"2570-03" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 8 - The Queen Of Time)THE QUEEN OF TIME 2570 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Three "Guess it really doesn't matter any more how many `credits' I spend," Hope commented to me with a grin as she drove us into lovely Seaside just around at sunset. I had been curious to see what "life" in the Twenty First Century was like, and this was probably the only chance I'd ever get now! I'd given Janet Rog- ers the "basic operating system", and I was curious to see just "what" she'd "done" with what I'd given her. What "life" was ac- tually "like" in the NEW ORDER before The War. What I'd "seen" there on the TriVid, what Hope had told me now I didn't very much like! It appeared now to me that Janet had "betrayed" my hopes. That this World Federation of hers was just another THIRD REICH! Oddly enough however Janet herself was quite popular with people! I understand the "same" was true of Hitler, so perhaps I'd better leave well enough alone here before I "irritate" certain people!* * Such as Darlanis, who still "worships" Janet Rogers regardless. Janet wasn't an "evil" person, but she was an absolute dictator in her later years despite the "fact" that she started out as a "Libertarian" when she "started" her "political career" in 1996. On the other hand as has been pointed out to me, Janet "did" the best that she could under the circumstances, and I do rather now doubt that I would have done any better ruling in her place here! Sanda too now pointing out to me that I have made much the "same" sort of "decisions" that Janet Rogers would have made in my own place, one of the consequences I suppose of arguing with Scribes! People who can always find a "book" somewhere to prove you wrong! "I'll leave your parents my money," I smiled back. A couple of dozen gold crowns wouldn't make any difference in things now, and I had no doubt that Bob and Carol would "understand" just why I had done as I had. Hope had been unable to reach them by tele- phone, the couple having been with Janet Rogers on a "fact find- ing tour" that the "Leaderess of the World" was making. I'd had a brief nap there at the house, and while my clothing was not in "style", Hope assured me that it wouldn't cause us any problems. "There's enough `foreigners' around now that no one can really say for sure just `where' you come from," she added then. I supposed I qualified for being "foreign" even if the time from which I came I was the absolute ruler of this entire area, Tre- landar covering what was southern California in earlier times. California here in the 21st Century being divided into southern and northern parts, almost forming the two "nations" of Trelandar and Sarn in the land area that each claimed for themselves now... "Your parents did a good job of raising you," I said to her. She was a well bred girl, despite to me her "provocative" attire that reminded me a great deal of that of a dockside prostitute in Trella. Such women often wearing outfits that would make a slave girl blush! She had asked me much about the Twenty Sixth Cen- tury, about what life was "like" in our more "barbaric" society. She did feel that Janet Rogers was "necessary" for this "world". I suspected that it was true, that only one like Janet could have done it, given the sort of "nationalisms" she had to deal with. The sort of religious fanaticism that existed in the Middle East. "I only wish they had told me about `everything'," she said, referring to her parents and their adventures in my own time. I having told her the entire story of what Tais had "done" with them, well aware too of "why" the First Priestess had "done" what she had with her parents, using them like "tools" to "serve" her desires. The Priestesses at the time wishing to end a "war" that no one really "wanted" without directly intervening themselves... "Most likely Tais used hypnosis to see that they didn't," I answered, well aware of the realities of the matter in this case. Hope at the moment now "stopping" for a traffic light, bringing back "memories" of another life I'd once led so long ago now. A "life" of a sort that I at least had no desire to ever return to. I am, I think, not a "civilized" woman, but truly a "barbarian", a woman more "home" on the quarterdeck of a ship of war, a sword there in her hand as she directs her command against an enemy... I am, I suspect now, also truly a "Warlady" in the full sense of the term, being as Hope once said of me, "The Warlady of Earth"! I suspect perhaps she understood me all too well in this matter!! "They must have `known' about this `WAR' you mentioned," she answered, the light now turning "green" there before us. I sup- posed it was possible that they did, but were prevented from act- ing upon what they knew. Tais, I suspected, was no "fool" here! "A person programed by advanced electronic hypnosis can know things that cannot be told," I told her, seeing her nod back now. Nor was it likely that the electronic hypnosis