THE QUEEN OF TIME

2570 A.D.!

A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE

By Jerome B. Bigge

Chapter Thirty

      "Don't look like anything's going to `happen'," I said, sip- ping at my beer, the "taste" not all that enjoyable any more now. We'd spent most of the evening discussing 21st Century politics, comparing them to those of the 20th Century and the 26th here... Bob saying that had not Janet been as "competent" as she was, it was possible that Hillary Clinton would have been President. On the other hand the American "taxpayers" were well "educated" that Mrs. Clinton was no "friend" of theirs, and they decided in the secrecy of the voting booth to put their "trust" in Janet Rogers rather than in Mr. Limbaugh, who was the head of the "conserva- tive movement" calling for policies much like what Janet offered. Janet's main "advantage" here being that she was "Libertarian", whereas Rush Limbaugh really didn't believe that much in freedom. Not in the same way in any case as did Janet Rogers at the time.* * Janet tended to become more "authoritarian" in her later years, but she did remain "true" to the idea of "keeping the government off people's backs" that she campaigned on back there in 2008... These conversations of course utterly "fascinating" Landis Dan, who like most people of this era knew very little of our history. I've also read novels supposedly set in the 20th Century that are so historically "inaccurate" that they made me laugh in reading them. Stories that hopelessly "confused" the technologies of the 20th Century with that of the 21st Century into a real mix mash!!

      "Maybe the `others' had more `luck'," Bob grinned in reply.

      "Trouble!" Landis breathed softly a few minutes later, the group of "men" who now entered the establishment obviously not the usual sorts who came here. Being more the types who "prowl" the streets late at night and waylay honest citizens seeking to return to their homes. The same types that I'd been trying to "deal with" in Trella, while being at the same time denounced by Les Hawkins and his gang for my "reign of terror" that my Warrio- resses were now "inflicting" upon the so called "honest" citizens of Trella. Said "honest citizens' being the same sort of "low lifes" that used to prowl the streets of American cities back in both the 20th and the 21st Centuries. Although I do believe that in the 21st Century they at least "did" something more effective about it by castrating any violent criminal. In the 20th Century they just let them back out on the streets again after serving usually quite short jail sentences, teaching them little but that "crime did pay" in a society no longer willing to "punish" them.

      I saw one of them grab the bar wench and shove her roughly back against the bar, while the others stood there and laughed as another walked around behind the bar to help himself to things. The few other patrons in the place sitting quietly at the tables. The bartender now shrinking back, terrified of these brutal men.

      The "caste codes" do not apply when dealing with those who live outside the law, outlaws being "fair game" for anything you wish to do, much different than it was back in the 20th Century when the criminal had more "rights" than did his own victims! They had not considered the possibility of anyone "interfering"! No doubt believing that their numbers would "scare off" anyone!

      My attack was "announced" by the blood curdling scream of the attacking Warrioress, my sword thrust driving into a man's neck and then tearing free as my razor sharp stainless steel blade then slashed another's throat only half a second later on! My return slash cutting a man's forearm as he raised his arm to defend himself, while Bob and Carol, along with Landis now en- gaged the other three in a clashing ringing of our steel blades! My man going for his sword, allowing me to drive my blade home! The bar tender reaching over the bar with a truncheon and giving one a sharp blow to the head, while Carol and Bob killed theirs just before Landis slipped her blade into the last one's heart!!

      "We'll take this one to the palace," I smiled, standing there, the first several inches of my sword wet with human blood. The various patrons sitting there in awe, knowing we were not the sort of people that anyone wanted to get "involved" with here... "Maybe `learn' something `useful'," I smiled, Carol nodding back. In this age there are no laws against the use of "torture", which means of course that criminals are well aware of what can happen!

      "Quiet night," Darlanis grinned, a bit "drunk", I suspected as we met back at Maris' palace, the Queen having quickly seen to it that our "prisoner" enjoyed the "comforts" of the pits beneath the palace where it was cold and damp the year around, and one soon made the acquaintance of various sorts of "life" there too!

      "Maybe it is time I took a `hand' in things," Maris spoke.

      "Better if you let `us' take care of it," Tori ventured.

