Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2012 07:34:06 +0200
From: Amy Redek <adultreading@gmail.com>
Subject: Cronos. Part Ten.

        This story is for persons of eighteen years or over.  All comments,
good or bad, are welcome and all will be answered.

        Part Ten

     They spent the rest of that day on their bed, only leaving it for food
and the toilet. Next day they had the pleasure of being able in taking a
shower together and to wash with care, certain parts of each other as they
did so.

     They had a big breakfast for they wanted to work through lunch till
dinner and so with the donning of helmets, went off to work. A labour of
love rather than work for they were both anxious to see just how far they
could go into the past's future, which was a delightful way of Audrey
putting it.

     `It's a good thing we didn't move this mother,' he said looking at the
map screen, `for the co-ordinates have changed. We'd have one hell of a job
getting back to the right place.'

     `Naw. We'd only had to go back twenty whatever it was to where we
started from, no problem,' she replied, sitting down in front of the Earth
screen. `How far do we go?'

     `Try anything to see if the grid numbers change,' he said. So Audrey
punched in 0190 0001 0001 and pressed enter while he watched the grid
map. The light hum came with the small tremor that lasted for about six
seconds before it settled down.

     `The grid stayed the same,' he cried. `Let's go look!'

     They both quickly went up to the dome but were disappointed that the
scenery hadn't changed that much. A bit more sparse than before, otherwise
it was the same.

     `No, I don't see much change,' Brendan said.

     `Brendan. Even if we landed within a year of our first coming here we
wouldn't see anything, would we?' she asked.

     `No, you're right. It would be different if we were near some
habitation like La Copelina. We'll have to find the new co-ordinates for
the town. Can you remember the sequence of squares we moved?'

     `It's in my notes,' she replied and went to the table and sorted the
pile that had been steadily growing, the notes for each screen she'd been
working on were held together by a bulldog clip. `Yes, here it is with the
old grid reference. One right and two up on the big screen and then one
left on the small grid map.' So going and sitting back down in her chair,
sent it round to that screen. Brendan changed the reference numbers on his
ordnance map as Audrey called them out at each change until they were at
the correct grid square.

     `Okay, here we go,' she said as she typed the code in and pressed the
enter button. `Let's go look,' she said when the ship had settled. They
went up and looked out to see nothing of note.

     `We'd have to go out with our visors up to see if we've hit the right
place again,' Brendan said.

     `You're right,' she said.

     They went down below and put on their helmets and waited for the door
to open and they went down the ramp. Once clear of it, they lifted their
visors and saw that they had indeed landed in the same place as last time,
right on the edge of the market square.

     `So the co-ordinates work,' he said, `now let's go back in and see how
far we can go in this thing.' Visors down to reveal the ship again, they
turned and went back inside and up to the map room. As Audrey sat back down
at the Earth screen he spoke.

     `There must be some way in the computer to be able to store the grid
references and time shift to be able to work from up in the dome on the
console's there,' he said, `for I don't see them going up and down like
yo-yos every time they wanted to move the ship.'

     `Do you think you could find it?' Audrey asked.

     `Not without a manual written in English. It could take months if not
years and then I could still cock the whole thing up and get us stranded,'
he said gloomily. `Put another fifty onto what's there and see if there's
any change outside. We won't have to go out to see because we would be in
their time.'

     So Audrey typed in 0195 1774 2523 and pressed enter but still no
change outside. They then began to add fifty to the middle set and their
excitement started when they reached the 1924 mark for they could clearly
see that some of the land had been cleared and what looked like two rough
shelters about a quarter of a mile away.

     `Eureka!' Brendan cried out for he was up in the dome while Audrey was
at the screen. `Audrey! Come and look,' he shouted out which sent her
hurrying up to look. She held him tight as they gazed at the primitive site
of the future town.

     `Let's go and look closer,' she said in an excited voice, hugging his
arm and starting to drag him to the central well. He agreed and so they
went down and put on their helmets and moved out into the see their first
humans of the past.

     They were indeed rude shelters they saw as they got closer, just brush
and mud and didn't look much unlike a beehive.

     `Look!' she exclaimed, grabbing his arm as they saw a small browned
skinned woman emerged from the shelter's opening. She was small and bare
breasted which showed she wasn't that young for they were almost flat and
drooped down her chest. About her waist was some kind of animal skin which
was all that she wore and she moved round to one side and in a squat,
defecated.

