Victim of Circumstance (The Time Stone Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Victim of

  Circumstance

  Third Book of the

  Time Stone Trilogy

  by

  Robert F Hays

  The Time Stone Trilogy:

  The Time Stone

  To Wake the Living

  Victim of Circumstance

  White Oaks Productions

  www.WhiteOaksProductions.com

  © Copyright 2013 Robert F Hays. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

  Paperback

  First published 01/12/2013

  Kindle

  First published 01/12/2013

  Chapter 1

  The pretty young girl leaned across the gap between Colin’s table and her own. “I do love your accent, please say something else,” she said.

  “Well,” Colin said, shrugging his shoulders and playing with his beer, “what would you like me to say?”

  “Oh just anything. I like to hear you talk.”

  Yuri nudged Colin with his elbow. “Keep it going Col,” he said. “Play it right and we’ll walk out of this bar with the girls.”

  “They already have guys with them,” Colin replied, his voice covered by the barroom music.

  Ken leant across the table, his black face stretched by a broad, excited grin. “Go for it anyway,” he said. “They’re not attached. I saw those guys walk over and ask them to dance just after we came in.”

  Colin glanced over at the next table and was met with a spiteful glare from one of the two males seated there.

  The girl leant further toward their table. “Come on,” she said. “I know you’re from Casia by the way you talk and I love the Old Earth accents. What part of Old Earth were you from?”

  “Ah... I’m an American,” Colin mumbled.

  “Invite them over to our table,” Yuri insisted as he nudged Colin with his elbow again.

  “Yeah,” Ken agreed, “If you’ve got something that attracts the girls, use it. I don’t get the same reaction with my Pellan farm boy accent. That’s your job, get the girls interested. Come on, do it for the honor of the Corps,”

  “Also your fellow Ranger Cadets may get a bit.” Yuri added.

  Colin turned to Ken and kept his voice low. “If I do, then we’re going to get ourselves into a fight. Can’t you see the way those two guys are staring at us. Plus, there are two girls and three of us.”

  “There are three girls,” Ken said. “The other one went to the bathroom. I saw her.”

  “American?” one of the males at the other table said. “I’m surprised he knew how to operate the autobar.”

  “Yack him,” Yuri whispered. “Keep up the conversation with the girls.”

  “We can’t get ourselves into trouble,” Colin pleaded. “We aren’t supposed to be off base in the first place. We worked hard for the honor flag, and I want our team to keep it for the rest of the course.”

  “Well,” Ken said, “you know that at the end of training they give out awards for this and that. We’ve just voted that you’re going to get a new award, one for the team leader most likely to get an honor flag shoved up his ass. Isn’t that why we took your space shuttle? This’s another continent for heaven sakes. Sergeant Ko isn’t going to find us here. It’s an obscure bar in an obscure part of an obscure continent.”

  “Come on,” the girl said, “why don’t you join us?”

  “Bring your friends over too,” the other girl said.

  “I do not want them here,” a male at the other table said. “That Old Earth prick probably stinks. Hey... American... how often did you take a bath back on Earth? Was it two or three times a year?”

  “You can’t let that one by,” Yuri said. “Say something in your Old Earth slang. What was that you called Corporal Ryan, a dwoob or something?”

  “A dweeb,” Colin chuckled.

  Yuri reached across the table and slapped Colin on the shoulder. “Well,” he said, “all he did was smile and stand there looking like an idiot.”

  “But that’s normal for him,” Colin said. “Why don’t you swear at him in Russian or Cantonese?”

  “Great, Ken can swear at them in French and German, and I know you can come up with a few choice words in Spanish, we’ll get them from all directions.”

  Colin stood. “Sure, and if Ida was here she could throw a few in Japanese or Hindi, but what would that prove, just get them mad at us.”

  “Where’re you going?” Yuri asked.

  “The bathroom.”

  “Hey,” the second male at the other table said, “do not fall in. It’ll remind you of Old Earth and make you homesick.”

  As Colin walked toward the rear of the bar he thought of his former home two thousand years in the past. He was eleven years old when he last saw the now desolate countryside. An alien artifact, now referred to as the Time Stone, transported him, his brother and his father into this time.

  In a number of ways he missed the life on Earth before its destruction but generally preferred this time with its convenience and promise of adventure in space exploration.

  Since the time he had learned the meaning of the word, he was military. Brought up to the life as his father was a career soldier back on Old Earth; his logical decision on a profession lay with the Commonwealth Rangers. The elite unit was his first choice as he agreed with his father’s philosophy of going for the best.

  He joined, even though he had no need of a career. The knowledge his father brought with him of the long lost and forgotten products of Earth had elevated the family into the ranks of the super wealthy. His father resided on an island, which he owned, roughly the size of California back on Earth. It was on the sparsely populated planet of Casia.

  Many thought that he was crazy joining the service. He had no need for a soldier’s pay. His father’s money would have kept him for the rest of his life. He just wanted to. His father agreed. As he would some day share the family businesses with his brother and two sisters, the rigorous discipline of an elite unit would train him well for the task.

