The Temporal Knights Read online

  As they pushed through the large tunnel leading to the bunker, the company slipped beneath the twin powerful flamethrowers mounted on each side of the main entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain complex. Thankfully no flame appeared and they were allowed safe passage, but when the Skawps arrived the twin weapons would be able to fill the tunnel with fire and heat for nearly an hour.

  The enormous main door hung slightly ajar, anticipating their return. The door was approximately three feet thick and made of an incredibly strong and thick steel alloy and weighed more than 25 tons, but it was so perfectly balanced it could be swung by a pair of soldiers. They saluted the sentries and passed angrily through the small opening and into the compound.

  “Damn Skawps!” Matt yelled to no one in particular as he moved farther into the main tunnel and then into the large debriefing room just off the main entrance. By now all the companies were returning to base, their entire mission compromised. Everyone was going to be in a seriously bad mood. The Skawps would gain a lot of ground tomorrow, something they could ill afford, especially now near the end.

  “You slipped up Major,” Sergeant Alan Moore accused, as he pushed past and bumped Matt on his right shoulder. Matt glared down at the stocky sergeant but did not retaliate or contradict his assessment of the night’s events.

  “Easy Alan,” Captain Tom Hersey said coming between them. “It happens,” he added and put a hand on the Sergeant’s shoulder, but Alan shook it off.

  “He can’t slip up now...everything depends on him,” he replied, staring fiercely into the Major’s eyes, but then with a grunt of disgust he headed off toward the back of the room.

  “Not everything,” Hersey called after him and then shrugged to Matt. Soon a driver pulled up in a caravan of battery operated cars and a host of people climbed out including General Joe Wilder, Supreme Commander of all U.S. forces, Colonel Stephen Peebles, Colonel Stuart Lemay, Lee Robertson, the technical director of the facility, Captain Jon Cummings, the chief engineer, and Eve, a four year old girl and the only survivor of the Colorado test tube babies. Her face lit up when she saw the men milling about and she ran to them. The demeanor of every soldier in the room softened immediately. Eve ran over and hugged Matt’s leg then climbing up into Tom Hersey’s arms.

  Sergeant Moore walked over and gave Matt an apologetic smile before reaching over and taking Eve from Hersey. She smiled and kissed him.

  “They have us pretty well sealed off now,” Moore reported to General Wilder, showing no more signs of hostility toward Matt. “I’d estimate they gained nearly two miles on us yesterday. How did the other teams do?”

  “Surprisingly well,” Commander Wilder answered. “Fifth Company was partially compromised, but the others completed their missions without incident. It will be enough we think. Jon assures us that the main door will hold out for at least 24 hours,” he added and looked for reassurance from his chief engineer, who nodded.

  “As everyone knows,” Lee Robertson began, though that fact did not keep him from repeating the obvious ad nausea. “The Skawps, while technologically more advanced, are much slower at adaptation and do not fight well against automated weapons. Once through the outer defenses their lasers will make very short work of the defense door…but it will take them time to circumvent the flamethrowers and the other booby traps we’ve set up for them.” Robertson was a tall, lanky man, completely bald except for a small ring of silver hair that circled his head just above the ears and then merged effortlessly into his great bushy sideburns. His face lit up as Eve wiggled out of Sergeant Moore’s arms and came to stand next to him

  Commander Wilder nodded, and along with everyone else put up with the lecture, knowing that Robertson was valuable in ways other than his oration skills. Over the years, Robertson and his team managed to learn a great deal about the Skawps from a captured fighter spacecraft.

  Surprisingly, it only took six weeks to break the fairly simple codes of the alien computer systems. Once Robertson and his team gained access, information poured into the facilities mainframe where it was analyzed, translated and spit back out for the scientists to study. The Skawps were bizarre and alien, and in the beginning almost incomprehensible, but in the last two years Robertson had made great strides in understanding the enemy. Each day his team of scientists learned more and more, though even after several years they’d processed less than a tenth of the information stored within the alien computers. There was an enormous amount of data.

