Chapter 25

Temporal.

After the stretcher left with Thad, Mack turned to Kathy even as everyone seemed to be trying to get information from her, but before he could say anything, she responded to a shouted question. “He’s the Traveler we’ve been looking for, and he saved Thad’s life as well as mine.” When one of the males addressed Mack with what was obviously a question, Kathy broke in to say, “He can’t understand you. Thad and I both had a twenty-third-century blurp before we left, so for the moment, all your questions will have to go through me.” Kathy repeated what she had said in Mack’s version of English so he would know what was going on. “Now please let us by so we can check on Thad. He was shot by an alien.”

That brought a barrage of questions, none of which Mack could understand.

In a louder voice, Kathy said, “We’ll answer your questions later. For now, please let us by so we can check on Thad.”

“Your visitor does not leave this lab without Mr. Kessler’s permission,” one of the guards said as he stepped in front of them.

“I don’t believe this,” Kathy snarled. “You know me, and I’ve delivered orders to you from Mr. Kessler many times. You took my word that the orders came from him, but you did what I said. Now, you’re going to stop me?”

“Not you, but your friend there.”

“You, at least, used the correct term,” Kathy snarled back, amazing some of the people who knew her. “He is, indeed, a friend. A trusted friend who saved our lives — more than once. I’m going to check on Thad, and Mack is going with me.” Then to Mack, “Let’s go. I want to hear the medbooth’s prognosis.”

Kathy took Mack’s arm, and she brushed by the guards, Mack in tow.

When they were out of earshot, Mack asked, “What did you say to them? Judging from that guard’s expression, he was not pleased.”

“They wanted to give me some crap about you entering Temporal proper. I told them that they had always obeyed me when I gave them instructions from Mr. Kessler, and they had never checked. It’s not my problem that they didn’t check this time.”

“Are you going to be in trouble with Kessler?”

Kathy shrugged. “There was a time when I worried about what he thought, but that was before he sent me downtime to sit in a cave and wait for some monster to come in and eat me, and before some alien tried to kill me. I haven’t forgotten about either, and I probably won’t for a long time — if ever.”

They were halfway to the hospital before Kathy realized she was still wearing her gun belt and weapon, but she just shrugged mentally and kept walking.

They heard hurried footsteps behind them, and Kathy turned with a frown, thinking it was the security guard, but it was Jamison. “Mr. Kessler is going to meet us at the hospital,” he hurriedly said. “What happened, Kathy?”

Although Mack couldn’t understand what Jamison said, there was concern evident on his face.

“An obvious non-human, but bipedal humanoid-shaped alien started firing at us just as we were changing our campsites. Thad was hit before we even knew what was going on. Mack shot the alien with an arrow from a homemade bow. By the way, the bow is back in the chamber. Please don’t let anything happen to it. Mack made it himself and killed the alien with it. I actually managed to hit the alien with my sidearm, but only because Mack’s arrow had already gone through him.”

“Thanks,” Jamison said to Mack.

Mack frowned and looked at Kathy, who said, “He said thanks for killing the alien,” she interpreted for him.

“But you killed the alien.”

“I killed a dead alien,” Kathy insisted before interpreting for Jamison, who chuckled.

“Are you going back to your old job?” Jamison asked just as they got to the hospital.

“No way. Thad said it was in my blood now. I know I don’t want to sit behind that desk anymore.”

Just as they entered the hospital, Kessler came hurrying up. “Tell me what happened,” he snapped while eyeing Mack.

In Mack’s language, she said, “Mack, meet Mr. Ian Kessler, director of Temporal.” Then changing languages as she spoke to Kessler, “This is Mack Tyler, otherwise known to us as the Traveler. He saved both Thad and me while killing one of the aliens who was, most likely, one of the ones responsible for the problems we have been having with the time alterations.”

“What happened to Thad?”

“An ambush by an alien. Thad was hit before we even knew we were under attack. Mack killed the alien with a homemade bow and arrow.”

Kessler put a hand out, and the two men shook before Kessler turned back to Kathy, “See that he gets a language blurp ASAP. Tell him I said thank you, and I’d like to hear what he has to say once the blurp is in place.”

Inside the hospital, the medbooth refused them entrance to Thad’s room.

“Was he conscious?” Kessler asked Kathy.

“No. He had lost a lot of blood and was out when we put him on the stretcher.”

“Then I’m not going to insist on entering his room. I certainly don’t want to interrupt whatever the medbooth is doing to him.” After a short pause, Kessler turned to fully face Kathy,”I’ll have the hospital notify you if there is any change, but we both know that the medbooth will put him back on his feet. It’s just a matter of time.”

Kathy took Mack’s arm. “Mr. Kessler wants you to have a language blurp so he can converse with you.”

