ADVENTURES THROUGH TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 5 – COMRADES AND DISCIPLES

12:18 (North America Central Time)

Saturday, January 23, 3385 ‘A’

Main cafeteria, Time Patrol residential tower

New Lake City University campus, American Great Lakes area Global Council

Elizabeth Windsor ate in silence, with Margaret MacDonald, her dressing lady, sitting across from her at the small cafeteria table and also eating in silence. Both were still under the shock of everything which had happened since they had been taken from Buckingham Palace by something looking very much like magic. They had already gone through a mnemotronic chair session, where they had learned in less than one hour three new languages, then had visited the Time Patrol quartermaster to receive spare clothes and basic hygiene items before being assigned apartments. On her own request, Elisabeth had been assigned a two-bedroom suite so that Margaret, who had been her servant for over a decade now, could live with her. Everybody around them had been nice with them up to now and had tried to be as helpful as possible. Even the food at the cafeteria was great, yet Elizabeth could not stop thinking about her parents and her little sister Margaret, feeling desperately lonely despite the presence of over thirty other people in the cafeteria. Many of those people were dressed like her in loose gray sports fleece outfits, while others wore futuristic clothes, sometimes of quite immodest and scandalous design.

Nancy Laplante, dressed in the dark gray uniform of the Time Patrol, entered the cafeteria, attracting Elizabeth’s attention. Nancy filled a tray of food before coming to Elizabeth’s table and smiling questioningly at her.

“May I eat with you, Your Highness?”

Elizabeth nodded, making Nancy take a seat at her table. She should have been mad at her for separating her from her family, but she had been an admirer of the tall Canadian for nearly a year, and couldn’t help still feeling awe and humility at her sight. That was

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even more so after having learned about the supernatural intervention in Nancy’s favor in Colditz Castle. Nancy took a bite from her plate before looking at her.

“Do you feel up to discussing your future, Your Highness, or do you prefer to wait a few more days to rest and think things over?”

“I…I might as well get this over with now, Brigadier Laplante.”

“Please, Your Highness, call me simply Nancy.”

“As you wish.” said Elizabeth quietly, feeling totally depressed. “What could I do here anyway? I was raised to be the heir to the throne of England: I am no soldier or technician, contrary to the others. I suppose that there are no royal families in this century, Nancy?”

“Effectively, there are no surviving monarchies in the Global Council, Your Highness.”

“Please, stop calling me ‘Your Highness’: I am nothing now.”

“Don’t say that, Elizabeth, please. You probably have many talents that you were never allowed to develop because of your royal education. Consider this as a chance to get to know yourself and to do things you would never have been allowed to do before.”

“Like what? I barely know how to do the most basic mathematics. The only thing I am truly good at is riding horses. How could I be useful in a world full of technical marvels?”

“Again, don’t underestimate yourself, Elizabeth. Educating you will be easy enough: you saw how mnemotronic teaching techniques could speed learning. The way you can handle horses indicates that you have a fine sense of balance and excellent coordination. You probably would make a fine pilot.”

“Me, a pilot? You really think so?”

“Why not? Take Ingrid Weiss, sitting over there. She is seventeen and received only a basic education in school, yet has proven to be a born pilot. She now flies regularly one of our time ships and can turn circles around many veteran pilots from this century. Give yourself a chance to prove what you can really do, Elizabeth. I will be there to help you along.”

Elizabeth thought over that for long seconds, finally looking cautiously at Nancy.

“What if I try my hand at this and I’m found wanting? What would I do with my life then? Marry a man here and end up as a simple housewife?” To her surprise, Nancy simply laughed at her last question.

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“Elizabeth, there are no such things as simple housewives anymore in this century. There are robots which do all the domestic chores and the maintenance work. Women are now free to either help educate their children, pursue a career of their own or better themselves through higher education or the practice of arts and hobbies. Besides, I am confident that you will do well as a pilot.”

“Even if I do succeed as a pilot, what about Margaret, my dressing lady?” Nancy smiled as she looked at the petite Scottish woman in her late thirties sitting beside her, who had kept a discreet silence up to now.

“Actually, it will be simpler in her case. The Time Patrol has to keep and maintain an extensive wardrobe of historical costumes, with many custom outfits needing manual work to look authentic. Manual sewing, stitching and embroidering are lost arts in the 34th century, where fashion work is done by using machines. You are an experienced seamstress if I am not mistaken, Miss MacDonald?”

“I am, Miss Laplante.” said Margaret, not hiding her sudden interest.

“Then, I offer you a position as assistant custodian in the Time Patrol’s historical costume department. Your starting pay will be 800 solars a month, plus free lodging, food and basic clothing provided, along with all the other social benefits enjoyed by Global Council citizens. As a new citizen, you will be credited with an initial clothing allowance of 2,000 solars, so that you can acquire a decent wardrobe. You will also receive an enrolment bonus of 1,000 solars as a support staff of the Time Patrol. If you accept my offer, I can have you administratively processed right after lunch, so that you could have the afternoon free for some serious shopping time in downtown New Lake City. What do you say, Miss MacDonald?”

Margaret couldn’t help glance at Princess Elizabeth then: she had been taking care of the teenager since her tender years and, while dying to accept Nancy’s offer, was loathe to leave Elizabeth alone. Elizabeth understood her dilemma and nodded her head in encouragement.

“Don’t worry about me, Bobo. Do what will make you happy. I will take care of myself well enough.”

“But, Your Highness, I can’t leave you alone. Who will help you in this new world?”

“I had someone in mind who could act as a sort of godmother for you, Elizabeth.” Cut in Nancy, who then motioned for a thin woman with curly blond hair sitting at a

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nearby table to join them. The woman, who appeared in her early forties, came to their table and presented her right hand to Elizabeth.

“Hello, Your Highness. My name is Amelia Earhart.”

“THE Amelia Earhart, the American aviator who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937?” said Elizabeth excitedly, staring at Amelia with wide eyes while shaking her hand.

“Yes, Your Highness. When Nancy asked for a person willing to sponsor you, I was too happy to volunteer. Such a distinguished person as you should not have to be alone in such a new and strange world like this decadent society.”

“Decadent? How so?”

“Amelia thinks that some of the local social mores and customs are, well, shocking and amoral.” said Nancy, smiling. “I’m afraid that I am part of the amoral crowd, due to my liberal views about sex and other things, so I asked her to be your chaperone.”

“Miss Earhart, I would be honored to have you as my mentor.” said Elizabeth after only a slight hesitation. She then looked at Nancy. “Miss Laplante, I wish to enroll in your Time Patrol as a student pilot, if you are willing to take me.”

“I certainly am, Elizabeth.” replied Nancy, grinning with satisfaction. “Let’s finish lunch, then I will let you in the capable hands of Amelia, who will escort you and Margaret to our administrative section.”

“You are not coming with us?” said the teenager, a bit disappointed.

“I am unfortunately very busy. I have to prepare for departure this afternoon, to complete a mission in the distant past.”

“A mission? What kind of mission?”

“Historical documentation work. I am recording the main events in the life of Jesus Christ. We already recorded his birth and childhood and I will now go record his religious ministry.”

Both Elizabeth and Margaret were left speechless for a moment. Elizabeth got her voice back first.

“You are serious, are you?”

“Very, Elizabeth. Amelia could show you this evening the recordings we made to date. Well, I’m afraid that I have to go and get ready for that mission. Have a good shopping trip in town, Elizabeth.”

Taking her tray of food, Nancy left their table and, bringing first her tray to the dishwashing counter, left the cafeteria. Elizabeth, still shaken, looked at Amelia.

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“She really met Jesus Christ, Miss Earhart?”

“She actually helped deliver him, Elizabeth.” said Amelia softly.

09:28 (Jerusalem Time)

Wednesday, June 5, 30 C.E.

(18th of Sivan, year 3790 of the Jewish calendar) Village of Canae, Galilee

Nancy stopped for a moment to contemplate from afar the village of Canae on top of a hill, with the Valley of Bet Netofah beyond it. In modern times, nothing but ruins would be left of the village, with the site to be known then as Khirbet Qana. Nancy had adopted again the identity of Nauca the Sarmatian warrior and traveling musician for this part of the mission and was wearing an ample white cotton light robe over her Sarmatian trousers and shirt, plus laced leather sandals. Her weapons and armor were in bags attached to the back of her robotic horse, Pegasus, which she was guiding by the bridle while walking. She however still had a long dagger at her belt and held a long, sturdy quarterstaff that could be used both for walking and for fighting. To complete her disguise, Nancy had put some gray in her hair and had false pockets under her eyes. After all, her last visit to Galilee was supposed to have been 24 years ago and she had to look the part for this phase of her mission, which had a limited but very specific goal.

Resuming her walk with a vigorous step along the trail she was following since Sepphoris, Nancy, or more correctly Nauca, headed towards Canae, where a large group of people were visible in the courtyard of one of the bigger houses of the village. She already knew thanks to recordings from spy probes that those people had been celebrating for six days already and were in the last day of a traditional Jewish wedding. Those miniature spy probes were presently following her overhead, ready to film at a mere mental order from her via her implanted radio. Using a concept made operational with the Time Patrol in order to support agents on a field mission in the past, those miniature spy probes were in turn supported by a much bigger flying probe that was hidden by a multi-spectral cloaking field. That bigger probe held more spy probes, plus a powerful battery of cameras and microphones, a large capacity data storage memory and recharging receptacles for spy probes returning from their tasks. Nancy however still was wearing her leather headband with hidden cameras, in case all else failed and

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also to provide yet another viewing angle to record her mission with the most details possible.

