“Major Katherine Carlisle is nervous and full
of apprehension; but utterly overjoyed. She has completed all her training and
now will achieve her greatest ambition. She will join the crew of the ISS
[International Space station] as their medical officer. So on March 17th 2028
she is launched into space with three other replacements to the low orbit
station. The craft doesn’t make it; something has gone wrong and the space
ferry is forced to make a crash landing. Katherine is the only survivor and
finds that the world she left no longer exists….”
Episode may contain the following warnings:
Alcohol - smoking - strong foul language [including historical language and opinions that are certainly not woke!] - sexual references [including sexual violence and BDSM] - Violence [including torture, combat, domestic and sexual] - references to prostitution, human trafficking, classic slavery and treating women as chattels - Supernatural & paranormal experiences - Horror - Terror induced fear and threats of violence. Reading about historical and past events which have NOT BEEN SANITISED in any way! Oh, and some episodes contain Nazi's; new and old.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
“All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
SOME OF THESE EPISODES CONTAIN VERY STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, HORROR AND SEXUAL REFERENCES. They are AGE RECOMMENDED suitable for persons aged 12+ years only. Some episodes are rated HIGHER at 15+ and ALL the 'ALEXANDRA' Series versions are AGE RATED at 18+”
Stephen Williams
THE AUTHOR.
Author’s notes
about this episode:
[1]
The original Title for this episode was: ‘SOUL SURVIVOR.’
[2]
A ‘Temporal Detectives’ original story.
[3] "TIME TRAP.” This episode, was conceived and written by the author. Copyright © 2011-2025 Stephen Williams. No reproduction of any part without written permission. The episode illustration is an original drawing created by the author. It is copyright ©2011 - 2025 Stephen Williams. No reproduction of any part without written permission.
[4]
Sorry but, it contains ‘Pigeon’ English which is vital to the story; especially
the ending.
[5] There is NO Alexandra adult extended version currently available.
[6] This episode is part of a ‘Space Trilogy’ by the author with the central character: ‘Katherine Carlisle’. The other episodes are 'City without a sky' and '13.25 or Flight of the Golden heart.'
Episode details:
Concept
date: 27th November 2021.
First
published: Not available
Status: COMPLETED BUT UNPUBLISHED.
Location:
BOOK SERIES 0 – EPISODE 0
Revisions:
4 [Last revised June 2022]
Version: In review
Published
Episode No. 00
Previous
episode: NONE
Next
episode: NONE
Age
recommendation: 15+
Average
reading time: Approximately 75 Minutes.
Angel-in-charge: Margret
Team
Assigned: Team 74
Mission: 0 - 914729 - 11 - 2028
Human time:
Gregorian Calendar: MMXXVIII
Muslim Calendar: 1440 - 1441 [AH]
Hebrew Calendar: 5788 - 5789
Christian Calendar: 2028AD
Episode Preview:
"TIME TRAP."1. THE TRAP IS SPRUNG.
She
must have passed out on the quick descent, hanging beneath her multi-coloured
parachutes, still strapped to her chair. She came around slowly, breathing
rapidly as the whiteness loomed up below her. She struggled to find the release
mechanism for the chair, but she was now thinking straight, and it fell away,
spinning down and smashing into the snow and ice. She followed it down, now
being buffeted by strong winds, and managed to achieve a fairly good landing,
suffering a couple of minor bruises to her legs and right arm.
Kath
was dragged several yards before managing to slap the bright silver buckle that
caused the parachutes to fly back up, dancing in the wind like crazy kites, and
then they disappeared. She staggered to her feet and pulled open her chin strap
and bent over, taking sharp little breaths, which hurt because of chill in the
air. She stared about in amazement and total disbelief. The space ferry was
over California when the alarms began to sound, it should be a warm sunny day
wherever she came down! That’s when she saw a bright orange piece of parachute
laying just yards from her, and she quickly strode over and gathered it up. It
was just one little piece, but she wrapped the silk around herself and felt a
little warmer. There was little ridge ahead so that’s where she headed, still
in a state of shock and utterly puzzled by the weather conditions. She
remembered Jim Stark commenting on the warm weather just before the launch.
