Traveller Manifesto

Jerusalem – Today.

Anderson and Rahmer snapped to attention as senior officers stalked by. They were given barely a glance, though their beards and long hair would indicate their involvement in the Israel Traveller project in some way.

For most in the base, the Traveller mission was only a concept, a rumour, whereas a chosen few knew something was actually taking place in the buildings protected with the highest levels of security. All knew something was happening. Whether it was an operation against Iran, Palestinians in Gaza, or the latest in the Intifada, most only had theories and supposition. Even many of the officers did not know, which had a few of the higher ranks somewhat miffed. It was strictly a need-to-know situation.

The two Travellers were smartly dressed in their service uniforms, which were incongruous with their unkempt state. A few glanced their way but knew better than to question. Besides, Major Anderson was a face most recognised, even with his beard.

Their presence came as a surprise to a couple of officers who knew their mission. There was the look of ’What are you doing here!’ but none said a word. After negotiating a long hallway, they presented themselves to a nondescript office where a pretty sergeant led them to a conference room. She jauntily walked away with the sway of hips and flash of anger in her dark eyes, as if she objected to their admiring glances, but Rahmer was not deterred. He pursed his lips and stared after her in appreciation.

“Sassy!” commented Anderson.

“Whew. That is one sassy assy,” agreed Rahmer, who was generally known for his appreciation of the finer points of females in the Israeli military.

They then stared at the door a moment. “Ready when you are,” nodded Rahmer.

In the room, two senior officers, one a General from the Israeli Military and the other a US two-star General, sat behind a table with two civilians. Both were academics known to the Travellers from past briefings.

They smartly saluted and then sat on the chairs designated for their use.

After polite greetings, US General Connor launched into their debrief.

“Okay, Major Anderson, give us your updated assessment of the operational aspects of the mission to date?” he asked, his tone blunt and uncompromising. Anderson knew the General had been involved in the planning of these Traveller missions ever since the invention of the Transporter had been made public. Together with Senator Ruth Benton, all kinds of agendas had been formulated and pursued. Both were a force one did not ever wish to reckon with.

“The operational aspects of Israel Traveller continue to be seamless,” reported Anderson. “The Transporters have operated as efficiently as expected and the format has allowed our team members to perform their tasks to their optimum. If I might add, Colonel Lieberman is an excellent Commander and has all operational matters under control.” Both of the officers in their panel nodded and there was then some discussion as to the use of the Tower Hawk systems, which had been instrumental in the defence of the base with the attack by the Roman cavalry against Camp Bravo. All had read his description of the events, viewed the footage and heard the testimonials from other team members on the ground. Anderson ignored any comments about his blatant heroism. He was just doing his job to save the lives of his support team. So far, he had been successful.

“Colonel Lieberman advised that the engineers are ready to set up the final Transporter,” confirmed Professor Rita DeMille. The American Jewish University had invested much in the project. With Professor Cowen, she was expected to release some exciting academic papers, that is once the project’s findings were permitted to be made public.

Except the findings had not been as expected.

“Yes Professor De Mille,” confirmed Anderson, who had met with her often. She was one of the more approachable academics who frequented the project. “The engineers are in position and the Transporter should, by the time we return to Camp Gamma in 1000 BC, be ready for manned Transportation. We will then complete the reconnaissance as per our usual procedures. The automated camera has already performed the first reconnaissance of the target Time and, as expected, nothing of note has been observed. Next will be the manned exploration of the immediate area and the use of a UAV to check the surrounds for humans. As you know it’s our tried and true, cautious approach. It wouldn’t be wise to drop troops into a local encampment, though the chance of that is unlikely.”

“Of course,” confirmed General Goren. “As always, we trust your procedures to be appropriate for your assessment of the mission.” The General had been a tough cookie to second guess. One moment he seemed inflexible, the next he was generous. It was when he was generous that he had to be watched. “We do, however, need to confirm the results of your one-millennium BC Jerusalem patrol.”

“I doubt that I can add anything Professor Cowen might have missed,” began Anderson.

“We have Professor Cowen’s report, of course,” interjected the other academic; Professor Rubashkin of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “As you are aware, these debriefings are to allow us to gather thoughts and impressions that may have been missed by Professor Cowen. We do, however, have some questions and would appreciate your interpretation on events and conversations.”

“Yes sir, of course,” replied Anderson.

