by Geoff Wolak
‘He’ll be back in a week or two, maybe less.’
‘A week or two here, but years over there. He’s probably having the time of his life.’
I bit my lip. ‘I’ll see what I can do, madam. Leave it with me.’ I cut the call. ‘Computer, lock out that caller.’ I went and had a beer.
Ten days later, and Henry informed me that some four hundred labourers were working at the stadium site, plus carpenters, a small army toiling away. Seems that the President had kicked some arse. I sent for more gold coins to pay the men with, and to pay for the concrete, some of which was coming from far away.
The men toiled away in the snow, from early in the morning till late at night, lights rigged up for them. I sent food along, much appreciated by the tired workers, a steady stream of tinned meat or tinned tuna. And the reason that the President was being so helpful was because of the oil now flowing copiously from the various places we had sunk wells. They had even secretly sold some to the Preether. So much for being at war with the dreaded enemy.
I didn’t manage to get out much because of the weather, now more than eighteen months into this project, the project of advancing the Seether and Preether peacefully. It was slow going. Then, a week later, raised voices preceded a guard bursting in, disturbing my lunch.
‘Boss, we found another human colony, a big one.’
‘Where?’ I puzzled.
‘The Azores, mid Atlantic.’
‘Why wasn’t it scanned before?’ I demanded.
‘Big fucking planet, boss.’
I wagged a warning finger. ‘I want more drones sent through, and every inch of this damn planet checked.’
‘Right, boss.’ He rushed out.
‘They would be very well isolated on the islands,’ Henry noted. ‘But, air travel must have taken the virus there as well. Most of the Caribbean Islands are completely dead, just a few dozen people left.’
I lifted a data-pad. ‘Computer, display images of human colony on the Azores.’
I studied the aerial images of people on the ground, then what appeared to be a dozen grey naval vessels all moored together, including a great big aircraft carrier and six submarines. Zooming in on the ships, I could see that they appeared rusted in places, but the people moving around were in uniform, American uniforms. ‘Oh hell.’
‘What is it?’ Henry enquired.
‘They’re all US servicemen, thousands of them by the look of it.’
‘Men that we should have evacuated eighteen months ago,’ Henry pointed out.
I shrugged and made a face. ‘We scanned the main population centres, and most of the world, just … missed this lot.’ I lifted my pad. ‘Computer, notify US military authorities of the discovery of US military group still functioning on this world, on the Azores.’
‘We had better search the Pacific,’ Henry suggested, and I nodded my agreement.
Gilchrist was making enquiries within an hour. With the portal that had been used on Antarctica now on a ship heading to Britain, it was diverted towards the Azores. Meanwhile, I sent the closest drone back to the Azores, and to land, right on the deck of a carrier that turned out to be the USS Nimitz. I observed with the embassy staff as the drone descended, landing smoothly, images of enlisted men walking out to it, rifles prone.
When they were close enough, I said, ‘Can you hear me?’
‘It’s talking,’ a man said, an officer seen to be striding over. The enlisted men moved to one side.
‘Can you hear me, officer person?’ I said.
‘Who the hell is talking?’ he demanded.
‘My name is Paul Holton, a … politician, and we’ve come to rescue you.’
‘There much space in the back of your dinky little plane?’ the man quipped.
‘This drone flies at sixty thousand feet using solar power, years at a time, and could sink your fucking carrier, numb nuts,’ I said. ‘It has EMP pulse weapons and lasers, so don’t insult the little plane.’
The officer closed in and knelt down. ‘Where’re you transmitting from?’
‘Canada,’ I said. ‘Microwave link. Anyway, listen, I’m going to send another drone with a phone … and some drugs. Those drugs will cure any disease you have, even burns.’
‘Cure ... burns?’
‘Hard to explain, but we’re from the future.’
‘The … future?’
