Chapter 24

“I want to speak to these ex-soldiers before I recount my own adventure,” John told his family. “Where are they?”

His first wife, Numa, now the tribal Chief, gave an order.

“Raka, go fetch them. You know most about them, so come back with them and stay.”

Off she went on that errand, while John took the chance to go round his assembled wives and give them each a kiss, and often a fondle, saying, “I’ve missed you all while I was away.”

Raka complained when she turned up with the two men in tow. “You missed me out, John!”

“Later, Raka. We have more urgent business for now. Introduce these gentlemen, please.”

“The taller one is named Kermac, and shorter one is Trimble. They claim that the girls with them are their wives. The girls agree, though there was no formal ceremony.”

“Thank you, Raka. Welcome to John’s Tribe, Kermac and Trimble. If you abide by all our rules, you will be accepted here as part of the tribe. I take it that you have been informed of the rules?”

Each of the two said, “Yes, sir.”

John allowed a small frown to cross his face.

“I take it that your use of the term ‘sir’ is a reflection of your military service?”

The both looked startled, and Kermac stammered, “It was not intentional, High Chief. We use the term to any person in a high position, not just to army officers, but we did use it in the army. It was one of the rules we had to obey, and gets ingrained in you.”

John pursed his lips and responded, “I remember the same thing from my own military training. I was in another army, but a much superior one to yours.”

“You were? I don’t know of any other armies in this land.”

“Oh, it was not in this land. I ended up here by accident, so I have been building up my own army of warriors. Some of them encountered a group from your army, a group that had captured and were using a ship. My warriors slaughtered them, at no cost to themselves.”

This stunned the men and they had nothing to say, just stared at John.

He went on, “My warriors are trained by me, and are passing on that training to other warriors. What sort of training did you get in your own army?”

Trimble spluttered, “Training? We got no training, just issued with weapons and told to go practice with them,”

“So you got no training in unarmed fighting?”

“You mean fist fighting? We were warned not to fight among ourselves like that; just practice with our weapons.”

John smiled knowledgeably at them. “Remind me to show you sometime how to fight without weapons, without even using your fists. For the moment, tell me a few basic facts about the army you left, so that I can compare that with the other information I have already got. Size of the army? Number of fighting men – those able to attack or defend? Range of weapons in use? Uniforms, structure of the army – how is it made up, with leaders? Who gives the orders about attacks, and is there any strategy evident?”

“Wow!” exclaimed Kermac. “We were not at a level to know much of that information. The total size of the army keeps changing. The leaders drag in some locals to up the numbers, or help with carrying the provisions and other supplies. At a wild guess, I would say as many as three hands of a standard tribe in numbers.”

John reckoned that a ‘standard tribe’ meant about a hundred, so that ‘wild guess’ would mean about fifteen hundred, and probably an overestimate.

“Hmm ... and numbers that are actually fighters?”

“Now there you have me. I don’t know how many of those helping can really fight.”

“What about losses through desertion? People deciding to leave the army?”

“Do they? I have heard rumours, but nothing confirmed by the higher-ups. They did say that a large group had been sent on a special attack, to prepare things for the next advance, but that is the only known group that has left; at least by the time we sneaked off. We had had enough.”

“What happens to those who leave and are caught and brought back?”

“They get punished in front of the rest of us. If they are lucky, they get punched by a bunch of the tougher fighters; if they are unlucky, they have their heads bashed in. The lucky ones got caught quickly. The further away you get, the worse your punishment. We got warned that this was what would happen if we failed the army leaders, so we took a great risk in leaving. We planned it beforehand, and left during the night. We have been going our fastest to get away ever since, until we stumbled on these two, who said they were running away from a coastal village that had been attacked, and they were afraid to go back.

We recognised each other as kindred spirits, so that helped us to get together. We now have them as our wives.”

“No ceremony?” John asked.

“While you are on the run? No way!”

“A Chief, or a High Chief, can perform a marriage ceremony, or a confirmation of marriage, so that everyone knows you are a couple. Did you know that?”

“It was the case back where we started, but me and Trimble were not sure of the formalities here in the barbarian areas.”

“Barbarian?” John queried. “The term ‘barbarian’ is usually applied to any people that you are fighting, as it encourages your fighters to treat the enemy as nasty, even if they are only trying to defend their own territory.”

“Sorry, sir. It was just a term used by our higher-ups.”

“As expected. Weapons in use by the army?”

“We had spears, clubs, and a few had stone axes, some of them very sharp.”

“Any bows and arrows, or other throwing weapons?”

“The tougher fighters had bows and arrows, I noticed, but we were not allowed to have them. Not accurate enough in untrained hands, they said, and I suppose they were right.”

