Out of Time

[PM2K]

A new story by PM2K

Out of Time - by PM2K

A blistering hot day, the sun mercilessly beating down upon the two dozen humanoid figures making their way across the sea of dry grass.
The collective of dark haired males and females carry items ranging from long wooden poles and spears to simple packs made from animal skins. Some of the women carry small children. All are wearing very little in way of clothing.
The group is silently observed by a trio of thin, wiry individuals who stand nearby, wielding shiny metal instruments. In contrast to the brown and bronze skinned travelers, the threesome - one woman, two men - are pale, nearly hairless and clad in form fitting black body suits.
The small tribe passes close to the three observers, but do not notice them, despite the fact they seem to be standing in plain sight. The instruments they hold blink silently as they scan and record the procession.
Within a leisurely span of time, the group is out of sight. The three check their devices, then turn as one to head towards the small, silvery egg shaped craft sitting nearby. Like its passengers, the open topped vehicle had gone unnoticed by the travelers.
The trio, chronotists all, armed with the latest technology, walk with purpose, as they had a task of the most important sort - the final cataloging of Earth's history.

Earth and the solar system are in their last days. The sun has been burning itself out for a million years, and, swollen to a red giant, enveloped Mercury and boiled off the thick atmosphere of Venus. It will soon expand further to consume the rest of the inner planets.
Humanity had long abandoned Earth for settlements on the Moon, Mars and a scattering of colonies among the asteroids, but enough interest remained in the history of the Motherworld to justify time expeditions, to fill the gaps in the record, which had grown with the neglect of the ages.
While technology permitted time travel with relative ease, it wasn't foolproof. Webships were needed to bring chronotists to the dying planet, where force fields protected the teams while they slipped through time.
One limitation was while it is possible for chronopods to reach any era, once that time and place had been visited, it couldn't be revisited, either 100 years before or 100 years after touchdown. It was suspected some natural law was at work, but no one really knew why, just that it couldn't be worked around.
Even these limits allowed access to the great eras of humanity, which despite the existence of artifacts and records remained ill understood.
With the construction of massive generation ships, the vehicles which would take people to the stars, a new urgency arose among those still interested in the past to record all before the opportunity was lost, and humanity's interest in history disappeared with the Earth.

"What a waste of time..."
Janis hisses the words as she fiddles with the controls of the scanner. Jonn snorts with amusement at her reactions. Like the others, she is lean and lanky, with only a slight widening of hips and narrowing of waist to distinguish her gender. Also like the others, the hair on her head is buzzed close to the skull.
She has made no secret of her disdain for the mission, one of the last to be conducted.
"I mean, what can we possibly learn from a bunch of primitives? They produced nothing of value except a handful of spear points."
"Ask the throwback..." Jonn says. "He seems at home here among the cavemen..."
Erikk flinches. The trip to early Ice Age humanity had been his idea, in part because it hadn't been really explored before. The other reason is more personal... to him, humans seem more real here. But he'd never confess that feeling out loud.
"Please don't call them that..." he says quietly.
Jonn laughs, a harsh barking sound.
"You know... I swear if I didn't know any better, Erikk here has a certain affection for the creatures..." he says.
Janis' face displays her displeasure.
"I don't understand you..." she says to Erikk. "How can you possibly find those... creatures.... appealing? I mean... they are so dirty and hairy and bulky... all jiggling meat..."
Jonn smiles, a slight upturn to his mouth. He is rather enjoying Erikk's discomfort.
"Maybe it's their strong scent..." he says. "Perhaps it has a strange intoxicating effect on the less able minds of throwbacks..."
Erikk feels his face redden, as Janis shudders, her disgust at the thought apparent. It wasn't uncommon for chronotists to deactivate the olfactory senses in their chronosuits, finding the abundance of pungent, natural odors overwhelming to their delicate sensibilities.
"It... it is something to get used to... that's all..." he mumbles. "I mean...."
Janis shakes her head, then goes back to adjusting the sensor array. Jonn snorts, trying to suppress a chuckle.
"No, thank you..." she says, her revulsion evident. "What is the point of getting used to a long dead world?"

