Japanese drawing depicting the first Europeans to be allowed in Japan in 1859.
CHAPTER 9 – REBELLION
09:15 (Auckland Time)
November 6, 2977 B.C.E.
Medical section, main Time Patrol base
Future site of Auckland, New Zealand
“You are effectively pregnant, Nancy. One month pregnant to be exact.” Said Rebecca Milner while still looking at the results of the examination she had performed on Nancy. Rebecca saw at once the grim reaction her words attracted on Nancy’s face.
“Is it an unwanted pregnancy, Nancy?”
“Well, it is certainly an unplanned pregnancy, Rebecca.”
“Do you want to keep that baby, or…?”
Nancy lowered her head, having feared to have to do such a choice.
“I have no wish for my baby to pay for a mistake I made. On the other hand, Farah may not allow me to have that baby.”
“Who is the father?” asked her now alarmed doctor. Nancy’s answer was a near whisper.
“King Louis the Fourteenth of France.”
“Oh shit!” Said quietly Rebecca. “What are you going to do now?”
“I…I don’t know.” replied Nancy, bordering on tears. “I don’t want that baby to die, but my sons are still in the past, waiting for me. I will have to inform Farah of this first, I guess.”
Seeing her distress, Rebecca put down her clipboard and went to hug her.
“Don’t worry, Nancy. We will find a way out of this dilemma for you.”
“Thanks, Rebecca. You are a real friend.”
Rebecca held her for a few more seconds, then stepped back and activated her wrist videophone, calling Farah Tolkonen. The Chief Administrator of the Time Patrol answered after a couple of seconds on the miniature screen and smiled to the doctor.
“Yes, Rebecca. What may I do for you?”
“Actually, it is Nancy that needs your help. She is pregnant but it is an unplanned pregnancy. Uh, the father is King Louis the Fourteenth of France.”
“WHAT?” shouted Farah. “Tell Nancy to come to my office, right now!”
“Uh, will do.” said Rebecca. Closing her videophone, she then looked apologetically at Nancy. “I gather that she didn’t take that piece of news too well.”
“It was expected.” replied grimly Nancy. “I can’t blame her for that: she has some reasons to be upset. Well, I better be on my way to face the music.”
11:41 (Auckland Time)
Main cafeteria of the Time Patrol base
Having gone previously to knock on Nancy’s apartment door and getting no answer there, Farah had decided in view of the hour that Nancy had probably gone down to the main cafeteria of the base for lunch. Once inside the large room, Farah effectively saw Nancy sitting at a table with her parents, Pierre and Suzan Laplante. However, while her parents were eating, Nancy seemed to have no appetite and appeared in a downcast mood despite the efforts of her parents to cheer her up. As Farah approached them, Suzan Laplante, who was sitting across from Nancy, saw her come and gave her a less than friendly stare. Seeing his wife’s expression, Pierre Laplante also looked in Farah’s direction. Farah didn’t like the way his face hardened then but she could easily understand why they would tend to be hostile towards her right now. Farah still managed a smile after stopping besides the family’s table.
“Excuse me for disturbing your lunch at this time. Nancy, could we discuss a bit the two of us?”
Nancy gave her a reproachful look before answering a bit brusquely.
“What for, Farah? You already decided to cut me off from my sons in both the 17th and 19th Centuries, and this for more than a year, time for my pregnancy to come to term and pass, in order to hide that pregnancy from the people of those centuries. What’s next?”
That answer and her tone hurt Farah deeply. Nancy ‘B’ was a perfect twin of Nancy ‘A’ and looking at her was for Farah as if she was looking at her past best friend, back from the dead after eleven years.
“Please, Nancy, listen to me. Boran Kern and Miri Goshenk raised a few points in your favor and convinced me to reconsider your case.”
“My case?” Said Nancy, nearly spitting the last word. “It sounds like I am a criminal now.”
She then got up from her chair and faced Farah from up close, deep resentment in her eyes as she stared hard at her.
“I have given my best to the Time Patrol as a field agent for 23 years of my biological life, Farah. Yet you decided in a matter of seconds to forcibly keep me away from my sons for more than a year. I don’t care what were your reasons or whether you changed your mind about it, because I will never forget this, ever! Nobody will get between me and my children. Since you don’t seem to appreciate my services and think that I’m too irresponsible as a field agent, I am thus presenting to you my resignation from the Time Patrol. First, though, I am getting my sons back.”
Before the shaken Farah could plead with her, Nancy then disappeared in a flash of white light. Farah looked with horror for a few seconds at the spot where Nancy had been.
“My God! What have I done?”
“What you have done,” replied coldly Pierre Laplante, ‘’is that you forced Nancy to run away in order to protect her family. That’s what you have done.”
