Chapter 30: The Stone

Scott decided to make it mandatory for all of the younger girls to have weapons and unarmed combat training in an attempt to improve their safety. His head was swimming with the twin problems of the killer and the alien, but he was still able to think of ideas to try to help the situation.

The specialists had eventually agreed with Scott's assessment of the likely explanation for the alien's presence, most of them having taken a trip to the Inveraray cold store to view the body. They were still in a period of what was shock, trying to come to terms with the loss of their connection to their own timeline and the possibility that the Earth had been attacked.

Scott had recovered very quickly and knew that he now had the reason for his time jump. Nothing else made sense.

"Well if ever there was something to motivate people, motivate an entire country, the entire Earth, then surely this is it?" He thought to himself.

He had been concerned in the past about the question of whether people would remain motivated to work and contribute to society without the introduction of a monetary system. He had considered whether the protestant, Presbyterian work ethic of the Scots was innate or something that had been developed due to the various things that the country had been through (most notably the reformation). Surely that was a concern no longer.

He found a quiet corner and began to think about how he could use the alien's appearance to spur the Scots to even quicker development, increased progress. He didn't want to panic the population and he also needed to be able to explain the phenomenon without appearing as if he had gone mad.

He eventually decided he needed to use a number of demonstrations to show the people of Scotland what was possible in this universe. Some had already seen the plane, but by no means all. Wider exposure would show people that flight was possible. The leap to space flight wouldn't be so unbelievable once that was shown. Already radios were in use to show that people could communicate remotely using sound waves and the younger people understood the theory behind that from their school studies.

Scott slapped his hand to his head. Of course, education was the answer. Those already trained would have little difficulty in believing the alien theory, especially if they were shown the wolfman's body. These were the ones he had to convince soonest anyway, as they were the ones driving development at the moment. Future generations could be taught about the coming invasion as part of the school curriculum.

The rest of the population could be told too, but their belief was almost unimportant, as it was going to be eleven hundred years before this event happened if the timelines remained true in this respect. By that time everyone would have been schooled to expect the invasion and would believe it would happen. Scott began to worry that he couldn't rely on things happening in this universe at the same time as in his own. What if the aliens came to earth in this universe sooner? He also realised that if people thought the invasion was eleven hundred years in the future then the motivational value might be diluted.

He settled on urging people to make the fastest progress they could on the basis that the invasion could happen at any time. It would be a race to get into space as quickly as possible.

The summer of 891 AD was a frantic one with so much going on it sometimes made Scott dizzy as he tried to keep track. Another shock to his system was the announcement by his father that he had taken another wife. Scott hadn't even considered such a possibility and found it hard to adjust. His mother and father had just always been there. The idea that he had another 'mother', this one in her early twenties, was just too bizarre.

He shook himself as he realised the stupidity of his thoughts. Everyone was adopting plural relationships and there was absolutely no reason why his father shouldn't be one of them, despite his age and the number of years he had been married to his mother.

He turned his attention to his plans for preparing a group of people to travel to the Americas. Already the construction of a much larger ship was underway, this one capable of transporting a large number of people and equipment to help establish a viable colony.

Scott had held major discussions with his advisors with regard to this project. He was determined that the lessons of history in his own time would be learned and the indigenous natives would be given the opportunity to develop and share in the riches of their lands rather than face slaughter and being downtrodden.

He had already asked his language specialist to make sure that people were being trained in the various dialects of the natives his people might come across. There would be no Spanish or Portuguese influence there as yet so it would be native languages that would prove invaluable.

His suggestion was that the people who would make up the colony should remain very much in the coastal areas and gradually establish trade with the natives. In this way he hoped they could build up trust and a working relationship. Many of the tribes were warrior tribes and nomadic in nature he knew, making the job of working with them doubly difficult.

Having been through this kind of planning in identifying the specialists to bring back to the ninth-century, the make up of the group was easier to determine and this time things would be easier as the ship would be capable of taking ready-made technology to help establish the colony.

The location for the colony had been something that had taken much discussion between Scott and the advisors. Scott favoured Jamestown, Virginia in recognition of the original English settlers who had colonised America. Others were in favour of going further south to South America where there were more notable reserves of minerals and other valuable commodities.

Jamestown was located partway into Chesapeake Bay and on the James River, some forty or fifty miles from the Atlantic Ocean. It was recognised that the area was likely to consist of swampy land, infested by mosquitoes and the specialists questioned why, given the choice, they should start here.

Scott had no other reason than history, the Scots had a long history of settling in the American south in their own timeline and he wanted that to be the same this time round. He stubbornly stuck to his guns and asked the medical staff to ensure that the group that travelled were all inoculated against the kind of disease and illness that would be encountered.

Jamestown had originally been named after the English King James I, but Scott planned to re-write history by having the colony named after his own son James. The colony had been built up by the growing of tobacco, but things would be different this time, with Scott suggesting the climate would be good for farming if land recovery was possible.

Virginia was pretty central in terms of America's eastern seaboard and this was another reason for Scott choosing it as the point of first landing. The details of the attempt were gradually worked out and firmed up.

Towards the end of summer, Scott received some startling news. The source was one of Sigurd's captains who was delivering a shipment of ingots from the Mediterranean. The captain was transported from Oban when he asked to speak with the Ard Righ on an important matter.

When he was shown into Scott's presence he appeared very nervous, but managed to get his story out.

"Your Grace, I bring news of some import from Italy." The man stuttered.

"Come, speak freely my friend, have no fear." Scott replied.

"You have killed the Pope your Grace." The man burst out abruptly.

"What?! You haver man, I have had no contact with the Pope, have no enmity towards this Stephen!"

"Stephen is no longer your Grace and all are saying it is down to yourself."

"What foolishness is this?"

"Your Grace, hear me. The story I have heard tells of a cardinal coming to Scotland and being sent packing with a flea in his ear. When he returned to the Pope and recounted your utter rejection of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope is said to have fallen into such a rage, his face turned purple and his heart stopped. Already there is a new Pope. He is called Pope Formosus."

Scott was stunned by this news. How could his rejection of the Roman Catholic Church have had such an effect on someone? Surely Scotland was still small and insignificant in world terms? He decided he might have to revise his opinion on that score and began to believe that already Scotland was beginning to shape world events, to change the nature of things in this timeline. If he could find no evidence of an impact when he had looked for it in his own timeline, it appeared he didn't have to look too far for signs of it in this one.