CHILDREN OF TIME (2025 Edition) by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 6 – ALTERNATE FUTURE

08:14 (Auckland Time)

Wednesday, May 23, 2,999 B.C.E.

Time Patrol main base, future site of Auckland

New Zealand

Farah Tolkonen eyed carefully Nancy Laplante as the Canadian entered her office: while Nancy was still officially a senior field agent of the Time Patrol, she was also a semi-independent operator who had connections of a quasi-divine nature and who answered as much if not more to the powerful being called ‘The One’ as to Farah. The powers Nancy held as a Chosen of The One were indeed of great benefit to Farah and to the Time Patrol but they also could create problems, as they nearly did in 2014 ‘A’, when Nancy had been targeted by the Israeli secret services following a most unfortunate chain of events. Thankfully for Farah and the Time Patrol, Nancy was too honest and decent a person to even think about using her powers for her personal benefit. If anything, Nancy’s uncommon generosity and compassion tended to land her in trouble. However, Farah was not about to criticize Nancy for being a nice person.

“Good morning, Farah!” said Nancy, smiling to her friend and superior.

“And a good morning to you as well, Nancy. You wanted to talk to me about something?”

“I did!” replied Nancy, taking place in an armchair facing Farah’s desk. She was dressed in her gray Time Patrol work uniform and looked as fit as ever, despite her giving birth recently to twins. “I need to go explore the 34th century of timeline ‘B’, to see what replaced the Imperium. We know already that, whoever they are, the people of the rewritten timeline ‘B’ have manipulated history by introducing Yeshua into the 1st century. We certainly want to know if they made more manipulations and modifications to history. Simply waiting for them to show up would be asking for a disaster.”

“I would tend to agree with you on that: Yeshua was already a hell of a big pill to swallow as far as manipulation of history goes. If these people from the future of timeline ‘B’ go at it again, there is no way to know how bad the damage will be. Would you want to go with a team or alone?”

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“Definitely alone, Farah. In view of the mental powers which Yeshua possessed, those people probably have paranormal powers as well. Even if their powers are weak compared to my own powers, they would still be very dangerous to our field agents. Only I could face them and have a chance to complete the mission.”

“But we know nothing about them. We don’t even know how they look like or what language they speak. We should at least send a scout ship do a discreet survey from orbit before you go.”

“Farah, just the mental thoughts of our crew could be enough to give them away. What if those people take the emergence of a scout ship as an act of war and attack us? Are you ready to deal with hundreds of people with the same kind of powers as me? On the other hand, a single visitor from the past could hardly pass as an invasion for them.”

“If that person is you, then you could be considered a one-person invasion force, in view of your powers.” joked Farah. She however turned serious again, looking straight into Nancy’s eyes. “I meant to ask you about your powers, Nancy. The biggest power you showed yet was what you call a healing burst, a power that is definitely a positive one, apart from being impressive as hell. I know that you can and did make some persons burst into flames from the inside but do you have destructive powers of the scale of your healing burst?”

Nancy was silent for a moment, something that actually scared Farah: if Nancy hesitated to answer her on that, then it probably meant that she possessed such powers. Nancy finally spoke in a slow, cautious voice.

“Farah, as a Chosen of The One I am tasked with promoting protection and justice. Protection of the innocents from acts of evil or calamities and justice for all. I never had to use all of my powers yet, even if I was furiously tempted to do so at times, and I can assure you that you don’t want to see their full extent. In essence, if the situation warrants it, I can tap on the full power of The One itself. I can also become a focusing point for The One, in which case I basically become The One temporarily. Healing bursts are cases when The One and I formed a single entity. The feelings and thoughts that came with those unions are simply impossible to describe, Farah.”

“I will take your word on that, my friend. So, when do you want to go explore timeline ‘B’?”

“As soon as I can change into something more anonymous than my present uniform. A good old robe will do just nicely, as it is about the most timeless piece of garment ever devised. I will also wear my old headband with micro-camera, of course. I

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will go to the London of May 23, 3387 ‘B’. If the Imperium is truly dead, then London will be the best place to verify that.”

09:00 (GMT)

Wednesday, May 23, 3387 ‘B’

London, England

Nancy materialized fifty meters above the Thames River, close to where the government buildings of Whitehall district had been in the 20th century. Levitating in midair, she did a quick visual scan around her to make sure that no flying vehicle was about to collide with her, then examined with interest the city below her. It was nothing like the London of 1942 or the one that had been the capital of the Imperium. In fact, it was a much smaller city than what she had known in 2014 ‘A’. Nearly all the historical landmarks she had known before were gone, replaced with modern buildings which were well separated, with plenty of green space between them. There were lots of pedestrian trails but none of the streets that had crisscrossed London for centuries. This civilization definitely had no resemblance with that of the Imperium. Reassured in that aspect, Nancy floated down to the left bank of the Thames, landing on the stone trail which ran along the river. There were hundreds of people within sight of her, but the most attention she got was a few admiring stares from men nearby. The people were standard humans, rather tall by 21st century average but not by much. They had hair on their heads and some men sported beards and mustaches. More than a few of the people she could see were actually flying, apparently by levitation, but at quite a lazy pace by her own standards, and stayed at low altitudes. The local fashion seemed to be unisex in style, with robes made of elaborately embroidered holographic silk being apparently in favor. Something bothered Nancy at once but it took her some time to catch on to what it was: children were rare in proportion to the number of adults visible. At least, the language should not be much of a problem: it sounded very close to Neo-English and she figured that she would probably pass as someone with a strong provincial accent. The city was a quiet one for its size, with the only vehicles going around being air cars and other, bigger flying vehicles meant for cargo hauling.

Following the left bank of the Thames, Nancy walked at a leisurely pace towards what had been Trafalgar Square, actually enjoying her stroll while the cameras in her

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headband filmed what she looked at. Neither the roundabout nor the column supporting the statue of Nelson were there anymore but what was there both stunned and shocked her. Standing in the middle of a small park where the square had been was a large bronze statue of a woman who looked furiously like herself, dressed in what appeared to be an Arabic robe very similar to the one she was presently wearing. Feeling blood rush to her head, Nancy slowly approached the statue, which stood on a stone base and looked very ancient. A bronze plaque was fixed to the base and bore an inscription she was easily able to read.

“In honor of Nancy Laplante, The Creator. Overseer of the Holy Land. Queen of Jerusalem. Protector of the innocents. 1982 – 2012 ‘A’, 1942 – 2997 ‘B’.” She was still staring at the plaque, utterly stunned, when a little girl’s voice returned her attention to her surroundings.

“Mommy, look! The woman looks like the statue.”

Looking to her left, Nancy saw a girl of maybe six or seven years pointing her to a woman who was obviously her mother. The woman, along with a growing number of passersby, was staring at her with doubt and disbelief. The girl insisted, actually breaking free from her mother’s hold and coming to two paces of Nancy, smiling up at her.

“Are you The Creator?”

The question, asked with all the innocence of youth, made Nancy melt inside. Crouching in front of the child, she grinned to her.

“I prefer to be called Nancy. And what is your name, my little angel?”

“Sarah! Are you THE Nancy Laplante?”

