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

CHAPTER 11 – POLITICAL HEAT

10:18 (North America Central Time)

Saturday, January 30, 3385 ‘A’

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

“And what did you expect me to do? Tell Yeshua on his cross to fuck off?” The fury in Nancy Laplante’s voice made Farah Tolkonen cringe behind her work desk. She hated this process but she had to enforce Time Patrol rules, rules she believed Nancy had broken.

“Look, maybe you should not have been there and then in the first place.”

“Swell! Then I would have learned of Yeshua’s request from his mother. Do you realize what the public knowledge of a child from Yeshua would have eventually caused? The whole history of Christianity would have been turned upside down. Hell, the Pope would probably suffer a heart attack if someone told him that Jesus Christ conceived a child, and with a so-called sinner to boot. Miriam of Magdala and her fetus could not stay in Palestine; it is that simple.”

“Nancy, I know that you did your best, but you have lately spent years working in a harsh, dangerous environment. I think that you seriously need rest. In fact, you are owed nearly two months of vacation. Take them, spend some time in your cottage in the Laurentians.”

“I can’t afford to take a vacation now, Farah. Who will train our apprentices? Besides, those vacations would feel too much like a suspension from my duties.”

“Nancy, that was a suggestion. Don’t make me change it into an order. I want you to go see Doctor Bella for a full mission debriefing, then to have your normal appearance restored. Once that is done, Mona will drop you with your car at your cottage in 2014. After two months of your time, she will pick you up but will return here a mere week after your departure.”

“Scrap that plan, Farah. If someone is going to juggle with my future in the Time Patrol, then I want to be within reach, to be able to defend myself. I will take my vacations, but in this time period.”

Farah sighed, discouraged at having to discipline her best friend like this.

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“Then, may I suggest the moons of Jupiter? The sights are fantastic…”

“…and Earth is far. Alright, I will go to Jupiter.”

Nancy’s resigned expression suddenly changed to a mischievous smile.

“Could I bring Miriam of Magdala with me?”

“Not before she passes a complete medical checkup. Nancy, you are truly devious.”

“I know!”

Both women then became dead serious again: they knew what was at stake here.

“Look, Nancy, I and Jan Bella will send a full report to Daran Mien, the Global Science Administrator, on this mission. If he decides to press for your suspension or dismissal, then I will contact you and we will appeal his decision to the highest levels possible. Would that be satisfactory to you?”

“I guess so, Farah. I still maintain that I only acted in order to preserve history, though. Ask any of our apprentices from the 20th century who was a Christian. One last question: will Miriam be allowed to become a citizen of the Global Council?”

“I don’t see any reason why she wouldn’t. If born within our society, her baby will of course become automatically one of our citizens.”

“About that baby, Farah, you must realize that it may very well inherit genetically some of Yeshua’s mental powers.”

Farah gave her a blank look: she had not thought of that yet.

17:46 (North America Central Time)

Suite 345, Time Patrol residential tower

New Lake City University campus

Ingrid ‘B’ smiled at seeing the obvious happiness of Miriam of Magdala, fresh back from a shopping trip downtown, as the Galilean woman unpacked her new wardrobe. Miriam had chosen clothes which were both simple and conservative, at least by 34th Century standards. The German teenager had in fact a wonderful time with Miriam, delighting in her wonderment about nearly everything around her. The Galilean had proved to be an intelligent, albeit poorly educated woman full of sweetness and charm and had attracted the attention of a godly number of men during her shopping trip. They were now in the suite newly assigned to Miriam, which itself had awed her by its

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level of luxury and comfort, unimaginable even for a king of her time. Someone then buzzed at the entrance door.

“I’ll get that!” announced Ingrid as she moved towards the door. She opened it to find herself facing Nancy, whose hair was back to its normal silky black. The wrinkles on her face and hands were gone as well.

“You look just great now, Nancy. Uh, how did it go with Farah?”

“Not very well: I am now on forced vacation for a few weeks, until someone decides if I should be booted out of the Time Patrol.”

“They can’t do that!” protested Ingrid, frankly outraged. “You made the Time Patrol possible.”

“Ingrid, don’t count me out yet. I have plenty of fight left in me. Is Miriam in?”

“She is in the bedroom, putting away her new wardrobe. She loved her shopping trip in New Lake City.”

“Did she? Then she should love to accompany me on my vacation to the moons of Jupiter.”

“What? The lucky girl! Could I come too?”

“Ingrid, you know that you have your training to attend. In fact, with me on forced vacation, you will probably end up teaching some of my classes on ancient skills. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to see Miriam.”

Passing by Ingrid, Nancy went to the main bedroom, finding Miriam turning her back to her as she hung a dress in the large closet of the room.

“Hello, Miriam, could I have a word with you?”

Miriam turned around, smiling, only to stare at Nancy with wide eyes.

“Nava, you look so…young. How is this possible?”

“I was actually wearing a disguise while in the past, Miriam. By the way, my real name is Nancy, Nancy Laplante.”

“Nancy… You do look even more beautiful now. Yeshua would have been impressed.”

“Oh, he did see me like this, when he was four. Miriam, I will soon leave on a long vacation in a place full of fantastic sights. Would you like to come with me?” Miriam glanced at Ingrid, hesitating for a moment.

“Will it be as nice as the city where I bought my new clothes?”

“It will be much nicer actually, Miriam. So?”

“When would we leave?”

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“Probably in two days. In the meantime, I would like to show you something here before we go have supper.”

“Give me a moment: I’m nearly finished here.”

Miriam was effectively finished and ready to follow Nancy a short while later. The two women left the suite and took an elevator down to the first underground level of the residential tower. Coming out of the elevator, Nancy guided Miriam to a heavy set of double doors of polished wood. The doors opened silently on their rails when Nancy put her hand on a fingerprint recognition pad set on the wall to one side the door, revealing a long, wide room. Nancy made Miriam enter, then closed the doors behind her.

“This is the museum of the Time Patrol. It is open to the public for educational visits during the day and houses the various historical artifacts brought back from the past by us. There is one item in particular which I want to show you.” Nancy led her past a multitude of artifacts, ancient weapons and works of art and to the end of the room, where a big armored glass cage contained a large object that made Miriam gasp in disbelief.

“It…it isn’t the Ark, no?”

“It is the Ark of the Covenant, Miriam, the real one. We saved it from loot and destruction by replacing it with a replica just before the first temple of Jerusalem was sacked by an Egyptian expedition after the death of King Solomon.” Miriam, stunned, approached the glass cage and fell to her knees, examining the Ark. The elaborate, gold-inlaid chest was identical to the descriptions read from old texts by her old rabbi in Magdala, with two gold cherubim angels on the top cover and two gold-plated carrying rods hooked along the sides.

“The tablets of the law, were they inside the Ark?”

“They were, Miriam. This is by far our most precious historical artifact. You may make a prayer now if you wish so.”

“I will. Thank you so much, Nancy.”

“Seeing you happy is all I ask for, my friend.”

After a silent prayer, Miriam got on her feet, still unable to take her eyes off the holy artifact.

“You showed a lot of knowledge and respect concerning my religion, Nancy. Are you in fact a Jew?”

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“I was a Jew twice, actually. Miriam, there are a few things you should know about me.”

Nancy spoke for a good five minutes, at the end of which Miriam’s head was nearly spinning.

“You, the wife of the patriarch Abraham? God almighty! And you saw God…”

“I saw a higher being, not God, Miriam. Don’t forget that and never treat me otherwise. Now, let’s go have supper before my hungry band of apprentices eat up the whole buffet at the cafeteria. I will tell you what is fit to eat for a Jew. Don’t eat what I will take, though: I still have a very Canadian list of favorite dishes.”

“Canadian? You mean Akkadian, no?”

“No! I am from Canada, a huge country on the other side of the World from Palestine. Remind me to show you a World map tonight.”

