Children of Time by G. J. Winters

Author:G. J. Winters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: suspense, adventure, young adult, science fiction, dystopia, time travel, sci fi adventure, young adult romance, sci fi suspense, young romance, time alteration, sci fi action adventure, time concepts, sci fi ebooks, sci fi time travel
Publisher: Sandra Ross

Chapter Twenty-nine

ALL THE BLOOD DRAINED from Unquill's face when he heard the words "161 Williamsport Turtle" mentioned. As a journeyman, he had always been ready for strange, unexpected and life-threatening situations. He had never thought, however, that such a situation would occur within the golden century. He had faced down large groups of barbarians wearing animal furs and brandishing bronze weapons. He had even encountered a group of forest people who wanted to sacrifice him to their god, who happened to be a rather disagreeable person. Unquill had never once thought that he would get to sit inside the army's most powerful machine, no matter how long he lived.

Such things simply did not happen. Members of the Temporal Constabulary primarily dealt with learning about events in the time stream. Once all history- past and present- had been learned, they then considered deeper questions regarding temporal mechanics. Even if a member of the Constabulary applied for a position in the army, the best that person could hope for would be a maintenance job. No one who had ever worked at the Constabulary first had gone past the rank of Yellow. Nor had anyone who first began a career in the army went high enough in the ranks of the Constabulary to be trusted enough to walk into a different era.

As a result, very few people ever bothered changing careers this way, even if they expected to live past the average life expectancy of six hundred years. He thought that Indigo Pavun might have understood this. Certainly, a man of his vast experience ought to have some notion that people from Constabulary weren't ever trained as soldiers, much less trained how operate a Turtle. He ought to have known that Unquill was better suited for jobs that required careful consideration, usually in front of a computer screen somewhere.

Thus it came as a surprise to Unquill when Pavun declined his request to be excluded from the mission. Pavun would not say why he felt Unquill had to go, nor did Unquill ask.

Instead, he washed his face in the bathroom, then pulled a comb from his pocket. The army had given him a small black comb as big as his thumb. He leaned his head to one side, letting his long hair fall down. He passed a comb through it once, wincing as he encountered knots and rat's nests. Long strands of black hair came away, caught between short black tongs. Even though he'd been sanitized at Hensen's base, sleeping overnight in the wilderness had brought back all the bad habits his hair fell into whenever exposed to the elements for very long.

The people of the island, he was told, did not have such problems. Even those few citizens living on the ground who emulated those living in the sky never had such tangles as Unquill had. Going among them looking as though he was a man of the sky fallen to earth would only earn him suspicion for his trouble. That lesson he

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