“So how many had bows and arrows?”

“About, let me think, of, about one in twenty of the fighters had them. They seemed to keep all those with such weapons as a group.”

“Of course. They are more effective that way.”

“How do you know that? Sir?”

“I have knowledge of other battles, and that was how they were best used. How long were the bows, and did they have an odd shape?”

“I don’t know what you mean by odd, sir. They were straight until the cord was added, then the bows were curved. I don’t know of any other way you can make a bow, sir.”

“Right. That is clear enough. Any throwing machines?”

Kermac’s brow furrowed as he thought back. “Not that I have seen, I’m afraid. Ought there to be such a thing?”

“Large armies have been known to devise such things, plus battering rams to knock down walls.” John nearly said “doors” but remembered in time that there were no substantial buildings here.

His comment was met with blank stares, then Trimble ventured, “You seem to be well trained in warfare, sir. Is your home army coming this way, do you think?”

John smiled evilly at him. “Trimble, I am almost an army in myself. I defeated a large group of wanderers with nothing more that talking, plus a demonstration by my warriors. The group left, rather than face a fight.”

Both men looked again at John, this time in awe. “You are not kidding us?” asked Kermac.

“Perfectly true, although the details have been omitted. Much more to the point, I need more answers from you fellows. First, who issued the orders to the army? Secondly, where is the army’s original homeland?”

“Damn. You keep asking questions that I can’t truly answer, High Chief. All I know is there is a High Council that issues the top orders, but I have no idea how many are on that council. And I don’t know the original homeland, for I was picked up as a child many years ago, and learned to be a soldier in the army. My first jobs were just fetching and carrying, then later doing repairs and maintenance to equipment, and as I got much older, I got to work with a weapons maker, dealing with making and repairing spears, clubs and axes. The axes were made of flint, that I know, for they were very sharp. The very best axes used a material called obsidian. I had nothing to do with bows and arrows, for they were made and maintained by another specialist weapons maker.”

John questioned him further, “So if there was a maker of throwing machines, it would be the province of the bow maker?”

“I expect so, if such machines are made. I doubt their existence, myself, but I could be wrong.”

“Fine. I can accept that opinion. Do you happen to know the general line of movement of the army?”

The man gave a short laugh. “There is currently no movement that I could discern. That was up to my departure. The army seemed to be rebuilding its strength, for more of the local tribes have been resisting, and then running away, rather than staying to fight. Our local commanders said that we had to stay together to fight well, so we would not chase after a scattered tribe. It would be a bad use of resources, they told us.”

John retorted, “If they were a competent army, they would be able to detach search groups to go after the enemy and capture them. I can’t think what resources would be affected by a search for runaways of any kind. The numbers of men would require the same resources whether together or on detached service.

It sounds more as if they doubt having full control over their forces if they allowed some to operate on their own. It seems as if my surmise about the pirates we encountered was correct: a group that started operating as a separate army, then went rogue.”

“We know nothing about pirates, sir,” averred Trimble. “Now, we just want to settle down and live peaceably. Chief Numa says we can do that in her tribe, provided we stick to the rules of the tribe.”

“Quite right. You will have heard that the rules mostly involve women being treated as equal in value to men. Obey these rules and you will fit in well, and enjoy life with us. We may even give you some training as warriors.”

Kermac was offended. “But we are already warriors!”

“Kermac, if I put you up against one of my female warriors, you would lose pretty quickly. That is what I am trying to get over to you. There are warriors and warriors, and my warriors are superior in many ways. You would not be allowed to go out with my warriors unless you were trained to their standard.”

The man sat back, chastened. John called a halt to this discussion, partly because this was as much as he could expect at this time, but mostly because his memory had produced more information about himself. He was staggered by the detail that now came to mind.

He was a Brit, and had been a member of the elite Special Air Service regiment until invalided out with a strained back that prevented him being able to cope with the large loads that were routinely expected of the SAS troopers in their work.

He had been treated well by the NHS, but the doctors told him that his spine needed an operation that was currently only being done in America. As his face fell, thinking of the cost involved, the doctor said, “The army will cover the cost of your treatment, through its requirement of care for serving soldiers.”

John had inwardly sighed with relief.

His trip to the USA was a successful one, and after some months his back was back to normal, but he was still out of the army, as there was no guarantee the problem would not recur. He took advantage of his presence in the United States to do some travelling, hitch-hiking his way from state to state, and in the process met up with Vickie, who was on vacation herself. And then ... and then his memory failed again. He could not recall what happened next, to end up with him being here.