She soon arrived in the village and headed towards the site of the wedding, followed by the eyes of the villagers whom she crossed on her way. Nancy was long accustomed to be followed by such outraged looks from the Jews of this time period, for whom a woman traveling alone could only be a prostitute or, at best, a libertine. Ignoring their looks, she presented herself at the entrance of the courtyard but stayed just outside, waiting for someone to come to her. That didn’t take long, as a bearded man walked towards her with the apparent intent to chase her away, while silence gradually fell among the guests of the wedding, who were now looking at Nauca and her horse.

‘’Go away, impure woman!’’ shouted the bearded man. ‘’This is the wedding of a rabbi.’’

‘’I know.’’ said calmly Nancy. ‘’I am a friend of his family…an honorable friend.’’ Alerted by the reactions of the guests, Yeshua came out of the house at that moment to see what was happening. After a quick look towards Nancy, he hurried to join her while shouting in a joyful tone.

‘’NAUCA! YOU ARE BACK AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.’’ Once in front of Nancy, Yeshua patted the shoulder of the man who was still blocking her way.

‘’You can return with the others, Shimon: Nauca is an old friend of mine.’’

‘’But…she is traveling alone, Master. She can only be a woman of low virtue.’’

‘’She travels alone because she is a foreign warrior from afar, but she still is an honorable woman. Go! I will take care of her.’’

Shimon, a solidly-built man with a rather obtuse expression, hesitated but finally walked away, glancing from time to time behind him to see what Yeshua was doing. The latter smiled tenderly to Nancy, who towered over him by nearly a full head.

‘’Still tall and strong, I see. The years were good to you, Nauca.’’

‘’I am indeed still strong and healthy, for which I can thank God, my dear Yeshua. I was on my way to Tiberias, where my music and my singing are popular, when I crossed path with a merchant who told me about your wedding.’’ Worry appeared on the face of Yeshua on hearing her words.

‘’The celebration of my wedding is known around the region? But that could mean that the soldiers of King Herod Antipas would have heard about it too.’’

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‘’Do not worry, my dear Yeshua. I spoke with that merchant and he had no sympathy towards Herod Antipas or the Romans. So, the man I helped enter life is finally marrying? And who is the woman who can brag about becoming your wife?’’

‘’A high-ranking girl from the Tribe of Benjamin.’’ replied proudly Yeshua. ‘’I met her for the first time a few years ago in Capernaum and my mother arranged the marriage while I was preaching with my disciples around the region. Her name is Miriam and she is from the town of Magdala.’’

Nancy nodded her head, smiling, hiding her jubilation at having been able to find out so quickly the identity of the one her visit was targeting. Her spy probes had filmed a young woman kept recluse in the house since the start of the wedding, as prescribed by Jewish customs, and had recorded her name as ‘Miriam’. However, Miriam was probably the most common female first name here in this period. Only a direct interaction by an agent, Nancy in this case, had been judged to be able to confirm with certainty the exact identity of the bride. Now, Nancy just had confirmed a fact hidden for too long in history, that Yeshua/Jesus Christ had married and that his wife was none other than the one to be called Mary Magdalene in the Bible, the same one who had been falsely described for centuries by the Catholic Church as a prostitute.

‘’And would it be asking too much to be able to meet this pearl? I suppose that your mother and father are here as well? I would be happy to meet them again.’’ Yeshua’s smile faded, replace by a melancholic look.

‘’My father died a year ago. It was actually one of the reasons which convinced me to marry at last.’’

‘’Oh! I am truly sorry to hear that, Yeshua. Please accept my most sincere condolences for your loss.’’

A faint smile reappeared on Yeshua’s lips as he patted Nancy’s left arm.

‘’Thank you, my friend. Come and join my guests: you are most welcomed to my wedding.’’

‘’I could play music and sing to entertain your guests if you want. I would hate to impose myself.’’

‘’Nonsense! You are the friend of both me and of my mother and helped to give birth to me.’’

‘’And I am as well a foreign woman who travels alone, which is normally looked upon badly around here.’’

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‘’I will vouch for your morality, Nauca, unless you are hiding something I should know about.’’ replied Yeshua in a malicious tone, making Nancy laugh.

‘’You already know that I am hiding many things from the common mortals, Yeshua.’’

Yeshua nodded his head, knowing very well what she meant: she had revealed to him when he was only a boy of four that she possessed the same mental powers as himself. Like 24 years ago, he could not read her mind, while he could hear the thoughts of his guests in his head.

‘’Know that I didn’t reveal your secrets to anybody, not even to my mother, Nauca. I also kept preciously the pendant that you gave me as a gift so many years ago. But enough talk: come rest and celebrate with my other guests. As for meeting my bride, my mother will lead you to her, as I still don’t have the right to be at her side for another day.’’

‘’Thank you, Yeshua. Let me just tie up Pegasus first and I will then follow you.’’

Once Pegasus’ bridle was tied to a tree, Nancy took out her musical instruments from her bags, grabbing a lute, a lyre and a flute before following Yeshua towards the house. Stopping in the middle of his guests, who were sitting or slouching on cushions and carpets laid on the stone pavement of the courtyard, Yeshua raised his voice to be heard by all.

‘’Listen to me, my friends! This is Nauca, a very old friend whom I met when I was only a little boy. In truth, she helped my mother deliver me into this life. She may look strange to many of you but she is an honorable woman with a heart of gold, apart from being a great musician. I will ask you to treat her with kindness and deference. Thank you for listening to me.’’

Yeshua’s loud announcement attracted his mother, Miriam of Nazareth, out of the house. The graying woman shouted with joy on seeing Nancy.

‘’NAUCA!’’

The small Galilean woman, still beautiful at the age of 42, ran to her to hug her warmly. On her part, Nancy did not have to fake her own joy, having known Miriam as a sweet teenager with a golden heart. That show of affection between the two gray-haired women did a lot to put at ease many of the guests, who had tensed up at seeing a foreign woman being introduced to the wedding. Finally stepping back from Miriam of Nazareth, Nancy smiled tenderly to her.

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‘’Miriam, it warms my heart to see you again. Yeshua told me that you would be able to present his bride to me.’’

‘’It will be a pleasure for me to do so, Nauca. Please follow me.’’ Leaving her musical instruments by the side of the door of the house, Nancy entered behind Miriam and was soon introduced into a small, sparsely furnished room, in which a young woman richly dressed and wearing jewels was conversing with three other young women. The group fell silent at the entrance of Nancy, struck by her quasi-gigantic size compared to a Galilean woman of the time. Miriam of Nazareth then smiled to the four women.

‘’Miriam, my daughters, I have the honor to present you Nauca, the one who helped me give birth to Yeshua and then offered the services of her horse to carry me from Bethlehem to Nazareth. Nauca, I present to you Miriam of Magdala, the bride of Yeshua and one of his disciples as well, and my three daughters, Miriam, Salome and Joanna.’’

Nancy couldn’t believe her luck as the cameras hidden in her leather headband, supplemented by two miniature spy probes, were filming the four young women. The scene she was filming now would be sufficient by itself to roughly shake many key notions in the Bible as known by Christian churches in modern times. First, there was the fact that Miriam of Magdala was both a disciple and the bride of Yeshua. Then, there was the mere existence of the three sisters of Yeshua. Coming to Nancy, who dominated her by more than a head, Miriam of Magdala kissed her on both cheeks, with Nancy kissing her as well.

‘’I am honored to be able to meet you, Nauca.’’

‘’And I am honored to meet you, Miriam. I wish you all the possible happiness in your union with Yeshua.’’

‘’Thank you, Nauca.’’

Nancy, hiding a passing feeling of sadness as she thought of what the future had in store for Yeshua, then faced Yeshua’s three sisters, all in their twenties, smiling in particular at the older sister.

‘’You have grown up nicely since I saw you last, Miriam: you were only a toddler and Yeshua was only four years old then.’’

‘’I still remember vaguely having heard a story while young about your visit, Nauca. You are really a warrior?’’

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‘’I was effectively raised as a warrior by my tribe, like other Sarmatian girls. Now, I mostly play music and sing for a living.’’

‘’Mostly?’’ asked with a smile Miriam of Magdala, who seemed to have a sharp mind and plenty of wit.

‘’Yes! The rest of the time, I hammer the heads of the men who insult me by calling me a woman of low virtue.’’

‘’Then, you should get along well with Shimon, one of Yeshua’s male disciples. He doesn’t think much of any woman in general.’’

‘’Oh, I am sure that my foot is just the right size for his bum.’’ replied Nancy, making the women around her laugh heartily. She then eyed Miriam of Magdala, a beautiful woman with long black hair who could be about 25 years old.

‘’My dear Miriam, you will have to tell me about you: I would like to know better the one who will marry the baby boy I helped deliver.’’

‘’Only if you tell us your own story afterwards, Nauca.’’

‘’Deal!’’