As an afterthought, Kathy turned back to Kessler. “Sir, there was an incident in the time lab shortly after our arrival...”

Kessler chuckled, “So I’ve been told. There was also a comment or two about the change in someone who was once my assistant,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

“It’s just that they would never have challenged Thad, yet they...”

“ ... Won’t do it again,” Kessler said as he walked off chuckling.

When Kessler was out of sight, Kathy turned to Mack. “Are you ready to learn modern English so everyone can converse with you?”

“Does it hurt?” he asked, but Kathy caught his grin before she responded.

They both chuckled as they started for Billings’ lab.

“What’s up with the first place we were in? Oh, I know we came in through the time chamber, but the attached lab looks as if a lot of equipment has been disassembled.”

“I was so concerned with getting help for Thad that I barely noticed, but now that you’ve called it to my attention, I see what you mean. That’s the time lab, and it doesn’t usually look that way — far from it. Something must have gone wrong. That has to be the reason they didn’t pick us up. We have Ops out on assignments, and I hope our technicians can repair the chamber soon.”

“I’ll help if I can.”

“Thanks, but that will be up to Mr. Kessler.” Kathy stopped at a door, knocked twice and ushered Mack in front of her.

“Well, well. I was expecting you two.”

“Since comp told you that we were coming,” Kathy said with a laugh.

“And this is Tyler...” Kathy said as Billings held out his hand to Mack. “Great to meet you, Mr. Tyler. I hear that you saved this lady’s life as well as her partner’s. They are two of my favorite people. All of us at Temporal really appreciate what you did.”

Mack was stunned that Billings knew his language, but Kathy spoke up.

“Dr. Billings, or Billings as he repeatedly tells us to call him, knows many languages and still remembers yours from testing Thad and me. He’s the only person I’ve ever heard of who can retain a language from a blurp, even if he doesn’t use the language regularly. The rest of us poor mortals must have a refresher course if we don’t regularly use a language we learned from a blurp.”

“So, what do I do?” Mack asked.

“Sit here and relax,” Billings said while motioning to an odd-looking seat as he readied the helmet. “I’ll have you speaking flawless English in no time.”

“I thought I was already speaking flawless English,” Mack muttered under his breath.

Kessler, Jamison, Kathy and Mack sat in Mr. Kessler’s conference room. Mack pushed his plate away, finished his third cup of stim and tried to keep his eyes open. Kathy was in somewhat better shape, but there were dark circles under her eyes as she finished outlining what had happened to them since she and Thad had left Temporal. Kessler eyed the tall man sitting beside her, wondering if he was a godsend — assuming that Mack was what he claimed to be, or a curse. It was hard to believe that someone could move himself (and others) through time by using only his mind, when Temporal’s equipment required enough power to run a small city in order to accomplish the same thing. And from what he was hearing from Kathy, this person could move through time much faster than they could. What had made the trip take so long was that Mack had to follow the faint trace left by the chamber. He had assured them that he could move far faster once he knew the way.

Kessler hooked another chair with his foot and slid it into position so he could prop his feet on it. He crossed his ankles and leaned back, cradling his mug of stim.

Kathy frowned. “Mr. Kessler, we brought Thad back, as I said before, risking his life instead of waiting until he was healed.” At Kessler’s raised eyebrow, she continued, “Thad and I felt that we had to get back, not only to get Thad medical help but to warn you about the aliens. We think there’s a good possibility they will attack Temporal the way they did us.”

Kathy’s boss frowned, glanced at her and then resumed toying with his mug, but Ray Jamison interrupted to say in a condescending tone, “We’ve discussed this in detail after we discovered that someone was tampering with the timeline, and we all agreed that breaching our shields would be virtually impossible. I just don’t think there is a chance of that happening.”

“I think there’s an excellent chance,” Kathy snapped. “You’re not listening to me, and Thad can’t be here to convince you. These ... creatures weren’t just armed for an expedition in time; they were soldiers armed with automatic weapons. They came to kill us, plain and simple. If we hadn’t moved our camp, we would all be dead; we would have been anyway if Mack hadn’t snatched us out of there.”

“She neglected to say that she killed the alien that shot Thad,” Mack interjected.

Kathy replied, with a “Hump. If I remember correctly, an arrow went through the center of the thing’s chest, leaving him standing there like a statue for me to shoot. I still think he was already dead or dying by the time my bolts hit him.” Looking Kessler straight in the eye, she continued. “I was so scared that I literally peed in my pants. I knew I was dead anyway, so I just rose up, took aim and shot him. Nobody was any more surprised than I was when I actually hit him, and I would have been dead if Mack hadn’t shot him with that bow of his an instant before I rose up,” she said, nodding at the bow and quiver of arrows propped in the corner.