The Ocoda Chronicles Book 4 Present Future Past Read online

  Captain D’Souza looks over his entire company, as they countdown to shift to the four ships below. The timer reaches zero and the strike team shifts.

  Both companies shift, Bravo Company shifts near the Roman encampment doing D.N.A. scans. Souza and his company shift directly on all four Germanic vessels in a single motion. They remain cloaked and unseen. The storm rages in rapidly. The Germanic vessels begin to sway violently. The marines, with only seconds to react before the storm hits them react swiftly. They grab onto the nearest person, and shift directly back to Celesta’s hangar bay.

  All one hundred and forty-six people, men, women, and children, are instantly transported to the Celesta. Captain D’Souza and three others quickly grab control of the rudders of these four doomed ships as Celesta and the marines quickly scan the Germanic people. After a brief minute Celesta contacts the Captain, stating, “Captain D’Souza, our scans show that all these people are viable candidates to repopulate to the Paladonian moons. I would highly suggest you return at once as those four ships are about to be destroyed by a massive storm surge.”

  D’Souza and the other three marines shift back. Once on board, Captain D’Souza sees his people removing all weapons from the Germanic people and binding the men’s hands with restraints.

  D’Souza concerned asks, “Who told you to secure these people like this?”

  One of the Marines replies, “No one sir, but these people will be waking up soon. I took it that they would be easier to deal with when they wake if they were not trying to fight us.”

  D’Souza studies the group of survivors for a few minutes, saying, “No release them, and clear the room, I will stay with them alone. We need to calm them, and make them understand. We need to do this without scaring the hell out of them.”

  Celesta reports, “They will be recovering from the effects of shifting in the next few minutes Captain.”

  D’Souza says to his men, “Now, move it! Clear the room!”

  The men finish unbinding the men, and quickly clear the hangar bay. After a few minutes, a large man rolls on his back and opens his eyes. He is immediately surprised at seeing the lighting in the deck plating above him, and even more amazed as he feels the cold metallic floor beneath him. He sits up, not certain where he is. He looks around, seeing all his people unconscious. He sees Captain D’Souza, sitting several feet from him. The man very uncertain asks aloud, “Is this Helheim or Valhalla?” Celesta, which possess the same ability as Paladin, translates his statement immediately. This adds to the man’s confusion, even more.

  D’Souza not fully aware of Germanic mythology sits calmly and responds, “Well, sir, you’re not dead. If that’s what you mean, but if we had not saved you, and your people. Well, you would be dead.”

  The man hastily looks for his weapon, realizing its missing he becomes agitated, asking, “Who are you? Are we your prisoners?”

  D’Souza remains calm as he sits quietly. He thinks for a minute, as he replies, “My name is Captain Brian D’Souza, and you’re not my prisoner sir, may I ask your name?”

  The man stands up, asking, “If we are not your prisoners why did you take our weapons?”

  D’Souza smiles as he says, “Well, my nameless friend, your weapons are yours if you really want them, but before I let you take them back, let me try to explain something to you.”

  The man stares cautiously at D’Souza, as D’Souza begins his story, asking, “Imagine meeting people thousands of years from your future. Would they be far more advanced you are today?”

  The man confused, replies, asking, “Is this some kind of sorcery you speak of, are you an elf? Where are we?”

  D’Souza chuckles answering, “No, I’m not an elf my friend, I'm from your future, from almost two thousand years in your future, and in my time we travel not just on the great oceans to distant lands, but on even greater ships. We travel to distant stars, and you are on our ship.”

  The big man is now completely confused, and visibly shaken. He growls, as he starts to walk towards D’Souza with clinched fists, yelling, “Return me and my people to our ships at once.”

  D’Souza remains seated, as he calmly replies, “Listen my friend, I can’t send you back because you would have died. We came here to save those that died in our past. You see my friend that’s what we do, we save people like you, and let them live out their lives with us on our worlds. If we send you back it would condemn you and all your people to a senseless death.”

  The man completely enraged and overwhelmed by D’Souza tale charges the Marine. D’Souza remains calm, sitting quietly while the large man prepares to swing wide across D’Souza’s head. However, that never occurs, as D’Souza quickly sweeps the big man’s legs jumping to his feet. He lets the giant man fall, but just as quickly, he grabs the man’s hand, preventing him from hurting himself.

  D’Souza sees another man begin to stir as the first man tries to pull D’Souza down. D’Souza now drops the first man letting him fall to the ground. Annoyed, he says aloud, “Enough!” He signals to his men who instantly shift in with weapons drawn, pointed at all the Germanic people.

  The first man, seeing hundreds of well-trained Marines, all of whom are pointing what he assumes to be weapons at his people, and immediately pleads to D’Souza, “Please do not harm them.”

  D’Souza very annoyed, says, “Listen you big dumb idiot, if we wanted to hurt you we’d have just let you die. I didn’t want to scare you, but your pea sized brain only seems to understand violence.”

  Several men now begin to wake. They see the hundreds of Marines standing above them with weapons drawn and quickly huddle in a large group. Panicked and frightened, some scream out to Odin too please spare them.