Nancy decided then and there that hiding her identity would be both futile and counter-productive.

“My name is effectively Nancy Laplante and I just arrived from the past. Why am I called ‘The Creator’ here?”

“But…because you made us all!” replied the girl as if it was a law of the universe. Those words actually made sense to Nancy: by erasing the Imperium and changing the history of timeline ‘B’, she had effectively made possible the existence of all the people living in this time period. She was not sure however that she liked the idea of being worshipped like this. She caressed gently the long brown hair of the child.

“Sarah, I like to be called Nancy much better than be called The Creator. I am only a woman, after all.”

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Nancy then straightened up and looked at the girl’s mother, who appeared overwhelmed by the events.

“Could you tell me where the government offices are in this city, madam?”

“Uh, you are quite close to them actually, Creator. The City Hall is that bronze and blue glass building behind you.”

“Thank you for the information, madam. It was a pleasure to meet you, Sarah.”

“Could you visit my home tonight?” asked quickly the girl, hopeful. That made Nancy smile but the girl’s mother chided her.

“Sarah, that’s not polite!”

“Please, don’t rebuff her: her enthusiasm is quite normal for such a young child. If you don’t mind, I would love to pay her a visit today. At what time will she be out of school this afternoon?”

The blank look from the mother rang an alarm bell in Nancy’s mind.

“School? There are no such things left around, miss. Children are too few and far between now to justify the need for such an antiquated institution. Sarah learns at home, with me. You may come at any time this afternoon, miss. We live in apartment 14, building 35-06-22-17.”

The woman took out a small card from a belt pouch and gave it to Nancy.

“My name and address are on this card, miss. We will be honored to have you for supper.”

“Thank you, madam. I will certainly come by the end of the afternoon.” The little girl was jumping with joy as Nancy put the card in her belt purse and left with a last smile at the child. She was starting to walk towards the City Hall when she felt the light brush of a mind trying to read her thoughts. She immediately closed herself telepathically but didn’t look back. That those people had some mental powers was now obvious. The thing about children being rare was however something with possibly far reaching meaning. In fact, only a society where deaths were rare could afford to have few children. That meant in turn either long lifespans or even near immortality. She would definitely have to research that point. Thinking about it, there was a lot she should research before visiting the local government officials. Her mind made, she sent a mental command to her implanted time distorter and entered phase shift, switching to her own little bubble of time. She then disappeared suddenly from the view of the local people, while they apparently froze in her eyes, their time passing much more slowly than her time.

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Now invisible and nearly undetectable, Nancy explored the district she was in, trying to find something that would look like either a museum or a public library. She found one of the latter and was delighted to see that it had both electronic data banks and old-fashioned paper books. Going through the rows of books while still in phase shift, she soon found the section dedicated to history books and reviewed the various titles. Only when she had located three books of immediate interest to her did she return to normal time after checking that nobody could see her. With the three books under one arm, she calmly walked to one of the numerous reading tables and sat down. The people in the library paid only scant notice to her as she started sifting through the first book, one titled ‘History of humanity – From the antiquity to the present’. The hour she spent reading through it was time well spent, as it answered many of her questions about this society. The parts about ancient history, meaning pre-technological ages for the locals, were full of mistakes and suppositions which made Nancy sneer more than once. The periods starting with the 19th century were much better documented, though. One period of high significance for Nancy as well as for the locals, who called their society ‘The World Council’, was the 29th century. That time was called ‘The Psionic Renaissance’ and marked the appearance in growing numbers of people with previously unheard of mental powers. At first, those psionics, as they were called, were treated with hostility by non-psionic people, sometimes to the point of being hunted down. The number of psionics however increased rapidly at one point, possibly due to an increase in background radiation causing genetic mutations, until they had become the majority. The non-psionics then basically got back what they had sown. Widely considered as inferior beings by the psionics and often being called so, they were gradually pushed to the lowest levels of the society and forbidden from reproducing, with measures such as forced sterilization being applied to them. With short life spans compared to the close to 400 years a person of the World Council could hope to attain, the non-psionics eventually became extinct. Then, in the 31st century, a further split happened in the Humanity. Many people, realizing that their mental powers could replace a number of technological devices in their lives, decided to return to a simpler, non-technological form of life. Gradually forming simple agricultural and pastoral societies in the regions of the globe with the most benign weather, they soon became known as the ‘Edons’. The book Nancy was reading ended with a part dedicated to the growing attraction of Edon for many citizens of the World Council. It was now at the point that technological progress

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and even the maintenance of the actual technology of the World Council was becoming more and more problematic because of a severe lack of people interested in technical careers.

Nancy then opened the second book, one that was of direct personal interest to her, as it was supposed to explain the ‘Legend of The Creator’. Nancy chuckled at first while reading what was supposed to have been her story: the passage of time and the resulting deformation of the information made for a captivating but also wildly inaccurate picture of herself. There was however a passage clearly mentioning the prior existence of the Imperium and the fact that Nancy had created the present timeline by traveling back in time and changing history. There were also many mentions made of the Time Patrol but the information pertaining to it was mostly inaccurate and based on hearsay. There was one fair quality picture showing herself as Overseer of the Holy Land, dressed in a robe very similar to the one she was wearing right now and with a gold tiara on her head. Her mental powers were explained by the affirmation that she had been the first true psionic in history, while there was no mention at all of The One.

Now more disturbed than amused, she closed the second book and grabbed the third one, titled ‘Time travel and history’. That book turned out to be mostly of a speculative nature and never said that the World Council had been able to find the secret of time travel. Nancy knew better, however. Her own travel to the past from 2012 to 1940 was however related, along with the interference by the Imperium with the year 1942 and her counter-move, which eventually made the existence of the World Council possible at the expense of the Imperium. The book’s last part asked the reader about what could happen to history if a number of hypothetical cases happened. Nancy felt her blood freeze when she saw that one of those hypothetical cases was about the introduction of a psionic in the distant past. The author justified that in order to supposedly close a time causality loop and make possible the appearance in history of a religious figure whose existence could not be explained otherwise. That religious figure was named: it was Jesus Christ! Another case described how agents of the World Council could visit and study the past while impersonating ancient deities in order to explain their psionics powers. Nancy, frankly alarmed by now, looked at the name of the author on the cover of the book.

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“Sheryl Ekart, Doctor of history… We will definitely have to have a serious chat together, Doctor Ekart.”

Consulting mentally the internal clock integrated to her implanted time distorter, she then realized that she had spent over two and a half hours reading the three books she had selected. Her stomach also reminded her that she was close to noon hour. Getting up from behind the reading table, she brought the books back to their proper place and walked towards the exit. On second thought, she took a few minutes to visit the washrooms and then went to the service counter of the library, where two young women were working. One of the women smiled to Nancy when she arrived at the counter.

“May I help you, miss?” she asked in the quasi Neo-English used in the World Council.

“You may, miss. I am a visitor here in London and I have only gold and silver as currency on me. Is there a place where I can change some of it into the local currency?” The woman gave her the cautious look one would give to a visitor from some far away, backward place. She also looked up and down at Nancy’s relatively simple robe and at her headband.

