Part 1: Tesh and War

The Delegation

'The Leader' looked out over the city, and smiled.

It had taken many years to ensure that the city fell, and the inhabitants would come to worship him as a saviour to the people, and the plan had worked well.

A cough behind him, he turned to face his second in command - Darius. This was a man who knew exactly how far he could go before the leader would stop him, and had many times with just a word.

Darius spoke in a mocking tone -"They await outside Leader, a delegation to announce their allegiance to you alone"

The Leader laughed softly - allegiance to him! And they will serve him because they'll have to.

The Leader said, "When they have gone, withdraw the first team, slowly. Let the second team chase them away."

Darius smiled, a nasty dangerous smile, "And the prisoners Leader, what of them"

The Leader seemed to consider, "Well, fortunes of war - we found the men slaughtered"

Darius licked his lips, "What about the women, shall we kill them as well?"

"Why? There was no sign of any women amongst the dead was there?" The Leader's voice was measured.

Darius gave an evil grin, "No, Leader, they are safely locked away, do we return them?"

"No, they're more fun this way." Said The Leader giving another short smile, which was then replaced by a soulful expression, "Now let the delegation in, and we'll discuss terms of our victory over them."

Darius bowed to the leader and turned to the door, which he opened to the people outside,

"The Leader will be proud to see you now, please enter."

The ten people who made up the city senate entered the room, which was plain and in its own way impressive and yet showed no details, just a desk and chair, a relic from the old times...

The spokesman started to speak, "We thank you for letting us see you, - Leader?" the last was an inquiry as the term was unfamiliar to the people now, its roots long forgotten.

The Leader smiled and sat down, "Yes, that is how I am known, it is an old name - bestowed upon me many years ago, but I am diverting you from your mission, please tell me your problems."

"Several weeks ago a tribe of men arrived outside the city. Our King and queen met them, as is our custom, they did not return, along with the servants and guards sent with them, we started to fear for them. The tribe sent a message demanding our surrender. We refused. The next message was sent with this, it has been positively identified as the Kings." The spokesman produced a severed hand on which was a signet ring. "The message was the same, surrender! Or die. We cannot surrender but do not wish to die, can you help us, Leader?"

The Leader tried to make his voice sound interested. "How many are in the tribe outside your city?"

Another man spoke, "They appear to number a thousand."

"How are they armed?" The Leader tried to keep the amusement out of his voice.

The man spoke again. "They have a few old-days weapons. Bows and arrows, battering rams, the normal low tesh equipment."

"Can you describe the old-days weapons they have?"

A third man spoke this time. "The rifles are the main weapons, they have some side-arms, all are solid projectiles, there are no fragmentary weapons in sight, they have gunpowder of course, but there are signs that they have casting tesh and manufact-tesh as well."

"I see, well I could raise a task force to deal with this tribe - but what will you provide me for this service, I already have several technologies, your pardon tesh's, available to myself and my 'tribe', I mean this will be a severe job costing many man hours, at a time when they could be of use elsewhere." The Leader said this, in a tone that implied little interest in the city and its inhabitants.

The spokesman offered. "We could offer you other services - Our wines are amongst the best in the hemisphere, our museums hold details of several teshes, even our scholar is not certain how many lost teshes are hidden in the books within the library."

"Wine, and information, is this all your city can offer - I would think that you would be willing to offer more?" - this was it, how far will they go to save themselves? The delegation conferred amongst itself, the Leader almost laughed at the raised voices each pushing the other.

Finally the Spokesman approached the Leader. "We are a single city in a large hemisphere, we would need guidance - Will you guide us, Leader? "

The Leader tried to look shocked, although it was what he expected. "You realise what you are offering? To guide a city as yours will mean complete control, something that should not be given lightly" - give them a way out, or let them dig their own graves.

The group talked amongst them selves, finally the spokesman said. "Yes, Leader - we offer you our city in exchange for the deliverance of our people."

