THE TROUBLE WITH DECEIT

Part 5 Salvaging the Wreckage

Everybody had been instructed to meet in the main hall at nine sharp, whereby they would all embark on their personal projects. They would each be given a tailored help pack and a suggested schedule. The rules were that they would be allowed to work together with anybody who had chosen the same project if they wanted to. Having settled into their seats in the big room it quickly became apparent to them that something was amiss, there were no work packs to be seen anywhere, plus there was a whiteboard on an easel set up at the front of the room. Even stranger, Mr. and Mrs. Howard was standing there but accompanying them was the housekeeper, the lady that had greeted them when they had first arrived. As soon as the last of them were seated Mr. Howard addressed them. "There is no easy way to say this, guys, and believe me I don't want to. I'll be blunt! All projects are hereby canceled, probably forever. The reason? A Bastard flue bug. You will have heard about it on the news or read about it in the press. Another one of these super-resistant strains. However, it turns out this one is different, it is airborne and transmitted like hayfever, in pollen, and by contact with anyone infected with it. This pollen flue is the real deal and will make anyone who gets it very ill. As yet there is no vaccine, they are saying within six weeks they will declare a pandemic."

Worryingly Mrs. Howard circled one arm around her husband's waist as he paused. Nobody had ever seen any physical contact between them before, in fact, except for their surname, you would never have guessed that they even socialized outside of school. Fey leaned into Kip, she had a nasty feeling of impending disaster settling on her. "How does all of this affect us?" Mr. Howard resumed. "If this virus makes it's way back to any previous time where years of inbred resistance to these types of virus haven't occurred, then instead of making people very ill and almost certainly causing quite a few fatalities, it would spread unchecked and within around nine months it would become a pandemic. It would kill every single person on the planet, an extinction event! All of humanities history after the time of the very first infection would be erased from existence. None of us would be born!" Fey was crying and her body was shaking with the shock of it all, Kip snaked an arm around her. "Guys guys!" Mr. Howard was claiming their attention again. "I know you are all shocked, we all are, I need to be honest with you all now, you all know me, I like the truth! As of last night at 11 pm all time portals worldwide were shut down and dismantled. They are taking no chances. You are wondering how we get back! we don't! not in the foreseeable future anyway. If any of you have colds or are feeling unwell report directly to Mrs. Howard and she will arrange quarantine for you until you are recovered. This is important, we must take no risks, all of our lives are at stake now. So anyone with any symptoms, no matter how slight, hands up right now, please." No hands went up, which in fact was not really surprising as everyone involved in this project had been doing their utmost not to come into contact with anything that might have spoiled their chances of coming on this once in a lifetime prestigious research trip.

A lot of the girls had begun to cry, some quite loudly, even a few of the boys had. The enormity of what had happened was beginning to dawn on them. In all probability, none of them would ever see their family or friends again. Mrs. Howard held up her hand, "listen to me please, we are all in this together, and we are going to have to live with this new situation. It was the right thing to do to close all of the portals. Think about it carefully, there are 107 portals worldwide and roughly 20 people in transit at all times. That is well over 2000 travelers. Commonsense says that among all of these people some or even just one will unwittingly pass through while already being infected with this virus. A pandemic in our time will cause a lot of misery and many deaths. In previous times, like for example this time that we have traveled to, the natives do not have one hundred yrs of inherited resistance to these superbugs. It will wipe out the entire population of the planet. The same with all of the other destinations. Then you have a paradox, none of us any longer will have any ancestors, and we will all simply cease to exist. So you see! none of us want this, but all of us know it is the only way any of us can hope to survive,"

Mr. Howard once again stepped forward and addressed them all. "Hopefully, once this pandemic has been stopped, or has run its course the authorities will see fit to re-assemble the portals and we shall be rescued. In the meantime, we must look out for each other, because, and make no mistake about it! we are each other's family now, we are all we have!" The Housekeeper stepped forward. "I am as shocked as you are, and my future is in the same danger as yours. This has to be kept a secret. To survive you are to some degree going to have to integrate, not to do so would look very suspicious after a while. No word of this can leak out. Imagine the panic and the danger to yourselves it would cause. Put your heads together, all of you, your teachers also! Come up with fictitious backgrounds that will hold up. Above all, stay out of trouble, the law in this time is very different to what you are accustomed to. You will all continue to live here, and if you are asked about it. You tell almost the truth! you are at a private boarding school and you come from money. You will remain here for two years until, hopefully, you get your degrees. One last thing, I am Charlotte Henson and you can call me Lottie. I'll continue to look after the day to day running of the house. Adequate emergency funds have been transferred over to us so at least money will not be one of our problems. Good luck to us all!"