“We’re not here to fight,” cautioned Adam. “Remember that Thomas.”
“We’re here to do what we need to do in order to save Earth’s future,” ventured Thomas rather ambitiously. His mood soured slightly after the close encounter. “If that’s even possible; at this point I’m not so sure.”
“Don’t forget the ‘not getting killed’ part,” Adam noted, slapping his brother lightly on the shoulder. “That should always be priority one.”
They continued their march south, which proved to be growing more difficult by the hour. The ground was more rugged and tougher to walk across, harder on their feet, with lots of small hills and large, rocky outcroppings. They were trying to avoid, for the most part, traveling too far to the east. Eye HUD maps clearly indicated that large, precipitous drops toward the Dead Sea awaited them there. At one point, Thomas commented idly that coming all this way only to fall off a cliff would be a sad ending for their mission. His brother laughed in response and they continued on.
Several hours later they detected additional humanoid life signs… five of them this time. The path to reach them led almost due east, a fact which was a little unsettling to both brothers. Adam surprised Thomas with a ‘well we’ve traveled this far’ look and then turned toward the new targets. Something about the arrangement of the blinking red dots appeared odd, and he found himself moving instinctively faster in response to his growing curiosity. Sweating from a great deal of exertion, the pair of brothers ascended a tall, rocky outcropping, moving steadily but surely toward its highest point. Normally they would have gone around its base, but Adam suggested that they approach the new contacts from above. They were near the peak of the large hill, composed mostly of dusty red rock, when the two men first heard the sound of voices… along with something else.
“Is that a… dog… barking?” Adam whispered cautiously to his sibling. A stiff, evening breeze was blowing and he had no idea how far their voices would carry.
“It sure sounds like it.” Both men continued moving swiftly.
Adam reached over toward Thomas and slapped the pack on his brother’s back, disengaging its invisibility field. When he turned his own body so that his brother could do the same for his, Thomas looked at him with puzzlement. “We’re far enough into the desert now,” explained Adam with a small smile. “We should look like travelers, not two out of place idiots dying of thirst.” Acknowledging the statement with a nod, Thomas slapped the pack on Adam’s back lightly. Both of them appeared to be simple traveling companions on a long journey together. Eagerly they ran the last few steps, eager to see what they would find.
It was a frightening sight that greeted them as they dropped to their knees and peeked over the hill’s summit. Below, in a large ravine that might have once been a mighty riverbed lurked four people. Three of them were Roman soldiers, dressed and armed for battle just as the others had been. These men had swords and spears ready, circling around a fourth man who was obviously their intended target. Next to them, a huge black and brown dog barked angrily at the trapped young man, who was long-haired, bearded, and wearing a simple gray robe and sandals. The dog wore a large red harness of some sort with a set of long knives attached to it, the blades alternating between pointing forward and back.
“That’s quite the attack dog,” growled Adam softly as the two of them watched the unexpected encounter. “If you try to stop him with your hands and arms, you’ll slice yourself to pieces on those knives. Not a great position to be in when you’re completely alone and unarmed and he’s going for your throat.”
Unfortunately, the robed, bearded man was clearly alone. He was backed up against the base of another rocky hill, waiting helplessly as the trio of soldiers and their dog closed in on him. The soldiers were yelling all kinds of angry things at him while the dog simply sat close enough to prevent any chance of escape while barking loudly.
The expression on the face of the trapped man was clear – he was about to die and he knew it.
“It looks like a mastiff of some kind,” said Thomas, his tone betraying his nervousness. “That trapped man appears to be the person we’re looking for. He certainly resembles all of the images we’ve seen.” He turned toward his brother eagerly. “Adam, we can’t let them kill him!”
“If we weren’t here, he would most certainly die,” Adam reminded him, finding it difficult to hold down both his anger and the sound of his voice. “We can’t change history Thomas.”