“Ah, you must be an Edonist! The best place for you would be a jeweler. There is one in the second building to the left once you go out of this building.”

“Thank you!”

The jeweler store was easy enough to find and the clerk accepted readily to change two of Nancy’s small gold unmarked coins for 240 units of the local currency, called the Hex. Nancy put the holographic chips in her belt purse and thanked the clerk before leaving the store. She then walked back towards the City Hall while looking around for a restaurant. There were quite a few of them around, this sector seeming to be both a commercial and a governmental one. She chose a small restaurant that served grilled meats cooked in front of the customer and served with rice. She ordered kebabs and ate quickly once served: the people at City Hall must have been warned of her arrival and were probably wondering where she was by now. She was nearly finished eating when her eyes caught the approach of four big men dressed in black coveralls and boots and wearing helmets. They also had what appeared to be pistols worn from their belts. Their appearances and the nervous looks some of the customers at the restaurant gave them were enough for Nancy to tag them as some sort of security officers. The four men in turn quickly spotted her and walked resolutely in her direction.

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Nancy watched them with one eye while she paid her bill and got up from her table, ready to enter phase shift in an instant. The officers soon stopped in front of her and bowed their heads in respect to her, with one of the men speaking.

“Are you Nancy Laplante, miss?”

“I am! What may I do for you, gentlemen?”

“The High Administrator of London sent us to tell you that she would be honored to receive your visit today, Creator.”

“I will be pleased to meet her, and please call me simply Nancy or Miss Laplante. I may have unwillingly created this timeline but I am still only a simple woman. Please show me the way.”

There were surprised exclamations around the other customers at those words, with the people nearby bowing their heads at Nancy’s passage as the four men escorted her towards the City Hall.

Going up the stone stairs of the City Hall building, the group entered through glass sliding doors into a large reception lobby and went to a bank of elevators. The security officers were polite at all times with her but Nancy understood by the way they watched her that she didn’t really have a choice in following them.

She was finally introduced into a huge office on the fourth floor, where a woman flanked by two men bowed to her before speaking up.

“Welcome to the World Council and the City of London, Miss Laplante. I am Lara Bowen, High Administrator of London. Would you like to sit down, miss?”

“With pleasure, Lady Bowen.”

Nancy, Bowen and the two men sat in sofas around a low table, with the High Administrator waiting until two servants brought a tea service and served cups to all four before addressing Nancy.

“May I present my two top aides, Charles Hoddens and Dick Pond. I was quite excited when told that you had appeared in the city this morning, miss. May I ask what brings you here through the times?”

“Simple curiosity mostly, Lady Bowen. The Time Patrol, of which I am a senior agent, spent a lot of effort and also suffered losses in order to change the history of World War Two in 1942 and thus erase the Imperium from this timeline. I wanted to make sure that the Imperium was indeed erased and decided to come to check personally. Are you familiar with what the Imperium is, Lady Bowen?”

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“Only through old legends, miss.”

“Then let me elaborate a bit. The Imperium was a militaristic, technically highly advanced society which existed for centuries in this timeline as a result of the involuntary changes to history I made in 1940 and as a result of a nuclear war decades later. When the Imperium discovered how to travel through time in the year 3385, it unfortunately acted very rashly and went to the point of sending a military expedition to 1942, a move which forced the Time Patrol to react in order to protect history. Since the Imperium was too powerful militarily to be defeated directly in battle, the Time Patrol and I decided to erase it by modifying history in 1942. That plan was apparently successful and the modifications we made to history resulted in your society replacing the Imperium in this timeline. I will now be able to report back to the Time Patrol that the Imperium is indeed dead.”

“And how did you travel through time, if I may ask? Nobody mentioned seeing a time machine when you appeared, miss.”

Nancy touched her head and smiled.

“It is all in the head, Lady Bowen. I just need to think it to travel to a given date and time. I am sorry if I didn’t come to visit you right away but I took a few hours to visit your city and get acquainted with your society. Your London is a fine place indeed.” Lara Bowen tensed up very slightly at those last words but kept smiling to Nancy.

“I am happy to hear that, miss. Do you intend to visit other places after London?”

“I would actually like to be able to speak to the central government of your World Council, Lady Bowen, in order to arrive at an understanding on the protocols concerning time travel.”

“But… I do not believe that we know how to travel through time, miss.” said Bowen, looking and sounding truthful. Nancy couldn’t however scan her telepathically to check on that since the people of the World Council, as natural telepaths, could block out their minds at will.

“That is one of the things I would like to discuss with your central government, Lady Bowen.” replied Nancy, non-committal. “A video link would suffice on my part.”

“Then, I will certainly arrange a call between you and the Grand Administrator at once! Dick, could you take care of that?”

“Certainly, High Administrator.” said the man, getting up from his sofa and leaving the office. Lara Bowen then looked back at Nancy.

“May I ask you if there are many psionics like you in the 20th century, miss?”

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“There are two toddler boys who have mental powers like me, Lady Bowen. I also recently gave birth to twins who have started to show some signs of having mental powers.”

“That’s all?” Said Bowen, truly surprised and also a bit disappointed.

“That’s all! Furthermore, there probably won’t be any others for quite a while.”

“Oh dear! Don’t tell me that the non-psionics are hunting you down.”

“In two of the three timelines I roam, they would actually be afraid of psionics and would try to capture us for studies. I must tell you that we do not hold our mental powers from some genetic mutation, Lady Bowen. The two boys and I were given our powers by a higher spiritual being of immense power, a being I call ‘The One’. I actually am a Chosen of The One and promote his values through time. The One is immaterial but he is everywhere and is the source of all human spirits. Are you familiar with the concept of reincarnation, Lady Bowen?”

Bowen, shaken by Nancy’s revelations, nodded after a second of hesitation.

“I read about it. Your ‘One’, is he a kind of god?”

“Most people would call him so in view of his powers. I wouldn’t equate it with God, though. I mentioned reincarnation because The One, as the source of our spirits, is central to the concept.”

Nancy then spent a few minutes describing to the two World Council officials the reincarnation cycle and the fact that she could remember her past lives and skills. Bowen looked back at her with awe and envy.

“You can remember 9,000 years of history? This is fabulous! You must possess skills that are long forgotten by now.”

Nancy nodded gravely.

“I can play ancient music and sing songs long forgotten; live off the nature in about any climate and terrain and fight proficiently with about any weapon ever invented. I however can also remember countless human tragedies, including more than a few personal ones. I was man and woman, peasant and warrior, noble and merchant, and roamed all the continents of Earth during a total of 93 lives. I have lately developed a mental technique to awake the souvenirs of past lives in other people, something I make my friends profit from. It however takes some time to awake a significant number of past life memories in a person.”

“It must be quite an experience, miss.”

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“It can also be a traumatic experience if you went through a tragic life once, Lady Bowen.”

Dick Pond then walked back into the office and whispered in Bowen’s ear for a moment, following which Bowen got up and excused herself for a moment, leaving Nancy with the other male assistant, Charles Hoddens. She smiled to the man while grabbing her cup of tea for a sip.

“And what is your function, Mister Hoddens?”

