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As we walked, Astrid did her best to keep morale high. She sang more songs. She, Geneva and Carli did a stirring, if slightly off-key version, of the ‘Boogie-Woogie Bugler from Company B’. She told me it was a song from World War II, made famous by a group called the Andrews Sisters. I took her word for it. But by the afternoon, the Raiders had become dispirited and even Astrid had clammed up. I didn’t blame them. It’s difficult to keep smiling when you’re marching to nowhere. The grasping at straws tactic wasn’t working out.
I looked straight ahead as we stepped down the road. Most of the other Raiders did, too. But Cricket didn’t. She wandered over to the side of the path.
“Major, over here!”
With the rest of the squad I ran toward her. She pointed toward an area on the edge of the cornfield.
Five skeletons lay in the dirt. Bleached bones consuming in the light.
“Previous tourists I’m guessing,” Cricket said. “Probably they were trapped here and ran out of food.”
The squad walked over to them. The deceased had been humanoid. Fingers, arms, legs. But there was nothing to indicate what type of humanoid they had been. Or how they got here, never to return to their native planet.
“How long have they been here?”
“Difficult to believe, but according to my readings, thousands of years. I take back ‘they died of starvation’ guess. Maybe they died of old age,” Cricket said.
“Thousands of years. And they haven’t decayed?”
She looked at me, glanced at the skeletons then looked back at me.
“Nope,” she said.
“I’m going to overlook that sarcasm because it was a dumb question.” I frowned. “I was hoping for a local chamber of commerce branch where employees would welcome us to the neighborhood and also tell us how to leave.”
“Maybe that’s just around the next cornfield, sir.”
I slung my laser rifle over my shoulder again. “Let’s find out. Thirty more minutes and then we stop for the day. Maybe we’ll find some live beings on the next stage of the march.”
“Let’s hope they’re live, friendly beings.”
“No, let’s hope they know something about time and paradoxes and how to get out of one,” Cajun said.
“What are the chances of that?”
“About a zillion to one.”
I shrugged. “Well, as long as there’s a one in a zillion chance...”
“Yea, let’s go for it,” she said.
Ten minutes later I was humming ‘You are my Sunshine’ when I spotted the figure walking down the path toward us. He was about a mile away so I hauled out my binoculars. I halted the column while I peered at the straggler.
And I was shocked.
What I was seeing could not be real.
“What is it?” Astrid said.
“Somebody who looks like an old friend. Which is impossible.”
“The impossible is becoming routine.”
“Let’s go greet him.”
A half-mile later I could make out the man clearly. So could all the squad members. He wore a brown suit and was holding a worn-out book bag which looked pretty heavy. The man he looked like was my friend and professor Clu Ryker. He put down the bag. He had a big smile and blue eyes, with a little gray in his hair. His manner said he didn’t have a care in the word. He stopped six feet from us.
“Hello Clu.”
“Good to see you again, Logan,” he replied.
“So how have you been?”
He nodded. “Doing well. Doing very well.”
“Glad to hear that.” I raised my rifle but didn’t point it at him. Just eased it down on my shoulder, barrel pointed toward the sky.
“So, who are you really?”
The answer came from Geneva who had slipped by my elbow. “He’s the man who’s been shadowing us.” She laughed. “The man who has been listening to all our songs.”
Ryker nodded. “Yes. I am the inhabitant, the sole inhabitant of this chamber. I’m very content here. I have no complaints whatsoever. But I rarely have company. Pleasure to have you drop by.” He opened his hands and showed them to us, palms up as if surrendering. “I can change my shape, so I thought of appearing as one of your old friends, major. My true shape would be very ugly to you. I prefer not to shock you.”
“Few things can shock us, but I appreciate the courtesy. Kinda nice of you.”
For some reason he looked immensely pleased to be talking to us. Akin to a high school nerd when the most beautiful girl deigns to talk to him. You can look at him and tell he’s having a good day.
“I had no knowledge of humans before you dropped here. You are an intriguing race. Incredibly complex. And... admirable.”
“You actually like bad singing?” Geneva said.
“Is that what you call it?”
“Yes.”
The wide smile grew a millimeter wider. “I found it to be delightful. I had never heard singing before.”
“You really ought to get out more,” I said. “Not that there’s any place to go here. By the way, what should we call you?”
“Huck is a good name. One of your favorite literary characters I believe, major.”
