Defending Liberty: Book Two of the Liberty Trilogy

By Art Theocles

Reeling from the trials and tribulations of surviving a time shift and an enemy temporal attack during Americas Revolutionary War; Nik, Sid, and John contemplate their lives moving forward in Americas past. They had long ceased thinking of home as the place in the year 2010 where they prospered with their wives, loved their children, and enjoyed the modern amenities that life in the twenty-first century afforded them.

Trapped in the past, our friends now struggle to endure in parts and times unknown, hoping for peace and quiet to contemplate their future. A second temporal event drives them to engage people of their history for answers and direction. When they learn that they have shifted to another of Americas domestic conflicts, the men soon discover a sinister and dangerous contamination that again threatens Americas survival.

Invading temporal forces present a complex puzzle for the three friends to discover, decipher, and solve as Americas time runs out. Desperation and unusual circumstances force Nik, Sid, and John to use extreme measures, and some modern-day tactics, to defend their nations freedom and history. Will the temporal contamination and evil disrupt Americas historical timelines as it fights to maintain its borders, its liberty, and its very sovereignty?

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491707319

Art Theocles

Art Theocles was born and raised in western Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Theocles has always had an interest in American, world, and biblical history. He currently lives in North Carolina.

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Contents

Author’s Note

1 …Mission: Home Again

2 …Here We Go Again

3 …A Need for a New Plan

4 …An Unexpected Affair

5What Now?

6 More Trouble and Fewer Answers

7 Moving On

8 A Scene from a Distant Memory

9 Alone Again in 1813

10 Papers and Planks

11 It Doesn’t Take Long

12 Day Two—Sackets Harbor

13 A Few Things to Plan and Learn

14 Details, Details

15 A Short Day

16 A Bit of a Sticky Wicket

17 Can’t We All Just Get Along?

18 Vergennes

19 The Place We Are

20 A Huge Problem Indeed and Plans Finally Revealed

21 Forge Number Five

22 Short Work of It

23 Really?

24 What Should We Do Now?

25 Northeast and Outta Here

26 Déjà Vu

27 What to Do

28 A Simply Cold Reality

29 Riddles of the Dead

30 East to Discovery

31 An Event Forgotten?

32 Answers from Above?

33 A Modern Form of Chaos

34 Weariness Resolved

35 The Tasks Ahead

36 Hartford and Then Where?

Liberty and Freedom must be more than just words…

Author’s Note

IN THESE TIMES, THE United States of America struggles with its social, economic, and political standing among the world community of nations. Traditional American values and positions on all things, national and international, have tilted to such a degree that the very values, ethics, and morals upon which this country was founded are on the precipice of a most certain and calculated destruction—a situation resembling the dangerous circumstances of our world’s not so distant past.

In this author’s humble opinion, this has not been an accident. With the creation of this great nation, countless and momentous advances across the globe became possible over the past two hundred years. American excellence, yes, American Excellence, has been the enormous driving force for the achievements of our world and has a special place in history that has decidedly driven human advancement.

Many lessons that can be gleaned from the maturation of this great nation have been lost in the dusty pages of time, and in some cases purposefully hidden from, and meant to be forgotten by, us. These lost items include lessons on dangerous ideologies, attitudes, and positions developed by corrupt and twisted leaders, governments, and organizations.

These past two hundred years have seen the development and rise of the progressivism, Marxism, fascism, and communism that resulted in two world wars, numerous massive border conflicts, and death. Entire human populations have been stamped out over ideology and beliefs rooted in control, greed, and power. Even now, these atrocities continue throughout our world.

Many, if not all, of these dangers have been fully exposed in our history. Nevertheless, we have fallen asleep, become complacent and misguided, and most frightening of all… we have been lied to. We have been nudged away from the truth and into a place of falsehoods, deception, and ignorance. These are truly dangerous times.

If one is willing to look beyond its fantastic and entertaining adventure story, the Liberty Series of novels will expose us to a great many lessons and truths from American history that we have forgotten about, simply missed, or been purposefully led astray from. The truth will show us just how great mankind can be; however, we must first root out and expose those who would strive to subjugate us, hold us back from growing and learning, and oppress our freedoms and liberty for their own power and passions.

