Tempus Fugitives

"So what we will have to do is to either provide alternate employment for the people who are put out of work by our plans or ensure that there is a plentiful supply of food being produced for those who aren't working."

"Very Quixotic. If anyone can achieve what you are trying to do it will be you. I think that you should prepare yourself for disappointment."

"I saw on a tee shirt the other day a message that I think we should take to heart here, and that was 'failure is not an option'. I, that is we, didn't come back in time to fail in this endeavour and fail we won't. Somewhere out there is the solution to this problem and it is up to us to find it."

"In the mean time we have the problem of money to purchase land. Tony, how are we going to arrange for the correct currency in the quantities that we need for this?"

"Not a problem. We can go back in time and get the necessary papers to show that we have access to the amount that we need, this can be a bank draft or promissory note, transfer funds into an account that we can use to draw from and Bob's your uncle."

"Sounds easy, do it. Margaret I think that you should go with him so that you can sign any papers as an officer of the company."

"Sure. At last I get to ride in this machine, what does it feel like?"

"You won't even know that you've been. We'll see you in a second or two,"

Two seconds later, give or take a nanosecond, they returned with two attaché cases crammed full of money. Caroline and I prepared to return to the past. This time we made sure that everything was perfect and that nothing would give us away. Setting the co-ordinates we left.

While we were gone the others set about preparing to go back as soon as everything was prepared for them.

Micha was going through her wardrobe looking for suitable clothes, maternity wear hadn't really changed all that much, when she called out for help. "Get the midwife here quickly, my waters have broken."

Everyone heard her but Jadixna was already on her way because she had picked up the signs of distress even before Micha had. Margaret sent Tony and Peter off to fetch as much hot water as they could carry while she was on the phone to the midwife.

Jadixna was doing a good job as stand-in midwife and Micha was panting as she had been told. The baby was making its presence felt by the time the midwife appeared, the top of its head could be seen. The midwife took over the operation and a few minutes later a healthy baby girl was laid on Micha's stomach while the cord was cut and tied.

Caroline and I arrived back just as everyone was congratulating themselves on a job well done. "She's beautiful, just like her mother." I said as I held her for the first time. What are we going to call her?"

"What do you mean what are we going to call her, you haven't even settled on a name for your son yet. How long is he going to be known as 'the kid'?"

"I guess that we could have one of those wonderful think tank things and decide on names for both of them."

After several hours it was decided that our son would be called Leonard because it was the closest common name to mine and Micha's daughter would be called Jade which could almost be considered the diminutive of Jadixna.

The next day I went to the office to tidy up in preparation for our move back in time. I was filing several important files under document shredder when the door crashed open and the room was full of men.

"Planning a midnight flit are we?"

"At this time of day?"

"Don't get cute with us. Men I want all of these files loaded into the van. Empty the shredder, we are going to piece together all of those documents. Now you Mr Smith, are coming with us."

"Get out of there, now!" I sent the message back home.

"We're going. Some men are trying to break down the front door. We have the time machine at Peter's house and are leaving by the back door."

"Don't forget to set the charges as you leave."

"You just worry about your end, we will be out of here before you know it. We are going to Peter's house for the time being until you can get away from there and then we will have to get back in time as soon as possible. Good luck, see you soon."

". . if you tell us what we want to know."

"What did you say?"

"I said that it will go easier for you if you tell us what we want to know."

"If I knew what it is you wanted to know about I would do my best, but until you tell me I don't know what to say." Of course I knew that he wasn't all that interested in anything that I had to say, he was there to take me into custody. I doubt even if he had been told why I was being arrested.

"Do you mind if I get my lawyer here?"

"I don't think that will do. . ." he was about to say that it wouldn't do me any good to contact Peter because he wasn't there but he stopped short of saying that.

"Go on, you were saying?"

"I don't think that will be necessary, this isn't a formal interview, you are just helping us with our enquiries."

"I would still like my lawyer present while I help you. Can I call him?"

"Why don't you wait until we get to the station and you see what we need help with before you jump to conclusions?"

The men were trooping in and out of the office shifting all of the files that were there out to the waiting van. When they had finished it was difficult to tell, apart from the signage, that we had ever occupied the suite of offices. It looked very much as if we were just about to disappear without a trace.

This time there was no media scrum outside the front door to the office and even if there had been they would have missed us as we left through the underground garage in a car disguised as a surfer's panel van complete with bolt-on surf boards and tinted windows.

We arrived, not at the police station but an anonymous building in an anonymous part of town. I was led from behind into a room set up as an interrogation room such as appeared in all of the best 'B' grade Hollywood spy movies, the only difference that I could see was that they weren't about to entrust my safety to ropes but had shackles on the arms and legs of the chair. A large and obviously strong light hung to within inches of where my head would be and I anticipated that it would be almost unbearably hot after a while. These guys meant business.

Moments later I was trussed up like a spit roast chicken. I couldn't move my hands or feet more than a few millimetres. The chair was hard, the back straight and the edges of the back and seat were sharp.

The person who appeared to be in charge, because all of the others stopped talking and averted their eyes as he walked into the room, walked over and dragged his, comfortable, chair over to a position right in front of me. "Now sir, we are going to have a quiet little chat, you and I. We are not going to do or say anything that would upset each other and you are going to tell me exactly what I want to know. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly. Now what do your masters want from me? I know it isn't information, do they want my assurance that we will close our church so that they can go back to ripping off their followers?" I knew that was what he wanted.