'Now lets close the trap' thought The Leader. "And what of your King, What if he or his relatives survive their ordeal, will they follow your example, or will they dishonour it and refuse to acknowledge it? What then?"

"The prospect of the King remaining alive after this time is very small, the blood lost from the amputation would have been critical," The spokesman looked down as he said this, and then continued, "as for the Queen and the princesses, we know what these tribesmen do to our women. No there will be no comeback from the rulers".

"Very well, I accept. DARIUS!" He entered the room, The Leader carried on, "ah Darius will you please select some men to remove the tribe outside the city, there is about a thousand of them, with, sorry how many old-tech weapons? Approximately 200 rifles and side arms the rest are low tech. You will take the necessary precautions wouldn't you, also be aware that the King, Queen and Princesses - you did say the princesses didn't you?"

The delegation spokesman said, "Yes they were disguised a ladies in waiting, it was part of their education on approaching other cities and tribes. Both their highnesses were very excited about this."

The Leader nodded. "As I was saying ensure that the King, Queen and princesses are found, and try to find them alive, if possible, before you go with the men, please come back here for any further instructions, thank you"

Darius bowed again and left the room.

The Leader smiled as he went, "He is a good man, and is very precise in his work, if anyone can find your king alive then Darius will! By the way, you mentioned a scholar, do you have any other learners in your city?"

The spokesman shook his head, "Unfortunately not, the young are not interested in the old times, and show no interest in old tesh, at times we despair for the future."

The Leader gave a friendly smile, "I'll tell you what, select a few dozen of the younger people and send them to me, Why we'll show them how the old-times were and how they can help in the present time as well as the future time, I have teachers here that really know how to instruct their minds, to make them better citizens for your city, what do you say?" 'It was always nice to have new blood to train and use, plus it gave us hostages should anything go wrong.' The Leader thought.

"Leader that is a wonderful idea, we will return to the city and start selecting the ones just after your men are successful."

"Good I will look forward to seeing them, but don't forget the wonders are for both the males and females as well. Oh by the way, before I forget, if your city is encircled how did you arrive here, high tech knowledge?" It always pays to get information.

"No, Leader - We used a tunnel, something called a 'sew-wer'! - You will never guess what it was used for in the old-time!"

"I couldn't imagine," said the leader - who was an expert in all things from the old-time.

"Well this 'sew-wer' came out at an old river, the mouth was disguised as a cave. If we hadn't found the plans for the city, even we would not have found it."

The Leader got up from his seat, "That is good, now return to your people with the news, Darius should be ready in a few hours, he doesn't let the grass grow under his feet. Now go and prepare your people for victory"

The Delegation left, and the Leader smiled again "yes, victory and defeat in one swoop".

Darius returned to the room, "Your orders Leader"

The Leader gave a dismissive gesture - "As ordered before, except we no longer need the Queen, find the Princesses they are disguised as ladies maids. Your men can have fun with the others but the Princesses I will need."

"And the Queen?" Darius almost licked his lips

"Checkmate Darius, once the Queen is taken the King is at risk and can be removed. Just return the Princesses to me".

Darius bowed, he left the room with an evil leer on his face. The Leader went into a side room, he looked at the person tied to a rack, he smiled, "Well Wildflower, and how are you today?"

The prisoner just gave a dull look at his words, she was not really reacting still, and he'd only had her for about five years, he'd enjoyed her, but something was missing. Still his troops had no complaints about her, she was a prize for their good work, and she'd really be working for the next few days, when the first team were back.

He switched on a bank of monitors, they kept a watch on the dungeon area, it was great entertainment, sometimes he'd let his handmaidens watch as their brothers or sisters were worked on, it greatly improved their appreciation for him.

The Turning Point - Leaders Chronicle

It was almost too easy, You stole a time machine, filled with the death and destruction capabilities of a small armoury, then you go forward several thousands of years, to a time when nothing of the past was known.