… 1 …

Mission: Home Again

THE MEN HAD LONG ceased their thinking of home as the place in the year 2010 where they had lived, prospered with their wives, loved their children, and enjoyed the modern amenities that life in the twenty-first century afforded them in a free and thriving society. These men had been leaned by the years, scarred by the weather, fatigued by the trials of war, and emotionally drained by the displacement in time caused by a Soviet temporal attack from their Cold War years. It was an attack that had ripped them from a remote hillside in South Carolina and deposited them into America’s past on the outskirts of a besieged and dying city. In an instant, home became so much less—and so much more to these three friends.

On this day, October 24, 1781, five days after witnessing the surrender of General Cornwallis to his American foes at Yorktown from a small boat on the York River, the men (often referred to as the boys in the Liberty Series novels) were making their way home: a small, hand-built cabin that sits near the remote location in the hills of South Carolina, from which they had vanished from in their year, 2010. It is the place they retreated to from the outskirts of Charleston to simply stay out of the way of history after their abrupt time shift into America’s past. Their only goal was to quietly live out their lives and try to figure out what had really happened to them, stay alive, and find a way back home to the year 2010… that didn’t work out exactly as planned.

Traveling south and east, the boys had reached an area on the North Carolina coast where they felt infinitely more comfortable, a place where they could stow their very old and trusty rowboat and get back to the land. The three had managed their watery travels well enough in the previous weeks and months, but the altercation of twelve days before with the fleeing British vessel, a struggle that had nearly ended their lives, had left them quite happy to return to solid ground.

Just walk. We’ll head west. Easy as that and home to the comforts of C-10, Nik commented under his breath.

Ha! Is this the same person who thought that camping, sleeping in a hut—you’re killing me! Comforts of home! Are you the same guy who didn’t want to go with us in 2010 unless there was great food and a huge gun range? Bacon, rifles, tons of ammunition, and by the way, you do remember that you insisted it had to be in the winter, so you wouldn’t get ‘overheated’?

Nik just looked at John with a stare of acknowledgment. Sid simply enjoyed the banter of his friends.

Nik grumbled again in his typical fashion, groaned, picked his pack up, and began moving forward while he pointed to the west. No race, guys… a nice leisurely walk, a jaunt, a gentle schlep, a saunter in that general direction, a—

Then silence… total silence… an absolute silence rivaled only by that of the complete vacuum of space, coupled with a dark, dense whirl of immovable motion. Nik struggled to raise his head with the urgent (or horrified) perception that he was in the complete airless vacuum of space. The effect tricked his mind and astounded him for a moment, which to all of them felt like an eternity. Sid was trying to speak with only an odd garble. John was motionless and silent.

It’s happening again! Nik thought wildly. How is this possible?

The effect was different from the first they had experienced on the hillside in 2010. The complete silence and immobilization of their central nervous systems appeared to deaden any pain if, in fact, there was any to be felt. The discomfort came only from the inability to move; this might even have been somehow contrived in the deep reaches of the men’s psyche. There was no way of knowing the true reality of what was actually transpiring.

A surge now! A sharp feeling of motion—a powerful surge forward was perceived—a rush in direction that affected their bodies to the point of near physical sickness. Sid knew they were not actually moving, but images and scenes raced by them at an incredible speed; the resulting perception was of forward movement. John simply closed his eyes and tried to ride out whatever was happening.

The three maintained themselves as best they could, and after a time, a rough focus was harnessed in the blur of it all. There were two specific instances in which each of them felt he was going to land somewhere as their surroundings slowed for a brief moment, only to be followed by a sickening acceleration into the beyond. During these two periods, they could discern faint images… treeless hills, fog, lush meadows, green hills, a valley, a farmhouse, and farmland. These images were not disturbing and appeared to be real places of serenity and quiet. The third and final instance felt as if it was creating itself in front of them, only with a more dire vibration, and one difference… it was not slowing down! The scene flashed at them in an uncontrolled stream of chaos! Clouds! Ocean! Smoke! Fire! Screams! Blood! Something, very solid now, approaching at incredible speed… made by the hands of man.

Smash! Shooting pain overwhelmed the three men as they hit something hard and solid; the immobilization and numbness of the effect abandoned them as quickly as it had earlier engulfed them. The shock of the jolt back to consciousness registered as nothing less than debilitating. The boys exited the shift in incredible pain and were stunned, bewildered, and unable to function or process information in any directed fashion.

