Travelers

Avalon 9.7 Revolution, part 5 of 6

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As it turned out, the travelers and the rifle company arrived just ahead of the barges.  Several hundred hungry men stood on the banks of the river ready to unload the supplies when they docked.  The supply wagons stopped to unload at the artificers.  The wagons would be taken by the teamsters to the blacksmith shops for repairs before being sent back to Reading for another load.  The artificers included everything from candlemakers to gunsmiths.

“The actual engineers for the army,” Tony called them, though most of the eyes and ears of the travelers were on a squad of well-turned-out dragoons who spoke with Colonel Morgan.

“This way,” Colonel Morgan gathered the travelers.  “Lieutenant Brinkman will accompany you while I report to the general. He will keep the guards and others from asking too many questions.  Meanwhile, I am sending my officers with the men to set a temporary camp between the guard and Sullivan’s Brigade, across the road from a rifle pit where they can practice if they can’t stand still.”  They did not go far, crossing only a shallow, ice-covered stream before they got down near a house.  They saw two guards on the porch and more dragoons who watched them carefully, so they appreciated Lieutenant Brinkman’s presence.

Colonel Morgan spoke again to Katie and Lockhart.  “Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton and the rest of the men fetched from the northern department should arrive in two or three days.  With the artillery, we should be up to full strength, but it looks to me there are too many ragged and naked men to give a good account. I would not be surprised if half of the men deserted in the next two months of winter.  Please excuse me.  I have to report.”  He walked up to the house and the guards let him inside.

“The patriots will stay,” Lincoln said, hopefully.  Then he turned with the others to look more closely at their surroundings.  From that place, they could see much of the camp, and Katie and Tony talked.

“The housing is being built by the soldiers themselves,” Katie said.  “You can see, most of it is unfinished, but it gives the men something to do to keep their minds off the cold and their empty bellies.”

“It is a much bigger camp than I imagined,” Lockhart admitted.

“As I recall, there are eleven to fourteen thousand men in the camp, or more,” Katie said.  “A few claim the actual number is around twenty thousand.”

Tony pointed out several things to Decker and Lincoln as well.  “They are building forts, like redoubts against being overrun by the enemy.”

“I see most of their artillery is on that small hill,” Decker said.

“Mount Joy,” Lincoln named the hill and got out the database to be sure.

“They are also digging entrenchments in case the British try something,” Tony finished his thought and pointed to several places where the men were working.

“They should not put all of their artillery in one spot,” Decker said, seemingly stuck on that idea.  “Hills are great to screen the camp against enemy spies and all, but they should have men up all along that ridge.  The hills are only good if you keep the enemy off the high ground.  Once you surrender the high ground, the valley risks becoming a death valley.”

“I’ll make a note,” Lieutenant Brinkman said.  “But I am sure the general has piquets in the hills.”  He pointed to the ridge behind the small hill.

While they waited, Sukki and Nanette wandered over to the cooking fires which were outside the main house beside the road.  Elder Stow went with them to watch them.  They found a black couple there cooking enough for a regiment.

“Hannah.  Get your bread out of the oven.  The roast has to go in.” The woman nodded and went to do that very thing while the man stepped up to the visitors.  He looked at Nanette, Sukki, Elder Stow, and once more at Nanette before he spoke to Elder Stow.  “How may I help you?”  He looked surprised when Nanette answered.

“I am Nanette, Missus Lieutenant Colonel Milton Decker.  This is my sister Sukki and her adopted father, Elder Stow.”

“Isaac Till and my wife Hannah.”  The man smiled and pointed at the woman.  The woman, Hannah, acknowledged everyone with a nod while she carried the steaming hot bread inside the house.

“Are you cooking for the whole command staff?” Sukki asked as she saw Hannah come back out carrying a large cut of beef in a roasting pan.

“General Washington and his staff.”  Isaac nodded while a second black man stepped up.  This man looked exceptionally clean and well dressed.

“Isaac.  The general would like some tea.”

“Of course, Mister Lee,” Isaac said, and turned to the visitors.  “I always keep the kettle near hot for tea.”  He moved the kettle to a hotter spot on the fire and got a pot and some tea leaves from a small tent.

“I see you have met some of our visitors,” Mister Lee said and turned to the three travelers with a smile.

“Nanette Decker, my sister Sukki and her adopted father Elder Stow,” Nanette spoke up and stuck out her hand.

“William Lee, a pleasure,” the man said and shook that hand.  “General Washington’s left-hand man.”

“Not the right-hand man?” Nanette asked.

Mister Lee shook his head.  “That would be Colonel Meade, his aid-de-camp.”

“Of course,” Elder Stow said, and at that moment, Colonel Meade was introducing himself and Major Gibbs, commander of General Washington’s guards, to Katie and Lockhart.  Katie even offered a small salute.

“My wife is a major in the Marine Corps,” Lockhart said.

“And you?” Major Gibbs asked, not liking the idea of being the same rank as a woman.

“Assistant Director of the Men in Black,” Lockhart admitted.  The men stared at him with eyes that seemed to understand something.  Lockhart decided to take the next step.  “We are from the year 2010.  We have a quicker way to get home than living through the next two hundred and thirty years, though it will likely be the end of 2015, or early 2016 by the time we get there.  That is all I can say about that.”

Colonel Meade looked at the sky and mumbled.  “That is one complication we do not need right now.”  He looked again at Lockhart.  “We have enough trouble right now getting the men properly sheltered, dressed, and fed.”

Katie kicked the snow at her feet.  It was honestly half snow and half mud.  “It is not as cold here as history remembers,” she said.

“Cold enough,” Major Gibbs said.  “But we were helped greatly a couple of days ago when Missus Lancaster and the women of Philadelphia rode in with ten wagons of shirts and other clothing.  The wagons all had a false bottom, and she got the shirts out right under the nose of the British.”

Colonel Meade added a note. “The general has written to Henry Laurens and the Continental Congress for help.  I hope they do something soon.”

“Missus Lancaster,” Lockhart said.  “Michelle Marie?”  He wanted to be sure who they were talking about.

Major Gibbs nodded and Colonel Meade spoke.  “She calls herself the camp mascot.  She travels around to the various brigade camps with her violin and her voice.  She is a great help with morale.”

Lockhart and Katie nodded as they got interrupted.  A carriage came up the road that ran beside the creek.  A black-haired, green-eyed beauty stuck her head out of the carriage window and waved.  “Lockhart,” she shouted.  When she pulled her head back inside, the man she rode with asked.

« Amis à vous ? »

« Oui.  J’ai beaucoup d’amis, » she answered.

Before the carriage could arrive, Colonel Morgan and General Washington came out the door with another general officer not readily recognizable.  A rifle fired from down the road toward the guard camp.  The bullet creased General Washington’s arm and he fell to the ground.

Colonel Morgan and Lieutenant Brinkman ran to their horses to arm themselves.  Katie and Decker grabbed their rifles, their horses not yet being in a panic.  Lockhart and Tony pulled their revolvers, and Lockhart grabbed his shotgun before the two of them shooed the horses toward the side of the house by the river to get them out of the way.

“Stay down,” Katie ordered Colonel Meade who knelt by his general with the other unidentified general.

“Stay down,” Decker echoed, as the two guards on the door ran up to the general, their eyes down the road, trying to identify who fired that shot.  They all heard yelling as some men not far away got behind the trees and the bushes left along the road or laid prone on the road itself to make themselves as small a target as possible.

Out by the kitchen, Isaac grabbed the rifle he had leaning against the tree there.  He had to load it, which took time.  A dozen men dressed like workers came from the artificer camp carrying rifles sporting bayonets.  Nanette recognized one of the men.

“William,” she yelled, even as she reached into her purse.  She had taken to carrying the medical bag the way Alexis had, but unlike Alexis, she was not against using the Beretta Boston gave her.

Elder Stow immediately pulled up his scanner to look at the house and grounds.

The workmen, who were either British soldiers or loyalists opened fire from the road.  Nanette fired twice.  William Lee and Hannah both came out of the kitchen preparation room and had weapons that they fired.  Isaac fired last.  None of the people in the kitchen area got hit, but one British man went down, and another caught a bullet in his arm.

“Sukki, help out,” Elder Stow ordered as he took to the air.  They were being attacked from all sides, but the ones out front or by the kitchen did not know about the ones coming up from the river.

Avalon 9.7 Revolution, part 4 of 6

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Nanette and Sukki watched the British and Loyalist prisoners closely.  Colonel Morgan got a wagon and mule from the locals who were grateful for Captain Price’s timely intervention.  The colonel put the prisoner wagon behind the riders and scouts, at the front of the line of foot soldiers.  Two lieutenants paced the wagon on either side while Sukki, and sometimes Nanette dropped back to help make sure the prisoners had no plans to escape.  Sukki, being warned by Decker and Nanette, also made sure the prisoners had no contact with William Talbert and his gang.  Nanette, having served for years as administrative assistant to a college professor, got curious.

“So, William, did you know the determination of the colonies to break free and be independent?”

“Mostly,” one soldier said.

“Rabble,” another soldier said, but William shook his head.

“Our officers were rather vague about that.  They suggested some unhappy people were in rebellion, like riots in the streets.  We were sent to calm things down.  We were not prepared for armed rebellion.”