‘’Then, sit down with us and let’s talk, Nauca.’’

The conversation which followed, recorded by Nancy’s cameras and spy probes, proved to be a treasure trove of historical information on the origins and the personality of Miriam of Magdala, apart from providing more information about the three sisters of Yeshua. In return, Nancy served them her story as a Sarmatian warrior who had come on a spiritual quest and was living from the revenues of her singing and playing. Miriam of Magdala showed sadness when Nancy told her that she had been refused by the priests of the Temple in Jerusalem.

‘’I can understand that the priests would have found you different, but to refuse to convert you after your long trip was unjust.’’

‘’They found me too different, too out of the norms, Miriam. I can understand them, in a sense: certain aspects of the Jewish faith, like the supposed inferiority of women and their obligation to bend to the will of the men around them, deeply irked me. I am a proud woman and I will never abase myself in front of a man just because of my sex.’’

‘’Then, talk about this to Yeshua, Nauca. He is a rabbi whose authority is recognized but who preaches according to rules that are much more flexible than those of the Pharisee priests of the Temple of Jerusalem.’’

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‘’Maybe. I don’t know anymore, Miriam. In retrospect, all these long years in Palestine now feel wasted to me. Maybe I should go back to my native Sarmatia to finish my days there.’’

That sentence, which Nancy had used to leave herself an exit door to end her mission in Palestine, made Miriam of Magdala straighten her back and look at her resolutely.

‘’No, don’t say that, Nauca! If you came from so far with the honest intention of finding God, then you deserve all the chances you can get to be adopted by him. Salome, go see Yeshua and tell him that Nauca needs him as a rabbi. In the meantime, I will go to the kitchen in order not to break our separation during the wedding feast.’’ Before Nancy could protest, Salome and Miriam of Magdala left the room, leaving her with the two other sisters of Yeshua. Less than two minutes later, Salome returned with Yeshua, who looked gravely at Nancy, who was now standing.

‘’Nauca, you already told me years ago, when I was a little boy, that you had been rejected by the priests in Jerusalem. You also proved to me then that God had touched you. I could not do anything for you at that time, but many things have changed since. Recently, another foreign woman served me a lesson in humility and made me understand that God is with us all, and not only with the Israelites and their offspring. Follow me outside, Nauca! Salome, bring me a pitcher of water in the courtyard.’’

Alarmed by this totally unplanned development, Nancy had no other choice but to follow Yeshua outside, where the latter addressed his guests and disciples in a strong voice.

‘’Listen to me, my friends! This is Nauca, a foreign warrior from afar who came here 28 years ago with the hope of finding God. Despite the fact that the priests of the Great Temple of Jerusalem refused her, Nauca proved to me when I was still a young boy that God had indeed touched her. Today, I proclaim to all of you as a rabbi that the said Nauca is worthy of becoming a Jew and be part of my disciples. Nauca, kneel before me.’’

Afraid that she had just involuntarily created an event which could seriously corrupt known history, Nancy obeyed him nonetheless while thinking furiously about how she could limit the damage. A strong voice, that of The One, then resonated inside her mind.

‘’DO NOT RESIST, NATAÏ: THE VANITY OF SOME WILL ERASE FROM HISTORY THE SOUVENIRS OF THIS EVENT. YESHUA, KNOW THAT YOU ARE NOW FULFILLING MY WILL.’’

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From Yeshua’s transfigured facial expression, Nancy understood that he had heard like her the mental message from The One, even though the guests around them had not. Taking from the hands of Salome the pitcher of water she had brought him, Yeshua then spoke in a solemn tone as he looked at Nancy, who was kneeling in front of him.

‘’Nauca, you are a woman who was touched by God many years ago. Your name from now on will be Nava and you will be one of my disciples.’’ He then started to slowly pour the water from the pitcher on Nancy’s head. Exclamations of surprise went around the guests and disciples witnessing the scene when the water turned deep red as it left the pitcher and before touching Nancy’s hair. Salome, giving in to her curiosity, put one hand under Nancy’s chin to collect some of the red liquid running down, then tasted it. Her eyes widened at once with shock.

‘’IT’S WINE! THE WATER TURNED INTO WINE!’’

Yeshua nodded, fervor in his eyes.

‘’THIS WATER TURNING INTO WINE BY THE WILL OF GOD MARKS THE CONVERSION OF A SOUL AS HER SERVANT.’’

Smiling tenderly to Nancy and giving back the pitcher to Salome, Yeshua took her hands and made her get back up on her feet.

‘’Nava, I know that you are very different from other Jewish women and that you are also a proud woman. You can still serve God and follow me as a disciple despite of that. You may now join the ranks of my disciples.’’

‘’Yes, Yeshua.’’ said softly Nancy, deeply shaken by what had just happened. She then walked towards the group of men and women who had now been following Yeshua for a few years around Palestine, sitting down beside a mature woman who looked at her with reverence.

‘’You have been blessed by God in front of us all, Nava. I am honored to have you near me. My name is Susanna.’’

‘’Thank you, Susanna. I however hope that my presence in your group will not attract the attention of the soldiers of Herod Antipas on our path. I hardly go by unnoticed around Galilee and Judea.’’

Susanna eyed her tall, strong frame for a moment, then nodded her head.

‘’Maybe, but with your horse you could go ahead of our group and scout for the presence of soldiers to warn us. I will pass that suggestion to Yeshua later on.’’

‘’Uh, doesn’t he take advice only from his male disciples, Susanna? Will he listen to you?’’

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The Jewish woman giggled at her questions.

‘’The men of our group effectively think that they are the only ones able to influence Yeshua, but why would we disprove their illusions? Yeshua is a sensible man who listens to all good ideas, be they from a man or a woman. Why do you think that I follow him?’’

Nancy smiled, won over by the practical thinking of her comrade disciple.

‘’You are right, Susanna. Female subtlety has its good sides.’’

Nancy had ample time to speak to the female disciples of the group before Yeshua joined them later on. However, nearly all the male disciples ignored her studiously, treating her like they were treating the other women of the group. Accustomed by months already spent in 1st Century Palestine to this misogynistic side of the ancient Jews, who were little different in that respect from the other people of Antiquity, Nancy did not impose herself and stayed with the other female disciples. At nightfall, Yeshua was finally allowed to join his bride to spend the first night with her. When he emerged from the house early the next morning, Miriam of Magdala at his side, it was to go directly to Nancy to speak discreetly with her.

‘’Susanna spoke to me last night and I thought that her idea made much sense. I am planning to leave this morning and march West, to go to Shepharam and preach there. Our group will follow the valleys, in order not to tire too much the women in our group. After Shepharam, we will go towards Mount Carmel. Could I ask you to precede us on your horse, to make sure that there are no soldiers along our way?’’

‘’I will be most happy to do that, Yeshua.’’ replied Nancy without hesitation before looking at Miriam of Magdala. The latter was now wearing a modest travel outfit and had taken off most of her jewels. She was however carrying across her back a bedroll filled with clothes and other possessions, plus a water flask.

‘’I see that your new wife will accompany you in your tribulations, Yeshua.’’ Smiling proudly, Yeshua passed an arm around Miriam’s shoulders.

‘’I would be a poor husband indeed to abandon her right after our wedding. Miriam is anyway my most precious and attentive disciple.’’ Nancy secretly wished that some modern Catholic Church official could have heard that.

‘’I see! Well, I will then leave at once, to take some distance ahead from your group. I will see you tonight in Shepharam, Yeshua.’’

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Quickly packing back her bedroll and her musical instruments and tying them on the back of Pegasus, Nancy then jumped in the saddle and, after a last salute to Yeshua and Miriam, left at a gallop, raising a cloud of dust on her passage.

17:36 (North America Central Time)

Saturday, January 23, 3385 ‘A’

Suite 343, Time Patrol residential tower

New Lake City University campus, American Great Lakes Global Council

Amelia Earhart smiled to herself as she watched Elizabeth Windsor and Margaret MacDonald happily unpack their new acquisitions in the main bedroom of the suite allotted to the two British. The four-hour shopping trip had done wonders to raise the sagging morale of the princess and of her dressing lady. While not a compulsive shopper, Amelia had to say that the shops of New Lake City offered wonders which would have made any woman from the 20th Century mad with envy. The only exception had been the swimsuits which were considered in fashion in 3385. Those, as Amelia had expected, had scandalized the two British by their skimpiness. Even the model Elizabeth had chosen, a one-piece sleeveless swimsuit of modern cut designed for swimming in cold water, while being by far the least revealing of the ones on sale, would have still scandalized Elizabeth’s mother. Amelia had not yet had the stomach to warn the princess about the various swimsuits, or lack of them in a few cases, that she would see on the other apprentices at her first training session at the indoor swimming pool of the Time Patrol’s sports complex. While some female apprentices, like Amelia, were not ready to go around topless in public, others had little inhibitions about being bare breasted, or worse, in front of men. On the other hand, she had no doubts that the new male apprentices would appreciate greatly the scenery at the pool, particularly that big Austrian SS officer. Mere hours after his arrival, he had already gone to town with other men in order to do a tour of the sex clubs and bars.