Nik felt intense heat and a flowing motion as he spun his body around to escape the feeling of imminent death by incineration. He could make out a dark gloom, but all of his senses were not yet responding as he kept his face close to whatever surface he had landed upon at the end of an apparent fall. He tried to slow his breathing and calm his mind to the point of logical thought. He became desperate to regain some semblance of composure and locate his compatriots; he feared for an instant that he was alone.

Sid choked on what he believed was thick, black smoke and rolled left along a boarded surface that he had now come to rest on. He had landed on an unknown and unfamiliar surface from a considerable distance that he perceived as directly above where they now were. His thoughts quickly shifted to the pain in his legs and arms, and it made him wonder just how high up they had fallen from. He closed his eyes for a moment to contain the pain and reboot himself for coming events that he knew were sure to follow.

John felt as if his torso were hanging off a ledge of some sort and fought to hold himself onto the yet-unknown structure he had apparently hit or landed on during what he had perceived to be a considerable descent. John wasn’t at all clear on where he may have dropped from or where he dropped to; he only knew the sense of earthly gravity sharply tugging at his body and soul.

They heard voices in the distance; it was their native tongue of English. They understood only a single phrase in all of the mayhem and chaos: Abandon ship!

Sid picked his head up. He was covered in soot and the stench of smoke—a pungent, sharp, rank, and foul odor. He rolled over to John, who was only half-secured to the object they had landed on. A thought had Sid quickly looking around at their surroundings. A ship! Guys! We’re on a ship! Be careful where you roll. Then he quickly added, And it’s on fire! John quickly scurried to his feet as Sid helped him on deck.

Fire! John exclaimed loudly and moved over to Nik’s side.

Sid quickly looked around and spotted a piece of land off to the right side of the ship. He then identified something else and thought aloud, An object, a helm, something that steers this hulk! He stumbled toward the wheel as the ship began to list to one side and then the other with a shudder. He began to turn the wheel, which he hoped would affect the vessel’s course in a specific direction. The wheel was difficult to move at first, and barely responsive to his full weight leaning into it. He initially steered in the wrong direction, and then corrected his course to get the near-inferno of a wreck pointed in the direction of the land he had spotted just moments before. He fought with the ship for a time. When he was convinced they could not miss the landmass in the distance, he went to aid the others, yelling and carrying on like an old salty dog.

Abandon ship! yelled Sid. Land at two o’clock—jump when we reach the rocks!

Nik, now shaking off the ills of the temporal effect, thought, Abandon ship. That’s the second time I have heard that today . . . Rocks? What? What the hell are you talking about? Nik loudly inquired. In that instant, Sid almost rolled off the deck on the left side and caught himself at the last minute.

Not far now! yelled Sid.

Nik continued to listen for the other voices he had thought he heard, but all was silent except for the fire, the creaking sounds he couldn’t identify, Sid yelling out instructions, and the oddest sound of all… waves crashing all around them. It made sense, he thought, I caught sight of a ship . . . I think. He began to work at clearing his head again when he heard Sid screaming.

Jump! Jump now! Sid sounded like he was running hard away from the scene of an impossible and dire situation.

Nik then heard two distinct splashes and felt a jolt followed by a groaning sound. He thought, This is the sound of the ship dying and giving up its final salute to the world and the sea, which will soon have it for all eternity. Still disoriented, but better in control of himself, he rolled over to the side of the ship where he had heard the splashes, and as gracefully as he could, fell off the ship, aiming for a not-so-rocky spot in the surf. Surfacing quickly, he struggled to get himself and his gear to the beach where Sid had steered them; the smoke was thick again. Between the water, his difficulties in making land, and the choking, billowing smoke, Nik was having a hard time of it.

John splashed over to Nik and grabbed his rifles and backpack while pulling on Nik’s arm.

I’m okay… I’m good, just a damn strange way to show up somewhere! Nik complained. He sat down on a rock shelf just off the beach and away from the burning vessel. He guessed that they had just jumped from a British vessel; it made sense, as those were the voices he thought he had heard in the blur of the shift to this place and—he quickly assumed—time. His thoughts spun around for a moment, finding obvious and clear contradictions to all the notions that just ran through his mind; he hoped they were at least in their history.

Sid was using a large tub to douse water and sand on the flames that engulfed the now-beached and burning vessel. Nik assumed that by running into the rocky shore, the vessel might be taking on more water, and by sinking, the flames would become submerged and subside on their own.

Stay here, Nik, John demanded. Too many cooks spoil the soup. Nik looked puzzled and waited as John had instructed.

