1914 A.D. Heidelberg

Kairos lifetime 120: Nadia Iliana Kolchenkov, Doctor Mishka

Recording …

Decker stepped out of the time gate onto a grassy knoll.  There did not appear to be anyone around.  A large, flat, field covered the ground just below him.  He saw a wagon track road that came part way into the field and stopped.  He imagined it might have been a farm field in the not-too-distant past.  Beyond that, the trees went rapidly down the hill to a wide river.  At the bottom, he saw an old stone bridge that crossed the river, and on the other bank, a city that had to be Heidelberg.

“Warm,” Nanette said as she came through the time gate.  She pulled off her shawl and stuffed it into the pack she wore at her side that doubled for her purse.  It used to be their all-important medical purse that Alexis once carried, but Doctor Mishka took most of their things.  She still had some elf bred crackers, a ball of fairy weave she could shape into a blanket and a tent, her wand, and hidden under a flap of cloth on the bottom, the Beretta that used to belong to Boston.  Nanette paused to sniff the air.  This felt like summer.  Definitely not Southern California in the spring.

Tony came through tugging on his breeches.  “This uniform has too many buckles,” he said.

“You will get used to it,” Decker responded.  He and Tony visited the marine base in the Los Angeles area and saw examples of the combat fatigues worn by marine officers in the Great War.  They imitated the look with their fairy weave clothing, but all the accessories would take some getting used to.

“Why are we here so far from the city?” Nanette asked.  “I thought Doctor Mishka, a younger version would meet us here.”  She checked the sun.  It was perhaps nine in the morning.

Decker did not respond.  He merely pointed.  A mule-drawn wagon and three people on horseback came onto the field.  They stopped where the road stopped, turned the wagon around, and the riders tied their horses to the side of the wagon.  One of the riders appeared to be a woman, and the three on the hill began to move down to intercept them.

Down below, one rider got between the woman and the back of the wagon.  “Nadia—Mishka.  You don’t have to do this.  You can still back out of the duel, and no one would blame you.”

Mishka stopped and looked at the man.  “Karl Frederic von Stassen has been put in charge of the women’s clinic since I finally got transferred to the surgical team.  But the man is a pervert.  He fondles and abuses the women put under his care. Someone needs to teach him manners, and since the men are all cowards, that leaves it up to me.”  She put her hand out to indicate the man should move out of the way, but he did not move.

The other man came up behind Mishka.  “Von Stassen is an excellent swordsman, and no stranger to the duel.  They say he has killed three men and injured a dozen more.”

“I do not doubt that.  The man is an ass.  I would imagine he has been in two dozen duels.  But this time, he has gone too far.  Move Walter.”  The man blocking the back of the wagon moved, reluctantly.

Everyone paused to look when a motor coach came to the field, followed by five men on horseback who talked and laughed like they had no concerns in the world.  At the same time, Decker, Nanette, and Tony came to the field.  Nanette called and waved, and Mishka returned the wave and a smile.

Doctor Mishka checked her hair bun and made sure every strand stayed in place.  She raised her hood, which obscured her appearance and covered her hair completely.  Then she welcomed the marines and Missus Decker.

“Colonel,” she called to the group.  “Allow me to introduce my friends Doctor Walter Wagner, my driver Klaus, and my second Graf Stefan von Hoffmann.”  She turned to the other side.  “Lieutenant Colonel Decker and his adjutant, Lieutenant Anthony Carter are United States Marines.  Nanette is Missus Lieutenant Colonel Decker.”  Mishka smiled at them, and it made Nanette smile.  The men shook hands and passed pleasantries before Stefan interrupted with a question while Mishka got a straight saber out of the back of the wagon and got a helmet with leather that fell to her shoulders and a mask that covered her mouth and nose, leaving only her blue eyes exposed. Otherwise, she stood in slacks and a loose-fitting blouse like the man across the way.

“First blood?”

Mishka merely nodded and turned to Nanette and the marines, thus turning her back on all the others.  While Stefan and Walter walked out to meet von Stassen’s second and make sure the rules were understood, she faced the Americans.

“A duel?” Decker asked.

Mishka nodded and traded places with the Princess and lowered her mask.  The Princess was an inch shorter, but no one would notice the small difference.  Her eyes were still blue, though not exactly the same shade as Mishka’s eyes.  Of course, her face and features were noticeably different, being a different person in the many lives of the Kairos, and her hair changed from Mishka’s medium brown to a very light golden brown that looked almost blonde in the morning sun, but her hair had also been put in a bun so the helmet and mask would completely disguise who she was.

“This won’t take long,” she said in Greek that the travelers could understand perfectly.  She risked a glance behind her.  The man swung his sword in wide and wild arcs to test the movement and flexibility of the weapon.  He had obviously been trained, though not too well.  She did not doubt he killed a man and injured some.  But she had years of one on one to the death—battlefield experience he could not imagine.  “I’ll try not to hurt him too badly.”

“I could just shoot him,” Decker suggested.

The Princess grinned and swung her own sword a few times. She looked down the edges to the point.  It was a good weapon, and sharp.  She traded once again with Doctor Mishka, turned to face her opponent, and walked to the center.  She found the sword in her left hand.  She left it there.  The Princess was a lefty.

“You wear a helmet?” Van Stassen’s second asked, though they had supposedly already discussed this.

“A concession to this woman,” Mishka said.  “I do not expect my opponent to hold back, and with the mask and this loose clothing, he can pretend he is fighting a man.  He does not need to see my face.”

Van Stassen seemed unconcerned about that.  He looked more than confident he would draw blood on the woman easily enough.  She called him a coward all over the university and accused him of rape and other things van Stassen’s superiors did not need to know about.  She needed to shut up.  He imagined he might even strike a killing blow.  She was welcome to wear a helmet and mask.  It would not help her and might even make it easier for him to kill her, accidentally of course.