The colonial Lieutenant Novak who rode on that side of the wagon butted into the conversation. “What did you expect?  We work hard and face all the danger on this frontier, trying to make a good home and life for our wives and children, only to have the English take most of it in taxes.  We have no representative in the court of English justice to argue our case.  We are like slaves while Parliament grows rich.”

“Everyone serves the nation in one way or another,” William said.  “We are all subjects of the king.”

“Maybe we would rather not have a king and his greedy ministers over us,” Lieutenant Novak responded.  “Maybe we would rather chart our own course and keep the fruits of our labor.”

“You are not slaves.  Ask your slave girl, here.”

“We do not have the same rights as an Englishman,” Lieutenant Novak raised his voice, and his odd accent came out.

“Gentlemen,” Nanette interrupted before the argument got out of hand.  “Lieutenant Novak.  William.  First of all, I am a free woman, and have been free for three generations.  I am an historian, and my husband is a colonel in the marine corps.  I know nothing about actual slavery.  And second, I understand you have disagreements enough to start a war, but now is not the time to fight.  There is no reason why this should not be a pleasant journey.”

Both men got quiet for a minute before William had a question. “Novak?  Are you Polish or something?”

“Czech,” Lieutenant Novak responded.  “Many of my cousins are peace-loving Moravians.  I was an early settler in Lancaster, in the colony of Pennsylvania, and I found I had to defend my home from wild natives.  The town is built up now and not so dangerous a place, so I thought to lend my support to the patriot cause.  Colonel Morgan needed riflemen, so here I am.”

“You are Czech,” William said.  “You are not even English.  Why do you think you should be subject to the rights of an Englishman?”

“Czech, Polish, German, Dutch, English, and Irish.  I have an Italian neighbor.  A good man.  In this place, we all came here willing to live under the English crown as free and equal men.  We did not expect to live under the English thumb.”

“Lieutenant,” Nanette scolded the man and turned back to William.  “As I understand it, taxation without representation is a big issue.  Benjamin Franklin argued with the English Parliament for years over the lack of colonial representation.”

“Franklin was supposed to be killed by now,” William said, and one of the other red coats knocked him to get him quiet.  Nanette would have to think about that.

When they got to Reading, they took another day to relax before they escorted a train of supply wagons to Valley Forge.  Some of the supplies would be floated on barges down the Schuylkill River.  Colonel Morgan assigned Captain Price’s company to go with the barges that would likely arrive first, though not by much because of the ice in the river.

While in Reading, Colonel Morgan transferred his prisoners to holding cells where some other British prisoners already stayed.  Nanette said good-bye to William and then went to Tony to get his opinion.  Something bothered her, and eventually, they took it to Katie and Lockhart where the others all listened in.

“He did not say he hated Mister Franklin, or he wished he would die, or he wanted to kill him.  He said Franklin was supposed to be killed by now, like he knew something was supposed to happen, but the plan did not succeed for some reason.”

“The Masters?” Lockhart immediately jumped to the conclusion.

“Maybe not,” Katie said.  “Franklin spent some time in England making some members of Parliament uncomfortable.  One of those men may have simply wanted to remove the source of discomfort.”

“Wait,” Lincoln interrupted.  He pulled out the database. “There was an attempt on Franklin’s life.  Young Michelle Marie was with her father on a French diplomatic mission in London at the time.  Michelle Marie—the Kairos saved Franklin’s life.  It is where they met.  When she came to America, she stayed with Franklin in Philadelphia.  He introduced her to William Lancaster, her husband.”

“So, there has already been an attempt on Benjamin Franklin’s life,” Nanette said.

“And probably others as well,” Tony said, and looked at Lincoln.  Lincoln nodded but said no more.

“So, the Masters?” Elder Stow picked up Lockhart’s assumption.

Katie still shook her head.  “William Barnes may have been drawn into the assassination plot, or maybe he just heard about it.  That does not prove a connection to the Masters.”

“Circumstantial evidence,” Lockhart called it.

“There is William Talbert,” Decker said and repeated what they had heard.  “He used the term firefight which is a modern term.  I checked with the colonial officers.  They understood the term well enough but never heard it before.”

“And the Mohawk,” Katie added.  “The ones who appeared to know Talbert and waved off his riflemen.”

“But it is all circumstantial evidence, as Lockhart said.” Tony looked again at Lincoln, but Lincoln was not forthcoming with any more information.

“So, how do we tell who is a servant of the Masters, and who is simply a loyal servant of the English king?” Sukki asked.

No one had an answer, but Decker added a thought.  “William Talbert might not be working for the Masters, but he is friends with the Mohawk who are on the British side, so he needs watching.”

###

Michelle Marie stopped at the British lines.  A cheeky young lieutenant wanted to examine her wagons.  He said they looked at all the wagons leaving Philadelphia, and she had ten wagons besides her carriage.  He also wanted to know her business, so she slapped him as she swore at his rude behavior, in French of course.  Apparently, the young lieutenant and some of the soldiers who stopped to watch knew enough French to get the gist of it.  The men tried not to laugh.  Michelle Marie switched to English.

“I have my pass, signed by General Howe himself.  I had to suffer through a dinner party with the general and von Knyphausen just two days ago.  I hate the military and all the killing.  I am still suffering from indigestion.”  She caught some movement out of her eye.  One of the soldiers looked ready to climb up on the first wagon.  “Hey!  You there. Don’t you climb up there.  My spinning wheel is there, cushioned by all that cotton.  It was a gift from King Louis the Fourteenth and is nearly a hundred years old.  If you so much as scratch it, you will pay for it with more than your life.” That made all the soldiers pause.

Two other women, one older and one maybe sixteen came out of the carriage to stand and stare at the soldiers.  The lieutenant got stubborn.  “I need to know your business for leaving Philadelphia or you need to turn around and go back to the city.”

Michelle Marie gave the young man a mean look.  “I am building a house in Norristown, on the river.  It is by the land of Isaac Norris, in a place they call Bridgeport, and I am leaving all of you soldiers and this stupid war behind me.  Right now, I have a colonel and his whole entourage living in my house in town, and I want no part of it.  I am taking all the furniture that his soldiers do not need, like my spinning wheel.  Should I go back and tell the colonel he cannot have my house because some young lieutenant would not let me leave the city?  Maybe I should complain directly to General Howe.  Maybe I should write a letter to my friend George.”

“George?” the lieutenant asked.

Michelle Marie poked a finger in the young man’s chest.  “Your king, my friend.”

The lieutenant took a step back as several red coated men rode up to the post. One of the men, a Major spoke.  “Marchioness.  What seems to be the problem?”  On recognizing Michelle Marie as a member of the nobility, the lieutenant took another step back.

“This stubborn lieutenant is doing his duty, but I have assured him we pose no threat.  I am simply taking my furniture to my new home in Bridgeport so your colonel can have my house in town, and I don’t want his soldiers crawling all over my things and scratching them or breaking them.”

“Let her and her servants go,” the major ordered without hesitation, knowing that the generals liked her and the colonel in the Lancaster house loved her fiery spirit, though perhaps like a daughter.

Michelle Marie stepped up to the lieutenant and stared hard in his eyes.  The man stood at attention, prepared for the worst.  She pinched the cheek she slapped and smiled.  “He is a cute one,” she said, and the Major chuckled.  “Molly. Mother Lancaster.  Back in the carriage.”  Michelle Marie ordered and turned to shout to the wagon men and women.  “We go.”  As she stepped up into the carriage she added, “Drive on.”

Avalon 9.7 Revolution, part 3 of 6

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It took half the night to ferry the men and horses across the Hudson.  Colonel Morgan chose to spend the next day in Kingston, and some of his riflemen even helped the locals with their rebuilding projects.  The British did a pretty thorough job of burning the town.

The travelers did not mind, apart from the cold and snow.  Ghost and the horses certainly did not mind a day off.  The horses and soldiers were fed well in Kingston.  The travelers discovered that some of the people who were on the British side, or at least uncertain about the revolution came to the American side when their homes were burned.

“Most people are fickle and don’t care until they are shocked and dismayed when it becomes personal,” Decker said.

“A bit cynical,” Tony said, but Decker shrugged.

The following morning the travelers and colonials started down the long road to the Delaware River.  Colonel Morgan again explained himself.

“We keep the Gunk between us and the British.  We take the road to Homans Eddy and cross over on the ferry.  Once in Pennsylvania, we move away from the Delaware and head south to Valley Forge.”

“Move away from the river?” Katie asked.

Colonel Morgan nodded.  “Since the British took Philadelphia, they took ownership of the Delaware to the Delaware Bay where they can ship in plenty of supplies and reinforcements.  My reports say in the meanwhile, they have been sending companies up the Delaware as far as Trenton, maybe further.”

“The Gunk?” Lockhart asked.

“Shawangunk Mountains,” Colonel Morgan answered.

“Shawangunk Ridge,” Lincoln called it at the same time.

Lockhart still shrugged.

Colonel Morgan folded his map.  “I think the British scouting up and down the river is what convinced Congress to let General Washington camp at Valley Forge.  They hope he will minimize the damage the British may do to the Pennsylvania countryside over the winter and spring.”  Colonel Morgan stepped to his horse.  Lunch was over.

