"2570-05" - 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 Five "Lorraine!" Hope breathed, the blood covering my shoulder leaving no doubt that I'd been "hit", the girl's hazel eyes fill- ing with horror as she suddenly saw the "remains" of Patty Pugs!! The dog having been "caught" in the edge of the "Gateway", where two sorts of "space time" interfaced. The dried mummified body leaving no doubts that the dog had died perhaps centuries ago...! "`Edge' of the time field...," I "breathed", clutching at my bleeding shoulder, the red blood oozing from between my fingers! The thought going through my mind that Hope should be playing at- tention to ME, not to the "remains" of a dog dead for centuries! The ruins of the Simmons "earth home" just visible there ahead of us through the trees, the clearing behind the house having grown up to the point that the ruins of the house were hardly visible. A soft gentle breeze sighing through the leaves there overhead, the bright sun peeking down upon us through the moving boughs. A bird chirping away in one of the trees a "comforting" sound then. I heard a squirrel chattering away at us, disturbed by our talk. "She's `DEAD'!" Hope sobbed, holding the mummified remains in her hands, Patty Pugs only a skeleton with dried skin and fur. The "look" in those tear filled weeping eyes leaving no doubts in my mind that she considered me RESPONSIBLE for everything here... I was puzzled that we'd ended up HERE instead of in Shalimar, but I guessed perhaps Tais had done her best to at least get us HERE. "Was caught half way in the `Gateway'," I answered, sitting there, the blood oozing between my fingers, the pain in my shoul- der making my temper short. I carried the means to "seal" such a wound, but I needed to have Hope apply it now to my wound here. "I raise dogs on my estate, and I have a couple `dozen' of `those'," I added, the Boston Terrier being a very "useful" dog. They are clean, intelligent, and an easy dog to train, I find... While not a "match" for anything "big", they will "harass" it un- til you can use your own weapons to deal with whatever you hunt! They are also the "royal dog" of Trelandar, I might mention here, which is why I am so familiar with the breed and its "abilities". "She was `mine'!" Hope wept in reply, the tears running down her cheeks as she held the dried mummified Boston in her hands. "She's dead!" I snapped, the anger making my voice sharp! "You and your damn `Gateway' killed Patty!" Hope sobbed! "She's just a dog, I'll get you another!" I snapped back. "She'd always be so happy to see me when I came home," Hope sobbed, blubbering now like a baby, completely out of "control"! "She used to `kiss' me, lick my face when I slept," she "sobbed". "Here, take my dagger, and bury her!" I snapped back, giving her the weapon, the blood running down my arm, strongly tempted to have Tais send this "crybaby" back to where she came from now! I'd nearly gotten myself KILLED, and for WHAT I "wondered" here? "I'm sorry, Lorraine," Hope said as I finished bandaging my- self as best I could with the tail of my blouse, having stopped the bleeding by a liberal application of the "glue" we now use... That antiseptic, soothing healing "glue" all Warrioresses carry. My right shoulder, my arm all coated with half dried blood now. I had tied the remains of the tail of my blouse around my waist, making it into the sort of stylish "halter" popular now in Baja. "I suppose I expected `too much' of you," I answered back, still yet a bit angry that she'd thought more of her dog than me! "What's THAT!?" Hope gasped, the tone of her voice making me whirl about, the Garth now standing there watching us doubtlessly drawn by the odor of my own blood, "It's a DINOSAUR!" she gasped in shock, the Garth looking much like a miniature Tyrannosaurus. "Ten feet of scaly TROUBLE," I breathed, picking up the two 9mm pistols I'd left lying there on the ground among Hope's own things when I'd made the best "repairs" I could to myself here. "It's awful BIG," Hope breathed, drawing her sword, two feet of gleaming stainless steel. The Garth regarding us with that awesome stillness that is a trait of this big post-War mutation. They are "dangerous", although I feel that a Tigon, the saber- tooth tiger of this era is a more "dangerous" predator to face... "Try climbing one of the trees around here," I answered her, raising one of the pistols. I had my doubts how "effective" they would be, the ammunition being designed to stop human beings, not some big dinosaur like reptile weighing perhaps half a ton! The bullets would probably "expand" too fast to penetrate very deep. "You are afraid of it?" Hope asked, standing there watching. "Only an `idiot' wouldn't be," I snapped back, waiting