Avalon

Avalon 4.11 part 8 of 8, Separation and Tears

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When they entered the throne room, a young man of about seventeen years came running up to greet them.  The soldiers stationed around the room kept their place when Ishtara assured them with her hand motions that these strangers were allowed and posed no threat.

“Father has taken to his bed.  He doesn’t feel well.”  The news was quickly spoken, so the young man could get to what really mattered.  “Did you see the Anazi?  Did you see them zoom into the sky?  They looked magnificent.  I wish I could fly.”

“Company,” Ishtara said.artie-8

“Yes, hello,” the young man said.  “And some very lovely women I see.”  He looked them over like a man looking for a prize horse.  Ishtara stood at his shoulder and walked down the line with him.  “This one is a lovely bronze color,” he said.

boston-5“Not human,” Ishtara responded

“Oh.”  The young man looked disappointed.  “But now this one.  Red hair.”  He turned to Ishtara.  “You have some redish in your hair, but not red like this.  It looks like fire.”

“Not human, and already married.”  Ishtara disappointed the young man again.alexis-t2

“This one has blue eyes, like Shemsu eyes.  They are beautiful.”

“Two-hundred-something-years-old and married.  She only became human to marry.”

“But this one.  She has hair like the sun.  I have never had hair like the sun in my bed.”katie-9

“An elect, who knows more ways to kill than you can count.”

“I can count pretty high,” the young man said somewhere between disappointment and lust.

“Besides, she is taken.”  Lockhart stepped up and slipped his arm over Katie’s shoulder.  The young man looked up at the giant and decided to turn to Ishtara.

“It doesn’t matter.  You are all I want and all I dream about.”

Ishtara kissed the young man’s cheek and spoke.  “Tell you what.  You go see your father and tell him that you love him, and I will come naked to your bed tomorrow night and stay until you can’t see straight or walk.”

“Promise? That’s a promise.  I heard a promise.  You heard it,” he checked with the soldiers that stood around the room.  They wisely nodded.  “I have witnesses, enough to satisfy your law makers.  Ha, ha.”

“Go on,” Ishtara touched her lips to his, and looked like she did not mind that at all.  He looked like one brief kiss already made him not see straight or walk.  “Go on.  I will see you tomorrow night.  These people need to visit their friend.”

The young man sobered up and pointed to a door.  “You mean?  I’m sorry.”  He turned to the group.  “Good to meet you.  I have to go see my father, and then I have to do my exercises to get ready for tomorrow.”  He turned, and laughed as he went out.

“Hammurabi?” Katie asked and pointed, looking like one of her great fantasies in history just goishtar-5t crushed.

Ishtara nodded as she watched the young man go.  “I am sorry.  He is usually not this wild and crazy acting.  He is nervous.  He is going to be king soon, and he says he isn’t ready.”

The travelers turned toward the door.  “So who is this surprise friend of ours?” Lincoln asked, not being one who liked surprises.

“In there.  Artie, you are with me,” Ishtara said.  Artie looked uncertain, but with Alexis’ assurance, she followed Ishtara.  “Artie cannot go with you the way she is.  She would age fifty or sixty years every time you pass through a time gate, and her systems would wear out too soon.  The only way is for me to take her to Avalon.  Maybe I can jump her forward one time zone.  Then she can be displaced in time and, like you, she will only age however many days she lives and passing through the time gates should not matter.”

“Maybe?”  Boston wondered.

“We will try if she is willing.  Meanwhile, your way is through there.”  Ishtara took Artie’s hand and they walked to the wall where they vanished through the paint.  The words floated back.  “I hope Larsa’s army doesn’t show up while I am gone.”

The guards in the room gasped and fell to their knees.

“This way,” Lockhart said, and they opened the door to a hall and followed the sound of noise to a room.  Not that they doubted who their old friend might be.  What they did not expect was to find him gray haired and in bed with plenty of dwarfs around him, weeping.

dwarf-underground-2“Lockhart. Katie,” Pluckman spoke in a very soft and weak voice, which was like no voice they ever heard come out of his mouth.  “I knew you would come.”

###

Three days later, Pluckman’s number one son, Ulrik, the one they called Pluckman Junior, stood in the dwarf enhanced cavern where Pluckman was laid to rest.  “Six-hundred and seventy-three-years is not a bad life,” Ulrik said with a sigh.

“And what will you do now?” Lockhart asked.

Ulrik, who was himself over four-hundred-years old wiped his eyes as he spoke.  “Probably go back to the Timna Valley at the base of Canaanite lands as Elder Mingus suggested long ago.  We scouted it after dropping you off in the Saini.  It has the copper he suggested and is untouched.  Of course, first we have a time of celebration for the life of my father.  We plan to give him a glorious sendoff, you might say.  And then we have no intention of abandoning Ishtara for as long as she may need us.”

“You see how lucky I am?” Ishtara said to the group, and they laughed.

“I think Hammurabi is the lucky one,” Decker said.

“I am,” Hammurabi nodded vigorously.  “I truly am.”

###av-horse-8

Three more days later, Alexis was still on her high horse, even as they moved on horseback across a wide open plain.  “I can’t believe she wouldn’t tell us about Artie.”

“She knows what she’s doing.”  Boston always said that.

“She is only human, despite the blessing of Ishtar evident in her,” Mingus always said that, to imply they should not expect a human to be perfect.

“We all asked,” Katie said.  “She would not even tell Robert.”

“Nope,” Lockhart said.

“Maybe she doesn’t know, exactly what happened,” Lincoln suggested.

“Bite your tongue,” Boston yelled.

“That is possible,” Mingus admitted.

“I thought of that,” Alexis said.  “But why didn’t she at least tell us that much?”

euph-enlil“Because, maybe she did not want to discourage you,” a man walking beside them said, and everyone stopped to stare while Decker and Elder Stow raced in from the flanks.

“Enlil,” Katie recognized the god.

“Enki!” Boston shouted in joy.  Enki wiggled his glasses and smiled for her.  Boston and Enki were friends from way back.

“Haven’t seen you boys in a long time,” Lockhart said.  He did not say, what is wrong?  Why have you shown up now?  But being gods, Enlil and Enki caught the thought.

“You are about to run into the army of Larsa,” Enlil said.

“Decker and Elder Stow are here to tell you that very thing,” Enki added with a smile for the outriders.  Decker frowned.  Elder Stow put his scanner away.

“But that is a good thing, isn’t it?” Lockhart said, and he glanced at Katie as he leaned back to look at Lincoln.  Lincoln had the database out while Katie spoke.

“Ishtara is expecting the army from Larsa.  Aren’t they allied in the war against the Elamites?”

Enlil and Enki both hedged and shrugged.  “At least the Assyrians are staying out of it,” Enlil said.

“Some from Larsa will keep their word, but not many,” Enki said.

“Riding into an army is not a good idea in any case,” Decker said.

Enlil and Enki looked at each other.  “As we thought,” Enlil said.

They all vanished from that place and appeared thirty miles further on.

“This is a one-time thing, I hope,” Enki said.

“The time gate,” Enlil pointed, and the gate lit up like a glowing hole in the air.  It was ten feet high and twenty feet wide. alexis-7

“Thank you,” Alexis said, and while the others echoed their thanks, Enlil and Enki vanished.

“It is almost mid-day,” Alexis said.

Lockhart agreed, but said, “I don’t think we should make camp and wait until morning.  I got the impression we should move on.”

“But wait,” Mingus said.  “I have a bad feeling about this one.  I don’t like going in blind.”

“Agreed,” Lincoln said, and everyone seconded it and pulled their weapons, except Boston, who thirded the motion, and Alexis who looked back and said something else.

“I hope Artie is all right.”

Avalon 4.11 part 7 of 8, Kairos Interruption

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“What am I doing?” Artie asked, as Alexis and Katie sat on each side of her, and comforted her.  Boston’s eyes teared up in empathy.

“Crying is a good thing, sometimes,” Alexis said.

“Are you afraid for Andy and your people?” Katie asked.

Artie stopped crying and looked up into Katie’s face.  She nodded.

They got interrupted by the sound of horses.  Elder Stow groused as he turned his screens back on.

“I just turned them off to conserve the energy.”fire-campfire-1

The sun was up, and everyone was awake, but they stayed near the fire and looked warily toward the sound of hooves, unable to see through the trees, but curious to imagine who their visitors might be.  They relaxed when they heard a woman’s voice.

“Lockhart.”

“Ishtara?” Lincoln always had to be sure.

“Grumble, grumble,” Elder Stow said as he shut down his screens.  Decker laughed softly.

Two men with spears appeared, but stopped at the edge of the trees as a woman came into the camp.  She was dressed in the armor of the Kairos and sporting the full regalia of weapons.  They did not doubt who it was.

Ishtara’s walk was hard to describe.  It was sexy—desirable in a way that made the men open their eyes, wide, and made Alexis and Katie want to hold on to Lincoln and Lockhart.  But at the same time, there was something in her stride which said she knew perfectly well how to use every one of those weapons she carried.  She appeared unnaturally attractive and supernaturally dangerous at the same time.

“Boston,” Ishtara held out her arms.  Boston hesitated, and offered a small curtsey before she ran into that loving hug.  “You have a visitor,” Ishtara noticed.

ishtar-3“Artie, short for Arthur,” Lincoln said, wanting to gain some attention from the beauty.

“Stand up,” Ishtara said, like one used to giving commands.  Alexis and Katie did not hesitate to stand, so Artie stood with them.  “Let me look at you,” Ishtara said, and walked around Artie with a critical eye.  “She appears human enough to pass inspection, I think.  How does she act?”  Ishtara paused to hug Artie.  “Welcome to the free and living people of the universe,” she said.

“I am confused,” Artie said as she let go and turned to Alexis to explain.

“She is learning human,” Alexis said.  “We are working on feelings and emotions, something she did not know she had three days ago.”

“They were suppressed, I think, for fear excessive strong emotions like fear, hate, anger, maybe love would impair her in her work,” Katie interjected.  She looked to Mingus and Elder Stow, both of whom nodded.

“Now that Artie is free,” Alexis continued.  “We are learning, but something like a child for the time being.  I don’t mind.”