“If we weren’t meant to change history, then we wouldn’t be here,” insisted Thomas. In a sudden, unexpected move that startled Adam, he unexpectedly darted over the peak of the outcropping and began descending toward the soldiers and their prey. “Stop!” he shouted loudly as he ran, working steadily to keep his footing on the steeply inclined ground. “Leave that man alone!” His voice, along with rocks kicked up by his feet as they skittered downhill, caused all three soldiers to turn and look directly toward their position.
“Great! This is just getting wonderful!” declared an infuriated Adam as he watched the situation develop. He stood up and shook his head at his brother’s impulsiveness. “What a wonderful time to intervene in a life or death situation.” Concerned for his brother, he scrambled to follow, nearly falling in the process as his larger body proved significantly less nimble. “Thomas wait!” he called out angrily, frustrated by his inability to maintain his brother’s pace. “Those men are really, really dangerous!”
Two of the soldiers detached themselves from their partner, moving to confront the Rohs. The other one approached the bearded man, returning his attention to their original target. Still struggling to move downhill fast enough to intervene before it was too late, Thomas grew extremely frustrated watching the situation deteriorate further. He watched the huge Roman soldier raise his sword high above his head, preparing for a killing blow. Behind him, Adam was still hollering at him, ordering him to stop and wait. Realizing that he would be too late, Thomas brought his right wrist up and fired off an electromagnetic pulse from the weapon strapped to his forearm. The burst was invisible to the human eye, but sizzled across the distance between him and the third Roman, catching the unprepared soldier from behind and throwing him sideways at least ten yards. He landed hard on the rocky ground and laid still, his sword and shield clattering to the ground.
The giant mastiff, barking at his unexpected presence, felt the disturbance as the energy pulse flashed past it. Suddenly quiet, the dog backed slowly away from the helpless, bearded man and contented itself to sit for the moment. Watching the entire situation unfold from above, Adam cussed heatedly and kept a wary eye on the other two soldiers for any signs of hostility. Not surprisingly, they were staring at their fallen colleague, clearly puzzled as to what specifically had just happened to him.
Thomas stopped in his tracks as soon as he fired, clearly intimidated by the situation and his decision to directly intervene. Adam used the time to catch up to his brother and grab him sharply by the arm. “You can’t be doing that here!” he snapped angrily at his younger brother. “We’re supposed to be simple travelers in the desert… remember? It’s possible that you just altered Earth’s future.”
“If so, it needed altering,” countered Thomas with equal hostility. “I’m not going to let those Roman butchers kill an innocent man. Especially if it turns out to be the person we’re looking for.”
“In order to successfully complete a time travel mission, you might have to do exactly that!” shouted Adam reproachfully at his brother. The pair of Romans hesitated, shifting their gaze between the arguing brothers and their fellow soldier – someone who was still not moving. Wisps of smoke were rising skyward from the burn marks on his right side. “You were never meant to be the decision maker on this mission,” Adam reminded his brother. “Kaufield and I were going to be the combatants because we have the necessary experience in the field of battle. For God’s sake, Thomas, what have you gotten us into?”
“We can handle ourselves,” mutt
ered Thomas under his breath.
“Really? Because if your power level is as low as mine is, we’re virtually unarmed!”
The time for argument ended quickly. One of the soldiers still standing whistled sharply and the giant mastiff instantly leaped toward them, barking angrily. The bearded man and former victim of the encounter stood where he was, watching helplessly as the hopeless situation he had once faced continued to evolve. Closing the remaining distance surprisingly fast, the massive dog leaped toward Thomas’ throat with a loud, prolonged series of barks.
To his credit, Thomas held his ground in the face of such a vicious attack, wrapping both arms tightly around the beast. Under normal circumstances, his throat would have been in grave danger from razor sharp teeth and his arms sliced repeatedly by the sharp knives attached to the dog’s torso. In this case, his defensive shield flared with a bright blue glow and protected him long enough for him to enhance his strength and easily throw the animal aside. It landed on its side, whimpering suddenly as the aborted attack turned out significantly differently than it had expected.
