King Henry's Choice

by Emily-Jane Hills Orford

  “Your Majesty,” he spoke clear and with distinction. “May I present His Majesty, King Henry I and his son, Prince Edward.” Turning to Henry, he added, “Your Majesty, this is Her Majesty, Queen Mary Elizabeth II, Queen of Scotland in the twenty-fifth century.”

  The current queen stood and walked towards the men, hand extended. She chuckled softly. “Since we’re all kings, queens and princes, here, we won’t stand on ceremony. There is work to be done. A pleasure to meet you at last, Henry. And you too, young Edward.” She nodded to the boy. She pointed to the chairs near the window. “Sit. Please. I’m sure you have lots of questions. I’ll answer them as best I can.”

  “I do have lots of questions,” Henry admitted, waiting for the women to be seated before taking a seat himself. “But I don’t know where to begin.”

  “I do,” Edward chirped in. The others chuckled at his boldness. “How did this time travel anomaly begin?”

  “That’s a big question, Edward,” Queen Mary Elizabeth II answered. “But a good one. Cecil?” She shared a knowing nod with the man. “He’s the man to outline the program’s beginnings. After all, he was the one to invent and implement it.”

  “Cecil?” Four sets of eyes flickered suddenly to the man, watching him shift uncomfortably.

  “You’ve been holding out on us,” Henry spoke for the others. “I guess you have some explaining to do.”

  A deep sigh escaped Cecil as he took time to gather his thoughts before speaking. “Yes. I did invent the implant time travel device,” he finally admitted. He motioned to someone standing by the door to bring over a large board. Once it was wheeled into place, he lifted a large page and threw it over the back, revealing a huge image of what appeared to be the human brain. “We may be far advanced in many ways, but sometimes the old-fashioned way of showing diagrams works best.”

  “And it’s more secure,” the queen added.

  Cecil nodded, picked up a pointer and proceeded with his presentation. “Now, back to the project. I wasn’t alone in the research and development. It did get out of control and files went missing. We know now where the files disappeared. To a similar research lab just outside of London. The idea of the implant, once I had tested it, was to choose subjects to carry out specific tasks in the past, to change a little bit of history, to make things better in the present day of the twenty-fifth century. Especially for Scotland and the Scottish people. It wasn’t my idea to erase your memories of each visit to this place well in your future.” He cast an accusing eye at the queen.

  “I was advised on this matter, Cecil,” she argued in her defense. “You know that. We didn’t want our chosen subjects to know too much, to be able to access this secure facility without our knowledge or our control. Especially since the implant monitored brain activity and manipulated the jump through time based on what, where and when the person was thinking about.”

  Cecil cleared his throat, fiddling with the pointer in his hand. “Be that as it may, it obviously didn’t work on everyone. Henry, here, is perhaps the first of our subjects, that we know of, whose memory was never fully erased. He has a strong mind, that one. As does his son, Edward.” The boy beamed at the praise.

  “The implant works on navigating specific parts of the brain.” He started pointing at the diagram of the human brain, paying specific attention to various areas, each labeled with an identifying name. He didn’t go into detail about each part. Instead, he summarized as best he could. He knew the importance of making things brief, especially when expediency was an essential factor. “Since the brain is basically made up of nerve cells which interact with the rest of the body through the spinal cord and nervous system, the positioning of the implant is crucial to its effectiveness. It is surgically placed between the brain stem, which basically controls all functions of the body, and the spinal cord.” He used the pointer again and marked a specific location on the diagram. “Here,” he said. “It’s most effective here. Tiny wires, replicating the nerve cells which relay messages from various parts of the brain to the rest of the body, project from this implant, making it function much like any other part of the brain, but also along with all the various brain parts.” He paused, noting the looks of confusion on the faces listening to his explanation. “Simply put, as my queen just explained, all you have to do is think of a time and place and the implant opens a wormhole allowing you to move to that time and place.” He placed the pointer on the ledge at the bottom of the board and returned to his seat. It appeared he fully expected questions. A lot of questions. There were none.

  Queen Mary Elizabeth II allowed the details to sink in for a few minutes before taking over the discussion. “We were careful who we chose,” she paused, allowing the impact of her confession to settle in. “Our sole purpose was to make sure Scotland remained free and independent. We were faced with a crisis in this time. England was gaining power, partly through stealing our time travel technology. But it was more than that. They wanted what we had found centuries ago in the northern seas: oil. By international law, the waters around Scotland belong to Scotland. If Scotland amalgamated with England…”

  “Or was overrun by the English,” Cecil grumpily interrupted. He didn’t say any more, noticing his sovereign’s raised hand as an indication he had overstepped his rights. She had the floor. It was her place to say what he was thinking. It was not uncommon for one to finish the other’s sentences, but this was neither the time nor the place.

  The queen concluded the obvious, “Then England would have the rights to whatever came out of the northern seas. Including the oil. We have been fighting this battle for a long time and, with Cecil’s invention, we thought we had the upper hand. Then somehow the English managed to create their own implant-time travel program and started sending soldiers through wormholes to all times and places, wreaking havoc for generations of Scottish people, particularly those they somehow knew had the implants imbedded in their skulls.”