machines of this era were "powerful" enough to overcome those of the 26th Century. Tais having taken the "precaution" of mind programing me so that should the "worse" happen, those of the 21st Century would learn little of any value despite whatever "means" they might use here! For this reason I'd been unable to answer some of Hope's ques- tions that she had, although Tais had permitted me some "lati- tude" here, perhaps feeling that no one would believe me anyway! "They must be like `gods'," she breathed out softly. I nod- ded, knowing of "what" she spoke of here. The Priestesses of Lys were "all powerful" in a way that no dictatorship has even been! Even the awesome technology of the Lorr and the Women meant noth- ing to those who served the "Guardians", the all powerful organi- zation that ruled the entire Universe itself in the name of LYS! A "civilization" of billions of worlds covering an area of twelve trillion light years, all now governed by the GUARDIANS OF LIFE! "They are our `protectors'," I answered, recalling what Dar- lanis had told me about what had "happened" there in the "north". A "tale" that had seemed almost unbelievable even to me then! The car now passing a smallish "Temple", a Priestess before it. Hope had been "converted" by the Priestesses, I suspected here. Janet Rogers having wasted no time in establishing the religion, the one thing I was at least "thankful" that she'd "done" for me even if she hadn't kept to the ideals that I'd once given her...* * Some of Lorraine's "expectations" were perhaps rather unrealis- tic here. Janet Rogers did attempt to "maximumize freedom" as far as she could given the situation she found in 2008. In this regard she did far better than anyone did before her, Janet being "pro free enterprise" (she also supported sydicalism) and gener- ally was "pro freedom" to a degree almost "unknown" even now. It is possible to criticize her for her stand on firearms, although I do believe that we should note here that she was not opposed to "weapons" as such, only those that made it "too easy" to kill. I would be quite happy to see her as President of the United States in "real life", as she was certainly far better than any... (JBB) ***************************************************************** "The `HUTCH'," Hope grinned, turning into a parking lot next to a nightclub of a type that reminded me somewhat of a dockside dive in Trella. Making me glad too that I had a sword at my hip. "My mother used to `dance' here at one time," Hope said to me as she sipped at her beer. I nodded, not much liking the sort of a "crowd" that gathered here, although I was well aware that I was doubtlessly far superior in my own fighting abilities to any. The men and women gathered here for the most part being "armed", Hope saying that not one in a hundred could "use" the swords they carried with any degree of skill. I had fenced with her earlier, finding much to my pleasure and delight that she was a true "mis- tress" of the blade! Even "better" I thought than her mother had been, and Carol Simmons was probably once a "Princess of Swords". "Only slave girls do these sorts of dances," I smiled back watching the stripper now "flaunting" herself before us. Human slavery existed in this era, but it wasn't commonplace yet. That wouldn't happen yet until after The War ended this civilization. The first slave girls were black women attractive enough to keep. The great "race wars" that followed The War are little known now, there having been a "dark age" shortly after The War of which little is known. A sort of a total "return" then to "barbarism". During this time much of what was left was purposely "destroyed" in a sort of massive general "vandalism" that left little behind. Blacks for the most part being rendered almost extinct here too. "You're kind'a `strait-laced'," Hope now smiled back at me, the prostitutes of this era often wearing attire that would have gotten them arrested back home in Trella for "indecent exposure". Like the 26th Century, there was no social welfare system in this society, and one had to support one's self as "best" they could. There were private charities, but no government "welfare" system. No "minimum wage" or "overtime laws", or anything like them now. On the other hand this was a society where almost anyone could be whatever they wished, where the "ambitious" were richly rewarded. There was, I suspected, far less "poverty" than one might expect. Hope having pointed out to me that in this era one could "start" whatever type of a "business" one wished without government get- ting "involved" in things, so much "different" from my own 1988. Part of the NEW ORDER's Constitution forbidding any governmental "regulation" of business, one of Janet Rogers' own better ideas!! "I'm from a different `era'," I smiled, a bit "drunk" now. I'd been watching their TriVid as I'd mentioned earlier, and I hadn't much liked what I'd seen, there being too many things that reminded me of what my mother had told me of