Three men came into view ahead, walking along the same path. Fortunately, they were going in the same direction. Jason drew his sidearm and, as they drew closer to them, one of the warrior Mongols turned and looked back over his shoulder. Jason fired three times: silent bursts that killed all three Mongols instantly.
Billy and Rizzo ran forward to collect the fallen bodies and deposited them off the road, into the darkness. By the time they’d reached the carts, Traveler was huffing and puffing, with steamy snot billowing forth into the near-frigid air. At their approach, there was movement in the closest cart. Three men dressed in rags sat and stared at them with wide eyes. Iron bars kept them locked into the small caged space. Jason held a single finger to his mouth, hoping that as a symbolic gesture, its meaning was timeless. Apparently it was. The captives returned silent nods and quietly watched them move past. The same thing happened with the next cart, and the cart after that.
The fourth cart held the probe. Barely fitting within the constraints of the bars, it was evident why it hadn’t flown off when approached by the Mongols. No longer perfectly circular in shape, a section of the drone was damaged; a jagged opening revealed its internal circuitry. The only positive indication the drone still functioned was several blinking lights on the sphere’s far side.
Traveler stood at the back of the cart and was examining a large metal lock that kept the cage gate secured. He crushed the mechanical device in the grip of one hand.
“Can you lift that, Traveler, and carry it back to the shuttle?”
Comprehension spread across Traveler’s face and he stepped forward to the rigging at the front of the cart. He lifted the large wooden pole that normally tethered the cart to one or two horses. The cart moved easily, as if it had a three hundred horse power engine under the hood. Traveler pulled the cart forward several feet away from the cart stationed behind it. He then moved to the rear of the cart and opened the gate. He slipped his two beefy hands around the sides of the sphere and lifted it backwards, away from the cart.
“Heavy?” Jason asked.
“Yes.”
Traveler turned and headed back down the road toward the shuttle. Several times their movement on the path drew the attention of those sitting by open fires. Faces briefly turned in their direction, then turned back to their conversations. Jason surmised it was too dark for them to see beyond the bright firelight. Thankfully no one stood—no one moved to stop them.
When they had made it back to the shuttle, they had less than an hour to pair the two drones.
Chapter 41
Traveler deposited the drone several feet from the shuttle’s stern. Ricket had worked feverishly over the past hour to try to bring it back to life. He was about to phase-shift to the Minian to gather better tools and equipment when the drone shuddered and reinitialized.
“It’s trying to sync, Captain.”
“That’s it then, we’re done here—now things will revert back to the correct time?”
“I’m hoping so. Truth is, I’ve never had to reset one. If memory buffers are still accessible from its prior condition, then yes. If not, there’s no telling what it will do, or how long it will take. In all likelihood, the drone will revert back to the state it was in just prior to becoming disabled and deactivated—”
Ricket’s words were cut short by a flurry of activity at the front of the yurt. Ripped from the pliable wood framing, the fabric covering the front of the yurt was torn away in a single, dramatic motion. Horses and riders filed in and encircled the inside perimeter, coming together from opposite directions. By the time they came to a standstill, completing the circle, there were over a hundred horse-mounted archers poised to loose arrows in their direction.
Jason’s impulse was to simply fire his multi-gun and be done with them. The crew’s battle suits were practically impenetrable. But he quickly dismissed the idea when he saw Traveler and the two other rhinos standing off to his side. They would not survive the attack.
Jason hailed Traveler via his NanoCom.
“Yes, Captain.”
“I want you three to phase-shift back into the shuttle.”
Jason saw Traveler turn his massive head in his direction, “Hide? Like a coward?”
Jason knew even making the suggestion was an insult to the warrior, and he regretted he suggested it as soon as the words left his lips. “Forget I mentioned it. We’ll find another way.”
Three more torch-bearing riders entered the yurt and moved directly toward the shuttle. At the center was a man who appeared to be of mixed heritage. Even in the dim torchlight, it was evident he had bright red hair and light eyes.