14:08 (North America Central Time)

Thursday, February 4, 3385 ‘A’

Farah Tolkonen’s office

Time Patrol headquarters

“Please, Jan, take a seat: we have a lot to discuss.”

Jan Bella, Chief Historian of the Time Patrol, took the armchair offered by Farah Tolkonen. He then pointed at Farah’s computer screen, where a text was visible.

“You are looking at my report on Nancy’s mission in Palestine, I suppose.”

“You are right, Jan. I need to clarify a few of its points with you before I forward my own report to the Science Administrator.”

“Fair enough. What is your first point of concern?”

“My main worry is the case of Miriam of Magdala and of her future baby. You say in your report that this baby should not exist according to history. Why?”

“Because, as Nancy said on her arrival from Galilee, all our historical sources, including the collective souvenirs of our apprentices, never mention Jesus Christ conceiving a child or even Miriam of Magdala having a child. In fact, there are precious few mentions of Miriam of Magdala by name in historical books. Some are obvious fabrications, like the one about her and a few disciples being forced on a rudderless ship departing the coast of Palestine and then crossing the whole Mediterranean Sea to the southern coast of France, where she eventually died of old age. The fact that the local

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church officials promptly built a church containing her supposed remains and collected donations from visiting pilgrims shows that story for what it really is: a fable meant to bring money to the coffers of the local church. There is even confusion about who is Miriam of Magdala. Despite all the time she spent with Yeshua’s disciples, those disciples, the male ones at the least, failed miserably to properly identify her or even to mention her except once, in the Gospel of Luke. This has a lot to do with the ancient habit of mentioning only the names of the men when telling a story, relegating the women to mostly anonymous roles.”

“Hurray for male misogyny.” said Farah, sarcastic.

“You got that right, Farah. Anyway, there never was any mention of Miriam having a child, especially from Yeshua. As Nancy also said, Miriam is last mentioned after a resurrected Yeshua appears briefly to her. Then…a total blank as far as credible history is concerned.”

“But, since those male disciples did such a poor job of properly recording events and people, especially women, around them, couldn’t she have had a baby from Yeshua and live in anonymity afterwards?”

“That, in my professional opinion as an historian, is very hard to believe. Understand that, in ancient times, lineage was very important. Yeshua was a well-known, controversial figure in the Palestine of his time and his followers and disciples eventually founded what became one of the great religions of Human history. In that time in Palestine, it was normal and acceptable for a rabbi to marry and have children, thus the disciples of Yeshua had no reasons to hide the fact that he fathered a child…unless it was never officially born. Furthermore, if Yeshua fathered a child, especially a boy, who was publicly known to exist, that child would have become very precious to Yeshua’s disciples, both as a symbol and as a religious focus. At the least, a son of Yeshua would have been expected to carry on with his father’s ministry, the more so if that son possessed some of Yeshua’s powers. Nothing of that nature appears in any credible historical source. Such a child never existed as far as history is concerned. Further to this, we have two established facts to consider: one, the chromosomal tests of Miriam’s fetus done as part of her medical examination shows that she will have a healthy boy; and two, the DNA of that boy contains some very unusual sequences which, we believe, indicate genes modified to boost mental abilities. In other words, that boy will probably possess some unusual mental powers. That is by the way a proof that

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Yeshua was conceived from genetically modified DNA, as the mental message from The One to Nancy led us to believe.”

“Damn, then Nancy was right to make Miriam and her baby disappear.”

“That is what I believe as well, Farah.”

Farah pondered that point for a long moment before looking again at Jan Bella.

“What about Nancy’s role and the way she infiltrated Yeshua’s group? Could it have changed history?”

“Simply being there could change history, if you believe in the Chaos Theory. Nancy was at a particular disadvantage because of her unusual physical build for the time but, considering that she mostly operated alone with little or no support during all those months, she did as well or better than anybody could expect. Her cover story, while unusual, was actually quite credible to the persons she met and she played her role to near perfection. Yeshua was widely known to associate freely with women and to have had numerous female disciples and followers, yet the great majority of those women were never mentioned by their name or described properly. It is perfectly credible historically to have a woman like Nancy follow Yeshua and to never be mentioned by name or even be accounted for in the Holy Scriptures. In fact, the more a woman would stand out near Yeshua, like Nancy or Miriam of Magdala, the less the male disciples would have mentioned her, in order to keep women in what they believed to be their correct place: the shadows. Hell, look at how Miriam of Magdala, a woman who was the wife of Yeshua and also his main confidant, was practically ignored by the male disciples. Anyone who would want to criticize Nancy’s work would be double-guessing from behind the safety of a desk. Let’s not forget that she was nearly killed at least once during her mission.”

“That is certainly a point I will include in my report. So, in your professional opinion, did Nancy do anything to endanger history through either ignorance or incompetence during her mission?”

“No!” said Jan flatly and without hesitation. “If the Science Administrator judges that she still put history at risk by being there, then the only way to avoid such risks would be to use only remotely-controlled probes. However, as you know well, a probe cannot do everything a good field agent like Nancy could do, since it could not interact with people and elicit responses which would answer some of our questions. If anything, Daran Mien’s insistence in pushing us into historical research work before we were

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ready forced Nancy into doing alone work that should have been done by a team of agents supported by at least one ship. If anyone is to blame, it is him.”

“Jan, you read my mind on that point. Any other remark or comment before I start writing my own report?”

“Yes: whatever happens, let Nancy have her vacation. She worked in hellish conditions for over four years, alone and at the mercy of an accident or act of random violence while in ancient Palestine. It is hard for a person of the Global Council to fully understand how harsh and uncomfortable life was in that time period.”

“Agreed! Actually, I am a bit jealous of her: the tourist resorts of the Jupiter system are said to be fantastic, but they are also very expensive. Before you go, could you bring me up to speed on the status of our historical documentary film on Yeshua?”

“Certainly! My team has finished reviewing and analyzing the latest data brought back by Nancy, which by the way is an absolute gold mine of historical information. The video scenes to be added to what we already had from the previous parts of her mission have been selected and the sound is being edited as we speak. Final film editing should be completed in about a week and, if your review of the draft version is favorable, we could release publicly the film in less than two weeks. There will be a General Audience version, appropriate for family viewing, plus an integral version for viewing by historians and forewarned individuals, which will contain the scenes cut out of the general version because of excessive violence or gore. Those people loaned from the Global News Network’s documentary production department work well and fast, by the way. We will have a product which we can be proud of and which will be a must see for any historian or history student.”

“That would be a nice change from being considered by many as strictly a band of armed mercenaries to be kept at a distance. Oh, I nearly forgot: have your production team decided on which musical score to use for that documentary?” Jan Bella grinned at that question: young Ingrid Weiss ‘B’ had actually made the suggestion about the musical score which had been eventually adopted.

“That part was actually easy, Farah. It will be a mix of songs and musical scores from the past, including some of the songs sung by Nancy during her mission. She after all has over 9,000 years of practice in singing, playing musical instruments and dancing and she has a beautiful voice. Why look far when you have such talent available at your fingertips?”

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21:08 (Central Europe Time)

Wednesday, February 17, 3385 ‘A’

Residence of the Global Chief Administrator

Zurich area, Central Europe

Tomi Kern saw immediately that her husband Boran looked preoccupied when she greeted him back from his work with her customary kiss.

“One of those bad days, Boran?”

“It could turn into one, Tomi. I have a difficult decision to take; one I may not like at all.”

Tomi gently put her index over Boran’s mouth.

“Don’t tell me now. Take the time first to put yourself at ease and to take a shower. After that, I have something nice to show you which will help you change your state of mind: Farah Tolkonen sent us an advance release copy of the Time Patrol’s first full length historical documentary. I was waiting for you so that we could watch it together.”

