"Simon Hawke - Time Wars 01 - The Ivanhoe Gambit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

For Richard McEnroe

No one can work in a vacuum. I would like to thank some people whose continuing help and support
has kept me going. I am extremely grateful to Jeffrey Kraus and William Renn of Hofstra University,
George Gordon of Fordham University, Tom Curley of CBS, Karl Hansen of the planet Mars, Don
Kayne, the people at Finnegan's Tavern in Huntington/Long Island, Jack Dann, Gardner Dozois and
Edward Bryant. I'd also like to thank my parents, the cast and crew, and all the little people...

PROLOGUE
Lucas Priest, Sergeant Major, United States Army Temporal Corps, was trying to figure out how to
stop a charging bull elephant with nothing but a Roman short sword. Scipio had given the order to
advance and Lucas wondered if the legion commander really believed that Rome's famed phalanx
formations would intimidate a berserker like Hannibal. Sending foot soldiers against his pachyderms was
not unlike attempting to stop a Panzer column with tricycles.
Lucas was a bundle of raw nerves. A short while ago, he would have given almost anything for a
cigarette. He had managed to smuggle a few back with him, but he was almost caught smoking one by a
tribune and it had given him such a bad turn that he had thrown the others away. Somehow, he couldn't
see himself explaining to an ancient Roman what he was doing sticking a tubeful of burning leaves into his
mouth. Now, as the elephants rapidly approached, he had forgotten all about his nervous urge for a
cigarette and was instead wishing for a few pyrogel grenades or an auto-pulser. Unfortunately, all he had
was his short sword, a shield and a spear.
He threw the spear and, of course, it didn't help his situation any. He decided that it was lunacy to go
up against a herd of elephants with nothing but an oversized dagger, so he threw down his shield and ran.
Not a few centurions came to the same decision and Priest had lots of company in his undignified, albeit
prudent, retreat.

"Today's Army has Time for You!"
It was an effective recruiting slogan, but the army never stressed the manner in which that time was
measured. A week's enlistment period didn't sound too difficult to take, but it was one army week,
measured not by the time spent in the field on the Minus side, but by Plus Time. Present time.
On his first hitch, or assignment in the field, Lucas had clocked out on the fourteenth of September at
0700. He had spent close to a year pillaging and raping with Attila and his Huns. When he clocked back
in, it was still the fourteenth of September, 0705. Nine months of sheer hell and only five minutes of Plus
Time counted toward the completion of his tour of duty. He remembered thinking that if time flies when
you're having fun, it positively crawls when you're in the Temporal Corps.
He had less cause to complain than most soldiers. He had enlisted voluntarily. There had been much
better options available; no one had twisted his arm. He had scored fairly well on his Service Aptitude
Tests, a mandatory battery of exams that everyone had to take when they turned seventeen. His score
had enabled him to land a position in the labs at Westerly Antiagathics, doing research on how to add yet
another hundred years to the human lifespan. The job had paid well, but it had bored him. When the
army came around with their dog and pony show, he had fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
The recruiters really laid it on. The presentation took up most of the work day and since the company
still paid for the time, the attendance was close to one hundred percent. The army spokesman had been a
civilian from the Ministry of Defense. He had been dressed very casually in a mellow color combination,
a clingsuit in peach and woodsy brown. He had a terrific tan and a marvelous voice. His official title was
Director of Service Administration. That meant he was a salesman. His introductory remarks had been
well laced with jokes and homilies and after he spoke, there came the testimonials. People "just like you"
who had worked in "dull and undemanding" jobs came out and spoke about what a wonderful
experience the army was for them. They always made sure, Lucas later discovered, that at least one of
the speakers was "a former employee at your own place of business."