The Mayflower Solution.

                                         The Mayflower solution.

Two Feathers was Arapaho and had studied at the Quantum Foundation for twenty years before he found the way to twist time. His European name was John Tree-branch, but his grandmother, wise in ancient lore, had ‘seen’ the interpretation of his dreams and named him. She had also ‘seen’ that his future would be a pivotal point in past and future history. His grandmother was a wealthy woman who through the manipulation of the ‘White-man’s laws had built a casino on tribal lands. Money soon flowed into the coffers of her family’s bank account and would pay for her bright grandson’s education. John graduated from a university with honours in Abstract Mathematics linked to Quantum Probability. He contemplated the flow of time, forwards and back towards these limits. There was enough money flowing through the casino to fund his experiments and so John Tree-branch began to have built in separate places the equipment necessary to do what he had envisioned. 

Once the means of travelling back through time had proved possible he began his plan to alter history and reclaim the ancient lands of his people. Because of what he intended to do, the voyage into the distant past would be a one-way trip. His grandmother exerted her power as an elder of the tribe and took the idea and presented it to the council. There the elders thought long and hard at what ‘She Speaks and We Listen’ proposed that they do. All of them were in no doubt at the outcome of what would happen once Two Feathers and the rest of the tribe departed from this time frame and disappeared into the past.

A number of the elder’s children were selected for their knowledge and set aside as members of the group that would work with Two Feathers. They had all been sworn to secrecy. Many of them were ex-military with an expert understanding of weapons and the places that you needed to go to acquire them, including those that were not off the shelf. These were projectile weapons that were on the ‘Black Market’ classified as RPG-7 of Russian manufacture and widespread all over the world. The tribe were able to buy ten of these launchers and several cases of the projectiles without alerting the military. They were no longer than three feet without the war-head fitted and quite portable by horse. The cases of grenades were heavy enough to warrant splitting up into lighter loads and dividing them amongst the teams that were going to use them. They also had several language experts that had studied the dialogues written down at the time. They also bought a great number of M-16 rifles with optical scopes and crates of ammunition.

The Pilgrim Fathers had been met by a man who was conversant with speaking English when they had landed. His name was Squanto and he had been captured as a boy and taken to Spain where he had been set free by friars and made his way to England. He was a member of the Pawtucket tribe and found that when he returned they had all died from diseases passed on by the settlers. This man could hold the key to conversing with many of the indigenous tribes scattered along the sea coast facing the East. He would be the first of those living at that time to be co-opted into the plan. The tribal elders were in no doubt that he would assist in what they planned to do. 

What they needed to do was to set the portal to open in the area of what would become Plymouth, Massachusetts in this frame of existence. They also needed to arrive in the spring, long before the Mayflower arrived in the bay in November and to make contact with the tribes that inhabited the areas along the coast. This time there would be no help in growing crops and keeping livestock. The stories of what the newcomers would do to the tribes and their ancient lands as time went on would alter opinions and attitudes amongst those who had made friendly relations.

The portal had been constructed on what was left of Indian land, inside a large warehouse away from prying eyes and nosy sheriffs. There would be plenty of power available, as the casino consumed a great deal of electricity and once the portal was ready to open, all connection to that gambling palace would be cut. It was always busy at any time of the day or night and was the money spinner for the community.  Nobody showed any interest in the number of horses that were being moved adjacent to the warehouse, or the lorry-loads of equipment being delivered. Everything that they might need had been purchased and loaded into the waggons ready for the transportation.

Two Feathers stood on one of the waggons and spoke to the crowd that were going and the ones that had come to see them off. All of the tribe had gathered together to hear him speak and explain to them what would happen once they travelled through the portal.

“My dear friends and family you have been told what it is that I and my group are going to try to do. You have all decided that you will willingly face oblivion rather than continue to see how the Wasichu take from this land of ours, raping the resources above and below ground and polluted the water-tables in their insane hunger for profit. The world that you have all grown up in will cease to exist seven months from the moment that my group pass through the portal. We will take everyone who wishes to go from this time to make a fresh start. We will be well armed and when the ships come and try to land we will sink them to the bottom of the sea. None of them can step ashore on this land. Research into that time has shown that they brought diseases with them that the native population had no immunity to. We can afford to show no mercy to these people. The time of our arrival is the spring, long before the Mayflower will weigh anchor in the bay where they would have built Plymouth, on 19^th November 1620. This will give us ample time to build our own shelters, prepare the lands for crops and warn all the tribes along the coast. Once we have dealt with the Mayflower, there will be other ships to sink to the north. We must spread the word amongst the tribes living in contact with the Wasichu that they are land thieves and carry a sickness that will destroy them all. We will burn all of their farms, towns and settlements. Nothing must be taken from their homes and kept, as the sickness will claim any who are greedy for the settlers’ goods. Do you all understand? What we are about to do will alter history beyond anything that you can imagine. Seven months from the moment that we pass through that portal, all of this world will change, once we finish what we have come for. The history of the last four hundred years will be recast. This land that was ours will be ours again.”

