by Jacob Holo
“So will we be able to go home after all this?”
“As soon as the tunnels are cleared,” Daniel said. “However long that takes.”
“I don’t think they’ll have any problem clearing the tunnels,” Rüdiger said. “With a Mantis dead, we should be looking at a long period of reaver inactivity.”
“Well, good,” Nicole said. “I’ve had quite enough excitement for one week, thank you very much.”
“Come on, admit it,” Daniel said. “You enjoyed it a little.”
“I most certainly did not! Half the time I was terrified out of my mind and the other half I didn’t know what the hell was going on!”
“Really? But the hamburger speech—”
“Don’t you start! I mean, what the hell is reaverspace, anyway? It’s certainly not a bun and where does a tau freeze-in-a-freeze come into play?”
“Well, you see, in the patty there’s this—”
“I don’t want to hear it!”
Rüdiger shook his head. “God. You should really give your hamburger speech a rest.”
“You have a problem with it?”
“No. Only, some of the new recruits you talk to start carrying mustard bottles in their jackets.”
Daniel pointed an angry finger at Rüdiger. For a second, Nicole thought the two would have another violent shouting match. But then Rüdiger started laughing and Daniel soon followed.
“Some of them will even put on a bib as soon as a freeze hits.”
“Okay! Okay!” Daniel said. “I get the point.”
Rüdiger patted him on the back. “Come on. Let’s go find something to drink.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, you idiot. I am in so good a mood right now, I’ll even share a drink with you.”
“Oh,” Daniel said. “Well, all right then. Nicole, you mind if we skip out?”
“Sure. I want to check on Amy soon, anyway.”
“All right. We’ll be back at my place if you’re looking for us.”
Nicole watched them go. She looked around and spotted Shoko and Melanie. They were staring across the tunnel plains, talking. They were the only familiar faces in sight, so she walked over.
“Hello, Nicole!” Shoko said.
Melanie nodded.
“Hey, Melanie,” Nicole said. “I just wanted to thank you for patching up my leg.”
“Yeah, me too,” Shoko said. “That’s twice you saved my life. One of these days I’ll have to return the favor.”
“It vas nutting.”
“Uhh… pardon?” Shoko said.
“Nutting. It vas nutting.”
“Nutting… nutting… oh, nothing!”
“Yes, dat is vhat I said. Nutting.”
Shoko sighed. “We need to work on your accent.”
“Dere is nutting wrong vit my accent. I am German, after all.”
“Yes, and I’m Japanese, but you don’t hear me butchering my T.H. sounds.”
“I’m just glad so many people speak English here,” Nicole said.
“It’s the trade language of the world,” Shoko said. “Many countries teach English at an early age.”
“Like Germany and Japan,” Melanie said.
“Some better than others.”
“Vhat does dat mean?”
“Nutting at all,” Shoko said. “Really, it vas a harmless statement.”
Nicole put a hand to her mouth and giggled.
The conversation settled down after that. Nicole spent a few quiet minutes staring across the plains with her new friends. Beneath her, the main gate opened. Tau guards began to venture out into the plains, a dozen at a time.
“Have any of you seen Viktor?” Nicole asked.
“He’s by the storehouse near the main gate,” Shoko said.
Nicole turned around and looked down at the squat brick building. Viktor stood near its entrance, sledgehammer resting on his shoulder.
“Right, I see him,” Nicole said. “I’ll be back.”
“You’re going out of your way to talk to the guy?” Shoko said.
“There’s something I want to ask him,” Nicole said. “Don’t worry. It’ll be short.”
“All right. I wish you luck.”
Nicole took the flight of stairs down and walked to Viktor.
“Do you have a minute?”
Viktor turned from one of his assassins. “I am busy right now, but for you I will find the time. What do you want?”
“I was wondering about some of the things the Mantis said… or thought… or whatever it was using to communicate with me.”
Viktor nodded. “Daniel did mention you have that talent. Many tau guards have a mix of talents, some strong, some weak. You seem particularly gifted, though.”
Nicole shrugged. “I’m as surprised as you are.”
“Regardless, what did you learn from the Mantis?”
“It spoke of enemies besides the tau guards.”
Viktor raised an eyebrow. “Now that is interesting. The reavers fighting someone or something other than us.”
“So you don’t know who that could be?”
“No. Of course, we have very few tau guards who can sense what reavers think, and those often block them out. It is a terrible mental strain.”
Nicole recalled her string of nightmares. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“Did the Mantis mention anything else?”
“That it was trying to replicate our tau abilities. That was the whole point of the second borehole, to give it access to large numbers of human beings. I don’t know exactly what it planned, but I got the impression it wanted to use us like cattle.”
“A goal other than human genocide,” Viktor said thoughtfully. “Nicole, after I am done here, I would like to go over your experience in more detail. Daniel and the others should join us as well. We must record everything you saw and heard.”
“Sure. No problem.”
“Until then, if you will excuse me.” Viktor turned and was about to leave.
“Just one more question.”
“Yes?”
“Were you really serious when you mentioned executing us?” Nicole asked.
Viktor’s cold gaze made her heart skip a beat.
“Of course.”