Sighing, well away from the chronopod and the rest of the team, Erikk scans the horizon of the massive wetland he is in the midst of surveying. Around his left wrist is a silvery bracelet, which crackles with a blue-white light. It serves as both back up power source and control device for his chronosuit, which works in concert with a narrow belt around his waist to form a force field, enveloping him completely in a skin-thin cocoon of energy.
Wearing the sleek, black-colored chronosuit is mandatory for those who engage in time travel work, keeping its wearer separated from the environment. It even possesses antigravity properties, allowing its operator to skim over any surface, as he is currently doing, hovering a few microns above the sodden ground.
Erikk sighs again. Few took him seriously, considered him a throwback, a derogatory term used to describe chronotists who seem to prefer the past to the present.
He looks up at the blue sky, dotted with wispy white clouds, and adjusts his chronosuit so he can feel the warm breeze stroke his face as it rustles through the sea of tall grass and bull rushes surrounding him.
Briefly, he pictures the Earth in his time with its reddish skies, burnt landscapes and bloated sun filling half the horizon, and smiles to himself. Throwback... unlike many, he didn't consider the term an insult.

A series of snapping and crackling sounds brings Erikk out of his reverie. His head snaps around in the direction of the noise, and he peers into the dense curtain of reeds, waiting to see what will emerge. He isn't worried about being detected... the chronosuit's energy field possesses light bending abilities, making him virtually invisible to anyone or anything outside of it. His scent isn't an issue, either. What little body odor which hadn't been eliminated by his era's health and beauty products is disguised by the energy field as a slight whiff of ozone.
Erikk prepares the scanner to record whatever is working its way towards him, when his breath catches in his throat, his heart hammering. A creature emerges from the reeds, pushing them aside as she moves forward....
His eyes widen in surprise as he watches the tall and muscular woman work her way through the marsh. Her dark eyes scan everything, her nose and lips are narrow and possess a noble bearing. Except for a small piece of animal skin barely covering her groin and rear, and a necklace of beads, bone and feathers, she is nude.
Erikk feels his jaw become slack, overwhelmed by her strong, animal-like presence. Her skin is a lovely shade of coppery brown and shines from a thin film of sweat. Long black hair forms a ferocious mane which spills halfway down her bare back and over her broad shoulders, brushing the top of her large, firm breasts, which jiggle with her every movement.
Her stomach is flat and hard, abdominals well defined. Her exposed hips well rounded, her legs and arms thick and rippling with muscles, her feet long and hard. In her right hand she grips a long, wooden shafted spear, tipped with a stone blade carefully tied in place with strips of leather cord.
Transfixed, Erikk realizes he has forgotten to activate his scanner. With a brush of his thumb he brings it to life. It quietly blinks as the small square of thin metal records the woman's presence for the data banks.
He finds himself grinning broadly. She must be a hunter, and perfectly adapted to her environment... her young body sculpted by the drive to survive and thrive.
Erikk fights to suppress a snort of amusement while thinking of his dismissive colleagues. Without their devices, Janis and Jonn wouldn't last an hour in this environment, and yet here this near naked goddess is clearly queen of all she surveys. And those two would turn up their noses at her kind for being primitive...

Goddess?
Erikk feels his face flush. Watching the woman move carefully through the wetland, her bare feet making wet sounds as they test the way forward, he has to admit he finds her strongly attractive. A strange feeling for one who has been technically dead for millennia... but here in the past, in every sense, she is undeniably alive...
He begins to wonder what her hair would feel like running through his fingers, how her breasts would respond under his hands... or her sex? How would she taste if he kissed her? Could he? Would she let him? The hunter is easily a head taller than he is... and based on her muscular physique, would have no trouble at all overpowering him. That idea does holds a definite appeal... but he isn't certain if they did happen to encounter one another whether she'd love him, or kill him...
Erikk smiles to himself. The fantasizing is harmless, the questions and speculations moot. The reality is they can never touch one another. The laws regulating time travel are strict; to prevent potential chronostream contamination, any interactions with historic subjects were forbidden. The more serious offenses were capital ones.

