Erimem - Three Faces of Helena by Iain McLaughlin

Author:Iain McLaughlin [McLaughlin, Iain]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 36146922
Publisher: Thebes Publishing
Published: 2017-08-25T23:00:00+00:00

Here’s a thing about history. It really takes you to some shit-holes.

It’s not all watching Magna Carta get signed or observing the eruption of Vesuvius from an almost-but-not-quite-safe distance.

There was something weird about that eruption, by the way. Didn’t look right at all.

No, time travel is not all glam and shiny. And where Helena brought us in 282BC was neither glam nor shiny. We were halfway up sodding huge mountain. It was sunny enough but the air was cold and up above us the peaks were capped with snow.

‘Where are we?’ Erimem asked.

Helena replied. ‘Africa.’

I grumbled that I hadn’t expected to be so bloody cold in Africa.

‘Africa is full of surprises,’ Helena said, more to herself than to any of us.

‘And what is the year?’ Erimem asked. Straight to the point.

‘Four years after Alexandria,’ Helena confirmed. ‘So, 272BC.’

‘Will you tell us more?’ Erimem went on, ‘or is this again something we must see for ourselves?’

‘You’ll understand soon enough,’ Helena said.

Ibrahim so desperately wanted to snark at her for that but he didn’t. He held it back. I’ve always looked at Ibrahim and seen a gentleman. He’s old school. He’s not a chauvinist, he doesn’t mansplain. But he still manages to be a gentleman. Even now when he was confused and hurt he was biting off any harsh comment.

He’d got the control back much faster than I would have.

Helena looked around and took her bearings. We were on, I suppose you’d call it a ledge but it was a damn big one. Helena led the way towards a narrow path no more than a couple of feet wide that stared off to the side of the mountain. We were bloody careful going down that, I promise you. The drop at the side made me want to throw up. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just me either. Jesus, we were high. Eventually it led us to a smaller ledge. Nearby, the side of the mountain had been damaged by some hellish impact. It looked splintered and burned. Underneath we could see what had caused the damage.

A spaceship.

Well, what was left of one.

A spaceship was on a sort of rocky plain just below us. At a guess it was ten or twelve metres long but it wasn’t aerodynamic or anything. It just couldn’t be anything other than a spaceship. Its side was ripped open and bits of tech and equipment were spilling out. It was centuries ahead of anything we had in the Twenty First Century.

From what I’ve seen in our travels, and the ups and downs humanity has with invasions and shit like that, I’d say it was at least the Twenty Sixth Century before we’d have anything like that.

Christ, how bloody smug do I sound?

“I’d say it was at least the Twenty Sixth Century before we’d have anything like that.” ? I deserve a punch in the tits just for being so far up myself that I said that.

And yes, I’m rambling.

There were five people on the plain by the spaceship.

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