Chapter 8

Temporal — the meeting with Mr. Kessler continues.

...”With two Ops, plus equipment, you’ll be lucky to get a ration bar or two,” Kessler said ominously.

Thad decided not to push the point for the moment. “When do I leave?”

Kessler frowned. “Just as soon as I can get someone to go with you. I think it’s essential that you leave as soon as possible. It will strain our reserves, but I’m going to push you down-time with everything we have. I want this thing. No, more than that, we must have its equipment. It obviously carried equipment with it, otherwise, it wouldn’t be varying its speed so much. It was looking for something, and Sullivan, we have to have equipment compatible with or better than the Others’, or we’re going to lose. They’re making changes faster than we can find and correct them.

“Get your equipment together, and I’ll see about getting you a partner. Meet me in the chamber lab ready to go in an hour,” Kessler said as he sat back down at his desk and pushed Thad’s screen toward him. The meeting was over.

As Thad walked out the door, he heard Kessler tell Kathy, “In my office.” Thad wondered why she put up with her boss. She was smart as well as good looking. There were plenty of jobs she could do at Temporal. He wondered if it might be an ego trip. Being the boss’s assistant was a lot like being in command, and to give her credit; her job was a lot more than a secretary, but she put up with a load of crap from Kessler.

Thad headed straight for the lift. Kessler was going to feed him this time. He mumbled his destination as he stepped through the door already planning what he would take. He was momentarily distracted as the AI asked him to repeat his destination. By the time the door opened again, he had already thought up several specialty items and was working on how to keep Kessler from finding them.

A short walk down the hall and through a familiar doorway brought him to outfitting. Mike had his sign out again. He was gone almost as much as he was here, but he was in charge of procurement as well as outfitting and was always busy. No matter — perhaps it was even for the better.

When an Op helped himself, he was expected to tell the inventory AI what he had taken. At least I won’t need a period costume for this one. There’s no one to impress at one million. The AI would supply a basic checklist in case he forgot anything. Grinning, Thad put a ten-day supply of concentrated rations in two backpacks and tossed them on the counter with resounding thuds. A few minutes was all that was required to locate his specialty items, and he put them in the bottom of the packs under the survival rations.

This time he was going to eat, if not in style, at least without having to stalk something — or be stalked. The last time he trailed an animal for meat, he had spent half the morning trying to get close enough for a shot. He finally succeeded in getting within two hundred meters of a small herd of deer-like animals, but he couldn’t see them clearly enough because of the intervening brush. After working his way down the steep bank of a small ravine, he waded through a stream, then climbed the other bank. He had just centered his sights on a good-sized buck when he heard a splash behind him.

He had almost taken the shot instead of looking behind him, but glanced around to see what had caused the noise. The discretion had saved his life. He had never seen anything even faintly like the thing anywhere and in any time. Whatever it was, was all teeth, claws, and killing fury. He knew it was his own fault. He had dropped his guard out of frustration from having to stalk his intended kill for so long, but if he had taken the shot before looking behind him, that little margin of time was all the beast would have needed. He had barely gotten the rifle around and the shot off. Even then, he had to scramble to get out of the way of its thrashing as it died. With the creature’s meat too rank to eat, and the meat animals spooked by the sound of his rifle, he had gone without yet another meal.

This time, if I have to stay at one million for a while, I’ll hunt at my leisure — not out of dire necessity.

After asking the AI for a checklist for one million BC, he was unlocking the gun cabinet with Mike’s “hidden” keys when Kathy burst in, red-faced and on the verge of tears.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, looking up. “Is that ducky boss of yours giving you a hard time again?”

She answered him with an almost lethal glare. Women. He went back to selecting his primary weapon and energy charges. What the crap had turned her on? Oh, well, either she’ll tell me, or she won’t.

He decided to stick with what he had taken last time and chose a pulse rifle with a computer-enhanced day/night scope. Damn Kessler. My partner for the trip should be here discussing our armaments and provisions. It would be just like Kessler to send someone rushing in after I’ve done all the packing, then have to do everything all over again because of some lunkhead wanting to check everything himself — which is precisely what I would have done if the roles were reversed, he admitted to himself.

After snapping one of the charge packs into the rifle with more force than necessary, he touched the button that activated the self-diagnostics. A small panel lit green — everything was functional. Grumbling to himself, he took out enough charges to start a war and placed them on the counter beside the rifle. Kessler will gripe about the weight I take with me and will want to trim it down, no matter how much or how little I take. If I put in extra to begin with, maybe I’ll wind up with a reasonable amount after he does his thing. The old boy is in for a shock this time, though. I am not going to have to hunt for my meals again.

While he was rummaging through the knife case, Kathy finally spoke, “Mr. Kessler isn’t going to let you take all that stuff. He told me to call all the department heads for a short meeting before I left. He said he was going to start conserving power so he could push us down-time as fast as possible.”