John ran off to where Sid was feverishly throwing water and sand everywhere and began to help in the fire duties as Nik just sat and looked around. He prepared his AR-15 with a magazine and charged the weapon, as he had no idea what would happen next in the drama he would call the deliverance. Unfortunately, the little he had witnessed so far made him yearn for their place in South Carolina and home at C-10.

The water was littered with debris, timbers, cans, paper, material that looked like fabric from a sail, and plenty of items that they could not readily identify. It looked as if a windstorm had hit a giant garage sale near a beach, and all had blown into the sea. Nik found it odd that with the steady wind, there was no ocean odor, but he quickly discounted that concern as he concluded that the smoke had permeated everything around them—the air, their clothes, his nose. Everything smelled of smoke… and death.

… 2 …

Here We Go Again

THE WIND BLEW STEADILY now as Nik sat and held his head in his blackened, grimy hands. He stared down at the rocky surface of the place the boys had been since the shift, and Nik felt wholly drained. The realities of the events of the last week had sapped him of his energy, immediate will, wits, and any ounce of freshness or cleanliness that he may have had a week ago.

Nik slowly picked up his head. The sunlight hurt his eyes as the grime and the spray of the nearby surf formed an oily buildup in the creases of his face. The filthy mixture stung his pores and made his mood even fouler. His eyes adjusted as he watched his friends complete the near three-day pilfering of the scuttled and burned British vessel. He was not sure if it was a sloop, a brig, or maybe something a bit smaller. The vessel they landed on after the shift was a burning wreck that saved them from an almost certain drowning as they came to this place. The wreck was beached helplessly and not so peacefully perched on the island’s rocky shore. It gave up its treasures to the boys for what Nik could only imagine was most certainly, and very probably, an extended stay of some unknown duration that would constitute more than simply a long vacation.

Where are we? wondered Nik as he quickly corrected himself, knowing the real question also must include and mainly should have been, When are we? Sid and John appeared to have fully recovered. They were taking full advantage of the stores and tools that the disabled and ruined craft was giving up. For the past few days, Sid and John had been collecting and piling up all of the salvageable goods, boxes, sacks, and other bits and pieces, including timber from the shipwreck, for future use.

Nik observed his friends dart about collecting all that could be had from the ruined and dead remains of the vessel that Sid crashed into the island he now sat on. Without their heavy packs and completely unencumbered, Sid and John collected and transported everything worth anything to a place for inspection and assessment.

I am not doing without this time! Sid professed, trying to turn the tide of Nik’s disposition. We have this wreck and all its goodies, and we are going to use them!

Nik agreed with a half smile, You’re right, Sid, no need to be uptight about it. It is ours. We… saved it from a sure and total loss to the… water. He pointed to the huge expanse of the lake, or river, or whatever body of water it actually was that now surrounded them.

Ha! Look who’s talking about being uptight! Sid blurted, peering at Nik in disbelief over the accusation that Sid had a foul mood when all, including Nik, knew that Nik, and only Nik, was indeed the guilty party in the foul-mood club.

John piped in somewhat sharply, "Not uptight! You do realize that we went through that time thing again, don’t you?" John knew the answer to his question but wanted his compatriots to begin thinking about and discussing the obvious predicament they were embroiled in… again.

Nik cringed at both stark truths, as he knew they had been avoiding the ugly certainty to this point. Yes, his mood stunk, and yes, they all knew they had shifted in time again. Once again, the obvious question at hand was: how would they succeed in their survival trick this time? That question was on all of their minds.

Their survival instincts had them scrambling for the past several days, but they were devoid of any real direction. One thing, however, was sure; they had their weapons ready, they were on edge, and they were ready and willing to use them if they needed to. That said, there was no real need for that kind of alert condition, as they had seen no one, no ships, no sign of humanity except for some distant reports… thunder from some of the summer thunderheads, they thought, or maybe cannons. There was no telling what the noises were exactly, but they did know what noise they had avoided talking about—their temporal quandary, the shift to somewhere else, or more correctly, some when else.

Sid tried to break the ice of the avoided topic. We know what we went through, he spoke loudly while trying to talk over the now gusty and howling wind. We all know what we went through! A longer than a slight pause yielded with a frustrated Sid again stating, We know—

Let’s get out of this wind! C’mon… c’mon! John screamed, cutting Sid off midsentence as he grabbed their arms and pulled them to a sheltered spot.

They both nodded, and John led them away from the shoreline.