Kath stopped
and took a breath, No, she wouldn’t cry for him just yet. She walked on, her
boots crunching on the frozen snow and made the ridge, finding it had a gentle
slope, which she navigated with some care.
With
arms wrapped around, she stood and stared across the totally barren landscape.
There were no trees, no bushes, no signs of absolutely anything, just snow. In
the far distance was a mountain range, again covered with snow, so she turned
180 degrees and found an apparently endless plain of snow, disappearing into
the distance. She looked up into the sky and saw that sun was fading, which
meant that the temperature would fade with it. Her prospects of surviving a
night in this place were, frankly, zero and she knew it. Really angry she
shouted at the sky, “Why the fuck did you let me survive the fucking crash,
just to kill me here you sadist bastard!” It made her feel a little better, but
she knew that ‘God’ didn’t exist and she was shouting at just a snow filled
sky. She wiped her face and muttered, “Show me a fucking miracle and I might
believe in you again. You bastard.” She found a small niche in the rocks and
squatted there, it was out of the wind, so she felt a little better and she
knew that she must find proper shelter or die. It was really simple as that.
She was trying to rationalize her situation in her own mind: where the hell had
she landed. Again, she should have come down in sunny California; instead, she
apparently ended up in bloody Antarctica! But that was totally, physically
impossible, they were thousands of miles apart and the bloody emergency had
happened in just a minute or two. Even if they were flying at 600 miles per
hour, they shouldn’t have crashed in Antarctica! Her current situation defied
all logic and perhaps, physics. That conclusion really didn’t make her feel
better and she made herself stop thinking about it. She pulled some of the
orange parachute over her head and couldn’t stop the tears falling.
Then she could hear a strange sound mixed in with the wind. Kath really
couldn’t make it out and so slowly rose and stared about, as best she could in
the gathering gloom of early evening.
She
stared down the slope of the little ridge and simply couldn’t believe her eyes.
In fact, she closed and opened them several times before accepting it was real.
It was a large cow with dull yellow horns and a thick, brown and black coating
of fur that stretched down to its hooves. It appeared to be wearing a wooden
yoke, or what remains of one. A dark black strap trailed from
that into the snow. It bleated again and she realised that was
the strange sound she had been listening too.
Still
in a state of disbelieve she scrambled down and approached it slowly, wondering
if it was like the cows that her grandfather tended on his farm. She slowly
picked up the leather strap and nervously edged up to the strange beast. It
stood quite placidly, giving the odd gentle moo. She slowly patted it and found
that it just stood there, as if used to being around humans and touched by
them. That made her heart leap, did the beast belong to other humans? Then
wondered what the hell would she do with it!
That’s
when she heard something that wasn’t indistinct or strange. It was a human
voice, a man’s voice, shouting something, She led the cow from the ridge and
stared into the twilight and almost screamed with joy. Emerging from the
flurries of snow was a big man in furs, carrying a flaming torch and shouting.
He must have been well over six foot and built like the proverbial brick
shithouse. He stopped and brushed snow from his face and stared at Kath and the
cow. He had a thick dark beard and unbelievable sharp blue eyes. He slowly
smiled and stuck the torch into the snow and pulled a horn from his backpack
and sounded it several times, then waited. He smiled again as both he and Kath
heard another horn answer.
He
walked over and patted the cow, staring at Kath, wrapped in her bright orange
parachute. She slowly handed him the strap with trembling hands, and he took
it, smiling again. He pulled his pack down and rummaged inside, producing a
small piece of fur [small to him] which he handed to Kath, and she realised it
was a coat with hood and wooden buttons. She pulled it on without hesitation
and noticed that it went to her ankles and the sleeves hung well over her
hands, but she certainly wasn’t complaining.
