by Jimmy Guieu
Kariven stopped suddenly and brought the paralyzing rifle to this shoulder. His partners imitated him, on the alert. The anthropologist pressed the trigger and a faint crackling along with the smell of ozone suffused the heady air. 200 feet to the left a bush shook and a deer, paralyzed by the rifle, tumbled down the hill and hit an oak tree.
“This delicacy will spice up our usual fare,” Leconte was pleased.
“We’ll pick it up on the way back. It will stay paralyzed for two hours.”
On the top of the hill they could see the vast extent of land. A narrow river wound through it, 500 yards to the north, which must have emptied into the Seine. To the southwest was a forest and beyond it the plain where their ship was sitting.
For a moment they contemplated the long metal rocket whose pads were sunk in the high grass, then they went down the hill. It took them 15 minutes to reach the water. At their approach the deer bounded away gracefully and disappeared into a grove of trees 300 yards away.
“I think there’s no need to cross the river. For now let’s explore to the north before getting back to the field. That way we’ll be able to…”
The anthropologist broke off, staring at the water that was carrying along a leafy green branch.
“Well, well,” he said as he dropped down on his belly to grab the object that the current was pushing to the other bank. Holding out the base of the branch he asked excitedly, “What do you think of this?”
At first his companions did not understand, then all of a sudden they got it.
“The branch… has been cut!”
“Cut and not broken! Look here, this bevel was made by a blade. This is incontestable proof that humans exist in this era… and that they work metal. Considering the small size of the river and the clean break, it couldn’t have been cut very long ago… or very far from here. We should go tell our wives not to leave the ship.”
Yuln, Jenny and Donitchka were searching through the kitchen, noting that the “edible” stock contained only 50 cans of food. On the other hand, there was a large choice of dishes concentrated into tablets. This discovery was a great disappointment.
“I hope we’re not going to rot in this metal carcass for long,” Jenny said, “otherwise we’ll be forced to eat these unappetizing tablets.”
Doniatchka was busy searching through a metal cabinet to the left of the window when she cried out in surprise on seeing a herd of deer leaping through the field less than 20 yards away. The three women pressed against the window. Yuln looked at each of her friends as she read their thoughts telepathically.
“I don’t think our husbands would be happy with your… hunting project.”
“Oh, Yuln, what’s the harm? If we can get a deer, we’ll surprise them with a gourmet meal.”
“I hunted wild reindeer in Russia,” Doniatchka smiled, “and I can brag about my cooking. So, it’s decided—we’re going.”
“The deer will be long gone before we even get the rifles,” Yuln objected. “Besides, we should be watching over Kurt and Red while…”
“Okay,” Jenny sighed. “The housewife!”
Doniatchka proposed a compromise: “Listen, you two. There’s nothing stopping us from keeping watch… right outside the ship. Maybe some other animals will pass by in range. What do you think?”
“Okay,” Yuln gave in, “but let’s stay close to the ship.”
A few minutes later they were sitting cross-legged with their rifles across their knees and the grass up to their shoulders.
“We’d make a weird picture, sitting like hunters, dressed in fashionable clothes, in some bygone era and in front of this crazy metal beast,” Yuln whispered in good humor.
“Our adventure is full of anachronisms. Remember what Leconte said? Didn’t we drive through the streets of Paris… in 1843?”
“And here we are now hunting prehistoric deer with paralyzing ri…”
She finished her sentence screaming in fear.
Jumping up behind them after crawling between the Retrotimeship’s landing pads, a group of long-haired men were throwing themselves on the imprudent hunters.
There were ten of them, blonde and redheaded. Two straps of buckskin crossed their muscular chests holding up a kind of crude loincloth. Daggers and short swords hung from their belt or were hooked onto the straps.
The young women were grabbed from behind, their lips crushed under the fingers of their captors, and dragged away. They fought, kicking their feet, clawing and biting, but to no avail.