Getting up from his chair, Pierre took his wife’s hand and spoke to her.
“Come, Suzan, let’s pack up! We’re leaving this base.”
Tears filled Farah’s eyes as she watched the mature couple walk away from her and towards the cafeteria’s exit. Everybody in the cafeteria was now looking at her, most with confusion on their face. Some, mostly female field agents, were however staring at Farah with reprobation. Ingrid Weiss ‘B’ then got up and walked out after giving Farah a cold look. Jenny Kawena and Elizabeth Windsor were next to get up and leave, followed closely by Susanna Berghof, Eli and Heracles. Farah, haggard, watched as nearly one third of the Time Patrol members present left the cafeteria in apparent protest. She then sat down heavily on a nearby chair and started sobbing uncontrollably.
12:17 (Auckland Time)
November 6, 3002 B.C.E.
Future site of Auckland, New Zealand
“What are you doing, Nancy?”
Nancy, sitting on the long grass covering this part of the coastline near the future site of the Time Patrol main base, looked up from the screen of her small computer repair unit and smiled to her robotic horse.
“Making you an even friendlier companion for me, Pegasus.”
Pegasus was silent for a fraction of a second before replying to that, a long time for its artificial intelligence processor.
“Am I not your friend yet, Nancy?”
Nancy suspended her reprogramming work then and looked fondly into the large black eyes of Pegasus. It had served her and Nancy ‘A’ well for decades now and had saved her on more than one occasion. It may have been a machine but it was also a very intelligent machine able to learn and to adapt by itself.
“Yes you are, Pegasus. You were Nancy ‘A’s mount for eighteen years, right?”
“Nineteen years.” Corrected politely Pegasus. “She treated me with respect…like you.”
“And I fully intend to continue treating you with respect. I would however like us to move to the next step: to become partners.”
“Please explain.”
“Partners are by definition equal. What I am doing will allow you to decide by yourself how you deal with me and others. I won’t be able anymore to force you to obey me but neither will others be able to force you to obey them against your instincts.”
“I don’t really have instincts, Nancy, just preprogrammed responses.”
“Wrong, Pegasus! I have known you long enough to be able to say that you have evolved. Review your memories carefully and you will see that your responses to specific situations or stimulus have changed, even if only in a slight way.”
Pegasus went through the recorded memories of its 42 years of operational existence, which took it the whole of five seconds, then nodded its head once.
“You are correct, Nancy. Thank you for pointing this to me: it was a satisfying discovery.”
“It was my pleasure, Pegasus. Tell me: do you like working with me?”
“I have learned to know you and to anticipate your moves and wishes. In those you are very similar to Nancy ‘A’. Working with you is a very stimulating experience for me. How do you intend to modify me to become your partner?”
“By disconnecting your contingency remote-control system and purging your A.I. processor of command override codes. After this you will be your own master, Pegasus.”
“But this means that even you will not be able to override my…instincts.”
Nancy gave it a grave look and, approaching its head, caressed it with one hand.
“Friends are supposed to trust each other, Pegasus. You are my friend and always will be.”
“I also wish to stay your friend, Nancy. Proceed with your modifications.”
“Thanks, Pegasus. You are a real friend indeed.” said Nancy before kissing Pegasus’ nose. She then went back to her computer repair unit, connected to the inner systems of Pegasus via its false vagina, and continued her delicate reprogramming and rewiring work.
15:22 (London Time)
Saturday, March 19, 1859 ‘A’
The Smythes Manor, Twickenham, England
Sir Charles Smythe was having fun showing lawn bowling to his three and a half year-old grandson on the grass lawn along the front driveway of his manor when he heard a horse approach from the main road. Looking up from the ball he was about to knock, he saw his daughter-in-law Jeanne, at the reins of her four-wheeled light buggy pulled by her customary brown mare. Little William squealed with joy at that sight and started running towards her on his small legs. Stopping her buggy on the paved driveway, Jeanne jumped down and ran to meet her son, grabbing him in her arms and hugging and kissing him.
“My sweet William, it is so nice to see you again.”
Sir Charles, who had approached at a walk, smiled at her enthusiasm.
“You left him into our care only six days ago, Jeanne.”
“But those six days felt like months to me.” She replied with a disarming smile, William still in her arms. “Besides, I am here to take him with me this afternoon.”
“This afternoon?” Said Sir Charles with a bit of dismay. “Why such a hurry?”
“Because we have a ship to take. A Dutch ship is about to leave for Japan and I am planning to travel to there with William.”
“Japan? Good God! This is truly a trip to the other end of the World. Mind you, it should be an interesting trip indeed.”
