A Long Time Until Now Read online

Alexander added, “Toilet paper.”

  Elliott said, “Definitely asswipe. Fair enough on the blades, but everyone keep things sheathed, and empty weapons. I don’t want any NDs, any trigger play, any accidents. I’ll tell you when to load. Two mags each is plenty.”

  “Hooah. What about wolves, sir?” Ortiz asked.

  “Yeah, if you see an approaching threat, say something and load up. But we’re not here to fight, we’re exploring and trying to be friendly.”

  The man definitely sounded more in control today. A little shaky, but that was to be expected. At least he was giving some kind of orders, and they made sense.

  Twenty minutes later, Martin had to snap, “Move!” Everyone was reluctant to leave the vehicles. Well, so was he, but they couldn’t use them for this.

  The LT locked Charlie Nine, Barker locked Charlie Eight. The machine guns were inside, bolts pulled, and should be safe from anyone in the Stone Age.

  “Everyone has food, water, weapon with two magazines, knife, armor including eyepro, sanitary supplies, bedroll and clothes.”

  “Hooah.” “Yes, Sergeant.” They had quite light rucks, probably under fifty pounds. Even with armor and helmet, that wasn’t bad.

  “Got this, too,” Barker said, holding up the empty drum cooler. “We can get five gallons of water additional.” He could carry it easily in one hand. It would be heavy when full, though. They could probably lash it to sticks and sling it, however.

  “Good idea. We walk. North to the river, but it’s a straighter route down that way, so that’s what I suggest.”

  He waited for the LT, who nodded assent, and started walking.

  “Close interval,” he said. “We’re not worried about gunfire, just wolves and angry men with spears.”

  He didn’t hear anything.

  He whipped around, and staggered when the ruck kept going. Everyone was behind him, adjusting their interval.

  “Christ, don’t be silent, I thought you’d got magicked home. Keep talking.”

  Barker called, “So these ten soldiers walked into the Stone Age.”

  Oglesby replied, “And one of them says, ‘that’s not the stoning I wanted.’”

  They kept chattering, and he felt better, but after only a few minutes, he stepped aside, ostensibly to count people, and let Barker take point. He really wanted to be in the crowd, not out front. Shameful, but he couldn’t do it.

  He moved into third place, behind the LT. He should probably be last, but that was as frightening.

  It was ridiculous. Nothing was going to send them home, or it would have already. Or it would know somehow they were out of whack, and send them no matter where they were. Or it would be random in the formation, and anywhere was as likely.

  He was panicking; it was unprofessional, and he couldn’t stop it.

  Or maybe he’d read more sci fi than the others and knew just enough to be scared.

  He sipped some water, looked around again, and forced himself to drop back two more slots. Everyone deserved a turn, and he should cover the rear.

  It took four hours to reach a ridge overlooking the river valley. A mile and a quarter an hour. Not much faster than they’d done guiding the trucks.

  “Stream over there,” Ortiz said. “Looks pretty fresh.”

  Martin said, “Okay, fill up. Expect to have intestinal distress.”

  Trinidad asked, “Is that the polite name for what you call the screaming shits?”

  “That’s exactly what it is.”

  The stream was a trickle with lush growth along both sides, but they found a mostly bare spot of rock, covered in moss, where they could bend over to plunge Camelbak bladders and bottles into the splashing flow.

  He risked a taste.

  “Tastes clean,” he said. “Faintly musty. Good. We’ll want to mark this.”

  “Got it,” Dalton said. He had a pocket compass and was writing on a notepad, presumably azimuths. The compass looked to be halfway decent—not a professional one, but it would be good enough for this. And, it was probably all they had. GPS was useless.

  From atop the rock, Barker said, “Sir, there are obvious settlements ahead, along the river bank.”

  “That’s good and bad, but it is a complication.”

  Martin breathed relief, hurried forward, and said, “Sir, as a SERE graduate, may I offer input?”

  “Please.”

