This story is for persons of eighteen years or over. All comments, good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.
Part Eleven
He introduced himself to the clerk, showing his passport and asked if a delivery had been left for him. The young Argentine woman speaking in English with an American accent said that there was and produced six large tubes and a big box. They had arrived only a couple of hours ago. Brendan thanked her and passing the tubes for Audrey to carry along with their helmets, he carried the box.
`This is damned heavy,' he said as they made their way back to where the ship was parked. In a doorway, Audrey had to put the tubes down to put his helmet on and because they knew she wouldn't be able to hold the tubes and put hers on too, he was going onto the ship to put the box down and would then return to help her. This didn't take long and they were soon in the map room and a few minutes later were at the camp to do the same process in reverse to get the maps into the mess tent.
`There's an awful lots of maps here,' Audrey said as she opened the box to reveal it crammed full of folded papers as Brendan pulled a sheaf of rolled ones from a tube.
I shouldn't wonder,' he said looking at the corner of the first one, with a scale of only one mile to the inch. Plus the fact that they are duplicated. So our first job is to sort out the old ones from the new ones.' Which didn't take long for they found that those had been packed at the bottom of the box. Those on the top were of the South American countries. The tubes held those of the up to date maps of Canada and the United States.
Ha!' Brendan exclaimed. I never thought of asking for this,' as he unfolded a map that showed the whole of Canada and the U.S.A. with all the maps listed in their grid form. The next one showed from the other, the whole of South America including the Panama isthmus. Studying this last one, he found the reference to the map that covered their present location.
`Can you find this one Audrey please,' he asked showing her the one he wanted. While she was hunting through the pile, he began drawing on the main map with a thick pen, then went onto the northern map and did the same.
Here it is,' she said bringing it to the mess table. What exactly are we doing?'
Well let me show you on the big maps. I can't draw the first line yet until I know exactly where we are at present but we will be making for La Paz in Bolivia, about 1360 miles north of here. Now I've drawn the line we will be following. From La Paz we head towards Bogota in Colombia, this will be around 1420 miles. Then onto Panama City,' he said, his finger tracing the line he had drawn. That's about another 450 miles. Because the land dog legs as it were, I've marked the city of David in Panama, only 200 miles. A straight line for 700 miles to Guatemala City. Next is Mexico City another 700 miles and from there we go straight onto Dallas in Texas around about 950 miles. Our ranch is about eighty miles due east of there, it actually has the Sabine river as part of its perimeter.'
`How far is that and how long will it take,' Audrey asked looking at the big map and tracing his planned route.
Well it's only a rough guess but I think it will be nearly six thousand miles and we might be able to do it in one day. Maybe two, it depends on us having a more accurate measurement of a grid on the small screen, hence the pegs. Though,' and Brendan looked up at the lowering sun, said, I don't think we have enough time to start on that now, so how about some dinner and early to bed. I've got to get some practice in,' he finished with a laugh as he slapped her bottom.
`Men! Stomachs first,' she said but with a smile for she liked the practice part as well she thought as she moved off to the fridge.
Dinner was over and they went to bed just as the light was fading from the sky to begin their rehearsals for producing a baby. Audrey, it might be noted, did not take a pill that night, or on any other night until a much later date.
They were awake at first light and as Audrey prepared breakfast, he scoured the old camp site for the longest piece of wood he could find. He had the best one he could find when she called out that breakfast was ready. She asked him as he sat down to eat what was the wood for and he said that he would explain after they'd finished and began to do the measurements.
With this piece of wood in her hand, he put her helmet on for her and then donning his, led her to the sphere and helped her to stand holding the pole upright so that it was in line with the outermost edge of sphere. There she was to stand until he had finished. What he did then was to put his foot next to hers and took off his helmet. Of course, she disappeared but he knew that her foot was still next to his and this was where he put down his first peg and then put his helmet back on.
Hello,' she said when he suddenly reappeared at her side. Go far?'
Didn't move a foot,' he replied truthfully. Now you can take your helmet off.' So they did and the ship disappeared. Now,' he pointed to the peg where she was standing, this is the outer skin of the ship. We know that the middle of the ship is twenty feet from this peg. Now we move the ship to the next square and repeat what we have just done. When we measure the distance between the pegs and if our rough measurements we did before are any good, the distance between the two pegs should be about eight hundred and eighty seven yards.'
It had been decided that she would move the ship, so he picked up the piece of wood and carrying his helmet, began to walk due west while she put her helmet on to disappear and go into the ship and move it to the centre of that one square and be nearly half a mile away.
