by Jack Heath
They might accidentally change things in a way which prevented Ashling’s parents from meeting. Then Ashling would never be born, and she would never travel to the past, so her parents would meet, and then . . .
No-one knew what would happen after that. The world’s best physicists were still debating it. One theory was that the fabric of space-time would rip apart, unleashing enough energy to destroy the visible universe. Ashling herself had once proposed a paradox-powered generator.
11:55
Storti turned to another one of his engineers. ‘How’s our propulsion? We need to move this sub, ASAP.’
‘The reactor’s dead,’ the engineer babbled. ‘I can’t get it back online! We have an hour of backup power at the most.’
At least the fusion reactor wouldn’t mess with the chronometer anymore. Ashling stuck her hands in her pockets. The vessel was trapped, in all four dimensions. They were too damaged to go forwards or back, up or down, left or right. The chronometer would take years to regain enough charge to move the submarine through time.
11:20
‘We call for help,’ she muttered.
‘How?’ Storti demanded. ‘Everyone who knows about the experiment is forty-two years away, and our time machine is dead.’
‘Everything in the universe is a time machine.’ Ashling was already digging through an equipment locker. ‘It’s just that most things can only move forwards, and only very slowly . . . aha!’ She pulled out a deepwater probe—it looked like a bowling ball covered in spikes. It was designed to sink to the bottom of the ocean and then transmit environmental data back to the surface.
She ran towards the exit chamber. Storti followed her. One of the engineers chased them both, shouting, ‘I fixed the bulkhead!’
10:25
So we won’t drown, Ashling thought. But we might get ripped apart by a paradox.
‘What are you doing?’ Storti demanded.
Ashling fiddled with the controls on the probe. ‘I can program this to start sending a distress call, forty-two years from now. Then we sink it to the bottom of the ocean.’
‘We can’t wait forty-two years for rescue!’
‘We don’t have to,’ Ashling said. ‘Our rescuers can use a new chronometer to jump back in time and pick us up.’
‘But—’ Storti got that faraway look again. ‘My God. Another sub just appeared out of nowhere! Two nautical miles away.’
Ashling’s heart beat a little faster. ‘Who?’
‘The SSN-840 Montreal. They’re hailing us!’
Ashling grinned. Her plan had worked already. Someone from the future had heard her distress signal, and she hadn’t even sent it yet!
09:55
‘They say they’re here to rescue us,’ Storti said. ‘I don’t understand how they knew we were in trouble?’
‘You don’t need to.’ Ashling sat down on a crate in the corner, too tired to explain it to him. I’ll be glad when today is over, she thought. Then she realised today hadn’t started yet, and wouldn’t for another forty-two years.
The air started to warp around her.
‘You feel that?’ Storti asked. ‘What’s going on?’
The hull of the submarine was creaking again. Ashling felt like her whole body was vibrating.
Suddenly she realised what was happening. When the Montreal had arrived to save them, she had forgotten to sink the probe. But without the probe, the Montreal wouldn’t find out they needed saving.
09:30
Paradox.
The humming had become a deafening whine. The air shimmered, like in the desert on a hot day.
‘What’s happening?’ Storti yelled.
Ashling snatched up the probe and ran over to the exit chamber. She wrenched it open, dumped the probe inside and slammed the hatch shut. A warning message flashed on the screen. FLUSH CHAMBER?
She stabbed the YES button frantically.
There was a hiss and a whoosh, and the probe was gone.
08:50
The whining died away. The world stopped trembling. No more paradox.
‘Fixed,’ she said.
This time, Storti didn’t bother to ask her what she’d done, or how. Instead, he said, ‘The Montreal is dispatching a small craft to get us out of here. But it’ll take fifteen minutes to prep it.’
Ashling’s heart sank. ‘So the divers from the surface will reach us first.’
‘And your magic will release the water.’
‘It’s not magic,’ Ashling said, ‘but yes—although the bulkhead is fixed, so that’s not our main problem. Can we use the escape pods?’