     `Ugh, how disgusting,' Audrey said. `Right by where she's living!'

     `That's probably to keep the flies out of the shelter,' Brendan
laughed. They were crossing what looked like a small vegetable patch and as
they did so, two young children came out of the rude hut, completely naked
and absolutely filthy. That they were a boy and girl was obvious and they
could now see an older man and a youth tilling another patch of soil on the
other side of the hut. They were very thin but wiry and were wearing the
same type of hide round the waists as the woman.

     `What year do you think this is?' Audrey asked.

     `Not the slightest idea, B.C. probably. There's no newsstand with the
daily paper to give us the date.'

     `Cretin,' she said, giving his arm a pinch.

     Even though they couldn't touch them, Audrey still steered Brendan
away from the dirty children who she now saw had sores and looked half
starved.

     `Thank God we can't smell them. How can they live like this?' she
asked, still clutching at his arm.

     `Even in our time there are people round the world living exactly like
this. In hovels and having to try and live on the brink of starvation,' he
said soberly. `I've seen enough. Let's go back to the ship.'

     `Yes,' replied, quickly turning round for them to retrace their
steps. `Thank God we're civilised,' she said when they were back in the
craft.

     `Let's move on to more modern times then,' he said.

     `No. I want to go back to the camp for a shower, I feel dirty and I'm
sure those children had fleas,' she said scratching her head. He laughed.

     `We couldn't have touched them even if we wanted to.'

     `That's not the point, just seeing them makes me want to wash myself,'
she said petulantly.

     `Okay, back to the camp then. I could do with a beer anyway.'

     Ten minutes later, Audrey was in the shower, scrubbing herself while
Brendan had his cold beer, deep in thought. He got up and checked the lap
top, but nothing from Robin. He picked up the other mobile phone and put
through a call to his parent's house in Boston.

     `Hi Dad,' he said when the connection was made, `glad I caught you
in.'

     `Hello son,' his father said. `How's married life?'

     `Great. Couldn't be better.'

     `Are you still in the Argentine, it seems a rather long honeymoon?'

     `Yes, we're still here and it's really a working honeymoon.'

     `Yes, I've read the book you've written between you. It was great,
almost as if you were actually living amongst them.' which made Brendan
smile, `how's Audrey?'

     `Blooming. Married life suits her.'

     `Blooming? She's pregnant already?' his father asked.

     `No,' Brendan laughed. `We've got too much work to do before we start
thinking of a family. How are you and mother?'

     His father went on say that they were well and other small bits of
news about his uncles and aunt.

     `The reason I'm calling dad,' Brendan managing to break in, `is
because of our book. Having read it you'll note that the Brontosaurus was
believed to originated in the north but we found the evidence that they
migrated from down here. Now you have contacts high up in military circles
and so can probably get me what I need.

     I want copies of the first ever ordinance survey maps done of both
North and South Americas and also the latest for comparisons. Do you think
you could get these for me?'

     `Shouldn't be a problem,' he laughed. `I'll cut off their oil supply
if they don't. Where do you want them sent?'

     `The American Airlines desk at Bahia Blanca, I'll pick them up there.'

     `Good as done son, they owe me a few favours too. A couple of days,
okay?'

     `Thanks dad, give my love to Mom.'

     `Will do,' and the connection was broken. Satisfied with that, he went
and got two more beers out of the fridge and stopped to watch Audrey return
from the shower. Just looking at her roused him as she came towards him
with a smile on her face. She had her boots on and the towel was only round
her middle, her breasts bare and he noted that they were turning a nice
brown colour. Not quite as brown as her shoulders, but she was slowly
getting rid of her white bits as she called them with her naked sunbathing.

     `Well you look clean and healthy now,' he said, offering her an opened
bottle of beer.

     `I feel it, thanks,' she said as she took the bottle and took a hefty
swig before sitting down.

     `You look absolutely gorgeous,' he said, his eyes running over her
breasts.

     `Are they giving you ideas?' she asked, seeing where he was looking.

     `Yes,' he said, his voice thick with emotion.