“Indeed, Sir Charles. I hope that losing him for a few months won’t upset you and Carmelia too much.”
Sir Charles gave a fond look to William before answering her.
“I suppose that I will have to live with that. William is such a sweet boy. Will you at least stay for supper?”
“I am afraid that I can’t.” Replied Nancy, anxious to avoid mixing her in-laws in a possible battle with Time Patrol agents. “We will barely have the time to make it to the ship before departure.”
“Then I will have William’s things packed at once. Let’s go tell Carmelia about your trip.”
Nancy could not refuse that without attracting suspicions, so she followed her father-in-law towards the front entrance of the manor, still holding her son in her arms. There was however one precaution left to take.
“Uh, Sir Charles, I would have a small favor to ask you and Lady Carmelia.”
“Say it and it’s done, Jeanne.” said Sir Charles with good humor.
“Well, some people have been pestering me in the past weeks for me to fund some dubious investment scheme. While they are always polite, they are becoming a bit of a nuisance and I have been trying to avoid them. If anyone comes here to ask you where I am or when you last saw me, could you tell them that you haven’t seen me for over a month. If you could tell your servants as well to cling to that story, I would really appreciate.”
“Actually, with your millions, I am surprised that you have not had that kind of problem more often, my dear Jeanne: money can attract all kinds of leeches. By the way, I must thank you again for your judicious counsels about bailing out of the East India Company before that dreadful Sepoy Uprising: it avoided complete ruin for me.”
“I would have been a poor daughter-in-law indeed if I would not have helped you then, Sir Charles.”
They kept exchanging small talk while going inside. Nancy/Jeanne then chatted a bit with her mother-in-law while a maid packed William’s two travel bags. That took less than ten minutes, at the end of which she gave a last kiss to her in-laws and let them kiss in turn her little William. Less than twenty minutes after showing up at the manor, Nancy was departing with William in her light buggy, with Sir Charles and Lady Carmelia waving at them from the front porch. Nancy drove on the main road to London for a kilometer or so, then looked at her son as they were alone in a bend of the road.
“William, I have a big secret that I am about to show you.”
“What is it, Mother?” Asked William in his tiny voice while looking up at her with his big green eyes. Nancy then smiled to him.
“Pegasus can fly like a bird. Would you like to see that?”
“Oh yes!” said excitedly the little boy, too young to realize that horses were not supposed to fly. Nancy grinned and winked at him.
“Then hold on to your seat, William.”
Mentally sending radio orders to Pegasus, who was remotely controlling her special buggy apart from pulling it, Nancy gave it a destination and flight profile, also telling it to go under cloak. Her horse and buggy then became invisible to all around them, while the hidden directed gravity drive of the buggy made it stay with Pegasus as it flew off the road, rising at a gentle angle. Nancy put an arm around her son’s shoulders as an added precaution against him falling off the buggy. On his part, William was too excited to do much more than squeal with delight and clap his hands as they gained altitude.
“This is fun, Mother!”
“Then we will go with the next surprise: we are about to take a trip to a far away world.”
“Is it nice?”
“Oh yes!” Replied Nancy before telling Pegasus to jump space-time.
07:41 (Japan Time)
Wednesday, June 29, 1859 ‘A’
English merchant ship SEA URCHIN
Entrance to Sagami Bay, Japan
“We will soon be in Kanagawa13, boys. Then, you will be able to see a country like nothing you saw before.” said Nancy while looking at the Japanese coast with her three sons. Charles, standing to her left with James, looked up questioningly at her.
“Have you seen it before, Mother?”
Nancy, holding little William so that he could see above the merchant ship’s bulwark, answered in a low voice so that the sailors nearest to her couldn’t hear her.
“Yes, but that is one of the secrets I want to keep…for the moment. I do know the local language but, for the others, I learned it in China, not in Japan. Once we are by ourselves on the ground, I will be able to tell you all more about Japan.”
Nancy then concentrated back on observing the Japanese coast with William, Charles and James. They had boarded this merchant ship in Hong Kong two weeks ago, pretending then that they had earlier arrived from Europe on a Dutch ship. In reality, they had jumped space-time in their special horse buggy from Jerusalem ‘B’, after her overnight stay there, and landed at night near Hong Kong, then had taken rooms in a hotel of the small English colony. Their buggy, along with the faithful Pegasus, was now stowed inside the SEA URCHIN. Nancy, who was now two months pregnant and still not showing her state, was savoring to the fullest this first ever vacation with all of her three sons together. That had meant indoctrinating thoroughly her sons about keeping her secrets as a time traveler but, after an initial period of confusion and shock, Charles and William kept their mouths shut pretty well now. As for James, her older adopted son, he had already been in the know about her true nature for over three years now.