“I am the City Assistant Administrator and right hand man of Lady Bowen, miss. Your life sounds like a positively fascinating one, I must say. Did you travel a lot in the distant past, I mean in your present body?”

“Not that much yet, sir. The period of the Second World War and its immediate aftermaths has kept me very busy for a few years of my personal time and I only recently was able to start exploring other time periods in earnest. The Palestine of the 1st century was the goal of my first extensive study trip.”

If the man knew about Yeshua and the ones who inseminated Miriam of Nazareth, he didn’t let it appear.

“And what is it like to live around such barbarians? They must be quite inferior to you or me in all respects.”

Nancy kept a straight face with some difficulty, blocking her surge of anger towards the World Council official.

“Mister Hoddens, you would be surprised by how much wits and character one needs to survive in ancient times. Yes, they were ignorant and superstitious by modern standards but the men and women of ancient times were far from stupid. In fact, I am sure that you would be impressed by the skills of some of the merchants and local administrators I met during my travels.”

“Really? I suppose that studying the life of one of those persons could be interesting.”

“It would indeed. You may even learn from them.”

Hoddens smiled in amusement at that, making Nancy wish she would be allowed to send him back in time for some hard-nosed lesson in humility.

“You think so, miss? Whose career would be worth reviewing for me, in your opinion?”

“I have quite a few in mind, but Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt would definitely be a good case to study. Other ones would be Queen Elizabeth I of England and Cardinal

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Richelieu of France, both great statespersons. All three of these rulers truly made history, each in their own way. Queen Cleopatra was a refined and intelligent woman and a born seductress, even if she was not in reality the physical beauty she was claimed to be. Queen Elizabeth was a woman of iron will concerned with the good of her subjects, while Cardinal Richelieu must have been one of the all times masters of political intrigue. Believe me, Mister Hoddens, history is full of great people, even if they were not psionics.”

“If you say so, miss.” replied Hoddens, not sounding too convinced. Lara Bowen then came back, smiling to Nancy.

“The Grand Administrator of the World Council, The Honorable Den Roklan, would like to speak with you on a private line, Miss Laplante. If you may follow me.”

Nancy was then led into a smaller office adjacent to the main office which looked like a private study. Bowen showed her a videophone on the work desk and left her alone in the room. Nancy sat in the luxurious swivel armchair behind the desk and looked in the screen of the videophone, where the head and upper torso of a mature man was visible. She bowed her head in respect.

“Shelama, Grand Administrator. It is an honor to speak with you.”

“And it is an honor to speak with the legendary Creator. The City Administrator has told me quickly what you told her and stated your wish to discuss the subject of time travel. May I inquire why you want to discuss that particular subject, Miss Laplante?”

“You may, Grand Administrator. I have very serious reasons to believe that members of the World Council traveled back in time at some point to inseminate a woman from 1st century Palestine, in order to make possible the emergence of a religious prophet known to history as Jesus Christ. I was there at the time and someone else also tracked these persons through time. I also read this morning a book by a Doctor Sheryl Ekart about time travel, which advocated placing a psionic in the past to fill the role of Jesus. Please be truthful, Grand Administrator: it will save everybody’s time.” Roklan stayed impassive, looking intensely at Nancy.

“Miss Laplante, a project to study the past through time travel effectively existed seven years ago but it has since been terminated when the risks to history were fully realized. Further travel through time has been banned ever since and all the pertaining equipment has been dismantled. You thus do not have to fear anymore about this subject.”

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“I am pleased to hear that, Grand Administrator. I would still like to meet with the members of that project and with Doctor Ekart, if it would be possible.” Roklan’s expression then changed noticeably, showing some hostility.

“Some of those project members are not available, as they never returned from their mission to Palestine. You should know that, miss, as you probably had something to do about their disappearance and that of another of our craft.” Nancy immediately became fully alert: while she had more than a good idea of what had happened to the craft sent to Palestine, she and the Time Patrol had never detected another illicit craft in the ancient past.

“Grand Administrator, the Time Patrol has strict procedures when it comes to stopping illicit time travelers. It always gives a warning first and then shoots only when absolutely necessary or in self-defense. Your craft sent to Palestine was not intercepted by the Time Patrol or by me. Rather, it was the entity called The One that did so. City Administrator Bowen must have told you already about The One. As for your second craft, I have no idea what you are talking about. When and where did it disappear?” Roklan looked at her with barely disguised anger.

“So, you pretend to have no responsibility in the loss of our two craft? I was hoping that you would have shown enough moral fiber to acknowledge your acts, Miss Laplante. You…”

“YOU WAIT A MINUTE, MISTER!” cut loudly Nancy, fired up by the man’s arrogance. “You are not going to call the Chosen of The One a liar so easily! I told you that neither the Time Patrol nor I had anything to do with your crafts’ disappearances and you better accept my word for it. I made possible your civilization and I could as easily erase it from history, so I certainly wouldn’t be so petty as hiding such a small feat as destroying a simple craft, even if I were bloody-minded enough to do such a thing. Tell me where and when that craft disappeared and I will do my utmost to find what happened to it.”

Suddenly looking much less sure of him following Nancy’s veiled threat, Roklan had to lower his eyes under her fierce gaze.

“Alright, miss, I believe you. Excuse me for accusing you but we lost eight good people with those two craft and all of our people are very precious to me. I will have the pertinent data about the loss of our two craft sent to Administrator Bowen’s office within the hour.”

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“Thank you, Grand Administrator Roklan.” said Nancy curtly. “Be assured that I will do my best to find your people and return them to safety. I have been through enough lives to know how precious and unique each of them is.”

“When would you be able to go search for our people?”

“I will probably depart your time period tonight or tomorrow. Then, however long it takes me to find your people, I will reappear in London with them tomorrow at four in the afternoon, local time. If I don’t show up then, that will mean that I will be dead.” Roklan seemed shaken by the casual way she had said those last words.

“You make it sound as if you don’t care about your own life, Miss Laplante.”

“Oh, I care a lot about it, Grand Administrator. It is just that time travel is a dangerous business and that I accepted the risks associated with it years ago. I will be waiting for your information package.”

Nancy then cut the link and sat back, thinking. She also inspected visually the videophone unit, checking its features and functions. Once that was done, she walked back into the larger office, where Lara Bowen and her two assistants were waiting, sitting in the sofas.

“The Grand Administrator is going to send me some documentation within the hour through your office, Lady Bowen. Do you mind if I wait here in your office?”

“Not at all, miss!” replied happily Bowen. “That will give me an excuse to keep conversing with you. Your stories are truly fascinating.”

Nancy smiled at her enthusiasm.

“Then I will be more than please to entertain you with them.”

Less than forty minutes later a female secretary came in with a large envelope and bowed to Bowen.

“The office of the Grand Administrator has just downloaded electronically a number of documents addressed to Miss Laplante, High Administrator. Here are the printed copies.”

“Then you may give them directly to her, Fiana.”

