We the People vol 2: Liberty or Death

o one mentioned the stony silence between Thane and Franklin in the morning, but she was sure they were all aware of it. Every time she thought he was almost human, the disgusting lecher would come out to play. It was no wonder why the past was so screwed up, with people like Franklin writing their history.

Chui stayed behind with Franklin so they could work on the translations. There were several more etchings to be deciphered, and even with Chui’s ability it was slow going. He said the Zimmyr had no formalized sentence structure, and because the writings were made over dozens, maybe hundreds of years, there were numerous stylistic differences as well.

At least Chui didn’t have to worry about Franklin feeling him up. Then again, maybe he did. Franklin seemed awful fancy...

She admonished herself immediately. Montel seemed perfectly manly and he was...well, that way. Of all people, she should know better than to cling to stereotypes.

Still, the idea of Chui fending off Franklin’s advances was just too funny.

“Why are you laughing, Thane?” Faraday was miffed, blue eyes glaring from under her sun hat.

“Nothing,” Thane said, shaking her head. “Think this is the place?”

Thane’s remark had been sarcastic, as there was no way anyone could mistake the auction for anything but what it was. Windsor was barely a village in this era, but the milling throng about the raised wooden platform was hundreds strong. There was a scrawny, shivering girl standing on it. She couldn’t have been more than eight, fingers clawing at the potato sack provided for her modesty. Her eyes were terrified in her dirt streaked face as men crowded the stage, bidding for her.

Thane took an instant dislike to the auctioneer. Dressed in a dapper manner, in a brocade coat and hose, hair hidden beneath a powdered wig. His three corner hat was shiny and black, glinting in the sunlight as he spoke to the crowd. He seemed far too pretty to be involved in such an ugly trade.

“Come on gentlemen, the current bid is but twenty dollars. Surely she is worth more than that!” he called.

Thane flinched as the man roughly grabbed the girl’s face and pried her mouth open.

“Just look at these excellent teeth! These fine features! Why, in just a turn or two of the seasons, she’ll be ready for...” the man snickered “...bed warming duties.”

A revolting, lecherous laugh rose up over the crowd, and one farmer stood on his tip toes and bid twenty five dollars for the girl.

“This is...” Thane gritted her teeth. “This is wrong.”

“I know,” said James, taking her hand and squeezing it tightly. “I know you want nothing more than to start kicking some ass. We ALL feel that way. Remember what Chui said, though, about the Harbingers...”

Thane forced herself to relax. Not to stop being angry, because that wasn’t possible, but she could be coldly furious with the best of them.

“Let’s try to get closer,” Thane said “I don’t want to watch any more of this than I have to. If Kass is around she should be easy to spot.”

The girl sold for fifty dollars, which must have been a pittance judging by the sour look on the auctioneer’s mustached face.

“I should call the constables, as I’ve just been robbed!” he quipped. “Now, let’s get our next boy up here.”

Thane tried to elbow her way through the crowd. Back home, there was always some wit in media who claimed people were getting ruder. Those same dimwits should have traveled back to 1777 with Thane, because people blatantly shoved her out of their way. One man even caught her off guard and sent her sprawling to the filthy road.

“Screw this,” Thane said, getting to her feet. She became a wedge, slicing through the throng. Those who tried to impose their elbows, or shoulders, or whole bodies, ended up staggering or tumbling to the cobblestone street. As she worked her way forward, she heard the auctioneer barking.

“Look at this specimen!” An appreciative murmur went through the crowd, but Thane couldn’t quite see over their heads. “Built as thick as a plow horse! He’ll serve you well for many years, and so will his sons! Let’s start the bidding at...seven hundred dollars.”

“British gold is worth twice what they mint in Philadelphia!” shouted one man.

“And he only got one eye!” declared another.

One eye? Thane shook her head in denial. With the terrible medical practices of the time, there were probably a lot of slaves missing an eye.

“The bid is seven hundred, good sirs,” said the auctioneer snidely. “Do I have a bid?”

Thane at last made it to the front. She stared up at the man on the platform and nearly fell right over.