Jason’s and the team’s faces were visible behind their backlit visors and the red-haired man, the apparent leader, was spending a prolonged amount of time taking in their mixed appearances. The rhinos grabbed his attention first; then Ricket; then each human; then Chameli; and finally Dira, with her violet skin and long lashes. The man began to speak and it took several seconds for Jason’s nano-tech to start translating his words.
“What clan do you derive from, disgusting peasants?” he asked, dismounting. He took several long strides before stopping. Placing hands on hips, he raised his head and glared at those before him.
Jason, in turn, sauntered several steps closer while keeping his weapon pointed directly at the man’s head. The encircling army fidgeted and brought their combined aim over to Jason.
“My name is Captain Jason Reynolds. We are not your enemy. This device,” Jason gestured toward the drone lying on the ground, “is ours. Once we’ve secured it, we’ll be on our way.”
The Mongol smiled and shook his head. “No.”
Jason heard Rizzo in his comms.
“Captain, I’d suggest you negotiate. Life in this time period often revolved around making a trade.”
Jason felt the seconds ticking by, and the chances narrowing of returning Earth, and themselves, back to the twenty-first century. They didn’t have time for this crap.
“Who am I talking to?”
An expression of astonishment crossed the Mongol’s face, which quickly turned to one of anger. “I am Genghis Khan, ruler and king of all lands. I will take pleasure slicing off your heads and lobbing them onto my growing mountain of decrepit flesh and bone.” Turning to Traveler, he added, “We will feast on the bodies of these bloated cows with horns. We will feast for a week.”
Traveler, his nano-devices able to interpret the Mongol’s insults, reached for the heavy hammer hanging from the leather thong at his side.
Jason held up a restraining hand toward his friend and shook his head. He looked back to the Mongol leader.
“Well, good luck with that. Listen, I need to make this quick. I have little patience and no time to screw around. Get back on your horse and ride out of here, or I’ll embarrass you in front of your little army.”
Jason spoke slowly, giving himself time to reconfigure his HUD settings. Before Khan could utter another word, Jason phase-shifted behind him, grabbed him up by his fur collar, and phase-shifted again.
It took several seconds before the circling Mongol army could find them, now atop the shuttle. Jason dangled the frenzied, writhing Khan in the air by the scruff of his neck.
“Drop your weapons or I’ll snap his neck. Do it now or he, and the rest of you, will die.”
Confident that the rhinos were no longer being targeted, Jason opened a channel to the rest of his team. “Stun-level. Take them out.”
Plasma fire erupted as Billy, Rizzo, Myers, Chang, and Mead spun and continuously fired. Only a handful of Mongols were not caught off-guard and twenty of their arrows flew before they also fell. Every horse was made riderless. The rhinos had one or more arrows buried into their thick hides. Two arrows jutted from Traveler’s upper right thigh. Jason cringed, remembering back to HAB 12. The rhino-warrior had suffered similar wounds to the same area.
Jason let Khan fall to the ground below. As Khan scurried to his feet, enraged, Billy stunned h
im point blank in the forehead.
Dira, moving to attend to Traveler and the others, yelled, “Billy, why’d you do that?!”
“He’ll live. Probably,” he replied.
Jason shifted to the drone and Ricket’s side. “Status?”
“Promising,” Ricket replied. He had both hands and most of his head inside the jagged probe opening. “If I can reconnect at least one of the internal phase ports, it should start talking to the others.”
More Mongols were streaming into the yurt—some on foot, others on horseback. Billy quickly arranged the SEALs in a circular formation around the shuttle, while the wounded rhinos, much to Dira’s overriding objection, stood at the entrance flap and took out entering Mongols, their heavy hammers connecting to flesh and bone.
Jason leaned against the back of the shuttle and felt exhaustion setting in. The lack of sleep, and the fate of the world riding on his shoulders, was taking its toll. But, one way or another, he thought, there would be plenty of time to rest when this was over. That’s when the roof fell in.
