You can't change history, can you? No - but you can make a new reality, when you alter events. A small band of time-travelling adventurers recruit a specialist team, mainly of engineers, and set about advancing 9th century technology. While doing this, they have to fight off invasions, win over the local population and have a bit of fun along the way.
Leaving Earth for a temporary base many light-years away, they train and prepare for the time jump back to the 9th century. Following the jump, they establish a stronghold and start making contact with the local inhabitants. Meanwhile, a more deadly mission is changing the political structure of this world ...
Excerpt:
"It’s called gateshock and will be a bit worse with a big time jump" I said to the group. "You get used to it real quick- the first jump is the worse and it gets easy with practice, so we will be doing quite a few practice jumps- everyone done puking?"
Once the worst of the groans and retching had stopped, I pointed out the hall- "Head into that building- get a drink and a bite to eat and I will start to fill in the picture on how things are going to happen here."
Once everyone was settled, I grabbed a chair and sat facing the room. "Here is how we operate here .This isn’t the Army, even if it looks like it at times- I don’t tell you when to get up and when to go to bed. I expect you to be on time for everything without being chased up. If I wanted sheep, you wouldn’t be here.
Today is an easy one, as you have had more than enough thrown at you for now. We will get personal equipment issues sorted today- uniforms, M16’s and sidearm. After that, we get settled into our cabins- these are portable and will be coming with us. That done, we knock off for a beer. Over the next few days you can sort out a ‘shopping list’ for personal gear that you might want to take back. Your cabin is half of a customized 12 meter shipping container. What you can fit in that, you can take. By the way- from tomorrow onwards, you will always go armed. Get used to always wearing a pistol."
***
We headed into the hall where drinks and sandwiches had been put out. Appetites returned as quickly as they had left- gateshock doesn’t last long and you get used to it soon enough.
As I poured my first coffee of the day, a couple of the group approached me.
"By the way, Wayne- where the hell exactly are we?" said Brent, the armourer.
"Far enough away from home that possession of automatic weapons is not an issue" I said. “I guess that is where you are coming from, right?"
"You guessed mostly right, but there is something about this place that just doesn’t look right" said Brent, as the others nodded in agreement, looking about. They could see something vaguely different about this place.
"You got that right", I said, "We about 270 light years from home and in the same time line. All that lives here, apart from us, is grass- anything else- we brought here. You are on another planet.
As to how we got all this equipment, you will get the opportunity to go ‘shopping’ via gate later” I added.
“Everyone feeling better? Good- let’s go for a wander”, I said, heading off towards a line of containers nearby. The group followed along, staring at lines of vehicles, stores, plant and shipping containers.
"These are home for the next 12 months, or as long as you want to stay on. Customized containers, 230 volt power and plumbed for a radiator. As we are on generator, don’t bother taking anything that draws more than about 3 amps. Fold down bed, storage chest containing soap, toothpaste, razors and so on- the rest is up to you- all I stipulate is you must be able to get out fast, so don’t put too much crap in them. They are all identical, so grab a key and call it your own. One more thing- in the top drawer you will find a ‘tourist’s guide’ to the local language- start learning the useful phrases in it- the MP3 player with it is part of that package- try wearing the headset at night- you will be surprised as to how much you will take on-board in your sleep."