Boran smiled at those words, amused rather than pleased.

“So, our friend Farah can play politics like the best of the lot. Good for her!”

“What do you mean?” said Tomi, frankly confused by his reaction. Boran opened his briefcase and extracted a memory chip, presenting it to his wife as he answered her.

“I received today this report from Daran Mien, the Global Science Administrator. In it, he alleges that Nancy Laplante has grossly violated the operating protocols of the Time Patrol by bringing back from the past an ancestor of high historical significance. Farah Tolkonen is defending the actions of Miss Laplante but Mien still is calling for Laplante’s dismissal. Is the documentary you received about the life of a religious prophet named Yeshua?”

“Well, its title is ‘Yeshua of Nazareth, a man who changed history’.”

“That’s the one. I read both the arguments of Mien and of Tolkonen and I can’t make my mind on this. I am unfortunately too ignorant of history to gauge the real significance of some of the facts involved. Tolkonen is supported by Doctor Jan Bella, but Mien has enlisted the opinion of two top historians who contradict Bella’s arguments. I could use your advice on this, Tomi.”

Tomi nodded, smiling. This was not the first time that Boran asked for her advice on a sensitive issue. Their long-standing marriage involved professional cooperation as

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much as love and mutual respect. Tomi was an experienced politician and administrator in her own right, with degrees in multiple disciplines and an impressive pedigree of achievements in government service.

“Hmm, it looks like my studies in history will finally pay off. I will review Mien’s report while you shower, then we will look together at that documentary.”

“Thank you, love. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You would do your best, as always. Now, go have that shower: you really need one.”

Tomi then took the memory chip and went to her study while Boran went to their bedroom to undress. Powering up her computer, she inserted the chip in it and opened the file containing Daran Mien’s report. She read it carefully, then did the same with Farah Tolkonen’s report, which was attached as an annex. She reread a second time both reports to make sure that she fully understood the arguments presented in them. Laplante’s case was definitely a delicate one, Tomi had to conclude at the end of her reading. For good measure, Tomi printed one of the annexes which gave the chronology of Laplante’s mission in the past, so that she and Boran could understand better the documentary on Yeshua: this business of Common Era versus Hebrew calendar was quite confusing. The printed sheets in her hands, Tomi went back to the main lounge, where she found Boran already sitting on their favorite sofa, a glass of red Vermouth on the rocks in his hands. He looked at her questioningly as she sat next to him and grabbed the remote-control unit of the giant holographic screen covering a third of the wall facing them.

“So, what do you think of that report?”

“Both Mien’s and Tolkonen’s reports bring forth valid points. However, Tolkonen hit the nail about one important thing: Mien’s insistence in getting historical research done while the Time Patrol was still barely in its infancy did put severe operational stresses and limitations on Nancy Laplante. I am also not convinced that this Miriam of Magdala is really a pivotal historical figure. I guess that this documentary will help answer a few of the questions still in my mind. Ready?”

“Ready! I am actually dying to see it.”

Tomi started the viewing, then passed an arm around Boran’s shoulders. In response, his hand caressed her right leg, exposed by her opened robe. The opening scene showed a bearded man walking alone in a desolated, arid area, with the camera zooming in on his serene face as the title appeared in the background. The next five

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minutes were used by the documentary to explain the geography and history of the area of concern, with the help of maps and side pictures. The whole thing was accompanied by a musical score of haunting beauty which included songs in ancient languages. That first part alone was enough to raise the enthusiasm of Tomi, who was fully hooked by the time the story of Yeshua proper started showing. The next two and a half hours passed by quickly, with Tomi and Boran glued to the screen. The credits and pictorial review of the various characters involved in the documentary occupied another two minutes and were by no means the least interesting parts of the documentary, as Tomi avidly searched for the names of the artists who had composed the beautiful musical score. She and Boran were not a little surprised to see that all the music originated from Pre-Holocaust past. Two side pictures in particular attracted them, which showed two female ancestor singers whose performances had been extensively used in the documentary.

“Enya and Sarah Brightman… Damn! Too bad that their work is not available anymore: I would have bought their recordings in a second.”

“Who says that their work is not available anymore?” said Boran, an enigmatic smile on his face. “The Time Patrol is importing lots of music from the 20th and 21st centuries for use by their personnel. They even came to an understanding with Global Entertainment Network, the sister company of GNN, to make this music available to the public at no cost. A GEN music jockey even started recently a show dedicated to past music and songs. It is called ‘Musical tribute to the past’.”

“And you didn’t tell me before now? I could strangle you!”

“Uh, sorry, dear. So, what do you think? Should Nancy Laplante be praised or disciplined?”

“She should be praised, especially after seeing in what kind of conditions she worked in. That part when she was caught in the middle of a fanatical mob was truly scary: she was lucky to have survived it. As for the controversy concerning this Miriam of Magdala, Mien overlooked something that Tolkonen didn’t: the misogyny factor in history. Despite her obvious importance in the life of Yeshua, his disciples

systematically ignored or demeaned her and she was thus largely painted over in the historical texts of the time, like most of the women involved. Tolkonen was also right in pointing at the historical inexistence of Miriam’s coming child. Mien, like the huge majority of our citizens, doesn’t understand anything about religion and the way it affected the history of Humanity.”

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“You can actually count me in that lot, dear.” said softly Boran.

“And I won’t hold it against you: it is after all a very complicated subject where logic has little to no place. The so-called experts enlisted by Mien missed by a light-year on this subject. Had a son of Yeshua been born and subsequently become a matter of public knowledge, that boy would have totally changed the history of Christianity. Mien’s arguments instead center mostly on a statistical study based on the Chaos Theory in order to claim that Laplante has courted with historical disaster. Well, statistics are worthless where religion is concerned.”

“What about Mien’s argument that Laplante is turning into a dangerous religious fanatic, with her loyalty to the Global Council second to her loyalty to this so-called One? She did after all decide to bring Miriam only after hearing the said One tell her it was okay to do so.”

Tomi sneered in disdain on hearing Mien’s claim.

“Laplante, a religious fanatic? Give me a break! Just believing in a god seems enough for Mien to call someone a fanatic. This whole business about The One actually raises a number of questions of primordial philosophical and spiritual importance. In view of what happened to Laplante and of her powers, is it so implausible that such a being as The One could exist? If its existence is indeed possible, does believing in it make you a fanatic? Is this question worth losing the services of a person with such talents as Nancy Laplante?”

Boran grimaced as he considered Tomi’s arguments.

“In truth, there is also a purely political factor in this case, Tomi. Daran Mien, as well as Golen Bartok, the Global Chief of security, and a number of other members of the Council, is growing increasingly scared of Nancy Laplante and of her Time Patrol. She controls after all the only true armed group in our world and she did pledge loyalty to that One.”

“You know what, Boran? This reeks of both jealousy and racism. Do you know that I still hear from time-to-time other people calling the Ancestors of the Time Patrol ‘barbarians’? Another question for you: did Mien or Bartok ever risk their life in the service of the Global Council? The answer is never. On the other hand, they are accusing a woman who just spent four years working for us in conditions no citizen of the Global Council would ever accept and who has proved many times that she was ready to give her life to protect our citizens. Who are you going to trust, Boran? Mien can be replaced, but not Laplante.”

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Boran bowed his head, shaken by Tomi’s arguments.

“You are right, as always. I will respond to Mien accordingly and endorse Laplante’s actions. I will also confirm full citizenship for this Miriam of Magdala. I will however personally review the operating methods of the Time Patrol and have a long talk with Farah Tolkonen. If I have to risk my political career on this subject, then I better understand fully what is at stakes here.”

“A sensible move. By the way, did you like the documentary?”

“I loved it!” replied Boran, a smile returning to his face. “It should be a huge hit with the public. It probably will also wet the public’s appetite for more historical documentaries.”