Elizabeth Windsor, having organized her new clothes, then chose a sky-blue jumpsuit with gold embroidering as her evening outfit and went into the bathroom communicating with her bedroom to change. Margaret MacDonald, less prudish in front of other women, changed inside the bedroom, putting on a simple but pretty dress made

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of a burgundy silk-type fabric. She was ready a good five minutes before Elizabeth emerged from the bathroom, her new jumpsuit on. Amelia nodded in appreciation.

“This goes very well on you, Your Highness. Shall we go eat now?”

“By all means, Amelia, and please call me Elizabeth: my titles mean nothing here.”

Amelia examined carefully the teenager’s expression, but couldn’t detect any bitterness in her last statement: it had been meant as a fact and not as a recrimination. However, Amelia knew that it would still take a long time for the princess to accept fully her fate, a process the other apprentices, including herself, had each gone through with varying difficulties.

“Elizabeth it is then. Let’s go down to the cafeteria.”

As they were walking towards the nearest elevator, Elizabeth discreetly spoke to the American aviator.

“Amelia, are you missing your old life much?”

“Not really, Elizabeth. This place is actually like a dream come through for me: I fly machines I couldn’t even dream about before and I am treated with absolute equality compared to men, something I find very refreshing in contrast with the nonsense I had to live with in 1937. Also, the prospect of traveling to the distant past both excites and fascinates me.”

“I have to say that seeing Nancy Laplante leave for ancient Palestine made me envious.”

“Uh, I would think twice before going alone in the past, like she did. She has however abilities none of us have. Still, to be able to meet Jesus Christ in person… If you want, I can show you and Margaret later tonight what Nancy has recorded about him.”

“You would?” Asked Elizabeth, excited at the idea.

“Of course! The recordings are available on the open video library of the Time Patrol and will be turned into a full-length documentary film once Nancy has completed her mission.”

“Then I take you on your offer.”

The elevator cabin they had called then arrived. To the trio’s surprise, Nancy Laplante was already in it with Mike Crawford and Ingrid Weiss. Wearing a brown leather jacket, short skirt and high boots, the Canadian was sporting a deep tan and looked positively content.

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“Hi girls! Going down to the cafeteria too?”

“Yes, we are, Nancy.” replied Amelia while smiling. “How long did you stay in Palestine this time?”

“A whole fifteen months and a few days! By then I was dying for a real bath, a clean toilet… and for Mike. I will spend the coming week here before returning for a year to my own time period of origin. By the way, Yeshua married Miriam of Magdala in Canae while I was there, in the year 30 C.E.”

Elizabeth gave her a shocked look.

‘’Jesus, married? But that contradicts the Bible.’’

Nancy gave her a critical look as the cabin resumed its way down.

‘’Believe me, Elizabeth: this is not the only place where the official Bible is totally wrong about the life of Yeshua. Don’t forget that it was written after Yeshua’s death by men who had very little regard for the women surrounding Yeshua and who had their own agendas to push. Add to that the fact that the Bible was translated, often badly, many times and rewritten, edited and even expunged along the centuries. What the Bible says and what real history was like are two very different things, Elizabeth.’’ Elizabeth nearly fired back at her, her religious education making her instinctively reject her story, but she kept her mouth shut for the rest of the trip. Once inside the cafeteria, she served herself at the hot buffet table and quickly sat down with Margaret and Amelia at an empty table. They were silent at first, chewing their food absent-mindedly while thinking over what Nancy had said. Elizabeth finally spoke in a low voice.

“Amelia, could you tell me more about Nancy? I am afraid that her opinions may often clash with what I learned through my education.”

“Hmm…to be frank, she is a bit of a mystery lately, even to her husband, Mike Crawford. There are the memories of so many past personalities in her mind now.”

“You mean that she is delusional?” asked Margaret, attracting a vigorous shake of the head from Amelia.

“Not at all! She is perfectly sane and her personality is unambiguous. It is just that those millenniums of souvenirs have made her wiser and more rounded as a person. Also, she is rumored to be able to speak with The One, the supernatural being who transformed her. She was supposedly chosen by him to promote good and do his bidding on Earth. By the way, if I make it sound like she is some kind of preacher or faith healer, don’t get me wrong. She still won’t go to church or damn you to hell if you

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don’t go yourself. She is a soldier first and foremost but with a lifelong mission of mercy.”

“What about those past lives of hers? I was made to understand that she was both man and woman.”

“That is correct, Elizabeth. She alternated between sexes in various lives ranging from peasant, soldier, merchant and noble, up to royalty, like all of us did. She knows and speaks fluently over eighty languages, most of them now extinct, and is expert at dozens of varied skills like pottery making, stone tool making, steel forging and embroidering. Two of Nancy’s past lives were of historical note: one in 15th century France, when she was Joan of Arc; the other in the 16th and 17th centuries B.C.E. as Saraï of Ur, the wife of the biblical patriarch Abraham, or Abram to be more correct. Her first life ever was as Nataï, the wife of a mason in Jericho around 7,000 B.C.E.” Elizabeth couldn’t help look with awe at Nancy, sitting a few tables away with Mike and Ingrid.

“Joan of Arc? Wow!” she said a bit too loudly. Nancy turned her head towards her, smiled and winked once before returning to her conversation with her family. Amelia giggled at seeing Elizabeth redden with embarrassment.

“You will have to remember that Nancy has a directional microphone implanted in her left ear. She can hear better than a cat.”

“Uh, I will remember that. Still, this business of past incarnations sounds quite fascinating.”

Amelia became serious at those words.

“You may experience it firsthand soon, Elizabeth. All the apprentices, including myself, have started exploring mentally their past lives with the assistance of Nancy. The four prior lives I can remember up to now were as a 19th Century Chinese male merchant, an 18th Century Polynesian girl, a 16th Century Turkish soldier and a 15th Century African woman. In comparison, Mike Crawford and Ingrid Weiss have opened fully their minds by now, with Ingrid in fact having her mind opened by The One at the same time as Nancy. One of the benefits of this memory recall, apart from mastering past languages and skills, is to make oneself more tolerant by showing life through the eyes of one or more past persons of various ethnicity and social rank. Take Hanna Reitsch for example: she was a German test pilot with strong loyalty to the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler. After Nancy opened her mind, Hanna found out that, among other lives, she had been a Russian Jew victim of a pogrom in Kyiv. She then lost all that was left of

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her Nazi fervor afterwards and became a truly nice person all around. She also became good friend with two of our apprentices who had been Red Air Force fighter pilots. In short, we apprentices of the Time Patrol are quickly changing from a ragtag band of people from varied and often conflicting backgrounds to a solid group of comrades, all because of this memory recall.”

“And there are no risks to this… memory recall?”

“None! Nancy simply stimulates gradually one’s brain to unlock the memories kept by your spirit. You will have to ask her about the details, though.” Elizabeth was silent while thinking about what Amelia had said. Nancy’s voice then echoed inside her head, clear and strong.

“Elizabeth, if you want to explore your souvenirs tonight, just nod your head.” The teenager looked towards Nancy’s table and saw that the Canadian was staring calmly at her. Taking a decision, she nodded once. Nancy’s lips didn’t move when Elizabeth heard her voice again.

“Then I will see you in your suite in one hour.”

21:58 (North America Central Time)

Suite 343, Time Patrol residential tower

Margaret MacDonald was getting increasingly nervous while waiting with Amelia in the luxurious lounge of the suite she shared with Elizabeth. Her charge, as she still thought of Elizabeth, had been alone with Laplante in the main bedroom for nearly three hours now. Margaret had meanwhile killed the time by watching with Amelia selected video recordings of Nancy’s mission in ancient Palestine. While those recordings had truly fascinated her, she could never stop worrying completely about Elizabeth. Margaret nearly ran to Elizabeth when she showed up in the lounge, looking subdued. Nancy was right behind her and gently directed her to the main sofa of the lounge, sitting with her and Margaret on it. The latter passed an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders.

“How did it go, Elizabeth?”

The teenager answered in a quiet voice while looking down at the carpet.

“I actually was able to remember my two most recent past lives. I thought at first that so many souvenirs would confuse me but they ordered themselves quickly. I will just need some time to reflect on them properly.”

“May I ask what kind of lives they were?”

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“You may. In my most recent incarnation, I was a 19th century Zulu warrior named Tiswayo. I…I killed a number of British soldiers at the battle of Isandlwana in South Africa, in 1879. I, or rather Tiswayo, was killed a short time later at the battle of Ulundi. My life prior to that was as a Syrian woman of the 18th century named Fatmeh, who lived in the city of Aleppo with her husband, a goldsmith, and her five children. If you don’t mind, it is late and I am dead tired. I think that I will go to bed now.”

“Do you want me to be with you tonight, Elizabeth?”

The teenager looked at her dressing lady, who had slept in the same room as her until only a few years ago, and shook her head slowly.

“Thank you but no, Bobo. I have to face my souvenirs alone.”

“Then, good night, Elizabeth.”

