Pirates of the Timestream Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dr. Boyer,” said Rutherford. “So you see, Jason, the confused nature of these events has left many unanswered questions—in particular, whether the Bwa Kayiman ceremony really marked the start of the revolution, or if the story was only a later embellishment of patriotic mythology representing the uprising as a kind of ‘holy war.’ Asamoa departed shortly after you left on your, ah, jaunt to your homeworld, leading an expedition which, of necessity, consisted entirely of persons of obviously African ancestry.”
    “Of necessity,” Jason echoed with a nod. It was harder and harder, in today’s cosmopolitan world, to find time travelers who could pass unnoticed among the less racially mixed peoples of the past. And in the wake of the Transhumanist madness it was unacceptable to use genetic manipulation to tailor appearances to order. Jason’s variegated genes had happened to sort themselves out so that he could pass for a member of any of the Mediterranean ethnicities or their offshoots.
    “They arrived in 1791 long enough before August to establish contacts among the communities of escaped slaves. In the course of their researches, they began to turn up disquieting hints of a dark, perverted cult that even the houngans feared.”
    “Like the Secte Rouge that Dr. Boyer mentioned?” Jason queried.
    “No. For one thing, it had certain features which were foreign to Voodoo in any form but suggested Transhumaist involvement—notably, a seemingly unaging supernatural figure who appeared from time to time at long intervals, each time uttering prophecies of the future that turned out to be accurate.”
    A tingling ran along Jason’s spine.
    “Furthermore,” Rutherford continued, “there was a persistent tradition which traced the cult as far back as the 1660s and linked it with the pirates who operated out of Jamaica at that time. This, despite the fact that Voodoo, however defined, never became established in Jamaica.” He looked for confirmation to Boyer, who nodded.
    “That is correct. For one thing, the Catholic linkage Commander Thanou mentioned was absent there, and the Protestant denominations solidified their hold on the population by taking the lead in the abolition of slavery. But the pirate connection makes perfect sense. You must understand that this was at the same time that the French colony of St. Domingue, which was later to become Haiti, was first getting started. The entire island of Hispaniola was then nominally under Spanish control, although bands of buccaneers infested its coasts. In particular, the small island of Tortuga, off Hispaniola’s northwestern tip, was a haven for French pirates, and became the nucleus of St. Domingue after the French crown took control of the island in 1660. The Spanish didn’t officially cede the western half of Hispaniola to the French until 1697.”
    “I can see why Sam Asamoa used the message drop to inform us of this at once, instead of waiting until his expedition is scheduled to return. But,” Jason continued, addressing Rutherford, “why the urgency? Admittedly, any evidence of Transhumanist activity is cause for concern. Still, you seem to be treating this like some kind of unique emergency.”
    “There’s one other matter.” Rutherford seemed to gather himself to repeat something he wished he had never heard. “In the course of following up the hints he had gotten, Asamoa stumbled onto wreckage on a mountainside in the Massif de la Selle in the southern peninsula of the island of Hispaniola where Haiti is located. Its condition, according to the expedition’s archaeologist, suggested that it had been there for about a century and a quarter. And it had no business in that era.” Rutherford paused again. “You’ll recall, from your last expedition, that the Transhumanists used their superior technology to temporally displace an aircar.”
    “Vividly. What are you saying? Have they done it again? The seventeenth century would certainly be no