It had been some astronomical event that had happened, pushing the people of the time into caves, for hundreds of years, back to the stone age technology, with only oral history, and hardly anyone who was able to read the few rotting books. Small Tribes scattered around the Country easily cowed and pulled together.

The training was accomplished by means of shooting a few of the rabble until the mean ones could be found to take over the training of the dumb ones, and then sit back to enjoy the fruits of the hard toil that had been my lot until then.

Language, that had been the stumbling block - It was understandable, but seemed garbled, word shortened, and altered - Technology became Tech then over the years arrived as Tesh, yes technology that was the one thing that the tribes knew about but did not have, a few found weapons, eaten by time and rust, which just as easily blew up the owner, in some cases the owner, tribe and enemy in one go, depending on the weapon used.

Of course my weapons did none of these things, I made sure of that, with the aid of a few books and education of the brighter members of my new large tribe, I had a workshop constructed, and was able to produce weapons and parts of weapons. Whoever had guns, bazookas and hand-grenades could take over the world.

And so I started, at first with the tribes, now it was the time to work on the cities, These were places where the people had stayed in shelters, they had more knowledge, and higher technical skills, and they were easy to defend - at least by normal methods, but there was always other means to an end.

So now I am the leader or rather the Leader, and in my world my word is law - I have many faces, a father figure to my tribes, A learned man to some, A saviour to others, And the head of a feared tribe to a few.

I have nothing to fear, as everyone else has a lot to fear from me!

Prisoners

On the monitor screen I watched as Darius entered the dungeon area, He approached the quivering mound of flesh that was once a king.

"Hello again your majesty, I have some good news for you", his voice was smiling almost happy, "We no longer need your presence here, and we are going to let you go".

"G-g-g. G-g, go?" the voice was weak, and unbelieving, too much had happened to its owner for it to depend on what is said to it.

Darius' voice was oozing with friendliness. "Why yes, this was just a misunderstanding, We will be letting your Queen and yourself go shortly, however we will be turning our attentions onto you entourage, the soldiers, equerries and ladies in waiting, I understand some of the men here are most anxious to start to work on them especially."

The king starts to fight against the ropes holding him,

Darius's voice was now concerned, that had taken a lot of training, "That seems to worry your majesty, is there any particular reason why we shouldn't test them?"

"My, my, my daughters are in that group, please do not harm them!" The king's voice was pleading.

"Your daughters, locked up in these surroundings," Darius's voice was still full of concern, "why didn't you tell us they were here, we would have released them as soon as we knew, please tell me their names so that we can remove them to safety," - As I said Darius was very good at his job, especially as a bastard of the worst kind. Darius leaned close to the king's mouth and listened to the king.

"Thank you, your majesty - I shall return shortly."

He walks out of the chamber, down the corridor and into another chamber, the walls are lined with captives, chained with their arms above their heads and their feet pulled up behind their knees, an awkward position as they have to remain on their knees, this is also painful as they are kneeling onto the stone floor.

The prisoners are beyond moaning, with many their knees are bleeding from the rough ground, others are resigned to this, mild, torture aware that much more is coming.

Darius goes through the chamber concentrating on the women until he comes to two, almost childlike waifs, tear streaked faces hanging down as the pain of the chains works its wonder on them. With the careful father-like touch he raises the faces and softly asks them their names.

With no reply forthcoming the touch starts to get aggressive, causing the younger to cry out and call out a name that satisfies, the soft touch returns to the younger, as the elder is forced to endure a harsher, lower attack, until she also answers with her name.

Darius then releases both, but they remain chained by the wrists. They hobbled, seemingly unable to unbend their legs after such a short time in the chamber, Darius leads them back to their father - the shock of all is apparent, Darius knows how to make an entrance.

"Now sire, here are your two daughters, safe and sound as I promised." He paused at this point and let the two girls slump down onto the floor, "And also as I promised, you are free to go"

The Kings head slowly raised itself to look into Darius eyes - as the dagger was pushed into the Kings chest, "Enjoy your freedom you majesty".