“What was your impression of Jerusalem?” asked Professor De Mille.

“Jerusalem of about 980 BC was a collection of clay buildings and a wall,” replied Anderson. “In fact I would say that it didn’t have any defining features. It was small, dirty, there was raw sewage in the narrow streets and the people were suspicious of us as strangers. In fact, it reminded me of the ‘Life of Brian’, you know, the scene when Brian is running from the Romans?”

“The Life of who?” asked Professor Rubashkin.

“It doesn’t matter,” interrupted General Connor with a sigh. “It’s a movie. Just keep to the facts Major.”

“We only wish to confirm your observations Major,” continued Professor DeMille, “because one of your team questions whether you had even visited Jerusalem, or instead had visited another, smaller town.”

Anderson winced and then continued. “Sergeant Maxwell might have been the one to whom you refer,” he replied. “As you are aware, we decided to include highly qualified troops who adhere to various Christian and Jewish beliefs. We felt that their observations might discover connections to modern belief systems that those of us who are not particularly religious might miss.”

“You suggest Sergeant Maxwell was not so beneficial to the mission?” asked Professor Rubashkin.

Anderson took a breath. He knew this would happen. “As you know, Sergeant Maxwell believes the Bible to be true in every word. The issues arose when we found little to which the Biblical narratives could find agreement. We found no Rachel’s Tomb or monument which, according to Professor Cowen, was not a problem as the location was always suspect. Bethlehem was not there, as predicted, but there was a camp where we interacted with shepherds and examined the grotto.”

“Yes, that was a particular high point,” agreed Professor Rubashkin. “None of those findings would give any scholar sleepless nights. The location of the staging post of Bethlehem and the grotto was as expected. The fact that it was a shrine to pagan goddesses was somewhat of a revelation but, in retrospect, also not surprising.”

“No, but the complete lack of anything concrete in relation to King David has given us concern,” added Professor DeMille.

“It certainly upset Maxwell,” replied Sergeant Rahmer. Anderson detected a trace of sadistic glee from the Israeli sergeant, but he refrained from glancing to see if there was the hint of a smile.

“Which makes it vital that we understand your findings and observations,” continued Professor DeMille. “In seeking the truth of the situation, you may have visited Jerusalem during a time of peace. Just to reiterate what you already know, the common perception is that the City of Jerusalem was, by the year 980BC, the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.”

Rahmer gave a gasp of exasperation. “Why is this question repeated so often? We have no doubt as to our destination. We were on target. The UAV’s and the mapping software correlated the geography and the other known features to ensure our navigation was on track. But no, it wasn’t a city. It was a small village or town at best. Most of the walls were barely three metres high. Some parts were impressive, maybe ten metres at most. Some were significant and very thick while others would not have stopped any serious military force. There was no doubt about it. We were at Jerusalem. It was the same location where the great Temple was built some thousand years later. There was a general confirmation by specialists on the ground to make sure we knew where we were going. It was Jerusalem alright.”

Professor DeMille blushed and General Goren looked at Sergeant Rahmer with the eagle eye of reproach that older officers always perfected. The tough Israeli soldier straightened and turned his eyes to the front. The admonition was to shut the hell up unless spoken to.

“Look, all of us, including Maxwell, confirmed our location and the course for our patrol,” confirmed Anderson. “I support Sergeant Rahmer on this. There is no doubt as to our location in space, or in Time, so we can confirm it was the ancient city that we now call Jerusalem. As our report states, the locals called the town Jebus. I don’t think that, in itself, was surprising. There was just no mention of any David.”

“Nevertheless,” replied Professor Rubashkin, “there was a requirement to check for various documented physical attributes to confirm the location was correct. I’ll give you an example. The Masoretic for the Books of Samuel states that David managed to capture the city by stealth, sending his forces through a ‘water shaft’ and attacking the city from the inside. Modern archaeologists now view this as implausible as the Gihon spring – the only known location from which water shafts lead into the city – is now known to have been heavily defended and hence an attack via this route would have been obvious rather than secretive. The older Septuagint text, however, suggests that rather than by a water shaft, David’s forces defeated the Jebusites by using daggers rather than through the water tunnels coming through the Gihon spring. According to the biblical narrative there was another king in Jerusalem, Araunah, during, and possibly before, David’s control of the city. He was cited to be a Jebusite king so, as you suggest, the name Jebus sounds correct. David also, according to the Books of Samuel, constructed an altar at the location of a threshing floor he had purchased from Araunah. This is suggested to be the location of the rock upon which Abraham was to have almost sacrificed his son, Isaac. Some biblical scholars suggest this might have been a pre-existing sanctuary. Does any of that gel with your findings?” he asked.