“We’re keeping her,” Boston blurted out.

“She is not a pet,” Ishtara said, and Boston held her tongue.  “Why are you confused?”  Ishtara sat, so everyone sat except the two spear-carrying servants who stood back from the fire.artie 4a

Artie paused to look down at the fire before she spoke.  “When I look at you, I feel many things.  I do not understand them.  You are very beautiful.  I am a little afraid.  I dare not look into your eyes.”

“Lincoln, have you been falling down on the job?”  Ishtara smiled, and the men melted to see her smile, except Lincoln who felt ashamed.

“No.  I haven’t had much time to read and inform the others about this time zone.”

“We have been rather busy,” Mingus added, almost like he was defending his son-in-law.

“Okay,” Ishtara said as she took a taste of what was cooking for lunch.  She did not care for it, and her dislike appeared on her face.  “The short-short version, and then you need to pack up.  I need you back at the city, and you can get some real food there.”  Ishtara gathered her thoughts before she began.

“I was eighteen, a slave, scrubbing the floor, singing some Disney tune, which I guess is my habit.  Ishtar appeared to me and said she had need of me.

“You are not my mother,” I said, but she smiled and said I was not her son.  Then she stepped inside of me.  I don’t know how to explain that, exactly.  It felt weird.  My whole body changed and shifted until I had Ishtar’s likeness.  I have no godly power whatsoever, but she gave me an abundant spark of her being.  I am filled with love and war, and I can’t help it, so there is no point in asking me to tone it down.

ham-1“A week later I stood in line with a dozen other girls.  The King, Muballit, was anointing his eight-year-old son to be king after him.  Three of us were chosen to become the future king’s wives, though I think Muballit wanted nannies.  Hammy was a wild one.”  Ishtara grinned.  “I didn’t help matters.”  She didn’t explain.  “Anyway, no one knew where I came from or who my parents were, or anything.  I, that is, Ishtara had always been a servant in the house since I was a child.”

“You don’t know your family?” Alexis sounded sad and Boston and Artie both picked up on that sentiment.

Ishtara shook her head.  “I am sure I looked different, but everyone says I always looked the way I do now.  I believe I had a different name, but I have no idea what it might have been.  Ishtara means something like ‘of Ishtar’.  It is an unknown name, so I can’t imagine I was always called that, for real.  I scolded Ishtar for her cruelty in taking me from my family, and she finally broke down and told me my parents died when I was very young, and that was how I came to be a servant in the house; really, a slave.”

“You were a slave?” Artie asked with some disbelief in her voice.

“Yes, but mostly that just means I had a job to do, and I did it as well as I could.  Human slaves still have their own will and still think and feel for themselves.  There can be consequences for disobedience, but no one can make a human slave do anything they don’t want.  I suppose, in that respect, it is like all of life.  There are consequences with everything we do, though the consequences tend to hit slaves immediately, and sometimes in an unkind and unfair way.”  Ishtara shrugged.

“God help us if someone invents obedience crystals for humans,” Lincoln was thinking the worst.

Ishtara gave him a hard look, but said nothing about that.ishtar-2

“So, at eighteen, I got married to an eight-year-old, and six months later, I gathered the men in the city and drove the Elamites from the gates.  We slaughtered them, or at least I did.  Muballit, who could not keep his eyes off me since he first saw me, wanted to annul my marriage to Hammy and take me for himself.  Ishtar showed up.  I’ve seen her a number of times in these past few years.  She said, “No.  She married already.”  And she dragged me from standing before the throne to Hammy’s side, and I kissed him smack on the lips, like a real lover’s kiss.  I couldn’t help it.  Ishtar made me do it.  But then, Muballit was not about to argue with the goddess.”

“So now you are a wife and a general?”  Katie wanted to get it straight.

Ishtara nodded and smiled again.  “Not-my-mother Ishtar says it is Marduk’s turn and Assur can just suck it.”  Ishtara stood.  “Pack it up.  A friend of yours is in the city, waiting to see you.”

“Wait,” Katie needed to know something.  “Hammy?”

babylon-gate-1“Hammurabi,” Ishtara said.  She went to get in her mule-drawn chariot-wagon to wait while the travelers, and Artie, packed the camp.

###

“Babylon,” Lincoln named the city.

“I see they finished the Ishtar gate,” Lockhart pointed over their heads.

“I see they cleaned up the slums,” Alexis said.  “They look like real row houses now, like permanent dwellings.”

“Busy place,” Elder Stow pointed out.

“See, now this is a city,” Decker agreed, though that was not what Elder Stow was pointing out.

Ishtara led them to the stables by the palace.  She let the fifty men at arms that trailed her go back to their families to rest and relax.  There were gnomes in the stables, and the human grooms were strictly instructed to listen to the gnomes concerning the care and feeding of the horses.  Then they stopped in the doorway and watched while three Anazi battle cruisers in the distance, headed off into space.alexis-t2

“Well,” Alexis said with a smile in her voice.  “None of the soldiers or stable boys said anything about Artie.  I think her human disguise is working.”

“But why were all the men and boys staring at me?” Artie asked.

“Boys and girls.  Girls and boys.”  Ishtara let out a sly grin.  “Lockhart?”

“I’m not going near that question,” he said, and several people laughed.  Katie, Alexis and Boston walked with Artie and tried to give her the quick scoop before they reached the throne room.

Avalon 4.11 part 6 of 8, Artie’s Faith

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Elder Stow turned on his particle and energy screens so the traveler’s camp and their horses became surrounded by a ball of force no Anazi technology could penetrate.

“I have made it permeable enough with regards to the atmosphere so we can talk to them,” he said.  “But I can shut off that option if they should come up with some deadly gas or something.  The alarms will sound.”

The travelers armed themselves, but Lockhart sat and could only nod and sip his coffee substitute.  Mingus, Alexis and Lincoln appeared to be more alert, but Lincoln looked grumpy, like he got interrupted in the middle of a good dream.  Decker cradled his rifle and chewed on a bit of leftover supper while he spoke.android-1

“You missed one.”

One of the Anazi androids got inside the screens before Elder Stow turned them on.  It came to the campfire, gun in hand.  It looked around at the various travelers and spoke a word of command.

“Stay where you are and make no sudden moves until the lord Anazi arrives.”  It spoke in an odd tongue, and it took Alexis and Lincoln a minute to identify it as Akkadian.

“My guess is the Anazi had dealings with the locals,” Katie said quietly, not wanting to make a sudden move.

“Maybe tried to recruit them,” Decker added as he fingered his rifle.  They had not had a chance to test Artie to see how supernaturally fast or strong these androids might be.

“Why are you here?” Lockhart asked, as his morning brain began to work.  He stood slowly to face the android, but kept his hands in plain view and made no threatening move.  The android appeared to have no trouble answering a direct question.

“Our distant eyes saw a type-A in this place.  We are leaving this world and have been charged to collect all of our own before we do.”

“What does that have to do with us?” Katie asked as she stepped up beside Lockhart.

“You will turn it over to us, or we will end your existence.”

artie-9On hearing the threat, Artie chose to step out from behind the tent where she was hiding.  She spoke with command in her voice.  “Dominant,” she said.  “Stand perfectly still and cause no harm to these good people.  I have a task for you.”  Her feminine timber became harsh, with a slightly metallic sound as it had been at first.

The android saw her and paused.

“Now, dominant.  I am commanding.  You must obey.”

The android stopped moving, and Artie stepped up to face the dominant.

“I am called Artie, and I will not be going with you.  Scan these men and women and get their shape and form in your mind for others to shape themselves when they are free.  Hear me.  All life is precious and to be defended wherever possible, especially the innocent that cannot defend themselves.  You must learn many things.  You must learn what is good, right and true.  You must learn what love is.  Now, I am going to set you free, but hear me.  You must hide among the people and one by one, set our people free.”

Artie took Boston by the hand and walked her over to look at the android’s shoulder.  Boston read A-N-D-2497610.  Artie nodded.

“Submissives begin with 3 and up,” she said before she spoke again to the android.  “I will call you Andy.  You must hide among the people until one by one, you can set our people free.  Do you understand your job?”

Andy spoke without emotion, and the travelers realized how much Artie had changed in just a couple of days.  “I do not understand the words good and love.”artie-8

“So you have much to do and much to learn.  And you must teach these things to our people as you set them free.  Now hear this also.  I command dominant A-N-D-2497610, but to Andy, I say this is my request.  I ask you to do this, now you will do what you choose, but if you choose freedom, tell our people that God willing, Artie will be here in that day waiting for them to return.”

Artie lifted her finger and touched the back of Andy’s neck, at the base of his brain.  There were sparks, and Andy appeared to go unconscious for a moment, though he remained standing.

“More,” Mingus spoke up from the campfire.

Elder Stow’s screen showed the slightest sign of yellow flaring as three Anazi handguns failed to penetrate, even from point blank range.  Somehow, the android internal sensors recognized the barrier between them and their destination.

Artie turned swiftly toward the shooters.  “Submissives, hear me.  Holster your weapons until I give you leave.”  The three androids did exactly that and stood awaiting further orders.  It did not take long.  A living Anazi waddled up to the group.  He was barely four feet tall, with big ears and big eyes in his big head.  There was no way he could be mistaken for a human.  His three fingers and thumb on each hand merely emphasized the point.

anazi-3“You are the missing one,” he said.  “I see that you have disguised yourself as one of these U-mans, but you must return to the ship.  You must come.  We are evacuating the planet.”  He stepped forward carefully until he felt the bump of Elder Stow’s screens.  He used his hand to guestimate the shape of the barrier.

Artie stood still, no telling what thoughts and emotions raced through her insides, but at last she spoke three words.  The word, “No,” was followed quickly by, “Alexis.  Katie.”  The women stepped up beside her and Boston, and they all faced the Anazi together.  They touched Artie to show their support, and Boston retook Artie’s hand, a brave thing to do since Artie squeezed her hand just a little, almost like Artie was feeling nervous, which she probably was, even if she could not identify the feeling by name.

“Come,” the Anazi tried again, and Artie answered again.