Darius turned to the two still on the floor

"Remember this!" He snarled - "Your lives are nothing, you are nothing - you are servants in the empire of the Leader, his slightest whim is your command, else you will be returned here - to suffer for as long as we can keep you alive, and that can be a very long time indeed!"

The only response to that was the whimpering of the two girls, unable to comprehend how they could have been placed in this position.

The Leader turned off the monitor - the main course of the day was yet to be served, but he pondered, Darius was a very good right hand man, if only something could be done about his script, he acted as if he lived by stereotypes, and he doesn't even realise it! - The Leader laughed out loud with this thought, and awaited the arrival of the princesses.

He turned to the prisoner on the bed, "I think I'd like you to be somewhere else." He thought for a moment, and then added, "I think up against that wall would be best." He pressed a button and three women quickly entered the chamber - they'd learnt to be quick at almost everything they did, they followed his orders, pulling the unresisting form from the bed and then re-chained it to hooks lining the whole side of the room. Then, just a quickly, vanishing again, before The Leader could decide to detain one of them again.

The leader returned to his office, rubbing his hands in anticipation.

Time Center

The alarm was sent to the Investigators office, theft of a time capsule from the museum of technical advances. The duty investigating office was sent to check and to investigate the theft.

"When was it discovered?" - Time Investigator Wilma Jenkins asked

"This morning, but as to when it was actually taken... We're unable to say, I mean its not as if we expect the capsules to just up and leave on their own" - the speaker, the senior technician, realised that he was making the problem worse but couldn't stop himself

Wilma looked sarcastically at him. "Of course it didn't leave by itself, someone took it! Now who could that be? And when was the capsule last checked?"

"We ran the weekly inspection two days ago, all capsules were accounted for - the doors were locked and monitors reset just after the team left" The technician was trying to distance himself from the problem

"What do the monitors show, you have checked the monitors haven't you?" Wilma tried to keep the sarcasm out of her voice

"Of course - three hours after activation the doors opened and the monitor are deactivate, we are still trying to work out how this could occur."

Shaking her head she spoke to a technician. "Show me the last minutes of the monitor" - She is taken to a viewer console and after a few seconds the screen is activated, Showing the main doors to the Time capsules display room, large heavy solid doors, which open slightly then the display shimmers into static.

She spoke into a microphone, "Replay the last seconds at quarter speed, and magnify the door area" - the viewer computer followed the commands. The scene is repeated, but this time a snub nosed object is just visible before the static appears, Wilma turned to the unfortunate guide and the surrounding audience.

"So," she said, "the capsule was taken 44 hours ago, and you have only just decided to report the matter!! This make my job so much easier."

The senior technician was puzzled, so he asked, "It does? How"

She shouted at him; "Yes, I just arrest all of you for gross incompetence! Has anything else been taken? Like the main console, the doors, the entrance hall?"

He was now on the defensive, "Oh No, just the capsule, I mean we haven't really checked - this is your job, we're just technicians, you know, repairing the exhibits, escorting tour groups. No, security is not our job."

Wilma shook her head. "That's obvious, well do you think that you could take another inventory, of all sections, don't worry about this one - we know the result, minus one time capsule. I would like the report very soon"

As the technicians ran to their separate areas Wilma contacted her office. "Hi Boss, we have a situation here."

Chief investigator Rawlings - picked up the call "Okay Wilma - what the problem"

She let her sarcasm show in her voice. "Well, apart from a bunch of dweebs who don't know anything about simple security, and believe we don't have anything else to do with our time, just that a time capsule was taken approximately 44 hours ago, no id on the perp. Could have slipped in with the inspection group, and stayed behind when they left, he used a laser to deactivate the monitor system, I believe he was after more than the capsule, but won't know until the dweebs here can tell me more. I think we will need a full team - This is a serious one Boss, I just feel it".