“If it does, then please make sure that the Time Patrol is given the proper time to prepare before being pushed into another mission.”

“Oh, I got the lesson on that, Tomi.”

15:24 (Universal Time)

Saturday, February 27, 3385 ‘A’

Europa One Station, Europa moon

Jupiter system

Miriam, leaning forward on the inner sill of the large, thick armored window, sighed as she stared at the huge orb of Jupiter, which dominated the sky of Europa. The swirling, multicolored clouds of the famed Great Red Spot of Jupiter was currently facing the sixth moon of the giant gas planet, offering to the humans occupying the icy moon a majestic sight.

“God, I could watch this forever. This is the most wondrous sight I ever contemplated.”

“Well, we have been staring at it for half an hour now.” replied calmly Nancy, standing beside Miriam. “Don’t you want to see something else?”

“I suppose that we could go watch other things.” said Miriam, half convinced, while regretfully straightening up. “Still, Jupiter is such an impressive thing to look at. What else could we watch?”

“How about going to see what’s new at the station’s cinema?” Miriam grinned with excitement at those words: she had already watched two films on the giant viewing screens of the local cinema and had been fascinated by the experience.

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While her hotel room had a holoscreen viewer on which she could program any of the films held in the station’s extensive video library, the quality of the pictures when shown on giant screens was unbeatable. The number and variety of the films shown at the station’s cinema were also vast, even though 34th century films lacked the violent content of 21st century films. They however made up for that with a level of sexually explicit content that had at first made Miriam’s cheeks redden.

“I would like that very much, Nancy. Show me the way again, please: I am still getting lost in this place.”

Nancy didn’t make fun of her for that: Europa One Station was a truly big place, with all the facilities to house over a quarter of a million people, plus hangars and maintenance shops to service its astroport. Most of the station’s installations sat in caves dug in the 60-kilometer-thick crust of water ice covering Europa, with only a few observation domes and landing pads emerging from the ice into the cold vacuum surrounding the moon. Fortunately for them, the cinema was straight down from where they stood: a simple elevator ride would get them there.

Nancy and Miriam arrived at the cinema’s entrance six minutes later, to find a lineup already forming at the admission wicket. Nancy eyed critically the long line of people.

“Gee, they must have something brand new to attract this kind of lineup.”

“Nancy, look at that poster!” suddenly said Miriam excitedly, reverting unconsciously to Aramaic. “This film is about Yeshua.”

Nancy had one look at the poster and grinned with pleasure: it showed Yeshua walking in the Galilean hills, an anonymous group of followers behind him.

“I see that Jan Bella worked overtime on our documentary. Let’s go see it: I am really curious to see how my mission recordings turned out.” Followed by an eager Miriam, Nancy patiently followed the lineup of prospective viewers and paid the entrance tickets for both of them. Most of the other customers turned out to be also going to see ‘Yeshua of Nazareth, a man who changed history’. The big viewing room was nearly full when Nancy and Miriam sat mere minutes before the start of the show. Their hair and small size still attracted a few looks and whispered comments, but not as much as when they had arrived at the station three weeks ago. Miriam smiled with anticipation as the film started with a short historical review of the Palestine of the first century. That smile turned into a delighted grin when she saw on the screen Nancy,

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masquerading as Nauca the Sarmatian, approaching Bethlehem of Galilee on her robotic horse. She soon saw that the voices were in the original Aramaic, with subtitles in Neo-English, which added to her pleasure at watching the film.

Nancy, while enjoying the film tremendously, couldn’t help pay attention to the reaction of the Global Council citizens around her. Overall, they seemed fascinated by the movie, with whispered, horrified comments at the more primitive and violent aspects of life in ancient Galilee. Miriam herself, like the other viewers, gasped when Nancy was shown fighting for her life to escape an enraged mob of Jewish zealots in Jerusalem. Nancy’s headband micro-camera had captured well the danger and desperation of the moment, with dozens of hateful zealots punching and lounging at Nancy while she elbowed her way to safety. Thankfully, Miriam kept quiet when she first appeared on the screen, simply pressing Nancy’s hand then. She however quietly wept at the few scenes showing her in moments of intimacy with Yeshua, whose presence dominated the film. Those silent tears changed to a deep grief during the scene of Yeshua’s crucifixion, forcing Nancy to console her and quiet her down. Significantly, Miriam was not the only person in the cinema to cry then. She was still in tears when the film’s credits started appearing in the form of small windows opening on the screen, each showing one of the film’s characters and its name before shrinking in size and moving to the periphery of the screen. Yeshua was the first to be shown, with Nancy being fourth and Miriam being tenth. When the film ended and the lights came back on, Miriam needed a few seconds to emerge from the near trance she was in and to get up from her seat. That was when a number of spectators around her and Nancy realized who they were. Their collective reaction of surprise and wonderment towards them nearly scared Miriam, who still found the peaceful giants’ size intimidating. She however relaxed and smiled when a young girl came to her with a memo pad and an electronic pen.

“Could I have your autograph, Miss Miriam?”

“Uh, of course.”

Miriam signed her name in Aramaic, then let Nancy sign as well at the girl’s request. It took them a good fifteen minutes to leave the cinema, with dozens of people asking for their autographs on the way out. Emotionally drained by the film, Miriam went to a far corner of the hall outside the cinema, then knelt to silently pray for Yeshua’s soul, while Nancy patiently stood near her, providing her some intimacy from passersby. Her eyes

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were still red when she finally got back on her feet and faced Nancy, looking up into her eyes.

“Thank you for making possible for these people to learn about Yeshua and to honor his memory. I will owe you for eternity.”

Nancy gently smiled and caressed Miriam’s face with her hands.

“You don’t need to thank me, my friend. Getting to know Yeshua was a fascinating experience for me. The best way now to celebrate his memory is to take care of that child you are bearing from him. Now, let’s go find a good restaurant: I don’t know about you but I am famished.”

Thankfully for Nancy, they found a large food court near the cinema, adjacent to a commercial center. They walked along the line of food counters first to review the choice of menus, finally choosing a counter that served what looked close to Chinese cuisine to Nancy. The society of the Global Council was a thoroughly mixed racial pot, since few truly distinct cultures had survived the nuclear holocaust of 2052, but oriental flavors and styles seemed to have survived better than those of other cultures. Oriental food also had the advantage for Miriam of offering something that was generally acceptable to an observant Jew, if one took away the pork recipes, of course. Being an eternal news freak by professional nature, Nancy took a table close to an overhead viewing screen tuned to the local news station.

They were halfway through their meal, enjoying the food, when the newscaster’s tone abruptly changed to a somber mood, attracting Nancy’s attention as well as that of Miriam and of the other customers around her.

“Dear viewers, we have learned that a tragic accident just occurred on Io. The regular sightseeing shuttle which provides orbital tours of Io has crashed on the surface of that moon, with a total of 86 passengers and crew on board. The occupants of the shuttle are reported to be still alive, but their craft impacted near an active sulfur volcano and is quickly being buried under hot sulfur. Space Control is scrambling to assemble a rescue mission as we speak but the hellish conditions on Io will make any rescue operation very risky and tricky. We will keep you apprised of any new developments concerning this event as new information becomes available.” Nancy was already getting up from her seat as exclamations and comments went around the crowd of dinners.

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“Miriam, I want you to return to our hotel room and wait for me there.”

“Are you going to try saving these people, Nancy?” asked Miriam, anxious.

“Well, I will see first if anything can be done and…”

“Then I want to come with you.”

Nancy looked down at Miriam, dubious.

“Miriam, you are now three months pregnant and you know absolutely nothing about modern technology. You would actually be a hindrance in any rescue effort. I am sorry but you will have to wait for me at the hotel. Please don’t object further: I will have to move fast from now on if anything can be done for those people.” Miriam bowed her head in resignation.