     `Well let's not waste them then,' she said getting up and moving over
to their bed. He undressed and began by kissing and stroking her breasts,
raising the nipples up for him to suck on before carrying on by moving down
the bed, kissing her body as he went. She parted her legs for him to get in
between and had him dive straight in with his tongue. Licking the inner
folds first before rasping her clit, bringing it up into a hard nodule for
him to just be able to get his teeth on.

     She gave a little jump making his teeth rake it as it came out from
between them. His tongue went and explored the opening to her vagina and
stuck it in as far as he could before kissing his way back up her lovely
body and letting his fingers take the place of his tongue as he kissed her.

     `Enough Brendan, enough,' she cried out after a few minutes. `I want
you inside and fucking me now. Please, now!' she squirmed, his fingers
slipping out of her wetness. He moved up and felt the head of his prick
find the wet trail that his fingers had left behind and homed in and he
gave out a groan as he slid inside. `My darling,' she breathed as her legs
clamped themselves around his waist.

     `My treasure and her trove,' he said, now lifting himself up onto his
elbows and began to move and fuck her. That they both enjoyed their
emissions goes without saying.

                                                            *

     `I spoke to dad a little while ago,' he said an hour later as they lay
together, her head resting against his chest. `He's sending me down some up
to date maps of the Americas. So we'll have a couple of days off during
which you can plot a course for Bahia Blanca.'

     `What will you be doing?'

     `I think I'll do a little sunbathing myself,' he said as he stretched
himself.

     `Yes you could do with losing these white underpants though don't get
this burnt,' she said touching him, then burst out laughing.

     `What's so funny?' he asked, not being able to stop himself following
her infectious laugh.

     `You can always lie there with a sock on it,' she said which set her
off laughing again. He joined in and so they stayed in bed for another
hour.

                                                            *

     Next day she spent her time poring over the grid maps, noting down the
references on the map on the table. Brendan had checked the water level of
the tank and she explained the marking system and he reckoned then that
they needed to run the pump for three hours to top it up. So while she was
in the sphere, he went off to the river and got the pump going and stayed
there, poring over an atlas, making notes on estimated distances and
directions to take the ship up through the isthmus of Panama up to the
United States. It was more guess work than anything but it kept him
occupied for the time it took for the pump to fill the tank with fresh
water.

     Late that afternoon, they took the ship to her estimated position of
Bahia Blanca and found she was two grid squares out from the centre of
town. It took another two moves to land as close as possible to the
airport, the reference duly noted for them to visit in a couple of days
time.

     Though the trip back to camp only took them four seconds, they saw
when they took their helmets off that the light was fading fast and they
had to finish their evening meal by gas light.

     `Who needs television,' she murmured from the bed as she watched him
undress before turning off the gas lamp and moving into her waiting
arms. Following the pattern of all newlyweds, they couldn't get enough of
each other's body and did not get to sleep till after they had had a
satisfactory coming together.

                                                            *

     Next day they sent the sphere to La Copelina and set it down in the
usual place and from the dome they could still see the hovel that the poor
wretches were living in.

     `Let's now go on ahead,' Brendan said. `Put some other numbers in the
second two sets of their time scale.' Audrey then typed in 0195 2000 0001
and pressed enter. Nothing happened. No hum and no slight vibration to show
they had moved.

     `Look,' she exclaimed, pointing at the small display unit above the
keys in front of her. `The things flashing and keeps switching back and
forth between the two sets of numbers.

     `Very strange,' Brendan said and Audrey sat there with a puzzled look
on her face.

     `I can't understand it,' she said. `It hasn't done that before.'

     `I think,' Brendan said slowly, `the fact is we are asking the machine
to take us into the future which it can't do.'

     `That makes sense. Let's drop down the middle set of numbers tens then
till it begins to move again,' she said. To which Brendan agreed, so they
did this till the machine moved at 0195 1962 0001.

     `Great. Now let's increase the third set of numbers by one thousand,'
Brendan said, `until it stops moving. Then we start decreasing until it
starts moving again.'

     This Audrey did and it stopped when this last set was at 9001.Then it
was just a matter of dropping by the hundreds until it moved at 8401. Now
it was a matter of increasing by tens and then single numbers until they
found that the final and ultimate numbers read as 0195 1962 8427.

     `End of the line darling. Now it's the moment of truth. We know where
we are and it's now time to find out when we are,' he said.

