The Door

by Tony Harmsworth

  ‘I am told you have some ideas to put to us,’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We have a number of points for you to consider.’

  ‘These,’ she said, waving her sensuous hands towards the people sitting either side of her, ‘are my advisors and counsellors. We will hear your “ideas” and ponder them.’

  There was a pause. I supposed I should continue speaking. ‘Firstly, about the effects of your visiting our time. Schletz has told us that your presence in the past is already affecting your present time.’

  ‘Yes. It proves to us that we must be careful,’ said the female counsellor.

  ‘It is our opinion that when the vortex technology begins to be used in our time, this here-and-now and all of you will cease to have existed.’

  ‘Not if we are careful,’ she said.

  ‘We disagree. However careful you are, the technology itself will make the survival and primitive periods vanish, because our time will use the vortex to collect materials from the moons of other worlds. The Waste Epoch may well never end and not be judged as wasteful. If it does end, it could be a deliberate action and might not be catastrophic,’ I said.

  ‘And if there are no survival and primitive periods, your people will never develop,’ said Greg.

  ‘The planet around us now, this parched Earth,’ said Mike, ‘will be a barren, lifeless world. You will not exist and we will be lost in some time paradox.’

  ‘I have been saying this all along,’ said the counsellor next to the woman.

  ‘Trezlor, is this correct? Has Zmblist been saying this?’ Nargen asked the man on her right.

  ‘Yes, but the vast majority think he is incorrect, Nrgghnntitigzxt,’ said Trezlor.

  ‘But it is I who am head of the time scientists,’ said Zmblist loudly. ‘I and my time team are the experts in this. We know!’

  The taller man behind the queen said a few sharp words in their language and Zmblist coloured. It seemed to me that he had been told off for raising his voice.

  Nargen lifted her hand, looked over her shoulder at her tallest escort, and spoke in the softest, most soothing voice, as one would to a lover. Again, I felt my colour rise. I was unable to stop myself reacting to the charisma she exuded. The escort bowed slightly.

  She returned to English, ‘We can all speak freely here. No secrets. Counsellors – what do you think about the ancients’ views on this?’

  There was a sudden babble in their language, with all four counsellors getting very heated. It continued for three or four minutes then the queen spoke sharply. In silence, the female counsellor and the man called Trezlor stood, bowed to Nargen, and left the room, taking their papers and hand-held computers with them.

  ‘It seems,’ Nargen said, ‘that my counsellors have not been listening to their appointed scientific experts. I shall appoint new counsellors to replace them. Now, ancients, please continue with these “ideas” of yours. Schletz, record what is said for my new counsellors.’

  Schletz, stood, bowed, and rushed from the room. He was back a minute later with a small camera device which he positioned on the central table. I later noticed it swivelling towards each speaker as it recorded the conversations.

  It seemed we had witnessed an on-the-spot cabinet reshuffle. Had Trezlor and the female counsellor been fired or did some worse fate await them?

  Greg spoke, ‘Nargen, as we have said, we believe a large change will happen in the timeline if the vortex is introduced to our time, but we understand your grand plan and support the principles.’

  ‘So, how do we avoid destroying our own civilisation?’ asked one of the remaining councillors, Zmblist.

  All eyes turned towards Greg.

  24 Saving the Future

  ‘You can’t avoid the changes to the timeline, whatever you do, therefore you must deal with the problem in a different manner,’ said Greg.

  ‘How?’ asked Zmblist.

  ‘We must consider moving your population to a location at our time. What is your population?’

  ‘Not large on your time’s scale, but it is still over six hundred million,’ said the other counsellor, Grystk.

  ‘Where could we go on your Earth without causing total disruption?’ asked Zmblist.

  ‘We have an idea which we think can solve the problem,’ said Greg.

  ‘What?’ asked Nargen.

  ‘The problem must be split into components and secrecy from twenty-first century Earth will need to be maintained at each stage otherwise all will be lost,’ said Greg.

  ‘Why would you do this? Your only priority is likely to be returning home, as you demonstrated during your escape attempt,’ said Schletz.

  ‘No, Schletz,’ I said, ‘you are misjudging us. We have spent some time working through the problems and believe it can be solved to benefit us all. We think you’re important to the future of mankind in our time, so we want to ensure you’re saved.’

  ‘Explain, Henry,’ said Nargen, her use of my name causing me to colour again. Her effect upon me was becoming embarrassing.