“If you say so, Nancy. Please be careful.”

“I will, I promise. See you later, Miriam.”

Nancy then ran to a Community Security officer, the rather wimpish 34th century equivalent of a 21st Century police officer. The female giant, wearing a blue jumpsuit and silvery helmet, looked down at her with curiosity as Nancy addressed her in an urgent tone.

“Excuse me, officer, but could you show me the way to the Space Control central command post? I may be able to be of help to the people of the crashed shuttle on Io.”

“Are you a specialist in space operations, miss?” asked the ComSec officer, clearly dubious. Nancy ignored the thinly veiled snub in the woman’s voice and shook her head.

“No, but I am a field agent of the Time Patrol. I can make spacetime jumps by my own.”

The giant hesitated, then activated her helmet radio.

“Security Central, this is agent Rana Borlan. I have with me a woman Ancestor who claims to be a member of the Time Patrol. She wants to help with the rescue of the Io shuttle.”

Borlan listened for a few seconds to the radio reply, then looked at Nancy.

“I am told to lead you to the Space Control command post. Please follow me.” To Nancy’s annoyance, Borlan then started walking rapidly towards the nearest elevators.

“Uh, miss, could we run instead of walking? Every minute counts.”

“But you are so small. You won’t be able to follow me.”

“Don’t worry about me. Just run!”

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Borlan broke reluctantly into a sedate run, which Nancy easily followed. The giant was breathing hard and was sweating heavily when they arrived at their destination twelve minutes later, while Nancy was hardly breathing faster than usual. Two ComSec agents on watch at the entrance of the Space Control command post watched them approach with some surprise.

“Borlan, why did you run like this?” asked one of the agents, attracting an irritated look from Nancy, who answered for the female agent.

“Because we have a case of life and death situation in our hands, mister. A little physical exertion won’t kill her. I am Nancy Laplante, senior field agent of the Time Patrol, and I need to speak urgently with the person in charge of the rescue operation concerning the Io shuttle.”

The guard examined briefly Nancy’s Time Patrol badge and identity card, then opened the sliding double doors of the command post.

“Please go in, Miss Laplante.”

“Thank you!”

Nancy entered the command post, a large room full of workstations and giant viewing screens, and found inside a group of very dejected-looking men and women sitting around an electronic plot table. Nancy, shocked by their apparent inaction, walked quickly to the plot table.

“Who is in charge of the rescue operation for the Io shuttle?” she asked, nearly shouting. All the persons present looked at her, with one woman of mature age rising from her seat.

“I am! Dina Skorvalsen, Space Control Administrator on Europa. I suppose that you are Miss Nancy Laplante?”

“I am! Why is everybody sitting and apparently doing nothing? Are the people on the Io shuttle already dead?”

Skorvalsen shook her head sadly, answering in a muted voice.

“No, but they are as good as dead now. Let me show you.” The giant led Nancy to one of the wall display screens, where an overhead view of a portion of Io’s surface appeared.

“How familiar are you with the environment of Io, Miss?”

“I know from my astronomy classes that the surface of Io is made of a thick crust of solid sulfur floating on a sea of molten sulfur. Io is also subject to violent volcanic activity, with huge volcanoes shooting out thousands of tons of sulfur at velocities of up

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to 900 meters per second to altitudes which could attain 250 kilometers. Its surface is frigid, near the absolute zero, and there is no atmosphere to speak of.” Skorvalsen nodded once, satisfied by her knowledge.

“Add to that the fact that Jupiter’s gravity pull makes the crust of Io rise and fall by as much as a hundred kilometers, and the presence of a field of ionized particles accompanied by intense radiations and you get one of the most hellish environments in the Solar System. Our sightseeing shuttle was hit 45 minutes ago by a meteorite while over Io and then crashed on the surface. Only a few minor injuries resulted from that crash landing but our shuttle unfortunately plowed into the slopes of the Ra Patera volcano. It in fact crashed right in the middle of the main lava flow channel of Ra Patera and sank into more than fifty meters of sulfur lava.”

“Damn! Talk about a worst-case situation.”

“Exactly. Fortunately, our shuttle’s external hull was specially coated to resist the extremely corrosive sulfurous compounds found on and around Io, but it will still be eaten up and breached by boiling sulfur lava in a few hours. A space tug which witnessed the accident intervened immediately and tried to pull our shuttle out of the lava flow with a tractor beam but was unsuccessful: its tractor beams only managed to grab a few hundred tons of lava. The space tug was also severely buffeted by the erupting gasses and particles from Ra Patera and had to pull out to avoid crashing itself. The crew of that space tug is now in hospital on this station, suffering from severe radiation exposure. As sad as I am to say this, those 86 people on Io are going to die and there is nothing we can do about it. Even if someone managed somehow to get to that shuttle, that person would not be able to enter without flooding the entrance airlock with molten sulfur. That person would anyway be quickly exposed to a lethal radiation dose after less than an hour. It would be a hopeless suicide mission.”

“Maybe not.” said quietly Nancy, attracting a shocked look from Skorvalsen. “I would need to see the inner and outer layout of your shuttle first before deciding to go or not.”

“Miss, you are wasting your time. How would you enter the shuttle and take its occupants to safety anyway?”

To skorvalsen’s surprise, Nancy then disappeared in a flash of light. Her voice in the back of the administrator then made Skorvalsen turn around.

“Like this, miss. I can jump spacetime at will and enter that airlock without opening its door. Now, please show me those layout plans.”

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Feeling a bit of hope returning to her, Skorvalsen went to the plot table and punched in a set of commands on its control board, making the layout plan of a large shuttle appear on the plot.

“The main airlock is here, with a secondary one near the cockpit. Thankfully, safety regulations oblige all the passengers on this sightseeing run to either rent or bring their own spacesuits, even for the children. How do you plan to proceed, Miss?”

“First, I need someone to contact that shuttle if it is still possible and tell everybody inside to put on their spacesuits without delay, if that is not done already.” Skorvalsen looked at one of her assistants, who nodded his head.

“We are still in contact via an orbiting cargo ship. I will advise them now.” As the assistant ran to a workstation, Nancy looked at Skorvalsen.

“That cargo ship could be crucial in my rescue effort. I will bring the occupants of the shuttle to that ship’s orbit, if its crew accept to participate in the effort.”

“I am sure that Captain Mabratrang will cooperate to the fullest with you. What else?”

“I will need a fast ship to bring me as close as possible to the crash site. I will then go E.V.A. and dive into the sulfur lava to get to the shuttle. Once I am in position in front of the airlock, I will go inside it via a spacetime jump. Each passenger will then enter the airlock, one at a time, so that I can jump spacetime with one person directly from the airlock to the proximity of your cargo ship, which will then retrieve the survivor while I jump back to the shuttle. With any luck, I should have enough time to save the majority of the occupants of the shuttle before it is too late.” Skorvalsen and the others around looked at Nancy with horror.

“But your spacesuit will be eaten up by corrosive sulfur compounds in minutes. You will also be repeatedly exposed to lethal levels of radiations. This is pure suicide for you.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” replied calmly Nancy. “I have a few aces up my sleeve, miss. I will now go get my personal spacesuit while you get me that fast ship. I will be back here in less than ten minutes.”

Nancy then disappeared again, leaving Skorvalsen staring at the space she had been in. The administrator then quickly got back control of herself and started shouting orders at her assistants.

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Nancy appeared back into the command post nine minutes later, wearing a massive, mean-looking type of spacesuit and prompting an exclamation from Skorvalsen.

“By the stars! What kind of suit is this?”

“A Time Patrol combat spacesuit. It is heavily armored and is resistant to radiations, fire and acids. I should be able to withstand Io’s environment for a while. Is that fast ship ready?”

“It is waiting for you in hangar number twelve. I will have someone guide you there.”

