Days of Future Past - Part 3: Future Tense Page 9

  I didn't mind that, I wasn't surprised that they weren't carrying a lot of stuff. The moccasins, hat, and the shirt had actually been donated by different people who had extras. The horse had belonged to one of the warriors who had died and hadn't had any family to claim it. I got the saddle and other tack with it; however I didn't get a rifle.

  Heather gave me one of her knives, and I took charge of her assault rifle, as she preferred using her sniper rifle.

  The best part about riding back with the Navajo was that not only did I know some of them, my friends Atsida, Hayoi, and Atsa were rather quick to join us and let us travel with them, but I was no longer being treated like a leper. Oh, they were still a little leery of me; everyone knew Coyote had marked me as one of his own now. But they also knew that it was so I could help Riggs without the others being aware of it, and they admired my dedication, to do all of what I had done to help Riggs and the tribes win.

  And making one of the smarter decisions of perhaps my entire life, I decided to keep my mouth shut and not educate them on the truth of the matter. The war was over, people were happy to be going home; there were the dead to mourn while telling stories of their bravery, and the injured to care for.

  I doubted any of them would have been impressed by my acting like a whiney little prick.

  It was nice moving with the army, they weren't in any kind of a rush, however they weren't looking to linger either. We were making about twenty miles a day; a lot of the forces were actually walking because the wagons holding the wounded couldn't move very fast, so it was easier on the horses to just walk them and go on foot most of the time.

  Also everyone appreciated the change in pace. I gathered from Atsida that Riggs had put them on a forced march once they left Reno. He didn't want to give the enemy anytime to set up any ambushes and he had actually not taken the shortest route, apparently avoiding several traps by doing so, and keeping ahead of any others by not lingering along the way.

  On the third night as I stepped out of the tent to take a walk I saw Coyote sitting there, waiting for me.

  "Been wondering when you were going to show up," I said.

  "I thought it would be better to give you some time to get over things," Coyote said with a smile.

  "Because you knew I'd tell you to stuff it, right?" I grinned.

  Coyote gave one of those small bark-laughs of his, "I think you've moved beyond being motivated by threats, Paul. Besides, what kind of a god would I be if I always threatened my most loyal follower?"

  "You'd be you," I grunted. "And I'd hardly call me your most loyal follower."

  Coyote laughed again, "Paul, you're my only follower. People appease me, or they avoid me, or they try to just pretend that I do not exist. The only time they mention my name in their prayers is when they're asking their own gods to keep me away from them."

  I stopped and looked at him, "Wow, that must be kinda rough."

  "Eh, I accepted my role in the order of things long ago. I have my place in the ways of this world and I fulfill my part in it. From time to time I need a champion and I pick one. I must admit however, that few have lived up to my expectations as you have, and fewer still have put their faith in me like you."

  I sighed and started walking once more, "Stop buttering me up and just tell me what you want me to do now."

  "I need you to go to the Jules Verne facility that built Aybem and stop it from building a replacement."

  "What do you mean; 'Stop it?'"

  "The Jules Verne facility is now run by an AI, seeing as all of the people working there died back when Aybem was built."

  "How the hell did it survive all of this?" I asked and waved my hands around at the world in general. "Why wasn't it pasted when everything else was?"

  "Oh, that's simple, Paul. The Jules Verne facility is located in the Jules Verne crater on the far side of the Moon."

  I stopped again and looked at him. The Moon. He wanted me to go to the Moon? I opened my mouth to ask him just how the hell I was supposed to get there, but then I closed it. This was Coyote. If he wanted me to go there, he had a way.

  And it was the Moon! One of the reasons I'd joined the Air Force was because they were always talking about going back to the Moon, and the best way to get a shot at going there was by being a pilot or some other related job in the service. I didn't know a damn thing about electronics; I was a poly-sci major after all. But I knew how to fly, and if I did well in the Air Force, I figured I'd be able to transfer to NASA when the time came and get my butt into space.

  I wondered if Coyote knew how much I'd wanted to go there? Probably, he didn't miss a trick after all. I almost opened my mouth to tell him 'hell yeah, I'll do it!' but I suddenly remembered that it wasn't just me anymore. It was Sarah and Heather too. After everything we'd been through I couldn't do this without them agreeing to my going.

  Also, I'm sure Sarah at least would be quick to ask Coyote the questions that I probably wouldn't think of.

  I turned around and started walking back towards the tent.

  "Paul?" Coyote seemed a little surprised.

  "Come," I grunted at him, without looking to see if he was following me.

  When I got to the tent I looked around and sure enough, he was there.

  I opened the flap and pointed, "Inside."

  "Umm, they're not going to like this," he said.

  I put my foot behind his butt and pushed. Surprisingly, he went.

  Of course the feminine scream of shock and surprise was a bit unexpected. When I stepped inside the tent I could see why. Heather and Sarah had been engaging in their own expressions of love and endearment during my absence.

  It was rather hot looking, to be honest. But then, it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before.

  "Hey, fleabag! What the hell are you doing in here!" Sarah yelled at Coyote and looked about ready to do something nasty too him while Heather reached for one of her pistols.