Nik hadn’t been watching the activities of John and Sid over the past days when they were away from the beach—only their activities at the scuttled and charred remains of the vessel of their deliverance. During this time, he continued staring out across the vast expanse of water that appeared to surround him. He remained vigilant. All the meanwhile, Sid and John assembled and sorted all that they had been collecting, and they began building a makeshift shelter from the timbers, boxes, barrels, and everything else from the shipwreck.

Toward the interior of what was clearly an island, there were a few trees and rock formations. There is where Sid and John constructed the small hut type of shelter using these natural resources as building supports and foundation structures for the walls of the three-sided dwelling. The timbers from the shipwreck became the skeleton of the shelter with the other oddly shaped items placed and piled in a fashion that filled in the spaces between the timbers, thereby completing the makeshift walls. Even burned pieces of the wreck were used for some purpose or another; nothing was wasted, as they still had no idea what their environment had in store for them. They wanted to use everything at their disposal for survival.

The hut structure was well out of sight of the water’s edge, allowing the boys to be hidden from anyone who happened to sail by their island. It was not weatherproof, but it would give them a break from the wind and driving rains, which seemed to be a constant in whatever part of the world they had been deposited into. The boys believed and had a clear understanding that their friends, the Soviets, undoubtedly had something to do with their shift to this place. They were also sure, based on Ivan’s accounts, that they had not only shifted in position on the planet, but also had shifted in time. Beyond that, they just did not know.

So, as I was trying to say, Sid began again upon arriving at their hut, we know what we went through, and we know what the result probably is.

"Yeah, we’re clearly somewhere else and probably some when else as well, John remarked somewhat somberly. After a moment, he added, I sure am going to miss C-10."

Sid began to review the facts aloud. "Just so we’re all on the same page here… Cold War Soviet Special Forces and crazed scientists, used some kind of ‘great Soviet science’ to transport these Chronmonaughts back into our past to prevent us, the United States of America, from developing as we did and succeeding in fighting for freedom and liberty in the world. That very thing, whatever they used, somehow grabbed us off our wonderful and pristine hillside in South Carolina, ruining what would have been a spectacular range trip, and threw us in the middle of our own Revolutionary War in 1780! Does that pretty much cover the bases?"

John recovered from his sense of loss over C-10 and calmly replied, Yup, that’s about the size of it. After a momentary pause, he added, Not much to go on, huh?

Sid cursed under his breath, and it became painfully quiet for quite a long time. Nik broke the silence with an uncharacteristic pivot in the conversation. Do we have anything to clean up with? he asked while looking at all the clutter salvaged from the ship.

Normally, Nik would have tried to ease the impact of John’s admission of being homesick for their lives at C-10, but on this occasion, he was much more intent on cleaning the grime of the fire, smoke, sand, and sweat off himself and his clothes. He figured that the situation they were in now could wait a few more days before getting the third degree thrown at it. As if we know anything about what the hell is going on, he thought as he stumbled across a box with something in it that resembled soap.

As Nik meandered toward a sandy part of the shore, John concentrated on rearranging the items scattered around the hut, looking for any foodstuffs he could group together. In all of his sense of loss over C-10, he still adhered to the responsibility of food provider. As he searched, he fondly, almost warmly, remembered the many food items he was able to catch, collect, and provide for the team to eat. John remembered the early success in snaring birds in the thicket, the fish near Cowpens in the near-freezing temperatures, and the deer lured in and defeated for their Thanksgiving Day meal in December 1780 (reference Liberty’s Dawn, chapter 22, for the explanation of Thanksgiving in December).

Sid had moved to a position higher on the rocks where he could see Nik in the waves, madly rubbing his face and head, trying to wash the dirt and grime off. From his vantage point, he could also see John in their encampment arranging the food items. He looked out over the water and scanned the horizon while also checking their immediate area in all directions. From his vantage point, he could see that their island stretched for some distance before it ended, but much to his surprise, it almost connected to another stretch of land. That piece of land went beyond his sight, and he was content to watch the end of the island they were on for the moment.

Nik returned in a bit of a whirlwind. Sid had missed his sprint from the beach but could clearly hear the commotion as he entered the camp area.

It’s fresh water! Fresh water! It is a lake or a river… not the ocean! What a stroke of luck! Nik ranted in a much happier tone than usual.