Nancy and Amelia discreetly left the suite to let the teenager prepare for bed, while Margaret retired to her own bedroom. Going to her room, Elizabeth slipped into a silk nightgown and crawled into the huge but comfortable bed. Once under the pink bed sheet, she used the light control unit on the bedside table to switch the lights off. As Amelia had told her a few hours ago, the ceiling of her room, which acted as a giant video screen, changed to become a night sky filled with stars. Looking around at the unfamiliar, futuristic surroundings of her room in the faint glow of the starry sky, Elizabeth felt lonelier than she had ever been before. The cocooned, regimented world she had grown into was gone, along with her family, her friends and even her titles. She was now only Apprentice Elizabeth Windsor. Her last conscious thought before falling asleep was for Philip of Greece, the only man for whom her heart had ever beaten faster.

08:46 (North America Central Time)

Monday, January 25, 3385 ‘A’

Gymnasium, Time Patrol sports complex

Elizabeth had to stop, her lungs on fire and her heart feeling like it was ready to explode. All the muscles in her body ached from trying to follow what she considered the infernal pace set by Nancy Laplante during this morning aerobic exercise session. The other apprentices around her didn’t seem to be having much problems following the pace, though. Even the ones who had arrived with her in New Lake City were barely sweating. Elizabeth thought with some bitterness that the problem was probably with her poor physical fitness level rather than with Nancy’s pace. She glanced at the big SS

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officer exercising close to her: the Austrian was doing fine and seemed to be having a good time. Of course, that probably had to do with the number of young, shapely women wearing skin-tight outfits and exercising around him. The British Royal

Commando major to her left then spoke to her while continuing to jump and run on the spot.

“Don’t try so hard at first, Your Highness: you need time to build up your cardio-vascular capacity and your stamina. It will take a few weeks, but you will eventually be able to keep up with everybody.”

“A few weeks?” said Elizabeth, sounding discouraged. That brought an

apologetic smile on Townsend’s face.

“Like they say, Your Highness: no pain, no gain. Take a break until you feel better, then continue at a slower pace. The day is still young.” Elizabeth saw the wisdom in his judgment and did as he said. As she took time to catch her breath, her mind wandered to the souvenirs of the life of Tiswayo the Zulu warrior. Tiswayo had been a superb athlete, like all his comrades, able to run at a trot for hours under the hot South African sun and then go directly into battle. Elizabeth now envied his fitness. More intimate souvenirs of Tiswayo then made her redden with

embarrassment: the various souvenirs about the sexual lives of both Tiswayo and Fatmeh had rudely shaken her prudish royal upbringing. On the other hand, those intimate souvenirs had answered a number of questions Elizabeth would have never dared ask to her parents. Her heart now pounding at a more reasonable rate, the teenager resumed her exercising while still reviewing her past souvenirs.

The aerobic session ended half an hour later, with Elizabeth exhausted and drenched with sweat. She followed the other female apprentices inside the women’s locker room to take a much-needed shower and change into her gray apprentice’s uniform. Just bending down to undo her running shoes was enough to make her body ache all over, warning her that this day was going to be a tough one indeed. The next three hours were actually quiet, Elizabeth spending two hours in a mnemotronic lab of the university to assimilate the basic knowledge she would have learned in school if she wouldn’t have been a princess, followed by an hour for lunch. The gaps in her education, caused by the custom of not sending British royal children to schools where they would be in contact with commoners, were becoming more and more obvious to Elizabeth. In contrast, young women like Susanna Berghof and Bertha Reinholdt had benefited from a

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superb classical education in Germany. As for the women coming from the 21st century, their general and scientific education made Elizabeth appear like a moron.

Elizabeth joined the other apprentices after lunch in the huge hangar adjacent to the Time Patrol headquarters building. Her training schedule said only that they were going to travel to a place called ‘Combat Training Center’. She inquired about it to Ingrid Weiss ‘B’ as they were lining up to board a big shuttlecraft. The German teenager obliged with a smile.

“That center is where all our shooting practice and tactical training is conducted. It is situated in the ruins of nearby ancient Chicago, where our firing will not disturb or threaten anyone.”

“Chicago, in ruins? What happened to it? Why wasn’t it rebuilt?” Infinite sadness then filled Ingrid’s eyes.

“Chicago was destroyed in the year 2052, over thirteen centuries ago, along with most of Humanity. The radiations from that nuclear war severely contaminated the air and ground, making most of the planet unlivable for centuries. Even now, the remaining low-level radiation in the Chicago area, while harmless, is still easily detectable. The people of the Global Council still avoid such areas as much as they can, partly because of the sinister souvenirs they conjure and partly because of the millions of human remains still lying around.”

“There are skeletons where we are going?” asked Elizabeth, suddenly alarmed.

“Not in the immediate area of our training center. Nancy personally gathered all the remains there for burial at a nearby mausoleum. There are however still over three million skeletons lying around the ruins of the city.”

“Dear God!”

Shaken and a bit fearful now, Elizabeth boarded the shuttlecraft and took a seat after removing her winter coat. The craft soon glided silently out of the hangar and flew off towards the Southwest. Looking avidly outside through a window, Elizabeth saw that the populated area around New Lake City was actually quite small. Only a few kilometers outside the lakeside city, the vegetation of the countryside not covered by snow became much more sparse and turned to a sickly yellowish tone. Ingrid Weiss ‘B’, sitting beside Elizabeth, volunteered some information as they flew over the desolate landscape.

“Only small areas of North America have been decontaminated in the last 600 years. The task of decontaminating the rest of the continent will take many more

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centuries. That damn 21st century nuclear war nearly spelled the end of the Human race. Europe was in even worst shape but Herculean efforts have returned a third of it to livable status.”

A sudden chill gripped Elizabeth.

“And…what about London?”

“Totally destroyed, like all the main cities of Western Europe. Like Chicago, it was never rebuilt. Less than two million people presently live on the British Isles, if I remember well. Much of present-day Humanity now lives in space, away from the

radiations and the rubble.”

That left Elizabeth quiet for the rest of the short trip.

The shuttlecraft soon started flying over a field of debris and ruins which extended beyond the horizon. It was obvious from the vegetation overgrowth that nobody had lived around the area in a very long time. The craft flew over a few kilometers of ruins before starting to lose altitude. Nancy Laplante rose from her seat and shouted at the other passengers as the craft was about to settle down vertically.

“We are now arriving at our combat training center, situated in the old Lincoln Park, on the Western shore of Lake Michigan. Do not be alarmed if you do not see our installations at first: they are carefully camouflaged and use to the maximum the existing ruins. Put your coats and gloves on: the outside temperature is below freezing point. We will go inside the main building, where weapons will be issued.” Once on the ground, the shuttlecraft rolled towards a ruined building, while what had appeared at first to be the corrugated steel door of a warehouse started to slide open, revealing a vast hangar. That drew an admiring whistle from Otto Skorzeny.

‘’Nice camouflage work. From the air, this building seems to be derelict, like the others around it.’’

Nancy, who was coming out of the cockpit, nodded her head on hearing him.

‘’We certainly did the utmost to hide our combat center, Otto. The damaged external structures and walls have not been touched, but the interior spaces were cleaned up before prefabricated modules were placed inside. Even the infra-red signature of our installations has been hidden as much as possible. The building we are presently in serves as a hangar and as a repair shop. Once out of the shuttle, we will go to the nearest building, which is our actual training center, via an underground tunnel meant to limit any outside movement. Here we are! Follow me!’’

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With Ingrid Weiss still close to her, Elizabeth followed the others outside, shivering briefly when a draft of chilly air hit her as she exited the craft. As the forty or so passengers of the shuttle followed Nancy towards a door in the south wall of the hangar, Elizabeth noticed four machines which were about the size of men and had curious shapes. The machines were not moving and seemed to have been simply left in a corner of the hangar.

‘’Ingrid, what are those four things over there?’’

Ingrid ‘B’ looked quickly in that direction, then smiled as she answered.

‘’Those are combat robots, Elizabeth. They are part of the force of one hundred robots assigned to defend our combat training center. They will also be used for our training, as our agents will be charged with directing squads of combat robots if we ever have to defend the Global Council.’’

‘’Combat robots?’’ said Otto Skorzeny, who had listened to their conversation. ‘’I would like very much to examine those machines later on.’’

‘’You will have ample opportunities to get familiar with them, Otto. I can tell you that they are extremely dangerous machines, each equivalent to what you would have called a medium tank. We already have 800 such robots in service, with another 10,000 on the way.’’

‘’Wow! That makes for an impressive combat force.’’

‘’Well, hopefully we will never need them.’’

His curiosity only partly satisfied, Otto followed the group out of the hangar and down a wide staircase which led to a short tunnel, itself leading to another staircase that went up to ground level. They finally ended up inside a set of interconnected modular structures located in the gutted internal space of an old hall. They used a spacious cloakroom to hang their coats, then went to an adjacent room with benches lined along its walls and with four long tables in its center, where Nancy addressed them again.

“Welcome to our combat training center, ladies and gentlemen. For the newcomers in our group, you will stay here with me for a class on the firearms used by the Time Patrol. The others will go practice their shooting and unarmed combat under the supervision of Mike and Jack Crawford.”

Elizabeth soon found herself alone with Nancy and seven other apprentices in the room. Nancy led them inside an adjacent room which turned out to be a weapons

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vault, with dozens of racks full of weapons of varying size. Otto Skorzeny’s eyes popped wide open while he smiled at the sight of the weapons.

“Now, this is one nicely furnished room.”