Yuln, who had not dropped her rifle, tried to smash it into her assailant’s stomach. Without breaking stride the man snatched the weapon and threw it into the grass, holding her even more tightly. Yuln groaned, suffocated, and finally gave up fighting against the brute. He loosened his grip a little and kneed her in the back, throwing her off balance, making it easier for him to carry her with his left hand over her mouth.
In fact, Yuln had no need for a voice to call for help. The second after the initial terror had passed she emitted her thoughts that instantly reached her husband’s mind.
The anthropologist was just coming down the south side of the hill when he pulled up, stupefied. “Yuln!”
The others stood silently while Kariven listened in his mind.
Kariven! Jenny, Doniatchka and I have just been abducted by primitive men with long, blonde hair… Ten of them armed with knives and swords, iron I think, and heading into the forest south of the ship.
Thrown into a panic Kariven blurted out the psychic message and followed by his friends started running and muttering, “They couldn’t been abducted on board the ship, damnit! What crazy idea made them leave! Leconte, go alert Streiler and Harrington while we go to the forest. One of us will stay by the big oak tree we saw to the SSE to wait for you. Then you join us.”
Leconte veered off to the left and leaped up the metal stairs while the three others continued their way toward the forest. Soon they bent down and walked hunched forward in the tall grass to hide in case a lookout had been posted.
When they got to the big oak tree whose trunk was more than 30 feet in diameter, they agreed to leave Angelvin to wait for Leconte. Kariven and Dormoy dove into the forest and followed a line directly south. After covering half a mile they spotted a path in the mud where big wheels had left deep grooves. Hoof prints—probably bovid—were also visible.
Seeing a plane tree whose first branch was only eight feet off the ground, Dormoy hoisted up his friend who pulled himself into the tree and scrambled to the top, around 50 feet up. From there he had a good view and over the tops of other trees toward the east he could see a thread of smoke rising into the sky.
“This path must lead to their camp,” he figured when he was back on the ground. “Let’s get off it and cut through the forest.”
At this moment Angelvin and Leconte arrived, walking fast, paralyzing rifles at their sides.
Be careful! they all heard at the same time in their minds. A lookout is posted at the top of a tower in the middle of the village. You have a chance of not being spotted if you follow the river that narrows under a canopy of plants…
Sent by Yuln, this telepathic message made them change their direction. Getting their bearings they ended up finding the river after 15 minutes of silent walking. Indeed, brambles and shrubs and branches of the trees on the bank formed a kind of tunnel that was perfect for their goal.
Without thinking about the brambles that would snag their clothes they jumped into the water, up to their thighs, and waded upstream. They struggled for almost 500 yards, the water sometimes rising up to their waist forcing them to raise their rifles over their heads.
They started to hear confused sounds, mixed with a few shouting voices, coming from a point upstream to their right. The four men, tired from the hard march through the water whose current was moving faster as the land sloped down, became twice as wary.
The shouting was closer now, sounding to them like an argument in a foreign language. Through
the bushes the “castaways of Time” finally saw the village. And it really was a village, made up of 30 or so huts and shacks made of log and branches. The roofs, mostly cone-shaped, were covered with straw or grass and dried mud.
A square tower, also built of logs, stood in the middle on beaten earth. Yuln, Jenny and Doniatchka had their arms tied to the tower. Before them ten young men with long hair and tanned skin, dressed in loincloths or buckskin pants, were facing off against a group of older men. The two clans were waving their arms wildly. Those with their back turned to the prisoners were yelling at the others and clenching the handles of their long iron swords, rather crudely fashioned.
Scrawny dogs were barking furiously around them and sometimes went to growl at the feet of the captives. Chickens and roosters were pecking the ground between the huts and shacks. Three big ox-carts with their arms sticking up were left by a crude enclosure where four oxen, two cows and a calf were calmly chewing their cuds.