The secretary presented the envelope to Nancy, who took it and thanked her. The secretary then left the office. Watched by a curious Lara Bowen and her assistants, Nancy extracted two folders from the envelope and opened the top one. A short report was in it, accompanied by the photos and biographical sheets of three men and two women, plus a photo of a small craft the size of a light shuttle. Reading through the

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report quickly, Nancy nodded her head: it was the team that had been sent to Palestine to inseminate Miriam of Nazareth. Closing the first file and opening the second one, she couldn’t help recoil in surprise when she saw the pictures of the three persons missing with the second craft: apart from a man and a woman, there was also a young boy of maybe ten years of age. Smelling something truly rotten, she read the brief report and sighed with regret. The boy was actually eight years old.

“Is something wrong, Miss Laplante?” asked Bowen, who had seen her reaction. Nancy gave her a wry smile.

“You may say that, Lady Bowen. I have to go try to find and rescue the three passengers of a time shuttle from the World Council which went missing in the distant past. One of them is a mere boy. Look for yourself.”

Lara Bowen looked genuinely shocked when she took the picture of the child and examined it. She then looked back at Nancy at the same time she gave her back the picture.

“How could they risk a child in such a way? Our children are rare and very precious to us.”

“I noticed that this morning, Lady Bowen. With your long life spans you obviously have to apply a severe birth control program in order to avoid overpopulation. The fewer the children, the more precious they are. I have a baby boy whom I adopted myself, plus twins born three months ago, so I know about that. It seems that the parents of this boy actually stole that craft and went in the past with him to fill some misguided dream of living there while passing off as gods with the help of their psionic powers.”

“But that’s completely irresponsible!”

“It certainly is, Lady Bowen. If you will now excuse me, I will let you go back to your other duties. I still have some background research to do before I leave for the past to try to find them. If I am successful in finding them, I will be back here tomorrow at four in the afternoon. If not…”

Bowen understood the meaning of her missing words and nodded gravely while getting up from the sofa.

“I sincerely wish you the best of luck on your mission, miss.”

“Thank you, Lady Bowen. I will see you back tomorrow afternoon then.”

Dick Pond gracefully escorted her back to the main entrance of the City Hall building, where he shook hands with Nancy before she left. Once outside on the

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pedestrian trail, Nancy walked back towards the public library she had been to before lunch. Passing in front of an office supply store while on her way, she decided to go in and bought a carrying bag that she could sling from one shoulder, plus a notepad and a pen. Thus equipped, she walked to the public library and entered it, going to one of the electronic information booths that was not in use. The booth she took was little different from the Internet stations of the 21st century she was used to, except of course for the content of the data banks and the performance of the computer. Taking out the documents sent by the Grand Administrator, she went through them carefully, looking for hidden clues which she could use to piece together the puzzle she was facing. That the Grand Administrator had told her only the bare minimum about the time travel program of the World Council and that he had lied to her outright on a few points was not in doubt in her mind. For one thing, the adults who had supposedly stolen the time shuttlecraft should not have known how to operate it unless they had received some prior training on it. Setting a spacetime coordinate was more complicated than just simply selecting a date and a location. For another thing, those adults and their son, if Heracles Sirtis was really their son, would have needed to learn or assimilate at the least ancient Greek before departing, something one should not be able to do here except in a few select places. As for the time travel program of the World Council having been dismantled, Nancy had big doubts about that. She grinned with amusement after only a minute of looking at the documents: one of the reports had been produced on a format that included an official logo. It was also signed, with a complete block signature printed at the bottom.

“And they think that they are so smart. Let’s see what I can find on that Agency for Archaeological Field Research. ”

The program used to consult the data banks was actually very user-friendly and she had no trouble finding a well-documented site on the AAFR. Officially, it was dedicated to study history through field research and employed a number of historians and other specialists, including a certain Doctor Sheryl Ekart, of which she was even able to view a picture of. The main research laboratories were located near a city called Novi Basan. After opening a second search program, Nancy found out that Novi Basan was in fact built on the site of the old city of Boston, on the American East Coast. Punching in the address of the AAFR laboratories, she was able to view a detailed map of its location on the coast, which she printed a copy of by using the printer of her

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computer station. Now armed with plenty of information, Nancy looked at her watch and saw that it was only 14:20 hours: she still had plenty of time before paying her promised visit for supper at little Sarah’s apartment. This was as good a time as any to go pay a visit to the laboratories of the Agency for Archaeological Field Research, especially since it was now only early morning on the American East Coast. Gathering her documents, she put them in her carrying bag and left the information booth. Going to the public washrooms of the library, she hid in one of them and jumped spacetime.

Nancy reappeared at 06:30 local time off the American East Coast, in sight of Novi Basan and floating at an altitude of 1,000 meters. Taking the time first to locate visually the AAFR complex, which stood on the coast just outside of the city limits, she effected a second, shorter range spacetime jump and materialized just above the trees of a forest bordering the research center. Levitating down to the ground, she then immediately went into phase shift and ran to the edge of the forest, stopping there behind a bush to observe the complex. It was made up of three distinct buildings surrounding a large paved area that looked furiously like a landing pad for shuttlecraft. One of the buildings was large and had the appearance of a hangar, with one large sliding door big enough to let a small ship through. The building next to it looked like a production or maintenance facility, while the third building was a typical four-story office building. A parking lot and landing pad for air cars was adjacent to the office building but had only six air cars parked in it, even though it was made for over a hundred vehicles. A security fence with sensors and cameras surrounded the facility and the guardhouse and sentry posts around it were manned by armed men. Two shuttlecrafts similar to the ones depicted in the photos sent by the Grand Administrator were parked on the edge of the central landing zone and technicians were working around one of them. All this made Nancy smile wryly.

“All the equipment and facilities concerning time travel have been dismantled, he said…”

Nancy next concentrated on how she would infiltrate that complex. What looked like a surveillance radar and other panoramic sensors on a small tower atop the hangar would make a flying approach risky indeed. The office building and the

production/maintenance annex were however quite close to each other and materializing between the two buildings would put her in a dead zone for those sensors. There was

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also a secondary entrance to the office building on the side facing the annex. She thus picked up that spot and jumped spacetime again, appearing just outside that door. Taking only a few seconds to calculate her next jump, she materialized inside the office building and went into phase shift the moment she was in. She now stood at the end of a hallway with a number of doors opening on each side. While virtually invisible to anyone in the building, Nancy started roaming it, using the fact that most of the occupants had not arrived yet for their day of work to investigate each office on her way. She didn’t find much of interest at first until she moved to the offices on the third floor, which seemed to be reserved for the executive offices. There, an office marked as belonging to the ‘Project Manager’ also had a nameplate on the executive work desk saying ‘Doctor Sheryl Ekart’. Nancy searched it thoroughly after coming out of phase shift and found a number of handwritten notes and memos referring to two projects named respectively ‘Trojan Horse’ and ‘Olympus’. One alarming note in particular was about project ‘Trojan Horse’ and said that ‘nine probes are now in place and operating’, without giving further details. Nancy was still speculating about that when she noticed that a blinking light on the desk videophone indicated that someone had left a message. She was tempted to listen to it at first but thought better of it: it could give her visit away. Completing her search of the office and finding nothing else of interest, she had to conclude that the really interesting information must have been in the computer data banks of the center. Going back into phase shift, she left Ekart’s office and roamed through the rest of the third floor. Her next big find was when she entered a large room that seemed to be used as a communal office for seven persons. A large pinning board on a wall had all kinds of pieces of papers with either text or pictures on them. From the happy disorder on the desks, Nancy guessed that this was some kind of working group in charge of a current project. From the number of notes concerning it, these persons were probably involved with project ‘Trojan Horse’. She thus searched carefully through the office once back in normal time, noting down any information of interest on her notepad. Blood rushed to Nancy’s head when it became quickly apparent to her what Project ‘Trojan Horse’ was all about.

