Victim of Circumstance (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 3)

by Robert F Hays

  “I think we have something that’ll do the job,” Ida said.

  “Just don’t tell anyone,” Colin said. “We don’t want a line at the door of everyone in the village with an ailment.”

  Ida went inside as the others engaged Miri in general conversation. A couple of minutes later she reappeared and handed the boy a capsule. “Here, take this,” she said. “The warts will be gone in about ten days…. Ah… warms.”

  Miri thanked them and left. The Rangers entered their house and sat.

  “The Ranger medical pack may make us a few friends,” Ken said. “Lucky it had something for warts.”

  “There was nothing in it specifically for warts,” Ida said. “But they’re caused by a virus. I gave him a general antiviral.”

  “What?” Colin said, jumping to his feet. “A general antiviral? Go after them. Get it back.”

  “Why?” Ida asked.

  “What if their blindness is caused by a virus? What would happen if it cured that? With no knowledge of sight, it’d scare the crap out of the kid.”

  “Oh shit,” Ida said and bolted for the door.

  “While we’re waiting,” Colin said, “what else did you all find just lying around? I know Ken picked up a necklace.”

  “More money,” Yuri said. “And I found some sort of flute.”

  “I found a small hand tool of some sort,” Ken said, “but I don’t know what it is.”

  “He took it before I caught up to them,” Ida said as she entered the house.

  “Hell,” Colin said. “We can only hope that the damage is permanent.”

  “Sorry,” Ida said. “I wasn’t thinking.”

  Colin exhaled heavily and looked down. “Nobody’s perfect. Just be a little more on the ball from now on.”

  “We’ll have to tell them sometime,” Yuri said.

  “We have to work up to it,” Colin replied. “The culture shock would be horrendous.”

  A quiet knock at the door made Colin flinch. Ken went to answer it. He opened the door to reveal a girl in her mid-teens. “Ho, Malia,” she said timidly.

  “That’s her,” Yuri said. “The one that looked at us. The one I saw outside the bathroom.”

  “You knew it was me without looking?” Malia said. “I didn’t give you my name when we were close and you didn’t hear my voice.”

  “Uh… well…” Yuri said.

  “Can I talk with you,” Malia said nervously. “Do you have the unholy visions too?”

  “The unholy what?” Colin said. “Oops. Ho Malia, Colin,” he added hastily.

  “Come in,” Ida said, walking to the door and escorting her into the room.

  “The unholy visions. You know where things are without looking.”

  “What makes you think that?” Colin said.

  Malia fidgeted. “Will you tell the elders if you think I have them?”

  “We won’t tell anyone anything,” Ida said. “Sit and tell us.”

  “Do you think that anyone with the unholy visions is in league with the devil?” Malia said.

  Colin turned serious. “If you’re talking about what I think you are, the majority of our people have these visions. A doctor treats anyone that doesn’t. The visions, as you call them, have nothing to do with the devil.”

  Tears ran down the girl’s face. “Then you think that the visions aren’t the curse of Satan, and it doesn’t mean that you’re one of his children?”

  “No, to us it’s normal,” Ida said.

  “How long have you had them,” Colin said.

  “All my life.”

  “Does anyone here know?”

  “When I was little I asked my mother why she had to feel around to find something. I thought everyone had the visions. She started yelling at me and told my father. They both yelled at me, telling me I was making it up that I could tell where something was without looking or feeling.”

  “What did they do then?” Ida said.

  “They took me to the Pastor. He yelled at me too and slapped me. Then they all started praying. The Pastor kept slapping me, telling the devil inside me to depart. He hurt me a lot. I had to make them stop it, so I told them the visions had gone.”

  “And you’ve been hiding the fact ever since?”

  “Yes. But I don’t really think the visions are from the devil, they’re too beautiful.”

  “Does anyone else here have these visions?”

  “There was a man, but he ran off into the dark.”