  Colin felt the tingling sensation of the bathroom hand washing slot as it sonically cleaned his fingernails. In the preceding nine years he had learned the operations and skills necessary for living in this time. His knowledge was easily comparable to anyone who was born there. In fact, it was advanced in many respects due to the opportunities created by wealth. He was the only cadet in his training battalion, and probably the division, that owned his own space shuttle. It had an interplanetary range and possibly interstellar if he was prepared to endure the twenty year journey to the nearest star.

  He and his two companions had tired of the facilities available to them during their first year’s training and had left the post to find diversion away from uniforms and orders. The eight thousand kilometer trip to Damus, the second largest continent on the planet Regis, took one hour. With the transportation they had available to them, an intercontinental weekend trip was similar to a drive into the country back on Earth.

  “We saw them first you arrogant hunk.”

  Colin turned his head to see the speaker who was using the current derogatory slang to insult him. “So?”

  “So... Get out of here and go back to chasing filthy Earth women.”

  Colin turned. He shook his still slightly damp hands that had been prematurely withdrawn from the hand washer before the drying cycle was complete. “I wasn’t chasing anyone; they were just talking to me.”

  The first of the two young men took a couple of paces, circling Colin t
o the right while the second likewise moved left. “You think you’re special just because you came from Old Earth. You think you can walk in here and have the women fall at your feet.”

  Colin shrugged. It was extremely rare for him to meet with such antagonism over his origins. He considered the fact that the two before him hadn’t even given it a thought prior to the unintended encroachment on their male egos. “I’m just here for the beer. I have no intent, what so ever, of taking your women away from you.”

  The second young man let out a forced laugh. “You’re just an amusement to them. Sort of like a pet orangutan. You’ll not take them away from us; just cause us a little inconvenience that’s all.”

  Colin reached into his jacket pocket as he saw fists clenched. His Ranger training in human reactions told him he was about to be subjected to a violent attack.

  He carefully observed the muscle tone of each, trying to calculate which was to strike first. His hand rested on the commando, laser dagger in his pocket. It was an illegal device to carry in public but he did it anyway. His father had given him the weapon just before his departure from Casia. Years before, it was a present from Commonwealth Secret Service agent.

  “We’ll see how you feel after we get through with you.”

  Colin jumped back as the first young man advanced, throwing a right fist with Colin’s jaw as a target. A light blue flash cut deep into the underside of his forearm. The man yelped and staggered back reacting to the smell of burning flesh. He looked down at the seared gash in his jacket’s sleeve.

  “Asshole!” the man yelled. He backed off to a far corner of the bathroom.

  The door slid open with its customary electro magnetic swishing sound. Yuri and Ken pounced into the room and both assumed a fighting pose.

  “Need help?” Ken asked as he eyed the second assailant.

  “No,” Colin said, replacing the dagger in his pocket. “Let’s just get out of here.”

  * * *

  The threesome walked the streets in the direction of the shuttle port. “You have to put up with wackoes like that,” Ken said.

  “Yes, but if those two make a complaint to the police they can track us down through the voice print we had to register to get in there. If that happens, Sergeant Ko will find out we left the base and we’ll be walking guard for the next nine weeks.”

  “They’ll not report a thing,” Yuri said. “Doing that’ll get them in trouble for attacking you.”

  “But that’s my word against theirs. They have the physical evidence. I cut that one pretty deep.”

  “What?” Ken said. “The word of a local asshole against the word of the son of a head of government?”

  “They didn’t know my father’s Prime Minister of Casia. All they knew is that I was born on Old Earth, plus the fact that those compu-courts don’t take that into account. First Sergeant Ko will jump up and down on our nuts, then the law will do the same.”

  They continued in silence the half a kilometer walk to the public fast cars. The six seater transportation ran at high speed on overhead rails. They climbed aboard and announced their destination to the computer. Within minutes, the standard shapes of a regional shuttle port came into view.

  * * *

  “Young!” yelled the stocky sergeant of Japanese ancestry. “My great-grandmother can move faster than that, and she’s been dead for two years! Try it again.”

  Colin heard the words of his instructor as they both came through the receiver of his ranger combat suit and directly through the air. It had a, now familiar, reverberating ring that made him jump. He exited the simulated spaceship airlock door and resumed his former position next to it behind cover. His ranger combat suit shimmered as the fiber optical connections raced to adjust the colors on one side to match the background. As he froze in place, the camouflage stabilized and he appeared almost transparent; even the red printed sign next to the hatch appeared on the side of his suit furthest from it.

  “Hennessey!” Sergeant Ko yelled in the direction of Colin’s female partner. “Stick your big tits out like that again and I’ll shoot them off.”

  The extremely endowed young lady moved back slightly from the door’s opening and hunched her shoulders. They both braced themselves in readiness for the covering dash through the entrance.

