The Temporal Knights Page 11

  Rice was pulled from his thoughts as Matt Thane walked up to him.

  “Have you seen the Lady Ellyn this morning?”

  Gordon smiled at the younger man. “No, not yet. I’m waiting for Leoforic of Mercia. Would you like to wait with me?”

  “No, that’s all right. I just wanted to get the girl as familiar with the Bot as possible before the flight. But I still need to work on the ship. Blish and Turnbull should already be there.”

  “What do you think? Will they get it back online soon?”

  Matt rubbed his forehead in disgust. “I don’t know. From what they tell me, the ship should already be online. All the necessary contacts and circuit boards have been replaced, the ship’s diagnostic computers give the all clear, but the engines will not come up. It’s as frustrating for them as it is for me, and I think they’re running out of ideas.

  “That’s not good,” Rice replied with a frown, but then he finally spotted Leoforic, and waved to the boy. “It makes our job here that much more delicate and important.”

  Matt agreed as he watched the boy run up to meet them.

  “Morn,” the lad greeted both men.

  “Good morning,” Rice and Thane answered in unison.

  “Well, I have to run now,” Matt said and walked away.

  “Then ye na wantin’ to know wot thee womenfolk be saying of ye?” Leoforic said in teasing fashion. Matt stopped dead in his tracks as Leoforic winked at Rice, who smiled back.

  Matt turned around to face the boy again.

  “Ye be the talk of all the ladies, especially one call Ellyn.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yah, and though I only be fifteen, and not yet a man, I’d wager the Lady is a bit smitten with ye,” he added and Gordon laughed at Matt’s reaction. His emotions played out so evidently over his face it was as if he were the boy and Leoforic the experience man. Finally Matt laughed with Gordon, then and turned with a wave and headed to his ship.

  “Yah, and I durst say yonder man be smitten w’th the Lady Ellyn as well,” Leoforic said with a smile.

  Gordon looked down at his new friend. “You are wise beyond your years, and know entirely too much of such things. Come; let me show you that map of England.”

  He led the boy to his tent. Leoforic entered cautiously at first but was soon moving from place to place excitedly, and very common objects took on a new wonder for Rice through the boy’s eyes. Rice looked on with a smile as Leoforic rummaged through the desk asking about absolutely everything; pencils, scissors, staplers, staple remover, pencil sharpeners, erasers...they all fascinated the boy. He was especially excited by the electric light on the desk and at first paid no special mind to the computer next to it. Gordon patiently explained the purpose of all these things, then flipped on the computer and called up the map of England. The boy was immediately captivated.

  “I am not sure the names are all the same, but here’s Somerset, and over here is Shaftesbury, where you said Lord Eadwulf was traveling. Can you tell me where we are?”

  Leoforic bent and studied the map for a long time. Maps were his passion, and he was always hunting up the charts of the day from his father and redrawing them himself, but this map was larger and far more detailed than any map he had ever seen before. All the shoreline and islands off England, Scotland, and Ireland were outlined very precisely. He spent a few minutes locating familiar towns then pointed northwest of Bridport, along the Exe River, in the middle of nowhere.

  “I think we are here,” he said proudly, sure that he was correct. “Tis finely drawn, but tis it a good map? It shows us nothing of the Ealdorman’s lands.”

  “For its time it is very accurate...see here’s London,” Rice explained pointing out the famous city. Leoforic frowned for a moment and then exclaimed.

  “Ah Lundenwic…ya,” the boy corrected, clearly excited.

  “Lundenwic,” Rice repeated. “Now where would King Alfred be?” The question, asked of anyone else, would have raised much suspicion, but the boy did not even hesitate and again studied the map. He struggled at first because some of the names of towns were new, some were absent, and all the words were strangely spelled.

  “He be here in his new burh at Winchester,” he said after only a moment. “Tis a fine map,” he added.

  Gordon hit a button and printed it out for the boy, who stepped back a bit confused. He moved over to the printer and studied the paper suspiciously, wondering if the map had always been there. Rice understood what was in his mind, smiled and showed Leoforic that the very top piece of the printer was now blank and then he slipped it back in place, called up the map of Scotland and printed it up. When it was finished he showed the boy that the map was now on the paper. Leoforic eagerly took both maps, and Gordon let him print up Ireland on his own. The boy was hooked.

  “Ye have a map of the Frankish?”

  Gordon smiled. “Well yes, we have maps of the entire world.” Leoforic gasped and made the sign of the cross, and Rice frowned worried perhaps that he had gone too far. These people were so superstitious it was hard to know what they would accept and what they would not.

  “Thee entire world...tis na possible,” Leoforic argued but he was clearly excited. Rice decided to take a chance on the boy; after all it was the youth of each generation who usually embraced change first.

  He called up the world map. Leoforic went wild, wanting to know the names of every land mass. Gordon showed him where he was from, and explained that this map was not exactly to scale, since it was flat and the Earth itself is round.”