to see what the Garth would "do". I knew it smelled my blood, which is to one of them an "odor" that causes them to attack, many such predators being instinctively programmed to attack anything that is bleeding or has the odor of fresh blood on it. My own Bull Terriers will do the same, a pack of them being able to even deal with the great bears and such that inhabit these forests here... "Those hollow points won't be too `effective'," Hope said, her voice level as she stood there, her drawn sword in her hand. It being obvious to me that the girl had "guts" when it mattered. "The sides of the skull are thinner," I answered, raising the pistol, the hammer thumbed back so I could shoot it better, the second weapon thrust into my harness ready at hand here now. "It's facing you," the lovely brownette teenager commented. The squirrel I'd mentioned earlier making a big fuss over this. "You might consider climbing a tree," I suggested to her. "I believe you `suggested' that before," Hope said to me. "Here, take the other pistol," I said, giving it to her. "Only five left in the clip," she said, slipping it back. With one in the chamber that gave her a total of six cartridges. "Four in this one," I replied, checking my own weapon then. The Garth just standing there watching us, its eyes focused on us in a way that left no doubts it would charge us if we moved now. I could see its tail move slowly back and forth, that great tail like that of a crocodile that can easily knock you off your feet. "It's coming," Hope breathed, the Garth now tired of waiting for us to make the first move. Its movements were slow, seeming- ly ponderous, although they can actually run a hundred yards in about ten seconds or so. You can "dodge" among trees, but you can't outrun one of the things, at least that's what I've heard. "Aim for the eyes!" I snapped, dashing to one side, Hope go- ing in the other direction, the Garth charging as I found a tree! Hope's shot loud, the Garth spinning around, giving me a shot at it, the "sting" of the bullet making it roar with terrible fury! The bullets from our Smith & Wessons having little effect on it!! Hope yet hitting it square, the Garth suddenly decided that I was more of a "threat" to it than she was for some reason! The reptilian horror now chasing me around a tree as I put three more into it, then giving me a chance to put my last round right down its open mouth from about a dozen feet away! The creature then stumbling off, and then finally collapsing to the ground at last! "These things `numerous'?" Hope asked, now walking up to me. The slide on her pistol like mine retracted, indicating that we had no more ammunition for our weapons, and no way in this era of getting any more, I knew well, the Priestesses of Lys not permit- ting people firearms any more than did Janet Rogers' government! "We need to `make' heavy spears," I spoke, tossing the now worthless pistol away. "It's only about ten miles to my estate." The idea of having to "walk" not delighting me that much, as my boots were made more for "style" than for walking any distance... Their three inch spike heels not made for a "walk" in the woods. I'm hadn't planned on having to walk any distance, I'll mention!! "What we `need' is a `dinosaur gun'," she "grinned" back! "I'd like to take a look at the house," Hope said to me as I helped her shape a point on the spear she'd made. A sword is an excellent weapon against human beings, but not too much good against the sort of animal life that inhabits the forests of this era. At least with a spear you can "fend off" some predator... "Wasn't much `left' last time I looked," I smiled back. "Doesn't `look' that `bad'...," Hope said, standing there. "I think Tais `goofed'," I spoke, a "sinking feeling" going through me just then as I looked at the ruined house before us. It was just in too "good" a condition for this to be my own era! "I'd say that we're at least a couple centuries from `where' we should be," I mused, regarding the condition of the house here! I recalled the remains of Patty Pugs. They had been not as "bad" as I would have "expected" for an animal dead for five centuries! "Any idea of `where', or rather `when'?" Hope asked then, a "levelness" to her voice that left no doubts of her feelings now! The "implication" that she'd jumped from the frying pan into the fire by coming along with me making me smile to myself just then. "Century or two perhaps past The War," I mused thoughtfully, trying to remember what I'd read about the history of events from the time of The War until the time I'd come on the scene in 2565! The city of Trella dated from the 23rd Century, I recalled, al- though Trelandar itself was not founded until a century later on by the famous Queen