“And you will get to play with those toys as well, Otto.” replied a smiling Nancy. “Now, be honest, all of you, and raise your hand if you never fired a gun before.” Sylvie Comeau then lifted one hand up.

“Good! Who has never fired an automatic weapon before?” Everybody but Otto Skorzeny, George Townsend and Tom Allen rose a hand. Nancy nodded once.

“Then this is a good time to learn.”

Going to three different racks, Nancy picked up two pistols, a submachine-gun, two assault rifles and two heavy-looking weapons, laying them down on a table inside the vault. She then picked up the first pistol, a small and compact weapon with a futuristic shape, and held it high.

“This is a stun pistol, a non-lethal weapon produced here in the 34th Century by the Global Council for the use of its security officers. We will study it, along with the Smith & Wesson COBRA 10mm pistol, the Colt RAPTOR 10mm machine pistol, the Colt TERMINATOR 6mm assault rifle with grenade launcher, the AS Val suppressed assault rifle, the Colt DRAGON automatic grenade launcher and the Barrett SSSR-50 heavy sniper rifle. We also have in our stocks of weapons a full assortment of hand grenades, portable missile systems and explosives, but those will be for later training sessions. On top of learning to use all of those weapons, you will receive as well intensive training on how to use ancient weapons. I promise you that your next few months will be quite busy.’’

‘’That suits me just fine, Nancy.’’ said Skorzeny, smiling, as he admired the weapons on the table. ‘’By what will we start?’’

‘’By the stun pistol, which is worn by all members of the Time Patrol, including the scientific staff. Even avowed pacifists like Amelia Earhart will practice with one, since it is a non-lethal weapon.’’

Nancy spent less than fifteen minutes on the stun pistol, it being a very simple weapon to use and maintain. The other weapons were covered much more in detail, taking on average forty minutes per type of weapon. Otto Skorzeny, like George Townsend, was particularly impressed by the Colt TERMINATOR combination assault

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rifle and grenade launcher, with its capacity of 135 6mm caliber high velocity rounds, plus three ready-to-fire 60mm dual-purpose grenades in a launch tube placed under the bloc of nine rifle barrels.

“Himmel! I like this!”

“You will have a chance to shoot it this afternoon, Otto, like the others here. Now that I have shown you how to handle in a secure manner those various weapons, I will distribute to each of you a panoply of weapons which will become your personal weapons from this moment on. Take good care of them, as they may save your life one day. Don’t be jealous if some of you get more weapons than you do: while Otto and George will need to use all of these weapons as designated ground assault specialist, I doubt that the future scoutship pilots in this group will have a need for the SSSR-50 heavy sniper rifle or DRAGON automatic grenade launcher.’’ Nancy then made them line up again to enter the weapons vault and, using a list in her hand, had each apprentice take one example each of the weapons they were individually due to hold on to, plus a pair of ear defenders. That left Otto Skorzeny and George Townsend in particular heavily loaded with weapons. Leaving the weapons vault, they crossed the training room and followed a hallway which led them to a long line of firing positions. The rifle firing hall was a long, narrow building with a large window in front of each firing position. Those windows were opened when firing was conducted, like in the present case. The hall was thus quite cold, despite heating fans working full blast. It was also quite noisy, with other apprentices already firing rifles. Nancy next assigned a position to each of the apprentices of her group. Staying beside Elizabeth, she signaled Jack and Mike Crawford, who were supervising the other apprentices, to approach.

“Jack, you coach Sylvie Comeau on basic rifle shooting techniques. Mike, you do the same with Patricia Wilson. I will take care of Elizabeth.” Nancy then distributed one loaded rifle magazine block to each of the apprentices.

“You have now 135 rounds each to practice today. I want you to start on semi-automatic, slow firing only, to get the feel of your weapons. Concentrate first on producing tight groups of five bullets, so that we can assess your level of shooting proficiency. I will assess you all after the first grouping. You may take position now.” She next told Elizabeth to take a prone position on the padded bench of the firing spot and told her to load her magazine. Elizabeth did so and adjusted her rifle sling to steady her aim. Nancy nodded in satisfaction on seeing that.

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“You obviously have fired a rifle before, Elizabeth. You practiced with a Lee-Enfield .303, I suppose.”

“A few times, but I have more experience with a Mauser 7mm hunting rifle. My father loves hunting and coached me when on our Scottish estate of Balmoral.”

“Excellent! Take your time and give me a nice, tight 5-round grouping. The range is 100 meters. Fire when you are ready.”

Adjusting her sighting scope to the X4 magnification, Elizabeth took careful aim and, holding her breath just before shooting, gently squeezed the trigger. The trigger proved to be quite sensitive and crisp, while the felt recoil was fairly mild. The muzzle blast and noise were another matter, though.

“Wow! That ammunition appears quite a lot more powerful than the ones I used, yet the recoil was not as hard as I expected.”

“You can thank the recoil buffer in the butt of your weapon. Let’s see where that first round went.”

Nancy looked briefly through the powerful telescope mounted besides the shooting bench, then smiled at Elizabeth.

“Right in the bull’s eye’s black. You are only two inches down and to the left of the center. Keep the same aiming point and fire four more rounds, to confirm your aim.” Elizabeth obeyed, aiming as carefully as she could. She then put her rifle on safe on Nancy’s command and waited for her target board to be reeled in to her firing position by its electric travel rail. Elizabeth felt pride at her tight, less than two-inch-wide grouping. Nancy appeared satisfied as well.

“Very good, Elizabeth! Let me just review the others and we will practice more.” Going down the line of firing positions, Nancy saw that both Sylvie Comeau and Patricia Wilson had a lot of work to do before becoming fair rifle shooters. The others’ results varied from good to outstanding, with Tom Allen and Otto Skorzeny having fired equally tight groupings that would have made any marksman proud.

“Well done, you two. It seems that we are going to have a friendly competition here.”

“He is effectively pretty good…for a boy.” Said Otto with a grin. “I will try to go easy on him for the next groupings.”

“Speak for yourself, mister.” Replied Tom. “I bet you a beer that I am a better shot than you, especially when using automatic fire.”

“It’s your money, boy.”

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“Alright, you two tough guys. Mike will supervise your friendly match. Just make sure that you follow the safety rules, though.”

Nancy then returned to Elizabeth and continued coaching her, first zeroing her sight for her and then directing her through various timed shoots and introducing her to short bursts of automatic fire. The teenager’s accuracy suffered somewhat then, which was to be expected from a non-military shooter. She was reviewing with her the finer points of automatic firing when a loud nearby blast made Elizabeth flinch. They both looked to their left as another blast shook the hall: Tom Allen and Otto Skorzeny were firing short bursts at maximum cyclic rate under the watchful eyes of Mike Crawford, obviously intent on outdoing each other. The duel went on until both had emptied their magazines. Exclamations went around as the two target boards came up to the firing positions: the boards had been nearly shot to pieces by dozens of tightly-grouped shits. Tom’s board showed however a slightly more concentrated fire than Otto’s board. The Austrian nodded his head in appreciation and shook hands with the British teenager.

“Boy, I have to admit that you are the best shooter I have ever seen with an automatic weapon. The beer is on me tonight.”

Nancy was next to shake Tom Allen’s hand.

“Tom, I am proud of you. I declare you proficient with the Colt TERMINATOR rifle. The same applies to you, Otto. Both of you will be issued a full ammunition load for your rifles. Mike will now bring you both to the West wing firing hall, so that you can practice with the grenade-launchers of your rifles.”

“YES!” shouted Tom happily. Both he and Otto then eagerly followed Mike Crawford down towards the West wing of the training complex. Nancy next faced Elizabeth and pointed at her firing position.

“Alright, let’s see how we could improve your automatic firing. Don’t worry if you can’t do anywhere as well as those two happy triggers: even I can’t compare to them with a rifle.”

As the evening was approaching fast and the apprentices had completed their first shooting practice session, Nancy had them walk out of the firing range and return to the training room, so that they could clean their rifles. The apprentices who were thinking that they were finished for the day were however sorely mistaken. The eight men and women under Nancy then joined up with the rest of the apprentices in a large locker room connected to an equipment storage room, where Mike Crawford had them

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draw protective equipment which fitted their respective sizes. Elizabeth smiled as she eyed Patricia Wilson, who looked like an American football player with her padded vest, gloves, helmet and knee and elbow protectors, plus a shield made of leather covered plastic foam.

‘’We look like blimps with that stuff on. I wonder what kind of game we are going to play.’’

Ingrid Weiss ‘B’, standing nearby, gave her a ferocious smile.

‘’We are going to practice medieval combat, girlies. Hold on tight to your shields: you will need them.’’

Nancy then shouted so that all could hear her.

‘’EVERYBODY, LINE UP BEHIND ME AND FOLLOW ME AT A RUN!’’ The forty or so men and women followed Nancy out of the locker room and into a spacious gymnasium. The ceiling was over eight meters above their heads and the floor was covered with neoprene mats. Elizabeth’s eyes widened at the sight of the racks lining the walls of the gymnasium: they were full of all kinds of cutting or crushing weapons made of steel covered with thick neoprene.

‘’EVERYONE WILL NOW CHOOSE A WEAPON OF HIS OR HER PREFERENCE, IDEALLY ONE YOU ALREADY KNOW HOW TO USE. THEN, FORM A WIDE CIRCLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR.’’

