"2568-11" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 6 - In Harms Way)"IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Eleven "Whew!" Carol breathed, the sun now peacefully shining upon us from between the leaves there in the trees, our house, car, everything just as we had left it. Tais giving me a smile, her eyes like beautiful azure jewels glowing into mine. The "tingle" from our passage through time now dying away as we stood there. "We are about eight hours ahead of the time that I original- ly `teleported' you into the future," Tais smiled back, her very attire leaving no doubts that she was in no way of our own time. "We've got a `problem'," I said, thinking. The house was locked up tight, and we didn't have any "house keys" either now, I explained, Tais giving me a "smile" as if to say not to worry! "As I recall, I left the keys in the ignition," Carol said. "I still don't see why you just can't go `take' what you want," my wife said to Tais as we stepped into the house, every- thing just as we'd left it the evening before to drive into Sea- side. For someone with Tais' "powers", it seemed hard to believe that she actually needed our "help" and "assistance" to obtain a few books from this era. Why couldn't she just "teleport" what she needed right back to 2568? I knew that Tais had been in this time before, and that she had been dressed much as a woman of the 20th Century, so why couldn't she just do the same thing again... "We are no longer in our own time," Tais smiled back. "Here I have no more powers than one of you would have," she explained. "I find `that' rather hard to believe," my wife smiled back, sliding the glass patio door closed behind the three of us. I too found it hard to believe knowing what I did about this woman! "The `powers' that you think I possess are not mine, but the combined minds of many Priestesses," Tais answered with a smile, looking about the kitchen with the same sort of "fascination" I thought that an archaeologist might have viewing the interior of a Pharaoh's tomb. Her actions only a further "proof" of what she was trying to explain to us. "I do have certain `abilities'," she smiled, a water glass there on the sink suddenly floating up into the air, "But I'm afraid I'm not quite what you think I am." "Just `what' can you do?" Carol asked, catching the glass. "I can `sense' the thoughts of people, and I can `do' little `tricks' with the gravitational field like the one you saw," Tais answered, her attire as before reminding me of a Grecian Goddess. "Can you sense the thoughts of animals?" I asked, curious. "Yes," Tais answered me, now walking about the kitchen. "How much do you know about this time?" my wife asked. "Much `less' than we'd like to know," Tais smiled back. "We'll have to find you some clothes to wear," Carol said. "Seems `funny' driving a car again," Carol said to me an hour later, her attire like ours now that of the 20th Century. Fortunately for us she had left her purse in the car when Tais had first teleported us into the future, so she still had her driver's license and library card, the latter being necessary if Tais was to obtain the books that she wanted. I had explained to her that we could not simply drive to Los Angeles and obtain them as she had first believed, but would have to obtain them through the library there in Seaside. Tais in some of Carol's clothing looking little different than a woman of this time, the blouse and jeans she wore fitting her fairly well, although she is a taller woman than Carol, about five nine to my wife's five seven. "How did you get around the first time you were here?" I asked, recalling how Tais had managed to be in both the Hutch and later on waiting beside our house when we'd later arrived home. "I stood beside the road and hitched a ride into town," Tais answered, giving me a smile as she sat there in the back seat. I nodded, smiling to myself. No doubt a beautiful blonde like her hadn't waited very long either to get a ride. "Later I hired a taxi to take me back to your house," she continued, Carol nodding as she drove, her eyes half on Tais in the rearview mirror and on the road ahead. "I gave the taxi driver a diamond worth about two gold crowns," the First Priestess smiled, answering a "ques- tion" that had been puzzling me here ever since we'd arrived now. "You don't have the `ability' to duplicate our money?" I asked, turning in my seat. To people as technologically advanced as the Priestesses of Lys seemed such would have been easy to do! "The `samples' of your money that we have are too damaged to be useful," the First Priestess answered. I recalled that "cash" money as a "legal tender" had come to a halt in 2013 when Janet Rogers introduced her "cashless economy" based upon "credits". "Only the coins and such have survived, and it was felt that the use of a large number of these coins would not be `wise' here." "And handing out diamonds wouldn't `be' either," Carol said, slowing for a truck ahead of us, traffic getting thicker now as we approached Seaside. Tais going on to say that the Priestesses could manufacture such diamonds easily from a nearby bed of coal. "Interesting," Tais mused, looking about. I supposed to her Seaside was something much "different" than it was to us. Much like the sort of "reaction" that a person of our era might have if they were suddenly transported to one of the great capitals of the 26th Century. "A `technologically advanced' social order, but with flaws that will eventually lead to its own destruction." "That `future' could be `altered'," Carol now pointed out as we stopped for a traffic light. Seaside is a combination of sea- side resort community and a rural farming community. I under- stand that it was destroyed in The War due to an earth quake and now lies some distance out to sea due to the changes in the land contours. On the map I have it would be to the north west of the "estate" of the Queen of Trelandar about three miles out to sea. "The `consequences' would not be what you expect," Tais an- swered. "Even if you could somehow `prevent' The War from taking place in 2047, that would not thus prevent it from taking place later on." I suspected that she knew too of what she spoke here. "Then the future is unpredictable?" I "ventured" to Tais. I had wondered about this, about what the limits of their knowledge were. I understood too that the Priestesses of Lys themselves were "allied" with similar "beings" elsewhere in the Universe. "`Time' is `like' a tree with many branches," Tais replied. "There are also other `futures' open to Mankind that we cannot `predict' with any degree of accuracy." I supposed she knew what she was talking about. I did later on "alter" the future myself, and much to my amazement the Priestesses were unable to "predict" this either with their own capabilities of time travel. Tais once explained to me in further detail the "nature" of time, but I fear it would be of little value to repeat these matters here. The idea of a "tree" with many "branches" as Tais said is perhaps the best "picture" that I can give of the true nature of "time". "Any Scribe would sell his or her soul for this!" Tais spoke in awe as she walked through the public library. Her own words coming as a surprise to both of us as Tais was the representative of the true rulers of the whole solar system in the 26th Century! "It's just a public library," Carol smiled, "And nothing like what you'd find in a big city," she added with a grin then. No doubt enjoying herself seeing Tais' amazement at all this now! "There are thousands upon thousands of books here!" Tais breathed. "The knowledge of generations of men stored on paper! If only it was possible to teleport all this...," she whispered!! The look in her eyes one that I will never forget as long as I live! She was the ruler of the solar system in the 26th Century, a woman (I consider her "female") who could order Queens around! "Don't you have a computer like Lorraine's?" I ventured, re- calling what Keri Greyson had told me about such a "device". I knew too that surviving CD-ROM's had been found, such having al- lowed Keri to learn far more about the past than any other member of her caste. Keri of the Scribes now being the acknowledged "expert" on the 21st Century, her book having been published just recently both in the Empire and in Dularn. I had a copy too. If Lorraine had a computer, then I was sure the Priestesses would... "Most such information as you see here was never stored in a form that survived the magnetic impulses caused by The War," Tais answered. "And books remained far more `popular' than CD-ROMS." I watched Tais standing there, the "impression" I got from her just then that of a child suddenly introduced to a candy store... "We'll have to wait for the other books," I said, Tais nod- ding, the librarian no doubt wondering "why" we had requested the books that we had. Tais' beauty having drawn some "note", the First Priestess being a tall aristocratic looking blonde, almost a "dead ringer" in a way for the actress Shannon Tweed, although Tais also reminded me in a way too of the Empress of California. "I fear that young man `admiring' me would be quite disap- pointed were his `fantasies' to come true," Tais smiled as we left the library, the young man in question being something of a "nerd" using the slang of the Twentieth Century. What is called a "specs" in Dularn by those of other castes than the Scribes... "At least