Twenty-five miles was a good day as the column traveled up and down through the south end of the Catskills.  When they reached Homans Eddy, they were surprised to hear gunfire across the river in the few buildings there.

“Homans Eddy got so-called because it is where the river narrows,” Colonel Morgan told Tony, Nanette, and Sukki.  “It gets narrow, but deep.  There is some ice along the riverbanks, but not anything I would step on.  I can see the landing where the ferry arrives, but it is obviously not running at present.”

They got interrupted by Captain Price and the Green Mountain Boys followed him.  One of William Talbert’s men fired his rifle.  The captain spoke while the rifle went off.

“Colonel.  Is there a way we can cross the river?  It sounds like a firefight over there.”

“No, but the river is narrow enough here.  Get some men up in those trees and shoot at anything in red, or any loyalist, if you can tell who is who.  You can keep your company here for the rest of the day and see if you can find a way across.  There are some farms, I think the Homan farm and maybe a small settlement downstream on the New York side. They might help you cross over.  You know the route through Pennsylvania.  We may meet up there.  I’ll take the regiment north and cross at Skinner’s Falls tomorrow morning.  We will likely stay there the rest of the day in case you follow us, but on the following day we will leave whether you are there or not.  Even if you have to come behind us to Skinner’s Falls, your company without the wagons and women should be able to catch up to us on the north-south turnpike.”

The captain agreed, but then William Talbert offered a thought.  “My men and I can stay, and you can keep your command together.  General Washington is not expecting us, and we could use the target practice.”

“No.”  Colonel Morgan’s word was loud and clear.  “Get your men back in the formation.  We are headed north.”  He signaled one of his officers and checked the sun to gauge the time.  “Get the men started up the river road toward the Skinner place.  I’ll catch up shortly.”

Decker and Nanette listened in with Sukki and Tony, and as soon William Talbert moved out of earshot, Decker got the colonel’s attention.  “You don’t want to get rid of Talbert and his crew?” he asked.

Colonel Morgan shook his head.  “I don’t honestly trust him.  Half of his men are Canadians down from Quebec.  I am not convinced they would shoot the right people.”

Decker nodded and handed the Colonel his scope so the man could get a closer look at what was going on across the river.  “No,” Decker said in as strong a way as Colonel Morgan’s word.  “You cannot borrow it for Captain Price or your men.  Lockhart says we are not supposed to get involved.  I pointed out that Katie got us involved with the Mohawk, but Lockhart said that was to prevent unnecessary killing.  There is nothing we can do about people who are already shooting at each other.”

“Fair enough,’ Colonel Morgan said and went to Captain Price to set a few more ground rules before he got the travelers to catch up with the column.  “I do want to get there before dark, if we can,” he said.

They arranged with the Skinner family to cross the river in the morning.  It took all morning and cost one of the two gold sovereigns Lincoln had squirreled away—a gift from Lars.  They made camp and waited the rest of the day, but when Captain Price did not arrive that day or in the night, they packed up and left on that next morning.

They stayed as close to the river as they could and got all the way down to Homans Eddy on the Pennsylvania side.  They discovered Captain Price managed a river crossing downstream from a village of sorts.  He came up behind the red coats, native Seneca, and loyalists.  The defenders were militia, but some militia men were persuaded by the half-dozen red coated British and stayed out of it.  Most of the attackers were loyalists, ten from much further west, and three Seneca guides and scouts.  The Patriots, about twenty good townsfolk, had a barricade that stretched between a house and the Church.  They were hard pressed.  The loyalists had the big barn and farmhouse in the south, and they appeared to be mostly hunters and fur trappers hardened by life on the frontier.  With their natives, the frontier marksmen were slowly gaining the upper hand.  The advent of Captain Price’s company of riflemen tipped the scales in the Patriot favor, and the fighting was soon over.

“I have four red coats, two loyalists, and three Seneca tied up in the church,” Captain Price reported.

“Good, good,” Colonel Morgan said, and asked, “What do you plan to do with them?”

Captain Price opened his mouth, but quickly caught on.  “I intend to turn them over to my commanding officer to determine their deposition.”

Colonel Morgan nodded.  “An admiral idea.  The natives we can release if they promise to not raise arms against the colonies again.  The red coats and loyalists we will take with us to turn over to my commanding officer.”

“Most of the loyalists ran away into the wilderness when we arrived,” Captain Price admitted.

“Understood,” Colonel Morgan said.  “Less baggage for us to carry.”

“I can keep my scanner on to see if they turn up as we move on to the valley of the forge,” Elder Stow said.

“Valley Forge is the name of the town,” Tony corrected the Gott-Druk.

Colonel Morgan simply nodded.  “Much appreciated, but I would be surprised if they stopped running this side of Fort Duquesne.”

“I understand now why you wanted to move away from the Delaware River,” Lockhart said.

Colonel Morgan nodded.  “Red coats on the river.  It does not take much to stir up trouble among the citizenry.  About a third of the population in some places seems determined to stay out of it, but nearly half are patriots or support the patriot cause.  The rest, maybe a quarter or twenty percent of the people have sympathy if not loyalty to the King, and some of them will fight with the British.  Every town on or near the river is a potential hornet’s nest and the British seem determined to whack that nest.

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

MONDAY

There is trouble at Valley Forge. Washington’s headquarters is attacked from all sides. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 9.7 Revolution, part 2 of 6

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At Colonel Morgan’s insistence, the travelers moved out front with the colonel, Captain Price, and a half-dozen colonial officers who had horses of their own.  It was a pleasant day even if being surrounded by soldiers put a damper on the conversation.  Katie and Tony got Lincoln and the others to agree that certain topics were off limits.  Some things they were allowed to talk about, mostly things in the past, but they needed to limit their conversation to Colonel Morgan, and maybe Captain Price if they could.

When the party neared the Hudson in the late afternoon, Colonel Morgan explained his reasoning.  “The British out of New York City came north up the Hudson.  They captured several forts up to Newburgh.  They have scouts, mostly from the five nations up to Poughkeepsie.  They sent a ship and soldiers to Kingston, the capital of the New York Colony.  They burned a bunch of houses and buildings, including the government house, but then they withdrew.  The people of Kingston are back rebuilding. We will cross the Hudson there…”

He stopped speaking and pointing.  They heard rifle fire and saw three of their scouts racing back to their position.  Elder Stow stepped forward and pressed a button on his screen device.  People heard a couple of trees or rocks snap, but mostly he accounted for the flora and fauna.  He called it a Decker Wall and waited for the scouts to get behind the line before he threw the switch.

“After all this time, I finally started to anticipate what might be on the horizon,” he said.  “It only took me six thousand Earth years or so to figure that out.”  He set the screen device and held it to the ground as the leading edge of Native warriors ran up and smashed into the wall.  They mostly bounced off, though some appeared to hurt themselves. Some stopped and fired their flintlocks at the soldiers and travelers they saw so conveniently crowded together on horseback, but the travelers ignored them, so the colonials waited, nervous but patient.

Katie noticed something and trotted up to the wall, Lockhart and Decker following.  “Mohawk,” she shouted.  “You are on the wrong side.”  Sukki and Nanette came up with Colonel Morgan.  The Colonel told the others to stay where they were, and the others held back the foot soldiers.

Some Mohawk helped their fellow warriors back from the invisible wall.  Others put their hands to the wall to gauge its strength and size.  A few listened and one responded.

“You colonials are on the wrong side.  This is native land, and you keep taking more and more without compensation.  Soon, there will be no land left for our people.”

“And you think the British will treat you differently?”

“They have promised,” the Mohawk said, which triggered some laughter from both Decker and Lockhart.  Katie quieted them before she spoke again.

“We walked with Louis, a Mohawk chief, and friend.  We walked with him in the days of Moonwalker of the Lenape who you may have heard of as the Big Swede.”

One man pushed to the front and shouted.  “Louis was my grandfather.”  The man’s eyes got big as he realized what he was seeing.  “He often told the story of the people from the future and their great and powerful magic.  I know the invisible wall.  The flood waters came, and the wall laughed at the flood.  The whole side of the mountain came crashing down, great stones and big old trees, and it just slid off the wall and fell in the river.  I know the stories.”

“Did he get home with his horse?” Nanette asked.

“Yes.  We have many horses now from that first one.”  The man smiled for Nanette and Sukki.

Lockhart looked over at Sukki.  “Would you mind floating up about ten feet and taking aim at the tree, the big one there that looks isolated from the other trees around.”

“The big oak?”

“Yes,” Katie answered for her husband.

“I’ll tell you when to turn the tree to ash, and hopefully we won’t set the whole forest on fire.”  Lockhart turned back to the Mohawk, all of whom were now listening, especially when they saw Suki take to the air.  “Choose your side carefully.  That is up to you.  But for right now, these colonials are under our protection.  You need to let us pass in peace.  We will be crossing the river and headed toward the Delaware River, so out of your territory soon enough.”

“We have been friends with the Five Nations.  Please do not make us your enemies,” Katie added.

“Sukki,” Lockhart said, and Sukki let the power flow out of her hands.  The stream of white light, visible in the daytime, looked bright as the sun.  It put a hole right through the tree mid-section and the tree made a great Crack! sound, like it got struck by a bolt of lightning.  The top half of the tree teetered before it fell to the ground.  The Mohawk scrambled to get out of the way.

