The Nautilus Sanction (TimeWars 5)

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Lucas said quickly. “It’s only that-”

Verne reached out and unclipped the dosimeter from the belt of Lucas’s jumpsuit. He looked at it thoughtfully for a moment, then held it up. Lucas frowned, then understanding dawned.

He took the dosimeter from Verne and examined it closely. Then he showed it to Finn and Andre. They immediately checked theirs, as well. Each contained a listening device.

“I apologize, Jules,” said Lucas. “I didn’t mean to be insulting. You’re quite welcome to search for the listening device, if you want to. But it’s probably a waste of time. Even if we found it, they’d only install another one and hide it more cleverly the second time.”

Verne looked puzzled for a moment, then he understood. “Well, you are quite right, mon ami. We are, after all, uninvited guests aboard this vessel. One can hardly blame the captain for wishing to be cautious. I will put the matter from my mind and get some rest, as you suggest.”

When the diving Klaxon and the missile chimes sounded one after the other, Verne tensed and clenched his fists; he went rigid in his bunk and glanced with alarm at the others. Land was also in his bunk, but Lucas, Finn and Andre sat at the table, playing cards with a deck they borrowed from one of the crewmen.

“It will be all right, Jules,” Finn said. “Try to relax.”

“Relax?” said Verne. “Relax? I am about to travel to another time and you want me to relax? Should you not lie down as well?”

Lucas smiled. “We’ve done this many, many times before, Jules. We’re accustomed to it.”

“What am Ito expect?” said Verne. “How will it feel? Mon Dieu, I should have rested more. I am not well. My nerves… I am dizzy and my stomach-”

Abruptly, he retched.

Aghast, he stared at the mess he had made upon the cabin floor and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “How disgraceful!” he said. “How terribly embarrassing! I am so very sorry, my friends-”

“Nothing to be embarrassed about,” said Finn. “It’s one of those aftereffects Drakov warned you about. It happens even to seasoned veterans of time travel. You’ll be feeling better shortly.”

Verne stared at him. “You mean… that was it? It is over?”

“That was it,” said Finn.

“But… but nothing happened!”

“You mean you didn’t notice anything happen,” Lucas said. “It would have been much more dramatic if you had been wearing an individual warp disc and clocked from one location to another, but since it was the submarine that made transition and we are inside the submarine, you haven’t noticed anything change. And, in that sense, nothing has.”

“Can’t a man get a bit of sleep around here?” Land said, turning over in his bunk.

“Ned!” said Verne. “I cannot believe it! You slept through it!”

“Slept through what?” said Land.

“We have traveled through time, Ned!”

Land grimaced. “Yes, from the moment before to this one. Stop talking nonsense.”

“How do you feel, Ned?” said Lucas, glancing at his cards.

“My stomach aches from that miserable food we’re served on board,” said Land. “No doubt I’ve been poisoned by squid preserves or seaweed spinach.”

Finn chuckled. “Go back to sleep, Ned.”

There was a knock at their door and Sasha entered. “The captain desires your presence in the control room,” he said. “There is something he wishes you to see.”

7

Drakov stood at the periscope. He took his face away from it and looked at them as they came in. There was a grim expression on his face.

“We have arrived in the year 1739,” he said, “in time to witness a sea battle.”

“We’re going to surface?” Land said.