It was another long day.  Literally.  Chromia's rotation was twice as long as Earth's.  Each day was a full forty-eight hours.  The Chromian rebels were used to it and had no problems using the full day's light for travel without tiring.  They were being slowed down by the 21st Century Earthlings, as they liked to call themselves, who could not seem to go more than twelve hours without making exaggerated yawning noises or falling asleep in the saddle.  Falling asleep in the saddle was a dangerous thing, so they made many stops for naps and sustenance.  Luckily, the scouts made no reports of the Royal Chromian Army tailing them.

    The raiding party had left their camp in a shambles after all.  The "General Hard Ass" had been captured and the troops were left to fend for themselves without a strong leader.  The rebels were lucky.  All their raids had not proven to be such a success.  They had lost people to the cause along the way.  It was going to be a long fight.  The queen had many resources at her side. 

They spent the day traveling along the canyon to the point at which the path of descent began.  They decided to stop there for the night, and Jody was thankful.  She was more than little bit frightened at the prospect of traveling down into the depths that she had almost fallen into.  Thankfully they hadn't made her ride the horny horse again.  Dale had commandeered her to one of the prison coaches where she rode up font in the passengers seat next to him.

    She made a show of leaning against the squire and his scratchy woolen uniform, talking in his ear and rubbing his arm suggestively.  She had shared a moment with Bertram the night before, that much was true, but she was still a bit irritated with him for making her spend the night with Catherine.  She liked Catherine; she wasn't going to deny that.  Aside from the General she was the only girl there, but Catherine had started in on the events of the day as soon as Jody had hobbled into their tent.  She talked about how scared she had been when Jody had taken off and they discovered she had fallen over the edge of the cliff, and she talked about how brave Phillip and David were.  And she talked about that damned kiss with a disappointed half smile on her face, and asked Jody how she got all the boys to like her.

    Jody hadn't wanted to talk about any of it.  She wanted to curl up on her cot under the woolen blankets and sleep the stress and horror of the day away.  Catherine just wouldn't leave her alone though.  So she was angry with Bertram for ditching her when she could have spent what she envisioned as a much more pleasant evening with him, and she was intent on making him jealous as she was well aware that he was keeping his eye on her as he rode alongside John and Phillip directly behind the cart.

    As Bertram was preoccupied with matters of the heart it fell to John to keep an eye on Phillip, who was riding in between them and distractedly tying to look backwards at David.  David, who was content to ignore him and chat with Jerry about anything except for Phillip.  Jerry was more than happy to oblige.  He talked about his contracting business and David told him about his landscaping dream, which had hardly been a dream only a few days previously, but only the germ of an idea to expand his job into something a little more lucrative to help contribute to the family.

    "When we get back..." Jerry ventured.  "I could hire you!"

    "I thought you lived back East?" David replied.  He laughed at Jerry, who seemed to have forgotten that he had his vacation stolen out from under him.

    "Right," Jerry said thoughtfully.  "Going anywhere with the Mother Thing is never like a vacation.  It's easy for me to forget sometimes."

    "The Mother Thing?"  David asked with an amused expression on his face. 

    "Yeah," Jerry chuckled to himself.  "There was this character in this sci-fi novel..."  he trailed off and looked at the blue sun.  "And now I'M in a sci-fi novel!  In any case, that's my wife Esther.  She's a horrible beast pretty much.  I've been asking myself for years why I'm still with the woman, but...I guess it's the kids.  I don't want to leave them with her should we divorce."  He was sad then.  He had barely thought of them in the excitement of the abduction through time and their capture at the hands of an army and subsequent rescue.  He did love his children, and despite Esther's shrillness, he knew they were in good hands. He just didn't want her to turn them against him should they part...on inevitably bad terms.

    "That's too bad," David replied.

    "Yeah,"  Jerry agreed.  "Only goes to prove that you should wait until you find the right person.  You know, instead of marrying the first gigantic loud mouthed woman that lands on your doorstep."

    David chuckled.  "She just showed up on your doorstep, huh?"