The yurt tore apart from all sides as outside Mongol riders pulled key side-support poles from the ground, untethering ropes. Within seconds, the team was left standing in the open. Dawn was upon them. There was just enough light to see the gathering hordes of Mongols preparing to charge them from all sides.
“Into the shuttle. Now! Everyone!” Jason yelled.
The SEAL combatants did as they were instructed, but the rhinos held their positions. Traveler, Few Words, and Born Late fought on, heavy hammers in one hand and plasma pistols in the other. Born Late fell first, as a group of sword-yielding Mongols rushed him, beating him to the ground. Jason saw spurts of blood as his body was hacked apart with knives and swords.
“Ricket, stop what you’re doing! Phase-shift the living rhinos onto the roof of the shuttle.”
Jason probably could have done it himself … accessed their phase-shift devices remotely, but certainly not soon enough. Traveler and Few Words had their location changed in a flash. Disoriented, they both swung their hammers into open air. Standing upon the shuttle’s roof, Traveler angrily bellowed some expletives into the air.
Thrusters were winding up and the shuttle was slowly rising off the ground.
Billy, leaning out from the open back hatch, yelled out to Jason and Ricket, “They’re almost on top of you! Get the hell out of there, Cap!”
Jason tore his eyes away from Ricket, who was still halfway emerged in the disabled drone. Too many Mongol warriors to count were rushing toward them. He and Ricket had gone unnoticed for the most part, huddled by the side of the sphere, but that had changed.
The Perilous, maneuvering around above them, was firing its primary plasma cannon. Grimes did all she could to keep the attacking hordes at bay, but there were too many.
“Ricket, we need to go. I’m sorry, but we’re out of time.”
Jason was firing non-stop, no longer caring to use the gun’s stun setting. One after another, dozens more Mongol warriors fell, but even with the bodies stacked high, more Mongols kept coming. Arrows flew past Jason and Ricket, ricocheting off their battle suits, while others drove several inches into the dirt at their feet.
“I think I have it,” Ricket said.
Jason didn’t wait one second longer. He grabbed Ricket by the shoulder, pulled him out of the drone, and phase-shifted to an open spot on the shuttle’s roof. Grimes slowly moved the shuttle higher and away from the drone. The army below watched; some tried to follow on horseback. As they ascended, the drone’s pair emerged from the back of the Perilous and hovered for several seconds. Jason and Ricket, crouching on the shuttle’s roof, never took their eyes off the hovering sphere.
“Go on, pair up, you piece of shit!” Jason yelled.
Ricket watched the drone, then looked up at Jason. “We should leave now. We need to get above Earth’s atmosphere, away from the effects of the drones’ influence on time.”
“It hasn’t paired yet.”
“Unless you want to get stuck here, we need to go now.”
About to protest, Jason watched as the hovering sphere suddenly dropped to ground level and swooped in next to the other drone. Slowly, it settled itself onto the ground and became stationary.
Jason ushered everyone down into the top hatch of the shuttle. “Go ahead and phase-shift into high orbit, Grimes.”
She’d been ready to do exactly that and it took her less than three seconds to phase-shift them up into Earth’s high orbit. They watched and waited for something, anything to happen. And then it did. There was a spectacular flash of blue light and, as if the whole world had phase-shifted away and then reappeared, they were no longer above Asia.
Ricket shook his head. “Captain, it looks like much of the Allied fleet is here in Earth space. But the Minian’s gone. Perhaps we should contact the admiral.”
Jason let out a long breath. “Not now. Take us back down, Grimes. Earth is our first priority. Hell, who knows what we’ll find down there.”
Chapter 42
The quiet stillness on board the Perilous was full of anticipation. No one wanted to speak, to break the silence. The shuttle’s passengers waited for the time realms across the landscape to merge and settle into what, inevitably, would become the new reality for planet Earth.
