‘’The ship is yours again, SPIRIT. Bring us to the Year 410.’
‘’Starting our run towards the Sun... Set speed attained and tangent trajectory adjusted... Power to our Koomak Drive generator set... Micro-jump in ten seconds... Five seconds... Jumping now!’
Tina, sitting in her command chair, saw the customary flash of orange light associated with a Koomak Drive jump, but with a slight yellow tinge to it. Then, like for their first jump towards the future, they found themselves in the blackness of Space, with the Sun having changed position in a notable way. Reena Shapour reported to her less than a minute later.
‘’Position of the Sun marked. It is very close to the position we had predicted for it for this time in 410.’
‘’How close, Reena?’
‘’The difference is nearly infinitesimal, Tina. I believe that we attained the date we are targeting with a precision of plus or minus a few weeks.’
‘’If we indeed attained this kind of precision in our temporal jumps, then I will be happy as a pig in shit. Frida, head for Earth and adopt a low polar orbit. Amin, once we will be in orbit, launch a reconnaissance drone and post it at high altitude over Rome, with its cameras and sensors recording in continuous mode and sending the images to us via datalink.’
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‘’Aye, Captain!’
Dana Durning, Tina’s second-in-command, who was sitting to her right, then looked at her with a slight smile.
‘’This is starting to look like some kind of ‘European City Burning Tour’, Tina.’
‘’Hey, burning cities can easily be seen from orbit and they are even easier to properly identify. As for the date we are in, how many times was Rome burned down and sacked in this century, or in history?’
‘’Oh, I don’t know about that, Tina. This time it will be the Goths of King Alaric.
Then, 136 years later, it will be the turn of the Ostrogoths of King Totila to have some fun around Rome.’
‘’Well, it tells you how loved Rome was around the Ancient World.’
On that attempt at black humor, Tina fell silent and watched on as her ship veered toward Earth, visible against the backdrop of Space.
She stayed in her command chair until her ship was in polar orbit and until they started receiving the first images recorded over Rome by their reconnaissance drone.
Dana Durning nodded her head on seeing that the walls of the city were already being assaulted by a mass of Goth warriors, with the Roman defenders frantically doing their best to repel them.
‘’Looks like we were right on the money this time, Tina.’
‘’Well, don’t sell the Romans’ skins before they are done in, Dana. We will know that we are at the right date when we will see those Goths breach the walls and get inside Rome. I am now going to my day cabin. Call me if anything significant happens.’
‘’Will do, Tina.’
With that said, Tina climbed down the steps of the bridge command platform and continued down until she set foot on the lowest platform of the bridge complex, on which was her day cabin, a small room with a bed, a small work desk and a small bathroom.
She often stayed there during critical periods, when she could need to return quickly to her command chair.
Entering her day cabin and going to lay down on her bed while keeping her clothes on, Tina then started thinking over something which had been going through her head since yesterday. Staying like this for about ten minutes, she then decided to go to
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the computer on her work desk and opened a link with SPIRIT, whose armored vault was situated under the bridge sphere.
‘’SPIRIT, put this link in encrypted mode: we need to speak in complete privacy.’’
‘’Link now encrypted, Tina. What can I do for you? Is it about the micro-jump we just effected?’
‘’Not directly, although we will have to achieve good precision in our temporal displacement during our next few jumps. What I need is to consult in detail the datafiles you received from SHANYA, after we found the VEON SHOURIA buried in the ice of Eris, at the confines of the Solar System.’
‘’What exactly are you looking for, Tina? I could help you in your search, as the datafiles I received from SHANYA then were quite extensive and voluminous.’
‘’And I will be happy to get your help for this, SPIRIT. Here is what I am looking for...’
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CHAPTER 11 – THE NORMANS ARE COMING!
Norman cavalry at the Battle of Hastings, 1066 C.E.
20:34 (Greenwich Meridian Time)
Saturday, October 14, 1066 C.E.
Passenger cabin # 510-340, Habitat Ring Complex A.M.S. NOSTROMO, in low Earth polar orbit