“Yes, he is. But you don’t have to change your form and look like him, although I’m sure you could. Your Clu Ryker is just fine. Are you the being that Geneva sensed?”
He nodded.
“The man who was curious about humans. He’s the one who was probing our minds and no doubt learned a great deal,” Geneva said. “But I’m sure not all of it was admirable.”
“Most of it was,” Huck said. A soft, poignant resonance came into his voice, as if he was seeing a beloved long-lost relative for the first time in decades. “You’re the only race I ever wanted to call friends.”
“I think we just received a supreme compliment,” Geneva said.
“Not to take advantage of a new friend, but we’re in a conundrum, Huck. Time and distance seem to be doing strange things. We don’t seem to be making any progress. Could you tell us how to get out of this chamber?”
“Yes, I can. I will help you,” he said.
I gasped. “You control time and space, do you Huck?”
He showed a mischievous smile. “To a degree, Logan, yes I do. Enough so I can get you out of this place. Would you follow me?”
“I think we can slip you into our schedule.”
We followed him for fifty yards and then he turned left onto another path. He strode confidently, as if he was having a great day and showing off for his best friends.
“By the way, who were the skeletons?” I asked.
“Members of a very nasty race who found their way in here. They could not find their way out. Ugly beings, and I don’t mean physically. If your race ever meets them, shoot first and ask questions later. You’ll be glad you did.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
He paused before what looked like a higher patch of corn. Then he waved his hand and the stalks disappeared. What stood before us looked like an octagon on pedestal. Huck looked back at us and grinned. He was having a fine time.
“This will get you into the next chamber. It can get you into a great many other places too, but right now you need to get beyond the next wall. I can transport you to the next chamber.”
I glared at the octagon, then looked back at the figure in the brown suit. “Forgive me for being unduly suspicious, but in my line of work I have to be careful. How do we know you aren’t transporting us into space?”
“He’s not, sir. I’m sure of that,” Geneva said. “He was probing us but I could sense him; not just his mind, but his soul. There is goodness inside of him. He responded to our goodness. He would not betray us. I’ll go first. I’m not afraid.”
Ryker smiled. “To assuage your suspicious major, which I understand, I will go with Geneva. Then come back and escort the rest of you.”
I nodded. “OK.” I raised the rifle but stuck the barrel in his chest. “However, the obligations of rank force me to tell you that if she doesn’t come back, despite the fact that I like your genial personality, I will kill you.”
The threat didn’t bother him in the least. “Perfectly understood, major. I figured you’d say that. As you noted, the obligations of rank.”
Huck and Geneva climbed up the steps and disappeared into the octagon. Thirty seconds later Huck came back, smiling as always.
“Your friend is in the next chamber. You should be able to contact her.”
When he ended the sentence, my communicator buzzed.
“I’m behind the next wall, major. Fit and fine. The octagon must be some type of space-time transporter. Very unique.”
“As long as it’s safe,” I said.
“It’s safe.”
I gestured to the Raiders then pointed toward the octagon.
“Let’s go,” I said.
The squad ran up the steps and disappeared. Astrid stayed with me. We started to go up, but Huck walked down and stood in front of us.
“I’d better go with you, major. I think I can be of some help in the next chamber.”
I shot him a puzzled look. “Huck, it’s not that I’m not appreciative of what you’ve done. But I can’t help but ask, ‘Why are you helping?’”
He grinned. “I am very touched and... have a mixture of humility and admiration for you and your squad. I am very impressed by all of you.”
“Impressed? Huck, all we did was walk down a path.”
“Not that. Geneva was right. I was the one probing your minds and emotions. Let me assure you I did so without endangering you or your men and without harming them in the slightest. As you humans might say, I was moved to tears.
“You love one another. A deep and abiding love that I have never seen before. Your song to your wife the other night, major, was eloquent and beautiful. And suddenly I understood why you fight. You fight not because you hate what is before you, but because you love what is behind you. And love it with a passion few could understand.”
For the first time since we met him, sadness transformed his features. Melancholy so deep that it made his heartache come into his voice.
“My race could have chosen love. Instead, they chose hate. It destroyed them. I am the last of my race. I regret the choice they made, but if they chose hate, perhaps they deserved their fate. But I would like to ensure the human race doesn’t share the fate of my people.”
Geneva was right about him, I thought.
“Huck, I don’t know who you are or what you are. I only know you are now part of this band of brothers. Welcome.”
I offered my hand. Huck gave it a firm shake. The three of us went through the octagon together.