     `I'm feeling very nervous,' Audrey said as they descended down the
central well.

     `So am I,' Brendan replied. They reached the bottom and picked their
helmets up and put them on and agreed to keep their visors up to start
with. They stepped on the mat for the door to open to be the ramp and they
went down till they stood in the market square that was bustling with
activity.

     `Are you ready?' Brendan asked and she took hold of his hand and
nodded, not trusting herself to speak and they both flipped down the inner
visor.

     They were still in the square but it was very different. There were
only a few stalls and not many people moving about. Their dress was pretty
much the same but the buildings looked in a much better condition that were
surrounding the market place.

     `Well it's definitely not the same year,' Brendan said.

     `Not just a few years either,' Audrey said, looking at the buildings.

     `Let's walk around to see if we can find any indication as to what the
date is,' he said which Audrey agreed to do.

     After two hours Audrey complained of her feet aching after constant
walking about but not finding anything to give them a clue to what period
of time they were in and wanted to go back to the ship. Brendan admitted
that he too wanted to return and so they made their way back getting the
impression that they were still quite some way out of their own real time
period.

     `Well we've gone about as ferr as we can go,' he sang, parodying the
song from Oklahoma when that had got back inside and had taken off their
helmets.

     `One horse bloody town!' Audrey said getting up to the dome to massage
her feet and then lay on one of the couch seats for a back massage. She had
seen from up there, the peasants moving about but by lying down, all she
could see was the sky. `Not one bloody newspaper. I didn't even recognise
anything! How far out are we compared to our real time do you think?'

     `I don't know,' Brendan said stretching out on another seat. `Could be
thirty, forty or maybe fifty years. These kind of places don't change that
much.'

     `Well this one certainly has. The shops we've bought things at weren't
there and just look at their clothes!'

     `We'll have to try Bahia Blanca then.'

     `Not today,' she groaned. `Tomorrow. We've got to go there then anyway
for you to pick the maps up.'

     `Well let's get back to camp and we can rest there much as I love this
chair,' he said, giving out a groan himself as he got up. `You stay and
rest dear till we get home, I'll drive.'

     `Hah! Sarcasm is lifting its head. One minute is all I get then,' she
said, but didn't get up for another minute which by then they were back at
the camp.

     `I've been thinking darling,' he said as they now lay on their bed in
the old mess tent.' I've got a funny feeling that the ship has a brain
inside it.'

     `Oh come on!' she said. `Have you been talking to it?' she snorted.

     `Now don't pooh pooh the idea without listening,' he said, propping
himself up on an elbow. `I think that machine knows we are in the damn
thing and that's why it will only go so far. Why before you ask, because it
cannot take us to a time where we can meet ourselves.'

     `You've seen too many science fiction films,' Audrey replied.

     `Come on! You'd certainly freak out if you turned a corner and met
yourself, don't deny it for I certainly know that I would. Okay, it hasn't
got a brain per se, but I think it knows our age and therefore won't allow
us to go any further. I wouldn't be surprised if we couldn't get any closer
than seventy years of our present time.'

     `Shit,' Audrey said. `We've got wedding photos that we haven't yet
seen by the way, but I would liked to have seen us on our wedding night in
the Pelican Hotel,' she grinned, looking up at him. `Now that would be
worth looking at.'

     `You're incorrigible,' he laughed as he rolled onto her and kissed
her. `Isn't it better doing it than watching it?' he asked between kisses.

     `Yes darling, ever much so.' But she found it just exciting to watch
as it was being done as it was for him. The smiles that they gave each
other as he loomed above her, to watch her face and expression as she first
felt the head of his cock touch her in the right place. Then to see her
eyes light up as he entered her. It was the same but in reverse at seeing
his smile when he entered her to steadily plough her furrow and come inside
her.

                                                            *

     `Do you think the maps will be on today's plane?' Audrey asked her
husband as they ate their breakfast.

     `I hope so,' he replied. `We'll move up early so that we can look
round the town first to try and find out the date before we go to the
airport. So full dress kit for today's jaunt, we'll have lunch in the city
where you can be waited on for a change.'

     It always felt strange to be putting on city clothes after weeks
wearing as little as possible, the same as after a dig. Brendan declined
wearing a tie as Audrey shunned having to put on her constricting bra. So
simply, but well dressed, they went to seek the date of their place in the
past.