Amethysta Broadica about the year 305 A.W. There had been warring city-states, fighting among themselves, a young and vigorous Dularn that had carried out raids along the long coast line of California with lithe schooner rigged raiders! "What `sort' of people live in this time?" she asked me. "The `sort' who would enslave us if they can," I said. "We'd better pray then Tais can find us," she answered. "I hope so," I answered, wondering if even she could now! "I'm guessing a couple centuries have passed," I said, look- ing curiously into the now ruined earth home that Hope had once lived in back in the 21st Century. The thought going through my mind that if Tais didn't find us I was doomed to live out the rest of my life in this era, perhaps again serving the same role I had for Darlanis, assuming that my "luck" held good once again! "`When' did my parents die?" she asked then, looking at me. "In 2033," I answered, pushing away some rubble so that I might enter, the thought going through my mind that no doubt Tais would attempt to locate us by making short "jumps" in time using this same location. "Their bodies were discovered last year," I added, Hope giving me an "odd" look, my words no doubt puzzling. The "paradoxes" of time travel often something hard to "explain". "Looks like animals have been living in here," she commented as our eyes adjusted to the darkness of the interior. While the main structure of the house had survived, the home having been built of reinforced concrete then covered by earth, the interior had been stripped of everything valuable perhaps centuries ago... "There are animals like those of Ice Ages," I answered her, remembering the first time I'd encountered such an animal here in another age. Just "WHEN" we were now was a question I didn't have any answer for, although I guessed somewhere between her own time and that of Amethysta's, perhaps the Twenty Third or Twenty Fourth Century. The thought going through my mind that we were not likely to receive a friendly reception from anyone we met... "How `do' people `survive' here against such things?" she asked, holding her spear at the ready, her words making me smile! "The same way Man has always survived," I answered her back. "A social order with people like you...?" she breathed now. "There is a `time' for my `sort'," I smiled back at her. THE QUEEN OF TIME 2570 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Five "Lorraine!" Hope breathed, the blood covering my shoulder leaving no doubt that I'd been "hit", the girl's hazel eyes fill- ing with horror as she suddenly saw the "remains" of Patty Pugs!! The dog having been "caught" in the edge of the "Gateway", where two sorts of "space time" interfaced. The dried mummified body leaving no doubts that the dog had died perhaps centuries ago...! "`Edge' of the time field...," I "breathed", clutching at my bleeding shoulder, the red blood oozing from between my fingers! The thought going through my mind that Hope should be playing at- tention to ME, not to the "remains" of a dog dead for centuries! The ruins of the Simmons "earth home" just visible there ahead of us through the trees, the clearing behind the house having grown up to the point that the ruins of the house were hardly visible. A soft gentle breeze sighing through the leaves there overhead, the bright sun peeking down upon us through the moving boughs. A bird chirping away in one of the trees a "comforting" sound then. I heard a squirrel chattering away at us, disturbed by our talk. "She's `DEAD'!" Hope sobbed, holding the mummified remains in her hands, Patty Pugs only a skeleton with dried skin and fur. The "look" in those tear filled weeping eyes leaving no doubts in my mind that she considered me RESPONSIBLE for everything here... I was puzzled that we'd ended up HERE instead of in Shalimar, but I guessed perhaps Tais had done her best to at least get us HERE. "Was caught half way in the `Gateway'," I answered, sitting there, the blood oozing between my fingers, the pain in my shoul- der making my temper short. I carried the means to "seal" such a wound, but I needed to have Hope apply it now to my wound here. "I raise dogs on my estate, and I have a couple `dozen' of `those'," I added, the Boston Terrier being a very "useful" dog. They are clean, intelligent, and an easy dog to train, I find... While not a "match" for anything "big", they will "harass" it un- til you can use your own weapons to deal with whatever you hunt! They are also the "royal dog" of Trelandar, I might mention here, which is why I am so familiar with the breed and its "abilities". "She was `mine'!" Hope wept in reply, the tears running down her cheeks as she held the dried mummified Boston in her hands. "She's dead!" I snapped, the