Time, p.1
Time, page 1
TIME: THE SEMI-FINAL FRONTIER
Book Three of the Diego Series
By Charles L. Grant
(writing as Lionel Fenn)
A Mystique Press Production
Mystique Press is an imprint of Crossroad Press
Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press
Smashwords edition published at Smashwords by Crossroad Press
Crossroad Press Digital Edition 2019
Original publication by Ace Books – September, 1994
LICENSE NOTES
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the vendor of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Meet the Author
Photo by Jeff Schalles
Charles L. Grant taught English and history at the high school level before becoming a full-time writer in the ’70s. He served for many years as an officer in the Horror Writers Association and in Science Fiction Writers of America.
He was known for his “quiet horror” and for editing the award-winning Shadows anthologies. He received the British Fantasy Society’s Special Award in 1987 for life achievement; in 2000, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from HWA. Other awards include two Nebula Awards and three World Fantasy Awards for writing and editing.
Charlie died from a lengthy illness on September 15, 2006, just three days after his birthday. He lived in Newton, NJ, and was married to writer/editor Kathryn Ptacek for nearly twenty-five years.
Book List
Horror
Novels
Black Oak: Genesis
Black Oak: The Hush of Dark Wings
Black Oak: Winter Knight
Black Oak: Hunting Ground
Black Oak: When the Cold Wind Blows
Fire Mask
For Fear of the Night
In A Dark Dream
Jackals
Millennium Quartet #1: Symphony
Millennium Quartet #2: In the Mood
Millennium Quartet #3: Chariot
Millennium Quartet #4: Riders in the Sky
Night Songs
Raven
Something Stirs
Stunts
The Bloodwind
The Curse
The Grave
The Hour of the Oxrun Dead
The Last Call of Mourning
The Nestling
The Pet
The Sound Of Midnight
The Tea Party
The Universe of Horror Trilogy
The Soft Whisper of the Dead
The Dark Cry of the Moon
The Long Night of the Grave
Collections
Dialing the Wind
Nightmare Seasons
The Black Carousel
The Orchard
Science Fiction
A Quiet Night of Fear
Ascension
Legion
Ravens of the Moon
The Shadow of Alpha
As “Geoffrey Marsh”
The Fangs of the Hooded Demon
The King of Satan’s Eyes
The Patch of the Odin Soldier
The Tail of the Arabian, Knight
As “Lionel Fenn”
The Quest for the White Duck Trilogy
Blood River Down
Web of Defeat
Agnes Day
The Kent Montana Series
The Really Ugly Thing From Mars
The Reasonably Invisible Man
The Once and Future Thing
The Mark of the Moderately Vicious Vampire
668, the Neighbor of the Beast
The Diego Series
Once Upon a Time in the East
By The Time I Get To Nashville
Time, the Semi-Final Frontier
The Seven Spears of the W’dch’ck
As “Simon Lake”
The Midnight Place Series
Daughter of Darkness
Death Cycle
He Told Me To
Something’s Watching
As “Felicia Andrews”
Moonwitch
Mountainwitch
Riverrun
Riverwitch
Seacliffe
Silver Huntress
The Velvet Hart
As “Deborah Lewis”
Eve of the Hound
Kirkwood Fires
The Wind at Winter’s End
Voices Out of Time
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! ANOTHER REALLY IMPORTANT WARNING FROM THE AUTHOR !
Because you, the reader, are so clever and wise, you will have already realized that this is the third part of a Tune Travel Trilogy, so I shouldn’t have to tell you, but / will anyway, that there are certain parts of this particular third in the trilogy book that make reference to certain things that happened in the first and second books. Not everything that happened, though, because then this book would be three times as fat as it is. Which it isn’t. Because it’s only the third book, not the third book plus the first and second books.
Therefore, if you want to know what happened in those first two books, you can buy the first two books and read them first and second before you read the third book, thus building an incredible amount of tension and anticipation.
Or you can be really really careful what you read in this book so you won’t spoil the incredible excitement, drama, and human tragedies of the first and second books when you get around to reading them.
It’s your choice.
You have free will.
Do with it what you will.
Just be gentle.