“The damn fools!”

Seeing that it was now half past seven O’clock, she realized that the first office workers should be about to arrive by now. Quickly completing her search of the communal office, she then switched back to phase shift and returned to Ekart’s office,

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where she returned to normal time. Looking cautiously through the large windows of the office, she saw that air cars and taxis were starting to arrive with their loads of workers. She didn’t have much time left now. Opening an equipment pouch hooked to her belt, she took out a micro-probe kit and flipped open the covering lid of the pad-like device, revealing a small viewing screen and touch controls. Activating the kit, she then opened a small, drawer-like compartment on the side of the pad that stored a micro-probe. The fly-sized sphere flew out under her commands and took position behind and above the work desk, in a corner that was out of the field of view of the videophone’s camera but that still let the micro-probe spy the videophone screen. With her probe in place, Nancy went to a wide sofa backed against a wall to the right of the work desk and hid behind, lying down on the carpet. Pulling out an earpiece and putting it in her right ear, she then waited, ready to activate the micro-probe’s camera. She had to wait less than fifteen minutes before a woman who looked to be in her late thirties entered the office. She was of Caucasian type and medium stature, had dark brown hair and gray eyes and was moderately pretty. Her long dress was richly embroidered and she wore expensive-looking jewels. Unaware that she was being watched by Nancy via the micro-probe, the woman put down on the desk her briefcase and looked at the videophone, activating it when she saw that a message had been left on it. The face of the Grand Administrator appeared on the screen, a bit of impatience showing off.

“Doctor Ekart, please call me back as soon as you are in your office. I have bad news from the past.”

Sheryl Ekart grunted in frustration and composed the number of the Grand Administrator, getting him within seconds.

“I just saw your message, sir. What’s up?”

“We have big trouble from the past, Doctor Ekart, that’s what! None other than The Creator herself appeared in London a few hours ago, asking questions about your team that disappeared on their way back from Palestine.”

“Nancy Laplante? She showed up in our time? What does she want, sir?”

“That we terminate our visits to the past.” said Den Roklan, who took a minute to tell Ekart about his conversation with Nancy and about the information given on her by Lara Bowen. The historian shook her head slowly in mild irritation.

“You shouldn’t have mentioned Heracles’ craft to her, sir. She is now liable to find out about Mount Olympus before we are able to relocate the installations there.”

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“Listen, Doctor! I had a chance to enlist her help in finding some of our citizens who could be in big trouble in the past. You may have your projects as your top priority but I am concerned with the safety of my people. That is my job, remember.” Ekart lost some of her arrogant self-confidence at Roklan’s outburst and lowered her eyes for a moment.

“I am sorry, Grand Administrator: you are right about this. What do we do now with Laplante? Do we know where she is now?”

“We unfortunately don’t. She mentioned something about being invited for supper at a little girl’s apartment in London today but we don’t know more than that for the moment. As for what we do with her, we have little choice but to let her go back to the past. With luck, she will be able to save and return our citizens from the past and will then leave us alone.”

“Sir, I think that you are underestimating her curiosity and abilities. She is the head of a rival, well-equipped organization which will not take lightly to our activities in the past. It was most unfortunate that she was present in Palestine when our team was doing its work there. I frankly don’t buy that supreme being business she told you about. I am sure that she and her Time Patrol are the ones who destroyed our Palestine team. Maybe we should retaliate against the Time Patrol and make them pay for killing our crew.”

“Are you crazy, Doctor?” replied Roklan, getting agitated. “They already erased the first Imperium out of history. Do you want us to be next? Any hostile actions against Laplante or the Time Patrol are out of the question. Am I clear on that, Doctor?”

“Yes, sir!” said Ekart reluctantly. “I will have however to put my agency on an alert footing, in case Laplante becomes too nosey. Did she give away any indication that she knew about the events of 2997?”

“None! The site of the old Jerusalem is anyway in territory controlled by the Edon. Even if she goes there, we can do nothing about it.”

“That bunch of backward idealists. They are as pitiful as they are laughable.”

“And they outnumber us.” retorted Roklan. “Do you want to start a psionic war with them over The Creator, Doctor? You know how much the Edonists respect her memory. Again, we will let Laplante go without troubling her. Keep working on Project ‘Trojan Horse’ but warn our agents to be on the lookout for Laplante and her Time Patrol.”

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“It will be done, sir.” said Ekart before cutting the link. She then sneered at the blank screen of the videophone.

“What a whimp that Roklan is. We could handle that Laplante any time we wanted as easily as we could teach a lesson to these Edonists.” The historian next activated her intercom, making her voice boom all around the complex.

“To all the personnel, this is Doctor Ekart speaking. We are now going to alert status orange until further notice. The Creator, Nancy Laplante, has appeared this morning in London and the Time Patrol may try to spy on us from now on. If Laplante is sighted around our installations, keep her under observation and advise me immediately but do not shoot her. Be extremely vigilant from now on.” Ekart’s next move was to get up from her chair and to leave her office. That let Nancy retrieve her micro-probe and leave her hiding place. Once up in the open, she concentrated and jumped spacetime, disappearing from the office in a flash of white light. Seconds later, loud alarms sounded all over the complex. Within two minutes, a squad of armed guards followed by Sheryl Ekart ran into the office, guns at the ready. They looked around for a moment, consulting as well their handheld detectors, before gathering around Ekart, who was positively fuming with rage.

“Are you sure that someone jumped spacetime directly from my office, Commander?”

“Absolutely, Doctor.” replied the head of security. “Our internal security sensors had been activated right after you announced Alert Orange and positively located a single spacetime distortion from inside this office just two minutes ago. Someone probably spied on you, Doctor.”

“Laplante!” hissed Ekart angrily.

From the AAFR complex on the American East coast, Nancy jumped spacetime back to London, arriving there at half past four in the afternoon. Landing softly besides a public communication booth in what had been Green Park, she took out the calling card the little girl’s mother had given her and called an air cab. The flying vehicle, piloted by a man with graying hair, landed besides her six minutes later. She got in and showed the calling card to the cab pilot, who nodded his head once.

“That’s a kilometer away, miss: we will be there in a minute.”