  “There are two ways to approach this. We can go on foot, quietly, acting nonthreatening. I doubt they’ll recognize any of our gear for anything other than odd pouches and sticks. They have nothing to compare to. We can negotiate, find out a good spot, likely get some food and water in the meantime. The other option is to roll in like gods. We don’t need to negotiate, we just benevolently agree that we’ll take whatever empty spots they can direct us to.

  “I recommend the former. I’m not comfortable playing God, and in the stories where people have, eventually the primitives figured it out and there was trouble. I’d rather say we’re explorers from far away and want to be good neighbors.”

  “I agree,” Elliott said. “We’ll mark here, walk in, be sociable. What else?”

  “Here’s where it gets tricky,” he said. “If they’re hospitable, they’ll likely offer food and drink. We have to drink the local water, we don’t have a choice, and we can expect those screaming shits to follow. The food may be bugs, fermented meat, whatever. We can refuse citing vows to our gods or such. But it has to be polite. If that doesn’t work, try, ‘I’ll save this for later.’ And you may just have to suck up and swallow something disgusting.”

  Oglesby said, “So, if someone asks if we’re gods, we don’t say ‘yes’?”

  “Correct. Amusing as the line is, this is deadly serious. We’re asking our new neighbors, who may number in the tens of thousands, if we can have a chunk of land.”

  “We covered some of that cultural stuff at DLI,” Oglesby said. “I never thought I’d need it.”

  “Same with SERE,” he said.

  Elliott said, “Okay, magazines in, chambers empty. We need to stick in close proximity, but spread enough to form two fire teams.”

  Martin said, “One more thing yet: Alexander, can you pretend to be my mate? And Caswell should pair up with one of the younger males.”

  Caswell said, “What the hell for? You want to start out by placing our position subordinate, based on gender?”

  Oh, Christ, not that feminist crap.

  “No, that is not what I want to do. It’s fine if you’re equals. We’ll adapt presentation once we see how they handle it. But I’m guessing they’ll have some sort of gender division.”

  She said, “Band societies are usually very egalitarian. There’s a division based on personal interest, not on artificial constructs, and . . .”

  “And that matters in fifteen thousand years,” he said. “We don’t know; we have to be prepared for anything.”

  Elliott saved him.

  “Sergeant Caswell, please go along with the presentation for now. Couples can be equals. We’re just buddying you up. Rest of the males, buddy up as well. We’ll have five pairs, and I’ll take pairs Caswell and Dalton, Barker and Devereaux, and Oglesby can be my buddy. That leaves Spencer and Alexander, if you’re okay with that, Sergeant Alexander?”

  “I’m fine with that,” she agreed. Good.

  “And Ortiz and Trinidad.” They nodded.

  “Okay, then we head west, since that seems to be where they are. We need to get close while it’s still well-lit, so we have time to back off and bivouac if need be.” It was well past noon already.

  Barker said, “It looks like it’s about three miles, rough terrain. We should assess each mile.”

  “Okay, then you lead off.”

  “Yes, sir. Also, I have some training in primitive skills. I know a bit about my Native culture.”

  “Good. And Caswell, I am interested in your training, too. There’s every chance they will act like you say. I just don’t want to assume so.”
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  That seemed to mollify her.

  “Yes, sir. I’ll let you know.”

  He pulled at his ruck straps, let things adjust, and slid them back into place.

  CHAPTER 5

  Elliott was nervous. This was a contact mission, with a completely unknown group. He really had no idea how they’d act, and hoped Caswell was correct. People were people, right? They all ate, crapped, reproduced and needed shelter. There was that Hierarchy of Needs by someone.

  He led the way, because he was the lieutenant, but he hoped they couldn’t see his knees shake. This was worse than anything he’d done.

  Alexander had a huge telephoto lens, almost looking like a cannon, and scanned the settlement ahead.

  “They seem to use rock bases with logs and thatch above. It’s a lot more advanced than I’d have expected. And painted hides. Pretty good artwork.”

  Spencer said, “I think they found a settlement south of here, above Mazar-e-Sharif, that was built on rock foundations.”