Four men jogged up to the front, but one held the other three back.  “Now is not the time to start a firefight,” he seemed to decide.  He tried to say that without undue attention, but Decker, Nanette, and Colonel Morgan all heard.  The man had to push down one of the flintlocks one soldier wanted to point at the Mohawk.

“Now is not the time, William Talbert,” Colonel Morgan scowled at the four men.  Talbert, the leader of the four did not appear to disagree, though he stared mostly at Decker and Nanette, and did not appear surprised when Sukki floated back down to her horse.

At the same time, Lockhart noticed one of the Mohawk wave off and shake his head at Talbert and his crew.  Lockhart got the impression the native dressed man and the actual native knew each other.  He thought it odd that they would be on opposite sides.  He would have to think about that.

“Come,” Talbert said, and they wandered back to get lost in the crowd of foot soldiers and riflemen.  One of those men said, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” and he said it with enough volume, so everyone heard.  The travelers looked at each other and wondered at the cliché being so easily mouthed, but decided that far in the past, perhaps it was not a cliché yet.

“Come,” the chief of the Mohawk said to his people, and they all headed off to the north where they vanished among the trees.

“About sixty or seventy in the war party,” Decker guessed.

“At least,” the colonel agreed.  “More than we could see.”

“So, who is this Talbert and his men?” Decker asked, casually.

“Green Mountain Boys,” Colonel Morgan responded.  “They don’t follow orders well.”

Katie and Lockhart went to where Elder Stow stared at his scanner.  “My Mother.  My Father.” Elder Stow acknowledged them with a word.  “They appear to be leaving, but I recommend twenty or thirty minutes before we lower the wall and move.”

“Colonel,” Lockhart called for Morgan.  They all dismounted and came to where Elder Stow stood.  He called up a holographic image of the area.  It covered a wide area, so it was hard to distinguish the blob of yellow dots moving away from them.

“Blue is for the colonials. Red dots for us,” Elder Stow said.

Colonel Morgan looked at the image and swiped his hand through it before he said, “This is the river?  Closer than I thought.”

“It is three-forty,” Katie said with a glance at her watch.  “I suggest we move at four o’clock as long as the Mohawk do not turn around to come back.”

“They appear to have stopped,” Lockhart pointed out.

“They have some injured,” Katie said.

Colonel Morgan agreed.  “Give them the twenty minutes, to be safe.”  He looked at the travelers but spoke to Katie and Lockhart.  “As I thought, it is best to limit contact with you folks, no offence.”

“None taken,” Katie said.

Avalon 9.7 Revolution, part 1 of 6

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After 1755 A.D. Valley Forge

Kairos lifetime 117: Michelle Marie Lancaster

Recording …

People walked through the streets despite the cold weather.  The town square appeared full of revelers.  They had plenty of guns in the street as well.  Men shot at targets or just up into the air making a loud bang every so often.  Booths held all sorts of food and beer.  And music sounded like an undercurrent to the revelry.  A dozen-piece orchestra played, and a choir sang on the steps of the church.

Katie grabbed one woman’s attention to ask what it was all about, but before she could frame her question the woman shouted, “Happy New Year.”

“What year?” Katie asked instead.

“Seventeen seventy-eight, of course,” the woman said and hurried off on her errand.  The sky looked overcast, like it might snow in the frigid weather, but for the present, the people were out in the square celebrating the turn of the year.

Lincoln, having read up on the subject, carefully asked two men what colony they were in.  He mentioned they had been traveling through the wilderness for some time.

“The great state of Massachusetts,” the man said.  “We are smack in the corner with the wilderness of New York in that direction and Connecticut below us.”  He pointed to the west and south to show what he meant.

“Connecticut is always beneath us,” another man interjected, slapped his friend hard on the shoulder, and laughed, like he made a great joke.  The first man rubbed his shoulder as they walked off.

“Where are you headed?”  A different man walked up and asked as he eyed them suspiciously.  The man wore deerskin clothes and a bearskin coat.  It made him appear Native American, though he was clearly European.

“Pennsylvania,” Lincoln answered.  Katie and Lockhart began to pay attention.  Tony spoke up to get between Lincoln and the questioner.

“We heard General Howe and the British took Philadelphia.  General Washington is going to need all the help he can get.”

“I don’t imagine your black boy and his woman will be much help,” the man said, pointing at Decker and Nanette.  Nanette had to put her hand out to keep Decker from responding, though she could not prevent Decker’s growl.

“None of your concern, William Talbert,” yet another man said as he entered the conversation.  He shooed off the suspicious one and turned to the travelers.  “Colonel Daniel Morgan,” the man, dressed in something like a uniform, introduced himself.  ‘My regiment of four hundred riflemen, are camped east of town.  We are always looking for new recruits.  I see you have some unfamiliar weapons.  Are they any good?   Are you any good with them?”

Lockhart looked at Katie and she nodded in a kind of permission, like she knew this colonel by name and knew he was one of the good guys.  “Decker,” Lockhart said, knowing Decker had some steam to vent.

“My pleasure,” Decker responded.  He lifted his rifle and aimed at the clay pots men had set up on a fence rail with a barn wall twenty paces behind it.  Decker sat on his horse so he could see and aim over the heads of the men.  He sat about a hundred yards further away than the line the men used for their rifle practice.  He considered getting out his scope, but it was not that far.  One shot, and a clay pot busted to pieces.  He shot three more times without reloading, and the three other pots on the rail broke.  Two got knocked off the rail.  The third cracked in half.

“Huzzah,” Colonel Morgan said in his surprise.  He turned to Decker and said, “That is a remarkable rifle.  May I see it?”

Decker shook his head.  “Not allowed,” he said, and looked at Lockhart to explain, or not.

“That rifle comes from about three hundred and thirty years in the future,” Lockhart said honestly enough.  “It is not our intention to change history.”

Katie spoke up.  “But we are headed to Valley Forge in support of General Washington if you are going that way.  There is safety in numbers and maybe we could share some thoughts with you privately on the road.”

“The future you say.” Colonel Morgan looked at Lockhart and took a minute to look at the others as a new uniformed man jogged up to join the group.  The new man looked carefully at the travelers before he spoke.

“Your rifle demonstration was most impressive.  May I see the instrument?”

“Not allowed,” Colonel Morgan said as he introduced his subordinate.  “Captain Price.  General Washington sent him and his men to fetch us from the Northern Department after Burgoyne surrendered.  George, I need you to move a few of your tents to make room beside the headquarters tent.  These people have valuable information, and I don’t intend to let them far from my sight.”

“Colonel?”

“An order.  Run.”  Colonel Morgan turned to the travelers who dismounted to walk their horses.  He waited until Captain Price was out of earshot.  “The future you say,” he repeated.

“You seem easily convinced after one simple rifle demonstration,” Lockhart said, some old police suspicion creeping into his voice.

Colonel Morgan nodded and confessed.  “Before I took the rifle company north to join Gates, I had a long talk with Missus Lancaster, General Washington himself sitting right there, listening to it all, not blinking an eye at a word she said.  She said she had friends from the future that might show up in time for what she called the Battle of Saratoga.  She did not explain what she meant by that, but she said lately you have been showing up at critical points in history.  I understand basically what she meant by Saratoga now, and how important to the war effort the British surrender is.  But now I wonder why you are here… now.”

“Michelle Marie Lancaster,” Lincoln interrupted.  “The Kairos in this day.  Her husband is gone.  A Shawnee raid in the western territories out by Fort Duquesne, that’s Pittsburg.  Just before the start of the Revolution.  Sorry.”  Lincoln honestly tried not to say too much.

“She is a beauty, and French besides,” Colonel Morgan said with a smile spreading across his face.  “I imagine she can have any man she wants.”  He coughed and looked serious again.  “She did say to look for you, and described you a bit, just in case.  And you are from the future?  She said the dark man was a colonel?”

“Lieutenant colonel, sir,” Decker said.  “And it is African American.”

“So she said,” Colonel Morgan answered.  “She did not explain that either, though it was a designation I never heard of.”

Katie butted in. “Like Polish American or German American.  Like Asian American or Native American.”

“So you say.  I would guess as many as one out of twenty, maybe one out of ten men in Washington’s command are African American.  Some are free men.  Some are slaves fighting for their freedom.” Colonel Morgan shrugged. “I understand the darkies, being men, wanting to fight, especially if they are fighting for their freedom.  What I don’t understand is how a woman becomes a major, and marine besides.”

“We work with the navy,” Katie said.

“I know what a marine is,” Colonel Morgan said.  “I know some ship captains who believe it is bad luck just having a woman on board.”  He paused before he said, “This way.”  He began to walk, and the travelers followed.

“We learned a few things in the future,” Katie said.  “Times change.”

“They must,” Colonel Morgan agreed.  “Don’t get me wrong.  Though I only spoke with her a couple of times, I don’t imagine there is anything Missus Lancaster could not do if she set her mind to it.”

“You would be surprised at some of the things she has done,” Lockhart said.

“I am sure I would,” Colonel Morgan agreed, and slowed as they came to the place where the road left the town.  “I don’t suppose you might tell me how this war turns out.  Missus Lancaster appears to be working hard for the patriot cause, so maybe that says we get something out of it.”