“No time for that. Just give me the precise bearing and distance to it from here and I will jump directly to the hangar.”

Skorvalsen, getting accustomed by now to this spacetime jump business, cued her computer and got that information for Laplante. As soon as she got her coordinates, Nancy disappeared again. Skorvalsen then looked at the screen offering a view of hangar number twelve and saw Nancy running to the access ramp of the fast courier ship.

“There goes a brave woman.” she said quietly to herself. Unknown to her at this time was the fact that the local GNN news crew was already tapping into the video links used by the command post, something that actually was perfectly legal. Everybody on the station, including Miriam, could now watch Nancy run to the courier ship.

It took less than forty minutes for the courier ship to arrive above Io. The pilot, fighting off his fear, then dived towards the Ra Patera volcano, leveling off very close to the surface about 160 kilometers from the volcano and hugging the ground while approaching its crater. The volcano was still spewing a huge plume of sulfur ash and gas and corrosive dust kept raining down constantly as the ship stopped to a hover above a river of sulfur lava. The pilot then turned his seat to face Nancy, still wearing her massive spacesuit.

“We are directly above the shuttle, which has its emergency radio beacon on at maximum power. The cargo ship STAR HOPPER is waiting 140 kilometers above, with its main airlock open and with two shipmates wearing spacesuits ready to collect the survivors. I wish you the best of luck, miss.”

“Thanks, I will need it.”

Nancy got up and walked to an empty corner of the cockpit, then floated up before disappearing in a flash of white light. With all the ship’s external cameras recording, the

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pilot watched Nancy reappear below before she splashed down in the lava flow and disappeared. The pilot then hurriedly pulled his ship away from this hellish spot, climbing steeply and accelerating towards Europa: he needed to have his ship washed and decontaminated in a hurry before it became one big piece of rusted junk.

Unknown to the pilot of the courier ship and to the Europa personnel, Nancy’s combat suit was equipped with a shield generator which she switched on before splashing into the sulfur lava. Now as good as blind in the hot yellow liquid, Nancy used the signal from the shuttle’s radio beacon to guide herself. Surrounded by a protective bubble of vacuum, she bumped against the shuttle after a two-minute descent which felt like an hour to her. Using the laser radar sensor of her suit, Nancy quickly mapped the position she was relative to the shuttle and, using the built-in gravity drive of her suit, floated to the main airlock entrance. This was now the first dicey part of her plan: she would have to switch off her shield generator before jumping spacetime if she didn’t want to wreck the inside of the relatively cramped airlock. That meant in turn that she would be covered with hot, corrosive sulfur lava when appearing in the airlock. Clenching her teeth in cold determination, she carefully calculated her jump, then switched off her shield generator a fraction of a second before jumping. The sudden rush of yellow lava which engulfed her just before her jump made her heart thump hard. Then she found herself inside the shuttle’s airlock, but with sulfur covering her armored glass helmet and blinding her. Wiping away as best as she could the sulfur coat, she then spoke in her radio.

“Shuttle EXPLORER II, this is Nancy Laplante. I am inside your main airlock. Are you all suited up?”

The answer came quickly, with an elated female voice answering her.

“Thank heaven that you are here, miss. Yes, we are all suited up and ready to go.”

“Then, this is how we will proceed: I will take with me first the sole baby on board and its mother, then jump spacetime to orbit, where the cargo STAR HOPPER is waiting. Make sure to keep order in your passengers, so that no adult tries to jump the line in front of the children. I will also need a clean piece of cloth if you have one, so that I could wipe clean my helmet: it is covered with sulfur and I can hardly see anything through my visor. You may now open the airlock.”

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After a wait of a few seconds, the inner door of the airlock was pulled open and a giant woman wearing a spacesuit came in, a thick blanket in her hands. She then proceeded into quickly wiping clean her helmet and toweling off the worst of the sulfur coating Nancy’s suit. Throwing away the now smoldering blanket, the woman retreated inside the shuttle and pushed forward another woman holding the pressurized capsule used as spacesuits for infants. Before taking hold of the woman, Nancy quickly positioned in each corner of the airlock a time beacon which would help ensure that she would jump back precisely in the middle of the airlock on her return trip. Then taking the terrified woman and her baby in a bear hug, Nancy activated her gravity drive and floated off the deck with her charges. Resetting the time distorter of her suit, she initiated her jump, disappearing from the airlock and reappearing into the darkness of space, high above Io. As promised, a cargo ship waited a few kilometers above her. Her radiation alarm then beeped, signaling to her that she was now being exposed to strong radiations, but she shut off the alarm signal. Another, much shorter-range jump brought her and the mother and baby beside the ship, where light shone from the inside of an open airlock. A short dash brought them next to the airlock, inside which two men in spacesuits were waiting. Nancy smiled briefly to the woman she was holding.

“You are now safe, madam. I will propel you and your baby gently towards the airlock, so that those shipmates could catch you and guide you in.”

“I…I can’t thank you enough for this, miss. I…”

“Tell me later, Madam. I have to hurry and get the others out too.” Turning the woman and her baby around, Nancy then gently pushed them inside the airlock. Backing away a bit from the ship, she had her suit computer record her relative position, then jumped back to the inside of the shuttle’s airlock. She breathed in relief when she saw that her jump had been as accurate as hoped for. A small boy was then pushed forward inside the airlock. Nancy thought quickly and shouted at the female shipmate controlling the access to the airlock.

“If you have another small child, I will take it now.”

A small girl soon ran to Nancy, who hugged both children before jumping to the cargo ship. The cargo’s shipmates were ready when she pushed gently the children inside the ship’s airlock. Nancy did four more return trips with children and young teenagers before starting to ferry adults to safety. She was on her ninth trip, 21 minutes having passed since she had jumped off the courier ship, when the computer of her suit spoke aloud in her helmet.

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“Warning, excessive radiation exposure. You have now absorbed a total of 2,000 milli grays. You are approaching the threshold for permanent radiation damage.”

“I acknowledge, computer. My mission is not over yet, however. Please discontinue radiation warnings.”

Pushing to safety the young man in her arms, Nancy jumped yet another time to continue her rescue mission. Despite her earlier request, her suit’s computer came back as she was doing her twentieth trip.

“Warning, you have now absorbed a total of 5,000 milli grays. You have now attained the semi-lethal dose.”

Already suffering from nausea, Nancy nearly vomited as she was about to reply to the computer. She barely kept it in and, not saying a word, pushed the woman in her arms inside the cargo ship’s airlock. She jumped back to the shuttle’s airlock and barely had the time to open her visor and bend over before vomiting violently. The shipmate observing her from inside the shuttle’s cabin paled, realizing too well what was happening to Nancy. One of the male passengers still on the shuttle also understood and, panic on his face, pushed his way towards the airlock.

“Take me with you now! Don’t go away!”

The other passengers, their nerves already raw, either fought to keep the panicky man in place or rushed themselves towards the airlock. Constantly dizzy and sick now, Nancy realized with bitterness that she would be able at best to save one more person before becoming useless. In a supreme mental effort, she telekinetically pulled the female shipmate into her arms and closed her visor before jumping to the cargo ship. She was about to propel herself and the shipmate towards the cargo’s airlock when a popping noise and a sudden hurricane inside her suit told her that the sulfur compounds covering her suit had finally eaten through a part of it. Initiating a single impulse from her gravity drive, she shut her mouth and eyes, as she had been told to do to in case of explosive decompression, and hoped that the cargo shipmates would react fast enough. They fortunately did, grabbing both her and the female shipmate and pulling them inside the airlock before closing the outer door. Nancy was gasping desperately for air and was bleeding from the mouth, nose and ears as the airlock was being pressurized.