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The pilot kept his word and landed on the roof landing pad of a large apartment building 54 seconds later. Nancy paid him, leaving him a hefty tip before leaving the cab. She was walking towards the roof access cabin when she hesitated, then stopped: she had forgotten to get a small gift for little Sarah before coming. That was however too easy for her to take care of. Mentally marking the spacetime coordinates she was at presently, Nancy then jumped spacetime and disappeared. She reappeared ten meters above her previous spot five minutes later. Those five minutes had in reality been three hours for her: two hours spent at the main Time Patrol base in 2999 B.C.E., briefing Farah Tolkonen and the senior staff of the Time Patrol on what she had learned about the World Council, and another hour spent finding gifts for her hosts. Because of her last errand she had changed her clothes to those of a noble Swedish woman from the ninth century, the golden age of the Viking era. She also wore the appropriate jewels for a Viking woman of the rank she had held as Skadi of Upsala in the tenth century. Getting into one of the four elevator cabins, she rode it down to the first floor and got out in a wide hallway lined with doors with numbered brass plaques on them. Smiling and nodding politely to the people who had been waiting for an elevator and were now staring at her with curiosity, she went down the hallway, looking at the door numbers. Finally arriving in front of door number 14, she pushed the buzzer button and waited. Sarah’s mother opened the door after a moment and waived her in while smiling.

“Please come in, miss. You really look fascinating in this attire, I must say.”

“Thank you, Misses Coles.” replied Nancy while entering the apartment.

“Please, just call me Lyn.”

“With pleasure, Lyn. You may call me Nancy then. Is Sarah here?”

“Of course! She was so impatient to receive your visit. She is changing right now. May I take that bag you are carrying on your back?”

“I will keep it with me if you don’t mind, Lyn: I have musical instruments in there, along with a few gifts.”

A tall man with black hair and wearing an embroidered robe like Lyn then appeared from what appeared to be the kitchen. He came to Nancy and shook her hand.

“Welcome to our home, Miss Laplante. I am Allen Coles, father of Sarah. This is a great honor indeed to have you with us this afternoon.”

“And it is a pleasure to enjoy your hospitality, Allen.”

“Please, come to the lounge and make yourself comfortable. Would you like something to drink?”

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“Uh, I don’t know what is served in the World Council. Do you have wine?”

“Wine is timeless, miss. Will a chilled white wine do?”

“It will be perfect, thank you.”

Allen Coles led her to a comfortable lounge and showed her a padded sofa before going back to the kitchen, leaving her with Lyn. Little Sarah then ran into the lounge, excited and happy. Nancy opened her arms wide for her and gave her a warm hug and kisses on the forehead. Sarah sat between Nancy and her mother and looked at the bag Nancy had put down at her feet: it was made of leather sewn with leather strings and was obviously of primitive manufacture by World Council standards.

“What is in the bag, Nancy?”

“My musical instruments and a few gifts from the past. Would you like to see them now?”

“Oh yes, please!” nearly shouted Sarah. Her youthful joy made Nancy grin at her mother.

“Children will never change through the ages. I really love their company.” She then picked up a shiny brown fox fur from her bag and unrolled it, revealing a gold and amber necklace of Scandinavian manufacture. Taking the necklace, she put it around the little girl’s neck.

“This amber and gold necklace was made in the ninth century, 25 centuries ago, in a place then called Sweden. I am not sure how you call that country now.”

“It is called Sweden but very few people live there now.” said Lyn. “It is a bit too cold for most citizens of the World Council and definitely too inhospitable for the people of Edon.”

Nancy nodded in acknowledgement and looked at Sarah, who was admiring her new gift. She seemed particularly fascinated by the big amber pearls.

“Do you like it, Sarah?”

“A lot! It is beautiful! I never saw those yellow balls before. What are they called again?”

“They are amber pearls, Sarah. They are made by the resin of trees as it drips or flow down and then petrifies. Amber was very popular in the distant past as a material to make decorations and jewels.”

Allen Coles, who had come into the lounge with a cup of wine for Nancy, also admired for a moment the necklace before giving the cup to Nancy.

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“I don’t believe that you can find amber anymore these days, miss. I never saw the like of it in any jewelry store in London.”

“Thank you!” she said on taking her cup. “It’s a pity: amber is such a beautiful material. Well, time for the other gift.”

Taking a sip from her cup before putting it down on the low table in front of her, she then extracted another rolled fox fur from her bag and opened it, exposing to Lyn and Allen’s admiring gaze a sculpted horse carved out of a single, big chunk of amber and hand-polished with infinite care. Lyn took it from Nancy’s offering hands and stared at the small sculpture.

“This is truly a work of art! This is too much, Nancy.”

“Not at all! Such sculptures are fairly common in ninth century Sweden. The people of that time produced many very talented artists and artisans. Would you like to listen to an old Scandinavian song?”

“Yes, yes, please!” said Sarah excitedly. Nancy smiled to her and took a lute from her bag. Closing her eyes and picturing back in her mind her souvenirs from her life as Skadi of Upsala, she started singing in Old Norse and playing her lute. Her first song was a soft love song which left the Coles clapping their hands.

“That song sounded so melancholic, especially in that old language.” said Lyn, smiling in contentment. “How could you remember it so well if it is so old?”

“I remember clearly the skills, languages and souvenirs from all of the 93 lives I lived through in my past incarnations, Lyn. I could sing right now a song from 7,000 B.C.E. without missing a beat. Let me show you.”

Switching to Proto-Semitic, she then performed for them a funeral song from Ancient Jericho. Allen Coles felt deeply moved by the sad tone of the song and by how words and music came from deep within Nancy, resuming Lyn’s own feelings at the end of the song.

“Wow! This is one evening I will remember.”

Nancy ended up saying goodbye to the Coles at well past ten O’clock at night. By then she had already sung little Sarah to sleep in her bed. It was with a bit of regret she left their apartment and went back to the roof landing pad. Levitating a few meters off the roof, she then jumped spacetime for her next destination, still clad in her Viking clothes and jewels.

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07:00 (Jerusalem Time)

Thursday, May 24, 3387 ‘B’

Mount Sion, Jerusalem

Palestine

Nancy lost her concentration and fell a good forty meters before she regained enough control of herself to levitate to a safe hover. She then flew down to the rocky ground and fell to her knees, sobs choking her: Mount Ophel, on which had stood the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, had been decapitated by a nuclear weapon which had also razed everything for kilometers around the site. Wild vegetation and trees had grown through the ruins, showing that the disaster was an ancient one. That it had happened centuries ago did nothing to diminish the overwhelming sense of loss and the grief she felt at looking at the site of the ruined city.

“NOOO! NOT JERUSALEM!” She shouted, despair in her voice. She then collapsed on the ground, crying uncontrollably. She did not notice the robed and bearded man who silently flew down to a spot behind her until he spoke gently.

“Didn’t you know about this already after all these years?” Nancy rolled over and jumped to her feet in a flash, angry at having been spooked like this. Her combat stance and fiery eyes made the man take a step back.

“Wait! I wish you no harm. I was just curious as to why you were ignorant about this. It did happen nearly four centuries ago after all.”

“This abomination happened in 2997?” asked Nancy, relaxing a bit her stance. “Who did this?”

“Yes, it did happen in 2997 and a faction of the World Council did it. Where do you come from? I do not recognize your style of clothes.” Nancy then relaxed her body and softened her expression. She couldn’t help let a few tears roll down her cheeks, though.

“I come from the distant past. My name is Nancy Laplante.” The man seemed thunderstruck by her name and nearly knelt before her.