Standing there, stripped to the waist, was Bast. Manacles held his hands before him, and someone had draped a filthy rag over his face in lieu of his eye patch. Their gazes met, and his brown orb went wide. Fighting every urge she had to jump up and free him right on the spot, she scanned behind her for the crew.

“I’ll bid seven hundred!”

Thane looked to her left, saw Montel there. He caught her gaze and winked.

“I have seven hundred! Seven hundred, a steal for such a magnificent slave! Do I have seven twenty five? Seven-”

Thane cursed as another hand shot up.

“I’ll bid seven twenty-five!” shouted a man with gray hair and a black mustache.

“Seven-fifty!” Montel said sharply.

The crowd murmured in shock. Apparently, Montel had broken some kind of protocol or unwritten rule of the slave auction. He just crossed his arms over his chest and stared down the gray haired man.

“Seven sixty!” shouted the old man after he’d done a quick count of his coins.

“Eight hundred,” Montel said.

Thane tried not to look at Bast. She didn’t want to see him like that, a helpless prisoner, but her eyes seemed drawn to him. For the first time, she looked at him not as her icy commander, but as a man. His face was different. Softer, somehow, than just two days ago. Swelling on his upper lip made it seem as if he was sneering, but Thane felt no rancor is his gaze as it passed over her.

The auctioneer banged his thick hickory club on the stage, signaling that Montel won the bidding. Thane joined him as he circled around behind the platform to claim his ‘purchase.’ She had to grin when she noticed the coin purse he paid out of looked eerily similar to the one once owned by the gray-haired man who had bid against them.

Bast was led down the stairs, limping badly. Thane seethed when she saw the large, dark knot just below his knee. Scuff marks on his knuckles and cheeks seemed to indicate he had not gone down without a fight.

“You may want to leave this one manacled,” said the auctioneer “he’s new to the collar, and needs to be broken in. You know, I can sell you the ones he’s wearing for a good price.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Montel said, giving Bast a stern glare. “He’ll be good, won’t you boy?”

Bast’s single eye narrowed, but his voice seemed contrite enough.

“Lordy, lordy, I’ll never roam again!” he said darkly.

Well, at least now I know he has a sense of humor, Thane thought breathlessly. Bast, here, now. What was she supposed to be feeling, to be saying?

His chains were unscrewed with a crude set of tongs and then he was shoved toward Montel, rubbing raw wrists.

Thane knew that they should maintain cover. She knew that drawing attention could be catastrophic, since ESX just might be watching. But when Bast—hurt, tired, still miserable from captivity—was so near, so close, she couldn’t help herself.

The shocked intakes of breath were lost on her, as was the woman who fainted dead away. She didn’t even notice the rock that was thrown their way.

Thane was totally lost in Bast’s embrace, their mouths mashed together in front of God and everyone. She didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was his closeness, the desperate yet tender way he held her in his arms.

Bast gently pulled his face away from her own, and they stared at each other for a long time. Suddenly, they both started talking at once.

“How did you-”

“I thought I’d never see-”

They stopped, laughed, and then kissed again.

“Uh, guys?” Thane looked over at Montel. His face was a mask of worry. “I don’t think you should be so...affectionate at this particular time and place.”

She glanced around, discovered that the auction had stopped dead in its tracks. Every pair of eyes on the street were focused on her and Bast. Thane gritted her teeth.

Stupid! Why did I even do that anyway? We’re just friends!

“Scandal!” shouted a pock-faced woman in a brown dress.

“Decent folk live here! You should be ashamed!”

Things were getting ugly fast. The throng pressed in on them from all sides, some of them brandishing makeshift weapons. A rock sailed through the air and almost hit Bast in the head, but Thane intercepted. Her fist closed around the chunk of limestone and crumbled it to pieces.

“I think we’re about to be lynched,” James said, pressing his back against her own.

“Bring it on!” Thane sneered at the approaching mob. “I’d LOVE the chance to kick their racist a-”

“C’mon, Thane,” Montel said “we’re NOT supposed to change the past. What if you hit someone too hard and kill them, and they were MY ancestor?”

She forced herself to calm down. A gurgling belly that demanded to be filled wasn’t helping matters at all. Thane became afraid, more for Bast’s sake than her own.

“STOP! Stop! Stop this at once!”