“Can’t tell,” Katie said.

“Dare not tell,” Lockhart echoed.

Colonel Morgan nodded again.  “She said I was not supposed to ask, but I thought it was worth a try.”  They came to a stop at the edge of a camp where three men were taking down a tent to move it.  Some tents were in among the trees.  Most of the tents were spread across a field, no doubt a farm field in winter.

“This is more than enough room,” Tony said as he brought Ghost to the front and people got their tents to set up the camp.

Colonel Morgan had to think a minute before he spoke.  “We travel roughly twenty-five miles a day.  We might make thirty on our own, but sometimes we hardly do twenty because of the wagons and the women.  I suppose your women can travel with the wagons…”

“We need to stick together,” Elder Stow interrupted.

“We carry our own tents and necessities,” Tony added.

“But we can maybe share a cooking fire in the wilderness.”  Katie suggested., “Along with the stories and things that we are allowed to tell you, if you want.”

  Colonel Morgan agreed, and on his own he decided it would be best to limit contact between these people and his riflemen.  He watched Sukki put her hand over the fire that had been allowed to dwindle while the men moved their tents. The fire sprang up almost too much and too fast, but Sukki managed a couple of logs before the whole fire became ash. He watched Nanette toss a cloth ball at the ground and say the word “tent.”  The cloth ball expanded and shaped itself into a tent for two, and Colonel Morgan went into his own tent thinking, Yes.  Limit contact.

Avalon 9.6 Earth and Sky, part 6 of 6

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Lars and the travelers had a long talk with the Englishmen while Nanette and Sukki bandaged as much as they could.  Only one could not walk, and might never walk again, but he could sit on a horse.  They got their own horses.  Most of the rest of the horses were used to carry the dead.  It seemed the English wanted to expand their farms and spread out in the fertile land of what would one day be called the Garden State.  They wanted the land for their children and grandchildren.  They imagined killing the natives was the quick and easy way to that end.  The Lenape had not been allowed to trade for guns, so the English retained that technological advantage.  The Susquehannock, however, had been supplied guns by the French fur traders and they overran the Lenape in the sixteen thirties.  By the sixteen-fifties, the Lenape were tributary to the Susquehannock, and later the Iroquois of the Five Nations took over.  It was all about the beaver trade.

By the time Lars was born in 1690, and certainly by the time he turned ten, when his parents were killed, the Susquehannock and Iroquois control of the Lenape had eased, but now a new master had come to the Delaware delta area.  Lars got adopted into a Lenape tribe, while the English in Philadelphia kept pressuring both the Lenape and the Susquehannock for more land.  When Carteret and Berkley allowed a land swap, and so many quakers and other nonconformists moved out of central New Jersey and headed for new homes in Pennsylvania, the pressure became acute. Some Lenape, who eventually came to be called Delaware, already moved to the upper Ohio valley.

“The English will be back,” Lars said, as they watched the English ride away.  “They will not quit pressing for the land regardless of what they promise.”

“A cynical view.”  The old man who stood beside Lars, the one Lars called Uncle Buck made his assessment.

Lars shrugged.  “Even if we use the Delaware River as a boundary, and the ones out of New York become satisfied for the time being, the ones pushing up from Philadelphia have no such convenient line.  The Lehigh River will not hold them.  I’m afraid the land east of the Appalachian Mountains is lost to us.”

“Cynical and defeatist,” Uncle Busk said.

Lars did not argue. He took Uncle Buck, Lockhart, Morharala, Decker, Tony, Lincoln, another Lenape chief, and Louis, and they all sat around a fire smoking a pipe and talking peace.  Commander Takar observed.  He tended to stay away from the fire being essentially made of wood.  Elder Stow and the women set the camp, and Louis got to sleep one more time in that miraculous tent.

In the morning, Lars removed all distinguishing marks and equipment from the two horses he saved from the Englishmen.  Spoils of war, he called them, along with all the English guns and powder.  He gave one horse to Louis with thanks for guiding the travelers safely to him.

“I think your friends are true people of power and could likely go wherever they want, with or without my help,” Louis admitted.

Lars and the travelers said thank you all the same, and Louis rode back north happy and with his prize.

The other horse went to Uncle Buck.  The travelers discovered that Uncle Buck was a member of the Susquehannock people, an Iroquois speaking people like the Mohawk, not Algonquin speakers like the Lenape people.  Of course, it did not matter to the travelers what language anyone spoke since they heard everything in English.

“I am setting small hamlets, like observation posts all along the Delaware from the Lehigh River all the way up to where the east and west branches of the Delaware join to make the river,” Lars told the travelers.  “Those are the lines we hope to hold.  The Lehigh against the Philadelphians and the Delaware against the New Yorkers.  How long it will hold, I cannot say.  We have become so few, we might not be able to hold anything, even with Susquehannock help.”

After breakfast, everyone crossed the river to the Pennsylvania side and waved good-bye to Louis. They waited there, and an hour later, a massive spaceship landed in an open meadow.  Commander Takar promised there would be no more incidents.  Lars knew that was not true.  Takar was not the captain of the ship, and the captain would insist on a survey of the planet before they left.  Most of that would happen from the edge of space, but they would set down once again, briefly in the Gobi Desert. At least they would take great pains to land where no people cold watch them, a protocol that almost all subsequent visitors to the earth would follow.  The Reichgo were already warned about being seen.

When the prison ship set down, a whole family of sanguar escaped into the desert.  The sanguar had tunneled through the metal walls to right near a door, which when opened, allowed the sanguar to escape into the sand.  The Ahluzarian police eventually found and plugged the hidden hole they escaped from, but that happened after they were back in space and half-way to their destination.  The captain refused to turn around and do the right thing.

Fortunately, for the human race, the sanguar died out after two or three hundred years, and never expanded beyond the desert lands.  Whether they died out from too much atmosphere, too cold winters, or too much inbreeding was hard to say, but during those two to three hundred years, they terrorized certain places in the Gobi—places that the human population learned to avoid.  Apparently, when Elder Stow mentioned the Gobi Desert as a likely environment, he was speaking from knowledge he gleaned from his own database.  He just did not spell it out.

After the Ahluzarians were on their way. Lars said good-bye to the travelers.  “Maybe in my next life it will be better to stick around and relax for a week or so.  Right now, I have too much to do, though I thank you for taking care of Doctor Miller.  I suspected him, but I had no proof.  Sadly, his vials of diseases have hardly been needed, or maybe he spread a bunch among the native population before you stopped him from spreading more.”  Lars looked sad and shrugged.  “Anyway, Uncle Buck will guide you safely through native land to the next time gate.  I expect you to keep him safe if you go through Philadelphia.  My wife is down around where Wilmington will be located, not far from the original Fort Christina.  If you get that far, give her my love and tell her I am fine.”

Uncle Buck proved to be a quiet man.  He said very little, but he also missed very little, observing everything.  He rode up front with Lockhart and Katie, and for a week, Lincoln had to keep his mouth shut as he dared not talk about the future.  Finally on the last night before the time gate, Uncle Buck said good-bye and rode back to the small village that grew up around Lars’ home.

The next morning, when they headed toward the time gate, Lockhart finally had to ask. “What?”  Everyone noticed Lincoln’s impatience through those days.

“Lars’ wife is killed and the whole village burnt down only a few years from now,” he said.

“What?  She seemed such a nice girl,” Nanette said from behind.

Lincoln nodded.  “Apparently, when the French and Indian war starts, most Lenape fight with the French.”

“Most?” Katie asked.

“The ones who already moved into the Ohio valley and have to deal with the French traders and some French villages take the English side.”

“What about Lars?”

“Believe it or not, he ends up helping the Virginia militia.  I guess the Lenape and Virginians were far enough apart, so they did not bother each other.  He guides a twenty-two-year-old Major George Washington to an early victory.  Of course, the general over Washington is a moron and loses the main battle, but Washington gets a good reputation for the future.”

“Interesting,” Tony said as he rode beside Nanette in the rear, Ghost trailing out behind.  He saw Sukki coming back to the front and guessed they were near the time gate.  “What I want to know right now is where we are going.  Who is next?”

Lincoln did not even need to look in the database.  “Michelle Marie,” he said. “She is French.  We might end up in France, or in this general area depending on when we arrive,”

“You never know,” Lockhart said as Sukki reigned to a halt and Decker and Elder Stow came in to join the group as they prepared to go through the time gate.

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

MONDAY

Revolution episode 9.7 The travelers join a military group headed toward General Washington and Valley Forge and they figure out that the Kairos Michelle Marie is probably there. Until Monday, Happy Reading

 

*

Avalon 9.6 Earth and Sky, part 5 of 6

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The Lenape warriors secured their prisoners without hurting them unnecessarily.  They knew how to take prisoners in times of war.  Of course, when they took native prisoners, they got assimilated into the tribe.  These Englishmen would not.  But damaged people were likely to be more of a burden than a help to the tribe, so they were naturally careful, even with the wounded men, even knowing that they would eventually go back to their English settlements.