Enraged, both of the unharmed Roman soldiers were charging now, screaming out battle cries as they raised their swords and attacked. Unwilling to leave future decisions to his brother, Adam stepped in front of Thomas and activated his own defenses. Choosing not to use his wrist guns, he would also normally be in great jeopardy. And yet he easily caught the first soldier’s descending sword against his left forearm, deflecting the attack with another brief flash of crackling blue light. Using the heel of his right hand, Adam struck the man in the chest armor so hard that he dented the metal and cracked ribs. The soldier flew backwards, landing on his back and sliding to a sudden stop on the rocky ground, groaning in obvious pain. Adam grabbed hold of the first warrior’s shield and used it against the other man, striking him hard enough to send him flying in the other direction. On his eye HUD he watched an already low battery level continue to drop precipitously farther.
The dog flashed past him before he could react, attacking Thomas again. But the younger Roh was ready for it, snapping back both wrists and sending small, low level wrist gun pulses into the beast. In the midst of its run, it suddenly began whimpering loudly, shocked and confused by the unseen attack. Pausing for a moment, it studied Thomas warily with hate-filled eyes. A low growl emanated from its throat and then it attacked again, only to find its charge stymied in a similar manner. Giving it no time to consider a third try, Thomas set another series of shocking energy pulses into the huge mastiff and drove it away. Turning, it retreated all the way back to the first fallen soldier, who was groaning softly and trying his best to sit up.
Adam waved toward the bearded man fervently. “Come on!” he urged enthusiastically, trying to shake the startled stranger out of his shocked emotional state. “We have to get out of here!” At his urging, the robed man nodded and began running briskly toward them. It was clear that he was weak from malnourishment and his progress was agonizingly slow. Picking up one of the fallen swords, Adam walked over to the first, square-jawed Roman – the one Thomas had knocked down – watching his eyes widen with fear. The dog immediately moved away from him and ran to a new position. Grimly, the elder Roh smacked the soldier hard along the side of his head with the flat center of the sword’s blade.
Then the three of them swiftly turned tail and got the hell out of there.
*
“Do you think they were soldiers from that column we passed earlier in the day?” Thomas asked later, after the three of them had worked hard to move as far as possible from the confrontation. Their restless hike had lasted well past sundown, and stars now twinkled brightly above their heads in a dark, moonless sky.
“It’s possible,” mused Adam thoughtfully, his back pressed against a large pile of rocks. In front of them, a small fire crackled and burned, created from the remnants of a dead tree they had happened upon. “There’s no way to know for certain.” He wouldn’t have risked it – even for the necessary warmth – under normal circumstances. However, they had a companion now, someone to look after, and their brain implants were essentially back to square one in terms of energy consumption. Everything they had gained during the day from the heat and warmth of the desert sun was lost in the battle with the three Roman soldiers. That was why only Adam was currently seated by the fire, since absorbing its energy was proving to be more efficient when they did so one at a time. Thomas had leeched from the fire earlier, replenishing some of the energy in his implant, but was currently busy making a small camp out of the precious few blankets that the Bethany farmer had shared with them.
“I still can’t believe I did what I did,” admitted Thomas sheepishly. “It was so impulsive… it felt like someone just seized control of my brain and told it what to do.” He shook his head regretfully. “I’m really sorry that this happened, Adam. It was a breakdown of discipline that is inexcusable.” He eyed his brother, clearly embarrassed. “I was really scared that those soldiers were about to kill the person we were looking for. In acting so quickly without thinking you were absolutely correct – we may have changed the future.”
“Quite possibly,” nodded Adam grimly. “At least two of those soldiers are dead unless they find help… I cracked the ribs on one of them and hit the other one hard enough with a shield to break his arm. We’re far enough into the unpopulated areas for that to be a death sentence. We should have left them some food and water, treated their injuries… something…”
“You mean while they continued trying to kill us?” Thomas asked dryly. He studied his brother’s troubled expression. “You’ve worked alongside hardened soldiers. Do you really think that they would have given up once they decided to engage us?”