‘They’re programmed to take us to the surface, where we’ll be in full view of the ship. Plus, the sub will have to surface to pick us up, so that will come into view too.’
Ashling raced back towards the test unit. ‘Can we reprogram the pods?’
Storti hurried after her. ‘Their behaviour is hardwired to be utterly dependable. Redesigning them would be a huge task.’
06:40
Ashling checked the chronometer, hoping it would have somehow charged enough to send them back to the future. But no. With the sub’s reactor dead, it was charging on backup power. It didn’t have enough energy to move the submarine anywhere.
It had a tiny bit, though. A flicker of charge.
‘The divers are getting closer,’ Storti said. ‘What do we do?’
‘I have an idea.’ Ashling switched her implant to broadcast ship-wide, so everyone could hear her. ‘I need the whole crew in the test chamber, now.’ She switched to an external transmission. ‘SSN Montreal, can you hear me?’
05:25
An oddly familiar voice spoke in her ear: ‘We read you, Miss Hartigan.’
‘I need you to move your sub to the following coordinates. Don’t let the boat up above see you.’ Ashling calculated the coordinates and transmitted them. Her brain was a mess of velocities and masses and submarine blueprints.
‘What are you doing?’ Storti asked.
‘We don’t have enough energy to move the whole sub forward in time,’ she said. ‘But we can move just the crew a fraction of a second back in time.’
‘How will that help?!’
‘We’re en route to those coordinates, Miss Hartigan,’ said the familiar voice.
03:40
‘Roger that.’ Ashling was fiddling with the chronometer. She talked to Storti as she worked: ‘The earth is moving through space. And this time, we’re not going to move with it. We’ll disappear and then reappear on the rescue sub—slightly before we left—because the planet will travel without us.’ Ashling frowned. ‘We can’t take the chronometer with us, though. It’ll have to stay plugged in, or it will run out of charge.’
‘You want to use the chronometer like a teleport to get us into their sub?’ Storti looked baffled and horrified. ‘We could end up stuck halfway through a wall, or tangled up in the propellers. Those calculations would have to be so precise—’
02:50
‘I’ve already done them. Trust me.’
The rest of the crew—ten people—ran into the test chamber. They looked tense, but confident. They trusted her.
01:15
‘OK,’ Storti said finally. ‘Our lives are in your hands.’ He bowed stiffly, like an old samurai.
‘We’re in position, Miss Hartigan,’ said the voice from the other sub.
‘Let’s do this,’ Ashling said. Trust the math. She pushed the button.
Whoosh. She felt that same disturbing sensation, her body being melted and stretched and freeze-dried, and then it was over—
And she was underwater.
Ashling jolted, barely supressing a scream. The sudden pressure squeezed her skull and her chest. She’d miscalculated again!
00:50
She thrashed around wildly in the cold, holding her breath. No sign of the rest of the crew. The rescue sub was right above her, huge and grey. If she’d appeared one metre higher, her body would have punctured the hull.
Ashling looked around for a way into the sub. But the hull was completely smooth, and as shiny as a mirror. It didn’t look like any submarine she’d seen before. No entry hatch. No markings at all.
She looked up. The surface was too far away. She would run out of air long before she reached it. She was doomed.
Part of the submarine’s hull unfolded like origami, turning into a mechanical claw. Ashling’s eyes widened as the claw grabbed her and hauled her into the dark hollow it had left behind.
00:10
The claw let her go and became part of the wall again, entombing Ashling in pitch blackness. There was a roar as all the water was flushed out, and suddenly she could breathe again. The sudden change in pressure made her want to vomit.
Lights flickered on around her as she coughed and gasped. The chamber was sleek and complex, with technology Ashling didn’t recognise. She’d never seen a claw like that, either. This sub must be from years ahead of her own time.
The crew was all here, looking shaken but unharmed. And there was another woman, about thirty years old, wearing a futuristic uniform. She looked a bit like—
‘I’m Ashling Hartigan,’ the woman said, extending a hand. ‘Chief Science Officer of the SSN Montreal.’