  “Why did he run away?” Ida said.

  “He wouldn’t repent and allow the Pastor to exorcise the devils from him, so he was declared a sorcerer, a son of Satan.”

  “What were they going to do to him?”

  “Exorcise the devils by fire.”

  “Oh shit,” Colin said. “Burn him at the stake?”

  “Yes, burn him.”

  Yuri frowned. “What would they’ve done if he had’ve submitted and admitted he’d sinned?”

  “Just like me, prayer and beatings until he confessed the sins that let the devils in.”

  “Did you confess sins?” Colin said.

  “Yes, I made them up.” She lowered her head. “Since then I’ve been real scared that they might find out I still have the visions.”

  “What would they do if they found out?” Colin said. The girl remained silent and looked at the floor. “Burn you at the stake?”

  “No,” she said after a long pause. “I didn’t run when I was accused. Because I didn’t, I wouldn’t be a son of Satan. They’d think I was just a person that Satan was trying to take.”

  “Ah…” Colin said, searching for words. “You can’t tell us? Does it bother you that much?”

  The girl started to cry. Ida walked over and placed an arm around her shoulders. “Come on. You’re with friends here. What you call visions, we call seeing. It’s normal to us. But, we have to know all the consequences of having the visions. It’s important.”

  “All the what?”

  “The concequ… ah… what they do to you.”

  “Well, if prayer and confession doesn’t work, they poke pointed sticks into your eyes.”

  “What?” Ken exclaimed. “Does that happen often?”

  “Not since my father was a little boy.”

  “Damn,” Ken said. “That puts us and our mission in one shit of a position.”

  Yuri laughed. “Hey, you and your understatements.”

  “Can I go back with you across the dark?” Malia pleaded. “I want to go where people know I have the visions and don’t care.”

  Colin folded his arms and looked down.

  “Of course she can,” Ida snapped in Colin’s direction.

  “Team leader’s decision,” Colin returned. “We can’t interfere with their culture.”

  “Culture?” Ida said. “You’re having flashbacks to those old sci-fi videos from the twentieth century. The so called ‘prime directive’. Non interference in a developing culture. It doesn’t apply in this case. They’re from our culture and it’s gone drastically wrong through circumstance. We’re here to correct it.”

  Colin smiled to himself then nodded. “Ok, ok, but the decision’s still up to me. If we can’t have her people accept her, she comes with us.”

  “Are you married or betrothed?” Malia asked Colin.

  “Ah…” Colin replied. “No.”

  “Would you consider betrothal to me? I’ve dreamed of a husband that has the visions too.”

  “Way to go Col,” Yuri said. “Not a week here and you’ve got a marriage proposal.”

  “How old are you?” Colin said.

  “How what?”

  “How long ago were you born?”

  “Twenty two sun highs.”

  Yuri laughed. “She’s older than you, Col.”

  “Standard years,” Colin snapped.

  “I think that’s about fifteen,” Ken said. “By the way, you’re the second woman that’s questioned us about marriage but women can’t be alone w
ith men. Why…”

  “More important things to know,” Colin said. “What are your people’s beliefs? Where do you think you came from?”

  “From my mother.”

  “No,” Colin chuckled. “Many years… ah… sun highs ago.”

  “From another place where people were evil. Our people didn’t like the evil ways so we left and came here.”

  “Any talk of having visions back then?”

  “Yes. The devil gave the evilest of the people the power of visions so that they might know what God looked like. For that, God destroyed them. But I have the visions, and I don’t know what God looks like. I think it’s just a story.”

  “Where does the story come from?”

  “Pastor Bye said that it’s in the Bible. Our people lived in a beautiful garden. When Satan gave many evil people the unholy visions God destroyed them with a great flood. A righteous man named Noah brought us here.”

  “I don’t remember other planets mentioned in Sunday school.” Yuri said.