There were no dissenting voices from the crowd. Two Feathers gave the signal to his engineers and they diverted all power from the casino to the portal. A high pitched hum filled the air for a few moments and then an eerie silence filled the warehouse. The arch of the portal became semi-transparent. A window opened inside showing daylight and a forest with a beach on the other side. After a few moments of surprise the new colonists moved forwards, leading the blind-folded horses, dragging the waggons through the hole in space and time. The next animals that came through the portal were the cattle and other livestock along with the herd of horses that would be carrying the messengers far and wide, spreading the word. Everything that the new settlement needed had been thought long and hard about, bought or requisitioned. The township had been stripped of every useful thing that they might need, piled onto waggons and driven through the portal. Inside the warehouse the doorway into the past was shut down and power returned to the town and casino. As Two Feathers had explained to those that were left behind, they had about seven months before the time travellers sank the Mayflower. Once that was done history would change. If they were successful in sinking every other ship that tried to anchor off the shores of their lands after a long sea voyage, then it would give the true occupants of this land time enough to organise a spirited opposition. Just to be extra sure that no-one could interfere with Two Feather’s plans, he had set a timed charge to destroy the machine that opened the portal. Barrels of petrol were placed throughout the warehouse to make sure that it burnt. There would be no clues about what had gone on in the tribal town and no amount of questioning of the elders that were left, would give any nosy sheriff an answer about the disappearance of all the younger townsfolk.

The fact that every tribal member except the very elderly had vanished, brought the military to the town to try and find out where they had gone. When the warehouse exploded it lit the sky for miles and was visible from the casino. By the time the firemen arrived with several waggons, there was very little left to save.  The military engineers searched through the remains of the warehouse and all they found was twisted metal, fused wiring and some radio-active chunks that had lost the lead lining surrounding them. The arch of the portal was beyond re-assembly, but it was obvious that it was some kind doorway to somewhere else. Whatever had been built inside the warehouse was a complete mystery.

Major Jack Sanderson, sat at the table in the empty house left by the strange exodus, looking at the wrinkled and impassive face of the tribal elder, Sam Two-Rivers. He had come to question him again about the disappearance of the almost entire tribe. Armed men stood just outside the closed door into the room standing guard. The house had belonged to his clan for generations and reflected the arts and crafts of the people that had lived here.

The old man stared back at the uniformed man sporting a great deal of showy ribbons and held up his hand and said, “Over six months you have been here and you still have no idea of where my people have gone or where. The time has come for me to tell you, ‘Pony Soldier,’ what you want to know, but it will do you no good and give you sleepless nights. We are fast approaching November and soon all that you see and feel will change completely. You will have a choice to make and that will be whether to remain silent, or set your people into blind panic. We have found a way to take back all that has been taken from my people and there is nothing that you can do to stop this from happening. In a few weeks give or take some days, over four hundred years ago my grandson and all the missing people from this township will change history. What was built in that burnt-down warehouse cannot be built again in the time left, without the knowledge that relates to Quantum Probability. Two Feathers understands the Principle of Uncertainty as applied to opening a portal into the past and that is what we have done. As we speak, my grandson and a group of ex-marines are readying themselves to sink the Mayflower with RPG-7s. You would not believe just how many cases of grenades we shipped through the portal. Enough of them to sink every ship that attempts to land for far longer than your people will continue to send them. We will make the Eastern seacoast a no-go area and you will not be allowed to land, spreading the diseases that your people carried in those times. Every trace of your settlements will be destroyed by fire. We acknowledge that in that time frame, already many of our people have succumbed to the germs that your ancestors carried and have disappeared from the land. After some deliberation the elders of this tribe decided that the sinking of the Mayflower and a subsequent spread of militancy along the coast would do what was deemed necessary.”

The colour drained from the Major’s face as what the tribal elder’s words really meant, struck home. He stared in horror at the elderly man sat calmly before him.