anger making my voice sharp! "You and your damn `Gateway' killed Patty!" Hope sobbed! "She's just a dog, I'll get you another!" I snapped back. "She'd always be so happy to see me when I came home," Hope sobbed, blubbering now like a baby, completely out of "control"! "She used to `kiss' me, lick my face when I slept," she "sobbed". "Here, take my dagger, and bury her!" I snapped back, giving her the weapon, the blood running down my arm, strongly tempted to have Tais send this "crybaby" back to where she came from now! I'd nearly gotten myself KILLED, and for WHAT I "wondered" here? "I'm sorry, Lorraine," Hope said as I finished bandaging my- self as best I could with the tail of my blouse, having stopped the bleeding by a liberal application of the "glue" we now use... That antiseptic, soothing healing "glue" all Warrioresses carry. My right shoulder, my arm all coated with half dried blood now. I had tied the remains of the tail of my blouse around my waist, making it into the sort of stylish "halter" popular now in Baja. "I suppose I expected `too much' of you," I answered back, still yet a bit angry that she'd thought more of her dog than me! "What's THAT!?" Hope gasped, the tone of her voice making me whirl about, the Garth now standing there watching us doubtlessly drawn by the odor of my own blood, "It's a DINOSAUR!" she gasped in shock, the Garth looking much like a miniature Tyrannosaurus. "Ten feet of scaly TROUBLE," I breathed, picking up the two 9mm pistols I'd left lying there on the ground among Hope's own things when I'd made the best "repairs" I could to myself here. "It's awful BIG," Hope breathed, drawing her sword, two feet of gleaming stainless steel. The Garth regarding us with that awesome stillness that is a trait of this big post-War mutation. They are "dangerous", although I feel that a Tigon, the saber- tooth tiger of this era is a more "dangerous" predator to face... "Try climbing one of the trees around here," I answered her, raising one of the pistols. I had my doubts how "effective" they would be, the ammunition being designed to stop human beings, not some big dinosaur like reptile weighing perhaps half a ton! The bullets would probably "expand" too fast to penetrate very deep. "You are afraid of it?" Hope asked, standing there watching. "Only an `idiot' wouldn't be," I snapped back, waiting to see what the Garth would "do". I knew it smelled my blood, which is to one of them an "odor" that causes them to attack, many such predators being instinctively programmed to attack anything that is bleeding or has the odor of fresh blood on it. My own Bull Terriers will do the same, a pack of them being able to even deal with the great bears and such that inhabit these forests here... "Those hollow points won't be too `effective'," Hope said, her voice level as she stood there, her drawn sword in her hand. It being obvious to me that the girl had "guts" when it mattered. "The sides of the skull are thinner," I answered, raising the pistol, the hammer thumbed back so I could shoot it better, the second weapon thrust into my harness ready at hand here now. "It's facing you," the lovely brownette teenager commented. The squirrel I'd mentioned earlier making a big fuss over this. "You might consider climbing a tree," I suggested to her. "I believe you `suggested' that before," Hope said to me. "Here, take the other pistol," I said, giving it to her. "Only five left in the clip," she said, slipping it back. With one in the chamber that gave her a total of six cartridges. "Four in this one," I replied, checking my own weapon then. The Garth just standing there watching us, its eyes focused on us in a way that left no doubts it would charge us if we moved now. I could see its tail move slowly back and forth, that great tail like that of a crocodile that can easily knock you off your feet. "It's coming," Hope breathed, the Garth now tired of waiting for us to make the first move. Its movements were slow, seeming- ly ponderous, although they can actually run a hundred yards in about ten seconds or so. You can "dodge" among trees, but you can't outrun one of the things, at least that's what I've heard. "Aim for the eyes!" I snapped, dashing to one side, Hope go- ing in the other direction, the Garth charging as I found a tree! Hope's shot loud, the Garth spinning around, giving me a shot at it, the "sting" of the bullet making it roar with terrible fury! The bullets from our Smith & Wessons having little effect on it!! Hope yet hitting it square, the Garth suddenly decided that I was more of a "threat" to it than she was for some reason! The reptilian horror now chasing me around a tree as I put three more into it, then giving me a chance to put my last round right down its