the Nazi occupation of France. Was my beloved Janet Rogers just another HITLER? Was "this" the same "woman" that Empress Darlanis thought so much of? Perhaps it was just as well that we didn't know the "truth" here! It is sometimes best that your dreams never meet up with reality. Janet having done some of the same things that Hitler had "done". Things like "withholding" expensive medical care to the aged, who she considered no longer worthwhile spending the credits on now! She also encouraged a policy of "euthanasia" for those incurable. There was a system of "National Health Insurance" that operated upon a system of "global budgeting" where medical care had to be "rationed" to those most likely to be of benefit in receiving it. Policies that Hope "defended", saying that all societies have "limited resources", and a wise leader uses those "resources" to the best advantage, instead of "wasting them" on those who are no longer of any "value" to society. My own reactions here perhaps "colored" by the news I'd received from my own Royal Physician.* * It should be POINTED OUT here that there was PRIVATE MEDICAL INSURANCE for those who wished for more "coverage" than what the "government" provided. Janet Rogers was very much aware of what had "happened" in the past when the U.S. government had attempted to provide more "services" than what could be "paid for". (JBB) "Maybe we'd better get going," Hope suggested, there being less than an hour before midnight when Tais would open the "Gate- way" that would allow us to pass from this era back to my own... "I'm glad you're driving," I grinned, having drunk too much! I was in a vile mood, having "brooded" over the things I'd seen. I suspect now that I tended here to take what I saw at "face value" without ever considering what the "truth" might be. As I am in some ways rather "politically naive" as Sanda admits, I now suspect that I wasn't as "understanding" of what I was told here as I should have been, with the result that I believed the "worst" of Janet Roger's society without ever thinking just "why" these sort of things were done!! Objectively Janet Rogers "did" what "had to be done", even if she had to tell people that there were no more "entitlements", that the "pension" they'd been plan- ning on no longer would be "there"! The United States of America at the time of its national bankruptcy in 2007 was so far "in debt" that there was just no way that Janet Rogers could do any- thing but merely try to keep people from total destitution as best she could. It was the Democratic Party who with their in- sane policies of voting more and more "entitlements" that could not be "funded" that eventually drove the United States of Ameri- ca into bankruptcy in 2007. Who forced Janet Rogers to institute a system of "means tests" for all government financed "pension programs". It was Democats who sat back and criticized, who de- nounced her every chance that they got. The same group of people who only a decade before had voted for all these "entitlements", knowing fully well when they did so that it would be impossible to ever meet the "obligations" that they themselves had created!! "Hey honky `cunt'! Watch where you're going!" the black man snapped at me, giving me a hard shove that made me stumble back! A hot blaze of fury flooding my body, "coloring" my vision as if with a mind of its own my sword leaped from my sheath to my hand! How dare he "lay hands" on the person of the Queen of Trelandar! I saw a sea of faces both white and black looking up at us now! I could hear them yelling, although everything was just "noise"! "Draw, you nigger bastard!" I snarled, thrusting Hope aside as she tried to prevent this, the "blood lust" now on me like it had never been in all the years I'd spent in the 26th Century...! The combination of alcohol, nervous strain, having took its toll! I was no longer a Queen, a Warlady, but just a vicious predator!! The "fact" that I might "alter" my own future meant nothing now!! I am not a "beautiful" woman, nor do I have a "good" figure. I'm probably not really all that "good" a wife either to Jon if you consider the "sort" of a wife that he could have had. On the other hand I can still yet do one thing "better" than anyone else can! It is a "skill", I think, that has made me what I am today! One the result of years of constant practice combined with a re- action time far faster than that of most people that I know here. It wasn't "much" of a fight, I'm ashamed to say, the man be- ing like most all of this time totally incompetent with a sword. I don't believe it took me but a second to "kill", to drive my point past a hopelessly incompetent defense to pierce his throat! The black man staggering back, dropping his sword, clutching at his throat as he collapsed to the floor there among the tables... "`Get' that `honky bitch'!" someone yelled, a group of three "black" men now charging me, a grim smile of delight curving my thin lips as I met their totally "incompetent" attack! There was a