—Lionel Fenn
Table of Contents
PART I
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
PART II
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
PART III
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
PART IV
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
PART V
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
PART VI
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
PART VII
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
PART VIII
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
PART I
The Stuff before the Real Part I
CHAPTER 1
Ship’s Log, the CISS Angus, Captain Dirk R. Winslow, Commander. All remarks to follow are coded NEED TO KNOW, Headquarters Only, immediate transmission, scrambled. TravelDate … uh … Doc, what’s the date?
Today?
Yes.
54.217.37951.3
What’s that, March?
Think so.
Then why don’t they say so?
Well, it doesn’t sound very official, does it? I mean, you say, it’s the seventeenth of March, whatever year, 2512, something like that, it doesn’t really sing, does it? It doesn’t have that sort of Deep Space resonance the folks back home expect, if you see what I mean.
It’s stupid, is what it is.
Whatever you say. You’re the Captain.
Yes, I am. And if I want to say March, then I’ll damn well say March.
April.
What?
I just looked it up. It’s April.
Looked it up? Where?
On the calendar.
Where’s that?
On your wall over t
Oh, is that what that thing is? Damn, all this time I thought it was my Wednesday night bingo card. The padre will get a good laugh out of that one, I’ll bet. You know, now that I think about it, I think that guy’s jiggering the chips. I haven’t won a goddamn dime in—
Captain, the Log.
Right, sorry. I am. Under a great deal. Of pressure. Today. It seems we may have. An intruder.
Intruder? My god, Dirk, are you serious? You can’t be. How can we have an intruder when we’re millions of miles from the nearest place where we were the last time?
I don’t know, Doc. It’s very mysterious. In fact, as soon as I finish this report. I’m going down to Cargo Hold #7 to investigate.
But my god, Dirk, you can’t do that! You’re the Captain! You could be hurt! You could be seriously injured! My god, Dirk, you could die!
Okay, you go.
No thanks.
So who do we send? We can’t ignore it. The fate of the entire freedom-loving Conglomeration of Independent Feisty Space States is at stake here, even if I did jazz up the name a little because the real one is so damn boring, I’d love to get the guy that thought that one up. No sense of romance, you know what I mean? Our mission, which we had to accept whether we wanted to or not, is critical to the completion of the treaty between Us and Them. We make one false move, and the whole damn Universe goes up in smoke.
Dirk.
What?
Send Kenny. He never gets to go anywhere, his uniform is clean, and he’s a pretty good shot when he isn’t on the sauce. Smart, too. Sneaky. Let him sneak around a little and see what he can learn. He can report directly to you, there’ll be no panic among the crew, and you can make the decision whether or not we’re in trouble. Besides, he’s the Security Officer. It’ll give him something to do.
Doc.
What?
We have an intruder. Someone has snuck aboard the Angus without my permission. I think, all in all, that means we’re already in trouble.
Then you’d better not waste any more time, Captain. Call a Yellow Alert, tell Ms. Maynard to secure the Bridge, alert Sick Bay, and let’s get moving!
Consider it done, Doc!
One more thing, Captain, before you go out there and face the troops.
What’s that?
Your girdle’s loose.
CHAPTER 2
Lloyd, what’s that noise?
Not sure, Hauta, but I think it’s some kind of Alert alarm. Yellow, I believe.
Darn. Just when we were going off-shift.
Ain’t it the truth. Happens every time.
Lloyd, you maybe think it’s a drill? One of those things Major Steele dreams up to keep us on our toes?
I don’t know. Probably. I can’t think why we’d have a real alert. After all, nothing’s happened out here in so long, I think my feet have fallen asleep.
Maybe it has something to do with that thingie in Cargo Hold #7.
What?
That thingie. You know what I mean. The thingie.
Hauta, if you’re ever going to get a promotion in this man’s Space Marines, you’ve got to learn to be more specific. Calling an unidentified, and maybe unauthorized, object a “thingie” ain’t gonna cut it.
You’re right, Lloyd. I’m sorry.
Don’t mention it. I’m just trying to help out a friend.
And don’t think I don’t appreciate it, either. It isn’t easy, you know, someone who looks the way I do getting ahead in the Service. Especially out here. There’s just so much darn prejudice against humanoid races, you know what I mean?