‘Yes, the future. Try the drugs when you get them, and see how well they cure everything. And, about ten days from now, a portal will open where you are - and US Marines will step through to escort you out of there. We’ll send a few senior officers along. How … how many people are there?’
‘Here? About thirty thousand.’
‘That many.’ I exchanged a look with Henry. ‘Did you end up there after the war?’
‘Not straight away, and when we landed most of the locals were already dead. We landed about a year after the war.’
‘When you realised that no word would come from base.’
‘Is there anyone else, sir, still alive?’
I took a moment. ‘A handful, living like rats in caves and eating each other.’
The officer could be seen shaking his head. ‘What’s this future stuff, sir, that on the level?’
‘NASA built a time machine, and you’ll see it open before your eyes. Have faith. I’ll send a drone soon, with a phone and drugs. In the meantime, you can use this one to communicate with us. Do you have US Marines there?’
‘Yes.’
‘Go get them, and I’ll patch you through to a few from here.’
Later that day, I listened in as a group of Marines sat crossed-legged around the drone, and at this end a group of Marines told of basic training bases attended, bars, girls met and laid, the fight against The Brotherhood.
With the sun now down in the Azores, the drone was lifted onto a metal table, and now a line of officers in white sat chatting to Navy officers on my world, quite a crowd of people stood around the drone. Then a senior officer on my world took charge.
‘You guys seem to have kept it together for very long time.’
‘Sir, we … maintained discipline, which hasn’t always been easy, punishment swift and harsh, but … but the men could see that if we all pulled together we could survive. We farm, we raise livestock, we fish, and … we have regular R&R, some nice hotels with clean sheets and good beaches. We have a system of governance, Admiral Forrester in charge.’
‘Forrester? Any relation to Captain Dick Forrester of Idaho?’
‘His father was from Idaho, yes, sir.’
‘On this world, his father is alive and well. I’ll get him to link in tomorrow.’
They spoke all night, men and officers taking it in turns to chat to the disembodied voices of complete strangers on another world. In the morning, I sat listening to the man in charge, Admiral Forrester.
‘This is Captain Dick Forrestor.’
‘Admiral Forrestor,’ the man in charge repeated, a stony-faced individual with white hair. ‘My father was called Dick.’
‘I’m from Idaho, sir, Nampa, my wife from Middelton. We met after a crash on I84, and sat in diner for a few hours. My father was Walt, my Grandma Irene.’
‘They were the names of my Grandparents,’ the Admiral confirmed. ‘Lived near the lake and fished a lot.’
‘My … father hated the water, and fishing.’
‘Sorry, Captain, was just trying to catch you out.’
‘That’s OK, sir, this is all a bit weird for me too.’
‘Got any kids?’
‘Three boys, all doing well in school. We’re now living in Norfolk. Oldest boy has a Naval sponsorship, in college.’
‘This flu virus, it killed most everyone here?’
The Captain took a moment. ‘That virus, sir, was developed by the CIA.’
The Admiral took in the faces of those around him. ‘And … how many survived?’
‘Best we can figure, couple of thousand – besides your colony and Antarctica.’<
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‘Antarctica?’
‘A colony of humans was established there, by the scientists who developed the virus.’
‘Wish I knew that earlier, we still have a few nukes. You said … humans?’
‘This may come as a bit of a shock, but there is life around the universe that’s not human. We’re kinda of in a fight with some right now.’
‘A fight?’ the Admiral asked, stiffening.
‘Don’t worry, sir, we’re on top of it. But on your world, those scientists bred a race of beings that are half man and half fish, so that they’d resist the flu virus.’
‘Half … fish?’
‘They look just like us, apart from big black eyes, bald with a prominent ridge of bone, pointy teeth. There are half a million of them colonising Montana and Denver.’
‘Jesus. Well, just what the heck are you doing about that?’
‘We’re … helping them to develop their society, sir.’
‘You’re helping them? What the heck for?’
‘There are no people left on your world, sir, save you and a few jungle dwellers, so … so the politicians decided to leave that world to the Seethans.’