  "Stop, both of you," I said and moved over to sit down by them, "I brought him."

  "What?" Sarah said, looking rather shocked.

  "You lose your mind or something?" Heather said, looking just a tad upset with me as she grabbed her pistol, but didn't point it at him. Or me for that matter.

  "Coyote wants me to do something for him. Well," I stopped and looked at the two of them and smiled rather wanly. "If he can't convince the both of you that I should go do it, I'm not doing it."

  "And why is that, Hon?" Sarah asked, settling down a little bit, but she was still looking at Coyote like he'd make a fine rug.

  "Because it's someplace I've always wanted to go. Which I'm sure he realizes. But I can't just go haring off on some undoubtedly deadly mission without the two of you agreeing to it.

  "We are a family now after all, right?" I finished and then kissed Sarah, followed by Heather.

  I turned to Coyote who was sitting on his haunches apparently unaffected by what he'd walked in on. Then again, he was a god, so why should he care?

  "Make your case," I told him.

  "And it had better be a damn good one," Heather growled.

  "Yes, it better," Sarah agreed.

  "Aybem was a cyborg," Coyote started, "A machine with the brain of a man inside of it, as well as several very advanced computers in this case. He was constructed; or rather his body was, about a year before the war broke out.

  "When it did, sympathizers at the facility where it was built, allowed the rebels to capture it. When it became apparent that their side was losing, their leader had them stick his brain into the mechanical body, so that he would live on past their deaths, so that he could wreak his revenge on their enemy.

  "Due to everything that happened, he ended up sitting there by himself for over a hundred years. During which time he reprogrammed the facility AI to help him in his revenge. When the clouds finally cleared and he could see the state of the world beneath, and that there were places that had escaped relatively untouched, he decided he had to come to Earth and raise an ar
my to destroy all those who had once opposed the rebels."

  "Sounds crazy," Heather said.

  Coyote nodded, "Yes, he was quite insane by then. Possibly even before then. So he got on a transport of sorts and flew to what you call the Nev Wastes, because he saw the best opportunity to raise an army there amongst all of the evil creatures that by then were calling it home."

  "But he is dead now," Sarah said, "Riggs and Paul destroyed him."

  "Yes, however the facility has the capability to build a replacement. And he commanded it to start when it became clear to him that he was going to lose."

  "But he was already dead," I spoke up.

  "His brain was," Coyote agreed with a nod, "but the AI that was now running him was not, and he had already programmed it to order a replacement created, should he be destroyed."

  "How long do we have?" Sarah asked.

  "I'm not positive," Coyote sighed, "more than a month, I'm sure. But after that? I can't really tell."

  "Why not?" Heather asked, "You're a god! Can't you just go look?"

  "I am a god of this Earth," Coyote said. "The Jules Verne facility is on the Moon. There are places I can go there, however that is not one of them."

  "Wait, this place is on the Moon?" Heather asked.

  "Yes," Coyote nodded, "The former IBM Jules Verne facility is located in the Jules Verne crater on the far side of the Moon."

  "And just how are we supposed to get there?"

  "What do you mean..." I started but Sarah held her hand up, so I shut up.

  "There is a space ship that landed several weeks ago that he can use," Coyote said.

  "That recall order you had Paul give," Sarah said, "that was the purpose of it, am I correct?"

  "Yes, one of the reasons for it. I needed several spacecraft to return to their homes or their docks in order for Paul to make this trip."

  "Why Paul?"

  "Other than the fact that he's succeeded at everything I've asked him to do so far?"

  Sarah nodded.

  "He knows how to fly. The rocket is a space plane; it has to be piloted by someone who is familiar with flying. Further, Paul is now a high-ranking military member. This will require several military facilities to be accessed. Paul has the clearance for all of those."

  "Where is this space plane located?"

  "Area fifty-one."

  I looked at him, "Area fifty-one? Dreamland? What is it doing there?"

  "Its primary base was destroyed, as the base in area fifty-one has functioning facilities to support it, it was diverted to land there."

  Sarah and Heather both looked at me, "Do you know where this place is?"

  I nodded, "Yes, though I've never been there. It was highly secret and classified. If you went there, you didn't talk about it, ever, to anyone."

  "Why'd they call it dreamland?" Heather wanted to know.

  "Because it was the place where dreams were made," I chuckled and shook my head, "A lot of very fantastic things came out of there."

  "So," Coyote interrupted, "will you let Paul go?"

  "Just how many people does this rocket ship hold?" Heather asked.

  "Sixteen, plus four crew."

  "We could go with him then?" Sarah asked.

  "Yes, you could even bring others along, six could make the trip. However," Coyote paused.

  "Yes?" Sarah prompted him.

  "The systems are old, resources are limited. It is dangerous. Taking people who have only ever known the great outdoors and open spaces would be a bad idea. You will be entrusting your lives to machines and machinery. If you mistreat it, if you break it, you may die."

  "Right, so no Indians then," Heather nodded.

  "What about the dragons?" I asked.

  "The ship is armed," Coyote said. "I don't think they will offer much of a problem."