Lockhart still held the sonic device.  He stepped up to the riverbank and spoke across the river.  His voice carried like a man speaking into a public address system, so more than well enough.  “Lars.  All settled here.  You can bring your people over.  You need to decide what to do with your prisoners.  Some are wounded.  Unfortunately, Doctor Miller can’t help them.  He was a servant of the Masters—Mister Muller from Hans’ day, so he got shot.”

Lockhart’s wristwatch communicator went off and interrupted his thoughts.  “Should we bring the horses down or stay here?” Lincoln asked.  “Nanette wants to know if there are wounded people that she and Sukki might help.”

“I don’t have my magic,” Nanette interrupted.  “But I can help.”

“I don’t know if we will be permitted to help.  Sometimes, the Kairos says the chips have to fall where they will.  Anyway, come on down, and bring Louis and Commander Takar with you.  I better say something about the commander.  Out.”

Lockhart picked up the sonic device when there was already movement on the far bank.  “One more thing,” he got to say before a scream and death wail went up from the other side of the river.  Something rose out of the mud on the far bank and swallowed a man’s whole leg.  It did not bite off the leg at first.  More like a snake than a worm, the mouth began to grow wider.  The worm wanted to swallow the man, whole.

An energy beam of some kind came from the rise in the path—a good shot.  The worm bit down and began to squirm, flinging mud everywhere.  Another, much stronger beam of power came from Elder Stow’s weapon.  The top half of the worm turned to ash.  The dead worm, the leg inside, fell into the water and began to float downstream on the surface.  The man on the shore also caught a bit of Elder Stow’s weapon, but the burns hardly mattered.  He had already passed out and would be dead in a minute without ever regaining consciousness.

Lars and his people, after some arguing and yelling, fetched the worm out of the water and dragged it up on the riverbank where the travelers and the prisoners waited.  Lockhart met them there and a tall, blonde, young man said, “Just one, I hope.”

“A sanguar,” Lockhart identified the worm.

“How did it get here?” Lars wondered.

“Lars?”  Sukki asked.  The young man nodded and hugged her but kept his eyes on Lockhart.

“Commander Takar from a Kargill prison ship stopped here to make repairs.  He said one escaped.  He said only the one.  He is an Alzarian and should be here shortly.”

“Ahluzarian,” both Sukki and Lars corrected him, and Lockhart continued.

“The commander said this world was marked no-go but also a sanctuary planet.  What do you mean, sanctuary?  When did we get that designation?”

“Since Elizabeth and the formation of the Men in Black, though really it goes back to Catherine of Aragon.  You remember the Galabans from Galabar.  They really were refugees, but they tried to take advantage of that status and plant a colony here.  When you met them, they already had supply ships and more colonists on the way, hoping to plant a second colony.  Catherine—Alice diverted the ships to a new home world and found transport to take the ones off the Earth.  People caught in a war, especially innocent bystanders, are welcome here temporarily, like in Hideko’s day.  There is no fighting allowed on this world, or in the atmosphere, or in orbit.  In fact, there should be no fighting in this solar system.  If the people are discrete, they may come until we find a new world where they can hopefully be safe.”

“You worked this out with the Kargill?” Lockhart asked as Lincoln and Commander Takar walked up.

“Basically,” Lars hedged. “I pretty much told the Kargill this was how it had to be.  He needed to send Mister Smith, the Zalanid, to contact the nearest Men in Black office whenever an alien intrusion was detected, and he had to help the Men in Black deal with it; refugees, friendly visitors, hostiles, or whatever.  The Kargill raised no objections.  The Kargill honestly prefers peace and letting people develop as they will in their own way without interference.  The Reichgo interfere with everyone, which is why I am glad the Kargill has two Genesis planets and the Reichgo have none in their area of space.”

“Lars?” Lincoln asked.

“Moonwalker,” Lars said and finished his thought with Lockhart.  “Jax had to deal with one group in the early nineteen-eighties, just before he retired.  You might not have been privy to that.”  He turned to the Ahluzarian and spoke bluntly.  “You do not belong here, and you have no business being here.  You need to mark in your records that if repairs are needed, you need to go to Mars or one of the moons of Jupiter, or even Earth’s moon, but not Earth.”

“It is much more difficult to make repairs on a planet without some sort of atmosphere,” Commander Takar said.

“It is,” Lars agreed. “So, make sure you don’t need to make repairs around Earth space.  The Kargill police and the other Kargill forces I won’t name don’t belong here.  We have no need for interstellar police and certainly no penal or prison ship should ever come here.  Earth does not need to be overrun with nasty, evil, or dangerous people and creatures. We have enough of our own.”

“I will make a note,” Commander Takar said.

“For all the good it will do,” Lars said without explanation.  Still, he seemed satisfied and turned to Lockhart. “So, where is Katie?”

Lockhart turned away from the river and the others followed.  “She found two vials on Doctor Miller’s person.  I think Elder Stow is analyzing the contents.”

They only waited one minute to hear Elder Stow’s report.  “Really quite remarkable given the age and the available technology.  Bacterial suspension.  Really quite virulent and contagious if you have no immunity.  I imagine one drop in food, soup, even water, especially water would be sufficient to start, and the disease would spread naturally from there.  The viral suspension is even impressive.”

“What are we talking about?” Katie asked before anyone else could ask.

“Ah,” Elder Stow held up the vials.  “The C is for cholera, a particular nasty bacterial disease if, as I said, you have no immunity.  The S is for smallpox.  That is quite well done since as you may know, all pox and pox-like diseases are alien in origin.  Measles, chickenpox, smallpox, and all.  Smallpox is a virus and quite deadly.”

“Hardly needed,” Lars said.  “There are enough natural carriers among the English and French, the Dutch and so on that have come to these shores.  The native population has already been through several episodes of these diseases, and other diseases, and been devastated.”

“I guess the Masters were not satisfied with letting nature take its own course,” Lockhart said.

“Is there a way you can make the diseases inert?” Katie asked.

“This time we can’t just throw it in the river,” Elder Stow said as he nodded.  “That will just spread it like wildfire, but there is a way we can kill these samples.  I will start working on it.”  Elder Stow paused.  “You know, my people have tried again and again to resettle this planet—to remove you sapiens or enslave you in some fashion, but even in our worst, I don’t know anyone who ever suggested biological warfare.  It takes real evil to consider using disease in that way, and despite what you may think, even the worst among the Gott-Druk would not stoop to such evil… Well, there was the Spanish Flu…”

“The Masters don’t appear to have any such compunction,” Lincoln said.

“Makes me wonder what planet the bubonic plague came from,” Sukki said, offhanded.  She still had nightmares from Prudenza’s day.

“Actually,” Lockhart got everyone’s attention.  “The Masters are noted in the Men in Black records as spreading the plague at several key points in history.”

Katie turned to Sukki.  “While you were melting cannons outside Constantinople, we were dumping that doctor’s vials of pneumonic plague in the sea.”

“Oh yes,” Sukki said.  “I had forgotten.”

Avalon 9.6 Earth and Sky, part 4 of 6

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Louis rushed forward in the face of the Lenape warriors, getting in front of Commander Takar and the travelers.  “Wait,” he shouted.  “Cousins.  Listen first.  These people are friends of the big Swede.  They are outsiders, not English or French.  They are not your enemies.  We heard the guns and are coming to see if we can end the fighting.”  He turned to Lockhart.  “Yes?”

Lockhart shrugged before he spoke.  “We are strangers here.  We are not your enemies.  We will see what we can do to help.”

Decker spoke to the men.  “I assume you came upriver to cross over and come back down this side to fall on your enemy.”

“Brother Moonwalker said to signal when we are ready, and he will keep the Englishmen busy while we attack their rear.”

“Good plan,” Decker said.  “I am sure Lars would not mind if we added our guns to the effort.”

“Decker…” Lockhart began.

Katie interrupted.  “Sometimes we have to,” she said, and took his arm.

Lockhart knew he was outvoted.  “Let’s at least look first,” he said, and turned to the men in front who had clearly relaxed.  “I’m Lockhart.  This is Katie, Decker, Commander Takar, and Louis…”

“We don’t like Mohawk in our land,” one of the men said, and turned to Lockhart.  “Morharala.  Come.  We will show you.”

They moved up the trail and Louis explained to Lockhart and Katie.  “Morharala is Big Bird tribe.  They are Turkey Clan.”

“Big Bird?” Lockhart said and looked at Katie.

Katie grinned. “Don’t start.”

When they reached a rise in the road, they were still relatively far away. They could hear the occasional shots from the flintlocks or matchlocks, and sometimes see the puff of smoke the black powder produced, but they could not see the people well with the eye.  Morharala wanted to move them to a side trail where they could circle around the enemy, but Lockhart made them pause.  “Look first,” he reminded them.  He and Tony got the binoculars.  Katie and Decker got the scopes for their rifles, and Decker snapped his in place.

Tony let Lincoln take a look, before he helped Louis see.  Lockhart shared his first with Morharala before he turned to Commander Takar, but it seemed the Commander had his own spyglass of a sort, and Morharala wanted to share the glasses with the rest of his crew.

“Visual line of site helps,” Lockhart told Commander Takar.  “You know, I worked as a police officer for nearly fifty years, though much of that was with the Men in Black.”

Commander Takar stopped spying on the people in the distance and tapped the spot on his neck before he smiled.  “A good long time,” he said.  “About the same for me.”