Disappointed, he ordered the two men, “Enough for now. Spend a few days learning about how to fit in with the tribe, then we can speak again. Now I have to report to Chief Numa on my expedition, so go back to your wives and ask them if they wanted a marriage ceremony soon.”

Once the two had left, John got Numa to call the others to hear his report. When they were assembled, he made sure they were out of earshot of the rest of the tribe, and recounted his trip to the fisher village with Fresno, and what had subsequently happened.

“You will have heard the first bit from the returning warriors, but with the assistance of Fresno we prepared a trap for the crew of the big ship. First, I planned an attack from a headland clifftop on the big ship. When it arrived, I got lucky and hit it twice with missiles, forcing it to come in to the bay by the village for repairs and recovery.

As we expected, they raided the village huts for food, and helped themselves to sacks of beans from underfloor stores. The landing party kept some for themselves, and sent the rest to the ship for the crew, as the main foodstuff on board was fish.

The shore party brewed up a bean stew, and we must assume the same thing happened on board. Again, as expected, the crew did not share this food with their captives, but kept it for themselves.”

Numa commented, “Why did the fishers leave all that food in the village, instead of taking it with them?”

John laughed. “The fishers left nothing of value, my love. What the pirates found was stashed there by Fresno and myself, gathered from the surrounding forest. These beans, or call them peas, or whatever, were known by the locals as extremely poisonous, but the pirates assumed them to be a food supply as they were found stored inside several of the huts. The pirates all died within a few hours of eating, all except the cook for the shore party. He was a local captive from further down the coast, and knew about this vegetable, so did not eat any of it. He also had a girlfriend aboard the ship, so next day I went out to the ship and brought her back to him.

I married that pair, so they are an extremely happy couple.

I also found a hunter on the ship whose spouse had been killed in the attack when he was captured. I have sent him to scout the invader army for me. He will come back to the fisher village to report to me, and I will go there when informed of his arrival, but that may take weeks, so I left Fresno to organise the rescued captives and get them established according to what their abilities are and where they want to go. Former fishers may join the fishing village or start a new one for themselves; some ex-captives may come here to join us, so we should prepare for that happening. We might want to refer some to the Farfarers tribe.”

Numa frowned at him. “This is the same Fresno who came here seeking help for his fisher village? That young man who was left by his village to come ask for help? Him?” She was surprised at the suggestion John was making.

John smiled beatifically at her. “That same Fresno has shown considerable ability in so many ways. He is a man of talents, and I have been showing him how to use these talents to effect, and I reckon he has the makings of a Chief eventually. You recall his infatuation with our own Jenka? He has also met a young lady from the ship, in the company of her mother. This one’s name is Cleema, and I would not be surprised if he ended up with both as his wives. We should wait until Cleema comes here and meets Jenka, to see if they will take to each other.”

John took a deep breath and continued, “Now, what about this ‘ammunition’?”

Numa looked him in the eye.

“As it is from your time and place, I’ll let Sheila and Vickie deal with that report. It doesn’t mean much to me, except in what it does. Vickie! Sheila!”

The two women from his time quickly were at his side, flanking him in front of Numa. They gave the younger woman her place, to show they accepted her as their leader.

“Yes, Chief Numa?”

“Please tell High Chief John about this ‘ammunition’ that came last time.”

Vickie took the lead.

“It was mostly ammunition for the automatic rifle that came with the dead man, John, but there were a couple of rounds for the missile launcher as well. The bullets came in magazines for the rifle, taped together like a belt round the animal. Each animal was carrying quite a weight!”

John was more interested in the LAW rounds.

“Ah, that is handy. I fired off two rounds at the big ship, so this means we are back to the initial supply. I was impressed with the results, for I recall that I only ever got to fire one in practice, for they were expensive items.”

“But don’t you want the bullets, John?”

He was hesitant. “Well, it does mean I don’t have to worry for a while about the rifle becoming a glorified club, but I would still not be keen on using the rifle except in exceptional circumstances. Killing a lot of people at a time is not only bad sportsmanship, it is a waste of human beings that might be converted to our way of thinking.”

“But if they are coming at you as an army, you surely won’t hesitate?”

“Quite so, but the trick is to avoid such a situation. With the pirates, I never fired a shot after the ship was damaged, nor did I need to use my crossbow on them. The beans were the weapon: they did the job for me, aided by the rapacious attitude of the pirates.

Whatever works, with the least cost to your side, is always the best solution. The best way of stopping a railway system is not attacking the trains; it is disrupting the rails so that the trains dare not run without the line being checked in front of them. Even if it doesn’t stop every train, it slows them to a crawl, all over the network. All that the attack needs is a small dollop of explosive, or even a crowbar and hammer to knock out the rail clips and so loosen the rail.