  “So how can we help?” Henry asked the obvious. “We don’t have the weapons of your time. We don’t have the means to defeat them now or in the past.”

  “But your minds are simpler than theirs.” She held up her hand to ward off argument. “No insult intended. It’s actually a bonus. They can’t read your minds as well as they can read the minds of this century. They can’t sense your presence. You have the ability to become almost invisible while infiltrating their facilities. And, with Cecil’s help, we can make you completely invisible.”

  “You have the technology?” Edward asked. Cecil nodded. “Cool.”

  “Cool? What do you mean?” Henry asked. “You’re not cold, are you son?”

  Everyone laughed. “What’s so funny?” The king’s eyes took in the sea of amused faces. “He said he was cold. That can’t be good.”

  “It’s a socially acceptable slang word of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,” Grandmother Marie explained. “It took me a while to catch on when the younger Mary Elizabeth started using it.”

  “It means everything’s great. Awesome. Fantastic.” Grandmother Mary Elizabeth added a definition of sorts. “In this case, I think Edward is impressed with the idea of becoming invisible.”

  “Very cool.” Edward nodded in agreement. The others laughed some more.

  Cecil cleared his throat to regain everyone’s attention. “We have a few things we need to do with your implants before you’re ready to send into the field, so to speak.”

  “And, we want to train you on some of our newest high-tech weapons before you leave,” the queen added.

  “Cool!” Edward said. “Can I bring my bow and arrows as well?”

  “Wouldn’t hurt,” Henry ruffled his son’s hair affectionately, until the boy squirmed out of his reach. He cleared his throat softly to mask a chuckle. His son was growing up. All too fast. The memory of his son’s confession about the disease sparked its worrying head, but the king squelched it back down. Time to mourn later. Now was a time for action.

  The queen a
dded, “And, Henry, you must bring the sword. King Robert’s sword. That, and the ring, are connected. Powerful. In ways you will never begin to understand.”

  “Was he a time traveler, too?” Edward asked, eager to know more than just his history. He wanted to know all he could about the time travelers, past, present and future.

  “Yes, he was,” Cecil gave the lad an affectionate smile. He showed a fondness one would expect between a father and son, not a young boy and a distant descendant. “He was the first. Our first. He wore the ring your father now wears. The ring Grandmother Mary Elizabeth still wears as she hasn’t finished her journey through life, past, present and future. He also wielded the great sword that is now in your father’s possession, the one we retrieved from Grandmother Marie’s cousin, Louis II, Cardinal of Guise.”

  Looking around the group, he suggested, “We have some time, I believe for some questions.” He received a nod of agreement from the queen.

  Forty

  “Why were we chosen?” Grandmother Marie asked the most obvious question which was at the forefront of all their minds.

  “There were others.” Queen Mary Elizabeth II took the floor. “Not always royalty. Some survived, but were ineffective. They were the pawns in a much larger experiment. You have to understand. This program was seen as a means to protect Scotland as a free and independent country throughout the centuries. When we first started, we, the Scottish people, were British subjects, along with the Irish and so many other people around the world. We studied Scotland’s history and decided to pinpoint key characters in the long battle for Scottish supremacy. Our studies first took us back as far as King Robert I or Robert the Bruce. In our original timeline, which had me as a mere Royal Stuart of no consequence under English rule, our independence was lost in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were a continuous series of battles between England and Scotland. King Edward I of England was successful multiple times, conquering most of Scotland. Robert always fought back, valiantly regaining control in 1314, first at Stirling, still our most strategic battle site. After King Edward II was crowned King of England, he fought back, gaining ground until Bannockburn. It was a tough battle, the English losing ground on all sides. In the original timeline, Robert was killed and the Scots lost to the English, who maintained their control of Scotland right up to our era. It wasn’t a pleasant marriage, if you can call it that. We had to change the timeline. We chose to start our venture with King Robert.”

  Cecil took over the discourse. “We made Robert our first royal time traveler and helped him regain what was rightfully ours.”

  “And we managed to hold onto our land,” Queen Mary Elizabeth II took over again. “Until your era.” She paused to look at Grandmother Marie. “You had a difficult task, Marie de Guise. You managed to keep the English at bay, so to speak. But it wasn’t easy. We helped as best we could, keeping our presence and your implant and time travel abilities as secret and inconsequential as possible. Your daughter was not a good subject to enlist in this program. Your granddaughter, however. We knew we had a chance there if we put you, as the loving grandmother and a seasoned time traveler, beside her as a guide.”

  Grandmother Marie interrupted. “I never did fully understand how it was possible for an infant to jump through time. She didn’t have her implant until much later.”

  Henry sat up straight, a sudden realisation invading his senses. “Nor did Edward. And he jumped through time, nestled as a baby in my arms.”

  Grandmother Marie added another point which she never fully understood. “And how does my cousin and close confidante, Lady Mary Catherine de Guise, fit into all this? She was neither royal nor a key player in Scottish affairs.”

