THE QUEEN OF TIME
2570 A.D.!
A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE
By Jerome B. Bigge
Chapter Seventeen
"The `cavalry' always arrives in `the nick of time'," Tais grinned, looking me over with a "look" that left no doubts as to her own thoughts here. Priestesses are "sexless", being "neu- tered" before puberty, but some like Tais still do have rather "interesting" senses of humor. Amethysta pushing her sword back down into its sheath, the Queen of Trelandar staring about her- self at the interior of Tais' spaceship, her eyes wide with awe! Tais having "beamed us up" just like "Scotty" used to do there on "STAR TREK" back in the 20th Century although I suspect that the process was a bit "different" from that used on the TV show here! The name of the ship is the "GAIA", in case you're curious here.
"We have a `problem'," the First Priestess spoke, striding off, I following, with Amethysta bringing up the rear, muttering to herself in tones that made me grin a bit to myself just then!
"You were `telling' the `truth'!" Amethysta muttered to me.
"Tais will probably `erase' your memories of this," I said, not having "too high" an "opinion" of the Queen of Trelandar then after what she'd now put me through there in the arena below us. Sanda had thought "highly" of Amethysta, but I supposed it is al- ways best not to know "too much" about those you think are great. I'd certainly gotten "my eyes opened" about Janet Rogers in the 21st Century, and I suppose Amethysta really wasn't any "worse"! An illiterate, uneducated "barbarian" like her wouldn't think anything wrong in having people fight to the death for entertain- ment! Even Darlanis used to allow that sort of stuff until Shar- on talked her out of it, I mused, and I considered Darlanis a "civilized" woman, at least by the standards of her own era here.
"I was afraid of `this'," Tais spoke, a Lorr battle disc now approaching at a high rate of speed as we floated "cloaked" like an unseen "ghost" over the city of Trella spread out there below.
"Make the `time jump' now?" one of the Priestesses at the controls asked her then, their attire quite "different" from that normally worn by Priestesses. The different colored jumpsuits that they wore reminding me of those worn by the Women of Mars.
"No," Tais spoke, regarding the viewscreen before her. "Take us straight up, full power on the gravitic drive," she said in level tones, the view suddenly "shifting" as the Gaia spun up to a vertical position and went "racing" straight out into space!
"Lorr disc is attempting to follow," another spoke up then. The view ahead now that of space, while a smaller screen showed the view behind us of the Earth like a globe growing smaller now!
"They have great magic," Amethysta said to me softly then.
"An `advanced technology'," I smiled back at the Queen.
"Lorr disc is discontinuing pursuit," one now announced.
"We're out of their sensor range," Tais mused thoughtfully.
"No doubt you will get a few gold crowns for me," Amethysta said softly, standing there, well aware of her own status here...
"Come about, stabilize us with the Earth," Tais now ordered.
"I don't hate you for what you did," I smiled to Amethysta.
"I don't think `they' will allow me to return," she smiled.
"Prepare for `time jump'," Tais snapped, now looking down at a panel, the displays upon it something I understood "little" of. The Earth now only a glowing great globe against the blackness of space there ahead, the sudden "disorientation" leaving no doubt we had traveled in time, although there was little to "see" of it except that the Earth had now "disappeared" and we had nothing but stars shining there in the blackness of space before us now!
"In the name of...!" Tais gasped out, standing there in awe! It being suddenly "obvious" to me that we hadn't "arrived" where we should have arrived! That this latest `jump' in time hadn't taken us back to our own time, but somewhere entirely elsewhere!!
"My `fault'," the Priestess there at the controls said, looking at her indicators. "We're about a century `beyond' where we should be," she explained, looking over then at Tais, who did- n't seem to understand this from the look there on her own face!
"We have navigational computer failure," Tais answered then. The "look" on her face making me smile despite the situation! I felt like making a "comment", but thought it "best" not to do so. It being quite obvious here that Tais' "advanced technology" had once again failed and we'd ended up somewhere we shouldn't have!!
"Magic doesn't always `work'," Amethysta smiled as I washed myself and put on one of the jumpsuits the Priestess had found for me to wear until I could obtain some proper clothing here... The Priestess herself "tense", it being "obvious" that this was a bit "more" here than just the "failure" of the Gaia's computer, which didn't help to settle my own nerves here either, I'd state!