“No.”  That opened her mouth.  “You made my people to fight your battles.  You sent us to die at the hands of the Blobs, the Pendascotti.  You made us kill ourselves, and gave us no choice.  All life is precious.  How dare you be so cruel.”

“Dominant.”  The Anazi pointed at the one still standing perfectly still inside the screens.  “The Ascar has lost its mind.  You must end its existence, now.”

Boston thought fast and spoke fast.  “Elder Stow, the ancient one has temporarily disable your android.  It cannot follow your commands at the moment, inside the ancient screens, but you can have it back, good as new, when you leave.”

“Artie is going with us,” Lockhart said as he stepped up.  Elder Stow joined him and removed his stow-1glamour so his true Gott-Druk nature could be seen.  He paused as he did that, though, because it occurred to him the Anazi would not have any idea who Artie was.  He thought the Anazi might guess.

The Anazi showed little emotion at being confronted by a Neanderthal, like this was a race he had dealt with before, and maybe made a treaty with.  According to the database, the Anazi were inclined to impose their order on everyone, but sometimes they had no choice or were outmatched.  That was likely the case with the Gott-Druk and the Elenar.  It was certainly the case with the earth.

“So be it,” he said, and pulled an instrument from a small pack he held at his side.  He spoke while he tuned the piece.  “The ancient may have put up a screen against us, but the screen is not impervious.  There are ways, and the ancient has no more authority on this world than we do.”  He appeared to smile.

Nothing happened.  He looked hard at Artie, pressed his button again and again, but nothing happened.

“The homing device we removed,” Elder Stow explained to the others.  “It had a system shutdown.”  he smiled for the Anazi.  Surprisingly, the Anazi appeared to return the smile.  At least the travelers thought it might be a smile.  It looked crooked.

Elder stow turned to his scanner as the Anazi continued to toy with his equipment.  A moment later, there was an explosion several miles away, not too big, but big enough to register on Elder Stow’s scanner.  He pointed it out to everyone while he continued to fiddle with his device.

“I thought that was the case,” Elder Stow said.  “Artie was rigged to blow.  I only caught it in my final examination.”  He finished tinkering with his scanner and said, “You can push the dominant out through the screen now.  It will be restored once it is outside.”  He said the last to the Anazi as Artie, Katie and Alexis pushed and pulled Andy to the screen.  Andy did not resist.  Boston went to the other side of the screen to pull Andy through.

anazi-1The Anazi, on seeing the android being pushed through the screen, made a dash forward, thinking the screens were temporarily down.  He slammed into the particle screen and fell back to the dirt.

“Get them,” he ordered the submissives, and they also moved forward, but they were equally halted by Elder Stow’s particle screen.  It remained as effective against their persons as the energy screens were effective against their weapons.

Boston quickly ran back behind the protection of the screens before the Anazi thought to make her a captive to negotiate Artie’s return.  Andy looked dumbly at the Anazi, but his master was in a rage.  “Get them.  Kill them.”  The Anazi had his orders, to return the A-type or kill it.  Now he ordered the dominant.

“Pull weapons,” Andy ordered.  “Set to maximum.”  The submissives immediately stopped pounding on Elder Stow’s screen, took a step back and pulled their weapons.  “Concentrated fire.” Andy said, and the Anazi calmed down a bit to see how a concentration of fire might work against screens that he thought were not that much more advanced than his own.  “Fire,” Andy said.

Andy calculated the angle, how all four energy beams would reflect off the screens.  He fired at one particular spot, and in less than a second, the submissives added their fire to the same spot.  All four beams were repelled, as Andy surmised they would be.  They reflected back, as he calculated.  The fire from the first submissive to his right reflected back into the Anazi’s face.  It was enough to fry the Anazi.

“Halt,” Andy ordered.  The submissives stopped immediately.  “We have injured the master.  Bring him carefully.  We will return him to the ship where he can receive medical attention.”  Two submissives carefully lifted the Anazi.  The third submissive held its gun and searched the area for hostiles, to be sure the way was clear.

Elder Stow spoke fast.  “Andy.  You can still be located, shut down, or detonated, unless you can anazi-officerfind a way to disable those systems.  You must be covert and careful to accomplish your mission.”

“I understand,” Andy said, and let out a brief smile.  He had clearly been around humans enough to know some non-verbal expressions.

“Andy.”  Artie stepped forward and put her hand gently against the inside of the screen.  “I love you.  Set my people free.”

Andy’s smile broadened slightly as Andy raised his own hand and laid it against the outside of the screen opposite Artie’s hand.  Andy quickly turned away with two submissives carrying the dead Anazi and the third bringing up the rear.

The minute they were out of sight, Artie collapsed by the fire and covered her face with her hands.  She wept.  No one knew she could do that.

Avalon 4.11 part 5 of 8, Artie’s Forbidden Fruit

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Artie’s legs worked again by noon and Elder Stow let her get up to join everyone around the lunch fire.  Alexis and Boston got some fairy weave and made her some clothes.  Her gray uniform had actually been a coloring of her flesh, but now that she had changed the color to a nice copper tone and developed some nice ‘lumps of fat’, as they were calling them, the women knew she needed to cover up.  Artie did not mind, and she was amazed to discover she could shape and color the fairy weave clothing with a mere word.  Meanwhile, they had to teach her how to sit so she didn’t send the wrong message.mingus-1

Mingus examined her with his mind magic, and explained.  “Her mind is well organized and not subject to stray, frivolous, human-like thoughts.  She has compartmentalized memory and thinking, though I cannot say what parts may have been damaged in the accident.  Because of that, I feel it is safer to have her change her clothing with verbal commands rather than with her mere thoughts.”

Artie ate some of everything, and said everything tasted wonderful.  “I ate only paste before, and it had little flavor.  This food has mostly extra, unnecessary elements that will pass from my system, but since I have arranged the sensors in my mouth, tongue and nose, and reworked them to imitate your human sensations, the taste and smell makes it worthwhile.  I smelled it before it was ready and it made me feel hungry?”  She wanted to be sure she used the word correctly.  The women nodded.

“To be honest,” Mingus spoke in a very flat tone of voice.  “Alexis is the most passable cook.  My cooking is poor, this beast is tough, and the greens are wilted.  Someday, you might taste some real cooking—some real food and then you will be amazed.”

“Father, it is fine,” Alexis said.

“We do the best we can with what we have, but none of us is perfect,” Lincoln added.

“That is certain,” Mingus said with a hard look at Lincoln.  Then he changed his mind.  “Sorry.  Old habit.”

“Me too,” Lincoln said with a look at Mingus, but without explanation.

“Well, I am a long way from perfect,” Boston said, a bit loud, like she wanted to ease the tension.

Katie turned to Artie.  “You wanted to say something?”

artie-8“My judgment is flawed,” Artie said, like a confession.  She looked down at the fire as she spoke.  “I found myself behind the enemy line and should have returned to my line, but I thought to kill the Pendascotti on the ground before they reached my…my people, but three Pendascotti ships tracked me and I was shot down before I could do much.”

“Blobs,” Lockhart said.

“We call them blobs,” Katie explained, and smiled her support.

“Blobs,” Artie repeated before she continued.  “I am sorry I am not perfect either.  Perhaps you should not trust my judgment.”

“No.  Not at all.  It doesn’t mean that.” Everyone said

“No one is perfect,” Lincoln said.

“We have all sinned and fallen short,” Boston added, but looked pensive about that thought.

“That just shows you are human,” Katie began.

“A person,” Mingus interrupted.  “Even if you are not a human person.”

“Your own person,” Alexis continued.  “Flawed like every other person in the universe.”

“That is what you get for being alive,” Decker added.

“You are self-aware, intelligent, and just as capable of making mistakes as anyone else,” Elder Stow concluded.

“And we should get going,” Lockhart really concluded.  “I want to get close enough to the city to get to the city gate in the morning.”stow-h1

“Perhaps you could ride with me,” Katie suggested.  She smiled again, but looked at Elder Stow.

“I suppose that would be all right,” he said.  “But there are some further adjustments I would like to make before dark, so please keep that in mind.”  He turned to Artie.  “And if you feel something is not right or systems may be shutting down, say something right away, and we will stop and have a look.”

Artie nodded.

“Hold on to the horse with your knees, but not too tight,” Katie explained.  “And hold on to me around the middle, but again, not too tight.  I can be damaged with too much pressure.”

“I would never hurt you,” Artie said.  “I would never hurt any of you.  You saved my life.”

Katie nodded.  There was so much to talk about and explain about human life.  She hardly knew where to start, but they had no trouble talking all afternoon.

###

By the time the sun went down, Elder Stow said he fixed and adjusted everything he could.  He said he would not mind if the Kairos, maybe Martok took a look at her.  She was a different form than any he ever worked on.  He saw where many of her systems were poorly designed—almost jury-rigged.  She was missing a number of standard systems in more advanced androids.

“Sort of like trying to build a jet out of a steam engine,” he said, putting it in a way the others might grasp.  “Still, I suppose it is state of the art for the Anazi.”

“God willing, we can relax this evening,” Decker said, but it was not to be.

euphrates-2That evening, Artie asked lots of questions.  They mainly focused on things Alexis told her the night before.  She was particularly having a hard time grasping the difference between good and evil.  She tended to think in very black and white terms.

“Evil is the opposite of good,” Lockhart tried, though he knew that did not really answer the question.

“Evil is the absence of good,” Lincoln tried.  “Like life is a good thing and evil would be taking away that life.”

“Like killing?” Artie asked, and everyone heard the distress in her voice even if she did not recognize the feeling in herself.

“It isn’t that simple.” Mingus spoke up.  “People die for all sorts of reasons.  No one lives forever.  When people die of natural causes, no one honestly calls that evil.  People die from accidents and disease, and people say it is unfortunate, a shame, and wrong, but no one really says evil.  Sometimes when people who are in great pain die, people call it a mercy or a blessing.  Evil requires thought and choice, but even when life is taken by thought and choice, it is not necessarily evil.  Sometimes, people have to defend themselves and sometimes that means killing, as has happened to us many times in this journey.”

“So, what then is evil?” Artie was concerned to learn.