It happens quickly.
The first indication Erikk receives of the peril approaching is the reaction of his female subject. She instantly freezes in place, then squats downwards, spear held at the ready. Before he can process any of this, his instruments begin to blare a silent warning of red flashes.
What the...
A blur of motion brushes past the chronotist, the creature large and bulky. Erikk cries out in terror, the sound neatly smothered by the chronosuit. The mass of dark fur and glistening fangs rushes towards its prey... The huntress braces herself, a look of grim determination etched on her hard features.
She's going to die... he thinks... and she knows it.
Yet the woman stands her ground without a trace of fear on her face. In this oddly stretched out moment in time, Erikk cannot help but admire the huntress's complete and calm acceptance of the likelihood of death, without surrendering to it.
If I'm to die today - her stance and expression seem to be saying to fate - then come take me, if you think you're strong enough!
Erikk finds himself wanting to reach out to help her... but in an eye blink it is over. The monster and its hunter slam together violently... and the chronotist is amazed to see the spear point burst out the back of the thing in a spray of crimson liquid and meat, followed by a section of the spear's long shaft.
My God... she did it! She actually killed the beast! He rejoices for her, as the huntress is too busy grappling with her dying foe to celebrate any victory. The creature still has plenty of life left in it, and with a violent shake of its head and body, snaps the spear shaft in half, forcing her to leap out of the way.

"Oh, no... no!"
Erikk shouts as he stares helplessly, the thing turning on the woman, claws and jaws at the ready. It is slick with blood, pinkish foam dribbling from its open mouth flagging its wound as mortal, and yet the creature seems determined to use its fading life force to take its slayer with it.
With his shield partially open, he can sense it all... the damp smell of grass, rotting reeds and sodden earth competes with the sharp smells of blood and intense stench of the creature mingling with the sweat and rich musk of the huntress's natural body odor. He can hear its bubbling wheezing, her sharp intakes of breath, the wet sounds of feet from both species stamping on spongy ground.
The antagonists circle each other in a dance of death. Erikk is all too aware of how little chance his marsh goddess, now without her weapon, has to survive the next few moments... and yet, she doesn't back down from the lopsided challenge...
Staring at her, smeared with mud, blood and her own essences, bare breasts bobbing, hair flying around wild and untamed, Erikk had to admit that in spite of the grim circumstances, she remains the sexiest thing he has ever set eyes upon.
If... if I can only do something...
But that remains out of the question, even if he had a weapon on hand to assist. Whatever is transpiring here now before his eyes played out millennia ago. Whether she lives or dies has already happened, and he cannot interfere.
So he braces himself to witness her end, to remember her and her courage for the ages. He feels he owes her that much.
He watches as the huntress moves slowly around the beast, her dark eyes never leaving its gaze. She growls, a deep guttural rumbling. Her arms are spread wide, and she scuttles sideways, low to the ground, the muscles in her solid legs knotted and rippling.
The animal growls back, a horrid bubbling noise gargling somewhere within. It shuffles in place in a slow circle, matching her movements, preparing itself to spring upon her at the first sign of an opening. Blood streams down its sides, flowing freely from the spear point emerging from its back...

Erikk's eyes widen in understanding. He feels hope, the hope born of a slim chance, flutter within him.
"Go.... go!"

As if listening to his pleas, the huntress suddenly springs forward... and upwards... her body stretching out in an arc bringing her over the beast. It moves too, swiping at her with its claws, attempting to rise up on its hind legs.
But it is sluggish in its response, due perhaps to its wounds or maybe just surprise... as she rotates in mid air, arching her body in a way which would make the zero-g gymnasts of Erikk's time envious... and then lands on the shaggy thing's back.
It roars then, somehow finding the energy to thrash beneath her, attempting to dislodge the huntress from her perch. She in turn hangs on grimly, clinging to the fur with her left hand as her right grasps the blood-slick spear in a tightening fist just below the stone spear point...
With a guttural roar she extracts it, two feet of wooden shaft and a half foot of narrow cutting edge. Twirling it deftly in her hand, she plunges it into the creature, again and again, seeking a fatal spot... any fatal spot... all the while the thing bucks and twists and squalls...
Then, with an audible crunch, the huntress drives the spear home, deep into the base of the animal's skull. In response, the creature jolts and shudders, its limbs extended and stiffening...

Erikk feels he can breathe again...