    "Pretty much," Jerry replied. 

    "At least you have somebody," David replied.  He looked down at his hands holding the reins of the horny horse.  "I'm too busy worrying about supporting the family...and my sister.  Always with the wrong crowd that one.  I don't know what I'm going to do with her."

    "I think you do have somebody," Jerry said knowingly and nodded towards the line where Phillip was none too subtly twisting around in his saddle trying to catch David's eye.

    "Him?"  David scoffed indignantly.  "Please."

    "Well, I'm no expert in relationships," Jerry said with a chuckle.  "I mean look at mine, it's pretty much in shambles.  There is one thing I do know, so think about it carefully."

    David frowned wondering what on earth Jerry could have to say that was relevant to the situation.  He was certain that it was nothing, so he nodded permission for the older man to continue.

    "Okay." Jerry nodded.  "So, my eyes are as good as anybody's and I know they aren't deceiving me...now, don't get mad..."

    "I'm not going to get mad," David replied, impatient for Jerry to get on with it and impart his great wisdom.

    "You...kissed him back."

    David hunched in his saddle, the curious yet annoyed expression he had been wearing turned into a scowl.

    "You don't know anything about it, Jerry," he finally said.  "and it's definitely none of your business."

    "I know," Jerry conceded.  "Just think about it."

    David contemplated kicking his horse into gear and trotting up to the front of the line, but thought better of it.  That was what the creatures had done the day before and they had all seen what had happened then.  The things were relegated to trotting along after the troop at the end of the line.  Their chirps had taken on a mournful apologetic tone and they were happy to trail along behind, carefully being watched by a group of squires.   They hadn't meant to hurt any of their new masters.

*****

   Dale was making a camp fire when he suddenly found himself flanked by Catherine and Jody.  Catherine plopped directly down on the ground next to him, Jody was having trouble with her crutches so he abandoned his futile stick rubbing and stood to help her into a seated position.  One of the creatures sat opposite them, its red hair concealing its arms and legs.  It looked like a giant ball of hair with googly eyes.

    "Here," Catherine handed him two rocks when he returned to the task at hand.

    "What is that?"  He asked curiously.  "Let me guess...some kind of ritual where you come from..."

    "No, Dale," she said.  "It's flint."

    He stared at her blankly.

    "Here," she crawled up from her reclining position and gathered up the tinder in the center of the wood pile.  Sparking the two stones together she managed to ignite the pile of dry grass and twigs and leaves, much to Dale's amazement.

    "You always keep flint in your pocket?"  Jody asked with a bright smile.

    "Nah, I found it in the woods a few days ago," she said.  "I study geology a lot.   I thought it was pretty cool to find alien rocks, but then I looked at it closer.  All this time and all this distance away from home and it's plain old flint."

    "Why'd you keep it?" Dale asked.  "If it's so ordinary."

    "I don't know," Catherine replied.  "I guess...well, it's still alien.  It's not going to alter the path of human history if I take it home is it?"

    "I don't know," it was Dale's turn to reply.  "We haven't had the chance to study time travel here...its history, the hows and the whys of how things are effected by it.  That's what we want.  We try to smuggle some stuff in, but  it's hard."

    "Well, we don't either," Jody said.  "We don't have it in our time.  We kind of got stolen by some evil future villain who wanted to change time.  Apparently, we're very important people..."

    "And that changes things?" Dale pondered.  "Interesting.  Maybe it's not such a good idea."

    "I think that's why they have cops," Catherine pointed towards Bertram.  Jody sighed at the thought of him.  "To protect time."

    Dale nodded.  He threw another log on the fire.  "That's interesting," he said.  "I can't wait to learn more!"

    "Yeah!" Catherine nodded enthusiastically at the thought of learning.  "This trip has been the most educational thing that has ever happened to me...including my education!"  She laughed heartily.  "I'm going to feel really bad putting a stop to horny horses when we get back though."

    "You sound like you're enjoying this," Jody said.  She had lost a bit of her cheer.  She wished she could find a little bit of joy in the situation herself.