‘Seethans?’
‘That’s what the fish people are called. But they’re DNA is mostly human.’
‘What a screwed up world,’ the Admiral let out. ‘Man dies out and these … these things get the walk down Main Street.’
‘The people here … see the world differently, sir. There have been no wars fought for a long time, and Russia and China are our friends now.’
‘Friends?’
‘Yes, sir. We have peace.’
‘Do you have any of these funny fish people where you are?’
‘There are a few of them here, sir, yes.’
‘And now an alien threat?’
‘We’ve been developing advanced weapons to meet that threat. And, as we speak, there are three alien ships heading to your world.’
‘Heading here?’ the Admiral baulked.
‘They’ll be there inside a year; we’re tracking them in space.’
‘Some sort of attack?’
‘Not the way you think, sir, these are craft with just one person aboard each.’
‘Just one?’
‘Yes, sir. These aliens, they work like Mister Silo -’
‘Who?’
‘Jimmy Silo, he’s kinda in charge around here. He’s a three hundred year old time traveller.’
‘Three hundred … years old?’
‘The drugs on the way to you - if you inject people with them they won’t just get better, they’ll live a lot longer. There are many people around who are over a hundred, and look thirty.’
‘My God, you’re interfering with God’s law; three score years and ten.’
Oh dear, I thought.
‘We hold different views, sir. Times have changed.’
‘Changed for the worse, by all accounts. Human mutants walking around, people living forever, the Russians and Chinese our friends. Seems we’d be better off staying put.’
There came a long pause. ‘That would be a narrow view,’ the Captain said. ‘And, I hope that I raised my boys to have a better view of the world, and of those that don’t look like them.’
‘Seems like you’ve gone soft. This conversation is ended.’ The Admiral walked off.
Oh dear, I thought, trouble ahead. I linked in to Jimmy. ‘Listen, the guy in charge of the US Navy survivors here is a real bible-bashing Redneck.’
‘Great, that always helps. He’ll resist?’
‘He’ll want to stick his foot up your arse.’
‘We could always take them by force, using knock-out gas.’
‘These are soldiers, with rifles, and spread out. Besides, the folks back home may have an opinion about it.’
‘Gilchrist can hardly wish them to stay put, but … but there may be a way…’
‘I know that tone. You’re about to be a sneaky shit.’
‘I’ll let you handle it, and … if you need help, underling, you call.’ He cut the link, smirking.
‘Cheeky bastard.’ I went and found Henry. ‘These sailors, their boss is a real right-wing idiot. He already thinks we’re interfering with God’s great plan for us.’
‘Oh dear,’ Henry let out. ‘Wonder what he’ll be like when he sees the Seether.’
‘He knows about them, and he would like to see them all roasted alive.’
‘He’s from a different era, Cold War mentality – and then some!’
I sighed. ‘We don’t need this crap.’
‘It’s out of our hands,’ Henry suggested. ‘They’ll open a portal there and … Mister Silo will deal with it. Our remit is right here.’
‘Yeah, you’re right, but Jimmy said he had an idea on how to fix it, and … and I want to have that idea as well.’
Henry eased back. ‘Such people, military people from birth almost, will be hard to reintegrate to our world -’
‘So they need to go somewhere else,’ I said, staring out of focus.
‘Somewhere … where they would fit in -’
‘And feel wanted and … useful.’
‘For that, you would need a war,’ Henry pointed out.
‘Plenty of parallel worlds with wars going on,’ I reminded Henry. ‘Especially against The Brotherhood.’
‘Do we simply want to send these boys off to die?’
‘Well, no, we … just want them marching up and down happily, and doing something useful. Maybe with a shiny new ship or two.’
‘We could send them spare parts for the ships they have,’ Henry suggested. ‘And they could potter around getting them ready for ages. Something to do.’
