The 56-year-old man leading the climbing team of four men, three women and one teenage girl reinforced his grip on the rock face he was clinging to as a stronger gust of wind swept the western side of Mount Aoraki. Waiting for the wind to calm down somewhat, he then resumed his slow climb, searching for each new hand and foot hold in the ice and snow-covered jagged rock face. The seven other climbers, linked together by a safety rope, followed him up the near-vertical slope while listening to his warnings and clues on where to find good holds.
7
‘’We have a nice ledge here where we will be able to stand and rest for a minute, guys and girls. The summit is now only some forty meters away.’
‘’Good!’ replied the older woman of the lot, a beautiful 32-year-old one with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes who was fourth in line along the safety rope. ‘’Mount Aoraki certainly isn’t a beginner’s mountain to climb.’
‘’Hey, we are talking about the highest mountain in New Zealand, with a 3,754-meter-high peak.’ said in turn the team leader. ‘’However, this is good, prime training for all of us.’
‘’It indeed is, Fernand!’ added a big and tall 57-year-old man with a long scar on his left cheek, who was at the end of the safety rope, covering the tail of the climbing team. ‘’This reminds me of my earlier climbs in the Austrian Alps, when I was a young man.’
‘’But you’re still young, Otto, if only one judges you by your degree of physical fitness.’ said the teenage girl just ahead of him. That got her a fond smile from Otto Skorzeni.
‘’And you’re a hell of an athlete yourself, Nancy. I never saw a seventeen-year-old girl who was as fit and strong as you.’
That made Nancy Laplante ‘B’ grin with both amusement and pride.
‘’Flattery will get you nowhere, Otto.’
The eight-person climbing team was soon lined up along the rocky ledge found by Fernand Brunet ‘B’, taking a well-deserved pause while admiring the sights of the Southern Alps and of the West Coast bordering the Tasmanian Sea, some fifty kilometers to the Northwest.
‘’What a beautiful vista!’ said 21-year-old Tera of Sparta while looking afar at the ocean and coastline. ‘’New Zealand must be one of the most beautiful countries on Earth.’
‘’It is, if you don’t take into account its frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.’ replied 29-year-old Karen Taggart ‘A’. ‘’Thankfully, the zone where our base is located has been fairly quiet for some time now. The Time Patrol could hardly have chosen a better spot and time period for its secret base. For one thing, we won’t see other Humans arrive in New Zealand for close to another four millenniums.’
The only climber who was not an active member or cadet of the Time Patrol, a young man of eighteen, listened to all that in silence while admiring the scenery with the others.
8
He stood only 171 centimeters-tall but was built like a bear and weighed 92 kilos, all of it muscles, with a barrel chest and thick, muscular arms and legs. Contrary to the others, he was not incommoded much by the cold wind, having a high degree of natural resistance to cold weather.
‘’Fernand,’ finally said the young man, ‘’did anthropologists ever find traces of ancient hominids in New Zealand?’
‘’Never, Kin! The scientific consensus is that the Maoris were the first Humans in known history to arrive in New Zealand, and this around the Ninth or Tenth Century A.D.’
‘’What about Australia, Indonesia and Papua-New Guinea? When did the first hominids arrive there?’
‘’The first Humans, members of the Homo Sapiens branch, arrived in Australia about 55,000 years ago, some 5,000 years before you and your family were living in a cave in the Dordogne region of France. That arrival date is however still in dispute. As for the Indonesian Archipelago and Papua-New Guinea, Homo Erectus and its descendants started arriving there some 1.5 million years ago. As for Homo Neanderthalensis, his occupation zone was mostly limited to Europe and Siberia and he never peopled South Asia or the South Pacific.’
‘’If we discount you and Ani, of course.’ added jokingly 17-year-old Nancy ‘B’.
Kin did not take umbrage to that joke, on the contrary. Since he and Ani had been saved and adopted by Sylvie Comeau some twelve years ago and had been brought to the secret base of the Time Patrol, situated on the future site of the city of Auckland, they had always been loved and respected as much as the other children living there.