  Colin readied himself for the jump. A quick nod to his partner and he sprang through the mockup door. His partner followed.

  “Shit!” Colin yelled as a streak of bright blue light caught him in the shoulder. The profanity was more the result of an injury to his professional pride than the slight sting the practice laser pistol caused.

  “Holy mother of hell!” Ko yelled. “You’re not dancing the dano at a government reception on Casia. You’re training to kill the enemy. Keep low. How many times do I have to say that? A Bundist would fry your head if you did that in action.”

  “Shit!” Colin yelled again as he glanced back at his partner.

  “He got me too,” Hennessey said. “Maybe we should try a cut around.”

  “Cut around?” Ko yelled having overheard them on the communications system. “That’s used for open field and sparse cover. Stick with the duck under for close quarters, and get it right next...”

  The two stood and waited for their instructor to complete his statement. Seconds passed and still their suit receivers remained silent.

  “Young!” Ko said. Colin jumped. The Sergeant had moved, unseen, to only a couple of meters away. “You and your team are to report to Captain White’s office immediately.”

  “Why, Sergeant?” Colin said.

  “Because she just ordered you to!” the Sergeant said sarcastically.

  Ripples in the background landscape a few meters away indicated that his two other partners had stood up and were now walking in his direction. Colin reached for his left arm and switched off the optical camouflage control. His suit reverted to its normal tan coloration. The other three suddenly appeared as they did likewise.

  “Go straight to the barracks and change into your fatigues,” Ko said. “Then directly to the Captain’s office.”

  The foursome walked off in the direction of the barracks. “Oh hell,” Colin said. “I knew this would happen. They found out about that guy I cut.”

  They pulled off the cowls of their suits.

  “If that’s it, what do they want me for?” Hennessey said. “You didn’t invite me along. Now they’re going to jump up and down on me, and I didn’t do anything. If I’m going to catch hell, I would want to have had some fun first. I thought we were a team.”

  “Ida, we were out chasing women,” Yuri said, “and we know that isn’t your style.”

  “Well, I could have chased the men and distracted them so you three could move in on the girls.”

  “But Ida,” Ken said, “they might’ve thought you were attached to one of us. That would’ve put them off.”

  “Hey, Colin has his accent, I have these,” Ida stuck out her chest. “If those girls saw me waving them at every man in the bar, except you three, they’d have known. If we’re going to go to war together, we should be going out to get a piece together.”

  The war they were preparing for had lasted eight years. It was now unlikely they would see combat in the foreseeable future as the conflict between the Commonwealth and the Alliance had bogged down into a standoff.

  The history of warfare was a cycle. The speed at which it progressed depended on the science of the time. A balance between the technology of the defensive weaponry verses the offensive governed the battlefield. When, on Earth, the stirrup for the horse’s saddle was first invented it allowed the armored knight maneuverability, which they used to speed up warfare. When the rifled bullet and especially the purely defensive machinegun arrived, war bogged down into a slug out in the trenches. The offensive tank and aircraft speeded things up and then it slowed again with the defensive use of jungle warfare in South East Asia.

  The current dominance was in the defensive, with the spa
ce mine, parole drone, and interlocking laser lattice fire from a static positioned fleet. An attack would lead to slaughter. The combatants, for the most part, just sat there staring across a no man’s land as their ancestors did in the trenches of World War One, the only difference was distance and the vacuum of space.

  “Next time I’m going too,” Ida demanded.

  The other three mumbled an apology. They knew that Ida wasn’t as promiscuous as she sounded, but neither were they. She was proud of her Anglo-Gurka ancestry and determined to revive the warrior traditions of her Northern Indian forbears back on Old Earth. She didn’t really like bars, but if her team was going, so should she.

  “Ok, Ida,” Colin said, “next time you’re coming too. Just point out the guy you like and we’ll hit him over the head so you can drag him off.”

  “If there is a next time,” Ken said.

  They walked the rest of the way to the barracks in silence, each thinking of the rugged times ahead caused by their weekend of merriment. This was the first time the three young men had disobeyed the rules and they all hoped for leniency.

  * * *

  “Just keep your mouths shut,” Ken said, glancing back at the rest of the team. “Let the Captain do all the talking, remember your training, when captured by the enemy do as little talking as possible and a lot of listening.”

  The foursome stood straight as they stopped in front of a desk. The Captain’s aide sat tapping away at a data pad. He looked up with a curious half smile. “Go right in, she’s waiting.”

  “Blain, give us the inside info,” Colin demanded. “What’re they going to do to us?”

  The aide shrugged. “No idea, every time I ask what I’m supposed to do they tell me to shut up and stay out of the office.”

  “They?” Colin said. “Who else is in there?”

  “There’re four, all in civilian cloths. That’s all I can say because that’s all I know.”

  “Oh hell,” Ken said. “I know who they are. The mayor of that town, the owner of the bar, the chief of police and that guy you cut. All here to identify us.”