...then...
In a final burst of life before falling into darkness, the creature manages a final buck, a last spasm before the last of its life trickled out.
Caught off guard, the huntress is sent spinning off of the beast she has slain, crashing just out of sight among the tall reeds and thick bladed grasses.
Erikk sees this, and listens carefully, but he cannot tell what happened to her. Even his scanner proves useless, even as it blinks quietly. The device seems to have been overwhelmed lately by data, for it fails to get a fix on the woman.
That fact alone has him worried.
I'm sure she's fine... he thinks. This is her territory, after all... and I just watch her take on a beast of a size even a modern blaster would have trouble with, using a simple spear. If anyone would be okay in this place, it would be her...
Still... Erikk feels unsettled. If some strange grief befell his huntress, he knows he can't do anything about it... and yet... yet he has to know.
The webwire beeps. He hears Jonn telling him they were wrapping up, and getting ready to depart for their time. The last time. Before departing Earth itself.
Erikk frowns for several moments, then with a quick double tap on the wrist controller he shuts it off. Tapping it again, he powers up his chronosuit's antigravs and kicks off from his current position, gliding effortlessly across the marshy ground.

The first thing he notices as he slides through the head high grass is wet slapping sounds. Puzzled, he adjusts his course to head in that direction. His feet float a quarter inch above the wet ground as his chronosuit's force field pushes him upwards.
Erikk moves smoothly, taking long strides as if skating over plexi-ice, and he quickly reaches the source of the noises... and feels his blood freeze over.
The grass thins out suddenly, and forms a green wall around a dark, muddy clearing, flecked with water and clumps of plant matter. The scanner helpfully records the width of the roughly oval patch of ground as being ten feet wide, double that long. A shallow stream of water winds its way across it.
Near the center of this is his huntress, who's body impales the muck. She is clearly trapped well past her waist in the strange landscape, and is using her arms and hands to claw deep trenches into its sloppy dark brown surface. Her movements speak of desperation, and she thrashes in an effort to free herself.
Erikk is disquieted by the way the mud around her wobbles and flows sluggishly like the living protoplasm of some alien monster, but what really horrifies him is the look of sheer terror on her face... her eyes are wide and bulging, and he realizes she isn't trying to dig her way out as much as she is flailing wildly in panic.

Is this the same person he saw confront death with cool determination just a few moments before? Is this awful swamp slime enough to terrify even this mighty warrior?

Before his eyes he watches the mire swiftly devour her torso... In mere moments, her large breasts are slapping on its surface, sending liquid mud splattering in all directions. She twists and turns in place, causing heavy ripples to radiate sluggishly in all directions.
And she continues to sink. Deeper and deeper into the churning morass...
She begins to scream. Her voice comes out in short staccato bursts, separated by longer stretches of garbled sounds which resembled no human language Erikk knew of... and yet, there is no mistaking its message.
Help me... please... someone... help me...
Erikk bites his lower lip, his hands balled into fists. He stares, his insides roil with something cold and oily. Is this, then, her fate? To bravely battle a beast, stare death coolly in the eye and win, only to end up perishing wretchedly in a bog?
"Not right... it's not right..." he whispers to himself, voice cracking with emotion. You merit a courageous end... yelling defiantly in the throes of battle, then marching head held up proudly to your Valhalla... or dying peacefully within a circle of loved ones... Not this... not to die alone and afraid in some filthy mud puddle...
He watches as her breasts slip under, mud slopping at her broad shoulders. His feet start moving towards her, the antigravs keeping him above the sucking surface, but he stops.
This happened... Erikk thinks. This has already happened. No matter how she dies.... died... she is dead. Long dead. A thousand thousand thousand years ago. Whether by beast or bog, by enemy, lover, or in childbirth... by accident or old age... the huntress you see now has been dead for a very long time. Not even her bones would exist now...
Then she begins to wail... a despairing, agonizing sound which makes him shiver. He chokes on sobs. Hot tears spill unbidden down his cheeks. His cold, rational voice begs him to walk away. Saving her is timecrime. Interfering with her fate is timecrime. Interrupting the way history unfolded, even in the smallest way... timecrime.
Penalties for timecrime: Incarceration certainly. Mindwipe likely. Death... maybe.
And yet...
It takes Erikk several moments to realize the screams have stopped. His heart freezes, then he realizes she is still above the mud. Somehow, his feet had kept moving, and he has drifted across the death trap to be within a couple of feet of her, sunk to her shoulders in the quivering, bubbling earth.
A bit more time passes before Erikk notices she is looking right at him, her dark eyes locked onto his pale ones.