    "I am," Catherine agreed.  "Is that wrong?  I fully believe Bertram and Phillip will get us back.  Between them...they're like the smartest guys I have ever met.  Didn't you see what Phillip did to that computer?  He reprogrammed it in seconds! It was amazing!"

    "Yeah," Jody had to agree with that, though she hadn't had much experience in dealing with technically smart men.  The only men she really talked to on a daily basis were Ned, an admitted stoner, and Jason, a total dreamer.

    "But maybe," Jody postulated.  "Maybe they're just average smart for their time?"

      "Oh, please!" Catherine tossed her head and rolled her eyes. 

    "Why not?"  Jody asked. 

    "You've met John Arker, right?"  She replied with a smirk.

    Jody giggled  "Point taken," she said.

    Dale had watched the entire conversation unfold with fascination.  He hadn't had occasion to meet anybody from another planet...space travel was expensive and time consuming.  It took years for delegates to fly to conferences that were only a few star systems away.  When he had lived under royal rule that definitely wasn't an option for someone in his station in life.  To meet two girls from another time was just the icing on the cake of such a successful raiding party. 

  The sun was still up, setting slowly, but he had gotten the fire roaring before the light winked out burying them in complete darkness.  Dale retreated to the edge of the ring of fire and sat down beside the creature.  Jody shuddered.  As Catherine took a moment to throw a comforting arm around her friend she asked the squire what exactly the creature was.

    "Is it some kind of alien?"  she asked.

    "This little guy?"  Dale patted its head and it made its peculiar little chirp at him.  "He's not the alien.  He was here long before the humans were.  At least that's what the Royal Chromian history books have told us.  Who knows if they're actually true or just another lie they tell us so we just keep going along with their rules."

    The girls listened in rapt attention.

    "You see," Dale continued.  "The Chromians use these poor creatures as slaves.  The ones you ran across...they captured you I presume?"  Catherine and Jody nodded.  "Yeah, well those were scouts.  The army uses them as an advanced guard so they don't have to get their "real" soldiers killed."

    "That's terrible," Jody spoke up.  "But they didn't seem to mind."

   "Disobeying the Royal Army is not an option," Dale spoke bitterly.  "There was a massacre...the Quickling massacre. They wiped out almost the entire wild population."

    "Is that what it is?"  Catherine asked.  "A Quickling?"

    "That's what we call them anyway," Dale replied.  "Yeah.  The ones you see here were bred in captivity.  They don't know any more than the lives their masters have given them.  One of these guys wouldn't last a day out in the wild."

    "Why not?"  Catherine asked.  "We haven't come across and scary wildlife yet."

    "Only cliffs," Jody contributed with a frown.

    "Yet," Dale pointed out to them.  "There's plenty of things that come out at night and, well, traveling through the Needles is not a piece of cake.  Not to mention the mud flats and...you get the point.  The woods is the least of a Quickling's worries.  These," he patted the red one on the head.  "These ones that we've set free don't even know how to be free.  They've been following along.  They think we're their masters now, so we give them tasks and let them live in our cities and woods.  It keeps them safe, and they seem happy."

    "Those ones yesterday...that scared Jody's horse..." Catherine started, but Jody elbowed her harshly in the ribs. 

    "Yeah, they like to play.  You think the Royal Army let's a Quickling ride on their horny horses?  Nah.  They were happy they didn't have to walk.  They're called Quicklings...they're pretty fast on foot, but we'd been riding several miles by then.  They'd been free from the Royal Army.  They were just excited. Jody, I'm sorry.  They don't know any better.  They're like little kids sometimes."

    "Okay." Jody nodded.  She still eyed the thing suspiciously. 

    Dale noted her discomfort and smiled at her.  He stood up from his seat and walked over to sit next to her then urged the Quickling to follow.  It unfolded its spindly black legs and bounced over to him, sitting down at his feet.  It looked up at him with its buggy eyes and cooed softly. 