It was welcome but still disconcerting to see his wife suddenly appear out of nowhere in the middle of this vast empty space before he'd even travelled a quarter of the distance. It should have annoyed him for what she did seeing that she was now a member of the high society of Boston, but it didn't for it was a pleasing sight to see her take off her shirt to wave at him, her breasts bouncing around as she jumped up and down. Though she did put it back on when he got closer.
`Did you see me waving to you?' she asked when he came up close.
`Even a blind man would have been aroused to have seen what I saw.'
`Can we practice then?' she asked, her face all alight.
`No. Not until we've done the measurements,' he said.
`Oh, promise?' she asked hopefully.
`Promise,' he laughed and so she did up the front buttons of her shirt and they did a repeat performance with the pole.
With the peg in place, they did as before and walked the twenty yards before stopping for the other to then walk past for the next twenty.
We must be bloody good,' he said. Eight eight six! One yard out, but it's close enough. Every square on the grid is ninety yards so now we can really start,' and he began to wind in the loose tape.
`What about the ship?' Audrey asked.
`You're the one who took it over there, you go fetch it back.'
`But it's half a mile away,' she protested.
I know,' he grinned, but I've got to reserve my strength. You wouldn't want me to be too tired now would you,' he grinned.
`Oh you really are a beast!' but she grinned and began the trek to the invisible craft, her helmet swinging from her hand. He grinned too at her retreating back and went to the mess tent and got himself a beer to wait for her to join him. Needless to say, nothing else was done for the rest of the day due to practice.
The practicing as she called it though he called it a pleasure, paid its dividend for she fell pregnant a week later at his ranch though it wasn't apparent for nearly two months. She still wanted to continue with her practicing in spite of this, but we haven't arrived at that stage yet.
With his up to date map, Brendan was able to pin point fairly accurately the exact position of the camp on it though it still took all morning. Now he could continue to draw that line from La Paz in Bolivia right down to the camp.
In the meantime, Audrey had been given the task of finding the maps that the line he had drawn on the master map as they called it, passed through, also those to either side which they might have to use just to verify that their journey was on the right course.
By mid afternoon, all the maps were up in the map room, stacked up ready in order. Pens, paper and other small items were there at hand for what would be their most daring journey since bringing the ship ninety five million years out from the past to as close as they could to their present time. That journey itself was no mean feat even if they hadn't moved much from its original location in the Argentine. They'd already earned the title of time travellers and excluding the short hops to La Copelina and Bahia Blanca, were now set to be space travellers as well in terms of moving from one place to another of great distance.
Dinner had been eaten and Brendan and Audrey were in bed, cuddling up to each other in a post coital euphoria.
`Are you ready for tomorrow to see the ranch?' he asked.
`Yes but you haven't told me really anything about it yet.'
So he described the place he hadn't seen for two years but guessed that it wouldn't have changed much in that time.
`The house, though we call it a ranch house, is like what you English would call a bungalow, though nothing like the size of that name in England. It's one storied, made of brick and wood and has twelve main rooms, six of them are bedrooms. The rest are a lounge, playroom, den, dining room, kitchen and others.
Having seen a picture of English bungalows and the ground they cover, ours would be in the place of about six of them. The rooms, all of them are big and each bedroom has its own bathroom. There's a big wooden veranda that goes right the way round with steps at the front and the back. I can't describe the number of different flowering plants that surround it, but they really smell sweet at the height of their flowering.
The house itself is set in a garden of at least two acres with a gravel drive leading up to the front. There's a swimming pool off to the left with a patio going up the French windows, it's twenty five yards long before you ask. I can't remember how wide. On the other side of the pool is a tennis court, not used much I'm afraid for we never used to get many visitors to come and play. I think it might be a bit overgrown now.
Over to the right are the stables. It was here that I spent a lot of my childhood, currying, feeding and mucking out the horse boxes. Though I must admit I tried to get out of these tasks as much as I could, but the riding of the horses, well that was different. I think I was riding before I was walking.'
`I've already noted the thighs,' Audrey interrupted.
Yes, there's nothing better than having a frisky filly between your thighs,' he laughed and gave her a kiss. Anyway, about another half mile on is the Sabine River which is the border of our land on that side. The rest of the place is grass and woodland apart from a few eyesores.'
`What eyesores?' she asked.
`Oil derricks,' he said succinctly.
`Oil! You never mentioned that before, why?'
`Well, I wanted you to marry me for me not for my money,' he said with a laugh.
`I guessed you had money when I saw your home in Boston, but I didn't fall in love with that for I didn't know. I only knew you from your published papers and that was why I wanted to join the dig. But when I saw you at the airport and you had that bunch of flowers, I just fell in love with you there and then.'