‘With their tubs working, they’d have a pride and a purpose,’ I said, wagging a finger. ‘But … what purpose?’
Henry eased forwards. ‘They could check other islands for humans, and round them all up.’
‘And, after a few years, some might want to come and live with us. I mean, back on my world; similar date to when they were active, similar old tubs. And, people from our worlds could holiday on the Azores, people interested in these old tubs.’
‘We would need a great deal of paint. Grey … paint, naval grey.’
I smiled. But I still wanted to be sure that I had out-thought Jimmy.
The next day, having been up most of the night, I linked into Jimmy. ‘I’ve had an idea, about the sailors.’
‘Yes..?’
‘We don’t try and evacuate them, we … tell them that our world is not sure about taking them back, and in the meantime we send them spares for their tubs … and offer them work searching for humans, supplies offered.’
‘Reverse psychology,’ Jimmy said, smiling. ‘OK, try it.’
‘And you’re idea?’ I pressed.
‘We’ll discuss that if yours fails. Have fun.’
The sailors received the drugs and a few phones, and injected a rating with bad burns, a second rating suffering with cancer. Both recovered, and the local “scuttlebutt” made sure that everyone knew about the wonder drugs. I also received word that the sailors had three ships still working and sea worthy, a few helicopters, and many small boats operational. They even had a submarine that put to sea now and then, but not one with ballistic missiles – I checked. I then made a call to Admiral Forrestor.
‘Admiral, I’m Paul Holton.’
‘You sound British.’
‘I am, and I’m a lot older than I sound.
‘Had the drugs, eh?’
‘No point in dying … when there is so much work to do, so much to fix.’
There came a long pause. ‘I guess you could see it like that.’
‘Listen, the politicians over here kinda see you as … an old war dog, and as such they’re not sure if they want to evacuate you to our world. People here are now very peaceful and … well, very liberal in their outlooks, especially towards blacks, Asians, and even aliens. So, for now the evacuation is on hold.’<
br />
‘On hold?’
‘For now. But I have worked a deal, and we’ll send you supplies, and spares for your ships.’
‘For the ships?’
‘Yes, so if you can prepare a list of what you need we’ll get it sorted. And we’re sending a great deal of paint.’
‘Paint?’
‘To paint the ships with. Now, a delicate matter. Some of our people, using those drones to search for human colonies have … kinda screwed it up a bit. If you’re willing to cooperate, we’d fix your ships, send supplies, but in return we’d like some help.’
‘Help?’
‘Searching islands for humans and … well, dragging them to our refugee centres. Especially kids. There are some in the Caribbean, many in the Pacific. It could take years.’
There was a long pause. ‘Our ships would be fully repaired?’
‘Yes, just as soon as your people could fix them.’
‘And the supplies we’d get? How much, and how soon?’
‘Portal could be open in a few days, and we’d start with food – tinned meat, beer and wine, clothes, blankets. Make up a list if you like; the priorities.’
‘And if I had a few men that wished to leave, and we wished to get rid of…?’
‘Send them through to us. They’d have to go to a camp, have a psychological test, and then … maybe we could find a use for them.’
‘I’ll have that list in a day,’ he threatened. ‘I’ll call then.’ He cut the line. I went and told Henry.
‘You gave them a purpose. But I would guess that many a young naval rating would wish a return to a civilised society, one with bars full of girls, so – in time – many would come across to us.’
‘More the better,’ I commented. ‘And we have time. The Seether won’t be taking to the ocean wave anytime in the next twenty years, despite their aquatic genes.’
I sent additional drones to the Azores, packed with drugs, and they landed on deck like F14s. Only much smaller. And slower. And without the Top Gun music playing in the background. And I updated the governments on various worlds about what I had done. They were not happy bunnies. Some could see the logic, but the various US Navies suggested that the men should return, and do as they were told. Gilchrist got involved, and I suggested he talk with Admiral Forrestor. He did so, and came back onto me afterwards.