you don't have the sexual `hangups' those of our religions had," Carol smiled, her "tummy" just showing a bit now. Fortunately she had once purchased a pair of slacks with an elas- tic waistband, which allowed a certain of "room" for "expansion". "`Christianity' was not a `benefit' to your society," Tais smiled, her arms loaded down with half a dozen books. "Those who were its founders were `sick', unfit to tell others what to do." I supposed she was right, knowing what I knew about Christianity. "Could you go back in time that far?" I asked, holding the door for Tais and my wife. I wondered what the TRUTH had been... "The further back or forwards you go in time, the more power it takes to open a `GATEWAY' that far back," Tais explained then. "Past a thousand years in either direction the energy require- ments exceed that of any natural source of power available now." "Guess we'll never know then," Carol smiled, squinting a bit in the bright sunlight of this delightful summery day, it being about noon now here in the middle of summer. "Although its too bad that there isn't a way of getting back that far in time now." "There may be," Tais mused, standing there as I unlocked the white Reliant. "It may be possible to modify the devices invent- ed by the Women to allow instantaneous travel through time as well as through space." I knew of such devices, Darlanis having mentioned them as had Lorraine. They worked by warping space it- self, causing two points in space to be drawn to the same spot... "What do you think?" Carol smiled, standing there beside Tais. I was suddenly very much "aware" that Tais was a beautiful and desirable "woman". At least she had the "body" of one here!! "I fear what I `appear' is not what I `am'," Tais laughed. "You do `fill' that bikini pretty nicely," I smiled back. It was not as "brief" as what Carol was wearing, but it show Tais off pretty good. She certainly didn't look like a Priestess now! "I do not understand the benefits of exposing one's body to the sun while wearing such attire," Tais said, her eyes holding mine. I knew she could sense my thoughts, almost "read" my mind. "You are a very beautiful woman," I said. I could see that. "I am `not' a woman in the sense you are thinking of," Tais answered. "Only in my exterior form am I what I appear to be..." Tais going on to explain that she was "neutered" much like a dog! "IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Eleven "Whew!" Carol breathed, the sun now peacefully shining upon us from between the leaves there in the trees, our house, car, everything just as we had left it. Tais giving me a smile, her eyes like beautiful azure jewels glowing into mine. The "tingle" from our passage through time now dying away as we stood there. "We are about eight hours ahead of the time that I original- ly `teleported' you into the future," Tais smiled back, her very attire leaving no doubts that she was in no way of our own time. "We've got a `problem'," I said, thinking. The house was locked up tight, and we didn't have any "house keys" either now, I explained, Tais giving me a "smile" as if to say not to worry! "As I recall, I left the keys in the ignition," Carol said. "I still don't see why you just can't go `take' what you want," my wife said to Tais as we stepped into the house, every- thing just as we'd left it the evening before to drive into Sea- side. For someone with Tais' "powers", it seemed hard to believe that she actually needed our "help" and "assistance" to obtain a few books from this era. Why couldn't she just "teleport" what she needed right back to 2568? I knew that Tais had been in this time before, and that she had been dressed much as a woman of the 20th Century, so why couldn't she just do the same thing again... "We are no longer in our own time," Tais smiled back. "Here I have no more powers than one of you would have," she explained. "I find `that' rather hard to believe," my wife smiled back, sliding the glass patio door closed behind the three of us. I too found it hard to believe knowing what I did about this woman! "The `powers' that you think I possess are not mine, but the combined minds of many Priestesses," Tais answered with a smile, looking about the kitchen with the same sort of "fascination" I thought that an archaeologist might have viewing the interior of a Pharaoh's tomb. Her actions only a further "proof" of what she was trying to explain to us. "I do have certain `abilities'," she smiled, a water glass there on the sink suddenly floating up into the air, "But I'm afraid I'm not quite what you think I am." "Just `what' can you do?" Carol asked, catching the glass. "I can `sense' the thoughts of people, and I can `do' little `tricks' with the gravitational