Simon Hawke - The Six Gun Solution

“Holy shit.” whispered Delaney.

“The thing I’ve been batting my brains out about is what the effect of temporal inertia is here. It doesn’t seem as if the people from this Tombstone can cross over into the other one, and I don’t even know if the Network and the S. 0. G. are in the same timeline together, but apparently, we can cross over. Or at least you can. You have, obviously, if you’ve talked to Lucas, because he and Andre are in the other timeline. Or at least they were. Maybe they’re here now. Hell, I don’t know. It’s a fucking mindblower. But it looks as if I may not be able to cross over, because there’s another Scott Neilson in the other timeline and temporal inertia is keeping us apart. Either that, Or I’ve become too deeply involved in this scenario and I’m part of whatever’s going to happen here.”

“So that’s what Darkness was talking about.” said Finn “That’s what he didn’t tell us. And that’s why he wasn’t able to tach back here, or at least he won’t be able to until a certain point in time.”

“I don’t understand.” said Scott.

“Darkness isn’t sure what effect crossing over would have on his subatomic structure.” Delaney explained. “It’s unstable and gradually disintegrating. He seems to have periods of remission, for lack of a better way of putting it, but he thinks that one of these days, he’s going to pass the point of no return and he’ll simply discorporate, depart at multiples of light speed in all directions of the universe. Being in the vicinity of temporal confluence could accelerate that.”

“Wow,” said Scott. “And he’s been living with that?” He exhaled heavily. “No wonder he’s so flaky around the edges.”

“There’s something else that you don’t know. Scott.” said Delaney. “Darkness is from the future. Not our time sector, but our future.

“I’ll be damned.” said Neilson, softly. He nodded. “That figures. It would explain a lot about him.”

“There’s more.” said Finn, grimly. ‘We’re not sure what time he came from, but whatever century it was, something devastating happened up ahead. Or is going to happen. Some kind of terrible temporal disaster He wouldn’t tell us what it is, but it’s got to be a massive timestream split, possibly even a chain reaction. And that’s what Darkness is trying to prevent. Actually, he isn’t trying to prevent it. because from his temporal standpoint, it’s already happened. He’s trying to change it. He’s trying to change history. Scott, and somehow we’re a part of it. Whatever it is that is going to bring on that temporal disaster is going to happen right here, in this scenario. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe five seconds from now, for all we know. And-we haven’t got any idea what it is Darkness wouldn’t tell us. It could involve the S.O.G., it could involve the Network, it could involve Drakov or all or even none of them. But Darkness told us that we’re going to be in a position to change it. And whatever it is we’re going to have to do, we’re not going to know about it until we have to do it, until the very last minute. Now I know why. Darkness is taking a big gamble. He’s putting his life on the line. He’s got one chance, just one, to tach in and tell us what to do… because whatever it is, it’s got to be something heavy. Something he can’t even give us a chance to think about. And he knows that the instant he arrives here, he might discorporate.”

“But he doesn’t know for sure?” said Scott.

“No. how could he? He’s gambling that he won’t. Or that if he does, he’ll have enough time to tell us what to do before it happens.”

“God damn it. It’s even worse than I imagined.” Scott said.

Delaney suddenly had another thought. He recalled back when Darkness had appeared to them in the First Division Lounge. He had indicated that the three of them would be in a position to do whatever it was that would have to be done, he hadn’t said anything about Neilson.

He racked his brain for what he knew of the metaphysical complexities of temporal physics, popularly known as “Zen physics.” Trying to think back to the problem modules he had studied back in Referee Corps School. He had never graduated. He came close, but he had washed out, ultimately because of his personality, not because of any inability on his part. He was convinced of that, despite the fact that he always told people he’d washed out because he couldn’t cut the mustard academically. There was no shame in that. In all the world, only a handful of the most brilliant graduate students in the field of temporal physics were selected for R.C.S. and it was one hell of an achievement and an honor simply to be chosen. But Delaney had realized early on that he lacked two essential personality traits to be a Temporal Referee. Patience and detachment.

In the old days-they were the old days now, although it didn’t seem like so very long ago-when nations waged their conflicts through the medium of the Time Wars, the Referees had functioned as the temporal arbiters, choosing and defining the conflict scenarios and arbitrating their results. Now, they functioned as a son of temporal high command, the final guardians of temporal continuity, a Supreme Court of time travel. It wouldn’t have been easy, for R.C.S. was brutally demanding, but Delaney could have become a Temporal Referee after graduating from the world’s toughest post-postgraduate school and serving a lengthy tour of internship. He would have enjoyed the highest pay scale in the world, commensurate with the most prestigious job in the world, but he would have been an old man by the time he had finally achieved his goal. And about midway through R.C.S., he had realized that he had misjudged his aspirations.

He didn’t have the patience to finish his schooling and go through all those years of internship. And he lacked the personal detachment to play with human lives as if they were nothing more than chess pieces. What he really wanted, he had realized, was to be directly involved, hands on, with history. So he had dropped out of R.C.S. and enlisted in the Temporal Corps.

He was already a veteran of many temporal campaigns when he had first met Lucas Priest on what was to become the very first temporal adjustment mission ever conducted in Minus Time, when Professor Mensinger’s worst fears came true and it was discovered that history was nor an immutable absolute, that it could be changed, with consequences that could prove disastrous. He and Lucas had been part of the team who were the very first Time Commandos, even before the First Division had been organized under Moses Forrester, who had acted as their training officer on that mission. It seemed so very long ago.

Priest had only been a sergeant major back then and had just clocked in from a hitch served in the Second Punic War. Delaney, himself, had been a Private First Class-again-and if anyone had told him back then he would one day become an officer, he would have laughed in his face. Half the team never made it back from that mission. Johnson and Hooker had both bought it and their names were the first to be listed on the Wall of Honor, the first of many. Too many.

It had been on that mission that they first met Andre, although their real relationship with her did not begin until centuries had passed. When Lucas had first met her, he had not even known she was a woman. She was a native of that time period, in 12th-century England, a woman passing as a young man. She had called herself Andre de la Croix and had carried her deception off so far as to become a mercenary knight in the service of Prince John. She and Lucas had first met in the lists at the tournament of Ashby de la Zouche, an encounter Lucas was never to forget, he had almost failed to survive it