brief clash of steel, then one by one I killed the trio with an ease that perhaps awed everyone while Hope watched it in horror!! The others shrinking back, like the cowardly animals they were... "We got to get `out' of `here'!" she yelled at me, grabbing my left arm, my sword yet in my right, gleaming there in the dim lighting of this "strip joint" as people now held back in terror. The "terror" showing in Hope's voice, now high pitched with fear! "`They' don't `matter'," I snapped back, keeping my eye upon any who might wish to "challenge" me now, well aware that most of the black race had been exterminated like vermin after 2047 A.D.! The only thing that "mattered" to me now was getting Hope and my- self back to the 26th Century, out of this crazy society of hers! That we might have to "concern" ourselves about the "police" was almost "alien" to my thinking, as none would have "dared" to ever "confront" the Queen of Trelandar in such a "matter" as this now! It had been a fair "duel", sword to sword, and "legal" in every "civilized" society that I knew of past the Twentieth Century... Only in that one century has "dueling" not been a part of "life". Perhaps that is why too that they behaved the way that they did!! "You're NOT of this `time'!" she screamed at me, dragging me towards the exit, people shrinking back, my sword bloody there in my hand, the thought suddenly coming to me that I was truly ALIEN here in the sense that I had no means of "identification" either! That there was a good chance that I could end up in the "hands" of the "GUARD", that organization of Janet's everyone now feared! "It's `close' to the `time'," I answered, "calming" myself, sheathing my blood stained sword, the tip now "red" with gore... Soon we'd be "safe" in the 26th Century, free of this screwy era! The TriVid I'd seen there at the house leaving no "doubts" in my mind now that Janet was starting to even copy Nazi Germany here!! Her "GUARD", recruited from the same types of people that Hitler had used with his "BROWNSHIRTS" now leaving no "doubts" any more! I recalled the "discussions" I'd had with Sanda Talen and others over the "use" of such a force to keep "order" in Trella. Every- one had "thought" so much of this society, but it was little dif- ferent than Nazi Germany except Janet didn't exterminate Jews. Not that I've understood "why" anyone would want to "exterminate" Jews, who are a "useful", hard working people valuable to any so- ciety lucky enough to have them, but Nazism never did make sense! THE QUEEN OF TIME 2570 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Three "Guess it really doesn't matter any more how many `credits' I spend," Hope commented to me with a grin as she drove us into lovely Seaside just around at sunset. I had been curious to see what "life" in the Twenty First Century was like, and this was probably the only chance I'd ever get now! I'd given Janet Rog- ers the "basic operating system", and I was curious to see just "what" she'd "done" with what I'd given her. What "life" was ac- tually "like" in the NEW ORDER before The War. What I'd "seen" there on the TriVid, what Hope had told me now I didn't very much like! It appeared now to me that Janet had "betrayed" my hopes. That this World Federation of hers was just another THIRD REICH! Oddly enough however Janet herself was quite popular with people! I understand the "same" was true of Hitler, so perhaps I'd better leave well enough alone here before I "irritate" certain people!* * Such as Darlanis, who still "worships" Janet Rogers regardless. Janet wasn't an "evil" person, but she was an absolute dictator in her later years despite the "fact" that she started out as a "Libertarian" when she "started" her "political career" in 1996. On the other hand as has been pointed out to me, Janet "did" the best that she could under the circumstances, and I do rather now doubt that I would have done any better ruling in her place here! Sanda too now pointing out to me that I have made much the "same" sort of "decisions" that Janet Rogers would have made in my own place, one of the consequences I suppose of arguing with Scribes! People who can always find a "book" somewhere to prove you wrong! "I'll leave your parents my money," I smiled back. A couple of dozen gold crowns wouldn't make any difference in things now, and I had no doubt that Bob and Carol would "understand" just why I had done as I had. Hope had been unable to reach them by tele- phone, the couple having been with Janet Rogers on a "fact find- ing tour" that the "Leaderess of the World" was making. I'd had a brief nap there at the house, and while my clothing was not in "style", Hope assured me that it wouldn't cause us any problems. "There's enough `foreigners' around now that no one can really say for sure just `where' you come from," she added then. I supposed I qualified for being "foreign" even if the time from which I came I was the absolute ruler of this entire area, Tre- landar covering what was southern California