  Caswell said, “This could be that culture then.”

  “It was about the time frame we think we have.”

  Elliott twitched his mouth and sighed. There was less and less likelihood of this being some trick. Everything pointed to the Stone Age. That some of the troops even knew which culture it was scared him, though it was helpful.

  Gina Alexander figured they were at the one mile mark from the settlement, more or less, when some natives came to meet them.

  They made her uncomfortable. They were tall. She was average height for an American woman, her husband broke six feet, but all of these men were over six, closing on six and a half. They were almond skinned and almond eyed, with long, dark, kinky hair. And yes, several had dreadlocks. She shuddered. That was disgusting.

  They held spears, and what looked like atl-atls, spearthrowers. They wore skirted loincloths and robes, of what was probably brain-tanned leather. One had a wolf fur cape. He was probably the head man here.

  Barker moved toward him slowly, hands up and forward. She twisted slightly so her rifle was ready at hand, just in case.

  The native said something, and it was a birdsong.

  Not really, but it was very smooth, lyrical, tonal, full of clicks and nasals.

  Barker said, “I don’t understand your words, but I greet you.” He pointed at himself. “I am Staff Sergeant Robert Barker, United States Army. I call myself ‘Bob.’” He pulled his goggles over his helmet lip and rolled them into his hand.

  There was more music. They didn’t seem hostile, but they were definitely curious. One came toward her. He looked puzzled by the helmet, armor and ruck, then seemed to decide she was female. The lack of a beard might have helped.

  He drew a long tube from under his robe. It was a bone, dead but fresh. He extended it toward her.

  Next to her, Spencer said, “Females! Accept nothing as a gift!”

  Right. Some primitive cultures might regard that as an invite to mate. She shuddered again.

  The native looked puzzled, and offered it again.

  Spencer extended his arm, palm up. She pointed toward it.

  There was no way to read the expressions. She couldn’t tell if the man was unhappy or not, but he gave the bone over to Spencer.

  Spencer took it. “Marrow in it,” he said. “I think it’s a food offering.”

  Caswell said, “An offer of food is usually one of hospitality.”

  “Yeah, and this is full of fat. I think that’s positive.”

  He poked a finger into the broken end, pulled it out oozing blood, and sucked it.

  “Thank you,” he said with a slight bow, and returned it.

  The man took it with a nod that might almost be a bow in return.

  “Now I need a drink,” Spencer said. He grabbed the hose of his Camelbak. That likely wasn’t something the locals would recognize, and they didn’t.

  In a few moments, they were all walking toward the village, the five men chattering like birds.

  “That seems easy so far,” Elliott said.

  “I get the impression they’re not short of meat, fat or water,” she said. “If there’s salt around here, they’re in fine shape. They wouldn’t have a reason to fight.”

  Caswell said, “Band societies tend to fight only rarely. Sometimes over borders, but rarely in large encounters. Honor challenges.”

  Oglesby said, “The language. It’s very rich in phonemes. There’s a theory about that, and this seems to fit with it. Some of the African languages have two hundred phonemes, and by the time you get to South America or the Pacific, you’re down to a dozen or two. It’s as if language devolved with isolation and distance.”

  Elliott said, “Well, let’s keep our distance. We’re not friends yet, just visitors.”

  Gina felt better. The lieutenant had been worthless for the first couple of days, but now he was acting like a leader, and there were some good skills in this ersatz squad. They might actually survive.

  One of the men whipped it out from under his loincloth and urinated, right there. She wondered if it were symbolic, but the others didn’t seem to take any particular notice and kept walking. It was just a thing to do.

  There were utters of disgust from the troops.

  Barker said, “That’s common among the Dene cultures, and they may be distantly related. No real modesty.”

  Dalton said, “Yeah, they’ve clearly never heard the word of God.”

  She rolled her eyes and replied, “Private toilets existed before Christianity. And some cultures still have public ones, even with Christian influence. Finns. Japanese.”

  He didn’t have a response to that. Good.

