BACK AND FORTH-I

CHAPTER 14

                                                                        Chapter Fourteen

                                                                 WHERE ARE THE SAXONS?

      Breakfast is now over, and it's time to visit another era. We all stepped outside into the warm sunshine and still air of a mid-September day. I gazed up and saw the criss-cross of condensation trails left by aircraft delivering their cargo of people and luggage to or from some far off land. Now and then, a swallow or swift would streak by, scooping up a beak-full of insects. In the distance, I saw Ben Crowman leading his cows back into the meadow, no doubt, I mused, they had been milked. Further afield, there is the barely perceptible sound of a tractor, driven by Ben's son, Alf, mowing hay. Their farm is the only one for miles, the rest of the scenery being woodland. The aroma of newly cut grass permeated the air, mixed with the scents of various flowers made for a pleasant morning and a glorious late summer's day to come. A bee buzzed by, on a lonely vigil, searching for nectar amongst the last of the flowering plants nearby that had not gone to seed. The day is, yet again, idyllic.

       Maria held my hand, giving my fingers a gentle squeeze, she gazed up, mouthing.

       "I love you."

       "Why?" I whispered.

       "Because I do," she whispered back.

       "Ah, that's so nice." I pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

       Today is the day we were going to see how our group of retired, but intrepid English soldiers were getting along, training their Saxon counterparts, or comrades, as they called the Saxons.

       We grouped around the machine, put on and energised our forcefield belts, entered the machine, and, in an instant, we were in 1066, in the courtyard of the king's palace.

       Paul and Mac had done everything they set out to do, and then some, to use another loathed Americanism. All the equipment had been sent to the appropriate places and instruction is being given in the use and safety of all the arms delivered. The Saxons, I'm told, were hopelessly overawed by the helicopters; they all wanted a ride in the belly of a Chinook. They took to the new fangled machines like ducks to water. Oddly, not one Saxon wanted to see what it is like in the future. I guessed none of Saxons could handle our time period, and would, likely as not, be lost in our culture. Not so the engineers, historians, welders, teachers farmers, medical doctors, and, at least ten of each type of Ph.D. of all professions whom were recruited to make a one way trip to the past. Boxes of antibiotics were stolen from forgotten stockpiles in the USA, along with worming tablets, and treatments for all known diseases, taken back in time. I wanted healthy Saxons, painless childbirth and tooth care, educated children and enough food to export. Electricity is beginning to light the yards the soldiers worked with the newly educated Saxons to maintain the equipment. A culture shock? No, the Saxon populace seemed to take it all in their stride.

       We had stolen from North Korea 400 off-road motorcycles of various makes and capacities, along with enough spares for a hundred years. Someone left behind a card that read: Da bo chi, Blodwyn. Kim Jong un, promised to nuke Wales, but someone had stolen his nukes too. I wonder what part of the Pacific our boys dropped them? Well, that's how Paul put his case. The whole world had something taken away, but the American military bore the brunt of the thefts. There is so much going to waste over there, and, it seemed, the Americans did not seem to care that forty million rounds of 50 calibre bullets just disappeared from under their noses, along with forty thousand 50 calibre machine guns and spares, including thousands of barrels. M16 machine guns were the mainstay of our operation for a while, then we decided that the AK:47 and all the ammunition should be removed from the clutches of the criminal classes round the world. All explosives, too would be removed from those that would have only had the use of for terror. We were on a roll. The good guys were having a ball, and boy, did we know it.