Taking some time to inspect the contents of the weapons racks, Elizabeth finally chose a padded mace which reminded her of a Zulu war club. Feeling a mix of excitement and anxiety filling her, she joined the circle of apprentices and looked at the others. The more senior apprentices appeared eager to fight, grinning and already looking around in order to choose their opponent. Nancy, also wearing protective padding and holding an impressive heavy mace, then stepped to the center of the circle, a grin on her face.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time to see of what kind of stuff is made our eight new apprentices. For the newcomers, the rules are simple: no kicks, no blows to the genitals and stop fighting the moment I say so. Apart from that, everything goes. Mike, you can choose your first victim.’’

The powerful American, standing 193 centimeter-tall and with the built of a footballer, walked to the center of the circle as Nancy withdrew, a huge padded heavy war hammer in his hands. He then made a mean smile as he pointed his weapon at George Townsend, who stood a mere 178 centimeters.

‘’YOU! COME FORWARD IF YOU DARE!’’

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Not too sure of himself, the Royal Commandos officer stepped forward, his padded longsword held high. Mike Crawford rushed him at once with a ferocious war cry which nearly froze Elizabeth with fear. A furious swept hammer blow slammed with a loud noise on the shield of the British, nearly sending him sprawling on the mat. Townsend didn’t get a real chance to recover his balance after that blow, the American assaulting him with a series of powerful and well-aimed blows which denoted a real expertise in medieval combat. Shaken by multiple blows and managing only once to hit Mike, George Townsend was sent to the mat in twenty seconds, taken down by a blow on his helmet. Mike continued to pummel him until Nancy stepped forward and shouted.

‘’STOP! MIKE CRAWFORD IS THE WINNER!’’

Mike roared in triumph, one foot on the chest of George Townsend, as the other apprentices shouted their enthusiasm. Nancy then helped a shaken and bruised Townsend to get up and return to his place in the circle. Next, she pointed another apprentice.

‘’Ingrid Weiss ‘B’, choose your opponent.’’

Ingrid, apparently most eager to fight, jumped to the center of the circle and made her flail turn over her head.

‘’LET’S SEE WHAT A TENDER PRINCESS CAN DO!’’

The screams of encouragement which followed around her made Elizabeth think that she was back in the Dark Ages, surrounded by barbarians ready to cut her to pieces. The young princess stepped forward hesitantly, holding tight to her mace and keeping her shield in front of her. Screaming a war cry, Ingrid advanced on her and slammed her shield against Elizabeth’s shield at the same time she hit the British teenager’s helmet with her flail with a loud noise. With the adrenaline kicking in, Elizabeth replied with a swing of her mace in the German’s ribs. A furious exchange of blows and parries followed, with Elizabeth putting to good use her souvenirs of combat from her previous life as a Zulu warrior. However, Ingrid Weiss showed surprising expertise with her flail, a notoriously difficult weapon to master. After over a minute of relentless combat, the superior level of physical fitness of the German teenager gave her the advantage over a heavily breathing Elizabeth, who tripped and fell on her back. Ingrid then pummeled mercilessly her shield until Nancy stepped forward.

‘’STOP! INGRID WEISS ‘B’ IS THE VICTOR!’’

Ingrid stopped striking at once and presented her hand to Elizabeth, smiling to her.

‘’Good fight, Elizabeth. Here, pull yourself up.’’

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The British took her hand and got up, but grimaced at once with pain.

‘’Ow! You sure didn’t go easy on me, Ingrid.’’

‘’Hey, if it would have been a real combat in the past, you would be dead…or worse.’’

Otto Skorzeny, who had followed the two fights with relish, then raised his sword high.

‘’Nancy, I want the next combat.’’

The reaction of Nancy, along with her war shout of incredible ferocity, stunned Elizabeth. Making a fantastic jump to the middle of the circle, she slammed the floor mat with her huge mace.

‘’OTTO, YOUR ASS IS MINE!’’

‘’The poor bastard!’’ said Sven Larsen to Michel Hofmann. ‘’He didn’t know what he was getting into.’’

Elizabeth heard that but couldn’t see how Nancy could win against the gigantic Austrian. She was thus stunned to see Skorzeny quickly buckle under a barrage of powerful, precise blows, being literally slammed out of the circle after less than one minute of combat. As the big Austrian tried to recover his wits, Nancy shouted again.

‘’ROYAL BRAWL! EVERYONE AGAINST EVERYONE! THE LAST ONE UP WINS!’’

‘’Aw shit! She’s not serious?’’ exclaimed Patricia Wilson as the apprentices around her suddenly turned against each other. The young Canadian Army nurse then had to face Keith Strong, an ex-Marine Corps pilot and ex-astronaut standing a good 188 centimeters. A savage, chaotic melee followed, with Nancy staying out of the fight to ensure that nobody got hurt seriously. After six minutes of fighting, and with practically all apprentices totally exhausted or too shaken to get up, Mike Crawford won over Otto Skorzeny after an epic fight, then roared in triumph like a barbarian warrior. Going around, Nancy made sure that everyone was alright, then spoke up.

‘’You now have a weak approximation of what a real combat to the death was in the Dark Ages and the Antiquity, minus the blood and gore. Work on your physical fitness, your strength and your weapon handling skills and maybe you will not get creamed by a band of Vikings or a squad of Roman legionnaires during a mission in the past. We will now put our equipment back in place and close the center for the night before going back by shuttle to New Lake City. I hope that you enjoyed your practice today.’’

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Elizabeth, who had quickly lost her fight against Jack Crawford and thus had the time to catch her breath, went to help Patricia Wilson get back up. The Canadian nurse moaned with pain as she got back on her feet, her legs and arms covered with bruises.

‘’Ow, ow, ow! What a thrashing! I hope that not all our training days will be like that.’’

Jack Crawford, standing nearby, smiled to her.

‘’Actually, this is an easy day.’’

The ex-Navy SEAL commando then burst out in laughter at the face that the poor Patricia Wilson did then.

20:11 (North America Central Time)

The Timeless Club, Time Patrol residential tower New Lake City University campus

Elizabeth, accompanied by Margaret, walked stiffly into the social club reserved for the members of the Time Patrol and their guests, her muscles still aching from the day’s physical exercise and combat training sessions. The Timeless Club was an interesting mix of both ultramodern architecture, old decoration and furnishing covering a few millenniums of history. The furniture was mostly late 20th century and early 21st century, while ancient pieces of armor and numerous blade weapons covered the walls. There were also quite a few fine pieces of arts and paintings distributed along the walls or contained in glass display cases. In one corner of the large, high ceiling room sat a long bar counter, while a dance floor surrounded by a number of round tables and chairs occupied the center. Opposite the bar stood a small stage for musicians and performers. There were no musicians present at the time but a soft, relaxing music could be heard from hidden loudspeakers.

Elizabeth surveyed visually the club and the twenty or so occupants present and smiled: this place made her feel relaxed at once.

“Do you know if I will be considered too young to have a drink here, Bobo?”

“In England you would definitely be too young, Elizabeth, but here? I frankly don’t know. Let’s ask the barman.”

The British duo went to the bar, behind which a handsome young giant man stood. Elizabeth remembered him as one of the two persons who had served food and drinks

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on the craft which had brought her and others from 1941. The young man smiled to her, revealing perfect teeth.

“May I help you, miss?”

“You may, sir. Is fifteen too young to be served in this bar?”

“In normal bars around here, yes. However, all members and apprentices have the right to drink alcohol in this club. Common sense and self-restraint are of course expected and the barman on duty has the right to stop serving customers who are deemed too intoxicated. This said, what would you like, miss?”

“Do you have Champagne, by chance?”

“We do have a few brands, miss. The French ones we have are quite expensive, though. Could I suggest a nice Spanish bubbly wine at a much more reasonable price? It is a very good one, I assure you.”

“I will try it, please.” said Elizabeth, who then hesitated before asking another question.

“I suppose that alcohol is considered a luxury item in your society, since you are charging for it.”

“Alcohol is effectively treated as a luxury item, but not because of its cost. Alcohol abuse is recognized as a potential cause of social problems, so its consumption is discouraged by artificially high prices, while public drunkenness is looked upon quite severely in the Global Council.”

“Thank God!” exclaimed Margaret. “Someone finally took a sensible stance against the excesses of alcohol. I have seen too many good men ruin their lives with alcohol.”

“And what would you have, miss?” asked the barman to Margaret.

“I will help Elizabeth with her Spanish bubbly wine.”

The barman nodded and, putting two long flute cups on the bar, took a bottle out of one of the refrigerators behind the bar and opened it with a loud pop. He filled the cups, then accepted Elizabeth’s bank card, inserting it in the bar’s credit reader after punching in the cost. Elizabeth approved the payment by pressing a thumb on the fingerprint recognition pad of the credit reader and punching in her personal identification code. With Margaret thanking the barman and grabbing her cup and the bottle, now inside an ice bucket, both British went to an empty table in a quiet corner of the club. The nearest other customer was a thin, nearly ascetic Indian woman close to forty who was sipping

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from a tall glass while reading a book. Elizabeth raised her glass and touched Margaret’s glass.

“To our new life, Bobo.”

“To our new life.”