Anderson sat a moment in discomfort. Despite Professor Rubashkin’s comments, he could offer little assurance. The politics of this mission implied that certain things were to be found and the rest ignored, yet other parties wanted it told as it was, that no facts were to be warped to fit a narrative. He wasn’t sure what he was to say, so he kept to his version of the patrol. “We conducted a thorough reconnaissance of the town. We did find a decent spring and a separate attempt to direct sewage to a settling pond of sorts. It stunk. There was also a residence of an official, but as we could not freely converse, we found the few guards unhelpful. They described the leader to be by the name of Elhanan. Now that name excited Professor Cowen because he suggested that was a name by which King David was originally known. There certainly weren’t any conquering armies or grand kingdoms and the people who settled there seemed to have been there for quite a time. They called themselves something like Jebusites, though the language was different. We did find a few altars. As you will have seen in our report, they were dedicated to the God El, sometimes with the Goddess Ashera. It was then we began to have some issues with Sergeant Maxwell.”

“In what way?” asked General Connor.

“Now let me confirm that Sergeant Maxwell is a soldier of the highest calibre. He was selected for his extensive skills and experience but is known by some to be a little bit of a Bible-thumper when the topic of religion is raised. He became frustrated at how what we were seeing did not suit the narrative to which he adhered. He constantly suggested that we were in the wrong location, or the wrong time. Naturally, he used the rationale that the Transporter takes Travellers back to ‘A’ past rather than ‘The’ past. Now we know he and Russo were included to give a Christian perspective, but the Jewish members of the team didn’t get so hot under the collar about it. I believe the whole mission shook Maxwell rather badly.”

“What of the others?” asked General Goren.

“The others took it in their stride,” continued Anderson. “I repeat that Sergeant Maxwell is a superb soldier and exemplary in all matters military. We understand it was his role to question what we were seeing.”

“That is correct Major,” agreed General Connor. “We don’t question his fitness to be part of this project. We only seek your additional impressions. Do you have anything else to add?”

“No sir. I know this can be sensitive, but we were ordered to provide our personal perspective. There was just no sign of anyone named David. We were thinking that maybe the timing is all wrong, that the Biblical account of King David might take place after our visit. While the water course and altars were there, there was no knowledge of King David or Solomon or anyone like that. As you saw in our footage, there was definitely no Temple, but to my understanding that is not expected until some years after our visit. There were a few other religious structures though and some fellows that the locals referred to as priests. We documented them fully, but they had no resemblance to the design or size of any Temple, whether of a permanent or temporary nature.”

“So these were the structures you witnessed built with large stones?” asked Professor Rubashkin.

“They seemed to be,” nodded Anderson. “Some were quite huge. We wondered how they would have been moved. But our patrol was not exhaustive. There were many areas in which we weren’t allowed. That was because we weren’t locals, but nobody was particularly threatening. We did have the UAV’s check, but there was nothing worthy of note. It was all quite mellow, really. There were a couple of statues and engravings that might have been Egyptian, while others appeared to be a type of cuneiform script. Some of those inscriptions had been covered with clay or chiselled out. But you also have images of those as well.”

“You realise this is quite different to the accepted narrative for the period?” commented Professor DeMille. She seemed drawn and concerned.

“I understand so, Professor,” agreed Anderson. “My experience is that Traveller missions do that. They significantly enhance our knowledge of the Time. I’m guessing that the further back in time we Travel, the greater will be the variation from the accepted historical narrative. We were to observe and report without bias or prejudice. That is what we have done.”

“Nobody doubts you or your team,” responded General Connor wearily. “You’ve all completed your missions in a manner we can only describe as exemplary”

“Yes, thank you Major,” added Professor Rubashkin with a smile. “No doubt we academics will be analysing your patrol’s every image and utterance for years.”

“Thank you Major Anderson,” nodded General Goren. “Dismissed!” The soldiers stood, saluted and turned to leave, but there was the growl, “Not you Rahmer!”

Anderson looked to his friend and, with a look of apology, promptly left.