`I did too,' he replied and gave her another kiss.
`Why didn't you, to use your country's expression, hit on me earlier then?'
`I didn't want to frighten you off. I wanted you, oh you don't know how much I wanted you then, but I had to hold myself back. In a way I'm glad, for it all came about so naturally that we came together.'
`You call the finding of the helmet and me showing it to you was natural?
`No, no. That was only a side issue in our coming together. It was inevitable that we would, especially when you would wear that loose fronted blouse in the evening and made sure I got an eyeful of what was inside.'
`A gentleman would have averted his eyes on seeing a woman's décolletage,' she said as she smiled and at the same time slapped his chest.
`Well I was half a gentleman. I did close one eye,' he laughed and got another slap for that.
That's two slaps,' he roared in mock rage, for which I will return,' and he rolled her over and gave her two hefty smacks to her bottom. From that point on, all coherent and decent speech went out of the window as they played on the bed getting into their favourite position of Audrey being underneath Brendan as they made love once again.
They were up at first light and he made the breakfast while she made sandwiches for their trip and as soon as all was done, they went aboard the ship. All the maps and things were in place and it was just a matter of settling themselves into their chairs to begin.
Audrey was at the grid screen with Brendan at the table with the ordinance maps ready in order to note down the symbols that she would call out at every change of the big screen. It was this one they were working from in terms of making notes on Brendan's maps.
It only took her a few seconds to move to the edge of the lower screen to hop into the next one, moving up in a northward direction each time. Brendan noted down the four corner grids reference numbers from Audrey's lower screen and the one of the big screen above her. He pencilled in roughly the one hundred and sixty five miles to find that they were using four maps just to cover one big screen map. At the twenty eighth map on the table, they did an extra grid shift to the west and found Lake Titicaca that was near La Paz. It had taken them thirty minutes because of writing in the numbers as they went along.
Now they had the difficult job of going almost crabwise in a north north westerly direction to find Bogota. It took six grid searches for them to find it, leaving the ship twice to check their position in accurate time and not the eighty years time difference that they were moving in. This hop took them an hour.
Next was Panama City in a west north west direction. This was easy to find because of the coastline that could be compared from the screen to the map and so it only took them ten minutes. Six table maps later they were at the town of David on the Panama isthmus. Again they had lakes in Nicaragua to help them plot their course which they skirted, not sure if the sphere would float or sink on water, and were soon at Guatemala city.
They hit Mexico City on the nail with Dallas the next stop, just a few degrees east of north though they did do a grid search to the east near Monterey to check their course with the coastline. From Dallas, it was then a grid by grid search due east for the eighty miles to the ranch. Brendan did one outside check when he was sure he was on the ranch and one more grid and they were there, settled down about two hundred yards from the house.
`Home darling,' Brendan said when the ship was still. Audrey stretched and they went up to look at the house as it was back in 1919.
`When was it built?' Audrey asked as she held her arm round his waist.
`I don't really know. We were living here when one of my great greats fought at the Alamo.'
`Well it looks lovely and I'm sure that I'm going to love living here. Can we go out and look at it as it is in our time?'
`Of course, we didn't come all this way not to see it properly. How long did it take us?'Audrey looked at her watch.
`Just over three hours.'
`Three hours and nearly six thousand miles. It's incredible. Come, let me show you the house as it is now.' He took her
hand and they went to the centre of the craft and went down to the lowest deck and put their helmets on. `We've got to keep these on because there will be ranch hands about for we can't let them see us suddenly turn up out of nowhere.'
With the ramp down, they went out and lifted their visors to see the place now in 1999 and yet remain invisible.
`Oh it's gorgeous,' Audrey exclaimed at seeing the well tended lawns and the profusion of flowers round the perimeter of the ranch house, some climbing up the trellis-work that was up against the rails than ran round the veranda. They walked right round but couldn't enter for all the doors were closed and so he led her to the stables.
Look, there's Sam,' and she saw a white haired Negro carrying a sack of meal across the yard. He must be sixty now and he still looks the same when I was a child and he's absolutely marvellous with horses. It was him that taught me to ride, lifting me onto a horse when I was only just able to stand up let alone walk.'
They walked to the stables which were in the shape of the letter L, where some horse's were looking out of their boxes. The earth was packed down and looked as though it had been swept it was so clean and smooth. Opposite was a large water trough where they went and sat down.
`How many work here?'