  The Skawps were a very old species, at least a hundred million years older than humans. They were a brutal life form, attacking anyone they perceived to be a threat and from what Robertson and his team could determine they made peace with no one. Those they didn’t consider threatening they ignored, those deemed a threat were destroyed…always.

  The Skawps society was made up of different casts, and they were not to be thought of as individuals. The Skawps were part of a hive culture, more akin to ants or bees than anything else on earth, certainly closer to an insect social structure than to anything remotely human. The Skawps that humanity fought on a day to day basis were part of the soldier cast, not particularly intelligent, but they were very, very deadly, and waged war with a singular purpose…the utter destruction of the enemy, no matter what the cost. War was all they did. It was their sole purpose for existing, and while their tactics were not particularly sophisticated by human standards, what they lacked in finesse they more than made up for in numbers. There were untold billions of warriors…a steady stream of soldiers that simply overwhelmed their smaller, deadlier opponents. But the Skawp warriors were just part of a multitude of casts, including scouts, workers, nurturers and a host of others still not yet understood. Toward the top of the hierarchy was a group the Skawps referred to as the Brains, a relatively small group but they had enormous influence and made most, if not all of the decisions for the hive. And of course, at the very top were the Royals, made up of a fairly small group of fertile males and the Queen, the only female in the Skawp hierarchy as far as Robertson and his group could determine.

  The translated data revealed that human beings were not the first victims of the Skawps’ aggressive nature. In the past million years or so, thirteen intelligent life forms had been attacked and systematically destroyed. From the archives it was discovered that all the civilizations destroyed by the Skawps were just beginning to explore space. They all had the misfortune of being located within the local group of stars that surrounding the Skawp’s home sun, which if the maps could be believed, was only thirty-two light years from earth.

  The Skawps were slow, deliberate and tenacious. But humans were tenacious as well, and it was in the Skawp’s own computers that Robertson discovered the key to possibly defeating this formidable enemy. It was a very small ray of hope, but Robertson found it, nurtured it, and with God’s will, would turn it into reality. This hope, this one spark, was why the rest of the group took his lecture in silence. Lee Robertson was a very, very smart man, even if he did not quite grasp the retention skills of his colleagues.

  “And what about our Door? Will it work? Will it be ready in time?” Matt asked and everyone looked to Jon Cummings.

  “It does work. We’ve already tested it several times, attempting to calibrate the proper bearings. We’ll be leaving in T-minus 12 hours and 38 minutes,” he answered looking at his watch.

  Matt just stared at the man with his mouth hanging slightly open, and though the brains of the facility said it was true, he could hardly grasp that the concept actually worked. It was something out of the movies...something out of science fiction, but then of course, so were the Skawps.

  “We’re going then,” Sergeant Moore whispered in awe.

  Jon nodded. “There will be no coming back, however. We cannot seem to locate any coordinates in the future. We are not sure moving to the future can even be done, and have to assume it cannot. In any case it would be years before we could create enough power to operate a Door again.”

  “You�
�ve tested it?” Matt asked cautiously and both Jon and Lee nodded.

  “We’ve powered it up and sent through several test objects,” Lee explained.

  “Test objects?”

  Lee shrugged. “A wrench, two apples, a cup of water, and a cat,” he said.

  “How can you be sure it worked if there’s no returning?” Matt asked, finally coming to his chief concern.

  The engineer and his boss shrugged in unison. “It powered up and the objects are no longer here...that’s all the proof we’re going to get,” Robertson said with finality and everyone fell silent, considering the implications.

  “We’re like Twain’s Yankee,” Matt finally commented.

  “Who?”

  “You know, Twain’s Yankee, ‘The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.’ If we succeed in going back, our situation will be very similar.” Thane explained.

  Colonel Lemay grunted. “Yes, but this time we’ll be bringing along machine guns and hand grenades.”

  “And don’t forget flamethrowers,” Moore added with a laugh.