“Let’s get her out of this suit: it’s totally contaminated by now.” shouted the shuttle crewmember in her suit’s radio. The woman rolled Nancy over on her belly and, finding the emergency opening mechanism, activated it. The large hatch covering the back of the helmet and torso popped open, letting the woman pull Nancy out of her suit

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with the help of the two men in the airlock. The inner door of the airlock then opened and a third man came in, a radiation detector in one hand. Quickly passing it over Nancy’s body, he nearly recoiled from her when his instrument growled fiercely.

“Damn! She is violently radioactive. Keep away from her.”

“No way, mister!” replied resolutely the female shipmate. “She risked her life to save me and the others and I won’t abandon her.”

“She is going to die anyway, miss.”

“Not if I can help it. Get out of the way!”

Stunned by the woman’s fierceness, the man with the detector stepped aside, letting her drag Nancy inside the cargo ship’s locker room. Putting her gently down on the deck, the woman only then removed her spacesuit, throwing it inside the airlock once she was out of it. The two men who had been in the airlock did the same, knowing that their suits were probably also contaminated to a certain degree. Watched by the 24 other survivors from the shuttle sitting on benches around the locker room, the female crewmember knelt beside Nancy, who was throwing up on the deck, and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, miss: we will bring you to a hospital quickly.” Nancy’s response was to approach both of her shaking hands near her own face. Her whole body then started glowing faintly, making the woman beside her recoil in surprise and alarm.

“What the hell is happening to her?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said the man with the detector. “She is so radioactive that she is glowing.”

The woman gave him a mean look, then looked back at Nancy. The latter was still glowing but was slowly passing her hands over her body. After long minutes of tense silence, Nancy stopped glowing and her eyes fluttered open. Appearing weak and disoriented, she sat up and looked around her.

“I…I must go get the others. I will need another spacesuit.”

“No, miss!” replied firmly the female shipmate. “You should be dying now from all the radiation you took out there. I don’t know what you just did to yourself but returning to the shuttle would mean your certain death. You already saved 25 people, including me: that’s 25 more than we thought possible. Please, rest.” Nancy bowed her head, grief apparent on her face.

“Then, 61 persons will die.”

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“They are now dead, miss.” replied quietly one of the men who had been in the airlock. “The radio beacon of the shuttle has just stopped emitting. The lava must have eaten through the hull, like it did with your suit.”

There was a moment of grieving silence, with some of the women survivors crying. The female shipmate caressed Nancy’s face, from which patches of dead skin were starting to fall off.

“Miss, you are the bravest person I have ever met. I will never be able to thank you enough for what you did.”

Nancy looked up at her, tears in her eyes.

“It still wasn’t enough for those 61 persons. What is your name, miss?”

“Lori…Lori Spacek, space pilot third grade.”

The man with the radiation detector then approached Nancy again to check her out. His jaw dropped open after a few seconds.

“Nearly all the radioactivity has left her body. How could this be?”

“I healed myself. I will still need a shower to clean up the dead tissue on me and wash away the rest of the contamination.”

“Uh, sure. Follow me, Miss Laplante.”

Helped by Spacek, Nancy weakly got up on her feet, then started following the man with the detector out of the locker room. One of the survivors, the woman with the baby, then started applauding, soon followed by all the others present. Nancy, unable to keep it in, burst in tears.

23:18 (Universal Time)

Europa Station Hospital

Miriam, advised by videophone of Nancy’s whereabouts, arrived at the station’s hospital only to find a large crowd of people waiting anxiously in the reception lounge. A few were apparently what Nancy called reporters, a strange concept Miriam had quickly learned about in her first days in the 34th century, while the others appeared to be either friends or relatives of the people saved on Io by Nancy. Miriam’s arrival in the lounge temporarily brought quiet to the room as everyone looked with curiosity at her. Her small stature, pure Semitic racial type and long dark brown hair was still enough of a novelty around the station to cause such curiosity, which Miriam didn’t really mind. Right now,

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she was only interested in finding about Nancy’s condition. Most of the reporters however rushed to her before she could get to the information counter.

“Miss, are you a member of the Time Patrol, like Nancy Laplante?” asked the first reporter to get to her, a young man who towered three heads above her. Miriam shook her head emphatically.

“No, I am simply a friend of Nancy.”

“But you are obviously from the past.”

That was when a female reporter looked crossly at her colleague.

“Haven’t you seen that new documentary produced by the Time Patrol? She was brought from the past for her own protection.”

The female reporter then smiled to Miriam, who forced herself to smile back.

“Miss, do you know what happened on Io today?”

“No! To be frank, I still barely understand the things around me in this wondrous time. I came to see if Nancy was alright.”

The reporter looked a bit disappointed but then spotted a woman bearing a baby coming out of the examination area. Her haggard face and gaunt look marked her as one of the survivors, which was enough for all the reporters to switch their interest to her. Miriam sighed with relief as she was left alone and was able to walk to the information counter unhindered. A man with a gentle face greeted her from behind the counter.

“May I be of help, miss?”

Miriam bowed with her hands joined in front of her.

“Shelama! I am a friend of Nancy Laplante. Would it be possible to see her?”

“Let me check, please.”

The man worked briefly on his computer before smiling to Miriam.

“Miss Laplante is under medical observation but can receive visits. She is in room 221, one floor up from this one. Just go through those doors over there, then take the elevator to your left, to the second level. You will find a nurses duty station there, where you will get further directions.”

“Thank you!”

Miriam got to the nurses’ duty station easily enough, finding four nurses there, including a male one. They all looked with intense curiosity at her as she approached them and bowed politely.

“Shelama! I would like to see Nancy Laplante, if possible.”

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One of the nurses looked briefly at one of the video monitors of her workstation before answering Miriam.

“Miss Laplante is sleeping right now, miss. She had quite a rough day but is now apparently healthy. Doctor Kotwar has prescribed at least two days of close medical observation, to make sure that there are no aftereffects from the radiations she absorbed.”

“Those…radiations, they are some kind of poison?”

The four nurses looked at her with some surprise.

“You don’t know what radiation is?”

“Uh, no. I never learned about such things.”

One of the female nurses then stared at Miriam’s face.

“Wait! Aren’t you the widow of this Yeshua of Nazareth whose life was documented by the Time Patrol? You are from the 1st Century, no?”

“I am Miriam of Magdala and I was a follower of Yeshua.” Timidly answered Miriam.

“Can you mentally heal people, like Laplante and your Yeshua?” asked the nurse after a hesitation.

“No! They are the only two persons I know who can heal. Did Nancy heal someone today?”

“Yes, she did.” said the nurse, now looking definitely uncomfortable, like her companions. “She absorbed enough radiations to die in a few days but healed herself, then healed in this hospital six crewmembers who were also irradiated while trying to rescue our Io shuttle. This is…unexplainable.”

“It is the power of God, simply.” said Miriam with fervor. “God gave Nancy her powers, like He must have given his powers to Yeshua. Faith can accomplish miracles.” The four nurses exchanged troubled looks then: up to now, they knew or cared little about religions of any kind, personal philosophies being the most that Global Council citizens developed normally in terms of spirituality. The male nurse then got up from his chair and pointed down the hallway.

“If you will follow me, miss, I will show you Miss Laplante’s room.”

“Thank you. You are too kind.”

A short walk brought them to a small private room equipped with a wide assortment of medical sensors. Miriam saw that Nancy was effectively sleeping in a bed, looking serene. The male nurse looked at Nancy and shook his head.

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“When I think that she should be nothing more than a bloated, bleeding mass of tissue by now. This is all so incredible.”

Miriam couldn’t help look at the nurse with horror and fear.

“Those radiations, they are this terrible?”

The young man nodded his head somberly.