He feels his jaw drop open in astonishment. How? How can she see him? How is that possible? The tech is designed so chronotists can observe without detection...
Then he notices his shadow falling over her.
The sun... it is behind him.
Erikk remembers their very first lecture about the chronosuit and its light bending properties... which were thwarted if one stood in fog, driving rain or snow or between the subject and a bright light source. Camouflaged or not, the mass remains in place and can be detected if one is careless.
"Damn..." he says to himself, then looks down again at the trapped woman. She keeps looking at him, even as she continues to settle deeper into the muck.
Back away... his rational side whispers. It doesn't matter if she's seen you... she'll be gone in just a few more moments...
Then, the huntress does a remarkable thing. She reaches out to him, right hand extended, and looks at him, almost as if she is pleading...

Erikk stares for the longest time. He notices her eyes are now calm, devoid of the terror which marred them earlier. I must appear to be a shadow to her... By the logic presented by Jonn and Janis, she should be more scared of me than the muddy death she is facing.
He notices his wrist controller blinking. Jonn again, no doubt furious for being made to wait.
The huntress keeps waiting patiently, even as the mud oozes over her collarbone.
It would be so much simpler to turn around right now, he thinks, adjust the force field so he couldn't hear anything from the outside, and head back to the chronopod without looking back. Maybe even have this half the day wiped from memory. After all, in my time, she is still dead.
Yes, it would be simpler. But it also would be less than human.
Erikk reaches for the wrist controller, and drops the shield with a touch, glad he didn't cut the antigrav by mistake. By making himself visible to the past, he just committed timecrime.
Strangely, it didn't feel like such a terrible thing to do after all.
The woman's eyes widen slightly, but she doesn't withdraw her arm. He kneels down, the bluish field surrounding him crackling softly to adjust, keeping him above the mud.
"Hello there..." he says softly, knowing she wouldn't understand his words. But he is counting on her ability to read animals and situations. Slowly, he extends his hand towards hers, but doesn't grasp it, leaving it to her to make the first move.
Their eyes remain locked.
Erikk smiles and nods, his arm still outstretched.
The huntress then reaches out. Her hand, with a grip of iron, locks around his wrist. He reciprocates, enjoying the sense of her strength...

Damn!
Countless ages seemed to have gone by, as Erikk continues to struggle to free the woman from her muddy trap, but finds he cannot even budge her. The mire is so thick and heavy, it has sealed her into place, even as it relentlessly sucks her down.
The huntress is now chin deep in the quaking muck, long hair floating around her like a dark cloud. Her left arm is buried, her right sunk so only her forearm and hand remains exposed to the warm air. Her grip on his arm remains solid, as she hangs on to her lifeline.
Hovering just above the slime, Erikk quickly realizes he doesn't have the leverage to break the bog's suction to get her out. The fact she is also taller and heavier than him also works against his best efforts.
"I'm... I'm sorry... I can't get you out..." he says to her. "I've tried everything..."
The woman never once averts her eyes during this ordeal, and he begins to see a sad resignation seep into her features. Her eyes remain unclouded by fear, and Erikk suspects his presence has made a difference.
He chews on his bottom lip, thinking furiously, trying to come up with a solution. Damn antigrav... it keeps me above this muck... so why aren't I able to just lift her out?
The huntress' mouth slips under the turgid grime. Her nostrils flare, drawing in precious air. Her grip tightens, eyes widening. In moments, she will go completely under and be lost, forever...
Erikk does not get it... her weight alone should have dragged him into the mire, and yet he remains in place. The antigrav field clearly has enough power to hold both of them up... so why...
Then it hits him. His eyes widen as the revelation strikes home. The field! Of course! The field!
With his right arm still pinned by the huntress' grip, Erikk reaches around his own torso with his left to reach for the small pouch containing the chronosuit's maintenance kit. His fingers grasp a number of small tools - small rods tipped with tiny crystals - which should do the job.
If the suit can take it, that is... he thinks. It wasn't designed for what he is planning to do...
He feels the huntress begin to struggle, her hand tightening to the point he can sense his bones creaking under the pressure. Glancing back, he sees she has slipped under to her eyes, and is fighting to get back to the surface. She manages to wrest her face free of the muck, only to sink below once again, making all sorts of gurgling and sputtering sounds as she does so.
"Hang on! Just hang on a little longer... please!" Erikk shouts, as much to himself as the drowning native. He fumbles with the tools, as he attempts one handed to open the access panel on his belt, and to the prime wireless power supply...
He looks into her dark eyes once again, and he is disturbed by how still she has suddenly become. Her nose has slipped under again, but she isn't struggling anymore.
Her eyes are half closed, and he sees what he interprets as a look of gratitude in them, maybe even affection.
Then she lets go...