“But surely…”
“Look around,” Viktor said. “What do you see? You see a few thousand people living off the scraps of a greater, long dead society. You cannot begin to imagine how precariously we hold them together with so many nationalities and cultures clashing at basic levels. Many of my soldiers have no love for each other, but they must unite constantly to fight a greater threat. How do you suggest I maintain discipline? With kind words?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Your friend Rüdiger would call me ruthless and rightly so, but I am not evil. I try to hold together a world on the verge of falling apart, assailed from the outside and from within. And to do that, I must be merciless and ever vigilant. I am this way because that is what Chronopolis needs of me.”
Nicole felt it difficult to maintain eye contact, but she managed to look him in the eye.
“Thank you, Viktor. I think I understand this place a little better now.”
“You are an interesting young woman. I look forward to working with you again.”
Chapter 21
Grounded for Life
“Hey, Nicole!” Amy shouted from their bedroom window. “Your boyfriend is back!”
Nicole rolled her eyes, lying on her bed. “He’s a friend who happens to be a boy, not a boyfriend. There’s a difference.”
“Deny it all you want. I see how you look at him.”
“Whatever.”
Amy pushed the window up and stuck her head out. “Hey, Daniel! What’s up?”
“Hi, Amy. Is Nicole with you?”
“Yeah, we’re just hanging out,” Amy said. “You know, grounded for life.”
“Or until Mom and Dad start feeling sorry for you,” Nicole said.
“Yeah, probably,” Amy said with a giggle. “You can come up if you want. Our parents are still at work. Some sort of admin conference.”
Daniel materialized in their room. The muscles in Nicole’s neck knotted up.
“Ah!” Nicole shouted. She sat up in bed and threw a pillow at him. “Damn it, I keep telling you to stop that!”
“Sorry. Old habits die hard.”
“What do you have there?” Amy asked.
“What? This?” Daniel said, hefting a plain brown box. “Nothing much. Just a little something for you.”
Nicole smiled, getting out of bed. “Ahh, you didn’t have to.”
“Hey!” Amy said. “Did you bring something for me, too?”
“It’s for both of you. Actually, these fall under the ‘useful gift’ category. I think you’ll appreciate them. Here.”
Nicole took the box. “Wow. It’s heavy.” She set it down on her desk. “What’s inside?”
“Textbooks.”
“Textbooks for what?”
“Go on. Take a look.”
Nicole grimaced and opened the cardboard box. Inside were three thick books with titles translated into several languages. She picked up the first book and opened it to a random page. It showed a complex spatial graph with warping grid lines. It looked like something out of a Stephen Hawking book. Nicole didn’t understand any of it.
In the margin, someone had written: UNIVERSE = BIG HAMBURGER
And just below that: man, I’m getting hungry…
“They’re my first semester books from the Pandemonium College. I thought you’d like them.”
Nicole smiled. She flipped to another page. “Thanks, Daniel. They’re great.”
“Just don’t lose them or let anyone else see them. Some people get picky about stuff like that.”
“Because of triple-C’s Silence Doctrine?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“Otherwise, they’ll send someone like you after us,” Amy said. “Right?”
Daniel laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Nicole sighed. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle this guard stuff and school at the same time.”
“Well, you know you could skip regular college altogether and learn from the real masters in Chronopolis.”
“I suppose,” Nicole said. She put the book in the box. “Forget I mentioned it. It’ll all work itself out. I just need to think about it some more.”
“Sure. No one’s going to rush you. I mean, Chronopolis and triple-C owe you big. They’ll wait for you.”
“And me?” Amy asked.
“I think anyone around Nicole is going to get lenient treatment for a while,” Daniel said. “Probably.”
“If I learned anything from seeing Chronopolis,” Nicole said. “It’s that there are no perfect solutions, just lesser degrees of imperfection.”
“Wow. That’s deep. Someone should put that on a card.”
“For some reason that doesn’t feel like a compliment.”
Daniel shrugged. “Hey, I try my best.”
“You want to grab something to eat?” Nicole asked. “It’s almost dinner time.”
Daniel checked his watch. “Ah, so it is. Sure. Just let me take care of a few things in my place. Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll meet you back here.”
“Be sure to use the door when you come back.”
“Haha, haha, very funny,” Daniel said. He vanished.
“You know,” Amy said, leaning close. “I think you can do better.”
“Oh, knock it off.”
Amy laughed.
Nicole found the box of textbooks drawing her eye. She sat at her desk.
“I suppose it can’t hurt.”
She pulled the first one out of the box. The binding had seen better days. Being one of Daniel’s books, it had colored sticky tabs everywhere. She set it down and opened it to the first chapter.
“Chapter One,” Nicole read aloud. “The Absolute Laws of temporal manipulation…”
THE END
Thank you for buying Time Reavers. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
As an independent author, I don’t have the exposure of being on bookshelves or the support of a marketing department from a major publishing house. Instead, I rely on fans like you to help spread the word. If you would like to help, please consider doing one of the following.
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Again, thank you for buying my book. And don’t be shy. I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me through my blog, or say hello directly at [email protected].
Jacob Holo
About the Author
Photo by Keith DeLesline
Jacob Holo is a former-Ohioan, former-Michigander living in sunny South Carolina. He describes himself as a writer, gamer, hobbyist, and engineer. Jacob started writing when his parents bought that “new” IBM 286 desktop back in the ‘80s. Remember those? He’s been writing ever since.
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