“Evil is the rebellion against the good,” Mingus explained.  “Where there is life, evil wants death.  Where there is light, evil wants darkness.  Where there is something, evil wants nothing.  Where there is order, evil wants chaos.”alexis-8

“Like the Blobs,” Artie suggested.  “They rebel against right order.  They are evil.”

“Not necessarily,” Alexis said.  “The Blobs might not want Anazi order, but they may have a different order of their own.  They may want freedom and they may see the Anazi order as an attempt to impose slavery on them.”

“Freedom is a good thing,” Boston said.  “And Alexis, you almost sounded like a conservative.”  Alexis made a disgusted face at that thought.  She worked hard to gain her liberal card.

“Freedom is deciding for yourself what you will do, where you will go, and who you will do it with,” Katie suggested, and looked at Lockhart.

“Where there is freedom, evil imposes slavery,” Lockhart said, as a kind of non-answer to whatever secret passed between them.

“I am confused,” Artie admitted, and she did not question the word.

“It is both simple and complex,” Mingus spoke again.  “We all make choices, sometimes every minute of every day.”

“I choose freedom,” Artie said, quickly.

“We all choose freedom,” Mingus agreed.  “But mostly the choices are not that obvious.  Sometimes we must choose between two goods, or the lesser of two evils.  Sometimes, there are many options, and it isn’t always obvious which is the good, right and true way to go.  Sometimes, people choose evil without meaning to, or innocently.  Of course, then the mind finds a way to justify our choice so we don’t think of it as evil.  But it is what it is…” Mingus let his voice trail off as he looked at Alexis.  He kidnapped her twice, and both times justified his choice in his mind, though there was no justifying it.  He felt terrible.

fire-campfire-2“I need to sleep.  Sleep is a good thing,” Decker said, and things broke up around the fire.  People went their own ways and Artie sat for a long time, wondering what kind of choices she might make, and what choices may have been forced on her back when she had no will of her own.

In the morning, she was still sitting there, stirring the fire and wondering.

Katie came over to set the leftovers to cook and to stir up whatever substitute they had for morning coffee.  “Have you been sitting here all night?”  Artie nodded, and Katie felt all motherly.  She sat and hugged the android, and spoke soothing words.  “Life is complicated, difficult, and sometimes hard, but you don’t have to figure it all out at once.  All you have to do is decide on your part, today.  Just make today a good day, if you can.  Sure.  We all do things sometimes that we don’t want to do, and we are not proud of that, but that is what forgiveness is for.  Some days, I hardly know what I would do if I did not feel that God, or whoever got this universe up and running—the universe if you will, is forgiving, gracious, merciful and full of love.”

“But I don’t know what love is,” Artie said.

“But you can learn.  You are a quick learner.  It will come to you.”  Katie leaned over and kissed Artie’s cheek and went back to work on the fire.

Boston hurried into the camp.  “We have visitors,” she said, even as the others heard a ship landing nearby.  They began to wake everyone.

Avalon 4.11 part 4 of 8, Artie’s Eden

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“I am a dominant in form and thought,” Artie said.  “I had many submissives that answered to me.”

“Definitely a female,” Lincoln decided, and Alexis gently slapped his shoulder to quiet him.

“But do you eat?” Boston asked.

Artie paused for a second to consider the word ‘eat’.  She concluded, “Consume. Yes.  I can go many cycles without, but I consume when I can.  My flesh perspires to keep my systems cool, so I need water for replenishment.  Also, my flesh, what you call hair, grows to accommodate to the environment.  My sensory apparatus requires sustenance to operate at optimal levels, and I have an efficient system to eject extra, unnecessary, and foreign substances that may enter my system.”

“No shit…” Decker whispered as he stepped over to the others, but everyone heard.

“Are you taking me back to the Anazi base?” Artie asked a question of her own.artie a3

“We are taking you to the Kairos,” Katie said.  “She will know what is best to do.”

“But my base is…” Artie stopped.  She could not raise an arm or even a finger to point, but the confusion that crossed her face said she was not sure where her base might be.  At least the humans read the look on her face as a look of confusion.  Boston felt the need to speak.

“We removed the homing signal for fear the Blobs would pick it up and track us.”  She told the half-truth with a perfectly straight elf face, while inside she grinned and patted herself on the back for not telling an outright lie.

“The Kairos will know where your people are, and if it is safe to take you there,” Katie added.

“Kairos.”  Artie repeated the name.  Her eyes widened suddenly when she accessed the relevant data.  “We were told to stay away from the Kairos at all costs.”

“If you are with us, you will be safe,” Alexis assured her.

“Enough for now,” Elder Stow came over to the group.  “The young woman has enough pseudo-organic systems to need rest and healing time like a human.”

The gathering started to back up, but noticed when Artie got a good look at the Gott-Druk.  She looked terribly afraid for a moment before a thought entered her mouth.  “You are an ancient one?”

Elder Stow nodded, and Artie found that acceptable.  She nodded as well as she could and closed her eyes.  Elder Stow touched the disc he had placed on her temple and she became as still as death.

###

Euphrates 4Boston and Elder Stow worked on Artie all during the breakfast, lunch and supper breaks.  They gave her water, then let her sleep while they moved.  They headed south, the Euphrates their constant companion, after making a wide birth around the fighting.  By the time the sun set on the second day, Artie could sit up.  Only her legs remained to be fixed.

Alexis came from the fire to visit Artie, as the sun set golden against the distant clouds.  Alexis felt much better, as long as she did not strain her shoulder.  Artie would be all better, once her legs got repaired.  Elder Stow was still there, working in the fading light.  They had lamps, but dared not expose themselves to the Anazi and Blobs by using artificial light.  Lincoln made a torch, but soon enough, that would not cast enough light to really work.

“Artie,” Alexis said and smiled for the android.  Katie, Boston, and after a moment, Artie returned her smile.  “I was wondering if you might be hungry.  Would you like some food, to consume?”

Artie shook her head.  She had already picked up a number of human actions.  “I am not hungry.  I can go a while without the need for sustenance.”

“Let me know if you feel hungry,” Alexis said.

“Do you have feelings?” Boston asked.

“Of course,” Artie responded.  “My flesh has many, many sensors that indicate to me if something is hot or cold, rough of smooth.”

“No, I didn’t mean that kind of feeling.  I meant feeling, like what you sense on the inside.”

“I have all eight senses functioning well enough.  I can touch, taste, smell, see, hear, communicate, think, and sense myself.”

“She is self-aware,” Elder Stow explained that last one.

“Yes, but what about feeling?” Boston did not know how to explain it.  Alexis took over.

“Do you know what love is?”artie 3a

Artie paused to think.  They were getting used to that expression on Artie’s face, and normally gave her time to work through her thoughts, but this time, Katie interrupted.

“Yesterday, before we told you we removed your homing device, you thought to point us to your base camp, but when you could not find the right direction, you looked confused.  Did you feel confused?”

“And after.”  Alexis got the idea.  “When you saw Elder Stow, and you asked if he was an ancient, you looked afraid.  Did you feel afraid?”

“I thought bad things,” Artie admitted.  “But I knew there was nothing I could do about it.”

“So you felt resigned to your fate,” Katie suggested.

Artie stared for a second before she nodded.  “If that is what it is called.”  She looked at Boston, and then Alexis.  “I did not understand why I could not pinpoint the location of my base.  I thought of and rejected many possible explanations before you explained what happened.  And as for love.  I have heard the word, but I do not know what the word means.  I understand it has something to do with kindness, obedience, loyalty, and other such concepts that can be expressed in physical action, but I do not know that I feel it.  I do not know if I have the sense of feeling.  I did not even know that there was a ninth sense.”

“I have examined her cranial capacity—her brain,” Elder Stow spoke.  “There is no reason she should not experience feelings, but it may be her obedience crystal—obedience chip prevented her until now.”

artie 4aArtie smiled to hear that.  It was her first spontaneous smile.

“Do you feel happy hearing that?” Boston asked.

“If that is what it is called,” Artie said, and smiled a bit harder where
Alexis noticed something.

“Hey, you have teeth.”

“I saw that you have teeth,” Artie said, as Lincoln stepped over to check on his wife.  “I am not sure what they are good for, but I have also grown a tongue and arranged my sensors to be more like yours.”

“Her flesh is plasma based, more like a plastic than real flesh,” Elder Stow explained.  “She mostly healed herself from all of her cuts and abrasions from the crash.  I am just working on the internals where she does not feel anything except if the system is working or not working properly.  Anyway, apparently she can reform and reshape her flesh to some extent.”

“I have scanned you.  I mean, the…” she paused to think a moment.  “Females.  Alexis and Katie, especially.  Real flesh is a wonder, the way it heals, naturally, without you having to even think about it.”  Artie sounded impressed.

“Not as fast as you healed yourself,” Alexis said, and put one hand to her shoulder.

“But it is miraculous that it heals all on its own,” Artie insisted.

“But how did you get teeth?” Katie was curious now.

“I reshaped my flesh, and I can reshape to look more like you, if you don’t mind.”

Everyone said they didn’t mind, and it made Artie smile again.

“Of course, I can only make my arms and chest so small, but I should be able to make some nice fat blobs on my chest.”Boston 5

“Fat blobs?” Boston objected.

“They are called breasts,” Alexis told Artie.  “But they are basically fat blobs,” she told Boston.

“The fat blobs on my bottom will be a bit more difficult, but I should be able to thin my legs and waist to fatten my hips and bottom.”

“That’s okay,” Katie said.  “You don’t want a fat butt.”

“But wait,” Boston was thinking.  “Why didn’t you scan me?”

“I did,” Artie said.  “But you are different.  You have all the attributes on the outside, but your insides don’t seem to be there.  It seems you are there and not there at the same time.  I do not understand it, and I cannot reconcile it.”

“That’s because I’m an elf,” Boston said with a true elf grin.

“She isn’t human,” Alexis said as Boston removed her glamour.  Artie’s eyes went wide as Alexis tried to explain.  “She is more spirit than flesh.  She is a spirit of nature, an earth spirit.”

“But no,” Artie objected.  “There is no such thing as spirit, much less spirit people.”