    "This one won't leave me alone," Dale sighed.  "I think she's adopted me."  He pulled a small bit of food out from a pouch on his belt and held it out to the Quickling. It revealed its arms and snatched the object from his hand, shoving it into the thick pile of hair, presumably into its mouth.

    "Try it."  He offered Jody another piece of food from his pouch.  She reluctantly took it.  It was a thin slice of potato.  It had been crisp once upon a time but had since fallen limp due to being stashed in Dale's pouch.

    "Is this a french fry?"  She asked as she took it.

    "Well, I don't know what that is, but we call it 'hot oiled ground foods'.  Easily cultivated outside of our city, good food for the troops.  You can cook them lots of ways."

    "It's a french fry," Catherine decided.

    Jody regarded it for a moment then held it out to the Quickling.  The creature chirped at her and cocked it's head, then accepted the treat.  It then unexpectedly jumped into her lap and wrapped its arms around her.

    Jody stiffened at the fur ball's touch, but Dale reached out and touched her shoulder, reassuring her that it was okay.

    "They're really harmless," he said.  "And kind of sweet.  I think this one likes you."

    "I think they're kind of cute," Catherine admitted.

 
*****

   David had been thinking about what Jerry said and he was right.  He tried to explain it away in his mind as a heat of the moment thing, but he couldn't.  He knew he liked Phillip.  Everybody with eyes knew he liked Phillip, and Phillip knew he liked Phillip.  It was practically useless to resist.  It was only that he was conditioned to hide the way he felt.  Even though David had been very clear with his father upon coming out, it had not made the man very receptive.  David wasn't actively  hiding, but he never had anything in particular to hide.  Once his father had made it clear that he would be as supportive as he could be, but he didn't necessarily approve, David had thrown himself into his job and his schoolwork and tried to forget any romantic notions that he'd gotten into his head.  Oscar was a hard working man who did his best for his family.  He was a good guy, and David hadn't wanted to let him down.  But then he had been whisked away, and there on some distant planet, under a blue sun, he had found the most unlikely of romances in Phillip.  And there, in the far distant future, and with people from a less distant future, and people from his own time...nobody seemed to care.  He finally realized that he needed to find Phillip and apologize for rejecting him in such a harsh and unexpected way in front of all the people who had become their friends, and an entire Rebel raiding party to boot.

    It was easy to find John and Bertram once he had passed through the encampment and its many soldiers sitting around their fires making sure the circuitry in their laser weapons was clean and free from debris.  They were only standing on the edge of the camp with the holographic display up as wide as it would go.  It showed some kind of expanding gaseous ball.  David didn't know what to think of it, and neither, it seemed, did the two detectives.

    "What is that?"  He asked as he came up behind them.

    Bertram jumped in the air at the sound of his voice.  Started by someone approaching him from behind.

    "Don't do that, David!"  He said once he had regained his composure.  John only stood there chuckling at him as he often did.

    "Sorry," David replied.  "So..."

    John shrugged at Bertram who scowled at his partner as he often did.

    "It's not as if you're going to listen to what I say if I tell you that it's against the rules to tell him."

    "I think the rules have gone down the drain," John replied seriously then turned to David.  "This is the time map.  What you see here is all of documented time and space."   He proudly waved his hand towards the display in hopes of making an impression, but David only looked past his shoulder at some point beyond the holograph.

    "Time map?"  John wiggled his fingers in David's eye line in order to garner his attention.  "Map of all of space and time?"

    "Okay, Time map, wonderful.  Have you seen Phillip?"

    "Oh, god!" John rolled his eyes dramatically.  "Not this again.  I thought you were done?"

    David only growled crossly at the detective.

    "He's over there." Bertram pointed towards the edge of the canyon.

    Phillip sat there, his feet dangling over the edge as he gazed at the sun dipping behind the mountains casting deep purple and aqua hues across the canyon.

    "It's beautiful," David said as he approached the edge of the cliff and sat down.  Phillip didn't reply.  David glanced cautiously at him and noted that Phillip's eyes remained firmly affixed to the scenic vista played out before them.