  Elliott said, “Well, he’s done, so we follow them. If anyone needs a rest break, now would be good.”

  She felt a little pressure, but she wasn’t going to drop pants and squat in front of everyone. She’d find somewhere later.

  “Permission to uncover, sir? Since Sergeant Barker did?” she asked.

  The LT paused to think for a few moments, then said, “Yeah, I don’t see why not. Keep your helmets handy, and armor on.”

  Arriving at the village was neither the huge production Sean Elliott worried it might be, nor the complete nonissue he hoped. Children came running out, shouting, then some adults. The rest waited.

  Led by the hunters, they strode in. The terrain was not very defensible against animals. The huts had doors facing the central fire. There were some midden heaps and obvious workshop arrangements, but no real wall. Wolves could come right in, or bears. They didn’t seem afraid of people in this time, but perhaps the fire helped.

  The kids were like kids anywhere, dancing around, reaching out hands. Hey, mister, did you bring us anything? He wasn’t sure what would pass as candy or treats here. He settled for smiling and holding out a hand for them to grasp and rub. Then he had to bat inquisitive fingers away from his weapon and gear. They didn’t seem to be trying to take anything, just curious. He felt hands tug at his ruck and had to turn and wave a boy away.

  And they reeked of sweat and dead animals. There were flies, too. There hadn’t been many up on the ridges. There were here, at least around the guts and other animal processing.

  It was apparent that the locals had visitors periodically, and were probably peaceful. They were unafraid of the soldiers, and some of them did no more than look up before returning to work.

  The village had perhaps a dozen huts, ranging in size from pup tent to TEMPER tent. Around them, people beat leather on frames, yanked at animal guts, twisted rope, practiced with spears, knit some kind of net, probably for fishing, and lolled about.

  It wasn’t civilization, but it was human settlement.

  A group of four headed their way, shooing people aside. They were presumably some kind of leadership.

  They were a good-looking people, tall and straight of stature, almond skin, dark, broad eyes and hair that was tightly curled but not quite afro. At least the men were. The women had plenty of bu
tt, if you went in for that sort of thing, and ponderous breasts. Well, no bras, constantly nursing, that wasn’t unreasonable, just unfamiliar. They probably looked like that in modern A-stan, but they wore clothes.

  The man in the lead spread his arms in a universal gesture, so Elliott did the same. They both smiled. The man was a little shorter, grizzled gray and wrinkled, and could be any age, just “old and worn.”

  Then the man spoke and communication fell apart.

  “I don’t understand your language.”

  Looking quizzical, the man spoke again.

  “Still don’t.”

  He was patient, but Elliott shook his head and repeated himself until the man shrugged and gestured behind him. A woman had what looked like an animal skin canteen.

  “Oglesby, any help?”

  “I can’t quite repeat the sounds right, but they’re saying ak!a, with a click. It sounds a lot like ‘aqua.’ And they’re pointing at what looks like a bag of water.”

  “Do you think that word is the same?”

  “It’s a standard word in both PIE and PIA.”

  “Does that mean yes?”

  “Sorry, sir. It means maybe. We’re a long fucking time until then, but it’s not impossible. A handful of basic words have cognates in a lot of languages. It could also be pure coincidence and a false cognate—sounds similar and similar meaning but from a different origin.”

  “Anything you can learn helps. We need a pidgin of a hundred words or so, yes?”

  “A couple hundred or a thousand is better. Smart people can make it work with a couple of dozen and gestures, but we don’t have many gestures in common.”

  “Do what you can.”

  “I can point and ask. We’ll get nouns first.”

  Their hosts were starting to look anxious. Bracing himself, Elliott accepted the bag and hefted it. It sloshed. It was the whole skin of some small animal, tied closed and treated into leather. He raised it up, watching his counterpart, who smiled and pantomimed drinking.

  It smelled half rotten and tasted earthy, rotten. It wasn’t terrible; he’d drunk sulfur and iron laden water that had been as bad, but it wasn’t pleasant.