“No.” Adam’s eyes shifted to the bearded man who was fast asleep by the fire. “Which brings me to our next problem… what do we do with him?”
“I don’t know. When he wakes up we’ll have to talk to him and…”
“We really shouldn’t.”
Thomas glared at his brother. “Adam we have to find out if this is the man we’re looking for!”
“He’s seen evidence of our technology. We should walk away and leave him as we found him, and hope he decides to keep what he’s seen to himself. If any of those soldiers survive, they’ll talk even if no one believes what they experienced. And if they don’t survive, then we did in fact change our future.”
“We changed the future as soon as we interacted with that farmer,” observed Thomas. “We changed the future as soon as we walked through Bethany. The only remaining question is whether or not we should actually be here, and I think the message from your friend David – in the form of his silver watch – has adequately answered that question.”
“He’s not my friend,” replied a fatigued Adam. He pointed at the sleeping man. “Neither is he.” He paused, weighing the matter carefully. “We – and by ‘we’ I mean YOU – are making decisions that could have massive consequences on the present that we came from. We could go back to family and friends who are complete strangers… if they’re still alive and if we get back.”
“Then why did you allow us to enter this desert?” wondered Thomas curiously. “I’m serious Adam… why didn’t you stop us from coming here? Should we have stayed in Bethany? Should we have waited to reestablish contact with the Lexington while hiding in that farmer’s barn?”
“Right now I’m thinking that ‘yes’ would be a really good answer to that question.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Thomas continued staring intently at his brother, gauging his reaction. “You certainly had the opportunity.” The two of them paused for a moment, with Thomas continuing to watch his brother while Adam stared uncomfortably into the flickering flames from the small fire. “It’s because you believe David sent us here just as much as I do, don’t you? It’s because you think that we were meant to be here, that by staying and trying to accomplish something meaningful we might actually end up helping Earth.”
&
nbsp; “Deep down, Thomas, my gut tells me this is too dangerous… that we should go back to that barn and stay there until we can find a way to return to our own time.”
“How about trusting our instincts? How about using good judgment to try and find out why we were sent here and make sure that we don’t go back to the present day without something positive accomplished?”
Harrumphing loudly, Adam glanced up at his brother. “Good judgment? You mean like charging down a hill at three armed Roman soldiers like a madman… yelling ‘Hey you, quit doing that!’? Is that the kind of judgment you’re talking about?” He could see Thomas blush and then look away even through the flickering shadows of the firelight. “And about that barn thing… aren’t you supposed to be using the cover of darkness and working on a way to get our implants reconnected to the Lexington? Whatever happened to that plan?”
“I am working on a way to get us out of here, just a little more slowly than usual.”
“Really?” Adam studied his brother, who was seated near another row of rocks, with additional interest. He took particular note of the unopened orange backpack lying next to his brother’s feet. “Did you suddenly find a way to get work done more efficiently without your computer, here in the distant past?”
This time his brother’s confidence held. “Actually, I did,” Thomas insisted. “Obviously, I don’t want to use the laptop in front of him…” he pointed at the slumbering stranger for emphasis. “What if he wakes up?” Smiling, he tapped his temple several times with a forefinger. “I’m using my eye HUD to finish completion of the necessary parameter and program changes. Even if I stay up all night, I still won’t be able to complete the project by morning, but it will be close.”
“You won’t complete the project tonight,” decided Adam. He pointed at his brother for emphasis. “You need to get some sleep,” he told him firmly. “You’ve never done well when you exert yourself too much, and if you’re using your eye HUD to complete the changes that means you can also work on it at key points during the daytime without arousing suspicion. So get some sleep, and don’t worry… I’ll be up watching for any sign of the Romans.” He rose to his feet and tossed the last of their branches on the small fire, invigorating it even if only on a temporary basis. “Why don’t we change places? You used up considerably more implant energy than I did today. Let it recharge as you sleep.”
The Pathfinder Trilogy Page 96