Jason sat next to Grimes in the cockpit. Turning away from the view below, Jason scanned those seated behind him. Most were gazing out a porthole, as Dira attended to the two injured rhinos in the rear cargo area that was now freed-up to hold their bulk. Ricket sat quietly by himself, not looking outside and not looking particularly hopeful. Jason got up and moved to the open seat next to him.
“Hey … Talk to me. What’s going on, Ricket?”
“Captain, when I said I think I have it, that didn’t mean that I actually did have it.”
“What are you saying?”
“There’s little chance the Earth you know, your old timeframe, will ever be returned to you. I’m very sorry, Captain. I needed more time, perhaps a few more seconds. I failed you—I failed all of you.”
Ricket spoke just loud enough for the others in the cabin to hear him. Heads turned and shoulders visibly sagged; their expressions of hopefulness turned to worried puzzlement.
“Welcome to the twenty-first century!”
It was Billy, shouting through an open comms channel. His voice was overly loud—making everyone cringe. Jason’s eyes moved to the time reference display on his own HUD. Sure enough, the current year had locked in—time was advancing in a steady, second-following-second progression. There was a collective sigh of relief. Billy and Rizzo stood and high-fived, while Chameli watched them with a confused, albeit amused, expression.
“Looks like you got to finish in time after all. You got that beat-to-crap drone operational, Ricket,” Jason said, smiling.
“No, Captain, I didn’t. What’s happened is nothing more than an unimaginable stroke of good luck. There may be some technical factors at play that brought us so close to our own time realm, but we’ll never know.”
“What are you talking about, close to our own time realm?”
“Our HUD’s time reference indicator is showing today’s date: May 4th.”
“So?”
“Today actually is April 14th. It is three weeks earlier, Captain.”
Jason thought about that and although it wasn’t perfect, the date discrepancy was certainly close enough that life on Earth wouldn’t be overtly affected.
Jason shrugged, “Close enough, Ricket. You have to take the wins in life as they come.”
Looking up, Jason saw that all heads had turned in his direction.
“What? What the hell’s wrong with you people?”
Jason stared blankly back at their concerned faces. Billy was the only one not looking back at him. He was looking toward the cargo area. Jason spun in his seat and saw that Dira had stopped working on Traveler’s wounds and was looking back at him. There was concern—and something else
—in her eyes. Then she mouthed the words that would change everything. “Nan is still alive …”
He still didn’t connect the dots. “What do you mean—” Then it hit him. Oh my God. Today is the day Nan and Mollie were attacked by Captain Stalls. The day Nan was mortally injured, later to die in The Lilly’s MediPod.
Jason was on his feet and moving toward the cockpit. “Grimes! Set a course to Southern California.”
Grimes turned in her seat as Jason sat down next to her. She glanced back at Billy, questioningly. Billy moved forward and crouched between them.
“Hey, man, let’s think about this, okay? Just for a second.”
“There’s nothing to think about. Do it, Grimes.”
“Maybe you do have to think about it. There may be repercussions, if you save her. Things we may not even be aware of yet. You’d be changing the natural course of events for that timeframe.”
“What do you think we’ve been doing this last week?” Jason asked.
“None of that had an actual effect on our own timeframe. This is completely different.”
Jason saw the concern on his friend’s face, and the faces around him.
“What would you do, Billy? What if it was Orion? What if she had died and you had the opportunity to revisit—to change—that course of events; to have her back in your life again?”
Billy didn’t answer. Jason’s eyes locked on Dira’s. She looked away, obviously hurt.
It was Ricket who broke the silence. “If the captain saves her, or doesn’t save her, there’ll be complications, or consequences, either way. Captain, there will be two Mollies, two Brians, and probably others … depending on who was off the planet at the time. I’m with you, Captain, on this one. Save her, if you can.”
Realms of Time (Scrapyard Ship) Page 22
