, “Have you ever been on this ship before?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Only once, many years ago. Before my father…”
He nodded and looked around. “So what am I supposed to do with this?”
The room had a very martial and utilitarian fashion. There were displays of weapons on the walls, maces on one side and swords on the other. The chairs and stools were like leather and looked hard. The room even smelled manly, like leather and the outdoors.
She laughed. “You can do anything you like. I can help you decorate—“
“No, I mean, the ship.”
She stared at him, “But it is yours now. You are a wealthy man.”
“I don’t want it. I would rather be free.”
Her eyes teared up, “Do you want to be free of me, too?”
He grabbed her and pulled her close. “How about we just elope?”
She looked up into his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Run away from all of this. Just the two of us. Away from the things of man, my love,” he said, echoing a line from one of his dad’s favorite movies.
She pulled away. “Leave my ship; my position? The people need me.”
“They needed you to get this far, but your job is done. We could search for the most beautiful place on earth and settle down. Build a house; plant some crops. Work on producing some children,” his eyes twinkled.
She sat down on one of the stools, lost in thought.
Josh tried again. “Everything is going to change now. You've reached the end of your journeys. If some of the people want to go back out, they can make that choice.”
She looked at him. “And you wish to mate with me for life?”
He looked back at her, “Of course, that’s what I meant. Is that not your custom?”
She shrugged. “Our lives are usually so short, that it hasn’t been an issue, but many Mortbatalos have been fought over mates.”
Josh looked horrified. “Did Galaknovo have a mate?”
She looked at him and giggled. “Now you ask the important question. Let me go get her.”
“No, stop. Really? You’re kidding me.”
She nodded and then burst out laughing.
Josh felt so relieved he sat down. He had never heard her laugh and just watched her, enjoying every second of it. He could really get used to this, just the two of them. She finally calmed down and sighed, “I haven’t laughed so much in…I don’t remember. Thank you, Josh.”
He said gently, “You are welcome, but you still didn’t answered my question.”
She frowned and his heart stopped. “I must think about this. There are many variables; many dangers.”
Josh sighed. “This is why I left home. Life is just too complicated sometimes.”
“I wished to run away many times, but my position and responsibilities prevented it.”
“Not to mention, there aren’t many places on a ship to run to.”
“Yes, it was…” She paused. “Tiring.”
“In our history, many of the great philosophers and leaders were farmers or at least had places away from the crowd where they could recharge and reflect on life. I’m not either of those things, but I know that I need time to recharge. I guess what I’m trying to say is that, having a place on earth doesn’t mean we are abandoning our people, just that we are giving everyone space and time. We have plenty of both right now.”
When Ab and Josh returned back to the moon, Josh was immediately called into another meeting. He looked at Ab and raised his eyebrows. She nodded and smiled; she understood.
When he got to the meeting room, the Ducks were upset and it took a while for them to calm down enough for anyone to tell Josh what was going on.
“We just found out from Master Ku, that no one will be able to go back to their time. The beacons only allow travel forward in time. So we are stuck here,” Nick said and glared at the Lytix in the room.
Josh frowned. “Really, have you checked, Sergei?”
Sergei shrugged. “I only know what Duumai has shown me and it looks plausible. These beacons were placed in time as anchors to pull something or someone from the past to the future. The Lytix seem to have no way to send anything but very simple instructions to the past.”
“And Master Ku knew this all the time,” someone shouted.
Master Ku was only made aware of this when he was given the position.
Everyone went silent.
We deemed it a distraction before the battles.
There was more grumbling.
Josh sighed. “Listen, people. At this point it is out of our control. We can make some changes, but look at what is here. We have an entire world to choose from.”
“No women,” someone shouted from the back again.
“Well, there might be women available.”
“Only the baldies,” another joked.
“Maybe we could bring some girls from the past.”
Josh stopped them. “So now you want to do to someone else what you have been so angry about this whole time? Very mature of you.”
Sergei tried to calm Josh down. “Hey, Joshy, they were just joking. We could study this problem and come up with a solution.”
Josh got angry. “Why do we need to study anything? Look at what we have right now. We are alive and the others aren’t. Isn’t that good enough? You want to squeeze the life out of someone else, too? I am sick and tired of all this.”
He shook his head and stalked out. He didn’t want to lead anyone. Tired and frustrated, he took a ship and began flying over the planet below, looking for the perfect spot to live. Maybe he could get back to just roughing it on his own. He wouldn’t have to worry about anyone or anything. It would be the life he had always dreamed of.