Ashling gaped at her.
00:00
The woman smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. ‘You have a long way to go, kid,’ she said. ‘But you’ll make it.’
20:00
Don’t look down, Cody told himself.
He immediately disobeyed his own advice, and regretted it. The port was a long, long way below. But the control pod of the crane was still a long way up. It felt like he had been climbing this ladder forever.
The radio on his hip bleeped and fizzed. ‘Cody. You OK?’
19:50
Cody couldn’t reach the radio; he didn’t want to take either hand off the rungs. He resumed his climb, hoping the controller would decide he was OK and go do something else. Cody couldn’t call too much attention to himself. He had pretended he was over sixteen to get this job, and the hiring manager had pretended to believe him.
The wind picked up, pulling at the hood of his raincoat. The crane seemed to sway beneath him. Cody hugged the rungs, his heart racing.
Just imagine you’re a pirate, he thought. Climbing the rigging.
19:30
When the wind died down, Cody resumed climbing. Eventually he reached a trapdoor and climbed up into the control pod.
The view was amazing from up here. He could see over the maze of shipping containers all the way to the deep, dark ocean. A cargo ship crawled across the distant horizon. In the opposite direction, Cody saw the skyscrapers and bridges of the city. He lived in one of those apartment buildings, but from here he couldn’t tell which one.
17:15
He sat down at the controls and checked them. They weren’t exactly like the ones in the training video. But he could see how to swivel the crane, how to move the hook further out, and how to lower it. He would be OK.
‘Ready, Cody?’ asked the controller on the radio.
Cody cleared his throat. ‘Of course. I’m a licensed crane operator.’
‘Sure you are. I need container B31 moved from Bay 19 to the truck in Slot 40. You got that?’
Cody didn’t make her repeat herself. ‘Aye aye, cap’n,’ he said.
‘You know I’m not a captain, right?’
16:45
He rotated the crane, slowly at first, and then faster as he gained confidence. Soon the hook was dangling above the correct container. One of Cody’s colleagues—another new guy, Danny—scrambled up the side, grabbed the hook, and connected it to the chains already wrapped around the container. Danny gave Cody a thumbs up.
Cody returned the thumbs up, although Danny probably couldn’t see him all the way up here. Once Danny had climbed back down, Cody lifted the container and swung it sideways over the maze.
14:20
It took him a few tries to get the container hanging directly above the truck. It was hard to judge distances from up here. But eventually he got it in position and lowered it down.
‘Nice work, kid,’ the controller said.
Cody cleared his throat. ‘I’m basically an adult.’
‘Uh-huh. I’ll need the next one done faster. Container H50 from Bay 4 to Truck 11, please.’
‘No problem.’ Cody raised the hook—
13:50
Then he noticed something. The cargo ship he’d seen before was approaching the port. It was listing, like it was taking on water. Smoke poured from somewhere inside. ‘Uh, cap’n—’
‘Not a captain,’ the controller reminded him.
‘A ship is coming in.’
‘The ships aren’t your job, mate.’
‘But it looks like they’re in trouble. Like, sinking.’ Now that the ship was closer, Cody could see a hole in the side of the hull, water sloshing at the bottom edge. It looked like it had been blasted by a cannon.
There was a pause. ‘OK, I’ll check it out. You just get that container moved, alright?’
Cody kept one eye on the ship as he swivelled the crane. What could have happened to it? He hoped that the crew was OK.
12:35
Then he saw something impossible. Something huge, crawling out of the hole in the hull like a cockroach scuttling out from under the fridge.
A giant.
Cody stared. If he’d seen a video of this online, he would have assumed it was fake. The creature resembled a gorilla, but it had a stumpy tail and was the size of an elephant. Too big to be real.
As the ship drew closer to the port, the huge creature reached the deck of the ship and stood to its full height. Its angry face was bruised, and livid scratches marred its fur, like it had punched its way through a metal wall.
12:05
‘Cap’n!’ Cody cried. ‘Are you seeing this?’