“Us?” Thad ground out as his head snapped around to stare at her openmouthed. So that’s the reason she’s on the verge of tears. Kessler has, at long last, gone completely over the edge.

“You can shut your mouth now,” she snapped. “And don’t look at me that way. I’ve had all the training you’ve had.”

“Bull,” he snapped back. “What training? You’ve never been down-time in your life,” he retaliated, almost yelling in spite of himself.

“Maybe not, but I had the Op’s training course in addition to all the history and PT courses you have, and I’ve kept up with my PT.”

Thad slammed the keys down on the counter. “Wow! I’m impressed. Now I can relax knowing you’re going to be in good shape when you get us killed. What about that year of training with an experienced Op? Remember, we’re going to one million BC. I need someone with me who can shoot and won’t hesitate when the time comes.”

Kathy came toward him as if she were going to hit him. “I know I don’t have the experience, Mr. Expert,” she hissed, “but I also don’t have any choice, either. I didn’t volunteer for this thing. Mr. Kessler ordered me to go, and he did it in no uncertain terms. As soon as your girlfriend gets in, he’s going to send her back out to try and find what caused the thing at 5000 AD. There wasn’t anyone else around that had been to Op school. He knew I’d gone before I took the assistant’s job, so you’re stuck with me, like it or not.”

The crack about Millie infuriated him. He snatched the keys and fumbled the door to the handgun case open. After hastily selecting a laser, he snapped in a charge and tossed the weapon to Kathy, who caught it but looked as if it might bite her.

“You said that you had the courses, so you should know it isn’t armed. You watched me put the charge in, but I didn’t arm the weapon.”

Kathy’s face reddened from embarrassment or anger; Thad wasn’t sure which and didn’t care. She hefted the weapon and complained, “It’s too big for my hand, and it’s heavy. How about one of those smaller ones?” she asked while pointing to one on the second shelf. “I qualified with one like that.”

Thad said through gritted teeth, “That’s strictly a laser. The one you’re holding is the smallest that’s made that projects a particle beam with the laser. A hand laser by itself just punches a hole, and a small one at that. Some women like them,” he said with a condescending tone, “and a laser will kill, but not quickly, unless it’s a head shot. The ones with the laser/particle beam combination will stop a man in his tracks. We’re going to one million bc. There aren’t any men there, but there are animals that take a lot of killing to make them quit. There’s no use in killing something five minutes after you shoot it, and that’s exactly what will happen with one of those needlers. During those five minutes or so, man or beast will kill you. I’ve been to one million before, and everything I saw there was equipped for killing, running, or flying better than anything I know of from modern times. If that isn’t enough, Mr. Kessler thinks we’ll meet up with one of the Others.”

Thad slapped four more charge canisters on the counter hard enough to make Kathy jump. “Take these and use them all on the range in the back. Don’t worry about the moving targets, just tell the AI that you’re shooting with a hand laser and you want still targets. I don’t expect you to get good with the weapon; just get used to it — and don’t shoot your foot off. And shut the door; I don’t want to listen to that thing while I’m getting the rest of our supplies together.”

He half-expected her to tell him where he could put the weapon, but she snatched it up, knocking one of the charges to the floor in the process. After fumbling with it, she picked up the errant charge, grabbed the others and the weapon, and stomped off toward the back.

What is Kessler thinking about anyway? He could have sent Millie, as I asked. We could have had a great time and gotten the job done as well. She can shoot a gnat’s eye out and isn’t afraid of anything that breathes. Kathy is one of the prettiest females I’ve ever seen — and one of the coldest. She is also scared silly of this mission. I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t shoot me if she ever does have to use that weapon.

Thad grinned to himself as the muffled crashes started from the range. He hadn’t bothered telling her how much noise that particle beam made, and he doubted if she had thought to use ear protection. He also hadn’t said anything about recoil. A laser didn’t have any, but the laser/particle beam combination did — in spades. Idly he wondered if she had dropped the weapon when she triggered it the first time. “Oh, well. The weapon is practically indestructible.”

Unsatisfied with the knife selection, he made a quick trip back to his quarters. Upon returning, he stacked his selected items on the counter, then picked up an all-weather outfit before entering the dressing room. After a quick shower in the fresher, he strapped a small knife to his right leg just below his calf. The blade was nine centimeters long and tapered to an edge only ten angstroms thick. The manufacturer claimed that the blade’s edge could not be dulled under any circumstances — something to do with the locked molecular structure of the metal. If there were anything it wouldn’t cut, Thad hadn’t found it yet. Its bigger twin would go on his belt. Both had been presents from a friend he had made in 10,036. He pulled on undergarments and the all-weather outfit, then returned to the counter.

Kathy came back out, but he didn’t even bother asking her how she did. Instead, he said, “I have most of your gear ready, except for your clothing.”

She stood with her hands on her hips, the laser still in her hand. Nodding to the weapon, she said, “This thing kicks. And it makes a horrendous noise. You could have warned me, at least.”