Nearby but at a respectable distance stood the women, children and old people who watched the men of the tribe with worried eyes. Some of them glanced angrily at the prisoners.
Yuln, standing between Jenny and Donitchka, whispered, “In their primitive thoughts I can read the cause of the argument. Our abductors are at odds with the older men of the village. And they’re at odds with each other about the fate of… their catch.”
Jenny and Doniatchka were startled. “Their catch? You mean… us?”
“Yes. These primitives who are just entering the Iron Age sometimes raid neighboring tribes to carry off the women. The practice—vulgar to say the least—is obviously pretty common at this… pre-Gallic time. I think I understand now the exact reason for their disagreement. Our abductors already have a wife and the elders are angry because only the chiefs are authorized to practice polygamy.”
The two women looked at each other and turned to her, stunned. Jenny was upset, “You’re talking about all this with surprising… apathy, Yuln! I’m not amused and have no desire to be the prize in this fight.”
Yuln smiled without saying anything. Then she projected a thought into her husband’s mind:
I know that you’re there, dear, with our friends. Don’t try anything yet. It would be too risky right now. Wait for my signal. And above all don’t kill these men. Without them the women of the village would be at the mercy of neighboring tribes who lust after them… just like they lust after us and are fighting over us right now.
Surprised by this message Kariven told his friends, still in the water and spying through the bushes with their elbows on the ground and the paralyzing rifles ready to fire.
Yuln, even though she did not understand the language of these people at the dawn of civilization, could still interpret their thoughts. Thus she had been able to probe the rudimentary psyches of the antagonists. Using her supra-normal abilities she cast into their minds inflaming impulses that fanned the anger of one side and the jealousy of the other. In a few minutes all the men of the village were victims of Yuln’s inner suggestions and they started yelling. The lookout, also seized by a sudden, inexplicable anger, abandoned his post and joined the clan of elders. Then they all threw down their weapons and shields and with bare hands jumped on one another in a free-for-all brawl.
The women and children ran to safety into the shacks while the dogs barked feverishly at the shouts of rage.
Now’s the time to act! Yuln said telepathically.
Kariven and his friends climbed up the bank, adjusted the paralyzing rays to 30 minutes and fired, sweeping the land horizontally. In the ozone saturated air the fighters immediately stopped their battle and fell on top of each other, frozen in position, fists raised, faces scowling.
Three dogs that got caught in the line of fire were also paralyzed and fell over on their side, legs stiff and jaws open in a ridiculous, silent bark.
In the huts and shacks, after witnessing the wonder, the women yelled out, panicked and dropped face first to the ground.
In no time at all the captives were untied and hugged their husbands, a little pale but radiating joy.
“Let’s not dawdle in this unfriendly place,” Dormoy advised. “We’ve got around 20 minutes to get away from here before the natives wake up.”
“I think we can… tame them easily enough,” Yuln thought out loud.
The anthropologist gave her an anxious look.
“They’re not fundamentally bad,” she continued, “as I found out probing their minds. They kidnapped us because their tribe lacks women, just like the others. Partly from the fact that infant mortality is high because of a total lack of hygiene and there are the physical complications that often affect women after childbirth. These complications are often fatal. Moreover, the villages battle one another over hunting grounds… when it’s not to abduct the women. There are no real unions to bind these people… from whom our Gallic ancestors will be born.”
Kariven looked doubtful. “I see here the altruistic feeling of your brother Polarians, my dear, but do you think it’s possible to teach these people the principles of hygiene and brotherly love in a few hours or a few days?”
“If we all work on it willingly, we’ll manage… Especially since we won’t be leaving any time soon…”
“What do you mean?” Dormoy asked.
“I read in the minds of Kurt and Red that they have to do a complete overhaul of the Retrotimeship’s electronic network. It could take weeks… or months.”
“Months!” the anthropologist echoed, appalled.
“As long as it takes. During our forced stay in this era we could be useful in saving human lives and educating these tribes.”