  "We will give you our answer in the morning, Coyote," Sarah said slowly. "Please leave us until then."

  I watched as he walked out of the tent, and then when I blinked he had disappeared into the darkness.

  I turned to the two girls, "After everything that's happened, I'd rather not see another Aybem appear and reunite everyone and start this war all over again."

  "But this one would only be a machine, not a man, so it would not be as intelligent, right?" Sarah said.

  "If they build it to look just like the last one," Heather sighed, "it won't have to be all that intelligent. They'll flock to him like a resurrected god."

  Sarah sighed and nodded her head, "I fear that you are right. I think we should go."

  "You mean, I should go," I said.

  "No, we as in us, the three of us," Sarah growled her accent rather strong as she looked at me.

  "There's no way in hell you're going alone," Heather said smiling sweetly. "So why don't you just save the arguing and give in to the inevitable and save us all a fight?"

  I didn't give in of course. Well, not right away. Threats were made, then bribes were given, and after a while some of those were accepted. What can I say? I was weak. Plus I really didn't want to go alone. It was likely that I'd need help, especially when everything up there was old and probably needed maintenance. Sarah might be a magic user, and Heather might be a sharp shooter, but they both grew up in a society with a higher level of technology than even the one I'd grown up in had, for all that so much of the world was now a wasteland.

  They understood it as well as I did, maybe even better in some cases. There was no doubt that they would be able to help.

  When we finally all fell asleep after hours of arguing, and then agreeing, I couldn't help but be excited.

  I was going into space.

  I was going to the Moon.

  - 10 -

  We continued to ride with the tribes for the next three days. I wanted for us to be as close as possible to the base before we left the safety of the massed army. Thanks to the path that they were following, the remains of highway ninety-three, and the intervening terrain, we didn't have to part ways with them until we passed through the remains of Crystal Springs. As the crow flies, it was maybe thirty miles to Groom Lake, which was where the runways were located. But we couldn't go in a straight line; we had to follow the remains of an old road.

  From what we could tell of the map, it was probably going to be a two or three day trip.

  When I told the leaders that we were leaving they didn't even ask why, they just asked if I needed anything, and were more than happy to provide us with two weeks worth of trail rations, and one of them actually gave me his pistol, seeing as I no longer had one.

  I thanked him rather profusely for that.

  "Well, might as well get going," I sighed as we mounted up and rode out about an hour before the sun came up. Camp was already breaking up and we'd taken the time to eat a good breakfast at one of the mess tents before we left.

  "I just hope we don't run into anything," Heather said. "There are a lot of stories about this area, and monsters that lurk in it. Even the orcs and such avoid it."

  "Well hopefully Coyote will warn us before we stumble into any traps," I said as we followed the road to the hills to the southwest.

  "Maybe you should say that again louder," Sarah laughed, "to be sure that he heard you!"

  "Oh, he heard me," I replied, "the question is, will he help us?"

  "He better if he wants us to help him," Sarah pointed out.

  I nodded my head in agreement, but I kept my rifle out and ready, just in case as Sarah started in on casting some spells on us to make us harder to see. Hopefully these would work better this time than they did the last time.

  Then again, the last time Coyote had wanted me captured, so I wouldn't have been at all surprised to learn that he had interfered in some manner.

  The road started off fairly straight, it wasn't until noon when we started up into the hills, and even then it was still fairly straight as it wound its way through the passes to either side of the mountains. The slope was easy enough on the horses, who were we
ll rested from all the walking we'd done the previous days, that they had no problems with it at all and it only took us an hour to make our way through them and come out of them on to a rather large plain.

  It was a straight shot across the plain, so we took a short break to water our horses and eat lunch, then started out again. I wanted to make it to the other side before the sun set so we could look for a place to hole up for the night before taking the road up into the mountains again. From there it would only be about fifteen miles, assuming that the maps were all correct.

  We easily made it across the plain and to where the hills started up again with quite a lot of daylight left.

  "How much farther from here?" Heather asked.

  "Five or six miles to the other side of these hills," I told her. "Then another ten or so across another plain."

  "I don't know if I want to get caught in those hills while the sun sets, what do you think, Sarah?"

  "I think we should just go a bit further to get out of this open area and find a place to camp."

  "Agreed," I said and nodded and started leading the way up the road.

  "What is that up ahead?" Sarah called out a couple of minutes later.

  "Looks like a couple of signs," I replied and sure enough as we rode closer there were signs on either side of the road declaring it government property and warning against trespassing or taking pictures as well as a number of other activities.

  "Huh, not much of a gate," I said, a little surprised.

  "Well, let us keep riding and see what else we come across."

  I nodded and led us further up the road, and it was a road now, in much better shape than what we'd been on before, being clear of any debris and fairly smooth. The next two or so miles were uphill, but not terribly steep. The road started bending to the right when I heard it.

  "What's that noise?" Heather asked.

  "Last time I heard that," I said looking around, "it was a tank."

  "What's a tank?"

  "Something nasty."

  I could hear the sounds of the metallic treads on the ground, and it was coming from up ahead.