Rawlings shook his head, "I can't send a team, you'll have to make do with 5, I'll send them over to you".

"5! Boss that won't be enough believe me".

"I do believe you, but you know how stretched we are, 5 is all I can send, and that is the number you will get - clear?"

"Yes Boss, but when it all blows up... I hope I'll be able to say I told you so, Jenkins out".

'5 what the hell am I suppose to do with them, post them by the doors and run around all the windows, shit, why won't the boss listen to me? This is wrong I know it is! Shit. Shit! Shit!!!' Wilma Jenkins thought to herself.

She paced up and down in the main display room past the empty slot where the time machine was taken from, and then she noticed a line scraped into the floor, where a large shape had been pulled into the gap she followed the line to where it started.

A blank spot on the floor, nothing near it, no sign of any lifting equipment nearby, she thought about it, 'it couldn't have just materialised? Could it? - What if a short-range time machine was used? The perp could have worked out when the guides had left and vectored in. You can't vector directly into a time machine, too much build up of radiation too soon. No so he materialised here, chose his machine and pulled the small unit inside.

She operated her radio again, "Code 45 repeat code 45, monitor time fields for possible changes."

An anonymous voice replied, "Your code 45 received, time scans show no changes from norms."

Wilma spoke again, "Okay but keep monitoring, pinpoint and notify if/when any changes occur"

The voice replied, "That's an affirm Agent Jenkins, standard watch and notification, standing by."

Wilma nodded and tucked her radio back into her belt, a technician ran up to her.

"Agent Jenkins, we've found something." He said breathlessly, "Follow me." he ran back into the main building, Wilma followed him to a new display area, the sign outside the room said, Acts of War - a history of war and weapons - she followed the technician into the room, apart from some dioramas and manikins the room was empty.

She looked at the man, "So? What am I suppose to be looking at?" the man shook his head

"You don't understand," He said, "This is or rather was a major display, the last collection of weapons of destruction."

Wilma made a dismissive gesture, "So? It held a lot of defunct weapons, so what, it's not as if they were real," At the look on his face she did a double take, "No, no don't tell me."

He nodded, "I'm afraid so, the directors believed that it was worthless to house replicas in a room dedicated to war, we had to learn from our mistakes."

Wilma shook her head, 'the idiots' she thought, 'who's going to learn from this I wonder?' - she spoke to the man again, "I need a complete inventory of all the weapons that are missing, also an estimate on how long it would have taken someone to remove them!"

He opened his mouth to argue, she didn't give him a chance - "I don't care whose job it is, you're the one here so get on with it." She walked away from the technician leaving him to start his task.

As she entered the main hall there were five people in the uniform of the Temporal Investigators, she recognised the man in the front. "Michael, how's it hanging," She said.

"Wilma, you forgot your bra this morning, it's still in my room!" Michael Rogers, her current lover and next in line to her job replied. "Now what's ahead of us?"

Wilma shook her head, "Not sure. We've got a last model transport taken, and there's an added bonus, a room of weapons have gone as well! I've got the idiots who are suppose to be watching over this place checking their inventories - the perp's already left, can't tell whether back in time or forward, but I've got control scanning the time-lines for any changes"

Michael whistled, "Man oh man that's bad, why the hell did Rawlings only send us five to help you, you'll need a full team on this."

Wilma nodded, "Tell me about it, but you know Rawlings, only takes his head out of the council's butt in order to close the purse-strings. I did ask for a team, so here you are. Come on I need your thoughts."

The other four operatives were directed to chase up the technicians and get their inputs; Michael followed Wilma into the time machine room. Once they got there he looked around.

He whistled in astonishment, "Oh boy, look they've got a model 25, there was only eight of those made, and only three survived their first trips. Marvelous design, but a mother to steer, we lost one of our own in the test run, must have smeared herself into paste" He shuddered, "Not the best of ways to go."