That both Kin and Ani had proved to be very nearly as intelligent as an average modern Homo Sapiens had helped them a lot to adapt to their new life with the Time Patrol.
The group resumed its climbing after its short break, finally arriving on the summit of Mount Aoraki, which was going to be named ‘Aoraki Mount Cook’ in a few thousand years. There, the eight climbers took off their big backpacks and put them down on the snow-covered summit, then sat on them to admire the magnificent vista surrounding them while sipping some hot coffee from their thermos bottles. After a minute or so, Kin looked at Fernand Brunet, sitting to his right.
‘’Fernand, did you like the time you served in the French Army’s Alpine Hunters Corps?’
9
‘’Of course I did, Kin! If not, I would not have stayed long enough to climb to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. I already loved mountain climbing and skiing as a young man and wanted to live a life of adventure, so the Alpine Hunters were a perfect fit for me. I am sure that Jean would say the same about his reasons to join the Chasseurs Alpins1.’
‘’That’s right!’ added Jean Bigras, a small but athletic man in his mid-thirties.
‘’Also, I found a high degree of comradery inside my unit, the 27th Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins.2’
‘’Does your old unit still exist in 1955 ‘B’, Jean?’
‘’Very much so, Kin.’ answered Jean before throwing a suspicious look at Kin.
‘’And why are you asking that, Kin?’
Kin hesitated a bit before answering, as the rest of the group now listened intently to the exchange.
‘’Because I am now eighteen and thus legally able to take decisions as an adult, Jean. I was born in the Dordogne region of France and, as such, am technically a French citizen, on top of being a citizen of the Global Council of the 34th Century, like all the other members and family relatives of the Time Patrol. I have been educating and training myself for twelve years at our base, with occasional trips with Ani and our adoptive mother to the France of the 20th Century ‘B’ and, more rarely, to the Montreal of the 21st Century ‘A’. I now wish to do something significant and serve others instead of simply being supported by others. I believe that I could do that best by enrolling on a volunteer basis and serve the country where I was born. With my expertise in climbing, skiing and cold weather survival, I think that enrolling in the Alpine Hunters of the French Army would be my best choice. What do you think, Fernand?’
Fernand Brunet nodded his head slowly as he thought over his answer.
‘’That your wish both makes sense and shows a sense of patriotism that I can only admire, Kin. I am certain that you would make an excellent alpine hunter, but you should be aware that you may encounter some difficult times at such an army unit, thanks to your nature. Please understand that, in 1955 ‘B’ France, most people still think of Neanderthals as being brutish, stupid and primitive beings. You may very well experience a high level of hazing and harassment from other recruits and from your superiors in such an army unit. Think well about that before taking a final decision.’
1 Chasseurs Alpins: Alpine Hunters of the French Army.
2 Bataillon de Chasseurs Alpins : Alpine Hunter Battalion.
10
‘’I already thought a lot about it, Fernand, and I still wish to serve France, however hard that may prove.’
‘’Well said, Kin!’ said the big Otto Skorzeni while patting Kin’s back. ‘’That’s the kind of spirit I admire. About that possible hazing and harassment in the barracks, I can tell you one thing: show yourself to be tougher than the others and they will then leave you in peace. I myself broke the jaw of a few loud mouths during my training time in the Waffen SS.’
‘’Uh, I would not advocate that Kin starts knocking off every recruit that will mock him, Otto.’ cautioned Fernand Brunet. ‘’That would quickly put him in trouble with his superiors. However, stoic resistance to insults should do the trick. For all its worth, I support your wish to enlist in the Chasseurs Alpins, Kin. Once we are back at base, we will discuss this in more details.’
‘’Thank you, Fernand. I would appreciate that very much. Do you think that I could encounter some difficulties when I will try to enlist in the French Army?’’
‘’Do not worry about that, Kin.’ said Fernand with a dismissive gesture of one hand. ‘’I still have a few old friends who are well placed at senior echelons of the French Army.’
19:21 (New Zealand Time)