  “Well,” Colin said thoughtfully. “Maybe the people a long time ago weren’t evil, just foolish and ignorant. They destroyed their own plan… ah… place and had to move here and to other places. Your ancestors and ours are the same people.”

  “Ancestors?” Malia said.

  “Ah… people from a long time ago.”

  “You do say a lot of different words.”

  “Many are words your people have no use for and have forgotten.” Colin reached for the table and picked up a communications link. “What color is this?”

  “Color?”

  Colin picked up an empty food pack and held it next to the device. “What’s the difference?”

  “One’s vision is grass and the other is warm above.”

  “We say they are colors, named green and blue.”

  “They have names?” Malia said excitedly. “What’s blood, and mountain rock, and shit?”

  Colin laughed. “We’ll get to that. Our people have teachers who can help you.”

  “Can’t you teach me? We can be betrothed. Then you can be with me any time.”

  “I think we’d better cover that, Col,” Yuri said. “I don’t want to get myself castrated in the Town Square for saying the wrong thing to the wrong female.”

  “I agree,” Colin said. “Malia, when can a man be alone with a woman?”

  “Only when married, betrothed, or part of the family.”

  “Well,” Ken said. “That Tanni’s good looking, but I’d have to come up with an engagement ring to be alone with her?”

  “Shit!” Colin said. “Did she ask you if you were married?”

  “Ah… I can’t remember.”

  “Damn. You’re supposed to be married to Ida. Go look at the video record. They may pick that up as a conflict in our stories. I don’t like the idea of being castrated in the town square either.” Ida jumped to their central memory storage unit. “Malia, what’s the punishment for being caught alone with a female?”

  “They have to declare betrothal. If they don’t, then disgrace and one of the two is sent to another village.”

  Yuri frowned. “Well, at least it’s better than castration,” he said. “What if they’re caught having sex? Do you know what that word means?”

  “Yes. The man’s penis is cut off and the woman’s womb is burned closed with a hot iron.”

  “Oops,” Yuri said with a grimace.

  “He didn’t say he wasn’t married,” Ida said, looking up from a monitor. “But he did sound a little flirtatious.”

  “Damn,” Colin said. “We have to have a complete review of what was said and to whom. We have to keep our stories straight.”

  “Malia,” Ida said, catching her attention. “We’ve noticed that women outnumber men here, is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Malia said with a shrug, sounding as if it was a question with an obvious answer.

  “So,” Colin said, “you have a lot of unmarried women here?”

  “Not that many, most get married.”

  “How?” Yuri asked. “Where do they get the men?”

  “The men are here,” Malia replied. “They’re all available.”

  “Polygamy,” Colin said, slapping his forehead. “Malia, do men here have more than one wife?”

  “Of course, how else can a woman find a husband?”

  “Thank heavens,” Ken said. “Then me flirting with that Tanni lady wouldn’t be out of place.”

  “Yeah,” Yuri said, “they’ll just think you’re in the market for a second wife.”

  “That still doesn’t answer the question,” Ida said. She turned to Malia. “How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

  “I have two sisters and one brother.”

  Colin grabbed Ida by the shoulder. “Are you recording all this?”

  “Yes, I’ve recorded everything.”

  “Are all families like this,” Yuri asked, “more daughters than sons?”

  “Yes they are, but I did have two more brothers.”

  “What happened to them?” Colin said.

  Malia bowed her head and appeared upset. “They got lost in the dark when they were little.”

  “That explains it,” Ken said. “Boys are way more adventurous than girls. My brothers and I were always running up and down hills while my sisters played at home.”

  Ida looked at Malia’s forlorn expression. “Does that bother you, that your bothers were lost?”

  Malia nodded. “My unholy visions told me where one of my brothers was. He was walking in a field trying to find the path back home. He walked the wrong way into the forest.”

  Malia started to cry and Ida reached out and hugged her.

  “Damn,” Colin said. “You couldn’t tell anyone because they’d find out you had the visions.”