“These tribes?” Angelvin frowned. “So, you want us to run around this country preaching the good word and giving lessons to our… ancestors?”
“In fact,” Kariven reflected, “why not? We’re in the middle of protohistory. History with a capital H, strictly speaking, hasn’t started yet at this epoch in France or rather in the Celtic region that will become Gaul. I think our helpful intervention in this Time won’t have any harmful repercussions in the future. With the helicopter on board we can travel a great distance and, yes, that’s right, preach the good word to these people simmering in the crucible of Evolution. Our intervention will carry a much lower risk of causing a serious panic at this time than in 1843 when stagnant ideas had already taken root in people’s minds.”
“She’s got a point,” Dormoy agreed.
The ethnographer Angelvin thought for a moment before giving in, “Yuln’s right. I opt for this new-fangled crusade. Even though we can’t give a bunch of medicine to these Celts or proto-Celts, we can still teach them how to protect themselves from certain illnesses. They’ll probably grasp basic hygiene pretty easily as well as… practical medicine.”
“Are you sure that they’re Celts?” his wife asked.
“Judging by their iron work—swords, daggers and decorations—and by their clothes, their blonde-red hair dyed with plants, they are Celts. The first Celts most definitely who lived around 800 or 700 BC.”
“Therefore in the period of Hallstatt I,” the anthropologist commented.
“Very likely,” Angelvin said. “There were many invasions and racial mixing with maybe Illyrians, which makes the mosaic of proto-Celtic peoples very complicated. But I don’t think I’m wrong to call these Iron Age people Celts.”
“It might be a good time to get ready to break the ice,” Kariven said. “And to start with, before they wake up, let’s put the weapons they dropped out of reach.”
Quickly, stepping over the paralyzed bodies, they grabbed the knives and heavy swords and put them behind the tower.
The dazed Celts slowly recovered the use of their limbs and stood up, finally becoming aware of the unusual presence of these strangers in their village. By probing their minds Yuln followed their reasoning process and their anxiety.
After hesitating awhile they started speaking to one another in simple words, look
ing at the ground, surprised to find no weapons. Some of them tried to jump on the intruders with their bare hands. A discharge of weak paralyzing rays struck them down and they collapsed. Faced with this supernatural response the others backed away, their eyes wide open, then scampered off in all directions.
Yuln chose this moment to send into their minds some calming, soothing impulses. Gently and slowly her supra-normal abilities generated simple ideas to analyze, suggestions presenting the strangers not as invaders but as friends.
The men acted as expected. They came back, timidly, struck by superstitious terror, stopping in front of the (dead for them) bodies of their tribesmen.
Yuln communicated her thoughts. For obvious psychological reasons she expressed herself—telepathically—so that they thought the “words” were spoken by one of the four men who had come to free the captives.
“We come as friends to your territory. We did you no harm and yet you stole our women. See: to punish you for this crime we executed these warriors with our invincible weapons. But we won’t kill them. No, we’re going to bring them back to life to prove to you our friendly intentions.”
With these simple ideas sent into their minds Yuln advised her companions, “Do what I do, quickly!”
She stretched her arms out over the frozen Celts and whispered her psychic message, “They have to believe we’re all-powerful if we want them to obey our orders. This little act is to show them we can bring these impulsive young men back to life after they wanted to attack us.”
One minute later, under the outstretched arms, the six young warriors woke up. Terrified by what had just happened, they scurried back, their eyes full of fright, and bumped into the feet of the other members of the tribe. The latter, on seeing this demonstration of magic, bowed down to the ground, begging for pardon from these “divinities” whom they knew not how to worship and earn their good graces.
Yuln continued “talking” in the name of the stronger sex. She spoke her telepathic messages with elementary, even simplistic ideas, using metaphors and images to explain to the Celts that they owed them obedience, not because they were gods but because being different and gifted with higher knowledge they wanted to help them and cure their ills.