"Now that is exactly what I didn't want you to do. I'm afraid that I'm upset by what you have just said, and when I get upset I am liable to do something quite nasty." To demonstrate the fact he hit me across the face with the back of his hand. I knew that it was coming and was able to move my head far enough for the blow to slide off without doing too much damage.

This of course made him angry. "Will one of you guys stand behind him and hold his head for me?" It wasn't a request but an order. I felt hands grab either side of my head and hold it in a vice like grip.

"Now shall we start again?"

"Do what you will."

"We're safe darling, get out of there."

I got. The man had started the backhand swing to hit me again when he was confronted by an empty chair, shackles hanging loosely from the arms and legs, and a bewildered looking man holding his hands apart in front of him. "Where the fuck did he go?"

18

"What are we going to do?" Micha asked the question for everyone.

"We are going to get organised and back further in time so that we can prevent this thing from happening to us."

"How long will that take?"

"The limiting factor is how long it will take us all to get back and established in time."

"I would have thought that with the time machine time wasn't a problem."

"It is up to a point. We have to move people individually and because we can't take more than one person from exactly the same time to exactly the same time without tripping over ourselves, we are limited by the speed with which we can get in and out of the machine. We should have enough time." I was being optimistic and what I didn't realise was that time was a commodity that was in short supply.

We hadn't realised that our location had been pinpointed until it was too late.

The front door bell sounded and Peter went to answer it. He was confronted by two men carrying thin brown satchels that identified them as Jehovah's Witnesses. "We are Jehovah's Witnesses," They said in introduction, "I wonder if we could take up a little of your time?"

"No we are not interested in your religion."

"We won't take up too much of your time."

"No."

"Then may we leave you copies of our publications?" He took a copy of the 'Watchtower' and the 'Awake' from the satchel.

"I don't want your ridiculous publication, I find it to be an insult to anyone with average or higher intelligence. Now, I know that you are familiar with the laws of trespass. I am asking you to leave and you have thirty second to leave starting from now."

They left. The time they were there and the thirty seconds that it took for them to leave was enough. From the rear of the house came the crash of gunfire. At the same time from the front came the sound of a chain saw cutting a large hole through the brush fencing to admit a huge contingent of heavily armed men.

We couldn't all leave in the time machine and we couldn't all teleport out of there. The decision was made that we would offer no resistance and allow what was going to happen take place.

In a matter of seconds I was the only person still standing, the others had been mowed down by gunfire. I read the mind of the leader and discovered that the powers that be had decided that the only way that they could gain a victory over us was if I was seen to have gone crazy and killed everyone.

That was the last thought that I had for some time. I knew that the blow was coming but was unable to get my head out of the way quickly enough. My next conscious thought was that if I could somehow get to the time machine and go back in time to before this happened I could prevent it. With that thought in my mind I staggered over to the machine. I had only just managed to scramble inside when a large group of uniformed police stormed through the door into the room. "Don't move one inch!"

I didn't move one inch. At least the part of me that was visible didn't move one inch. The toe of my left shoe was pressed against a small red button. "What's the use of resistance?" I sat in the machine, my head in my hands. As the first of the policemen reached the machine my toe pushed the button.

The time machine and I were no longer there.

THE END

Post script: "We now what the future holds for us. It is obvious that our original intention of going back into the past and preventing war just will not work. While mankind has a free will he will allow his greed to want to wage war against another man who, he sees has more than him. He will never be satisfied with just having his needs met, he will always want more. So I guess that we'll be stuck with this functional cloning population manipulation for I don't know how long." I said to Jadixna as we sat in my pokey little apartment cubicle. We had experienced a completely different lifestyle to that which we now lived. It was the day that we had left our world for the past. We had made our preparations to take the time machine, but we would now have to change our plans.

"Yes, I hate to admit it, but what we saw as the futility of war, has now become the futility of preventing war. There are too many forces in play for war to ever be prevented, even in our present world, as other countries return to normal they will look at us here, and their desire to have what we have, will eventually lead to war. If we try to prevent that, it will just change the way that this war is waged." She said, her head resting on my shoulder. "There is one thing that I do miss more than anything."

"What's that?" I knew what she was going to say, I'd been having the same feelings myself. Now that I'd experienced this thing called emotion I couldn't see myself ever living in a world devoid of emotions like love. Hate I could do without but for there to be love there would also be hate, the two go hand in hand to form a balanced world and that's what this is all about, balance. Finding that balance between these two conflicting emotions could lead to a world that was close to being perfect. This future world may not have hate, but it also doesn't have love, because it denies mankind the ability to feel emotions, the ability to think, and make decisions, outside of those necessary to carry out their intended functions. This functionally driven world is not one that I want to live in.

"I think that I'll miss love more than anything. My love for you and your love for me, I also miss our family, all of them, Micha, Peter, Tony, Margaret, and Jonathon, all of them. I think that extended families are an important part of life that cannot be ignored. I loved the fact that I gave birth to a child, there was some pain, but the achievement of giving birth, was to me, worth it. We humans should not arrive courtesy of a test tube."

"I held out hopes for us going further back and setting up our commune, I know that is a selfish attitude, but living with the others in our own plot of land, right away from the world, seemed to me to have been as close as we'd ever get to an idyllic lifestyle."

"Well, why don't we?"