in earlier times. California here in the 21st Century being divided into southern and northern parts, almost forming the two "nations" of Trelandar and Sarn in the land area that each claimed for themselves now... "Your parents did a good job of raising you," I said to her. She was a well bred girl, despite to me her "provocative" attire that reminded me a great deal of that of a dockside prostitute in Trella. Such women often wearing outfits that would make a slave girl blush! She had asked me much about the Twenty Sixth Cen- tury, about what life was "like" in our more "barbaric" society. She did feel that Janet Rogers was "necessary" for this "world". I suspected that it was true, that only one like Janet could have done it, given the sort of "nationalisms" she had to deal with. The sort of religious fanaticism that existed in the Middle East. "I only wish they had told me about `everything'," she said, referring to her parents and their adventures in my own time. I having told her the entire story of what Tais had "done" with them, well aware too of "why" the First Priestess had "done" what she had with her parents, using them like "tools" to "serve" her desires. The Priestesses at the time wishing to end a "war" that no one really "wanted" without directly intervening themselves... "Most likely Tais used hypnosis to see that they didn't," I answered, well aware of the realities of the matter in this case. Hope at the moment now "stopping" for a traffic light, bringing back "memories" of another life I'd once led so long ago now. A "life" of a sort that I at least had no desire to ever return to. I am, I think, not a "civilized" woman, but truly a "barbarian", a woman more "home" on the quarterdeck of a ship of war, a sword there in her hand as she directs her command against an enemy... I am, I suspect now, also truly a "Warlady" in the full sense of the term, being as Hope once said of me, "The Warlady of Earth"! I suspect perhaps she understood me all too well in this matter!! "They must have `known' about this `WAR' you mentioned," she answered, the light now turning "green" there before us. I sup- posed it was possible that they did, but were prevented from act- ing upon what they knew. Tais, I suspected, was no "fool" here! "A person programed by advanced electronic hypnosis can know things that cannot be told," I told her, seeing her nod back now. Nor was it likely that the electronic hypnosis machines of this era were "powerful" enough to overcome those of the 26th Century. Tais having taken the "precaution" of mind programing me so that should the "worse" happen, those of the 21st Century would learn little of any value despite whatever "means" they might use here! For this reason I'd been unable to answer some of Hope's ques- tions that she had, although Tais had permitted me some "lati- tude" here, perhaps feeling that no one would believe me anyway! "They must be like `gods'," she breathed out softly. I nod- ded, knowing of "what" she spoke of here. The Priestesses of Lys were "all powerful" in a way that no dictatorship has even been! Even the awesome technology of the Lorr and the Women meant noth- ing to those who served the "Guardians", the all powerful organi- zation that ruled the entire Universe itself in the name of LYS! A "civilization" of billions of worlds covering an area of twelve trillion light years, all now governed by the GUARDIANS OF LIFE! "They are our `protectors'," I answered, recalling what Dar- lanis had told me about what had "happened" there in the "north". A "tale" that had seemed almost unbelievable even to me then! The car now passing a smallish "Temple", a Priestess before it. Hope had been "converted" by the Priestesses, I suspected here. Janet Rogers having wasted no time in establishing the religion, the one thing I was at least "thankful" that she'd "done" for me even if she hadn't kept to the ideals that I'd once given her...* * Some of Lorraine's "expectations" were perhaps rather unrealis- tic here. Janet Rogers did attempt to "maximumize freedom" as far as she could given the situation she found in 2008. In this regard she did far better than anyone did before her, Janet being "pro free enterprise" (she also supported sydicalism) and gener- ally was "pro freedom" to a degree almost "unknown" even now. It is possible to criticize her for her stand on firearms, although I do believe that we should note here that she was not opposed to "weapons" as such, only those that made it "too easy" to kill. I would be quite happy to see her as President of the United States in "real life", as she was certainly far better than any... (JBB) ***************************************************************** "The `HUTCH'," Hope grinned, turning into a parking lot next to a nightclub of a type that reminded me somewhat of a dockside dive in Trella. Making me glad too that I had a sword at my hip. "My mother used to `dance' here at one time," Hope said to me as she sipped at her beer. I nodded, not much liking