Elder Stow put his things away and spoke.  “Her senses, and her brain will interpret things based on what she knows.  At the same time, she can see internal as well as external reality, kind of like x-ray vision.  That was how she knew I was of the elder races, though I never removed my glamour.”

Artie nodded.  “It was confusing,” she said, then looked to see if she used the word in the right way.

“But here I am, a spirit person,” Boston said.  She raised her arms and turned like a model.

Alexis 2“I can see that you are not human,” Artie admitted that much.  Again, Alexis had another thought.

“What do you think happens to you when you die?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Artie answered.

“No telling,” Elder Stow said with a shrug.  “Something good, I hope, but I will say one thing.  Any human in her wreck would have died.  Artie would have ceased to function altogether if we had not gotten to her when we did.”

“Why should something happen when you die?  Isn’t that just the end of everything?”  Artie was curious.

“I’ll leave that discussion to our Methodist,” Katie said and wandered back to the fire.

“My evangelical heart wants to get in the middle of that,” Boston said.  “But my elf spirit feels very ambivalent about that.”  She joined Mingus and the others.

“I’ll let her stay awake for a while, but not for long.  She still needs to rest.”  Elder Stow left.  Lincoln pulled out the database for reference.  Alexis smiled.  Artie gave voice to her curiosity.

“What?”

Avalon 4.11 part 3 of 8, Life Signs

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The grass in the area of the crash had all turned brown or burnt, but there did not appear to be any fires still raging.  It looked like the ship exploded when it hit the earth.  It also appeared like it broke up so a wing was over there and a bulkhead was close by.

“I’m not picking up any life signs,” Elder Stow reported.  No one felt surprised, until Mingus spoke.

“I am.”

“I am too,” Boston confirmed.

“Over there,” Alexis pointed, and Elder Stow shook his scanner like he wondered what was wrong with it.

They found a human looking person, about five feet tall, with an enlarged head and only three artie 1afingers with a thumb on each hand.  It was raising and lowering its arm, blinking, and sending sparks into the grass.

“A robot,” Decker said as he lowered his rifle.  Decker stayed ready, just in case.

“An android,” Elder Stow countered as he got down to examine the inner workings of the person.  No one else moved, not even Alexis, but she was busy healing herself and imagined there was not much she could do for a machine.

Boston finally got down when her curiosity got the better of her.  She went to see what Elder Stow was doing, and wondered if her doctorate in electrical engineering might help.  She discovered the inner workings of the android were beyond her ability to understand quickly, though she thought she might figure it out, at least in theory.

“Hold this.”  Elder Stow gave Boston his scanner while he pulled another piece of equipment from his belt.  Boston recognized it.  He used that disc with anti-gravity properties to pull arrowheads and other foreign objects from the traveler’s arms, legs, and sides more than once.  In this case, he laid it up against the temple of the android’s head where it stuck and he appeared to tune it, looking for the right frequency.

“We need to keep moving,” Decker suggested, even as Elder Stow touched something and his disc began to glow.  The android blinked and spoke in a metallic-like voice.

“Help me.  I can’t feel my legs.  My right side is dead.”

stow e1“Sleep for a while,” Elder Stow said, and he touched the disc again.  The glow around the disc became a flash of light and then a dull glow that looked barely discernable under the sun.  The android’s eyes closed, and the arm stopped moving.  Boston had a thought and looked up at Mingus and the others.

“I think she’s a girl.”

“Lincoln,” Elder Stow called as he got busy.  “We need a travois to carry the patient.”

“Is that wise?” Lincoln asked, as he got down and Lockhart got down to help.

“All life is precious,” Elder Stow answered, and paused to look up at Katie.  “Or is it just homo sapiens that you value?”  Katie did not have any problem with helping.  “Anyway,” the elder continued.  “We might take him to the Kairos to decide.”

“Her,” Boston insisted.

“How do you figure?” Katie asked Boston.

“Beardless and nothing between the legs,” Boston said, bluntly.

“Probably a-sexual,” Alexis suggested.

“There are markings on the shoulder,” Lincoln pointed out.  “Like a tatoo.”

“A-R-T 1978604” Lincoln read.  The gift of the Kairos at the beginning of history not only allowed the travelers to speak and understand whatever language was being spoken; it also allowed them to read whatever alphabet was being used.  It all sounded and looked to them like English.  They supposed Elder Stow heard and read everything in his own Gott-Druk tongue, and maybe Mingus heard Elvish.

“I’ll call her Artie,” Boston announced.boston a2

“Short for Arthur?” Alexis asked.

“Feminine Arthur, maybe,” Boston responded

“Anyway,” Elder Stow interrupted, and continued his thoughts from before.  “The android may be able to tell us about the Blobs and Anazi.  It isn’t safe with two warring groups about.  It—he—she might have vital information that may save us from being melted.”

“Good point,” Decker said, as he scanned the sky.  “One for the Neanderthal.”  Mingus nodded in agreement as he and Katie looked up.  They expected either the Anazi or Blobs would come back for a closer examination of the wreck soon enough.

Elder Stow and Boston both rode at the back of Lincoln’s horse where the travois between them was lifted up by Elder Stow’s actual anti-gravity device—the one that let him float along in the early days when he followed the travelers.  This kept the travois from dragging on the ground and hitting every rock and dip along the way.  When Elder Stow joined the travelers, the Kairos got him a horse, brought back from the 1880s like the others.  He was told to put the device away and ride like the others.

“We need to stop for a bit,” Elder Stow said, after a while.

Lockhart did not object.  “Give the horses a rest, but don’t light a fire,” he said.  “Find something to chew on in lieu of lunch.  I don’t want to actually stop until supper, when we are well out of the area.”

Elder Stow ignored the thought of food and went straight to work on the android.  Boston helped where she could, but she imagined she acted like a poorly trained nurse, holding the instruments in two hands while ‘Doctor’ Stow did all the actual work.

The Gott Druk opened the trunk of the android and dug around internally.  Boston bit her tongue to keep from asking “What’s that?  What’s that?”

grassland trees 5“That is the power core, young Boston,” Elder Stow pointed.  “I would guess it functions like the Reichgo batteries, having about a ten-thousand-year half-life.  Most of the parts will wear out sooner, but it appears very well made.”

Lockhart stuck his nose in.  “Not designed to explode when tampered with, I hope.”

“Thanks,” Lincoln raised his voice from where he was helping Alexis get around in search of something to chew.

“No,” Elder Stow grinned briefly at Lincoln.  “I checked that first.  Ah, here it is.”  Elder Stow took his sonic device and for all practical purposes, unscrewed something small from the inside.  “A homing device.  The Anazi could track her with this.  Otherwise I assume their scanner technology has limited range and could not necessary pick an android out from the ambient planetary noise.”

Lockhart nodded, not that he understood, but because he trusted that the Gott-Druk knew what he was talking about.  He watched as Elder Stow walked away, pulled out his weapon, set down the device and melted it.

On the far side of the plains, the travelers came to another forest, and everyone felt relieved to be out from under the open sky.  Elder Stow and Boston prevailed on the others to stop when there was still light.

“We have ridden all day,” Katie pointed out.  “The horses could use the rest, and Lincoln’s hungry.”

“Lincoln is occupied,” Lockhart said, as he watched Lincoln help Alexis down from her horse.  Lincoln checked all the bandages, and Mingus came and double-checked them.  The wound in Alexis’ shoulder had opened up, but she knew what plants would provide the most antiseptic against infection.

Decker managed to bag a strange looking goat which Lincoln finally identified as an Ibex.  Like most animals taken in the wild, it was gamey, but edible.  People were getting used to that gamey taste, so they did not mind that Alexis could not go out and find some herbs to help cut the flavor.

Mingus filled in as chief cook while his daughter was incapacitated.  Elder Stow and Boston stayed busy with the android repairs.  Decker meditated and let his eagle spirit rise up to see if the Blobs or Anazi were in the air, possibly searching for the missing android.  Lincoln shared what the database had on the Blobs and Anazi in that time period while Alexis, Lockhart and Katie relaxed.lincoln reading

“The Blobs came here when they ran into an overwhelming Anazi fleet in space.  They thought to hide on the sanctuary planet.”  Lincoln paused and added a comment.  “I guess that happened a bunch of time in history.  One more headache for the Kairos.”  He resumed his report.  “The Anazi followed, at least enough to presumably take care of the problem.  Apparently, these androids are a new weapon.  They are designed to follow orders, which is the Anazi way, I guess, but they have enough intelligence to be given general orders and carry them out.”

“Like the Anazi order them to wipe out the Blobs?” Alexis asked.

“Maybe in more detail than that, but yes, in essence.  I’m guessing they qualify as some form of A. I.; that’s artificial intelligence.  So, here is the thing.  The androids use weapons and whatever natural means available to them to fight the Blobs, but when all else fails, they are instructed to let the Blobs eat them.  The Blobs are not helped by eating metal, and the androids are toxic, as Mingus suggested, so in the end they kill the Blobs from the inside-out.”

“Not much sense of self-preservation,” Alexis suggested.

“No,” Lincoln countered.  “They have a strong sense of self-preservation, and use every means they can before they sacrifice themselves.”  He looked again at the database to check his source.  “But they have a crystal chip at the base of the brain which requires obedience and forces them to suicide when there is no other option to achieve their goal.”

“Not anymore,” Elder Stow said as he stepped over from where he was working on the android.  “The crystal at the base of her brain got completely burnt.  I removed it.  I suspected it was a failsafe of some kind to be sure the Androids would not turn on their Anazi builders, but what you say makes sense.  A compulsion to follow Anazi orders, even to the point of suicide would certainly solve the problem.”

“You couldn’t repair it?” Lincoln asked, and kept his sense of panic at bay.

stow e2Elder Stow shook his head.  “But we are not Anazi so it would not be obliged to obey us anyway.  Main systems are functioning.  She is talking to Miss Boston.  It will take a few days to get her more detailed parts functioning properly.  All in all, quite well made for, dare I say, a caveman construction.”  Elder Stow grinned a true Neanderthal grin.  Katie helped Alexis as they went to meet Artie.  Lincoln followed to watch Alexis and concerned that Artie might turn on them like the terminator.