field like the one you saw," Tais answered, her attire as before reminding me of a Grecian Goddess. "Can you sense the thoughts of animals?" I asked, curious. "Yes," Tais answered me, now walking about the kitchen. "How much do you know about this time?" my wife asked. "Much `less' than we'd like to know," Tais smiled back. "We'll have to find you some clothes to wear," Carol said. "Seems `funny' driving a car again," Carol said to me an hour later, her attire like ours now that of the 20th Century. Fortunately for us she had left her purse in the car when Tais had first teleported us into the future, so she still had her driver's license and library card, the latter being necessary if Tais was to obtain the books that she wanted. I had explained to her that we could not simply drive to Los Angeles and obtain them as she had first believed, but would have to obtain them through the library there in Seaside. Tais in some of Carol's clothing looking little different than a woman of this time, the blouse and jeans she wore fitting her fairly well, although she is a taller woman than Carol, about five nine to my wife's five seven. "How did you get around the first time you were here?" I asked, recalling how Tais had managed to be in both the Hutch and later on waiting beside our house when we'd later arrived home. "I stood beside the road and hitched a ride into town," Tais answered, giving me a smile as she sat there in the back seat. I nodded, smiling to myself. No doubt a beautiful blonde like her hadn't waited very long either to get a ride. "Later I hired a taxi to take me back to your house," she continued, Carol nodding as she drove, her eyes half on Tais in the rearview mirror and on the road ahead. "I gave the taxi driver a diamond worth about two gold crowns," the First Priestess smiled, answering a "ques- tion" that had been puzzling me here ever since we'd arrived now. "You don't have the `ability' to duplicate our money?" I asked, turning in my seat. To people as technologically advanced as the Priestesses of Lys seemed such would have been easy to do! "The `samples' of your money that we have are too damaged to be useful," the First Priestess answered. I recalled that "cash" money as a "legal tender" had come to a halt in 2013 when Janet Rogers introduced her "cashless economy" based upon "credits". "Only the coins and such have survived, and it was felt that the use of a large number of these coins would not be `wise' here." "And handing out diamonds wouldn't `be' either," Carol said, slowing for a truck ahead of us, traffic getting thicker now as we approached Seaside. Tais going on to say that the Priestesses could manufacture such diamonds easily from a nearby bed of coal. "Interesting," Tais mused, looking about. I supposed to her Seaside was something much "different" than it was to us. Much like the sort of "reaction" that a person of our era might have if they were suddenly transported to one of the great capitals of the 26th Century. "A `technologically advanced' social order, but with flaws that will eventually lead to its own destruction." "That `future' could be `altered'," Carol now pointed out as we stopped for a traffic light. Seaside is a combination of sea- side resort community and a rural farming community. I under- stand that it was destroyed in The War due to an earth quake and now lies some distance out to sea due to the changes in the land contours. On the map I have it would be to the north west of the "estate" of the Queen of Trelandar about three miles out to sea. "The `consequences' would not be what you expect," Tais an- swered. "Even if you could somehow `prevent' The War from taking place in 2047, that would not thus prevent it from taking place later on." I suspected that she knew too of what she spoke here. "Then the future is unpredictable?" I "ventured" to Tais. I had wondered about this, about what the limits of their knowledge were. I understood too that the Priestesses of Lys themselves were "allied" with similar "beings" elsewhere in the Universe. "`Time' is `like' a tree with many branches," Tais replied. "There are also other `futures' open to Mankind that we cannot `predict' with any degree of accuracy." I supposed she knew what she was talking about. I did later on "alter" the future myself, and much to my amazement the Priestesses were unable to "predict" this either with their own capabilities of time travel. Tais once explained to me in further detail the "nature" of time, but I fear it would be of little value to repeat these matters here. The idea of a "tree" with many "branches" as Tais said is perhaps the best "picture" that I can give of the true nature of "time". "Any Scribe would sell his or her soul for