open mouth from about a dozen feet away! The creature then stumbling off, and then finally collapsing to the ground at last! "These things `numerous'?" Hope asked, now walking up to me. The slide on her pistol like mine retracted, indicating that we had no more ammunition for our weapons, and no way in this era of getting any more, I knew well, the Priestesses of Lys not permit- ting people firearms any more than did Janet Rogers' government! "We need to `make' heavy spears," I spoke, tossing the now worthless pistol away. "It's only about ten miles to my estate." The idea of having to "walk" not delighting me that much, as my boots were made more for "style" than for walking any distance... Their three inch spike heels not made for a "walk" in the woods. I'm hadn't planned on having to walk any distance, I'll mention!! "What we `need' is a `dinosaur gun'," she "grinned" back! "I'd like to take a look at the house," Hope said to me as I helped her shape a point on the spear she'd made. A sword is an excellent weapon against human beings, but not too much good against the sort of animal life that inhabits the forests of this era. At least with a spear you can "fend off" some predator... "Wasn't much `left' last time I looked," I smiled back. "Doesn't `look' that `bad'...," Hope said, standing there. "I think Tais `goofed'," I spoke, a "sinking feeling" going through me just then as I looked at the ruined house before us. It was just in too "good" a condition for this to be my own era! "I'd say that we're at least a couple centuries from `where' we should be," I mused, regarding the condition of the house here! I recalled the remains of Patty Pugs. They had been not as "bad" as I would have "expected" for an animal dead for five centuries! "Any idea of `where', or rather `when'?" Hope asked then, a "levelness" to her voice that left no doubts of her feelings now! The "implication" that she'd jumped from the frying pan into the fire by coming along with me making me smile to myself just then. "Century or two perhaps past The War," I mused thoughtfully, trying to remember what I'd read about the history of events from the time of The War until the time I'd come on the scene in 2565! The city of Trella dated from the 23rd Century, I recalled, al- though Trelandar itself was not founded until a century later on by the famous Queen Amethysta Broadica about the year 305 A.W. There had been warring city-states, fighting among themselves, a young and vigorous Dularn that had carried out raids along the long coast line of California with lithe schooner rigged raiders! "What `sort' of people live in this time?" she asked me. "The `sort' who would enslave us if they can," I said. "We'd better pray then Tais can find us," she answered. "I hope so," I answered, wondering if even she could now! "I'm guessing a couple centuries have passed," I said, look- ing curiously into the now ruined earth home that Hope had once lived in back in the 21st Century. The thought going through my mind that if Tais didn't find us I was doomed to live out the rest of my life in this era, perhaps again serving the same role I had for Darlanis, assuming that my "luck" held good once again! "`When' did my parents die?" she asked then, looking at me. "In 2033," I answered, pushing away some rubble so that I might enter, the thought going through my mind that no doubt Tais would attempt to locate us by making short "jumps" in time using this same location. "Their bodies were discovered last year," I added, Hope giving me an "odd" look, my words no doubt puzzling. The "paradoxes" of time travel often something hard to "explain". "Looks like animals have been living in here," she commented as our eyes adjusted to the darkness of the interior. While the main structure of the house had survived, the home having been built of reinforced concrete then covered by earth, the interior had been stripped of everything valuable perhaps centuries ago... "There are animals like those of Ice Ages," I answered her, remembering the first time I'd encountered such an animal here in another age. Just "WHEN" we were now was a question I didn't have any answer for, although I guessed somewhere between her own time and that of Amethysta's, perhaps the Twenty Third or Twenty Fourth Century. The thought going through my mind that we were not likely to receive a friendly reception from anyone we met... "How `do' people `survive' here against such things?" she asked, holding her spear at the ready, her words making me smile! "The same way Man has always survived," I answered her back. "A social order with people like you...?" she breathed now. "There is a `time' for my `sort'," I smiled back at her. |
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