The crowd parted like minnows before a shark as Franklin hobbled up on his cane. His face was beet red from the exertion of huffing up the street. He paused and dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief before standing in front of Thane and Bast.

“Why are you good folk behaving like animals?” He turned to encompass all of the mob in his angry glare. “Well? Do we not have enough conflict with the war? Leave these good people alone!”

“That one was kissin’ a negro, she was!” said a toothless, wizened tramp. Many people shouted their assent and started pressing in again.

Franklin did a quick once over of Bast and Thane, and his eyes narrowed.

“I think I see the problem,” Franklin said. “My girl here is quite pale for a negro, and is often mistaken for a white person.”

“She...she’s a negro too?” It was the old woman who’d incited the mob. “Looks awful pale...”

The mob was now more confused than angry. Franklin’s word obviously held a great deal of water with them, but the atrocious sight was still heavy in their minds.

“But...but she kissed him! Just went and kissed him!”

Franklin turned to the gentlemen who’d spoken, an aristocrat with a white powdered wig.

“My dear man, you know as well as I that Negroes are primitive and lack sophistication. My girl was just overwhelmed to be reunited with her husband. That’s all.”

That explanation seemed to finally shove them over the edge. Gradually, they dispersed, most going back to the slave auction. Still, Thane figured they’d better be out of town before nightfall, Franklin or no Franklin.

After they’d trudged back to Franklin’s abode, Thane filled him in on Bast. There were a lot of gaps in her story, because she had not yet learned herself how he’d followed them into the past. While Bast annihilated a plate of cold roast turkey, he spoke of his ordeal.

“Whatever catapulted all of you to the past had an event horizon,” he said around a mouthful of masticated fowl. “A white nimbus that expanded until it reached my position.”

“Oh no,” Thane said. Bast raised an eyebrow and she shook her head. “I hope it’s not still going.”

Her words hung in the air for a moment, but then Franklin cleared his throat.

“I doubt it. I think we would have noticed more visitors from your era if that were the case.”

“Has Chui finished with his translations yet?” Thane looked to the shut door of Franklin’s study. “Maybe there’s some answers there.”

“Not yet. The boy pushes himself hard.” There was a note of admiration in Franklin’s voice.

“I have confidence that Espinosa will come through,” Bast said.

Thane chewed her lower lip. She looked at Bast and felt her heart break a little.

“Oh, Bast,” she said “I can’t believe you had to go through that. It must have been a nightmare!”

“It was...” Bast chuckled “trying, to say the least. I am no stranger to hardship, Thane.”

She knew that there were pressing, world-shaking matters to attend to, but all Thane could think of was how much brighter the world seemed with Bast back in it. Almost of its own volition, her hand clapped on top of his. Their eyes met and there was an awkward silence.

“Er,” Franklin said, scratching his belly. He turned to James, Creepy and Montel. “I could use a hand moving some things around in the cellar.”

“Right,” James said, but not without some chagrin. He and Montel followed Franklin. Montel came back a second later and took Creepy’s hand. She cast a confused glance at Thane before they disappeared downstairs.

Bast and Thane looked at each other. Suddenly she was overcome with nervous laughter.

“Well, this is awkward,” she said.

“Right.” Bast licked his lips. “When I first woke up here, I...I feared that we would never see each other again.”

“Yeah,” she said “likewise. So...how did that make you feel?”

“I’m sorry?”

Thane sighed.

“How did it make you feel when you thought we weren’t going to see each other ever again? Because it was killing me.”

Bast put a hand on top of hers.

“How do you think?” he asked quietly.

Thane stared into his liquid, dark eye, and almost melted.

“I don’t want to think,” she said, pulling her hand away “I want to know! Why can’t you tell me how you feel?”

“I’m trying to show you my feelings,” he said, putting his hand on hers again.

“Well, for the record, you’re not very good at that either.” Thane leaned over until her forehead was flush with the splintered table. “God, we keep going in circles. I wish I still had my memory, so I’d know if....if...”

“What?” Bast’s voice was gentle, his touch gentler, as he put a palm against her cheek.

In a small voice, Thane said “I’d know if it always hurts this much to love someone.”