“My father,” Elder Stow stepped up.  “Two things. First, the sanguar is somewhere down by the river edge.  I can pinpoint the spot in a minute.  First… or Second…” he called up a holographic image of the men in the trees down below.  His scanner turned the trees to ghost-like images so they could be seen, but the men in yellow stood out.  “There are twenty, mostly by the riverbank and spread out down the river a bit, wherever they can shoot from cover, I assume.  There are three more behind, holding two dozen horses.  The natives, including the ones with us are in red.  Sorry, I can’t say which one is Swedish.  We are in blue, and I have taken the liberty of presenting Commander Takar in green.”

“Morharala,” Lockhart called, but they were already staring at Elder Stow’s projection.  “Colonel?  Major?”

Decker glanced at Katie before he spoke.  “Katie and I are the best option.  We will take out the horse guards and make sure no one escapes.  Tony and Lincoln can stay here with the rifles, scopes, horses, and Nanette who is presently our healer.  No good if she gets injured.”

“Decker.  I can help.  I am not a porcelain doll.”

“My wife,” Decker told the Morharala.  They smiled, and Commander Takar laughed when he got the translation.  “Lockhart, you need to take Elder Stow and Sukki with you, for your own protection, as you say.  Take the Turkeys.  Take Elder Stow’s sonic device and offer the English a chance to surrender.  You know, use your best police stuff.  If they refuse to surrender, we may have to fight.  We can use this place as a redoubt.  Commander Takar and Louis should stay here, and Commander Takar, see if you can get a better spot on your lost prisoner.  Humans squabble all the time, but we don’t need alien worms eating people.”

Katie snapped her scope to her rifle and handed it to Lincoln.  “Ready sir,” she said, offering no additions or corrections to the plan, but Lockhart spoke to Morharala before he pulled his shotgun.  “We are going to get the English to surrender.  If any of you run out ahead to attack the English before they surrender, you may be accidentally shot or badly burned.  We are dealing with powers here you cannot understand.  I’m sorry, but that is the way it is.  I will say if we have to fight.  Elder Stow, please take off your glamour and Sukki please put yours on.”

“Yes,” Suki said.  “I mostly forget I can do that.”  She appeared as a Neanderthal girl and Elder Stow appeared to be her real father.  Elder Stow handed her a disc as Commander Takar shouted.

“Gott-Druk!  Suddenly, it makes sense that you have equipment way beyond what the Kargill was able to supply us with.  My scanner is just a relay.  It sends information to my ship’s computer to analyze and returns to appear on my grid.  I imagine your vastly superior equipment is self-contained.”

“Up Sukki,” Elder Stow said, ignoring the Ahluzarian.  Sukki and Elder Stow rose about ten feet in the air before they disappeared.  “We will go with you, but unseen if you don’t mind,” Eder Stow said, and he got out his now invisible screen device to set a Decker Wall a few feet in front of them when they stopped.

Lockhart gave Decker and Katie five minutes before he pushed through the woods toward the main river path and the river.  He stopped at the edge of the path.  The English were all closer to the water, hiding behind trees and bushes, hoping to catch a native sticking his head up on the other side of the river.  He had to wait a minute for Elder Stow to finish setting his screen device, and then he handed Lockhart his sonic device set to broadcast his voice.

Lockhart spoke and his voice echoed through the woods.  “Throw your weapons down and put your hands on your head.  You are surrounded and cannot escape.  Surrender and no harm will come to you.”  He waited.  Several guns fired but the bullets did not stand a chance of getting through Elder Stow’s wall.  Lockhart heard guns fired back by the horses and knew Katie and Decker were busy.

He spoke again.  “Throw down your weapons and come to the path through the woods, hands on your head.  You cannot escape but if you surrender you will be treated fairly.”  He waited again.  Two men came to the path.  They had guns and fired them at Lockhart and his group.  Lockhart returned fire with his shotgun.  Both men went down.  Guns went off by the horses and from the hill.  Men began to fall all around the woods.

“Last chance,” Lockhart said.  “Surrender and you will live.”  Men began to come to the path and guns got thrown in the dirt.  Some of the men were wounded.  Most were not, but they had enough.  Elder Stow became visible, his glamour of humanity back in place.  He showed Lockhart his scanner projection and Lockhart spoke.  “You two hiding in the bushes by the river.  Come out now and surrender or die.  Your choice.”  One started to get up, but the other shook his head.  “Both of you, now,” Lockhart said, and Elder Stow turned his weapon on the tree beside the men.  The tree burst into flame and Lockhart repeated, “Both.  Now.”  They came.

“That is all of them,” Elder Stow said, and he made Sukki visible, her glamour removed so she looked human again.

“Morharala.”  Lockhart turned to the natives behind him. “Please collect the weapons and keep the men on their knees for the present.  No killing, understand?”  The natives were not going to argue after what they saw.

Decker and Katie brought four more prisoners from the horse area, two being wounded.  They killed five men there.  Tony and Lincoln killed two from the hill and wounded three others.  Lockhart killed two.  There were seven uninjured prisoners, until Katie arrived.  She looked at them carefully and called to Lincoln up on the rise.

“I have a man here that looks familiar,” she said.  She grabbed the man’s chin and turned the man’s head even as the man tried to hide his face.  As Lincoln responded, the man broke free and turned to run.

“Mister Muller from Augsburg,” Lincoln said.  Katie shot the man.

“Doctor Miller,” one of the men protested, but he dared not move in the face of such firepower.  Katie searched the dead man and found two vials.  One had an ‘S’ on it.  The other had a ‘C’ scribbled in crayon.

Avalon 9.6 Earth and Sky, part 3 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The alien paused as they approached.  He looked up at them but showed no hostile intent.

“This is a genesis planet,” Lockhart began.  “The Kargill has been given permission to reside here under strict non-interference conditions.  The Reichgo have been given permission to visit only with the provision that they do not interfere with the human race, the natural inhabitants of this planet.  The elder races born on this world are allowed to visit uder the same conditions, but you do not belong here.”

“I work for the Kargill,” the man said.  “Who are you?  And how is it you speak Ahluzarian?”  The man tapped something near his ear.  Probably a translation device which was not needed.

“We are the Men in Black and work for the Kairos,” Lockhart said.  “And again, you don’t belong here.  Only the Zalanid Mister Smith is allowed here to speak on behalf of the Kargill.”

“You work for the Kargill?” Katie asked, but the man needed a minute.  He pulled a different device from a pocket—probably his version of a database.  No doubt he had to look up Kairos and Men in Black.

“Perhaps you can help,” the Ahluzarian put his device away and attempted a smile.  “I am Commander Takar of the Ahluzarian police.  Our job is to keep the space ways and planets of the Kargill free of criminals and pests.  My ship is a prisoner transport.  There are three worlds well beyond this one at the very edge of the galaxy where prisoners and invasive species are deposited.  The Kargill does not allow us to practice genocide as an option.  The space lane goes past this system along the Reichgo-Kargill border.  I have this system clearly marked as a no-go zone.  But one of the prisoners managed to disable a portion of our navigation controls, and we noted this world is also marked as a sanctuary world.  We thought to pause here while we made repairs.”

“Help?”  Lincoln said as the others came up to listen.  “What do you need help with?”  Lincoln did not sound happy.

“Why are you not at your ship making the repairs?” Katie asked.

Commander Takar looked embarrassed if Katie read the expression correctly.  “When we landed, a sanguar slithered out of the hold and escaped the ship when we took down the screens to replenish our air and water supplies.”

“Sanguar?” Lockhart asked, not liking the sound of something escaping from a prison ship.

“An invasive species, not intelligent, but very clever,” Commander Takar said before Elder Stow interrupted.

“My father.  This one, for want of a better word, is a walking tree.  No blood to tempt some of the alien people we have encountered in our journey.”  He cleared his throat like a man about to read a report.  “The sanguar are worm-like creatures, one of the few survivors from the Agdaline world after they ripped the atmosphere off their world in their ill-advised gravity experiments. They arose on the same world as the dragons.  They are often red colored, grow roughly three of your feet long, have no eyes or ears, but a mouth with plenty of sharp inward pointing teeth.  They live and move underground, like worms, but are sensitive to vibrations on the surface.  When something edible walks overhead, they spring out of the ground spewing an acid-like venom.”

Commander Takar nodded that whole time, which suggested that bit of body language translated well between the species.  He took up the explanation.  “Only one escaped. We counted.  One cannot reproduce, and this environment does not seem suitable.  It should not be too difficult to detect.”

“What environment would be suitable?” Lockhart asked Commander Takar but looked at Katie.

“Consider a world with little atmosphere,” Elder Stow responded.  “Most species and ground cover would die off, leaving a desert-like world, maybe like Mars.  If the planet has any wobble, they might still have seasons, so a hot-dry summer and a cold-dry winter.  Think Gobi Desert.”

“Where are you parked?”  Lockhart asked as the question entered his mind.  Commander Takar pointed to the top of the mountain.  Everyone guessed he walked down, following whatever trail the sanguar made.  “My people are presently repairing the ship and doing guard duty.  I volunteered, thinking this sanctuary planet would pose no threat.”

“Not something you should assume,” Lincoln said.