With an army, I have to find a way to stop the army without directly fighting the soldiers.”

Sheila commented, “I can see the argument, but I don’t see how that will work in practice, love.”

John answered, “That is what you need intelligence for, to give you the information about the army so that you can find their weak points. Our two deserters have made a start on that for me. The invaders’ army is run by a council. That is always a bad idea. Then the weapons are not very advanced, nor are their bowmen numerous. The training seems to have been minimal, which makes their fighting ability much less. It is all good indicators, but not enough.

What I need is the weak point that can be easily exploited, and I don’t have that yet.”

Vickie chipped in, “John, you haven’t asked about the animals.”

“I am sure you will tell me, Vickie.”

“It was two more sheep, ewes, so we now have the makings of a flock, if we can keep the local predators away from them.”

“Yes, that is a problem. The sheep need grass to graze on, which means grassland, but that makes them vulnerable to predators. I expect that is why sheep like grassy hillsides, as they can evade predators so much more easily. It was humans who collected them into lowland fields, once there were few predators, and even then, they needed shepherds to keep an eye on them.

We have a lot more predators in this era. We’ll have to think about this question, but we don’t have much time to get to a solution.

To switch to something else; Sheila, how are you with the herbal treatment to cause an abortion? Many of the females captured by the pirates were raped on board and may be pregnant as a result. I promised that we would look at the possibility of causing abortions, but we need your expertise on that one. Can you help?”

“That is not a real difficulty. There are many options: papaya, pineapple, (preferably still green), sesame seeds, vitamin C, even chamomile tea. Then there is cotton root bark, plus mugwort (the Artemis vulgaris variety), but I don’t know if that can be found in tropical areas. I need to speak with the local women to identify which of these grows here and is available, so I know what will work and what might not; indeed, the wrong choice could be dangerous. They may already know of some of these fruits, seeds and herbs, so I shall ask them about that detail. Hopefully by the time any of your abused women arrive here, we will have the treatment arranged. Do you need to send anti-abortion medications to those who are not coming here?”

Numa intervened here.

“It would be good politics to provide medical help to these women in other places, but I would like to advise you to visit them, Sheila, and administer the treatment, as our medicine woman. That way, our tribe gets the credit, and we might be able to set up a clinic to treat women needing abortions, as they would have to come here, and render us some recompense for our effort.”

John grinned at Numa’s efforts as a Chief to benefit her tribe, and he agreed with her diagnosis.

He elected to escape the consequences.

“I’ll leave it to you girls to sort that out. I need to go back inside and have another look at the map, to see if there is any information I can use.”

“Oh,” said Vickie. “There was a message in with the ammunition. I had better give it to you.” She fished inside her tunic between her luscious breasts, and handed the paper to John. He was fascinated by her choice for concealment, but let it pass. She sniffed while she was close to John, and wrinkled her nose.

He unfurled the paper, and read the message, clearly intended for the dead man who had arrived with the rifle firing.

“Your efforts have had little effect so far. We have not seen any marked differences around us. Use the extra ammunition of establish yourself as a powerful war leader, and start actions against the other tribes. Make a tick at the top of the map if you succeed, so we can compare your actions with reality here.”

John stroked his growing beard as he considered these words. The senders were of the opinion that actions at this time and place would affect society in their own time.

There was a fallacy in that reasoning; a major misreading of the facts. The whole world would not be affected by one man’s efforts here, even if he managed to spread his area of control. It would take many generations to have any demonstrable effect, and meanwhile developments on other continents might be forcing opposing ideologies on these continents.

The proposed warlike actions would inevitably collapse as succeeding generations took on their own plans for the future. There was no guarantee that anything started here in that manner would persist into the far future. The only long-term activities, from his reading of history, were those based on new religions or philosophies. Every war leader was replaced by leaders more intent on feathering their own nests, or improving the lot of his people, rather than continue to battle with more and more surrounding communities. The Nazi ideology that happened in Europe was overcome by other communities that had better resources, more committed armies, and economies that were not based on forced labour and theft of resources. A similar situation occurred with the Communist ideology. It spread as long as the reason was to improve the lot of the workers, but when it tried to compete with capitalist economies, the communist economy failed and eventually collapsed.

What tends to survive is an economy that is based on fairness. Extreme capitalism ends up with financial collapse through corruption if there is no competing enemy economy to measure against.

Such financial collapses last a few years then slowly recover, but tend to go back to the old ways as soon as the collapse is out of immediate memory. Corruption is an insidious foe.