“I can believe you,” he replied, “There must be truth in what you say. No-one could tell a story like that without some background in quantum physics and a knowledge of the ramifications of what would entail from that application. According to what I have managed to find out, your tribe funded John Tree-branch to go to university and study ‘Abstract Mathematics’ that pitchforked him into the world of Quantum Probabilities. Do you understand that what your grandson will do, will destroy this world completely? It will be totally unravelled and everything that the American People have achieved will become dust.”

Sam smiled at the Major and answered, “You are not the American People. You are the Wasichu. It is a Lakota word, meaning taker for the fat, or greedy one. I say again, what was ours will be ours again in a few days or weeks. Do not wonder if the old paradox about the impossibility of killing your grandfather will save you. It will not. My grandson has allowed for this and by sitting half a year before the event that will change everything in that previous world, all who go there will stay. As Two Feathers tried to explain to me, something that he called ‘The Uncertainty Principal’ will fix an alternative existence. Everything that had to be, to create them will stay in place, but the rest of this world will cease to exist. We are Arapaho and lived on the plains of Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas since the 17th Century, as prior to that we had our roots in Minnesota before the European expansion forced our people westward. At that time we were a sedentary, agricultural people, living in permanent villages in the eastern woodlands. However, that changed when we had to move west and the tribe became a nomadic people following the great buffalo herds. Or we did until the Wasichu slaughtered the buffalo herds and left them to rot, starving my ancestors into submission.”

Major Sanderson sat ridged with shock and fear listening to what the tribal elder was saying to him.

“But that was so long ago,” he protested and mopped his brow with a handkerchief.

For the first time Sam Two-Rivers face filled with anger and he replied, “It was yesterday! Well, soon there will be no tomorrow, for all who have taken our lands will cease to exist. I have no idea what will take its place, but I am sure that my grandson will ensure that none of the ships sent to our land after 1620 will find a safe anchorage. Once the group have eradicated all of the Wasichu from the Eastern coast-line they will move south and destroy the Spaniards domination of Mexico. They will not stop until every settlement is burnt to the ground and all European influence ceases to exist on this continent. I rather think that flintlock pistols and cannons will be a poor match against M 16’s, RPG-7s and modern hand guns. The irony of it all, is that it was all funded by your own money, lost at the casino. Another of your peoples’ vices that you cannot control will soon destroy all that you have done here in the last four hundred years. As I said, the choice is yours, to tell your people just what awaits them, scaring them into rioting and looting or remain silent and accept that your time is over. Now I suggest that you leave my house and be about your own affairs. Go to your home and see your children for the few more days that you have left. I am content to wait the time here in my home. Come, I will see you to the door and then I shall enjoy my lunch. Two Feather’s grandmother is grilling a large fatty steak with mushrooms and fried onions with mashed sweet potatoes.”

The major got unsteadily to his feet and fallowed Sam Two-Rivers to the door with his face as white as chalk. The two young soldiers escorted him down the road to his jeep and Sam watched as they drove off down the road.

“Time for ‘She Speaks and We Listen’ to cook me a steak while she still can,” he said to himself and went indoors where his wife awaited him.  

Over four hundred years in the past, Two Feathers and his group set up their equipment in the dawning light and watched the sea for the tell-tale sign of sails. The wind cut across the bay and flurries of snow danced in the air making visibility difficult, soon turning to a light rain. As the sun rose however the wind died down enough to give him a clearer view through the binoculars. Just to be sure they had deployed two RPG-7s and several spare grenades. They had chosen an elevated spot with a clear view of the entrance to the bay covering the place where the wooden ship was to have anchored. As the slight drizzle died away a good onshore wind soon brought the tiny ship into view. The sails were puffed full of wind and several were showing signs of wear. A row of sailors were lining the sides to get a good view of the new world looking for a safe anchoring place.

Two Feathers laid down in the wet ground and aimed the grenade launcher at the waterline of the ship and said to the other members of the group, “As Robert Oppenhiemer once said, “Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

With that he quietly waited for the ship to fight its way through the breakers and into the relative calm of the bay and into range. He pulled the trigger. The grenade followed a graceful arc and hit the ship right on the waterline, opening up the side of the ship allowing the sea to surge inside. There was no need to launch the second RPG. The vessel went down in seconds and disappeared from sight. There were no survivors.

Four hundred years later reality changed and the term Native American meant what it said.    

END.