Elizabeth took a sip from her glass and was agreeably pleased.

“This is as good as any French Champagne I have tasted at the palace.”

“Indeed! I will have to remember this brand.”

Elizabeth took another sip from her glass, then looked around her. In the opposite corner was a rather loud group of six apprentices apparently having a good time while drinking beer. She recognized young Tom Allen, drinking with Otto Skorzeny as if they were old comrades. She smiled at that and looked back at Margaret.

“You know, Bobo, I have never felt as free as now, even with all the studies and the training to be done. I can finally mingle with normal people and walk around without being surrounded by palace bodyguards or being told by those old courtier farts what I can or cannot do.”

Margaret gave her an amused look.

“You call the people here normal? They are the most eclectic bunch of adventurers, spies, soldiers and scientists I have ever seen together. And Nancy Laplante is by far the oddest of the lot.”

“True! That business about past incarnations is also quite fascinating. I have learned a lot from just my two most recent incarnations. I can now speak Arabic and Zulu and know how to track animals and use a spear.”

Margaret couldn’t help show some concern at those words.

“I don’t know about that, Elizabeth. There is a lot that we may not know about the true effects of recalling these incarnations. What tells you that a past personality will not overpower your present one and force you into things you wouldn’t do?”

“Uh, I haven’t thought about that, to be frank. Maybe we should ask Nancy about that.”

“And how do we know that she really is in control of her various personalities?”

“Then, what about asking someone else, Bobo? Take that Indian woman near our table. Aren’t Indians believers in the concept of reincarnation?”

“Uh, you are right.”

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Elizabeth turned towards the Indian woman, ready to go see her, only to realize that the woman was already looking at them, a faint smile on her face. Her voice was warm and friendly.

“Excuse me for overhearing you, but the word ‘incarnation’ caught my ears. May I join you?”

“Uh, of course, miss.”

Grabbing her book and her glass, the woman came to their table and put her things down before offering her hand to Elizabeth, who shook it.

“Pleased to meet you, Your Highness. My name is Indira Saduranidrasekar, but Indira will suffice. I am an astronomer and astro-physicist from the year 2052.” She then turned to face Margaret and shook her hand as well.

“I understand that you are Princess Elizabeth’s dressing lady, correct?”

“You are right, Miss. Margaret MacDonald, at your service. So, do you know much about this incarnation business?”

Indira sat down before answering, using her words carefully.

“Please understand that the concept of incarnation, as it is understood in India, is quite different to what Nancy and the apprentices here have experienced. I have discussed at length with Nancy on the subject, however, and can shed some light on it. According to Nancy, our spiritual part, or soul if you prefer, is linked to our body in a symbiosis. That symbiosis is however incomplete in normal humans, which makes it impossible to access the souvenirs of our past lives. The spirit is the usual repository of those souvenirs and normal brains cannot read directly the knowledge inside the spirit. What happened with Nancy was that The One opened a full link between her spirit and her brain. She then gained all the knowledge of her spirit, apart from activating dormant abilities in her brain, which can now work fully in conjunction with her spirit. What Nancy is doing to us is to help our old souvenirs to the surface and make them accessible. After enough stimulation, our brains then develop a link of their own with our spirits, along which past souvenirs can flow. Since that link is only partial, we do not benefit from the special mental powers Nancy received from The One. As for our past souvenirs, they are just that, souvenirs. There is no ancient brain left to back them with a will or an intent.”

“Uh, I’m afraid that I lost you there, Indira.” said Elizabeth. Indira took a sip of her glass before continuing.

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“One of the first questions raised amongst us apprentices when discussing this subject with Nancy was why, if The One created all the human spirits, are there both good and bad people. You would logically think that The One only produced good spirits, right?”

“You would think so.”

“Well, there are two reasons for having bad people on Earth. The first one is that The One, whom most of us would equate to God, is not perfect, despite what we may think. It is an immensely powerful and wise being aiming for peace and harmony on Earth, but it does make mistakes from time to time. Some would say that creating Humanity was one such mistake.”

“Hell, I myself thought so a few times, what with all the stupidity and meanness we keep showing.” replied Margaret in a disillusioned tone.

“I couldn’t agree more, especially after having witnessed from orbit our ultimate act of stupidity: the nuclear holocaust of 2052. To return to the subject at hand, The One did not create only good, perfect spirits. More than a few had a few quirks but those quirks are normally not enough by themselves to make a person mean or evil. What can make a person truly bad or even evil is the chemistry and wiring of his or her brain, plus their upbringing. If, as one could say, a person has a few loose wires in the head, there is little the spirit will be able to do to nudge that person towards good. That person could from time to time be influenced by its spirit in what would be called an attack of conscience, but a truly sick brain will not become good just because of the spirit’s influence. Take Otto Skorzeny, for example. As a SS officer, you probably would classify him as a basically bad person. Nancy actually classifies his personality as lawful evil, meaning that he may act with violence or meanness but would do it to preserve a set of rules or laws from a given authority, not for his own profit. While exploring Otto’s past lives, Nancy found out that his spirit is one of the rare ones with an evil streak, but that he also tends towards the lawful side of evil. His past lives include that of a Mexican bandit, an Indian court dancer cum spy, a brutal Turkish governor in Bosnia and one English queen you may know about: Queen Mary the First.”

“He was ‘Bloody Mary’? Hell, she was one of the most despised queens of England ever. And Nancy thrusts such a man?”

“Your Highness, a lawful evil person is not necessarily a liability. Whether we like it or not, lawful evil persons often prove very useful helping run a society, be it as a tough judge, an authoritative king, a cunning spy or a ruthless soldier ready to do

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everything to defend his country. You yourself could find some unsavory types while exploring your past lives.”

“Uh, I see. And what about Nancy Laplante? What kind of personality is she?” Indira surprised both Elizabeth and Margaret by laughing hard at that question.

“Nancy? She definitely is a chaotic good personality. She will do what she wants to do, period, like any true chaotic person. She is however truly good, especially since her transformation at the hand of The One. With her spirit now fully linked with her brain, the former truly dominates the latter.”

“What if she dies and is reincarnated in a body with an evil brain?” Indira shook her head slowly, her face now somber.

“That will not happen, Your Highness, for the reason that The One told her that her present incarnation will be her last life on Earth. When she dies as Nancy Laplante, she will become a being of pure spiritual energy, in essence an angel of sort.” The two British paled and straightened up in their chairs.

“How do you know that this is true, especially if Nancy was the one who told you so?”

“Because the telepathic message to her was intercepted and recorded by her horse, a very sophisticated robotic machine able to detect mental messages. At that time, it was tuned to Nancy’s mental frequency and was able to record everything.”

“Wow!” whispered Elizabeth before taking a large sip from her glass. She was definitely going to have to ask Nancy for more mental recall sessions.

21:29 (North America Central Time)

Tuesday, January 26, 3385 ‘A’

Suite 343, Time Patrol residential tower

Elizabeth opened her eyes slowly, her head still full of souvenirs. Nancy, sitting in front of her on the teenager’s bed, smiled to her questioningly.

“How do you feel, Elizabeth?”

“Like a different person. God, what would my parents think of me?”

“They probably have past lives as varied as you do, Elizabeth.”

“But a Spanish court assassin?” replied the teenager, raising her voice. “I poisoned or stabbed dozens of persons.”

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“You also could cross swords with the best, helped the Spanish ambassador in England spy on Queen Elizabeth the First, were highly educated and were a first-class womanizer. Your Diego de Monterey must have been a very interesting man indeed.” Elizabeth blushed at the mention of womanizing.

“Nancy, all those past lives of mine were active sexually and remembering them taught me things I would never have dared ask my parents about. Yet, I am still only fifteen years of age. I am not meant to know so much about sex so early.”

“Elizabeth, it is better to know in advance what not to do rather than learning about it the hard way, especially when it comes to sex. Knowing how to have sex doesn’t mean that you have to start experimenting with it either. I have brought something for you, just in case.”

Nancy took a small can from a uniform pocket and handed it to Elizabeth.

“This is a contraceptive spray for women. If you ever have sex with a man but don’t want to run the risk of having a baby, then spray one shot inside your mouth within 24 hours after the relation. It will prevent any possible egg from forming into an embryo. Please don’t be offended by this: I am not saying to you that you should have relations with men just yet. I am simply giving you a way to ensure that you don’t suffer unwanted consequences in the future. Romances are fine. Unwanted pregnancies are not.”

“I…I will keep it with me.”

Elizabeth then changed the subject, deeply embarrassed by all this talk about sexuality.

“Nancy, when are you going to resume your mission in ancient Palestine?”

“Next Monday morning, after I go spend some hidden time back in my home time period to live my official life. When I left the followers of Yeshua in Capernaum, I told them a story about having to move around for a while in order not to bring unwanted attention on them. A probe was left to follow Yeshua around and one of our scoutships is downloading regularly its accumulated data. This will permit me to save months of surveillance and to be able to reappear there in the last year of Yeshua, as he is about to enter Jerusalem with his disciples.”

“Do you know what really happened during the episode on Mount Hermon, when God is supposed to have spoken to Jesus in front of three of his disciples?” Nancy’s face became grave as she stared at the curious teenager.

“Yes, we do. The One spoke to Yeshua.”

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