Prologue

Junior cornered Connie, "New watch?"

"Kinda ... I've had it a while ... Time Travel? Andrea said it was hers ... once." Connie looked at her wrist. The band was new ... the watch was old. Like one of those small size O3 watches with band loops soldered to the sides of the case. About the size of a quarter ... or a nickel ... something in between.

"Can I see it? I mean hold it ... you hold on to me."

Connie unbuckled the wrist band and handed it to Junior. She looked at it close.

"Oooh ... this is one of those man killers. Don't let your brother use it."

"Man killers?"

"Let's go meet some people ... we'll use my watch. I'll get them to explain."

"Why not mine?"

"It works best if your watch is used on dry land."

"Why yours?"

"Mine is one of the new watches ... I can choose where and when. That's how I got here."

'Here' meant on the Federation of Nevis and St. Kitts Navy warship, Pretty Penny. The Penny is the Flagship of Andrea Koenigsknecht, Admiral, Captain David Austin, commanding. That in itself is fairly funny ... Pretty Penny is the ONLY ship in the Nevis and St. Kitts Navy.

Pretty Penny was sailing from the Galapagos Islands to Honolulu, Hawaii. Admiral Koenigsknecht has several claims to fame other than being an Admiral at 28 ... she is also a Polish Princess and a Hapsburg Duchess ... and a Ph.D. in History. The Penny was stopping in Oahu for repairs and provisions before heading to Australia. Andrea wants to examine the war against Japan from the enlisted mans point of view.

The navigation required to hit a spot in the ocean that measures 175 feet x 50 feet from 4500 miles away ... is fairly difficult. Add to that, the spot is moving in a mostly northerly direction at 10 knots and it becomes a little harder.

To appear at the bottom of a ladder in a passageway inside that moving spot and do the calculations to be there in seconds? Whoa Nellie!

Connie's watch can move her in time ... she will be in the same spot but years earlier. It's still complicated ... the earth is rotating around its axis which is moving around the sun which is moving in the galaxy which is moving away from the center of the universe ... and all those measurements are reasonably approximate. Those same measurements are calculated in Juniors watch ... and added to the pinpoint calculations that the newest watches make...

And the tide ... and the swell of the waves ... and not hitting any aircraft ... or birds ... or flying fish ... or other boats ... yeah ... Whoa Nellie!

"Andrea?"

"Yes, Junior?"

"This is your old watch."

"Yes, Junior."

"I thought you threw it away."

"I did. In the Gulf ... off Galveston ... a seagull caught it."

"That makes sense," Junior turned to Connie. "Your turn."

"I caught the gull ... on the beach ... near Brownsville, Texas ... before you ask ... I've been fascinated with gulls since I was five."

Denny said, "Don't ask ... she'll tell you."

"Don't ask?" asked Junior.

"About gulls, unless you happen to be an ornithologist," Denny wore the face of someone who had bitten a box-elder bug. "She'll tell you ... she knows."

"Oh," Junior confessed, "I live on an island ... Gulls shit ... on everything. I clean. That's all I need to know."

"So my watch won't work in the ocean ... dry land only?"

"Dry land ... I wouldn't go back too far either. My watch dodges trees and arrows ... yours ... not so much. And those watches hate men."

"Those watches? There's more?"

"The Powers that Be have found twelve ... or thirteen. Andrea? Do the Powers know about this one?"

"Yes."

"Why do you still have it?"

"Remember when the Powers vacationed at your house?"

"Oh, God."

"Then."

Chapter 1 »