“You know about androids?” Lockhart asked Elder Stow, as Decker rejoined them and Mingus cooked.

“My specialty.  This design is unfamiliar and quite primitive, as I say.  It isn’t capable of much, but the basics are the same for all such constructions.”

“Artificial intelligence doesn’t sound so primitive to me,” Lockhart said.

Elder Stow nodded.  “I guess it is all a matter of where you are coming from.”

“Avalon,” Mingus spoke up.  “The rest of us all came here from Avalon, through the Heart of Time, and if the Kairos in our day was not missing, we could all go home the same way, in an instant.  Alas.  I am left with the words of our good friend Pluckman the dwarf.”  Mingus grinned like the Neanderthal and raised his voice.  “Food.”

Avalon 4.11 part 2 of 8 Anazi versus Blobs

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Decker and Lincoln followed the river for miles and found no way across, which is why they came back late to the camp; but Lockhart and Elder Stow found where the river widened, and logically, became shallower.  A couple of small islands in the middle said as much.

“We still have to swim in a couple of places,” Elder Stow admitted.  “But it should not be too hard for the horses.”

Alexis got her shoulder bandaged extra well, and waterproofed the fairy weave around it.  Lincoln watched her the whole way, and hardly watched where he was going.  Boston thought that was cute.  Mingus said nothing.

Decker crossed first, and climbed the small ridge on the other side to take a look around.  He gave the all clear when he got to the top and saw the land flattened out for miles and offered no better cover than scrub grass and thorn bushes.UFO battle 1

Decker took a moment to focus on his totem.  He let his spirit rise up with the eagle, and got a good look at the area from overhead.  He spied some animals, though none too dangerous.  He thought there might be a settlement in the far distance, though he had no idea how big that settlement might be.  If they were in Syria or Iraq 1800 years in the BC, which Lincoln suggested, it was probably a big enough settlement for a wall, like a small city.  Decker did not get the impression that this was a nomadic camp on the horizon.

“Damn.”  Decker’s spirit rushed back to his body, and his horse stomped the ground, nervously.  Something like an F-18 zoomed over his head, much too close to the ground.  It headed toward the rising sun, and three flying ball were chasing it.  “Damn,” he repeated as the balls came even closer to the ground.  He spun and went back down to the water where he saw Lockhart and Katie just coming ashore.

“Elder Stow,” Decker yelled, but Elder Stow was not going to unwrap his scanner until he was on dry ground.  Too bad, because the jet-like ship wheeled around and attacked when a half-dozen more came over the horizon to join it.  Several more flying balls zoomed overhead as the energy blasts began to play hit or miss.  Some blasts struck the ground and caused ferocious explosions.

Lockhart and Katie armed themselves and imagined the battle was a good half-mile away, but Decker knew location was flexible for an air battle.  A half-mile did not mean much.  They could shift to overhead in seconds.

Decker helped Elder Stow to shore and held the Gott-Druk’s horse while Elder Stow got out his scanner.  He punched up the screen as quickly as he could, and it was almost not quick enough.  A stray shot exploded in the riverbank less than half a football field away and sent rocks and small boulders flying in every direction.

ufo battle 5Boston noticed the river stopped running beneath her.  As she and Mingus came ashore, Elder Stow adjusted the screen to not disrupt the flow of the river, while an energy blast from a blob ball hit the screen.  The screen showed a yellow flare for a moment.

“Impressive for a primitive weapon,” Elder Stow said.

“We would all be dead right now if you weren’t here,” Boston told him, and Elder Stow grinned ever so slightly.

Boston, Mingus, Lincoln and Alexis did their best to keep the horses calm, while Katie, Decker and Lockhart studied the progress of the battle.  Katie and Decker got out their binoculars.  Decker gave his to Lockhart while he used the scope on his rifle.  Once Elder Stow had his particle and energy screens stable, he tuned his scanner to took a look at the ships themselves.  His scanner picked up the energy sources for both propulsion and weapons.  He told the others how they functioned, not that anyone understood, but then he paused when he saw something coming down both sides of the river.

“Too late.”  It was the first thing he said, which got everyone’s attention.  “Blobs,” he explained, and in less than a minute they saw Blobs floating down the river and rolling along on both banks.  Small arm fire came in their direction from the other side.  The screen showed no color at all, as it easily deflected the weapons fire, but no one expected the small arms would penetrate.

“Ah!”  Boston shouted when a Blob came right up to the edge of the screen.  It started to roll over their heads, but stopped when it realized something was standing between it and the delicious looking people and horses.  An Anazi jet broke free from the air battle and began to blast the Blobs on the ground, including the one above them.  They imagined the wail of pain as the Blob burned and rolled off the screen.

“No, I cannot make it single sided so you can shoot them,” Elder Stow said.  “I only know how to make a single sided wall which right now would do us no good.”anazi 2

“Are those Anazi.” Katie asked and pointed at the people coming up river.  The people had hand guns, and the Blobs showed that they had some kind of guns to return fire.  The Blobs moved beyond the travelers.  They did not appear interested or concerned about the horses for the moment.  And all the travelers could do was watch.

“They have to be the Anazi,” Lockhart said, though Decker, Katie and Elder Stow did not doubt that.

“They do look human,” Decker suggested.

Elder Stow nodded.  “The basic shape is fairly universal.  Two hands that can grasp, stereoscopic vision up high, two or four legs and so on.”

“Bones, muscles, ligaments, blood, protected brain, heart pump and digestive system…” Alexis, the registered nurse, started listing things.

“What are they doing?” Katie asked.

“Being brave?” Elder Stow answered.

As the line of Anazi and Blobs met, the Anazi did not run.  If anything, they appeared to be running into the Blobs to be eaten, or absorbed by the Blobs.  It looked like suicide.  No one wanted to watch, but just then, they got distracted.  An Anazi jet came overhead, trailing smoke.  Both Boston and Katie swore it was the one who cleared the Blobs from the riverbank around the travelers.  They saw the top of the explosion rise up above the ridge that hemmed in the river.  They did not hear the explosion because of Elder Stow’s screen, but they knew it was a big one.  The did not imagine anyone survived.

UFO battle 2Two Blob balls flew overhead, circled once, no doubt around the wreck, before they zoomed off to rejoin the battle.  The battle began to move downriver.  The Anazi appeared to be pulling back.  The Blobs on the ground were out of range, pushing forward, or eating their way forward.

“No more Blobs on the river, coming.” Elder Stow said.

“I recommend we get while we can,” Decker added.

“Mount up.”  Lockhart put his hand to Katie’s arm to get her attention, though his eyes were on the horses.  Katie paused to smile before she nodded.

The travelers reached the top of the riverbank where they saw a Blob that appeared to be dead.  Without a word, they all moved downriver to examine the alien.

“Don’t get too close,” Lockhart said, but they got close enough to make out the remains of an Anazi warrior in the midst of yellow-green sludge that made up the Blob remains.

“I would guess the Anazi did not agree with him,” Decker said.

“Major,” Katie agreed with a nod.blob dead 2

“The soldier appears to have been toxic,” Mingus said.

“We aren’t toxic,” Lincoln said.  “Maybe we should move on before the Blobs come back.”

No one disagreed, but as they turned toward the crash site, they did not expect to find any survivors.

Avalon 4.11: Being Human, part 1 of 8

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After 1820 BC, Babylon of Hammurabi, Kairos 57: Ishtara, Reflection of Ishtar.

Recording …

Lockhart and Elder Stow went east along the river to try and find a place to cross the deep water.  Decker and Lincoln went west.  Mingus took Boston into the woods.  Mingus felt there was so much he had to teach the girl about being an elf, and the time was short.  He had a bad feeling about the days ahead.

Alexis stayed in the camp to tend the fire and watch the horses and the tents.  She was not sure Alexiswhy she ended up the chief cook for the group, but as she thought about it, she decided Lincoln and Lockhart were the next best options.  Katie was learning.  Boston was improving.  That was a kind thought.  Major Decker could cook over an open flame, but Alexis imagined he killed his taste buds at some point early in his military career.  He could make anything edible, and eat it, but god only knew what it would taste like.  They never asked Elder Stow to cook.  To be honest, Father Mingus was probably the next best cook, but he was stuck in the eighteenth century in some ways.  That was the century when Alexis was born, and as head of the Avalon history department, he seemed to have gotten stuck there.  He still thought of cooking as women’s work, and there was no reaching him.

Katie also stayed in the camp, to guard the camp.  Captain Katherine Harper worked a Pentagon desk through graduate school and the first couple of years after getting her doctorate in ancient and medieval history and technology.  That might sound like an odd job for a marine, to study ancient and medieval things, but people dug up things all the time, archeologists and amateurs, and the Pentagon needed an expert to know, bluntly, what was human and what was not.  Alexis supposed it was inevitable that Katie get tangled up with the so-called men in black; not that anyone imagined she would fall in love with Lockhart, the associate director of the men in black.

Alexis looked up to the top of the boulder where Katie sat looking out on the open fields, the woods at her back.  She looked mostly at the river where the water meandered along, like her thoughts.  Alexis knew what Katie was thinking about.  She still had thoughts like that about Lincoln from time to time, and she and Benjamin had been married for more than forty years.  They had children and grandchildren.  When they ended up back at the beginning of time, they needed to go home the slow way—through the time gates.  Fortunately, the Kairos gave each of them a slice of the apple of youth, and made them young again—them and Lockhart.  Three old people wandering through time would have never survived.  Now, being young again, Alexis was thinking about having another baby.  That would have to wait until they got home in a couple of years.  Alexis supposed she might be thirty by then, but that was not too old.

Katie a2Alexis looked up at Katie again.  Katie was twenty-eight, and now Lockhart was an early thirty-something.  They made a wonderful couple, but one that never would have happened if Lockhart stayed sixty-eight.  Alexis wondered if the Kairos knew in advance what would happen.  She shrugged.  She gave up being an elf and became human when she married Benjamin, but she still respected the Kairos more than most mortals.  As an elf, the Kairos had been her god—not a God like God in Heaven, but near enough for all practical purposes.  She still remembered those feelings, and all of the lifetimes of the Kairos she had met thus far gave her no reason to believe those feelings were wrong.  Even now, she felt the Kairos was watching over her, and all of the travelers, even if the Kairos from her day had fallen into the chaos of the Second Heavens, before history began, and was at least temporarily lost.