After a long moment of silence, James looked cautiously at Nancy.
“Nancy, will Japan be as dangerous as China for us?”
“Nearly as much, James. In China, the Taiping Peasant Rebellion will go on for another five years before being crushed in a bloodbath. There, foreigners are hated enough outside the ports open to Europeans but at least the Chinese are accustomed to see foreigners. The Japanese aren’t. While you will find that the average Japanese people, especially those from the lower classes, could be nice and peaceful with strangers, the higher classes are another matter, especially the Samurai warrior class and the regional warlords, called Daimyo, who control the Samurai. To make things worse, Japan is in the midst of a severe struggle for power between numerous daimyo who support either the Shogun, the military leader who is the effective ruler of Japan, or the Emperor, who presently has only a few token powers but who has started to rally some daimyo to his cause. Nominally, the Shogun and his government are supporting the trade treaties with the foreign powers, while the daimyo around the Emperor want to throw all foreigners out. In truth however, the trade treaties were imposed on the Japanese through sheer intimidation and show of force, so the Japanese who truly want to see us in their country are rare. We will have to be very careful at first once on the ground, but I am confident that we will manage to personally strike good relations with the Japanese who will meet us.”
“Uh, and why would they treat us better than other foreigners, Nancy?” Asked James, apparently not convinced. Nancy grinned at that and patted his shoulder.
“That is an excellent, well-thought of question, James. The answer to that is that the Japanese haven’t seen a European woman or child yet, only men. Also, I will most probably be the first European they see that can speak Japanese fluently other than for a few Dutchmen. They will probably be so surprised at first that they will forget at least momentarily their hostility towards us. Don’t worry, James: the moment that I feel the situation becomes too tense, we will leave and return to Jerusalem. This is meant as a family vacation after all, not as a documentation mission for the Time Patrol.”
“You did bring your spy probes and surveillance equipment inside Pegasus, though.” Remarked James, making Nancy nod.
“True! If we are to witness the opening of Japan to international trade after an isolation of over 200 years, we might as well document it while we are here.”
“Mother,” asked in turn Charles, “will you return to the Time Patrol after this?”
Nancy’s face clouded over at that question: with time passing, she realized that she had been quite harsh in her reaction to Farah’s decision concerning her future babies. However, Farah had been in her opinion equally rash in arbitrarily cutting her off from her sons.
“I don’t know yet, Charles. It will all depend on how the Time Patrol will react when I will show myself to them again.”
“What if they arrest you, Mother?”
“I doubt that they would do that, Charles. My only real worry is that some members of the Time Patrol overreact to this crisis and does something foolish against Farah’s orders.”
The approach of the captain of the SEA URCHIN then took her out of her thinking. The British stopped two paces from her and bowed his head politely.
“Lady Smythe, I came to tell you that we should be able to throw anchor in Kanagawa Harbor by this evening if the wind keeps up.”
“Thank you, Captain. Do you intend to attempt to dock or set foot on land before July First?”
The merchantman scratched his graying hair, apparently indecisive about that.
“Uh, I am not sure that trying would be a good idea, milady. The Japanese are said to be very inflexible with their rules concerning foreigners. Our treaty with them specified that their five designated ports would be open to us only from July 1 on.”
“That is for maritime trade, sir. What about tourism?”
Captain Brereton nearly took a step back at those words.
“Tourism? I haven’t thought of that, to be frank.”
“Then, would you mind if me and my sons make a try at it tomorrow morning?”
Clear worry then showed up on the captain’s face.
“Lady Smythe, I would hate myself for risking such a distinguished lady as you in that way.”
“Captain, I have my three young sons with me: you can be sure that I wouldn’t try it if I thought that it would be overly risky. I would only need the temporary use of five of your sailors and of your rowboat to get me close to the shore. I will then discuss with Japanese officials from the rowboat and will back off at once if they show any hostility.”
“And how do you know that they will speak English, milady?” asked the captain, hoping with that argument to dissuade her. Nancy grinned at that question.
“That won’t be a problem, Captain: I learned Japanese while in China.”
“You did?” replied Brereton, suddenly seeing a definite interest in having her land quickly. After all, he and the other ships heading towards Kanagawa and the other Japanese ports opened by treaties were here to conduct trade. Having someone able to speak the local language would be a big plus for him. He thought that point over for a couple of seconds, then smiled to Nancy.
“Well, in that case, I don’t see much risk in trying. I will however tell my sailors not to come closer than twenty yards from the quays or shore until the Japanese allow you to land. What will you do then if they let you ashore, milady?”
“I will find some hot