She
followed the big man as walked the cow back to the flaming torch and now could
see other figures appearing from the falling snow, followed by several huge
wagons pulled by furry cows. Kath estimated from what she could see [she didn’t
know if anyone was in the big ornate wooden wagons] that there was fifteen or
maybe twenty people and to her immense relief, at least half were women, all
dressed in furs and nearly all young. That made her think where the older women
and men were. She didn’t wonder long, a much older man [than the other men she could
see gathering around her] approached. His fur coat still had the
bears head on, and he carried a big wooden stick that appeared
to have several rings of gold around it. He walked around her and nodded a
couple of times, then stopped in front of Kath, leaning on the big stick. “U
woyman fall tom sky as eye see in sleep yes.” Kath was really shocked to hear
the strange English, but also pleased, bloody pleased! The old man was
apparently saying he dreamt that a woman fell from the sky, and she really
didn’t know how to answer that, so she just smiled. He repeated his question
and she sighed and nodded, actually fearing the worst. He now nodded and
scratched his beard, gesturing towards the big man standing next to her,
patting the cow. “Eye see it. Woyman drop to tis world from God’s buv so Mal as
yew woyman. U dat woyman. Eye see it!” He waved the stick about, and the others
all politely clapped which surprised Kath more than his strange version of
English. Then she wondered what the hell he meant! She soon found out when the
big man smiled at her and slapped his chest, “Eye Mal! Wot nime woyman is?”
Kath
slowly pointed to herself and said quietly, “Katherine, Kath Carlisle.” He just
stared at her and rubbed his beard saying “Catintin….Cat, nime to ong! Call U
Cat!” Everyone murmured their apparent agreement with that, and the old man
nodded, “Yis, it Cat. Cat good nime for woyman od Mal!” Everyone clapped again.
A woman in her thirties gently grabbed Kath’s arm and gestured to one of the
wonderfully coloured wagons, “U cum wid Eye, get fod, yis?” She smiled and
tapped her breast, “Eye Su, U Cat.” And guided her to the third wagon which was
only pulled by three furry cows and Kath guessed that the one she found was
that missing cow.
Su
pulled open the heavy door which was painted with bright stars and blue stripes
and almost pushed Kath inside. Kath was a little impressed with the interior,
it was packed with fur rugs, wooden boxes [all highly decorated] cooking pans
and saucepans and all matter of things. It was tall and contained two wooden
bunks on one side and cupboards on the other. There was a bear’s head fixed to
the end wall, with what appeared to a musket and powder horn dangling from it.
But all that quickly disappeared from her thoughts, as she saw the little girl
emerge from the under the furs scattered below the bear’s head, and smile at
her. She must have been about five or six and wearing a beautiful, embroidered
dress and laced boots. Su gestured to the girl, “Dat Inga, Mal’s chid by ded
woyman. U now er mudder.”
And
the woman really smiled and shut the door.
Kath
slowly managed a smile for the obviously inquisitive child and wondered ‘what
the fuck had just happened!’ And more importantly, where the fuck was she! Then
she stared at the decorated musket and powder horn and a real strange sensation
passed over her, she dismissed the thought, then it crept back and grew
quickly. A little shaky, she slipped to the fur covered floor and gripped the
skins, thinking, what time am I in? Why were they speaking some strange form of
‘pigeon’ English? Who on earth were these people?
The
little girl crept from the skins and sat close by her, then slowly reached out
and took hold of Kath’s hand and held it tightly, smiling shyly. Kath stroked
her curly, tangled blond hair and smiled back. “You Inga? I’m Kath….Cat.” The
girl nodded and smiled again placing her head upon Kath’s hand and just lay
there. Kath took a deep breath and stroked the child’s head, staring about the
wagon’s interior, realizing it looked like a psychedelic students room from the
1960’s: she had seen the pictures from her great grandmother’s photo albums.
Her own question repeated itself in her head, what time am I in?
"TIME TRAP" CONTINUES IN 'TEMPORAL DETECTIVES' BOOK SERIES 0 [EPISODE 0.]
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