“Shale mountain,” Katie repeated herself.  “It might be hard for such a big worm to dig through.  If it traveled downhill on the mountain surface, it might have gotten caught in the mudslide.  If it got caught in the flash flood, it might be well downriver by now.  Elder Stow?”

“So, it might be behind us?” Lincoln asked and looked.  Sukki also looked and she did not look happy.

“No,” Elder Stow said.  “I had the scanner set for life forms and it would have picked up a sanguar, even if it was ten or twenty feet underground.  I saw a black bear, but it avoided us.  The rest recorded deer, squirrels, birds and such.  My guess is it is ahead of us, and possibly washed downriver.”

“Commander Takar?” Lockhart turned to the man.

“My scanner is set for Sanguar.  I stopped here because I lost the trail.  It is not nearly as sophisticated as your own, but it will tell us when we get close, and it has a small grid to better pinpoint the location.”

“Commander Takar,” Lockhart frowned at the man, and he seemed to get the message.  “You better ride with me.” He turned his head back to look at Tony since they were at the back of the line.  His words came out in English, though he did not mean to speak in that language.  “Tony.  Did you and Louis get all that?”

“Yes,” Tony responded.  “I assume we are going worm hunting.  Louis says he does not want to even imagine giant worms with teeth.”

“Me neither,” Sukki said, commiserating with the man.

“Maybe hold on to my shirt,” Lockhart suggested, and reached his hand down.  Commander Takar did look essentially human, but he could not be sure.  In the back of his mind, he remembered the stick people they met at the beginning of their journey.  The Kairos warned him not to shake their hands because they were like petrified wood.  The spindly little stick people would crush his hand before they ever realized what they were doing.  Commander Takar’s hand had a flesh and blood feel to it.  He did weigh more than a human, but not by that much.  Lockhart’s horse did not complain, much.

Commander Takar and Elder Stow both kept their scanners on as they moved out of the water gap and on to a well-used trail.  They still followed the river, which everyone felt would bring them to the sanguar, but after a short way, they felt it best if they got down and walked the horses.  Louis did not want to get down.  All he could imagine was the worm springing out of the earth, spitting venom, and bighting his leg off in one gulp.  He did not really understand how scanners worked.  Sukki got him down with the promise to walk next to him.  He had seen her shove whole trees off the path.  That was a power he could at least understand.

Katie stopped everyone after a short way.  She heard sporadic cracking in the distance.  Decker, who had wandered out on the wing away from the river, came riding up, rapidly.

“White men on this side of the river,” he reported.  “Indians on the other side.  They appear to be trying to kill each other, but neither looks willing to risk a charge across the river.”

“We are not here to interfere,” Lockhart said.  “History needs to play out in its own way.”

Sukki had her amulet out and interrupted the thought.  “The Kairos is probably with one of those groups.”

“The Lenape group,” Louis said.  “I heard the big Swede married a half-English, but otherwise he has no use for the English.  They killed his parents and burned his home when he was young,”

“So, we need to contact the natives up ahead and find the Kairos.  We will ask if there is anything we can do.”  Lockhart looked determined, but less than twenty minutes later, they came face to face with a Lenape war party of a dozen warriors.  They looked mean, but at least they did not start fighting right away.

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

MONDAY

The travelers get into the middle of a firefight between the English and Algonquin, and of course they watch out for the giant worm with teeth. Until then, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 9.6 Earth and Sky, part 2 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The travelers moved three days through the storms and chilly spring rains.  They found the Delaware River and followed it, left the Catskill Mountains behind, and headed for the Poconos.  Louis took them to a small Mohawk village where he got some winter squash and beans to go with their protein-rich diet.  They moved slowly, mostly on foot as Louis had no horse.  He reluctantly got up behind Lockhart, Lincoln, or Tony several times, and once tried to ride Ghost, but both Louis and the mule quickly agreed that was not going to work.

Louis explained some things while they traveled.  “The five nations have greatly benefited the people of all the nations.  By making peace and uniting our interests, we drove the Mahican from the Eastern River and controlled the fur trade with the Dutch and later with the English.”

“Last of the Mohicans?” Lockhart said, half joking.  Katie smiled and shook her head.

“Mahicans,” Louis said, not understanding.  “Yes?”

“Algonquin tribe,” Lincoln spoke up from behind.  “Traditional enemies of the Mohawk, remember?”

Louis continued.  “We spread our influence south over the Susquehanna and Lenape people, and west over the Erie and all down the Alleghany River and into the Ohio territory.  The Shawnee are stubborn, but we have prevailed.”

“Lincoln?”  Katie asked as she saw him move out of the corner of her eye.

“Just looking something up,” Lincoln said.  “As a kid growing up watching all those western movies, I thought the Shawnee were a western tribe, like from Kansas or Nebraska territory, or something.”

The following day, the river turned from flowing southeast to a southwesterly direction.  Lincoln announced, “Port Jarvis.  We are entering the Poconos.  We are headed toward the Delaware Water Gap, though we won’t get there today.  Probably late afternoon tomorrow.”

“I will leave you there,” Louis said.  “We are already in Lenape land, though the English are pushing in from the east and up from the south.  Soon enough there will be no more Lenape land.  Some have already moved west to the Ohio territory.”

The travelers fell silent then and wondered if there was anything they could do to improve matters for the natives. Sadly, each in their own way concluded what the Kairos often said.  They had to let history play out the way it was written.  They were not allowed to interfere.

The rain came hard that night.  It rained hard all that morning as they moved along the narrowing path to the gap in the mountains.  The Mountains themselves seemed to move in closer and closer, pushing them toward the river.

“Blue Mountains.”  Katie pointed to her right before she pointed across the river.  “Kittatinny Mountains.”  “There is a ridge that connects the two, but there is a gap the river flows through.  Louis says there is a trail our horses can go, but I suspect it will be narrow.”

The rain slackened off at lunch.  Elder Stow set a screen around the camp so they could eat relatively dry and in peace.  Louis marveled at the technological wonder, which he imagined was some sort of magic.  But he had heard and seen enough in the past four days not to question these strangers.  He would do what he could for them in the hope that they might bless him.

As they began to clean up to move on, they heard something like thunder behind them.  Cannons?  Thunderstorm?  People asked, but Elder Stow settled it with a glance at his scanner and a word.  “Flash Flood.  Stay where you are.”

Everyone looked behind as Elder Stow stabilized his screen device against the impact.  In the twenty-first century, they might have imagined some dam upstream broke wide open.  It looked like a wall of water, even if it was only a couple of feet high.  Maybe just a foot high, but it rose higher behind the wall.  The water broke the banks of the river and given how narrow the way between the mountains had become, it would rise rapidly.

Louis shrieked, but the water hit Elder Stow’s screen and went around.  The thunder echoed a bit off the mountain walls.  Another sound echoed back.  After so many days of rain followed by the downpour, a portion of the side of the mountain gave way.  The mud poured down in front of them and over them, though the way behind looked clear enough.  They had to wait for the water to go down.

“Well,” Lockhart said.  I guess we are stuck here for a while.  Maybe the water and mud will be finished by morning.”  He turned back to the campfire.  Sukki and Nanette were already stirring it up again.  He turned to Katie.  “What were you saying about Otapec’s daughter whose name I can never remember?”

“Ixchel,” she said.  “And I was talking about her pet dragon in Ozma’s day.  The Agdaline andasmagora that guarded the city.”

Lockhart nodded.

Louis fell to his knees and wept.  He escaped certain death, twice, and these people never even blinked.

In the morning, the water had receded enough for the travelers to move on, though it still topped the riverbank in a number of places.  The mud from the side of the hill that did not wash down into the river proved thick in places.  Louis had to ride behind Tony through most of it.  In one spot, Elder Stow had to get out his weapon and use it on a very low setting to quick dry the way ahead so they could go over the top of it.  They had an early lunch in that spot and waited for the hardened mud to cool off.

They used Decker’s rope and the horses to move some bigger trees out of the way.  Sukki, who went back out on the point, picked up some small and medium sized trees and shoved them into the river.  They only had a couple of boulders to contend with.  Katie said the mountain appeared to be shale which meant it was not the best at holding the topsoil, but it did not make granite boulders.

Louis shrieked to see Sukki lift a whole tree and turn it to the side so the horses could go through.  He seriously shrieked when Elder Stow had to fly overhead to heat the water in that one section, to harden the mud so the travelers could ride over top when the ground cooled.  They rode over that section with some speed, thinking that even after two hours it might be like hot coals under the horse’s hooves.  Several horses and Ghost complained, but the wet mud on the other side of that section felt good and cooled them.  The travelers stopped and checked their hooves to be sure none got burned too badly.

Not long after, they moved through the actual water gap.  As Katie suspected, the way got very narrow.  They could see the land flattened out after the water gap.  It would be farm fields in the not-too-distant future, but for the present it looked filled with trees.  Before they could get there, though, they all had to halt.  Sukki stopped and pointed. Someone stood in the gap.

The man did not look anything like a native, but he did not look like a European, either.  He appeared dressed in a dull red uniform of some kind, and he seemed to be looking into a box, much like Elder Stow looked when he got out his scanner.  With that thought, Elder Stow got out his scanner and Lockhart and Katie moved up to join Sukki.  Up close, they could tell the man, though human shaped and with a human enough looking face, was nevertheless not human.