  “Round...surely not,” Leoforic chided, and suddenly everything this man had told him came into question. Everyone knew that the Earth was flat, not round. It was ridiculous. Then Gordon called up a picture of Earth from a satellite, and the boy had his first shaky moments of doubt. Slowly he reached out and touched the computer screen as if to make sure the image he saw was real. Then Rice showed him a picture of Earth rise from the moon, but had to explain exactly what the boy was seeing. When Leoforic finally did understand what was being said, Rice was afraid he might faint. He showed him several other pictures of Earth from space, but still the boy was unconvinced.

  “Tis impossible, or do we all live on the very top?” He asked, a note of hysteria in his voice. “Those on the bottom would surely fall and die.”

  Gordon scratched his head feeling as if he was digging himself into a bigger and bigger hole. “I can’t explain everything in one day...but there is a force called gravity that holds everything in place,” he answered, talking very slowly. “You will just have to trust that I am telling you the truth for now. Here watch this,” he added and played the video of Neil Armstrong on the moon.

  “.....one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind,” the voice came over the speakers as the small miniature astronaut jumped clumsily down onto the moon. Leoforic saw the thing on the screen move. It had two arms, and legs, like a man, but there the similarities ended. The thing might be a man, he couldn’t say for sure. Then Armstrong appeared again at a press conference following his important flight. Just his face and head appeared on the video, and as Rice watched he was unaware of the change in the boy. When the head of Armstrong began to talk it was too much for Leoforic and he screamed and ran from the tent, taking his maps with him.

  General Peebles was involved before Rice could find and calm down the young man. It took a bit of convincing but he finally got through to Leoforic that the figures on the computer screen were just pictures and not little demons or fairies. They were but moving paintings of real life people. Leoforic was skeptical at first, until Gordon offered to make a short video of him. Leoforic hesitated for a moment, wondering if the man before him had plans to turn him into a faery, stuck inside the talking box. But he eventually agreed, because what Gordon offered him was so much more than anything he ever thought possible. Rice and Peebles were not aware of it at the time, but they had just won their first convert. Leoforic was completely devoted to them.<
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  “Do you think this is wise?” Peebles asked. “You’ve already scared the boy half to death.”

  Gordon shrugged. “We are going to have to teach the people of this culture sometime and I think the youth will be more accepting. They’ll learn much more quickly in general than the adults. Remember, the youth were all over the cutting edge of technology in our time.”

  “True,” the General agreed, then wished he hadn’t when Ealdorman Æthelnoth strolled down into camp.

  “I also think it may be worth the gas to take a few of the local top brass on Humvee rides this afternoon,” Rice added, nodding a welcome to the Ealdorman and then he ran off with Leoforic to get the digital video camera. By the time they returned, Gordon was also having a twinge of misgiving which grew stronger when he spotted Father Gillian talking with the Ealdorman and General Peebles. Leoforic however, was very excited.

  “Come Sir Æthelnoth. Gordon is going to make gnomes of us with his moving painting maachene,” he said excitedly and grabbed the Ealdorman, who was in fact a distant, older cousin of the boy’s. The Ealdorman smiled at the youth, not truly understanding, but Father Gillian frowned.

  “Gnomes?” the priest asked.

  “Well,” Gordon said holding up the camera, “this is a camera. It won’t make gnomes out of you. It has a lens,” he tried to explain everything as simply as possible, “which captures light and the images it’s aimed at, and records them on disk. I don’t even know exactly how it works, film is more my speed,” he added then laughed and elbowed the General. “Get it...speed...film?”

  “You’re a riot,” the General replied, smiling blandly at the pun, very aware of the odd looks they were getting from the locals.

  “If you truly want to know,” Rice continued, “you’ll have to ask one of the mechanical egg heads. I’m just a doctor and only know about the human machine.”

  “Ye be a docktor?” Gillian asked, intrigued. “I be quite knowledgeable about medicines and the healing arts, though Friar Padstone, me teacher, is the true docktor in these parts.”

  “Come now,” Leoforic insisted and Gordon relented, though now all he wanted to do was talk medicine with Father Gillian, and if possible Padstone. He yearned to learn about treatments and medicine of this era. For a doctor and a historian it was all he could ever ask. But he stepped back instead, and began to record the historic figures in front of him, along with General Peebles. The Ealdorman, Father Gillian, and the General just stood there in the sunlight, but Leoforic jumped about like a fool. Gordon found out later that he was imitating the man on the moon.

  “Well, don’t just stand there,” Gordon ordered. “Introduce yourselves or something.” And after a moment, when no one else did so, the General stepped forward.

  “I am Brigadier General Stephen Peebles, United States Air Force,” he said then motioned for the Ealdorman to do the same, who took a moment to smooth down his bushy, black beard.

  “I be Ealdorman Æthelnoth, Lord of Somerset,” he said hesitantly at first, then finished and smiled at the General, as Father Gillian stepped forward.