  “Yes…well we’re out of time,” General Wilder added. “Either we succeed or fail with the Door. The Skawps and extinction are the only other option.”

  Everyone was quiet for a moment, letting the statement sink in.

  “I need to get back to the reactor,” Jon said simply then saluted and left.

  “Thanks Jon,” Joe Wilder said to his back. “Alan, you need to get your team coordinated. I want those trucks fueled and ready. The size of the Door will be increased to accommodate the alien ship and the fleet of vehicles we’ll push through it, but because of the larger size there’s really no telling how long the field integrity will hold up. The Door uses up energy exponentially, depending both on its size and time of operation. The trip through is going to be very, very dicey.”

  Alan nodded and was dismissed and then both General Wilder and Peebles turned to Matt.

  “Major, the Skawp ship and the nuclear warheads will go through first with you and your team. Whatever else happens you must get through, otherwise this is all for not.”

  “That is not entirely true, Sir,” Robertson corrected, “Dr. Rice and I both feel with the contingent we’ve gathered, and with the technology we’ll take back with us, we have a real chance to advance the course of history.”

  Commander Joe Wilder grunted, unconvinced. He was a stocky, bulldog of a man, with dark piercing eyes, completely no nonsense. “And you Brigadier General Peebles...” Wilder began and surprised them all by holding out a set of stars to his friend and right hand man, “will be going through directly after the ship.”

  Peebles stood stunned for a moment but quickly gathered his wits. “It should be you going through first…” he began, but Wilder shook his head.

  “No…I’ll not leave any men behind if the Door does not hold,” he explained. “It’ll be up to you if I don’t make it. If that’s the case, I believe you’ll have your work cut out for you, history may be a bit more stubborn than either Robertson or Rice imagine.

  No one said anything for long moment.

  “Murphy says I’m stubborn too,” Eve said solemnly, catching the mood of the grown-ups around her.

  Everyone broke out laughing, and though Eve was confused at first, she finally laughed with them.

  “Get your team ready,” Commander Wilder said to Matt, both men still smiling. It was good to laugh despite it all.

  Matt nodded. “Yes Sir,” he said and left the room then immediately went to a hall phone and dialed up his co-pilot and good friend. Captain Murphy Giles answered on the first ring.

  “Get our flight plan together, and meet me at conference room 10b near my quarters in one hour,” Matt said simply.

  §

  The flight team met exactly one hour later as planned. To survive in the current world everyone had to be efficient, exact, and demanding. At this point, humanity’s survival required fortitude, discipline and a great deal of luck. Those still alive were the toughest, most tenacious and disciplined people the world had ever seen. Until the very end they survived...they were the fittest of the fit.

  Such thoughts glided through Matt’s mind as he surveyed his team members. They were tough men, all of them, no matter what their beginnings; the hot fires of war and death had forged them into the hard, deadly soldiers they were. Robertson and the rest were convinced that the men defending Cheyenne Mountain were the very last of mankind, that they were all that stood between continued existence and extinction. Deep down however, Matt prayed that other human beings somewhere were hiding and biding their time…surviving. He was not concerned with who or where, whether it be the Afghans hiding in their rugged mountains, or the Russians deep in Siberia, or perhaps a few thousand Chinese, the tenacious Vietnamese in their jungles...he truly did not care. He just hoped and prayed that somewhere, humans were clinging to life, hiding or fighting, so that humanity would not be fully erased from this world.

  Matt blinked and noticed that everyone was staring at him expectantly.

  “All right,” he said stalling and looking once more at each of his team members. To his right was Captain Murphy Giles, a tall fit man with wildly curly hair when it grew long. Murphy was quick to laugh and smile, and was Matt’s co-pilot and second in command during the flight. Also on the team were Lieutenant Harold Wells, technician and paramedic, and finally Lieutenant Gary Turnbull, nuclear specialist and supply officer. A small team, just the four of them...commanded to seek humanity’s revenge and destroy its enemies.

  “As an overview I’d like Murphy to run down the actual flight plan.”