John curiously inquired about Nik’s excitement, as they all knew the water around them wasn’t of the salty ocean variety. Okay, so what’s your point? I mean, I know the difference between fresh and salt water, but I thought we already knew— He stopped abruptly with a puzzled look on his face as he appeared to confuse himself with his own thought.

Sid had made it back just in time to hear John’s question and experience the clear joy (or so it seemed) on Nik’s face. This was a relative observation, as it was the first time since the shift that Nik had any emotion other than varying degrees of disgust and despair.

Listen, it’s clean water. This crud washed off my hands, my head and my face… no saltiness left behind! Nik was holding his hands out to show his compatriots. Fresh water—not swamp water, not warm, slimy, scummy water, not a bird-dropping-laced puddle in some rocks, not green pond water, and not mind-numbing ocean salt water; it’s cold, fresh, clean water. Cold, fresh water, Nik continued, his voice trailing off as he looked up. By the way, we have something to look at tonight as well. You’ll love it! I’m going to empty all my clothes, my pockets, everything, and give it all a good cleaning. Is that okay?

Sid, entertained by the rants of his friend, assured Nik, Sure man, go for it. He gave a decidedly direct stare in John’s direction.

John, having looked up for a moment after Nik had peered at the heavens, refocused on Sid, took the hint, and promptly responded with clearly artificial enthusiasm that Nik didn’t pick up on. Yeah, we’ll stay on guard here and up there, and then Sid and I can clean all our stuff as well.

Nik smiled and said, Good plan! Thanks! and off he went, back down to the area where he had discovered the fresh water.

Don’t use all the soap! Sid yelled with a chuckle as Nik scampered back down to the beach.

I won’t! I promise! I don’t want to get all clean and have to smell you guys forever after! Nik answered in a jovial fashion, trying to put his depression behind him. It was a little forced, but his mood was coming around, and he hoped, like the others, that everything would work out okay.

John sharply complained to Sid as they watched over their domain from the hilltop lookout, We’ve known all along we were in a nonsalty water region. We landed in the stuff! He almost drowned in it! What the big—

Sid cut him off with a smile and a single finger over his mouth. Dude! He’s happy… or, you know… as happy as Nik can be in all of this. Let him have it. I know we know about the water. He’s been in an understandable funk since we landed. Hell, we all should be as edgy as he is. However, he found something to smile about, something to break him out of that murky, deep, pissed-off, miserable place of his. Let him have a smile; we’ll all be better for it.

John looked up at Sid and responded, You’re right. I just thought it was a weird revelation this many days after our most recent temporal displacement disaster. I guess I’m on edge too. John dropped his head, showing a clear fatigue from the past days.

Don’t worry, Sid said. "We’re all tired, and we’ll all have our break-out moment when we come to grip with all of this again."

John nodded, and the two friends scanned the horizon, both men knowing that a world of unknowns was in front of them.

… 3 …

A Need for a New Plan

NIK SPENT HOURS CLEANING his clothes, his equipment, and himself. Sid moved down to John’s position in the encampment, where he appeared finished with food scavenging and rearranging. They paused to rest a moment and waited for Nik to finish cleaning up so they could do the same. The smoke and burnt materials had made a mess of everything. The smoke, especially, worked its way into everything.

The events still spun in their heads like a kaleidoscope of realities that were difficult to sort out. Nik finally made it back to the hut carrying his clothes and some belongings, hanging things out to dry in close proximity to where he had emptied the enormous piles of items from his clothes and pack.

You know, Nik began, we need to figure out some of the basic things now.

John looked puzzled but derived a conclusion, seeing the damage their clothes and belongings had suffered over the past years of abuse. The military garb was in good repair, but most of the other civilian items had seen better days.

John shrugged. I always hated the idea of sewing.

We’ll figure it out. Who knows? Maybe something in all this can help us out. Nik smiled as he pointed to the scattered contents of the shipwreck.

Sid chuckled and added, Listen, we probably have at least one of everything in this mess. It might take us five years to find our needle in this haystack, but we’ll find it. Thread… that’ll be easy.

John, getting back to a more practical subject, said, So, Nik, how much soap did you use? expecting to find most of the tub of bars, shavings, and pieces gone.

Honestly, I’m not sure it’s soap exactly, but it does bubble, sort of. In any event, this stuff is tough… tough as nails, Nik remarked as he pulled out the tub of the soap-like substance, showing his friends that there was plenty left for many washings to come. I wonder what it really is.