“Thane...” Bast seemed almost in pain. He couldn’t meet her gaze, instead staring out the thick paned window. “Don’t...”

“Don’t what?” She caressed his chin, feeling two days worth of stubble. That had to be driving the normally clean-cut Bast crazy.

“Just...don’t...” He met her eyes again, and craned his neck forward. Their lips grew closer, until she could feel his hot breath on her mouth-

“Guys!”

Thane and Bast quickly disengaged as Chui burst out of the study. His eyes were wide as plates, a sheen of sweat on his brow.

“What’s going on?” he said, noting their sheepish reactions.

“Nothing,” Thane said with a sigh. “Sadly, nothing. What’s going on, Chui?”

“He found something scary,” Faraday said, following him out of the study.

“Scary good or scary bad?”

“Scary bad,” Chui said. “The Zimmyr aren’t an ancient Earth culture at all. In fact, they aren’t even FROM Earth!”

“Uh, maybe we should get everyone together to hear this,” Thane said.

“Chui,” Bast said, holding his palm over his face. “Are you sure?”

“As sure as I can be about anything, anymore.” Chui shakily picked up a mug of ale. Thane wasn’t sure she liked how much Espinosa was drinking. “I mean, three days ago I’d have told you Time Travel was a pipe dream.”

“But if the Zimmyr aren’t from Earth, then where did they come from?” All eyes turned to Franklin. “I can assure you, the Freemasons found the Armonica in a very ancient place called Stonehenge.”

“Yeah, because they WANTED you to find it,” Chui said. He shook his head, rubbing his temples with his fingers. “It’s hard....really hard. But I think the gist of it is, the Zimmyr came from a world that was purged by the Harbingers.”

“If they were purged, how did they leave the Armonica for us to find?” Thane blurted. “This doesn’t make sense, Chui.”

“I don’t know, but I think it’s kind of an Ark, or time capsule.” Chui explained. “They wanted their culture to survive, so they sent as much of it as they could to a safe time stream. I also think they may have wanted to warn others of the Harbingers, but like I said their language is confusing.”

“So the Armonica isn’t an ancient artifact,” Thane said “it’s an ALIEN artifact. Just great. Another one of those...”

“It’s clear we need to find ESX and get back to our own time,” Bast said “before we change things too much and these ‘harbingers’ are unleashed on us as well.”

“What if they’re already coming?” Everyone stared at Chui, fear dawning in their eyes. “I mean, we’ve participated in history already, with the auction and Franklin and everything. What if even a little change is too much? We could be wiped from existence, just like the Zimmyr!”

“Settle down,” Bast said “until we have proof that these ‘harbingers’ even exist, and are actually a threat, we shouldn’t factor them into our plans. ESX is the mission.”

“So what’s the plan, boss?” Thane said cheerfully. It felt good, to release her burden of leadership.

Bast’s eye narrowed, and he rose from his seat abruptly.

“Thane, will you step outside with me for a moment, please?”

“Damn, settle down you horny dog...” James swallowed hard as Bast gave him a stone cold stare.

“Uh, okay,” Thane said, rising to her feet. There was something about his manner that made her think she wasn’t going to enjoy the upcoming conversation.

Once the door slammed shut behind them, and they stood in the early afternoon light, Thane crossed her arms and turned expectantly to Bast.

“Well?”

“Thane, I’m not in charge of this mission. You are.”

“What? NO!” Thane shook her head vigorously, pigtails flying. “No way! I’m a lone wolf, rebel-without-a-cause kind of operative. I’m not leadership material! This is what you TRAINED for, Leroy!”

He flinched slightly at the use of his first name, but continued on nonplussed.

“Yes, I have more experience and training, but that’s not all it takes to be a good leader. You’re doing fine so far. I see no reason to make a change of command.”

“But...” Thane stomped her feet like a toddler. “But I don’t WANT to be leader!”

Bast smiled ear to ear, splitting his dark face with ivory.

“That,” he said, turning to go back inside “is what makes you the perfect candidate.”

“God damn it, Leroy! You’re the most...impossible man in the universe!”

“Great people don’t seek power, Thane,” Bast said right before he disappeared inside “they have it thrust upon them.”

“I’ll thrust this upon you!” she said, flipping him the bird.