"Nooooo!"
Erikk watches in horror as the huntress swiftly slides under, leaving behind a froth of muddy bubbles in her wake. Her hair floats for a moment before disappearing with the rest of her, forming a thick swirl as it vanishes.
Her hand remains above the mire, fingers flexing, before it, too, submerges.
"No! You will not die this way! Not this way!"
Finding a new sense of strength, Erikk quickly transfers the tools to his right hand and plunges his left into the heaving muck, lying prone atop it. Deep below, he feels through the thick ooze for her hand... and touching her wrist grabs it, holding on with all of his strength. he senses her fingers once again closing around his forearm...
"Don't you give up on me now... not now!"
Placing the extra tools in his mouth, he takes the ones he needs and works feverishly, grimly aware how little time she has below the mud... Working by touch, he crosses fibers, realigns crystals, adjusts delicate matrixes...
The electric field hums loudly now, cracking with a surge of energy which causes Erikk's skin to itch and tingle. He can feel a heat building at the belt mounted power source as the feedback builds to dangerous levels.
Gritting his teeth, he reaches into the mud with his right hand, pushing it through the thickening gritty slop towards his left hand, and the control bracelet surrounding his wrist...
His fingers touch the smooth, slightly warm metal, and he senses it humming.... Guided solely by finger memory, he blindly fumbles for the release catch...
The mud churns with a sudden burst of bubbles, which ease off to a slow boil. The hand clenching his arm tightens, its nails digging into his flesh, and then the fingers slacken...
Erikk knows she has run out of time. If this is to work, it has to work now...
The bracelet releases, and he quickly slides it down off of his wrist and places it onto the sunken right hand. He secures it with a quick squeeze. Then, with deftness borne of long practice, he slides the controls to full power...

A jolt slams into Erikk, centered on his belt and the power source as it goes from a slow burn to supernova. The heat generated by it is beginning to sear through the chronosuit, and the increasing sense of pain tells him his jury rigging is doing serious damage to the equipment.
"Come on... come on!"
Hanging on tightly to the woman's hand, still deep beneath the mire, he starts to pull upwards, working her towards the surface. At first, he can't feel any progress being made... the huntress remained frustratingly in place... but then... slowly... she begins to rise...
"Yes... that's it! Yes!"
Cushioned by the field, which is glowing brightly around him, Erikk lies prone atop the sucking mud, separated from the filth by a thin skin of crackling energy. He senses the force field penetrating the bog, surrounding the huntress beneath the quivering slime. He hears and feels the power source on his belt whine and squeal as it strains against the suction... just as he does... muscles screaming from the effort.
Erikk rises slowly to his knees, using his body position as a lever as he senses the woman coming closer and closer to the surface... he shouts in triumph when his arm emerges, still wet and muddy from its earlier dip, and he spots her hand, still clinging grimly to his limb, thick clots of gummy silt falling off with soft plops.
"Almost... almost...."
More and more of her arm appears, then a large hump slowly grows in the mud... takes shape... surrounded by blueish energy. The muck shudders, and begins to slide down... flowing sluggishly.
Erikk plunges his right arm under where he estimates her shoulders are, and hauls the woman up. Her head finally breaks free of the smothering soil, and to his relief her mouth appears, breaking through the mud mask to gasp and sputter, coughing up gobs of muck.
The heat from his belt is searing, almost unbearable. He knows the gear won't last much longer, and he needs to get to solid ground before it shorts out... or explodes. Inching backwards, his left arm joining the right in a solid bear hug around her bare torso, Erikk works his way towards the reed curtain, hoping it was firmer there than it looks. The huntress is moving slowly, her arms wrapping weakly around him, her mud slathered head resting upon his shoulder. She continues to cough, but it slackens off in intensity as fresh air, once denied, is drawn deep within her lungs.
Erikk feels his face flush as he becomes aware of her warm, firm breasts pressing against his chronosuit. The sharp whining from the power pack refocuses his attention to getting free of the mire before the antigrav fails...