     The date/time was already set and it was just a matter of typing in
the grid reference and pressing enter and they were whisked away to Bahia
Blanca. They'd chosen the city part, one grid from the airport as being the
most likely place to find out the date.

     They were stunned when they did see a newspaper though they couldn't
pick it up, the date was clearly seen. Friday, June 13th 1919.

     `Eighty years!' Audrey cried inside her helmet. `After one hundred
bloody million years and this is as close as we can get? And just look what
day it is?'

     `That's just superstition but I would have liked to have got closer
too,' Brendan said, putting his arm round her shoulder, `but it's better
than being a thousand away. Come, let's get back to the ship and take
stock.' She nodded and let him lead her back and wasn't sure whether to be
elated at knowing the date or to cry because they couldn't get any closer
to their own time.

     Back in the map room, he quickly went to the Earth screen as they
called it and changed the last digit on the display to read as a six and
pressed enter. The ship trembled for a fraction of a second and became
still.

     `Come on. We can now work out their time sequence if we can find a
newspaper again,' he said, and so they went back out again and made their
way back to the newsstand and looked at the papers on sale and eagerly
looked at the date. Tuesday the 10th of June 1919.

     `Three days! Christ, their planet must have been massive to take three
days to revolve in their solar system. How long was their year then?'
Brendan asked, though he was really only asking himself the question.

     `I don't know darling but can we go and eat, I'm hungry. We can still
talk and I so do want to sit at a table with a cloth on it instead of bare
wood,' she said.

     `Okay, let's find a quiet spot where we can take our helmets off.'
This they did and it wasn't long before Audrey had the luxury of sitting
down at a brightly chequered table cloth and being served a meal instead of
cooking it herself.

     `So is there anything else we need to get while we're here, apart from
the maps?' she asked as they dined.

     `Yes,' he said. `I want to get a pack of sticks or something like
that. You know, the type of thing that has an ice cream on the end. Mmmm,
this steak is delicious.'

     `What do want the sticks for? This fish is good too.'

     `We've got to get an accurate measurement of the grids before we start
the trip north.'

     `Why north?'

     `Well I've a hankering to visit our ranch where I grew up. You'd like
the place and I thought that if you saw it, you might fall in love with it
too. We could even use it as our new base camp, then we could search out
herds or individual Dinosaur and then do a dig for the remains. We could
become the world's foremost fossil seekers with the help of the ship.'

     `What about the history we could uncover? The Alamo? Custer's last
stand? The Boston Tea Party?' she laughed. `It did start the War of
Independence.'

     `We could, but I thought that we would leave the pleasure of that to
our children. We'll be the palaeontologists and they can be the
historians.'

     `You would like to have children?' she said shyly. `You've never
mentioned it before.'

     `Darling Audrey,' he said putting down his knife and fork and putting
his hands across the table to take hers. `I do, but only when you are
ready. That is also part of the reason I'd like our base to be at the
ranch. That was where I was born and I think it would tickle father pink if
his first grandchild was born there too.' She saw the tears in his eyes and
decided there and then that she would stop taking the birth control pills,
for she too wanted a child.

     `A boy or a girl?' she asked.

     `Both, it doesn't matter in what order though I'd rather they came at
separate times.'

     `Why?' she asked, then felt she'd walked into a verbal trap.

     `Because I like the way they are created,' he said with a big smile
that made her laugh.

     `When do we start?' she asked with a big smile of her own.

     `As soon as we can,' he said.

    `What have we been doing since we got married then?' she asked, not
letting him know that she had been taking the pill.

     `Practicing,' he laughed. `So you can stop taking your birth pills as
of when you want.'

     `You knew?' she said a little bit shocked.

     `Of course, but I knew you would stop when you wanted to, and I think
it's about time you did.'

     `You want me to stop taking them now?' she asked with a secret smile
on her face.

     `Well I suppose I could do with a couple of weeks more practice,' and
they both laughed and then got on with their lunch.

     They found a hardware shop after their meal and bought a packet of
seed sticks which would do as markers and then returned to the ship. This
they shifted to the square grid that they wanted for the airport and soon
found a place to take their helmets off and walked the short distance to
the airport and went inside and to the American Airline desk.

                                                               *