Capitalism combined with a system to protect the weakest usually works best, provided both arms of that economy work fairly.

By the same token, certain religions or philosophies can lead to an economic collapse, such as if human sacrifices are seen as a way of placating the gods. That never ends well.

Damn! John told himself. He was arguing for the very thing he had previously condemned: a religion. He did not want to be part of a religious structure.

Perhaps a philosophy, though: a pseudo-pacifist one, not pacifist as such, but with justified resistance to evil. That had been his approach so far, anyway, so why not make it a standard approach to life?

He decided that he would keep quiet about this idea, and let it flow naturally for now.

The other question was how could he arrange for the dissemination of the philosophy among the enemy ranks? First he would have to find out what their current life philosophy was, in case there was a critical clash of ideas. Another question for the pair of deserters.

Vickie and Sheila were both waiting for him to comment on the missive, so he told them, “The people who sent us here are still trying to get a long-term war started; that’s why the ammunition. We already have our own war here, albeit in the distance at present, so the ammunition will be useful for defence instead of attacking.

Girls, I have just had a revelation: a chunk of my memory has returned, so I know that I met you, Vickie, while we were both on vacation in the States, but I don’t know anything more recent. Have you or Sheila got any memory back of your time back there?

He got blank stares, then a look of frustration, before they both admitted that nothing new had come to them. He promised them, “If I can gradually get my memory back, so will you girls. I hope the memories that return are not all bad.”

Vickie now told him, “John, you smell somewhat. Do something about it.”

John looked at her in surprise, saying, “But I swam in the sea this morning, and washed the salt off in the nearby stream!”

“Even so, you have been walking for hours, so you have worked up a sweat. If you want to make your women happy tonight, you will go wash yourself thoroughly beforehand.”

Sheila was nodding her approval, adding, “And change your clothes as well, dear. You have been wearing these skins for days,” so John gave in.

“Very well, girls. I’ll do that as soon as I can, my loves.”

They accepted the situation, then Numa interposed herself.

“Yes, Numa?” She edged closer.

Numa wanted to pull him aside for a private conversation, so he apologised to the other ladies, and went with her.

When they were away from the others, she told him, “All of your wives in this tribe are now showing up as pregnant, darling. You have done your duty by them, but can I ask that next time, we arrange that we don’t all have babies around the same time?”

“Certainly, my darling. I can see the logic, in that those not close to term can be of more help to those about to give birth. You should be able to organise the others so that I don’t spill my seed in them at the wrong time. I will fit in with your planning for that. Presumably this means them using Sheila’s preventative herbs at the appropriate time?”

“I have spoken with Sheila and she will assist with that task. She agrees with the spacing that I envisage, so will use the herb herself, but Vickie says she just wants to have babies while she still can. She is not that old, so I think that she is simply trying to establish herself as the prime mother figure in your family. I have no problem with that view. As Chief, I don’t like the idea of being constantly pregnant and less able to fulfil my duties to the tribe.”

“Numa, my darling, that is a very responsible position to take, but I hope you will want to have more of our children.”

“I do, just not so frequently!”

“Any word of Maranga?”

“Give her a chance, John. She has hardly had many chances to get your seed inside her!”

“No, I meant, was there any word of her activity as Chief over there?”

“We get the odd trader passing through that gets us word, but we also have a few of this tribe who have relatives in the Farfarers and visit them occasionally. The word is that things are very settled, and the warriors are getting training from time to time. They would like additional training from you, but know that you have been away on a trip to help another tribe.”

“Fine. I’ll do a visit shortly, to correct that lack. The Farfarers may get a few extra members for their tribe, from the people that were on the pirate ship. I had better warn her.”

“Yes, do that. Now, tell me more about this big ship: what did you mean by ‘big’?”

John tried to describe it in terms she would understand, but as she had never seen the sea or ships, it was difficult to get over the image. He eventually described it as nearly half as long as the clearing outside the cave was broad, from side to side. Her eyes widened.

“Gosh! How could anything be that big and not fall apart?”

John thought of all the massive ships in his own time, and smiled inwardly. Outwardly, he merely commented, “Size is merely a dimension, Numa. It forces you to plan beforehand; design your ship to make it easy to put together. You have to improve your techniques in ship construction. The larger the ship, the more important it is to build well, with good tools.”

This struck him as stating the obvious, but then he wondered how awkward it would be to build a large wooden ship with just stone and flint tools. The build would take forever! Did that mean that the shipbuilders working on ships this big might be using metal tools? It would be vital to find out, for if metal tools were available somewhere, he wanted access to them, even if it meant trading for them. It was unlikely that expensive weapons would loaned to them.