Seated on a stretch of stiff mud at the edge of the death trap, Erikk tosses his belt away, just as it flares up, glowing white hot before the ball of fire snuffs itself out with an audible popping sound. It had been close... as his blistered belly can attest to. Still, the damage is superficial, and shouldn't leave a scar.
He looks over at the woman he had rescued, who sits with her legs folded by her side. She keeps blinking silently, as if she cannot accept she is still alive after her ordeal in the bog. With her hands, she has cleared away the thickest layers of grime off her person, although she remains streaked with dark dirt. Her long hair is stringy, weighted down by the mire still smothering the strands.
Erikk finds himself smiling with relief. The huntress seems none the worse for wear, except in her battle with the bog, she has lost what little clothing she had..
Naked now, except for a single silvery bracelet, which remains looped around her right wrist. It still hums and crackles faintly, a slight glow emanating from it.
She gently strokes the metal, then looks at Erikk, her dark eyes softening as they remain locked on his. She holds up her right wrist, displaying the bracelet...
"You can keep that..." he said, smiling warmly at her. Without the power pack, any residual energy will dissipate over time. On impulse, he takes her hand, and nods. "It's yours..."
She looks at him, then the bracelet, then looks to him again. Erikk grins broadly, and nods again.
The woman surprises him by smiling back, aft first shyly, and then with a broad, toothy grin. She nods, then grasps his right hand with hers. To his astonishment, she places it on her naked breast, and holds it firmly in place. He feels himself blush as he senses her nipple stiffening under his palm.
Then she speaks. Erikk's eyebrows arch in surprise.
"Ayuk..." she says, pressing his hand tight to her chest. "Ayuk!"
It takes a moment, then he gets it. Grasping her right hand with his left, he places it on his chest, then nods and smiles.
"Erikk..." he says, noticing with satisfaction how her eyes widen with understanding.
The hum of the approaching chronopod tells them both he is now out of time....

"I... I don't believe it..."
Janis stares at Ayuk in a mix of shock and disgust, while Jonn just shakes his head. He leads Erikk away from the woman, left hand locked around his upper forearm, a small hand held disrupter pointed at him with his right to ensure he didn't try anything else stupid.
"I mean... if it was up to me, that creature would be tossed back into the slime... but we've disrupted this timeline enough..." she says, seated at the controls. "Erikk... we recorded it all... your timecrime. You have no idea how much trouble you're in..." Jonn says.
Erikk looks over to Ayuk, and smiles sadly. He knows exactly what awaits him in his time, but he finds he doesn't care. Just as long as she is safe.
Jonn grunts, looking over the muddy woman, who is now standing, her eyes scanning the scene. The expression on her face clearly shows confusion, but something else, too... something dangerous.
"Sooner we're out of here, the better.." he says, then pushes Erikk inside the open topped pod.
The energy field envelops it, surrounding the trio. Jonn keep Erikk covered with the weapon, while Janis works the controls. The pod hums, the sound building with each second as it prepares to claw itself into the chronostream.
"Goodbye, Ayuk..." Erikk says quietly.

"Erikk..."
She starts to move now, thick legs propelling her rapidly towards the glowing pod...
"What is that savage doing?" Jonn says, watching in confusion. His hand tightens on the weapon.
"I don't know... maybe worship us?" Janis says, shaking her head. "Doesn't matter... the field will keep her at bay..."
Ayuk's teeth clamp together in determination. The ground is muddy but firm under her feet, and her eyes remained fixed on...
"Erikk!!!!"
Erikk stares in amazement, his name a battle cry on Ayuk's lips. Faced with the unknown, by all accounts she should be cowering in fear... if one was to believe Jonn and Janis. But neither knew Ayuk, who is now charging them at full speed. He begins to smile.

"Janis! What the hell's taking you so long?"
There is fear in Jonn's tone, and it is sweet to Erikk's ears.
"Shut up! It takes time to lock in the coordinates, to power up the drive..." she says, touching and sliding her fingertips over the smooth control surfaces. Still, her voice betrays a certain nervousness.
Ayuk launches herself at the pod with the same fearlessness as she had shown taking on the beast. She lands on top of it, striking the force field in a shower of sparks and cracking feedback. She screams at the sensation, but doesn't let go...