"I've got a `hunch' that they haven't perfected things yet," I "smiled" back, climbing into the jumpsuit, glad to be decently "covered" once again instead of running around like a slave girl! "That's `why' Hope and I ended up in your time instead of mine."
"That's what I `said'," Amethysta smiled, seeing me nod.
"I do lead an `adventuresome life'," I "grinned" back.
"You know `when' you are, but not `where'," I said to Tais, the crew of the Gaia all gathered now around the ship's computer.
"We're in the solar system, at least I `think' we are," Tais snapped, the very tone of her voice leaving no doubts of things!! "But nothing is `where' it `should be', even the sun's out of place!" she breathed, her "composure" for once having departed...
"How long can your life support systems operate?" I asked, a bit nervous having heard the tone of Tais' voice. I'd always saw Tais as being "infallible", and suddenly she'd proved not to be!
"It doesn't make any `sense'!" Tais spoke, ignoring me now!
"Her `magic' has failed her," Amethysta whispered, drawing me aside. Tais was as close to being terrified as she could be!
"I am of the Warrioresses," Amethysta said to me as we watched Tais direct her Priestesses in various "tests" that meant little. I guessed from what I could see that the Gaia was some- where outside the orbit of Saturn judging from one of the com- ments I'd overheard, which didn't make any sense at all from what I wondered what had gone wrong unless the ship had moved in space at the same time, which I knew it could, the craft having "inter- stellar capabilities" as a part of its design. On the other hand it wouldn't have traveled in space unless "instructed" to do so. It being obvious too that the Gaia's computer was not DEFECTIVE!!
"I'm glad I had the privilege of meeting you," I said then, Amethysta's eyes glowing into mine as she nodded in reply. She'd done things that I certainly hadn't approved of, but on the other hand I had to admit that her behavior befitted her own era here. I wondered too if say Darlanis might have treated me any "better" if she hadn't "believed" that I was Janet Rogers' Lorraine Duval! Especially if there had been someone like Karen to deny it all...
"That will take `too long'!" I heard Tais "snap", her temper short. I suspected that she was almost at the "breaking point".
"May I be of help?" I asked softly, stepping up to her then.
"We are in the year 2670, and far from where we should be," Tais spoke, making a visible effort then to "calm" herself here.
"Can you still travel in time?" I asked, holding in reserve here the thought that we might be able to ask the Lorr for help!
"Yes...," Tais answered, her eyes glowing hotly into mine!
"2660," Tais spoke, having taken over the controls herself. There was a noticeable "shift" in the position of the sun, al- though I didn't know if it really meant anything or not here now.
"Large gravitional `point' ten light days out," one of the crew now spoke, looking at some sort of a viewscreen before her.
"Back ten more years," Tais answered back, sitting there.
"Different again," Amethysta commented as I nodded back.
"Gravitional `point' one light day distant," I heard.
"If `that' is what I think it is...!" Tais breathed!
"Don't `jump' in time again," I suggested to Tais!
"What is `it'?" Amethysta asked, looking at the viewscreen, which didn't really "show" all that much yet as the Gaia ap- proached it. The stars pretty much the "same" as they'd been af- ter this short "jump" we'd made using the Gaia's "warp drive".
"Neutron star," Tais answered, the ship's drive humming.
"There's a planet circling it," a crew woman added now.
"I want the `AG' on," Tais spoke, looking at the screen.
"`Dangerous' getting this close?" I asked, Tais nodding.
"We're `shielding' ourselves from its gravity," she said.
"Like out of the `myths and legends' of the past," Amethysta spoke softly from beside me, so "out of place" aboard this craft! A woman from a Tenth Century civilization, now aboard a starship!
"I've got a `question' for you," I said to Tais, the neutron star only visible as a sort of "radar blip" there on the screen. Tais having said that the thing itself was perhaps only a hundred miles or so in diameter, but weighed almost as much as the sun...
"You're wondering why I didn't know about this?" she smiled, using her telepathic powers to read my thoughts. If the Priest- esses of Lys had the ability to travel through time, why hadn't they known about all this? That was something that puzzled me...
"Unless you never went up into the future before," I said.
"Never `more' than a few years," Tais answered me softly.
"You did well, `considering' everything," I said to her.
"Never was this `scared' before," Tais admitted softly.