  ‘Firstly, we need to establish a home for your people and move them all to that home in our time,’ I said.

  ‘Impossible!’ said Zimblist. ‘Where can you possibly put hundreds of millions of us secretly?’

  ‘How did you put the time-vortex on twenty-first century Earth? You told us you could not travel to a location where there was no matter-transfer vortex, so how did you travel to our time from here? There could’ve been nothing in place when you did that,’ I said.

  Zmblist spoke in his own language to Nargen and she seemed to be agreeing to what he was asking. Was the secrecy about the time-vortex’s operations being discussed?

  ‘The time-vortex operates on different principles. It requires a small device called a time logrol, to be sent first. Once that is in place, one person can travel to that location and expand the vortex,’ said Zmblist.

  ‘So,’ said Mike, ‘let me understand this. You could, if you wished, transfer back to an earlier time? Say 1800 or even 1700?’

  ‘Yes, but we cannot reach anywhere ahead of 2020. However, there is no point. Going back further would not help us. If we went there in numbers, your own civilisation might not exist as we would dominate.’

  ‘Zmblist, slow down,’ said Mike. ‘Please try to think about these questions in isolation. Don’t jump to conclusions. You say you can travel to 1800?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘What about travelling to the year 1800, but on the planet Mars?’

  ‘No. Not possible. We would need to build a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Mars. Whether we could do that on nineteenth century Earth without giving away our presence, is unlikely, to say the least.’

  ‘Why do you need the spacecraft?’

  ‘Because the time-travel vortex can only travel between the same geographical locations. The start location must be the same as the end location. We actually had to dig down twenty metres in our time, to ensure the time-travel vortex in the convent chapel could be used. If we hadn’t done that, our arrival would have been in mid-air.’

  ‘So, why not go to Mars and travel back to 1800 on Mars?’

  Silence.

  It was quite clear that this rather obvious solution to the problem had never been considered. The future people may be clever and intelligent but lacked common sense.

  There was a sudden babble of chatter between Schletz, Grystk and Zmblist in their own language. Nargen spoke and they stopped talking. She was obviously angry. Her eyes were piercing as she looked at the counsellors and Schletz.

  She spoke again to them before turning her attention back to us.

  ‘I am surrounded by fools,’ she said in a voice which had clearly been measured for our benefit. ‘Continue with your ideas.’

  Mike said, ‘We want you to go to Mars, set up a transfer vortex to Mars and build a complex there. Simultaneously, time-travel back to 1800 Mars and build domes, farms, and homes for your people. It seems to us that you can l
ive on nineteenth century Mars just as easily as you can live on the current Earth. Was Mars any more hostile in the nineteenth century than Earth is in your time?’

  ‘A little more frigid, perhaps, but that would not be a serious problem,’ said Schletz.

  ‘Once you’re on Mars you will need to stop any probes from Earth from discovering your civilisation until everyone has moved into the past. Once you have fully established your population on Mars, we can introduce you to our governments and the grand plan to manufacture and launch interstellar ships containing matter-transfer vortices can begin. When the time paradoxes start, there’ll be no one left in this time for us to worry about,’ Mike said.

  ‘I see,’ said Nargen. ‘Schletz, is there time to do this before the planet is swallowed by the sun?’

  ‘No. I don’t see how we could do that so quickly,’ he said.

  I said, ‘Of course you can. There is plenty of time.’

  All the future people looked at me as if I were mad. Schletz said, ‘The Earth will only support us for a few tens of years. The consensus is just thirty. How can we build a new home in thirty years?’ The way he delivered the statement made it quite clear he didn’t expect us to have an answer.

  ‘You’re still not applying common sense to the problem, Schletz. There is all the time in the world,’ I said.

  ‘How?’ asked Nargen.

  ‘Set up the Mars base first. Use the time-vortex to send scientists, construction teams and materials back to 1800 Mars and begin construction. Then travel back to later on Mars, say 1820 and 1850 etcetera, to check how much progress there is. Begin matter-transferring the population to Mars for onward time-vortex to ancient Mars in ten year or similar gaps,’ I said.

  ‘That’s ten-year gaps on ancient Mars, but the process can be almost continuous from here,’ said Mike.

  ‘So,’ added Greg, ‘You have a couple of million there by 1810, double it by 1820 and so on. By 2000 Mars will house your entire population.’