  The queen held up her hands to ward off further questions until she had answered those already presented. “We specifically chose Lady Mary Catherine, knowing full well how close she was to you. We knew you would need someone familiar and understanding by your side. Yours was the most difficult journey to take. As for the babies? We didn’t know if it would work either until Lady Mary Catherine managed to secret the infant Princess Mary Elizabeth to the future. Then Henry was able to do the same with his son.” She nodded at Cecil to take over.

  “We haven’t fully studied the matter yet,” he explained quite simply. “Too many other matters, more serious matters, to contend with. However, it appears the implant provides an aura around the person, enough to encompass what a person’s wearing, any jewels or weapons or documents they’re carrying and, yes, something as tiny as a newborn baby.”

  “But there were others.” Grandmother Marie continued to argue. “Lady Mary Catherine mentioned others she knew amongst the clans. People who were time travelers.”

  “All dedicated to the cause of Scottish independence,” the queen concluded for her ancestor. Grandmother Marie nodded. “The cause was our main intent. Our goal. Our initiative. But now things have gotten somewhat out of hand and we need your help to eliminate the English time travelers’ ability to wreak havoc in our plans.”

  “Do you have a mole amongst you?” Edward asked. “A spy? A double agent?”

  The queen nodded sadly. “Quite possibly. We believe we know who. There are several. We don’t want to let them know what we know until we complete our mission. For the moment, they’re a means of feeding false intel to the enemy.”

  “Suffice it to say,” Cecil added. “It is imperative we only talk freely in this room, which is the only safe room in the realm.” He waved off further questions. “We have created a state-of-the-art facility here at Holyrood House, but only this room is truly safe. It’s only accessible to certain people and there are multiple layers of cyber walls around us to protect anything said or discussed in this room.” He stood and motioned the others to follow. “That being said, we are about to enter a room which serves to monitor all of our time travelers and many of England’s as well. Be careful what you say outside this room.”

  Cecil opened the door which led to what the others remembered as being the formal dining room. The walls were covered in large screens projecting images of various events, presumabyle around Scotland and throughout time. The long dining table which had once hosted dignitaries from around the world was covered with unfamiliar devices imitating the keyboard of a typewriter. People were seated before these devices, typing feverishly.

  Henry had seen typewriters. In fact, he owned several and often typed formal letters on the machine before adding his official signature. The typewriter was, after all, a Scottish invention, though the English often tried to claim it as their own. A Henry Mill created a device in 1714, but a Lawrence Murray had created a much better device ten year’s earlier. Another bone of contention for the English was the Scottish collaboration with the American inventor, Franz Wagner, to produce a keyboard layout which would assist typists to type without looking at the keyboard. An ingenious design.

  These devices, however, were nothing like the typewriters of his time. Lying flat on the table, the layout of the letters on a keyboard was similar, but the similarities ended there.

  “Computers, Father,” Edward whispered in Henry’s ear. Something else his son understood better than he did, having been educated in the twenty-first century. “They control everything.”

  Edward, never shy, moved ahead of the others who remained by the door gawking at the setup. He wandered around, taking in all the devices. “It’s like a superhero cave!” Edward exclaimed with delight.

  Cecil laughed. The others weren’t too sure. “A superhero cave?” Henry quirked an eyebrow.

  “Yeah. A cave with all kinds of high-tech stuff that helps superheroes fight evil.”

  Henry nodded his head. “Right.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “What exactly is happening here, Cecil?”

  “Quite simply, we’re monitoring the implants.”

  “In other words, spying on your experimental subjects,” Grandmother Marie pointed out.

  “Another way
of looking at it.” Cecil nodded. “Yes. It’s our way of controlling what happens. If things look like they might be getting out of hand, so to speak, we can send in reinforcements, or pull the subject out of the situation they find themselves in. Like when Henry was cornered in the nursery cubbyhole with his infant son.”

  “You provided a means to escape to another time and place,” Henry concluded.

  “And when you, Marie, along with your granddaughter and your faithful servant, were cornered in your study in Toronto.”

  “In other words, you always had our backs,” Henry noted with a satisfied nod of his head.

  “In a manner of speaking and as best we could.” Cecil motioned everyone forward. “We watch your progress on monitors. Nothing private, rest assured. We allow you some sense of privacy. We don’t interfere unless there appears to be no other alternative.”

  “So, you play God,” Grandmother Mary Elizabeth was never one to mince words. She always came straight to the point. “You have the upper hand, controlling all of us and the outcome of our affairs. Making sure that what we will do will positively affect your world in your time.”

  “A blunt way of putting it,” Cecil agreed. “But you also played God. You jumped around at will to make sure things were going the way you believed they should. Your jumps to visit Queen Elizabeth I of England, your brother, your mother and father. Those jumps were neither planned nor controlled by us at this end. You had your own list of ulterior motives.”

  “Perhaps we all play God at times,” Queen Mary Elizabeth II suggested. She waved a hand towards the empty chairs around the table. “Please. Take a seat. We still have much to discuss. A lot to explain.”