Wilma nodded in sympathy, "No way is! But we can't worry about that now, if you can drag yourself away from the machines, it's the missing one I'm more concerned with."

Michael walked to the empty space, "Okay so what am I suppose to see?" He scanned the floor, found the mark and walked straight to it, "Hey this is wrong," he pulled out a small scanner, and waved it over the start of the line.

He showed the results to Wilma, "Look at this, this shows that a small range machine materialised twice, in the same place, within a space of 5 minutes actual time. Who knows how long subjective, could be hours or even seconds." He followed the drag marks still using the scanner, "then while it was still running, it was dragged to the main machine which... SHIT, it's right off the dial, a massive surge of energy, as if the two machines interacted, the range of the thing is now in the mega-region, not the normal maximum." He switched off the scanner. And looked wide-eyed at Wilma.

"We've got to report this straight away," He said, "With this type of power he could change everything and we'd never know it!" He picked up his radio, "Control, emergency. Respond please."

Rawling's voice answered, "This is control, how dare you issue an emergency without clearing it with me."

Michael rolled his eyes, Wilma took the radio and spoke, "This is Temporal Investigator Wilma Jenkins - in accordance with the Temporal Time code I am issuing an emergency condition. T.I. Michael Rogers will give details, C.T.I. Rawlings can I speak to you privately please."

The emergency declaration being issued automatically activated all the radios to allow all Temporal Investigators to listen in to the call, that way any time changes could be registered. If fact the emergency code had only been used once before, and the corps had only just survived the incursion.

As Michael gave the details to the technical section of the corps, Wilma spoke to her Chief. "Boss, I told you this was a bad one, and you saw fit to only send five officers to help, when their senior issues an emergency, you try to stop him, now that's two of us, in the field trying to keep control, we can't do our jobs if you keep stopping us, and before you start to complain about funding for the Temporal Investigation Corps, didn't you know that in Emergency conditions the Budget is unlimited until the emergency is declared over?"

Rawlings sounded confused, "What do you mean? Emergency conditions? What's the emergency? The first thing I hear is that Rogers calling in and activating the channel, now I think I should be consulted beforehand, don't you?"

Wilma was now on solid ground - "No Boss, that's what the code is for, I can quote from the handbook if you want. If two senior Investigators agree that there are sufficient grounds... "

Rawlings completed the words, "... They can declare an emergency alert regardless of all other objections! Don't try to quote the book at me, I've read it as well! Okay now that you've tied my hands what do you need?"

'Finally' thought Wilma, "We need a full trace of the museum's temporal space for the whole 44 hours to determine when the perp arrived and to what time period 'he' I'm assuming it a he, went to, either past or future. We've ascertained that he managed to cross link two machines and that's increased the potential radius to infinity, or at least further than our hand-helds can measure."

"Okay, Wilma - I'll send a full technical team and equipment, we'll take the room apart if we have to, as soon as they arrive I want you and Rogers to handover to them and report back here! I'm going to have the council on my back and I'll need you to convince them that the emergency is real and not just some cocked up readings!" Rawlings was in full c.y.a mode (cover your ass), if anyone was going down for this he was making sure that it wasn't just him.

Leader's office - Leaders chronicles

Darius dragged the two princesses into The Leaders office - their clothes had been changed from the rags they had been wearing to proper clothing. Although it was under the watchful eyes of Darius and the other guards - all of whom were giving their encouragement to the two girls.

As they entered the room Darius spoke to them, "This is The Leader's office, once here you are to serve The Leader in whatever capacity he may ask. Should you fail him, you will return to the dungeon, but be aware that your return trip goes through the same room, and this time the men will not keep their distance."

I watched as Darius pulled the two sobbing girls to a standing position in front of me, I smiled, "Ah our two lost princesses, it's a pity your parents decided to take them with you, you are now mine, I'm sure Darius has explained to you the futility of refusal."