  D’Souza shakes his head, as he looks to his men, saying, “Next mission back to Earth, we’ll need a specialist in dealing with this kind of crazy.”

  One of the Marines replies, “I’m pretty sure Captain that there ain’t no such thing as a specialist for this kind of crazy.”

  D’Souza smirks at the Marines comment. He turns to the one hundred and forty-six Germanic people, saying, “We will give you and your people food and clothing, and we will even assign you rooms to stay in with your families. All I ask is that you stay out of trouble.”

  One of the women confused asks to another man, “What has happened to us?”

  Celesta speaks up, terrifying the Germanic people even more, stating, “Captain Souza, your scout team has reported back in confirming over eight hundred and seventy-four Roman Centurions as viable candidates.”

  D’Souza aware of the Germanic people’s reaction becomes frustrated, saying aloud, “Celesta, inform Bravo Company to tag our targets. We’ll commence recovery, as soon as the sun sets.”

  The Germanic people become more frightened as D’Souza attempts one more time to calm them, saying, “Look everyone. I need you to calm yourselves down and listen to my people. We do not want to hurt you, but if you don’t stop working yourselves into a frenzy my men will be forced to calm you down.”

  Several Marines step forward with weapons pulled to the ready, which causes the Germanic people to all freeze in fear.

  After a few hours pass, the Germanic people have somewhat calmed, as they are fed, and given quarters, some begin to feel better but far from safe.

  D’Souza reports to Benton on the bridge, stating, “Colonel, These Germanic people are a handful. I can’t even imagine how we’ll be able to deal with all the Romans.”

  Benton smiles, saying, “Captain, we really don’t have much choice in the matter. We need to populate the Paladonian moons as quickly as possible. We all knew from the get-go this wasn’t a cakewalk, and we recognized this first mission was going to be more lessons of what not to do, then what we’ll get right. Nonetheless, we need to take as many of those Centurions as we can.”

  D’Souza concerned asks, “Colonel, if I may ask? We’ve been told to be extremely careful with our interaction with the timeline. Well Colonel, don’
t you think by snatching a third of a Roman legion we won’t cause issues in the timeline?”

  Benton sits back in his seat, and looks at out at the Earth. He takes in a deep breath and says, “Captain, what I’m about to tell you is classified, but I think you should know this. We have already completed this mission. You and your company recovered the ninth legion.”

  D’Souza utterly confused mouth drops open, asking, “What?”

  Benton finishes, stating, “Paladin figured out that the Paladonian civilization already survived to the point when we went through time, which means you already grabbed these Centurions, so Cap, we already succeeded in completing our mission. Now, if you don’t grab them now, well, we will cause a time paradox.”

  D’Souza shakes his head, asking, “Gabe, does that even make sense to you?”

  Benton sighs aloud, and says, “Ok Captain I’m no scientist, so I’ll have Celesta explain it, Celesta.”

  Celesta reports, “Back before Paladin went through the T-Challa gateway, he had recorded several unexplained anomalies in the past timeline, anomalies that could not be understood until now. The Paladonian people were on Earth thousands of years before Caleb was ever born. They were even bold enough to hide onboard Paladin from time to time. We know this now, because Paladin has determined that he would have trained the Paladonian’s how to be able to hide from his sensors. This allowed Paladin to finally conclude the only logical answer to all the anomalies he had detected in our original timeline. You see, Captain D’Souza. You cannot alter the timeline, because you have always been part of it.”

  D’Souza overwhelmed shakes his head and says, “I think I prefer to just not know.”

  Benton smiles, and says to the Captain, “You and me both.”

  A few hours later, and just before dusk, D’Souza studies the encampment from a holopad. He tries to figure out just how they will bring over eight hundred well-trained soldiers onboard.

  One of his men approaches the Captain and, saying, “Captain, most of these Centurions are grouped together. We should be able to grab two each, and shift back. The Centurions won’t have a prayer.”

  D’Souza studying the data says, “We’ll have to take them as they sleep, it will be easier and faster.”

  Another Marine asks, “How many of us should stay to watch the Germanic people?”

  Celesta responds, “I got you covered Captain. Those Germanic folk can’t go anywhere that I don’t want them to.”

  D’Souza smirks says, “Ok Company, fall in. We’ll shift down and meet with Bravo Company. Let’s get this party started.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  DISORDER

  White sits before the council as word comes from Celesta of their successful mission. They have recovered over a thousand new humans to help build their civilization. This should be a time of celebration, but for White it is anything but.

  Odette stands, asking, “How will we determine where these new arrivals will be sent?”

  Dorian answers, “They should be divided up equally amongst the moons.”

  Edgar stands, saying, “I would agree with my colleague Dorian of the Tof moon.”

  White concerned by the recent conversation, asks the council, “What about the people themselves, should they not have a choice on where they wish to live?”

  Uari stands, saying, “I would agree, provided they were able to understand and make the choice with the understanding of the type of life they will have.” Uari stares intently at Edgar, stating, “We have been told that the Rooke government has been forcing its people into hard labor camps. Working his people for days with very little food or water”

  Edgar, angered at Uari comment says, “People are expected to follow the laws put in place, and we have a civilization to build. They are expected to work for the greater good of our people. I don’t hear the council complaining when the Rooke moon reaches our requirements ahead of schedule.”