“The Creator! You are the Creator? So, you didn’t die when Jerusalem was destroyed?”

“I probably died long before 2997, my good man: I come from the Jerusalem of 1943.”

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The man was apparently confused by this for a few seconds, then nodded his head once and pointed towards the South, where a small village was visible in the distance on top of a low hill.

“I was out collecting wild berries but this is clearly a lot more important. The elder of our village is a very old man near death who was also alive when Jerusalem was destroyed. I am sure that he will want to speak with you. By the way, my name is Samir.”

“I will certainly want to speak with him as well, Samir. There is a lot that I am ignorant about what happened here in the last centuries. Is this part of Edon?”

“This is the heart of Edon, Creator. The people of the World Council don’t come here unless they come in peace.”

The way the man said that showed that he believed his people able to keep the World Council at bay if need be. He then concentrated and floated off the ground, taking slowly speed towards the distant village. Nancy followed him easily, actually flying at a speed she would normally qualify as lazy. As they flew over the hilly, rocky terrain, she saw numerous traces of human occupation but none that involved any technology per say. The people of the Edon seemed to be purely farmers and herders and lived in simple houses made of stones or mud bricks.

Nancy, with Samir still leading, landed in the central square of the village, which counted maybe no more than 300 houses. A water well stood in the center of the square and half a dozen men and women were surrounding it, waiting their turn to pull some water out. They and a dozen other people standing around or sitting in front of their homes looked with curiosity at Nancy, with her unfamiliar Viking attire. That was when Samir emitted a powerful mental message.

“Friends of Temos, The Creator has returned. Join her in the central square.” That soon made the inhabitants pour out of their houses to converge on the square, where curious but friendly men and women rapidly surrounded Nancy. Here, as in London, children seemed rare, with at most a dozen being visible. An old man with white hair and beard and wrinkled skin came out of one of the houses lining the sides of the square and walked slowly and laboriously towards Nancy, using a cane. The crowd respectfully parted to let him pass and Nancy bowed deeply to him in respect.

“It is an honor to meet you, village elder.”

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The old man opened wide his eyes when he could detail her from up close. Tears then ran down his face.

“The Hand of The One! You appear as youthful as you were 390 years ago, when I last saw you.”

Nancy understood with a shock that she somehow had been still alive in 2997, an apparent impossibility. Leaving that mystery to be solved later, she stepped forward and gently touched the old man’s face with her hands.

“But the years have been hard on you, elder. Let me see if I can help you about this.”

She then concentrated, with her hands still on the old man. She soon started to glow, with the glow enveloping the old man as well. The glow turned to a bright halo and stayed so for half a minute, with the villagers watching in religious silence. The halo then dimmed out progressively, leaving Nancy holding the face of a young man apparently in his early twenties. His beard had turned dark brown and his eyes were clear and focused. The elder looked at his hands, and then touched his face with growing emotion. The crowd erupted in happy shouts and danced with joy while the ones around Nancy kissed her hands, making her withdraw them in embarrassment.

“Please, thank The One, not me. I am only its messenger and focus point.”

“Then we will thank The One through you.” replied a woman that was kneeling besides her before kissing her hand again. As gently as she could, Nancy broke away and took the hand of the elder, who didn’t look like his title any more.

“Could we talk alone about what happened in 2997? I don’t have much time left before I must leave for another task.”

“Anything you want, Great One.” replied with a grin the man. He then made his way back to his house with Nancy and invited her in, then told the crowd that he needed to speak privately with her. The villagers took that in good stride and dispersed peacefully, discussing excitedly what had just happened.

The elder, whose name was Toma, lived alone in his house, his wife having died of old age fourteen years ago. His house was simply furnished but comfortable enough in view of the hospitable climate. Everything in it had been produced by hand but had also benefited from what their mental powers let the Edonists do to put a better finish to an object. Toma briefly showed his house to Nancy before sitting with her on thick

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pillows of wool in his living room. He longingly admired her young face, then spoke softly.

“To see you so young and beautiful still after all these centuries. I was nineteen at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem and had seen you a few times on public events. You must however be impatient to learn about the events of 2997, so I will not delay further. By 2997, the non-psionic Humans were then a small minority on Earth and were increasingly being persecuted by the various governments of the World Council, which was still badly divided at the time. Some of those governments even forced the non-psionics to be sterilized, considering them remnants of an inferior race. Violence against non-psionics was also common in the World Council but the ones who would eventually form the Edon were against that violence and prejudice and did what they could to shelter the non-psionics. One preferred place of refuge for these poor, beleaguered people was Jerusalem and its surrounding area, over which you still ruled with your time-proven kindness and tolerance. As a very powerful kind of psionic in your own right, you were able to keep at bay the extremists in the World Council who wanted simply to exterminate the remaining non-psionics. You even handed them a painful defeat when a large group of them tried to attack Jerusalem in 2996. By then, over a million non-psionics were sheltering in and around the old city and it became an attractive target for many arrogant leaders of the World Council. One of them was finally able to obtain the use of a nuclear weapon and launched a surprise attack on Jerusalem at night, managing to destroy it and to kill everybody in it, including you and your son. I myself barely survived the nuclear explosion and took weeks to recover from it.”

“My son? Which one?” said Nancy, a lump forming in her throat. “I have one adopted son at the moment, plus baby twins, a boy and a girl.”

“I unfortunately can’t remember his name. Anyway, with you and the city destroyed, the forces of the World Council started hunting down the last surviving non-psionics. The future founders of Edon finally had enough of the World Council’s arrogance and intolerance and opposed it openly. The World Council tried to intimidate us by sending a fleet of combat craft but our mental powers were already superior to those of the World Council people and we sent them fleeing, but not without taking some dreadful casualties. The World Council has never dared face Edon again in battle since then. Our mutual relations improved somewhat in the following centuries but there is still some tension between our two societies.”

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Nancy was by now overwhelmed again with grief and was sobbing quietly at the end of Toma’s story.

“I failed all those poor people. They were hoping for my protection and I failed them, miserably.”

Toma shook his head and gently pressed his hands on hers.

“You didn’t fail them, Great One. You protected them for years, nearly alone and against impossible odds, and even gained the respect of many in the World Council for your show of compassion and courage. You could have left Jerusalem any time you wanted for the safety of another time period but you stayed despite all the dangers and hardships. The one who destroyed Jerusalem was eventually ostracized by his own people and died in disgrace. For nearly all on this world you are and always will be a most exceptional person.”

Nancy was silent for a long moment, looking down at the floor of the house as she grieved past losses and fully measured the crushing weight of responsibilities she would bear in her future. This moment more than any other until now showed her how much she was destined to serve others as a Chosen of The One rather than have others serve her needs. It was a profound lesson in humility indeed and one that would change her outlook on life forever. She finally looked back at Toma.

“Toma, I will have to go now. There are people in danger in the distant past who needs help. I will however be back in a few days with my children to visit your village again.”

“You will always be welcome here in Edon, Great One.”

Nancy got up and left the house, followed by Toma. Taking a few steps towards the water well, she then flew upwards, disappearing in a flash of white light once ten meters from the ground.