"Damn! She's crazy! What's with that savage, anyway? How can she hold on like that?" Jonn is rapidly surrendering to terror, while Janis desperately adjusts the controls to compensate for the energy fluctuations. Erikk tries to think of what to do... but isn't coming up with any solutions. Truthfully, he didn't understand it, either.
"Why won't she drop off?" Janis shouts. "Her primitive system should have shut down by now..."
Erikk stares at Ayuk through the energy shield. Her face is twisted into a snarl, and he can only imagine how much pain she is in... and then, he spots the bracelet...
Residual energy... force field energy...
"Erikk!" Ayuk shouts, a sound of fury and defiance. Before everyone's astonished eyes, she punches through the force field with her right hand, causing an enormous and violent flash of energy, temporarily blinding the trio of time travelers, and grabs a hold of Erikk...
... dragging him free of the pod and its force field. The energy feedback sends both of them flying, landing in a cushion of bulrushes.
Rubbing his eyes free of the light's dazzle, Erikk gets a quick glimpse of the pod as it twists and distorts, before it and its two passengers are sucked into the chronostream with a sharp snapping noise. Despite all that has happened, he wishes Jonn and Janis a safe journey home.
Erikk sits quietly for a moment, slowly digesting the implications of what has just happened. There is no return for him. No one will be able to come and get him, either. He is stranded in this time, for the rest of his life.
He feels himself being enfolded in Ayuk's arms, her nude form pressing tightly against him. Glancing over his shoulder, their eyes meet, and the two exchange smiles.
I should be feeling out of time, he thinks. But instead, I feel at home.

[Aiko]

I was not sure whether I liked the setting with the time travellers at first, but it all worked out nicely. Well written and very dramatic. Thanks for sharing a great story!

[cnelson566]

Dude. That is one of the best damn stories i have ever read. O.O

[sixgunzloaded]

Okay...Wow! Yeah, I gotta second what cnelson566 said. That is one of the best short stories I've read, quicksand or otherwise. And I am really glad you're into qs. Well done!!
It's clever and original with details that paint a vivid image of the events and make it easy to see in the mind's eye. It made me feel sad when it looked like Ayuk was going to die and then cheer when he finds a way to save her and again for both of them when she saves him from his coming fate. I loved that ending! Thank you for this!

sixgunsloaded

[water_bug_62208]

First, my apologies for the delay in getting to this story... and WHAT a story it is!

I mean, WOW, it's like Ray Bradbury meets Final Countdown with a sexy, muscular, cave girl and quicksand added! First, your writing skills always amaze, and your creativeness and imagination make your stories a pleasure to read.

My introduction to Ray Bradbury was back in junior high school where we had to do a book report on short story collections... R is for Rocket was the book I chose and I've been a fan of Bradbury ever since... the effort you put into this story honors his style... well done!

I loved how you set up the story, and I loved your description of Ayuk... there's just something about a strong, muscular, atheltic, and attractive woman getting stuck and sinking in quicksand that gets my attention. And, your combining that with science fiction/fantasy was most brilliant. As your stories are well known for, outstanding attention to details in all aspects from Erikk's chronosuit and its instrumentations to Ayuk's beauty, strength, and emotions, to the sounds, smells, and actions of the mud, the environment and all envolved. Your description of the sinking and rescue scenes was wonderful, and, I loved how you had Ayuk rescue Erikk as much as he rescued her. And, your use of foreshadowing was brilliant to include the fact that no one can return to that time for 100 years and how the residual energy in the braclet was still for a short period of time. And, my comparison to Final Countdown is due to that scene where the Navy commander from the present is stranded with the woman from the past on that deserted island off the coast of Hawaii right at the start of World War II.

This indeed was a most enjoyable read!

Thanks for sharing!

[PM2K]

Thank you everyone for the comments. I really worked hard on this one... reworked it quite a few times, actually... but the basic concept remained the same.

I love sci-fi and rarely get the chance to write it like i did while in high school, so I decided to give it a whirl, and what I hope would be a nice twist on the old sinking story.

Thanks especially to waterbug for the comments regarding Mr. Bradbury. I'm a big fan of his work, and to be thought of in the same sentence makes me blush.
For those who are interested, I was inspired by the Isaac Asimov short story The Ugly Little Boy, which was the reverse of what happened here... but I leave that for others to look up if you've a mind to.