Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

VIII. A New reatthat must be operated from afar; its time travel works by having some sort of areference point in our particular universe, and hence it itself cannot be transportedacross time. But still, it seems very luy that New Avalon managed to end upanywhere near Earth…”“Do you doubt my skills with the device? I have made the jump across yearsdozens of times, mostly to study the ange of times and manners, trying to judgeif Arthur's service is needed once again. I had perfected the astronomical calculationsnecessary for ea jump, especially in the laer times when I could spy thestrange mathematics needed for even more precise planetary calculations.”“Where were you in World Wars?” Dr. Colbert asked. “In the laer of those,there was yet another Saxon invader, threatening Britain…”Merlin seemed grim and even apologetic, as if he had been expecting thatquestion. “We came here in , decided we were not needed, and our next stopended up being the year , where we were no longer needed. We completelymissed these tumultuous events. It seemed to us that the wars and grimness wasstarting to be behind, so we were leaping forward with bigger strides, so unfortunately,we learned of these great wars too late. e device seems to be only ableto jump ahead of time, not baward. Perhaps if we could decipher more of itsalien functions, we could go ba in time to right that wrong.”“Fascinating. How about the Martian Rise of the Reds, in ?”“at planetary revolt? We unfortunately skipped through most of the ndcentury. We were here in , if I remember right, and we returned in .”“Did you learn anything from these leaps?” Dr. Colbert seemed angry. “Perhapsthat the history needed a lile bit more examination than periodic peeks?Great events just slipped past, and you didn't manage to do anything about them.”“I—” Merlin began.“What, pray tell, did you do to actually assess the situation on ea leap? Youcould see what had happened in the past, but how do you predict the future? Didyou carefully monitor the situation and see when strange things were afoot?”Merlin was strangely silent. “All right. I guess I can't argue you there. Wenever really had any greater plan. I hate to admit it, but this was a clear mistake.”“So now you are here”, Dr. Colbert said. With your maine knights, and youhave actually managed to land in middle of a war — a war, whi, as you correctlydeciphered, could mean something significant. You're a luy man, Merlin."“One could say so”, Merlin said. “I don't know what I can do to show you I dohave some regrets for not thinking this quite through.”“ank you for at least trying, though, Merlin”, Daleworth said. “It is thethought that counts. e most important thing you can do is that you just keepthe knights doing what they do best.”