the sort of a "crowd" that gathered here, although I was well aware that I was doubtlessly far superior in my own fighting abilities to any. The men and women gathered here for the most part being "armed", Hope saying that not one in a hundred could "use" the swords they carried with any degree of skill. I had fenced with her earlier, finding much to my pleasure and delight that she was a true "mis- tress" of the blade! Even "better" I thought than her mother had been, and Carol Simmons was probably once a "Princess of Swords". "Only slave girls do these sorts of dances," I smiled back watching the stripper now "flaunting" herself before us. Human slavery existed in this era, but it wasn't commonplace yet. That wouldn't happen yet until after The War ended this civilization. The first slave girls were black women attractive enough to keep. The great "race wars" that followed The War are little known now, there having been a "dark age" shortly after The War of which little is known. A sort of a total "return" then to "barbarism". During this time much of what was left was purposely "destroyed" in a sort of massive general "vandalism" that left little behind. Blacks for the most part being rendered almost extinct here too. "You're kind'a `strait-laced'," Hope now smiled back at me, the prostitutes of this era often wearing attire that would have gotten them arrested back home in Trella for "indecent exposure". Like the 26th Century, there was no social welfare system in this society, and one had to support one's self as "best" they could. There were private charities, but no government "welfare" system. No "minimum wage" or "overtime laws", or anything like them now. On the other hand this was a society where almost anyone could be whatever they wished, where the "ambitious" were richly rewarded. There was, I suspected, far less "poverty" than one might expect. Hope having pointed out to me that in this era one could "start" whatever type of a "business" one wished without government get- ting "involved" in things, so much "different" from my own 1988. Part of the NEW ORDER's Constitution forbidding any governmental "regulation" of business, one of Janet Rogers' own better ideas!! "I'm from a different `era'," I smiled, a bit "drunk" now. I'd been watching their TriVid as I'd mentioned earlier, and I hadn't much liked what I'd seen, there being too many things that reminded me of what my mother had told me of the Nazi occupation of France. Was my beloved Janet Rogers just another HITLER? Was "this" the same "woman" that Empress Darlanis thought so much of? Perhaps it was just as well that we didn't know the "truth" here! It is sometimes best that your dreams never meet up with reality. Janet having done some of the same things that Hitler had "done". Things like "withholding" expensive medical care to the aged, who she considered no longer worthwhile spending the credits on now! She also encouraged a policy of "euthanasia" for those incurable. There was a system of "National Health Insurance" that operated upon a system of "global budgeting" where medical care had to be "rationed" to those most likely to be of benefit in receiving it. Policies that Hope "defended", saying that all societies have "limited resources", and a wise leader uses those "resources" to the best advantage, instead of "wasting them" on those who are no longer of any "value" to society. My own reactions here perhaps "colored" by the news I'd received from my own Royal Physician.* * It should be POINTED OUT here that there was PRIVATE MEDICAL INSURANCE for those who wished for more "coverage" than what the "government" provided. Janet Rogers was very much aware of what had "happened" in the past when the U.S. government had attempted to provide more "services" than what could be "paid for". (JBB) "Maybe we'd better get going," Hope suggested, there being less than an hour before midnight when Tais would open the "Gate- way" that would allow us to pass from this era back to my own... "I'm glad you're driving," I grinned, having drunk too much! I was in a vile mood, having "brooded" over the things I'd seen. I suspect now that I tended here to take what I saw at "face value" without ever considering what the "truth" might be. As I am in some ways rather "politically naive" as Sanda admits, I now suspect that I wasn't as "understanding" of what I was told here as I should have been, with the result that I believed the "worst" of Janet Roger's society without ever thinking just "why" these sort of things were done!! Objectively Janet Rogers "did" what "had to be done", even if she had to tell people that there were no more "entitlements", that the "pension" they'd been plan- ning on no longer would be "there"! The United States of America at the time of its national bankruptcy in 2007 was so far "in debt" that there was just no way that Janet Rogers could do any- thing but merely try to keep people from total destitution as best she could. It was the Democratic Party who with their