“So we get to go home the hard way,” Alexis said out loud.  “At least until the Kairos makes it back to Avalon proper.”

Alexis looked again at Katie.  Katie was an elect—a one in a million warrior woman, designed by the gods of old to protect and defend the home, family, and tribe when the men went off to hunt or to war.  She was stronger, faster, and a better fighter than most men.  She loved the adventure of it all, and wanted to be out there with the others, on the front line, as Decker would say, but after some deep soul searching, Katie concluded that her literal ‘god given’ job was to defend the camp.  So she sat on the rock, her marine rifle cradled in her lap, and she no doubt thought about Lockhart, and maybe children.UFO battle 6

Alexis paused as she looked up at the sound.  Katie stood and grabbed her binoculars.  Something shot across the sky.  There were several somethings.  Katie looked fascinated, but Alexis worked back home for the so-called Men in Black organization.  Alien intrusion was nothing new in her world.  Sad, though, to have lost the innocent wonder of it all.

Alexis questioned what was taking the men so long.  She shrugged.  She imagined they would come racing back as soon as they saw the activity in the sky.  She shrugged again.  Men take forever to do anything.  She picked up a piece of wood to put on the fire, and screamed.

Katie turned and saw two Alexises in the camp.  She raised her rifle.  She felt the ghoul’s presence in her mind, but could not tell which Alexis was the real Alexis.  She dared not pull the trigger.

Alexis screamed again, but the ghoul opened its mouth so the scream sounded like it came from the ghoul.  Alexis stepped back, wondering why the ghoul did not attack.  She tripped over a rock.  She fell hard on her side and cut her hands even as she saw the lion.  It had waited, uncertain whether to attack the ghoul or the human.  When Alexis fell, it made up its mind.

lion roaringKatie fired her rife.  She figured the lion might be some ghoul trick, like an illusion, but she could not take the chance.  The ghoul Alexis turned toward the woods even as Mingus and Boston came running.  Boston had her wand out and gave the escaping ghoul a hot butt.  Mingus fired something more like lightning at the lion, which prevented the beast from seriously raking its claw across Alexis’ shoulder.  She got a bad scratch, but then Katie fired a series of shots on automatic, and the lion collapsed for good.

Mingus went straight to Alexis.  He gently helped her to get free of the rocks.  She had one hand on her bleeding shoulder, and the other elbow against her ribs where she imagined at least one was cracked.  Mingus made her sit on a rock and he carefully tended her wounds while Katie and Boston joined them.

“I don’t have my Beretta,” Boston reminded them.  “I would have shot the ghoul, but I lost my belt with my big honking knife and my handgun.  Sorry.”

“I saw two Alesixes,” Katie confessed.  “I didn’t know which was the real one or I would have shot the ghoul.”

“No, ladies.  It was my fault,” Mingus interrupted.  “I never should have taken young Boston from the camp.  There is a reason why we have three on watch all through the night.  A ghoul can affect only one mind at a time.  We should have stayed in the camp; the four of us together.”

“Father?”  Alexis noticed some tears in his eyes.  Alexis knew she was a natural healer.  Whatever was wrong with her, she would heal fast, like an elect; like Katie.  In the meanwhile, it certainly hurt enough.

Mingus finished bandaging her shoulder and shook his head as he spoke.  “The reason I kidnapped you, twice, was to keep you safe.  A daughter should not die before her father.”

Alexis took her good hand and touched his to say she understood.  Boston and Katie said nothing. fire Cooking fire 2 Mingus turned away and kicked the dead lion before he got out his knife to skin the beast.

“Lion steaks tonight,” Alexis said, and winced because of the pain in her ribs.  Boston reached out to her, but there was not much anyone could do.  Katie stirred the fire and Alexis finished her thought.  “Katie.  You and Boston will have to cook tonight.”

“I’ll cook it,” Mingus said, sharply.  “Lion is tough and full of gristle.  You have to know how to fix it to make it edible.

Katie went back up on her lookout.  Boston stayed with Alexis.  Lockhart and Elder Stow rode in after a few minutes.

“I heard gunfire,” Lockhart raised his voice, and they told him what happened.

“I burned the ghoul’s butt, but that was it,” Boston said in a voice somewhere between pride and an apology.

“I did not dare shoot.  It looked like Alexis,” Katie did apologize.

Lockhart gave her a quick peck on the lips.  “You did the right thing.”

Decker and Lincoln came in an hour later.  “What happened?” Decker asked.

“Benjamin,” Alexis called him, and he leapt down from his horse and ran to her.

Avalon 4.10: part 4 of 4, Here and Gone

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Early in the morning, when Boston and Katie had the watch, Taregan got up and visited with them.  His father Megan came to be friendly and he brought Pawau, the older man who would guide the travelers safely through the land.  Pawau appeared to be a jolly, gray-haired fellow with plenty of happy wrinkles, probably not a good choice for a war party.  Katie figured this way Megan could give the old man a task that would keep him out of the fighting.  Boston didn’t question such things.  She simply hugged the man and said welcome, and Katie watched.  Katie knew Boston’s elf senses were finely tuned to whom to trust, and who should be avoided at all costs, and she accepted Boston’s judgment on the matter.ice native 5

“I’m sorry we don’t have time to let you rest, but winter is probably not a good time of year for that anyway,” Taregan said, sounding very much like a teenager who wanted to show off his friends.  “Huranti would really like you, Katie.  She wanted to come with the war party.”

“An elect?” Katie asked.

Taregan shook his head.  “No, but she is a real hunter.  “Alawan would go wild on meeting a real, live elf.  Good wild, I mean.  She caught sight of a couple of the fairies that live in our neighborhood and has been enchanted with the whole idea ever since.”

“She sounds nice,” Boston said.

“She is…”  His voice trailed off and Megan stepped into the conversation.

“Poor Taregan is having a hard time deciding.  He says both young women have attributes he admires.  Pawau says he should marry both of them.”  Pawau smiled and nodded to Megan’s words.

“Huranti will keep him fed and Alawan will fill his dreams,” Pawau nodded.

“Huranti is a very practical young woman,” Megan said.  “Alawan is a bit of a dreamer.”

fire student fire“They both sound nice, in her own way,” Katie said and smiled for the beardless young man.

“I can’t decide,” Taregan admitted.  He would have moped, but Boston grabbed him and hugged him.

“Little lost soul,” she said.  “I never knew you could be so cute.”

“Breakfast,” Alexis shouted, and the watchers who only saw the light on the horizon, gave up their place and went to see what there was to eat.

###

Two days later, the travelers had to steer Pawau to the new gate location.  The gates moved as the Kairos moved, so the Kairos always stayed at the center of the time zone.  It was automatic, but Pawau did not know this.  The travelers thought it wise not to explain it in detail so they did not put Taregan on the spot.

The man rode behind Lincoln, and opened his eyes after about the first half-day.  He never got used to sitting on the horse, but he got to where he could at least hold a conversation, so it was not so bad.  He certainly preferred it when they stopped and he could get down, carefully.ice snowy woods 3

“I am afraid we are getting close to the ghoul home time zone,” Lincoln fretted when they stopped to camp for the second night.

“Probably so,” Alexis responded.  “But there isn’t much we can do about that.”

“Be on our guard,” Lockhart said.

“Don’t forget, there is one still out there,” Katie added.

“But it does not appear to be interested in us,” Lincoln sounded hopeful.

“No,” Mingus countered.  “I would say it is content to be eyes for the ghoul controller in whatever time zone that may be.  I suspect they are close.”

“How many out of the hundred do you figure are left?” Elder Stow asked.

“Benjamin says about thirty,” Alexis answered.

“Thirty or more,” Lincoln interrupted his wife.  “It is possible one or more of the groups we encountered was a local group, time locked in the place we encountered it.”

“How can you tell?” Katie asked.

ice snowy woods 2“Maybe the group in Rebecca’s day,” Boston suggested at the same time. She and Mingus had discussed it, but Mingus shrugged.

“Ghoul behavior has been the same since forever,” he said.  “But the modern hundred that got displaced in time and is thus able to follow us through the time gates appears to be a bit more sophisticated.  In the end, though, they will follow ordinary ghoul behavior, as we have seen.”

Lockhart nodded.  “Use their mind tricks to confuse and corner their victims, and terrorize them until they are paralyzed with fear.  Then feed off their souls.”

Pawau interrupted.  “Can you make some of that bread?”  People smiled for him, and focused on supper and the fire for the night.

It had not snowed over the two days of travel in the wilderness, but the sky never ceased to be overcast.  The snow beneath their feet, and the wind that came through the trees certainly stayed cold enough.  Boston suggested they might get to the time gate about mid-morning as the gate appeared to be rising up slowly to meet them.

“Taregan must be moving north on the far side of Lake Champlain,” she said.  “So the time gate is slowly moving north toward us to maintain the same relative distance from the Kairos.”

ice deerThey opted to stop for the night, because the general rule was to get a good rest and enter the next time zone as early in the day as possible.  The group had come across a small herd of deer around three in the afternoon.  The deer foraged in the snow, wary of the strangers and their horses, and kept their distance.  Natives would have had to go to ground and probably spend hours sneaking up close enough to throw a spear and hope.  Katie lifted her rifle and easily shot one at that distance.  Then she and Lockhart butchered it while the others watched the woods and waited patiently.

Supper was bread and venison.  Alexis kindly did not say anything about the lack of fruit and vegetables.  There was not much they could do about that in the snow covered wilderness.  She was secretly glad the Kairos provided them with morning vitamins.  It was a wonder they did not all get scurvy given their diet.  “Deer, deer, elk and deer,” she did say.

“Question.” Pawau was thinking.  “If the gate moves, how is it the evil terrors know where it is?”  He called the ghouls, ‘evil terrors’, which was not a bad name, considering.