    "Will it help if I say I'm sorry?"  David asked.  "Because I am.  It was just unexpected that's all.  And all those people were there!"  He elbowed Phillip playfully in the arm.  "I'm not used to making out in front of an entire army!"  He laughed.

    Phillip turned towards him then, and he glared at David with icy blue eyes.

    "Unexpected?"

    David nodded.  He was unsure of where the conversation was heading and not at all comfortable with it, but he couldn't leave without making amends.

    "It was so unexpected that you, several hours after it happened, you fucking switched partners on me?  What's the real reason, David?  The puritanical attitudes about sex from when you come from?  Or is it the fact of my occupation that you find so objectionable?"

    "Both...Neither...I..." David buried his face in his hands.  He didn't know how to explain it, but he had never liked anybody as much as he liked Phillip, and he was quickly pulling their friendship apart brick by brick.  He was ill equipped to fix it.

    "Look, I've never done this.  I don't know what to say to you."  He finally admitted with a heavy sigh.  "I've never done this and I'm scared."

    "Please, don't tell me you're a virgin," Phillip muttered caustically.

    David regarded him, taken aback.  "What?  No.  What does that have to do with anything?  I mean, I've never been in a relationship long enough to fuck it up as badly as I'm doing right now."

    "We've only known each other for, like, three days."  Phillip's glare soften somewhat and a curious expression crossed his features.

    "Exactly," David replied with a frown.  "I'm too busy for relationships back home, just random hook-ups.  How can I even judge you for what you do?"

    "David," Phillip replied.  "I want you to know it's a legal profession where I'm from.  That's why I was registered.  You have to.  Keeps everybody safe.  The health care plan is phenomenal actually."

    "Really?"  David asked; his frown remained.

    Phillip nodded.  "John knows how your people regard prostitution.  He was using it to upset you."

    "Wow, a valid career path," David muttered.  My parents would have a heart attack."

    "Yeah,"  Phillip looked away, back towards the sunset.  "It's a valid career path.  I didn't say there was any dignity in it."  He sighed.  "It's not who I am.  I'm a mathematician.  That's who I want people to know."

    "Why do you do it then?"  David asked.

    "I lost a lot of money," Phillip replied sadly.  "I got involved with some bad kids at school, there's this game...I won't get into it.  The rules are complicated.  Suffice it to say I gambled away my life's savings.  I had to drop out.  I wanted to make cash fast, so I could enroll in school again.  It was the easiest way.  That's how I met Gerald.  Now I know he researched me for my temporal mathematics and programming skills.  He pretended to fall in love with me, David.  He pretended to be my friend.  He was rich.  I thought once we got this finished...his little time shifting project.  He was going to write his thesis on fissures.  How they were harmless.  That's what he said at first, but then it turned into this game just to prove that he could and that it would be fun.  I fell under his spell.  I'll admit it.  I thought I was going to be able to quit and go back to school so I could do what I loved.  Anyway... that's why I did it."

    "Oh," David said.  He turned from Phillip and looked at the sky.  The sun had almost entirely disappeared behind the mountains.

    It was David who initiated contact.  He brushed his fingers across Phillip's hand as they sat beside each other.  Phillip didn't respond at first, and David couldn't hide his disappointment.  He felt like his heart was being crushed, and he couldn't breath.  He was close to standing back up and storming off to the tent he was to share with Jerry, but it was then that Phillip laced his fingers through David's.  David let out a massive sigh, causing Phillip to look up at him and smile.

    "What?"

    "I thought you weren't going to forgive me," David admitted.  "I'm pretty sure I was going to have a nervous break down."

    Phillip laughed at him.  "You?"

    "Yeah." David nodded.  "I have to admit it...you are kind of intimidating."

    "Me?"  Phillip laughed even harder.  He was hardly a man of formidable stature.

    "Yeah," David replied.  "You're so smart.  It's intimidating.  That's all.  I'm just a laborer."

    Phillip chuckled.  "You don't give yourself enough credit, David."  He said.  "I happen to know that you're brilliant."

    "Do you now?"  David arched a curious eyebrow at him.  "Do you want to tell me?"