this!" Tais spoke in awe as she walked through the public library. Her own words coming as a surprise to both of us as Tais was the representative of the true rulers of the whole solar system in the 26th Century! "It's just a public library," Carol smiled, "And nothing like what you'd find in a big city," she added with a grin then. No doubt enjoying herself seeing Tais' amazement at all this now! "There are thousands upon thousands of books here!" Tais breathed. "The knowledge of generations of men stored on paper! If only it was possible to teleport all this...," she whispered!! The look in her eyes one that I will never forget as long as I live! She was the ruler of the solar system in the 26th Century, a woman (I consider her "female") who could order Queens around! "Don't you have a computer like Lorraine's?" I ventured, re- calling what Keri Greyson had told me about such a "device". I knew too that surviving CD-ROM's had been found, such having al- lowed Keri to learn far more about the past than any other member of her caste. Keri of the Scribes now being the acknowledged "expert" on the 21st Century, her book having been published just recently both in the Empire and in Dularn. I had a copy too. If Lorraine had a computer, then I was sure the Priestesses would... "Most such information as you see here was never stored in a form that survived the magnetic impulses caused by The War," Tais answered. "And books remained far more `popular' than CD-ROMS." I watched Tais standing there, the "impression" I got from her just then that of a child suddenly introduced to a candy store... "We'll have to wait for the other books," I said, Tais nod- ding, the librarian no doubt wondering "why" we had requested the books that we had. Tais' beauty having drawn some "note", the First Priestess being a tall aristocratic looking blonde, almost a "dead ringer" in a way for the actress Shannon Tweed, although Tais also reminded me in a way too of the Empress of California. "I fear that young man `admiring' me would be quite disap- pointed were his `fantasies' to come true," Tais smiled as we left the library, the young man in question being something of a "nerd" using the slang of the Twentieth Century. What is called a "specs" in Dularn by those of other castes than the Scribes... "At least you don't have the sexual `hangups' those of our religions had," Carol smiled, her "tummy" just showing a bit now. Fortunately she had once purchased a pair of slacks with an elas- tic waistband, which allowed a certain of "room" for "expansion". "`Christianity' was not a `benefit' to your society," Tais smiled, her arms loaded down with half a dozen books. "Those who were its founders were `sick', unfit to tell others what to do." I supposed she was right, knowing what I knew about Christianity. "Could you go back in time that far?" I asked, holding the door for Tais and my wife. I wondered what the TRUTH had been... "The further back or forwards you go in time, the more power it takes to open a `GATEWAY' that far back," Tais explained then. "Past a thousand years in either direction the energy require- ments exceed that of any natural source of power available now." "Guess we'll never know then," Carol smiled, squinting a bit in the bright sunlight of this delightful summery day, it being about noon now here in the middle of summer. "Although its too bad that there isn't a way of getting back that far in time now." "There may be," Tais mused, standing there as I unlocked the white Reliant. "It may be possible to modify the devices invent- ed by the Women to allow instantaneous travel through time as well as through space." I knew of such devices, Darlanis having mentioned them as had Lorraine. They worked by warping space it- self, causing two points in space to be drawn to the same spot... "What do you think?" Carol smiled, standing there beside Tais. I was suddenly very much "aware" that Tais was a beautiful and desirable "woman". At least she had the "body" of one here!! "I fear what I `appear' is not what I `am'," Tais laughed. "You do `fill' that bikini pretty nicely," I smiled back. It was not as "brief" as what Carol was wearing, but it show Tais off pretty good. She certainly didn't look like a Priestess now! "I do not understand the benefits of exposing one's body to the sun while wearing such attire," Tais said, her eyes holding mine. I knew she could sense my thoughts, almost "read" my mind. "You are a very beautiful woman," I said. I could see that. "I am `not' a woman in the sense you are thinking of," Tais answered. "Only in my exterior form am I what I appear to be..." Tais going on to explain that she was "neutered" much like a dog! |
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