“Your friend absorbed over 5,300 milli grays of ionized radiation, enough to ensure death for any normal human being within a few days. With that kind of dosage, all the cells in her body should be breaking down and dying, leading to widespread internal bleeding and bloating of the tissues. We are still waiting for the results of genetics tests on her to see if her DNA suffered any damage. Normally, she would at the least become sterile for good. Your friend showed incredible bravery and self-sacrifice, miss.”

“As it would befit a Chosen of God.” replied quietly Miriam. “Would it be possible for me to sleep near her tonight?”

“I can bring in a portable cot for you, miss. Just make sure not to wake up your friend: she needs her sleep.”

“I will be careful.”

While the male nurse went away to get a cot, Miriam approached the bed and gently kissed Nancy’s forehead.

“God must be proud of you, Nancy.”

07:54 (Universal Time)

Sunday, January 23, 3385 ‘A’

Room 221, Europa One hospital

Europa, Jupiter system

Nancy was awakened by a kiss on her lips and slowly opened her eyes to see Mike Crawford, Ingrid Weiss ‘B’, Miriam of Magdala, Farah Tolkonen, Tom Allen and the Global Chief Administrator, Boran Kern, all standing around her bed and smiling widely. She sat up abruptly in her bed, taken by surprise, then returned their smile.

“My God! You certainly made it fast from Earth to here. Chief Administrator Kern, what are you doing here?”

“I came to honor a heroine, Miss Laplante. I also wanted to bring you a good news: you were cleared officially yesterday of all charges of negligence and

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incompetence concerning your mission in ancient Palestine. You can resume your duties whenever you want.”

“Please, Nancy, come back: we miss you.” added fervently Ingrid, making Nancy grin.

“How could I say no if it is asked in such a nice way? Besides, I was getting restless here, beautiful sights or not.”

“And that’s why you had to launch on this suicidal mission, Nancy?” asked Farah pointedly. Nancy’s smile faded as she stared at her giant friend.

“It may have been near-suicidal, but it was meant to save lives. My only regret is for not having been able to save all of those poor people on Io.”

“Nancy, I did speak with the doctor who took care of you and I also went to inspect what was left of your combat spacesuit. Your suit’s computer warned you twice that you had absorbed excessive amounts of radiation. As for your suit, it was corroded through in at least four places and is so radioactive that it will have to be embedded in concrete and dumped back on Io. It was a suicidal mission.”

“Gee! Are you going to dock the cost of my spacesuit from my pay, Farah?”

“Nothing so drastic, my heroic friend. Chief Administrator Kern will administer your punishment.”

Boran Kern then got closer to her bed and took a small velvet-covered box from one pocket of his suit, opening it and taking out an elaborate medal made of gold and rubies and attached to a long purple ribbon.

“Miss Laplante, it is my true pleasure to present you the first Valor Cluster medal ever awarded since its introduction by the Global Council a month ago. By your courage and spirit of self-sacrifice, you saved the lives of 25 citizens of the Global Council facing certain and horrible death.”

Kern then passed the ribbon over her head, letting the medal hang from her neck. Nancy looked for a moment at the medal, deeply moved, as the others applauded her warmly. Miriam applauded as well. Kern smiled warmly to the young Palestinian woman.

“So, you are the one who started this whole case, miss. I have to say that Miss Laplante did well to bring you with her.”

“She was just obeying a last wish from Yeshua, sir. I still don’t understand what the fuss was all about.”

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“I will explain it to you later, Miriam.” cut in Nancy, who then looked back at Kern. “Chief Administrator, I was not alone in risking my life in yesterday’s rescue effort: the crews of the space tug which tried to pull out the shuttle and of the courier ship which brought me to Io’s surface richly deserve recognition for their courage as well.”

“I have not forgotten them, Miss: the crewmembers of the space tug HERCULES will get each the Star of Courage, while the pilot of the courier ship MERCURY will get the Time Star. I must thank you in passing for having healed the crew of the HERCULES. You saved them from a long and painful recovery.” That last word seemed to awaken some kind of worry in Nancy, who looked questioningly at Farah.

“Farah, this is the first time that I had to face the effects of radiations. I healed the others and myself but I am not sure that I canceled out all the damage. Did Doctor Kotwar get the results of my DNA’s analysis? Will I be able to have normal children in the future?”

“I did speak with Doctor Kotwar on this and other things, Nancy. As far as he can see, you seem fully healed. However, I want to run a full series of tests on you once back in New Lake City. Even a single distorted or missing chromosome could spell tragedy for any future child, so I won’t take any chances with this. You will come back with us today on Ingrid’s scoutship, I hope?”

“I will, Farah. It is high time that I resume training our apprentices.”

“Uh, what about me?” asked timidly Miriam. “I am starting to feel useless in this world full of mechanical wonders. What shall I do to be productive and not be simply a burden on your people?”

Nancy smiled gently to her and patted her shoulder.

“Miriam, you once told me that the people of Galilee called you a sinner because you arranged the hair of other women. Lynda Crawford, the wife of one of our apprentices, is currently the only person in this century who is qualified and experienced in hair care and she could certainly use an assistant. Would you be interested in taking on that position?”

Miriam’s big grin was an answer by itself.

“That would be marvelous! I really could take that job?”

“Consider yourself hired, Miriam.” said Farah in a definite tone, making Miriam jump with joy.

499

19:17 (North America Central Time)

Monday, July 11, 3385 ‘A’

Maternity section, New Lake City University Hospital American Great Lakes area, Global Council

“Here they come!” nearly shouted in excitement Elizabeth Windsor ‘B’, waiting with seemingly every Ancestor member of the Time Patrol in the visitors’ lounge of the hospital’s maternity section. The British teenager and the others quickly lined up on each side of the door just before a tired-looking Miriam of Magdala entered, sitting on a wheelchair pushed by a nurse. All eyes immediately went to the small baby Miriam held in her arms, wrapped in a blue cloth.

“Isn’t he beautiful?”

“He is so cute. Could I hold him?”

Smiling with pride, Miriam carefully handed over her baby to Amelia Earhart.

“His name will be David, as he is from the House of David, like his father Yeshua.”

“I can’t believe that I am holding the son of Jesus Christ right now.” said softly Amelia, attracting a retort from Lilya Litvyak.

“If you can’t believe it, then pass him to others who will.”

The baby boy, his eyes still closed, pushed a small whimper as he changed hands, prompting the petite Russian blonde in kissing his forehead.

“Don’t worry, little David: you will have many aunts and uncles to take good care of you.”

“May I have him for a moment?” asked a male voice behind Lilya. The Russian turned around to hand the baby over, then froze in utter disbelief as Yeshua, wearing an ancient robe, took delicately his son in his arms. Everybody present except Miriam and the nurse fell to their knees in reverence as Yeshua approached Miriam with the baby. Miriam was as stunned as the others but still managed to get up from her wheelchair to kiss Yeshua.

“I had thought that I never would have seen you again, my love. Are you here to stay?”

Yeshua slowly shook his head while smiling to her.

500

“I cannot, sweet Miriam. I now serve The One for eternity, but he sent me to see my son and you and to bless both of you. Please, sit down, Miriam: you are weak and must rest.”

She did so, then watched Yeshua apply one hand to little David’s head and start a prayer in Hebrew as his hand glowed. Yeshua went on for a few seconds, with little David’s body bathed in a halo of soft light, then handed the baby back to Miriam before looking at the people kneeling around him.

“May The One be with you all, good people. Great things, but also great tragedies await you.”

Yeshua next faced Nancy, who was kneeling like the others.

“This applies especially to you, Nataï, but The One will be with you. Shelama, all of you.”

Yeshua then vanished into thin air, leaving the spectators stunned for a few seconds. Most went next to Miriam and her baby, touching and caressing little David. The infant was now quiet and had his brown eyes open, looking at the adults around him. Amelia Earhart had tears in her eyes as she caressed his cheek.

“He is truly blessed by God now. You will be a special child to us, little David.”