    "I'm not supposed to.  It's bad enough I told Cath what she does." Phillip replied.  "Just do me a favor?"

    "Anything," David said.

    "Okay," Phillip continued.  "Don't become a landscaper.  You're meant for better things.  Stay in school.  I promise it will be worth it."

    "Okay," David replied sincerely.

    "You're not going to protest?"

    David shook his head.  "I believe you.  You're from the future.  You must know something right?  You don't happen to remember the triple crown winners for the next ten years do you?"

    Phillip laughed.  "Even if I knew what the hell you were talking about, me spilling the results of past sporting events is definitely something that will land me a really long prison sentence."

    "Really?"  David's teasing tone left him and it was replaced with a more serious one.

    "Yeah," Phillip replied.  "But it's not as if it would matter anyway.  This little escapade has probably earned me life anyway."

    "No." David gasped.  "They can't...I mean...you can't..."

    "Let's make the most of the time we have," Phillip replied as he squeezed David's hand reassuringly. 

    "I'm not going home then.  I'm staying with you."

    "You can't," Phillip replied.  "You have to go home, and I have to go home.  Time travel isn't all it's cracked up to be really."

    David stared at him then with a look so heartbroken that Phillip choked up at the sight of it.  He pulled David close and hugged him tightly.  "I want to tell you it's gonna be okay," he said.  "I really do."

    "Come on," John interrupted them before the conversation could progress any further.  "It's dark now.  Time to go back to camp"

    Phillip and David stood up.

    "Can we..." David motioned between himself and Phillip and looked up hopefully at the detectives.  Bertram looked very ready to let them partner up again, but John sternly shook his head, asserting his position as senior detective.

    "But..."

    "No," John replied.  "He's with us, like it should have been from the start."  He eyed Bertram.  "Inter-Temporal relationships are frowned upon."

    "But..."

    "Go to your tent kid," John waved David away.

    "I'm not a kid," David muttered as he reluctantly released Phillip's hand and trudged in the direction of his assigned sleeping quarters.

    "Did you have to do that?"  Bertram asked his partner.

    "Do you have to question my authority in front of a prisoner?"  John replied.

    "I'm a prisoner now?"  Phillip spoke. 

    "You know you are," John replied.

    "Come on," Bertram said.  "It's not going to kill anybody if you let them spend the night..."

    Phillip shook his head and was surprised to find an embarrassed blush rising to his cheeks.  He hadn't felt so flustered about spending the night with somebody in a good long while.

    "You're only saying that because you want to sleep with Jody," John muttered.

    Phillip's head shot up to look at the geeky detective in surprise.  Bertram shrunk away from his gaze and turned his attentions towards John.

    "You're way off base, buddy."

    "Am I?"

    Bertram nodded in a not so subtle way towards Phillip who was curiously listening in.  "Let's not discuss this right now.  It's neither the time nor the place."

    "Fine." John shrugged.  He stalked away leaving Phillip and Bertram to fend for themselves.

    "If it were up to me," Bertram admitted, "You could switch up.  I understand."

    "So you do want to sleep with Jody?"

    Bertram sighed.  "I didn't say that.  I just...I like her.  She's nice.  But I'm an officer of the law.  What am I going to do?"

    Phillip frowned sadly.  "Yeah."  He agreed.  "The laws of time."

    "Fuck time," Bertram muttered caustically.  "C'mon.  Let's get some sleep.  We've a long journey across those mountains to the rebel city.  I'll see what I can do for you two once we get there."

    "Really?"  Phillip allowed an edge of hope to creep into his voice.

    "Yeah."  Bertram nodded.  "But no promises, okay?"

    "Okay," Phillip replied enthusiastically.  "You think John..."

    "I think we'll see," Bertram said.  "I think he's just cranky because he didn't want to share a tent with Jerry.  You know...the man snores.  Loudly."

    Phillip chuckled.  "Yeah."

    "C'mon," Bertram lay a hand on Phillip's shoulder and guided him towards the campfires and the tents beyond them.