  “I be Father Gillian, born in Wexford, now of Somerset,” he said thoroughly disappointed. The painting machene did nothing. The boy must have been touched to think it would turn them into gnomes.

  “And I be Leoforic, son of Lord Æthelred, King of Mercia,” he said hastily then rushed up to Gordon.

  “Ho, come now...come,” he insisted pulling the doctor urgently to his tent. Rice went willingly, just not fast enough to suit the young man. Peebles led the Ealdorman and Father Gillian along behind.

  Once in the tent, it took a few moments for the doctor to load the proper program, but shortly enough all of them except Gordon appeared on the screen, standing just as they were in the bright morning sun. The Ealdorman and Father Gillian gasped.

  “Well, don’t just stand there,” they heard Gordon’s voice over the speakers. Leoforic held his hand to his mouth, smiling with almost unbearable joy. The Ealdorman’s eyes were wide with wonder and fear. Father Gillian was in shock... “introduce yourselves or something.”

  The introductions followed. First the General, then the Ealdorman, Father Gillian, and finally Leoforic, who afterwards ran directly to the camera and Gordon, just the way it had happened only moments before. Leoforic hung onto Gordon for a moment, and the Ealdorman laughed.

  “Thought it twas me for a spell, but tis na me voice coming from the gnome,” the Ealdorman said.

  “Twas yor voice,” Father Gillian said. “Twas me own voice twas wrong.”

  “Na,” the Ealdorman insisted. “Ye voice was just so...twas me voice the blasted maachene fouled.”

  “The recorded voice never sounds like the one you hear inside your own head,” Rice explained. “It’s a funny thing, but others never hear your voice as you do.”

  “Again,” Leoforic yelled instinctively grasping that such a thing was possible. So they played it again. Then, with a nod from the General, Rice gave the boy a few quick lessons with the camera, and sent him off to record the events all around the grounds. Leoforic, happier that he had ever been, left carrying the camera as if it were the greatest treasure in the known world, and for him it was true.

  “Father Gillian,” Gordon said, suddenly a doctor again. “I want to show you something,” and called up pictures of the human skeleton and musculature system on the computer. Father Gillian was immediately enthralled.

  The Ealdorman looked at the skeleton with interest for a moment, then spat. “Come Genaral, tis docktor stuff they be speakin’ of. I’ve a powerful pain in me head tis callin’ for mead,” he said with a laugh as they left the tent. “Hair of the dog.”

  Peebles agreed and the two left unnoticed by either Gordon or Father Gillian. A picture of the human organs came up on the screen next, and the Father turned to Gordon with fire in his eyes.

  “Please good Sir. Ye must let me fetch Friar Padstone,” he begged.

  Gordon bowed slightly. “I could want nothing more,” he answered and the Father was off quickly explaining that it would only take an hour or so to find and bring his friend. He left just as excited as Leoforic had been moments before, leaving a thoroughly satisfied Dr. Rice behind. These people were wonderful, and he was positive that given time, they would join their cause.

  §

  Matt was busy checking wires beneath a sub-console when one of the ship’s sentries surprised him by announcing that the Lady Ellyn was outside and asking for permission to see him.

  Matt frowned, torn for a moment. He felt they were finally making progress on the ship; they had a plan anyway and when they finally got the engines started he’d be gone. It would be unfair to him or the Lady Ellyn to let things progress.

  “Tell her I’ll join her shortly,” he finally said and scowled at the sideways glance he was getting from Murphy.

  “Let it be,” he commanded his second, slightly aggravated but he still finished the leads he was working on just as fast as he possibly could. Blish and Turnbull each watched him with amused smiles, but Murphy did as he was asked and ignored the situation. It was one of the few times when they could be amused while inside the accursed alien ship. They still had little idea why the engines remained offline; everything had been checked and double checked. They brainstormed and then began to triple check with still no luck.

  They’d captured the ship almost three years ago now, and over that time they’d learned a great deal about Skawp technology. Of course they had to gut most of the interior since it was designed for elongated bodies no taller than about four feet. The refit helped them understand the inner workings of the ship, and by now they’d changed so much that the Skawps would hardly recognize it. Matt however, could spot a few of the remaining alien features. It was Blish’s idea to rewire some of the main engine leads and simply ignore what the diagnostic computers were telling them. It gave the crew something to do…and it just might work.

  When Matt had finally finished rewiring the consol
e he headed down the ship’s steep ramp and out into bright sunlight. Part of him hoped that Ellyn had grown tired of waiting for him…but it was a very small part. It was still a few minutes before noon, but his stomach was rumbling loudly, but he quickly forgot his hunger as he spotted Ellyn standing next to one of the Humvee crews. She was talking and smiling at Private Dosland, who manned the M60. Matt found that he was jealous of the Private’s time with her, but then she turned and smiled brightly as he approached and all was forgiven.