Josh could still see the rough outline of the United States and started hunting the eastern seaboard. Everything was different, but it was still beautiful in a wild, deserted way. He found a likely spot that overlooked the ocean. There was a hill that was green and wild. There were no large trees, but plenty of bushes. He found a grassy area and landed the ship. As he stepped out, the smell of the ocean hit him and he started to cry. He thought of his parents and friends and the life he had lived. All gone. The sense of loss overwhelmed him. He had never realized how much they had meant to him.
The sound of a ship startled him. He wiped his eyes and glared up at the sky. “Just leave me alone. I don’t want any more politics; no more decisions.”
It was a Natix shuttle. He stared at it, hoping, wondering. It landed and the door slowly opened. Ab stepped out and stood there smelling the air. Josh went over to her.
“What am I supposed to do now? You need me to save someone else?” he asked.
She looked at him and smiled. “I need you to tell me. Is this where our home should be? I like the scent. I thought all of the holos of Urth were not real, but this is amazing.”
He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the crest of the hill.
“Here is where we begin. Away from the things of man, my love, away from the things of man.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Final Frontier
Sergei was devastated when Josh walked out. He'd been trying to calm him down and Josh blew up instead. The others guys stared at the floor. Josh was usually their defender. They were still sitting when a Lytix showed up.
“Master Ku has requested all materials relating to the time beacons be secured. Duumai is prohibited from releasing any more information on this. You may return to your rooms.”
“But we can learn from them and defend ourselves from future enemy forces,” Sergei said.
“If they are needed, we will restore access, but now this is too dangerous. The Natix are already requesting access to the information and we cannot let them have it.”
“But…” Sergei started, but realized nothing he said would change their minds. The Lytix had all of the resources here. A plan began to form.
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br /> He nodded and left the room with the other guys. As they neared the dormitory, Sergei stopped.
“Hey guys, I’ll catch up with you later.”
They shrugged. He moved toward the factory. He knew that some ships were still being worked on, probably still some time beacons, too. The Lytix didn’t have guards or patrols or anything like that. They relied on Duumai for everything. And he knew the way to the factory because he had worked on some of the defenses. They were going to put this tech into storage again. He wasn’t going to steal people from the past, but there were so many other options. Instantaneous travel was the biggest possibility. Add the possibility of time travel? Double cool.
When Sergei got to the factory, it seemed quiet. Manufacturing had stopped, but the equipment sat there. It looked like he was in time. There were five saucers in various stages of completeness. The first one looked like everything was done on it. He walked over and opened the hatch. The inside looked finished, too. He looked at the time beacon. It had been installed, but not connected to power yet. He closed his eyes and tried to recall if he had seen a schematic of where that was supposed to come from. Duumai displayed some sort of a schematic on the holo, but it had only been for a second. That had been for the second power plant for the next step. He didn’t need it, because he only wanted to enclose the ship, not kilometers of space.
“Computer?”
Online.
“Disable all external comms.”
Done.
“Can you interface with this beacon?”
Yes.
Sergei breathed a sigh of relief. That was going to make things a lot easier.
“Restrict the space that it carries to the dimensions of this ship. Is that possible?”
Done.
“Plot a location in a direct line 38 light years away, in any direction.”
That will take hours to calculate the location and probabilities.
“No, I do not need the probabilities. Just lock in a number and have the beacon take us there.”
Do—
There was a flash of light on the factory floor and all that remained in that location was a small circular divot in the floor.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE Wanderer
CHAPTER TWO Contact
CHAPTER THREE Frozen
CHAPTER FOUR Aliens?
CHAPTER FIVE Ducks
CHAPTER SIX Ku
CHAPTER SEVEN A-team
CHAPTER EIGHT Sergei
CHAPTER NINE Master Du
CHAPTER TEN Retraining
CHAPTER ELEVEN Natix
CHAPTER TWELVE Finals
CHAPTER THIRTEEN First Battle
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Ku returns
CHAPTER FIFTEEN New trust
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Torture
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Confrontation
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Real Deal
CHAPTER NINETEEN Regrets
CHAPTER TWENTY Galaknovo
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Truce
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Freedom Fighters
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Arena
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Clash
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Rage
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Finish
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Shock
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Awe
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE After
CHAPTER THIRTY Gamify
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Motive
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Svarmo
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Timebomb
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Diplomacy
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Team
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Finale
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Loss
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Mop up
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Final Frontier
Afterword