      "Like Lorraine's in Trella?" the Queen smiled back now.

      "My `GUARD' does the `same'," Janet Rogers pointed out.

      "What you `do', you `do' on your own," Maris warned Tori.

      "What's a `matter' with you?" Carol snapped at the Queen!

      "I'm sure she has her `reasons'," Bob spoke, Maris nodding.

      "I'm under a lot of `pressure'," Maris Marn answered back. "Sometimes I wish I was back on the North Star instead of here." Maris having aroused considerable "opposition" in the last couple years by some of the things for which she'd taken a moral stand. Things that even I hadn't ever dared attempt to do in Trelandar! She'd made herself a lot of political enemies, and I suspected it was quite possible here that her "enemies" now had a "majority"!! Not enough to "depose" her, but enough to see to it that no more laws she favored would be passed, and that her "effectiveness" as Queen of Dularn was considerably reduced in many political ways!

      "I'll give you the `military support' of the Empire if it comes to `that'," Darlanis spoke up then. "I'd rather see you on the throne of Dularn than some `socialist radical'," she grinned!

      "I would have thought you would welcomed seeing Dularn torn apart by political radicalism," Maris replied, looking up at her. The tone of her voice leaving no doubts as to her feelings here.

      "We stood together side by side there in the `north'," the Empress answered. "Faced together that `she-demon' from Hell..." I supposed sharing such an "experience" might be "something" that would "alter" one's viewpoints towards another. There is a "sis- terhood of the sword" that few outside of our caste "understand". "And `shared blood'," Darlanis added, Maris nodding softly back. It is not a "part" of our caste codes, but yet perhaps should be.

      "We `value' such things as `honor'," I said to Janet then.

      "Perhaps one can be `too civilized'," Janet smiled back.

      "The `wisdom of the ages'," Carol smiled to Bob then.

      "Which we are fortunate to know," Hope then grinned.

      "Sang like a `bird'," Tori grinned, Bob giving her a smile. Our captive had wisely decided that telling us what we wanted to "know" was better than being drowned. Carol had dreamed that up. There is a pool beneath the palace that connects to the harbor. The water level in it rises and falls with the tide twice a day. The man had been placed in the pool helplessly bound to a beam at low tide with the water level up to his chin. Carol had told him a very "descriptive" story of just how unpleasant it is to drown!

      "Didn't really learn that much that we didn't already know," the brownette added, sitting down there at the table and helping herself to the scrambled eggs and half a dozen small sausages... "But on the other hand I'm sure Tara's `Organization' will be well aware that we aren't all the `pushovers' that they thought."

      "Terrorism can be a `two edged' sword," Janet smiled then.

      "My thoughts exactly," Carol smiled, glancing over at me.

      "We should try to gain a little `information' if we can," I smiled, glancing at Darlanis and Janet Rogers. The Prostitute Guild would provide the "disturbance" we needed with the "Molotov Cocktails" I'd quickly made up for them to use. I had decided to "fight fire with fire", to carry the battle back to the "enemy"!! Carol giving me a big grin as she sat there listening to me talk.

      "You do have a competent `Warlady'," Janet said to Darlanis.

      "I have always thought so too," the Empress now smiled back.

      "`War is the application of violence against a specific ob- jective'," I smiled, now quoting from the "Warrioress' Handbook". "We are waging `war', not terrorism, which is the application of violence against no specific objective," I added, Janet nodding. Such was not as clearly "understood" in the past as it is now... The thought going through my mind just then too that the "Batman" there in Trella had been waging "war", not "terrorism" as such!! This in turn dredging up the "question" that Tais had ventured...

      "I'm glad you're a `friend'," Maris smiled, looking at me.

      "Sometimes it takes a `few good women'," Hope commented.

      "To `do' what needs to be `done'," she smiled in turn.

      "I am glad to have lived in this era," Darlanis smiled.

      "Sword salute," I said then, drawing mine, touching theirs.

      "Sisters of the Sword," the Empress of California said then.

      "A time to be remembered," Janet Rogers commented to us all. The tears that glistened in all our eyes spoke much I think then.

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