  Murphy smiled. “All thirty-two light years,” he quipped then cleared his throat and became very serious. “We’ll take off almost immediately after passing through the Door. The trip to the Skawp’s home planet is already programmed into the spacecraft’s computers. Over the first six months we will accelerate to approximately 99.85% the speed of light. In Earth time it will take just over 400 years, but as you all know, as we near the speed of light time will slow down for us, and the perceived time of the trip will be just over three and a half years. Once we’re in the enemy system we’ll fly over the Skawp’s capital city and release two of our nuclear weapons.”

  “Whether or not the first attack is successful in killing the Queen, approximately four hours later we will fire the remaining two warheads into the center of their capitol city. As you know the nukes are all bunker busters and should penetrate through the surface and into their network of underground tunnels. Each warhead should be able to penetrate the Skawp’s defenses up to a quarter of a mile if not farther, depending on resistance, where they will detonate.”

  “It’s the hope and belief of Director Robertson that if the Queen is not killed, then perhaps the destruction will put the Skawp’s behind the accelerated advance on earth. If we complete our mission and survive, then we will return home and see.” Murphy paused for a moment looking each crewmember in the eye.

  “Total elapsed time of the mission from an Earth-time perspective will be about 850 years. If all goes well, we will return to Earth approximately 270 years before the Skawp’s first attack. Hopefully this will give us enough time to help in the advancement process if General Wilder and the rest fail.”

  Everyone was silent, grim and determined.

  “Turnbull,” Matt finally said.

  “Well, one thing we can be sure of, water will not be a problem. The ship’s fusion engine will create more water than the fission engine can process. Quite ingenious really. The Skawp’s are not fools despite what we think of their warriors and their fighting methods. The engines are completely self-sufficient and it’s anybody’s guess just how long they can operate on the initial water supply we will take aboard, though Robertson assures us it will be far longer than our trip to and from the Skawp’s home world.

  Food most likely will not be a problem either; the ship is sufficiently large enough that we can store enough freeze-dried and
canned food to last us about ten years. We will also take along live tomato, potato, and bean plants. How they will grow in the weaker gravitational environment we don’t know yet, but studies aboard the International Space Station give us hope. The ship is large enough to store nearly everything we may need, though it will seem quite cozy after three and a half years together. In any case we shouldn’t starve...unless of course Einstein is completely wrong.”

  Matt smiled and nodded to Harold.

  “I don’t really have much to add, except that as the ship’s Medical Officer I will demand that we exercise regularly. The artificial gravity created by the Skawp’s ship is only about three-fifths that of Earth’s gravitational pull. Enough to hold everything in place, but not enough to keep our muscles and bones fully developed. However, with enough strenuous exercise we should be able to keep the atrophy to a minimum...and we will take our vitamins.”

  “I have a feeling that boredom and cabin fever will make exercise very enjoyable,” Matt answered. “And since I am the Commander, and the officer in charge of entertainment and psychological well being, I’m pleased to tell you that we will have millions of movie titles stored in our computer’s hard drive, along with the entire contents of the Library of Congress. We’ll be taking nearly every book known to man. We will also have regular classes, learning everything from second and third languages, to astronomy and physics, and basic mechanical repair. The Skawp’s quantum computers can store a massive amount of data and we have loaded nearly everything ever known to man...and everything ever known to the Skawps. The amount of information is staggering. We’ll study the Skawps, deciphering and reviewing what the computers translate. We will keep busy gentlemen. Our years in space will not be wasted time. Are there any other questions?”

  There were none, mainly because the men were so committed, but also because none of this was a surprise. There were very few secrets in a community of less than a thousand souls, especially when everyone was working for the common good. They all knew the options and they all volunteered for the mission. Each had their reasons. If the trip through the Door was successful, they could have chosen to stay and live out their lives with some sort of normalcy, but it would not have been their world, nor would they ever conquer space and travel to the stars. Who knew what the future out there might hold? It was enough to lure even the most unimaginative man.