Home > Foregone Conflict(6)

Foregone Conflict(6)
Author: Stan C. Smith

“No. It happened a long time ago. We don’t really know why all the nandups died in that place.”

“Why did you want to bring me to a place where nandups died?”

He resisted the urge to rub his forehead in frustration. “Because I thought it would be a safe place for all of us, including you. Now I know it’s impossible for us to get there from here. I’m sorry. I mean… I wish things were different.”

She continued staring, her ample lips working back and forth as if she were chewing on something.

Lincoln turned to his team. “Um… it’s possible the war here is a result of something I did in Skyra’s time. I kind of showed her tribemates how to use a bow and arrow. That one thing could have given Neanderthals enough of an edge to prevent their extinction.”

“And with both species surviving, this war was inevitable… a foregone conflict,” Jazzlyn said. Then she shook her head. “No, Lincoln. You need to forget that. Billions of other factors contributed to this. It’s not rational to blame yourself for something happening on a global scale.”

“Dude, not everything is about you,” Derek added. He didn’t smile, but his eyes twinkled enough to let Lincoln know he was just ribbing.

Lincoln half-smiled and nodded. “You may underestimate my ability to cause trouble.” He took a deep breath and gazed at the T3 for a moment before turning back to his team. “Let’s look at the practical aspects of this situation. Our goal is to jump to a time and place where we can live out the rest of our lives, preferably in peace. At most, we have only two jumps to accomplish this goal. We have a good idea about what this world was like at Skyra’s time, based on what we experienced there. We also know a lot about what this world was like before Skyra’s time, based on all the paleontology and climatology research done by humans of our timeline.”

“Yep, that too. Now let’s consider the period between Skyra’s time and now—the last 47,000 years. All we know about it is what we’ve learned today. Neanderthals survived, and they are at war with Homo sapiens. Also, from what I could see, neither species appears to be very technologically advanced. Camel-drawn wagons, for example, as well as weapons that looked somewhat medieval.”

Derek crossed his arms. “Like I said, the chances of finding anything pleasant in the gap between Skyra’s time and now are basically zip. Zero. Zilch.”

Lincoln nodded. “Do you all concur?”

More nods all around, except from Skyra, who was now staring toward the trees and hills to Lincoln’s right.

“Does my opinion count?” Ripple asked.

“Not really,” Lincoln replied. He let out a long breath. “So, we attempt to jump to the future. How far?”

Virgil raised a finger as if he intended to make a point. “There is one potential benefit of jumping forward. If we’re lucky, and if we jump forward far enough, we may find a society sufficiently advanced to assist us in constructing additional body bags.”

Jazzlyn gave Virgil’s shoulder a light shove. “Good thinking, Virg. If they’re that advanced, though, wouldn’t we just choose to stay there?”

Virgil reddened slightly and adjusted his glasses. “Just a thought.”

“Right.” Lincoln said. “We need to consider all possibilities. Here’s what I propose. It’ll take considerable time for the T3 to calculate spatial placement for a jump to the future—up to thirty hours, depending. However, it has already run complete placement calculations for our first jump back to Skyra’s time, as well as the calculations for the reverse jump back to this present. If we have the T3 use the same calculations, except carried forward the same amount of time into the future, then much of the hardcore number crunching can be avoided. I’m guessing it will be ready before we can even prepare the body bags and the rest of the gear. Twenty minutes, tops.”

Virgil held up a finger again, but not without giving Jazzlyn a wary glance. “Uh, I might point out that if the current war escalates to the point of nuclear conflict, even if it takes a few thousand years for the beings here to develop the capability, then jumping 47,659 years into the future should give us plenty of time to skirt around the resulting nuclear winter as well as the long-term global climate devastation.”

This was why Lincoln had hired Virgil in the first place—the guy had a knack for filling in the missing blanks in Lincoln’s own reasoning.

“Okay then,” Lincoln said. “Does anyone have an objection to jumping 47,659 years into the future?”

Jazzlyn, Virgil, and Derek shook their heads.

Lincoln turned to Skyra. There wasn’t time to explain jumping through time, but she deserved to have some say in the decision. “Skyra, instead of going back to your homeland, we are thinking of going to a place that is very different. Do you agree?”

She was still staring into the distance, but she shot him a glance. “I go where you go, Lincoln Woodhouse.”

Lincoln turned back to his team to face raised eyebrows and smirks. They obviously didn’t know what to think of his newfound attachment to the Neanderthal. “It’s unanimous,” he said curtly.

“Technically, it is not unanimous,” Ripple said.

“It’s unanimous!” Lincoln repeated.

“I’ll start prepping,” Virgil said, heading for the duffel bag containing the last ten body bags.

Jazzlyn and Derek followed Virgil.

Lincoln eyed Skyra. She was again staring out into the trees and brush, but now she was frowning.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“Wolves. I hear them.”

He spun around and scanned the area. “Here? How far?”

She pulled out her khuls and handed him one, keeping the other for herself. “They are coming. If we cannot scare them away, you will have to use that khul.” She grabbed Lincoln’s elbow and dragged him over to the T3. Then she gestured to Jazzlyn, Virgil, and Derek. “Bolups! Gather here with us. Together we will scare away the wolves.”

“Wolves?” Derek said, spinning around to look.

“Do what she says,” Lincoln ordered.

The three darted over, and Skyra pushed them each into position about a foot apart. She pulled her two stone knives from her wrist sheath and gave one to Derek and one to Virgil. “Jazzlyn, you must use your hand weapon,” Skyra said, referring to Jazzlyn’s prosthetic hand. The carbon fiber polymer appendage wasn’t originally designed to be a weapon, but Skyra had seen how formidable it could be.

Ripple moved to Skyra’s side. “Perhaps I can be of assistance.”

Now Lincoln could hear them—soft, brief yips, which he had thought were just birds. The yips were getting louder.

“No way we can fight off a pack of wolves with knives!” Derek said.

Skyra stepped forward. “Stay behind me, and stay close.”

Lincoln saw a flash of movement in the brush—something brown. Then the creatures were there, in plain sight, no more than fifty yards away. Six of them. They were huge, at least 200 pounds each. One of them obviously spotted Lincoln’s group. It stopped and stared. Then it emitted several soft yips, and the entire pack stopped.

“Do not fight until I tell you to,” Skyra said, her voice firm and confident. “If they come to attack, we will all charge them together, and we will all yell.”

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