He was already a veteran of many temporal campaigns when he had first met Lucas Priest on what was to become the very first temporal adjustment mission ever conducted in Minus Time, when Professor Mensinger’s worst fears came true and it was discovered that history was nor an immutable absolute, that it could be changed, with consequences that could prove disastrous. He and Lucas had been part of the team who were the very first Time Commandos, even before the First Division had been organized under Moses Forrester, who had acted as their training officer on that mission. It seemed so very long ago.
Priest had only been a sergeant major back then and had just clocked in from a hitch served in the Second Punic War. Delaney, himself, had been a Private First Class-again-and if anyone had told him back then he would one day become an officer, he would have laughed in his face. Half the team never made it back from that mission. Johnson and Hooker had both bought it and their names were the first to be listed on the Wall of Honor, the first of many. Too many.
It had been on that mission that they first met Andre, although their real relationship with her did not begin until centuries had passed. When Lucas had first met her, he had not even known she was a woman. She was a native of that time period, in 12th-century England, a woman passing as a young man. She had called herself Andre de la Croix and had carried her deception off so far as to become a mercenary knight in the service of Prince John. She and Lucas had first met in the lists at the tournament of Ashby de la Zouche, an encounter Lucas was never to forget, he had almost failed to survive it
They had met again in 17th-century France, when they went up against the Timekeepers. and were stunned to learn that Andre had been brought there from the past by a deserter from the Temporal Corps named Reese Hunter. Hunter had been assassinated by the Timekeepers and Andre had helped them to avenge his death and successfully complete their mission, after which they had brought her back to Plus Tom with them, to the 27th century. She became a soldier in the Temporal Corps. transferring to the First Division as soon as she completed her training.
They had served on many missions since then, but never one like this, never one where all the laws of Temporal Relativity seemed to be suspended the theories of Temporal Relativity. Delaney corrected himself, for Zen physics was anything but an exact science. Mensinger had never anticipated anything like the Temporal Crisis or confluence points. They had studied Mensinger’s theories exhaustively in R.C.S., pushing themselves to the verge of nervous breakdowns trying to solve the theoretical problem modules posed by the instructors, temporal riddles more mystifying than ten koans. What would happen if..
But the one hypothetical situation that no one had anticipated was the one that faced them now. What would happen if two separate timelines in two parallel universes converged in a confluence point at the exact same space and time? How would the Theory of Temporal Inertia be affected? Where and how would the Fate Factor come into play? What definition would apply to the Principle of Temporal Uncertainty? Or. given such a situation, could it even be defined? And what about the potential for a timestream split? Would it occur here and now or…
No. not here and now. Delaney thought, but in the future Darkness came from. Here and now, where two timelines intersected, the immeasurable surge in temporal inertia would somehow affect the currents of both timestreams, inducing a profound rippling effect, like a timewave that would gradually swell into a tsunami as the centuries rolled by until, somewhere in the future, it broke and… and what? Ultimate entropy? An end to all of time? A disaster that would make all the prophecies of Nostradamus and the biblical Apocalypse seem like nothing more serious than a mild spring shower? He shuddered at the thought
“Finn? You okay?” said Scott.
Delaney snapped out of it. “Yeah yeah. I guess so.”
“For a moment there, you looked. as if the world was coming to an end.”
Delaney took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It is. Scott. Not only the world, but everything. And the Whole shebang hinges on one whacked-out scientist saying the right word at the right time. Then, for probably about one second, it’s going to be up to us.”
Scott moistened his lips and swallowed hard. “Nothing like a little pressure.” he said, with a weak smile.
9
The Alhambra and the Oriental were the last saloons left for Lucas to check. If Delaney wasn’t there, he only hoped that Andre would find him and get him back to the hotel. Unless Finn had picked up some sort of lead and left town to pursue it, he had to be around somewhere. Lucas couldn’t imagine him leaving town without letting them know. But there was no sign of Delaney in the Alhambra. Lucas decided to check the Oriental Lunch Room, which was attached to the saloon. As he entered, he walked right into the middle of an altercation.
“There ain’t a word of truth to it!’ Ike Clanton was shouting at a man sitting at a table. “I ain’t never made no deal with him! And if Wyatt Earp says I did, then he’s a damn liar and I’ll make him pay for it!”
“You’re a son of a bitch. Clanton.” said Doc Holliday, getting up from a nearby table, “and you talk too much!”
“Man goes spreadin’ lies about me. I intend to speak up about it and you ain’t got no say in it. Holliday!’
“You’re the one’s been spreadin’ lies about the Earps, Canton, and I tell you I won’t stand for it,” said Holliday, a dangerous edge to his voice. “And I hear it’s you been telling people I was the one held up that stage and helped King get away.
‘I don’t know nothin’ about that,” Clanton protested. “And I don’t know nothing about no reward for Leonard, Head and Crane, neither. It’s your friend Wyatt Earp’s been tellin’ folks I made a deal with him in secret to double- cross those three for the reward and I ain’t never done no such thing!”
“You’re a liar, Clanton.” Holliday replied. “You’d sell out your own mother for a dollar. I’ve had about enough of you and your damn mouth Jerk your pistol!”
“I’m not heeled.” said Clanton, nervously. “Hell, you know the law.”
“Yeah, and it seems like you obey it only when it’s convenient for you.” Holliday replied.
The door behind Lucas opened and Virgil Earp came in. Apparently. someone had run to fetch him.
“Trouble, Doc?” said Virgil.
“Clanton here’s been spreadin’ lies about us all over town,” said Holliday. “I’ve had about enough of it. You talk big, Clanton. Let’s see how big you are. You want a fight, you son of a bitch, you can damn well have one!”
“I told him I’m not heeled,” Clanton said to Virgil. “I ain’t breakin’ any laws.”
“You’re a liar.” Holliday said. “If you haven’t got a gun, then go and get one! I’ll wait right here!”
“I’m not going to have any shooting around here. Doc.” said Virgil. “Come on, let’s step outside and talk about this.”
“I’m through talkin’! And I’m through listenin’ to this lyin’ rustler, too!”
‘Doc, I’m askin’ you as a friend,” Virgil said. “Let’s go. Let Clanton have his mouth. He’s just a blowhard, everybody knows it.”
Clanton glared at Virgil, but said nothing.
Doc pointed his finger at Clanton. “I’m not through with you, you bastard. This ain’t finished!”
He walked out with Virgil
You heard him!” Clanton said, to the people in the room. “You heard him threaten me! That’s what this town has come to! Outlaws like Doc Holliday can threaten law-abiding citizens just because he’s got the Earps there to protect him! Now they’re goin’ around thrown?’ dirt on my good name! Well, if they want a fight, then Ike Clanton will oblige them!”
Lucas beat a hasty retreat before he got caught in the middle of something. He knew what this was all about and he knew what it was leading up to. Wells Fargo had offered a reward for the capture of the outlaws who had killed Bud Philpot and tried to rob the stage Leonard. Head and Crane had managed to elude the posse and Wyatt Earp was still smarting from it. He wanted the glory of capturing the outlaws and he hoped to do it before the next election, when he planned to run for sheriff against Johnny Behan.
According to history, he’d secretly offered a deal to Ike Clanton. Frank McLaury and another rustler named Joe Hill, to trap the outlaws. And rather than manifest the outrage that he claimed to have over being asked to betray his friends, all Ike Clanton had wanted to know was if the reward was good dead or alive. Obviously, if the