  “You see,” Ida said, stroking Malia’s hair, “the visions aren’t unholy, they’d have saved your brother.”

  “I know, I know.”

  Colin paced trying to think of other questions that’d help. “Malia,” he said, “If a man can have more than one wife, why did you ask if I was married? Would it make a difference?”

  “It you already had wives, I would have to ask them for permission to court you.”

  “That explains it.” Yuri said. “We’re getting more information from this young lady than a week of observation.”

  “Can you come back and talk more later?” Ida said.

  “I’ll come back any time you like. I want to court Colin. He’s very smart and would be a good husband.”

  The Rangers laughed.

  “What is it?” Malia said. She was on the verge of tears again. “What’s funny? Am I ugly? I don’t have warts.”

  “Malia,” Colin said with a sigh, “You’re not ugly. I think we should have a long talk about the difference in customs, especially ones to do with a person’s age when they get married.”

  “I’d love to learn about your people.”

  “First a few things about your people. We don’t want to live on charity here.” Colin pointed at the table where the artifacts they found lay. “We picked them up off the ground. Can we sell them?”

  “Sell them at the market and I have a lot more you can sell. I keep stuff I find in a secret place. I don’t want to have to explain how I found them.”

  “We also found money,” Colin said, “but we can’t use it. That would cause suspicion. We just arrived, but have local currency in our pockets.”

  Malia smiled. “I’ve found plenty of money. I counted it a while ago. I’ve got enough to buy four houses and a big farm, but I can’t use it either. People would ask how I found so much.”

  “It looks like we’ll get ourselves a stall at the market,” Colin said. “Malia can pick out what would sell best?”

  “Yes, tools like that knife would be good,” Malia said.

  “One hole in the plan,” Ken said. “How do we say we got all the stuff here? On our backs? We couldn’t have carried that much.”


  “We could say that we had a donkey carrying it and it died just short of town,” Yuri said.

  “No,” Malia said. “You brought the stuff in a handcart. I know where there’s a lost one. It’s got grass growing all over it, but it looks like it’ll work.”

  “Perfect,” Colin said. “We’ll get things together tomorrow. About the money.” He picked up a couple of disks from the table. “What is the difference between the coins? They have little bumps on them.”

  “One bump is one dollar, two is five dollars, three is ten dollars, four is fifty dollars and five is a hundred dollars.”

  “How much is a lemonade?” Colin said.

  “One dollar.”

  “That’s about twenty MG for a lemonade at home,” Ken said.

  “A coin with two bumps would be a G disk,” Colin said.

  Yuri picked up a coin. “What’s this one? Three bumps and a line?”

  Malia laughed. “A lot of money. That’s five thousand dollars. You could buy a house with that.”

  Yuri stuck it in his pocket. “Someone must have shit bricks for a week after losing this. That’s a thousand G.”

  “If you lose coins, you just go to the minter and take an oath that you lost them and they make another.”

  “Damn,” Colin said. “That means the ones we found are written off. If we start spending them it would drown their economy with inflation.” Colin reached in his pocket and pulled out a communicator. “I forgot to check to see if we had any messages.” He looked at the communicator. “We have one from the Surgeon General’s office.” He touched the device.

  “Corporal Young,” a voice started. “We recreated the viral patterns you sent us and found one is a mutated avian flu virus. It is the opinion of our virologists that it is the cause of the blindness in the local population. It attacks the optic nerve and causes a swelling which shuts off signals to the brain. It is an extremely virulent strain. We are classifying it is an Alpha, November.

  “On the virus we found landmarks that indicate that it is resistant to ninety percent of all antiviral drugs. It is sheer luck that the antiviral you were issued is draconimol. It is one of the only ones that would’ve had any affect. Don’t miss a single day.

  “It’s imperative you send us actual samples. There’s only so much we can do with a computer map of its structure.

  “Surgeon General’s office out.”