`Four at the last count. There's Sam, he runs the place. Ruben and his wife Sarah, she does the cooking for them and keeps the main house clean and tidy. Then there's Thomas. He and Ruben see to the lawns and exercise the horses as well as the cleaning out of the stables. They all live in the house on the other side of the stables where the large paddock is.'
`This is lovely so why is it you live in Boston?' she asked.
I don't,' he laughed. I live here when I'm not out on a dig. It's mother and father who live in Boston, that's where my mother and her family come from. I think her side of the family were at that Boston Tea Party they've lived there that long.'
`But you were born here?'
`Yes. Father insisted on that. He wanted me to be a Texan as was the rest of our family and that's why I want us to live here so that our children will be Texans'
`Will I ever be a Texan?'
`If you can ride a horse you can become one. Have you ever ridden one?'
`Not what you would call ride. I've sat on one that walked but I don't think that counts.' He laughed.
`Well Sam would be delighted I'm sure to teach you. Come, let's go back to our camp. This is making me homesick seeing the place and yet I cannot show myself.'
They got up and walked slowly arm in arm back to where the ship was, only finding it by dropping their visors. The ramp and door closed silently behind them, shutting out the daylight but suffusing them in the orange glow as they stood in the middle and gravitated up to the map room.
`Three hours to get here, how long to get back do you reckon,' Audrey asked settling herself down on the chair by the earth screen. This had the G2 button pressed so the earth was stationary and she pressed G3 to see the pulsing light which showed here where they were in relation to the rest of the Americas. She then pressed the buttons to set the Earth back into its turning mode.
`Can't really say but I guess it won't take long. So as you're the pilot, send us back there,' he said. She put in the grid co-ordinates and pressed the enter button. The light hum and small tremor lasted all of ten seconds.
Bloody hell,' she breathed out. Six thousand miles in ten seconds. Do you know we've just set the world's fastest land speed record.' She grabbed a pencil and some paper at the map table and worked it out. `Wow! Two million, one hundred and sixty thousand miles per hour. That's faster than anything on Earth or in the air and we didn't even get any G forces.'
`The Pentagon would go ape shit if they ever got their hands on this. Talk about stealth bombers, this is more powerful and more dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. So we must not let anyone know of this, ever.'
`Not even our children? Our future historians?'
Only under supervision,' he grudgingly said. They've got to learn first that the world is to be protected and not destroyed.'
Audrey quickly changed the subject for what he had said conjured up the most alarming images that she didn't want to think about. `Let's go and have lunch and we can talk about us moving up to the ranch,' she said getting up.
I still can't get my brain round it,' Brendan said shaking his head as they walked towards the mess tent back at the camp, his helmet swinging from his hand. Ten seconds from Texas to here, the middle of nowhere in the Argentine.'
Audrey got two steaks from the freezer knowing that ten minutes in the sun would soon thaw them out for grilling.
`We'll have to go to the market soon if you want fresh veg,' she said as she prepared the salad. Brendan who was sitting at the table nodded, for he was trying to write down as much as he could from memory of the trip. It was a pain in the butt he'd said to keep going in and out of the ship, taking his helmet off to write down what he could remember on paper outside before going back inside to try and memorise another section of notes to be transcribed.
Instead of beer, he opened a bottle of local wine to go with their steak and salad meal.
`When can we go to the ranch?' Audrey asked as they dined.
`You really want to go there then?' he smiled at the pleasing expression on her face, knowing the answer before she said it.
Oh yes,' she breathed out, her face aglow. Real green grass instead of this dried scrub here. A swimming pool and I can learn to become a Texan and ride a horse. I can't wait,' she said as she chewed on her steak. `I hope the beef up there is more tender than this!'
`You won't get any better,' he replied grinning.
Angus beef will take some beating,' she said, trying not be outdone in the beef stakes. Have you ever had beef cattle on the ranch?'
`I think they disappeared when oil was found. Less trouble, well that's what my father told me.'
So you've never gone out catching the critters,' she smiled as she said this American word, with your lasso, roping and branding them?'
`So you used to watch Westerns when you were a child?'
`No. They bored me. The good guy always got six men with six shots despite the fact that they fired over thirty at him and they all missed. No, once you've seen one, you've seen them all, though it would be nice to see the real gunfight at the O.K. corral. Which we could do, if you've got a mind to relive the past whilst wearing the helmet.'
Well I bet it wouldn't be as good as seeing the film. No, I'll stick to looking for Dinosaurs and we'll let the children rewrite the history books. Talking of children,' he said, putting his knife and fork down, how about a little practice in the sack?'
I never thought you'd ask,' she said pushing her empty plate to one side. I'll leave the washing up for you to do tomorrow.'