Not exactly, Hauta, but I can guess.
I’m sure you can.
Thanks.
So what about the thingie?
Damnit, Hauta, what did I just tell you?
About the specific stuff?
Exactly.
Oh. Yes. Sorry. That alarm is driving me nuts.
So what’s this about a thingie? And remember, be specific.
Right, Sarge. Okay. Well, as near as I can tell from my studies in the CompLib during my free time—which I don’t have much of, by the way, although I don’t want you to think I’m complaining because I’m not—it’s probably something like a train.
A what?
Okay, so it’s exactly like a train.
A what?
A train.
What do you mean, train?
Well, as I understand these things and remembering that I’m not, strictly speaking, human, a train is—
I know what a train is, Hauta. I scan books too. What I want to know is what you mean when you say you saw a train in Cargo Hold #7.
Well, the best I can make out, the locomotive part definitely looks like a locomotive—sleek, with spiffy red and gold stripes along the sleek boiler, the requisite tall wheels neatly outlined in gaudy crimson, and a smokestack that, for the nonce, emits no smoke but is certainly built for the job, no question about it.
Interesting. Go on, Hauta.
Well, the attached, rather long private parlor car absolutely resembles a rather long parlor car of a strictly private nature, undoubtedly belonging to someone of considerable wealth and position considering the elegant, tasseled, red velvet shades now pulled down on all the windows.
You’ve been drinking again, haven’t you.
Wait, I’m not finished. The thing about the thingie that I’m perplexed about is the section directly behind the cab. There’s no identifiable coal or wood hopper from which the fireman or engineer might fling fossil fuels into the voracious maw of the engine’s fiery furnace. What I saw was a peculiar and featureless something that, rather than being securely affixed between the engine and the parlor car, sort of blends in with the former and kind of sticks to the latter.
Hauta, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to shoot you. Being drunk on duty is a capital offense punishable by instant disintegration.
Nuts. Just when this stupid trip was getting interesting.
CHAPTER 3
Captain Maynard, secure the Bridge immediately.
Who said that?
I did.
Dirk? Is that you? Where the hell are you? These damn bells are driving me batty.
Roberta, please stop playing games and secure the damn Bridge. You can turn off the alarm, too.
Yessir, Captain!
Make sure Lieutenant Yomatha scrambles all intravessel communications.
Yessir!
See to it that no one leaves the level he or she is currently on, cancel all leave, and make sure all sentries are armed and ready.
Absolutely!
And since Doc Preston is here with me, get hold of Padre Kenzie and see to it that he readies the main Sick Bay for possible casualties.
Good lord, Dirk, what’s going on?
It seems. We have. An intruder.
Out here? Are you nuts?
Roberta—
It’s impossible. I’ve been staring at this damn viewscreen for nearly six hours, and the most dangerous thing I’ve seen was an asteroid about two zillion miles away. How the hell could we have an intruder?
Bertie—
Dirk … no offense, but have you been sniffing the bingo chips again?
Captain Maynard!
Sir!
We are now in an official state of Yellow Alert. Question my orders and authority one more time and you’re a cosmic dust bunny, you got that?
Yessir.
Very good. I’ll be in touch. It’s up to you, now, Roberta, to be sure the crew doesn’t panic and everything runs smoothly, until my return.
You can count on me, sir.
I knew I could.
Sir?
Yes?
Does this have anything to do with the train in Cargo Hold #7?
Absolutely not.
Right, sir!
And, Bertie?
Sir!
What train?
Major Steele!
Yes, Captain.
I want you to take two men and have a look down in Cargo Hold #7. It seems. We have. An intruder.
You’re kidding. Really?
Kenny, have you been drinking again?
Absolutely not, sir.
Sure smells like it.
Just a touch of Junitian cologne, Dirk, that’s all. I picked it up down at the Duty Free Gift Shop last week. I had a couple of bucks in my pocket, and you’ve seen that little clerk from Romeotus 9, so one thing led to another, and I end up with a bottle of cologne. From Junitia. I figured, as long as there’s nothing going on until we meet the Them ship, I might as well get my money’s worth.
It smells like bourbon.
Tastes like—