The giant bounded across the deck of the ship and jumped. It landed on a stack of containers in the port with a tremendous boom that drowned out the rest of Cody’s sentence. The stack started to fall. The giant leapt off just in time, and landed on another. The first stack crashed to the ground with an ear-splitting bang. Screaming workers scattered in every direction.
11:40
Cody suddenly realised that the giant was moving in the direction of the crane hook. What if it grabbed it and pulled? Would the crane topple over? Cody quickly grabbed the controls and tried to swivel the hook out of reach.
Wrong way. The hook swung sideways and slammed into the side of the giant’s head with a bonk that echoed across the port.
Cody cringed. ‘Whoops.’
The giant looked up, alarmed. Cody wasn’t sure, but he felt like it was looking right at him.
11:15
He hit the right control this time, and raised the hook. Just in time—the giant swiped a massive paw at it, and missed. It bellowed with rage, and then started running towards the base of the crane, leaping from one stack of containers to the next.
Had the creature actually seen him, or just looked in his direction? Cody wasn’t keen to find out. He scrambled out of his seat and hurried back to the trapdoor. He had to get out of here.
10:55
Too late. When he opened the trapdoor, the giant was already at the bottom of the ladder. It started climbing up towards him, terrifyingly fast. Now it definitely was looking at him through enormous bloodshot eyes. The whole crane trembled under its weight.
Cody slammed the trapdoor closed, his heart pounding. There was a slide-bolt, so he locked it. But that wouldn’t hold the creature back for long. It would punch through the trapdoor with one giant arm, and rummage around inside, tearing the room apart. Hiding in here would do no good.
10:00
Thung, thung, thung. The giant was getting closer. The floor shook beneath Cody.
There was a hatch in the ceiling. He stood on the chair and pushed it open. Daylight poured into the control pod. Cody jumpe
d and hauled himself up over the edge, onto the roof of the control pod. Then he closed the hatch behind him.
09:35
Up here, the amazing view became terrifying. The arm of the crane creaked in the wind. There was no safety rail, no rungs to hold onto. Nothing to stop him from stepping off the roof and plummeting thirty or forty metres to the concrete below. Cody lay facedown on the steel pod, arms wide, like he was hugging it.
Thung, thung, thung. The giant climbed closer and closer.
Then there was silence.
Cody stayed frozen, his heart in his mouth. What was happening? Was the creature trying to work out how to get into the control pod? Or was it just resting after the climb? Maybe it wasn’t even smart enough to realise that he had been the one who—
08:20
Cody’s radio crackled noisily. ‘Cody! There’s some kind of giant gorilla right under your control pod!’
A roar split the air. The giant had heard the radio.
Cody screamed and scrambled out of the way as the giant swung up into view. It landed on top of the control pod with a whung, between him and the hatch. The impact rattled Cody’s whole body.
He found himself face to face with the beast. Its huge mouth opened wide, exposing teeth as long as chisels. Its reddish-brown eyes, buried in deep, dark hollows, burned with terrible rage.
Cody backed away, towards the arm of the crane. He held his hands up, surrendering. ‘I’m really sorry about the hook. It was an accid—’
The giant swung a huge paw at him. Cody stumbled backwards. The paw missed, but Cody felt the air shift, creating a void that nearly sucked him off his feet.
07:55
He turned and ran onto the arm of the crane.
The arm wasn’t designed to be walked on—it was made of huge steel rods, all rounded, no flat surfaces. Every gust of wind threatened to send Cody tumbling off the edge to his death. Through the gaps between the rods he could see the ground, fifty metres below.
He kept moving, one foot after the other, his heart kerthump-kerthumping. He waved his arms around, hoping someone down below would see. Hoping they would save him, somehow.
07:30
When he was halfway along the arm, there was a clang, and the steel vibrated under his shoes. Cody turned his head and saw that the creature had leapt onto the arm of the crane, its hairy hands and feet somehow gripping the smooth steel as it chased him. It didn’t seem worried at all about the height.