in- sane policies of voting more and more "entitlements" that could not be "funded" that eventually drove the United States of Ameri- ca into bankruptcy in 2007. Who forced Janet Rogers to institute a system of "means tests" for all government financed "pension programs". It was Democats who sat back and criticized, who de- nounced her every chance that they got. The same group of people who only a decade before had voted for all these "entitlements", knowing fully well when they did so that it would be impossible to ever meet the "obligations" that they themselves had created!! "Hey honky `cunt'! Watch where you're going!" the black man snapped at me, giving me a hard shove that made me stumble back! A hot blaze of fury flooding my body, "coloring" my vision as if with a mind of its own my sword leaped from my sheath to my hand! How dare he "lay hands" on the person of the Queen of Trelandar! I saw a sea of faces both white and black looking up at us now! I could hear them yelling, although everything was just "noise"! "Draw, you nigger bastard!" I snarled, thrusting Hope aside as she tried to prevent this, the "blood lust" now on me like it had never been in all the years I'd spent in the 26th Century...! The combination of alcohol, nervous strain, having took its toll! I was no longer a Queen, a Warlady, but just a vicious predator!! The "fact" that I might "alter" my own future meant nothing now!! I am not a "beautiful" woman, nor do I have a "good" figure. I'm probably not really all that "good" a wife either to Jon if you consider the "sort" of a wife that he could have had. On the other hand I can still yet do one thing "better" than anyone else can! It is a "skill", I think, that has made me what I am today! One the result of years of constant practice combined with a re- action time far faster than that of most people that I know here. It wasn't "much" of a fight, I'm ashamed to say, the man be- ing like most all of this time totally incompetent with a sword. I don't believe it took me but a second to "kill", to drive my point past a hopelessly incompetent defense to pierce his throat! The black man staggering back, dropping his sword, clutching at his throat as he collapsed to the floor there among the tables... "`Get' that `honky bitch'!" someone yelled, a group of three "black" men now charging me, a grim smile of delight curving my thin lips as I met their totally "incompetent" attack! There was a brief clash of steel, then one by one I killed the trio with an ease that perhaps awed everyone while Hope watched it in horror!! The others shrinking back, like the cowardly animals they were... "We got to get `out' of `here'!" she yelled at me, grabbing my left arm, my sword yet in my right, gleaming there in the dim lighting of this "strip joint" as people now held back in terror. The "terror" showing in Hope's voice, now high pitched with fear! "`They' don't `matter'," I snapped back, keeping my eye upon any who might wish to "challenge" me now, well aware that most of the black race had been exterminated like vermin after 2047 A.D.! The only thing that "mattered" to me now was getting Hope and my- self back to the 26th Century, out of this crazy society of hers! That we might have to "concern" ourselves about the "police" was almost "alien" to my thinking, as none would have "dared" to ever "confront" the Queen of Trelandar in such a "matter" as this now! It had been a fair "duel", sword to sword, and "legal" in every "civilized" society that I knew of past the Twentieth Century... Only in that one century has "dueling" not been a part of "life". Perhaps that is why too that they behaved the way that they did!! "You're NOT of this `time'!" she screamed at me, dragging me towards the exit, people shrinking back, my sword bloody there in my hand, the thought suddenly coming to me that I was truly ALIEN here in the sense that I had no means of "identification" either! That there was a good chance that I could end up in the "hands" of the "GUARD", that organization of Janet's everyone now feared! "It's `close' to the `time'," I answered, "calming" myself, sheathing my blood stained sword, the tip now "red" with gore... Soon we'd be "safe" in the 26th Century, free of this screwy era! The TriVid I'd seen there at the house leaving no "doubts" in my mind now that Janet was starting to even copy Nazi Germany here!! Her "GUARD", recruited from the same types of people that Hitler had used with his "BROWNSHIRTS" now leaving no "doubts" any more! I recalled the "discussions" I'd had with Sanda Talen and others over the "use" of such a force to keep "order" in Trella. Every- one had "thought" so much of this society, but it was little dif- ferent than Nazi Germany except Janet didn't exterminate Jews. Not that I've understood "why" anyone would want to "exterminate" Jews, who are a "useful", hard working people valuable to any so- ciety lucky enough to have them, but Nazism never did make sense! |
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