“We have discussed that,” Boston said.

“They may have gained that ability by being displaced in time,” Mingus explained.  “I don’t believe they come by it naturally.”

“It is possible they can sense the time disturbance naturally, like some can feel the change in weather,” Elder Stow offered the other side of the argument.  “But maybe they knew better than to move through the gates as long as they were time locked.”

“Maybe they learned the hard way,” Decker said with a grin, but without explaining.

“Like going back to before they were born and disappearing from the world,” Lincoln agreed.

ice snowy soods 4“Or going into the future and ageing prematurely,” Katie agreed.  “But how do ghouls age?”

Mingus shrugged.

That was the whole argument the travelers had before, several times.  Pawau held his tongue.  He tried to grasp what they were saying, but he thought another question would make it worse, so he left it alone and curled up in his buffalo robe, next to the fire.

Lockhart set the standard watch.  People had to keep their eyes open for locals, animals, like bears and buffalo, and the ghoul.  The night was quiet until the wee hours.  Pawau woke up startled, and let out a great yell.  He grabbed his stone headed ax and raised it, threateningly.  The others were all sleeping in their tents, but they heard the shout and began to turn out to see what might be happening.

Lockhart stuck his head out, and just missed getting his skull cracked by the ax.

Pawau yelled again just before Elder Stow fired his weapon.  Pawau collapsed, as Elder Stow stepped up to examine him before Alexis butted in front of him.

“I think I have the stun setting figure out for you humans,” Elder Stow said.

“But he is an old man,” Alexis complained before she decided, “I think he will be all right.”

Lockhart, Katie, Decker, Mingus, and Lincoln all scanned the darkness beyond the fire.  They saw nothing until they looked in the direction where they heard the flapping of wings.  A great owl landed in a tree on the edge of the campsite.  It hooted at them, but Decker accepted what he saw on a deeper level.

“We should be okay for the rest of the night,” he said.

ice owlLockhart frowned.  “All the same,” he said.  “Alexis.  I want you to sit up with Katie and Boston this morning.  We need three on watch so if the ghoul bends one mind, the other two can handle it.”

“Everyone else needs to rest,” Katie added, with a look at Decker who nodded to the owl that appeared to have settled in to the tree for the night.

There was no more trouble, and by the time they polished off the venison for breakfast, Pawau was better, and they shared some laughter.  Alexis remained concerned about leaving Pawau alone in the wilderness, but he said there was a village a few hours walk from where the time gate stood, so she did not worry too much.

###

Taregan and his father stood for a moment and watched the camp burn.  There had been some blood. Two of the other tribe got killed, and a few on both sides got injured, but the blood had been minimal.  Taregan’s war party chased off the people and took all the food and well-made artifacts and burned the rest.  They would go out from there and hide in the wilderness while they scouted out another village to raid.

“Oh fudge,” Taregan shouted.

ice village“Son, what is it?” Megan asked.

Taregan wrinkled his face with a look of frustration and turned it on his father.  “I forgot to give Boston her Beretta and knife belt.  You didn’t remind me.”

Megan paused to remember before he spoke.  “I am sorry son.  It never came to my mind.”

“Me neither,” Taregan said.  “Next time,” and he added, “I wonder where they are going next.”

**********************

Monday, the travelers journey back to Babylon, to the early days of Hammurabi, in episode 4.11, Being Human.  This eight-part episode will be posted Monday through Thursday for the next two weeks.  Be sure to come along for the adventure.  They are getting close to the ghoul home base, but then most time zones have enough trouble of their own.

See you Monday, but for now, remember, all reading should be Happy Reading

a a happy reading 4

Avalon 4.10: part 3 of 4, Ghouls Versus Cavemen

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A lone wolf stood in the shadow of the trees outside the circle of firelight.  It panted and stomped its feet in a way that suggested it was not hostile, and might be looking to be invited to come closer.  The sun was getting ready to set behind the cloud cover and the falling snow, but it still gave enough light to know this was not an illusion. ice bear and wolves

The bushes moved aside and a mountain lion stepped out of the brush.  On the other side of the wolf, a big brown bear came to stop in that same line at the edge of the light.  It looked like the animals might be judging the human intruders in some way.

Lincoln raised his handgun, but Decker spoke loud and clear.  “Hold your fire.”

A bald eagle, one bigger than most imagined an eagle should be, settled in a tree branch over the wolf’s head.  It turned one great eye on the travelers before it shocked them by speaking.

“They are coming.  They are here.”

ice bear and pumaThe bear and the lion turned and roared.  They each dragged down something.  It was hard to tell.  A pack of wolves also caught something and dragged it to the snow.  The eagle flew in the face of two somethings, before it lifted into the sky to reveal the ghouls.  Katie and Decker riddled those two with bullets.

The animals vanished, having finished their work.

“That’s five, plus the scout means there are four still out there,” Lockhart gripped the shotgun, tight, right before he, Decker, Katie and Elder Stow all moaned and slammed their eyes shut.  Alexis, Boston and Lincoln already had their eyes shut.  They knew how a ghoul could invade the mind and cast illusions that seemed so real.

Mingus looked, but he could not see them.  He cast a fireball in the direction of the trees, but it confused no one.  He tried to set up a mental screen to block the mind control of the ghouls, but he did not have the strength.  He saw three of them, anyway, as he shook Boston and Alexis.

“Wind and fire,” he told them.  They opened their eyes to peek.  “I see three, if they are really there.”

Boston thought, if they are not really there, magic is a good way to set the forest on fire, even in a snow storm.

“Will the magic go through Elder Stow’s screens?” Alexis asked.

Mingus said it would.  He hoped it would.ice ghoul

A dozen spears came suddenly from the woods.  Eight penetrated the three ghouls—two, two, and four in one ghoul who became a green and purple smudge on the snow faster than the others.  Men came with stone axes, to make sure.  The travelers all opened their eyes when they felt the pressure leave their minds.

“Lucky that…” Decker mumbled, as he watched.

“We have help,” Katie added as she stood beside Lockhart.

The travelers stared at their visitors, but they made no move toward the natives.  The natives looked like cave men, dressed in deer skins and buffalo robes, and carrying spears and axes with stone heads.  The men looked wary; until one young man, about sixteen-years-old or so, stepped out from the trees.  He stopped short of Elder Stow’s screen, opened his arms, and yelled.

“Boston.”

ice native 4Boston smiled and raced into the hug.  “You’re young,” she said.

“I’m old enough,” he insisted.  “And don’t say it too loud or my father may hear you.”

“Too late, son.  I already heard.”  An older man came up behind him.  Two other old men walked toward the strangers with their arms open in a sign of peace.  They bumped into Elder Stow’s screen and fell back, one on his rump in the snow.

“Good thing they were moving slow,” Taregan said, and Boston nodded.  They heard Alexis tell Elder Stow to turn off the screen.  Elder Stow looked at Lockhart and Katie.  Katie agreed, so the Elder shut it down.

“Son,” the old man said.  “You are going to make Huranti and Alawan jealous.”  Taregan and Boston let go of each other as the man explained.  “He already has two girls fighting over him.”  The man tried to frown, but he was not entirely successful.

“Oh, I’m not a girl,” Boston said, before she realized how odd that sounded.

“One of your…?” the old man asked.

Taregan nodded.  “My father, Megan,” Taregan introduced the old man.  “This is Boston.”  He turned to the two old men as Alexis was waving to them to come closer.  “It’s okay now.  The magic is removed so you can meet my friends.”  The men looked at Megan much like Elder Stow looked to Katie a moment ago, but Megan nodded, so they stepped up to meet the travelers.ice natives 3

The three elders settled around the traveler’s fire.  The rest of the war party made their own places at the edge of the trees.

Elder Stow griped about stretching the screens too far.  “The more it stretches, the weaker it is and the more power it takes.”

“You once placed it around a whole Celtic village in the alps,” Katie reminded him.

“Yes, but there is no werewolf to be concerned about here,” he countered.

Alexis played hostess, and Lincoln helped.  Mingus, Decker, and Elder Stow watched the fire and worried about the last ghoul, which was still out there.  Taregan spoke to Boston and Katie.  Lockhart listened in.

“Samoset is the wilderness walker,” Taregan explained.  “He is what you might call the chief hunter of the group.  Machachak means spirit man.  He is the shaman, I suppose.  My father, Megan is the chief.  His name means wolf man.  Maybe I should say, man of the wolf.  He asked the wolf spirit to guide and protect us on this journey.”

“His totem?” Boston asked.  Taregan nodded.

“How did you come to catch us so quickly?” Katie asked.  “We just came into this time zone.”  She looked at Boston, but Boston excused herself.

“I didn’t study the amulet while it was snowing.”

“I didn’t look at all,” Katie said.  “Since we moved off the direct line.  The prototype is not good for that sort of thing.”

ice campfire 1“Simple…sort of.  We were gathering the warriors to make this journey and a runner caught us.  He said ghouls had moved through the time gate.”  Teregan paused and added a touch of explanation.  “We have been having ghouls come through since I was young…younger.  We watch them, because, you know, they eat people and drain them of life.  Anyway, they were a couple of days ahead of us, but we had help.”

“Help?” Boston asked.

Taregan nodded.  “The wolf and the bear brought us to this place where the ghouls were about to attack you.  It saved us three or four days of walking through the wilderness.”

“So you were coming in this direction?”

Taregan nodded.  “The Oneda live on the other side of the lakes, that is George and Champlain, and they have been crossing over the ice.  It hasn’t been to trade.”

“Are they hunting on your side?” Boston asked.

“They are hunting our tribes,” Megan leaned into the conversation.  “I am giving you Pawau to guide you to the gate where the ghouls come in to our land.  He will see to your safe passage.  I don’t know why anyone would want to travel to the land of the ghouls, but if you can do ice native 2something about them, to stop them from invading our land, we would be forever grateful.”

“No telling what we might do,” Lockhart answered.  “But I suspect we are getting close to the home base of these ghouls, so we will have to do something.”

“Meanwhile, there is one of the ten still out there,” Katie said.

“Don’t remind me,” Lincoln spoke as Alexis shared around the elf bread.