Sid grabbed the tub and headed down to the beach, stating, I don’t really want to know what it is, as long as it doesn’t reek as much as I do and gets this grime off me and my stuff. Talk to ya in a bit.

Like clockwork, Sid returned, and John went to clean up. Nik had a small fire going under an overhang that he thought would help disperse the smoke more efficiently. The last thing they needed was somebody seeing the smoke and believing them to be survivors of the doomed wreck, which was now listing more and more toward the earth. It had certainly ended its free-sailing days.

They had not eaten well the past week, and they were getting hungry—starving was more like it. John found what looked like rations of some sort, which suddenly began to look appetizing. The wind had died down some, and the sun was just dropping below the horizon. Nik stared skyward again. They had managed to heat whatever the substance was in the ration and were picking at it.

This is truly indescribable, mumbled Sid.

Yeah, not one of our better food finds for sure, replied John, wincing as he bit into something hard and chalky. So, what are you looking at, Nik?

Well, in a few minutes here, I will have a little better idea where we are, he said as the day turned to night.

The three looked up and listened. It was the loneliest any of them had ever felt in the entire bizarre journey they had been on in the past years. They thought of their families as the wind worked the moisture from their eyes.

There. Nik pointed. And there.

What? Sid and John whispered simultaneously, as they had in the beginning of their last adventure in 1780.

Northern constellations, replied Nik quietly. "We are in the northern hemisphere; at least we know that much. Look, Orion over there. Cassiopeia, which contains the Andromeda galaxy, I think. It’s close anyway. There’s Corvus to the southwest, Leo there… somewhere in the west. Yeah, there it is. It’s up high. It tells us a little bit anyway."

Sid stared up into the night sky. John, rubbing his hands together, began to inquire, But…

Nik looked at him with a raised eyebrow and smiled. I knew you were going to ask a question. What?

John said, Just assuming we are in 1781, which—how would we know any better? I guess we don’t think we are. Anyway, for argument’s sake, wouldn’t all those look really different?

Sid complained, Oh no… you have to ask him these things, don’t you?

John smirked and enjoyed Sid’s annoyance with Nik being in full Carl mode (referring to Carl Sagan, the famous American astronomer and astrophysicist).

Nik smacked Sid and began explaining, In fact, in a galactic time frame, those constellations will take millions of years to make their journey into looking like something else to us here on earth. They will look just like that for thousands of lifetimes, and I honestly hope I never see them looking any different. Those suns, solar systems, and even galaxies up there, they’re all moving and spinning like we are here on earth. They are, like us, travelers in time.

The discussion had turned eerie, and all of them had chills.

Does he always need to do this? John asked Sid.

It’s a curse, Sid mumbled. "Nik can find the most depressing thing out of even the most pleasant of things in all of creation. Case in point."

Nik, can you please stop that? said John. I’m not in the mood to know just how small and completely hosed we are in the eyes of the universe.

Okay, sorry. Nik’s head dropped a bit. I can talk about our Soviet problem if it would make you feel better.

Sid and John glared at Nik as if to tell him to be quiet.

Let’s get some sleep. We’ll figure this out tomorrow, I’m exhausted. Sid yawned. Nik, thanks for discovering cleaning up. There’s no telling how long John and I would have been content with being disgusting.

The boys did not post a guard that night, as they did not feel a need. They were on their rock, somewhere in the northern hemisphere, on the planet Earth. That was what they knew; that was all they knew, and the list of unknowns far exceeded the known to this point. They also knew that they had felt this way before.

Hey guys, one thing, Nik said. On the off chance we ever get separated in all of this… If we’re ever separated, we need to have a place to make our way to so we can meet again. Does that make sense?

Sid and John were quiet for a moment, and then John asked the obvious question. Well, that makes sense, but we need to know where we are before we can go somewhere specific, right?

Yes, and we will eventually know where we are. Nik sat up. I’m talking about if we, at any point in the future or past, find ourselves separated, we need to come up with a place to find each other.

C-10? Sid mumbled. It’s the only place we know.

John agreed for lack of a better place. Sure. Of course, if we’re in Alaska or Siberia or Madagascar, we might have a real problem getting there.

That’s a good point. Based on the assumption that we’re somehow shadowing the Soviet task forces through time, we’ll probably end up somewhere on the East Coast during these early years of our nation. That’s where they’re going to try and destroy us, not in Siberia. Nik was almost talking to himself, trying