  White shocked at hearing this asks, “Edgar are you telling me that you’re forcing your people to work?”

  Edgar unconcerned replies, “It is the law of my moon. My people work in order to eat and remain in shelter.”

  White now enraged at the arrogance of Edgar, says aloud, “Edgar this cannot be allowed. You will cease and desist in any further actions of this kind. I see I was wrong in allowing you to just blindly make your own laws, from now on that will cease. You may make your own laws, but they will fall within the guidelines of an overall set of law. A set of laws, which we as a council, will now sit and agree upon, these laws will be fair for our people. The first law is that our citizens are free to choose where they live and do what they wish to do with their lives, so long as it doesn’t negatively impact the life of another. We will use a basic set of laws from which I was raised on based on freedom, justice and the ultimate pursuit of happiness.”

  Dorian stands and asks, “So if our people choose not to work to help build our society, what do you suggest we do?”

  White now very annoyed sits down, staring at both men as he clearly sees a continuing issue with Dorian and Edgar. He stares at both with a defined piercing glance, stating, “Do you really expect me to condone forced labor camps? If you really are that inept to run your moons, perhaps we should look at a different position for you both with your people. Possibly forced labor?”

  Dorian smugly grins replying, “Spoken like a true dictator.”

  White stands up in anger. His chair falls to the ground behind him as he yells, “We will take an hour break! We will reconvene here with cooler and calmer heads.”

  White storms out of the council room, where he sees his future bride Rachel Cooley as she sits patiently waiting for him. Cooley clearly sees the rage in his eyes. She smiles, saying, “Having fun luv.”

  White, not amused glares at Rachel, responding, “Not now Rachel, I’m not in the mood.”

  Rachel still smiling, giggles, saying, “Well, Cale said you’d be in a coarse mood.”

  White now confused at Rachel’s statement stops and asks, “What do you mean, ‘Cale said I’d be in a bad mood’.”

  Cooley still smiling says, “I said coarse mood luv, try and keep up. Caleb actually said that you’d be pissed off when he asked me to go get you.”

  White now incensed at Caleb, refocuses his frustrations at the man who put him in charge. He storms off towards Paladin, more enraged at Caleb than at the council. Cooley just shakes her head, smiling as she follows close behind.

  After a long march through the domed cities, White reaches Paladin. He enters the massive ship, making his way through the empty vessel, and directly to the bridge, where he sees Caleb standing in the center of the bridge. White yells, “So Cale, mind explaining how you knew I was going to be so upset!”

  Caleb turns to greet White, unconcerned with White’s mood, saying nonchalantly, “I never said the word upset. I said you’d be pissed.”

  White frustrated yells, “Cale, why are you spying on us? What do you want from me! Do you want to command these people?”

  Caleb smirks, and says calmly, “No Reggie, I don’t want anything to do with interfering with the development of your people, unless asked. Besides, I knew you were coming here to ask me for help anyways.”

  White shakes his head yelling, “You knew I was coming! Why are you spying on us?”

  Paladin interrupts, “He is not spying on you Reg, but I am watching everything that is happening and informing Caleb when he needs to be informed of possible issues.”

  Caleb says, “Reg I’m here to help you, but only when you ask. You are, and have always been my friend and I won’t step on your toes.”

  White, now calming down asks, “Cale, I really don’t like this political crap you have me in the middle of. These jackasses are stressing me to no end.” White angry, asks, “Why the Hell are you just sitting in your ship watching everything from the sidelines? Why aren’t you getting more involved?”

  Caleb stops smiling, walking to his Captain’s chai
r, he takes in a deep breath, saying, “I’m not here to rule Reggie, it’s just not in my D.N.A., I’m just a soldier, maybe a teacher. I’ve never been one that sought out to be a leader. Besides, you have the gift of leadership.”

  White sighs heavily as he turns to Rachel, asking, “Old bald and wrinkly eh, you sure that I was old? Cause the stress of running this government, may age me pretty damn quick.”

  Cooley grins, saying, “Luv you’re so cute when the veins in your forehead start to bulge out.”

  White smirks, and turns to Cale, asking, “I guess you were going to tell me about the Rooke’s forced labor camps?”

  Caleb shakes his head, replying, “That and more, if you want to hear about it.”

  White shakes his head and responds, “Well, at this point I know you two are on my side, so go ahead hit me.”

  Paladin chimes in, stating, “Well, if you count me Reg I’d make three, and I will always be on your side.”

  White, just simply smiles.

  Caleb then pulls up a holoimage of the seven moons and begins to speak, “You have two major hurdles to deal with, the Rooke, and the Onatof moons. Both of these worlds are stirring up a lot of dissension, and it is only getting worse. You’re going to have your hands full with a lot of new issues with them very soon.” Caleb switches the holoscreen to a more detailed image, as he continues to explain, “They are moving a lot of research equipment to underground bunkers, believing that they can hide from the satellites.” Caleb smiles, as he says, “Which I may have inadvertently led them to believe would work.”