  Mike said, ‘We then travel back to Earth from Mars and put in place the grand plan for interstellar ships.’

  I watched a new expression cross the face of Nargen. It was one of realisation. There was suddenly an explosion of conversation between Zmblist, Grystk, and Schletz with Nargen making occasional interruptions.

  ‘We like this, Greg, Henry, Jennifer, John, and Mike. We like this very much,’ said Nargen.

  ‘Well,’ said Jennifer, ‘please get started so that we can get home and, by the way, we’d like to help if we can and visit both present day and ancient Mars as well.’

  ‘We already have a Mars colony,’ said Schletz. ‘I can take you for a visit if you wish.’

  ‘We wish very much, and it also means you can start work immediately.’

  ‘Yes. It does. This meeting is at an end,’ Nargen said, unwinding her fantastic body from the confines of the chair.

  We all stood. There was much bowing and the queen of future Earth, her escort, and armed guard left the room. Her departure seemed like desertion to me, but I no longer felt a hint of the force field. Finally, we must have won their trust.

  25 Mars

  ‘Would you like to see Mars now?’ asked Schletz.

  We all gave the affirmative and followed Schletz into the ornate room where he activated the vortex to take us back to the observatory building we’d visited previously.

  I spoke quietly to Greg. ‘She disturbs me greatly.’

  ‘Who, Nargen?’

  ‘Yes. She has a strange effect on me.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘Sexually?’

  ‘God, yes. Thought it was just me.’

  ‘John, Mike, do you get carnal thoughts about Nargen?’ asked Greg.

  John coloured. ‘Yes. Almost irresistible.’

  ‘So, she affects us all?’ asked Mike.

  ‘Same for me,’ came Jennifer’s quiet voice behind us, ‘but the two escorts, not Nargen. I couldn’t take my eyes off the shorter one and found it quite disturbing. I’ve never had such lustful thoughts about a man, just from looking at him. I could have jumped him there and then!’

  We all laughed at Jennifer’s revelation and each other’s admissions. There was obviously some sexual lure in play between the queen and her escorts, and her subjects.

  ‘Schletz,’ I said, ‘do Nargen and her escorts have special sexual powers? We’re all affected in their presence.’

  He almost whispered his reply, ‘Henry, do not talk of such things! It is illegal to think of the rulers in those terms, but yes, Nrgghnntitigzxt and her three husbands are almost as one person.’

  ‘They’re her husbands? And there’s a third one?’ asked Greg.

  ‘Yes. The rulers live as one. It is not always the same combination. The last ruler was a man and had four male escorts. There are always between two and six and their genders vary.’

  ‘And their children?’ Mike asked.

  ‘Sshh,’ Schletz whispered, ‘You cannot talk about them or their personal lives.’ He lowered his voice even further. ‘They are infertile. There can never be children. They have very short lives compared with us and their sensuousness is one of the few compensations. Other than that, they are dedicated to their people – us. This is why there are always new leaders in waiting.’

  ‘So, when you told us another leader will replace her in four years, is that the end of Nargen’s life? Surely not. She only looks to be in her mid-twenties,’ I said.

  ‘Yes. The leaders rarely live beyond the age of fifty. She is thirty-seven and will retire at forty. She and her husbands may have only a brief retirement. They live to serve the population and be loved by them and support each other. It is a beautiful and affectionate regime. Our love for them is all encompassing, but we must never express it. Certainly not in the terms you were using. Kindly remember that.’

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Manipulating genes to produce someone with irresistible sexual charm to lead her people but condemning her to an ivory tower with infertile husbands, never to lead a normal life, in fact to lead a very much shortened life. It was certainly an odd arrangement.

  ‘What will happen to the two counsellors Nargen fired? They were fired, weren’t they?’ asked Greg.

  ‘Yes. They will redeploy. I am so pleased that happened. Some of the counsel have been getting too powerful and keeping real scientists like Zmblist and myself under their thumbs. I am relieved. Nrgghnntitigzxt was furious that experts had been ignored. She will make sweeping changes. Now, prepare yourselves for a lower force of gravity.’

  The mist swirled. Our molecules, their atoms, and attendant electrons looked at Mars, looked back at Earth, decided they were in both places and shut off the Earth versions. Ridiculous, but as Galileo would have said, “Albeit it does happen!”.

  We arrived on the red planet. The first twenty-first century people to stand on its surface.

  Outside the vortex room, I crouched and ran my fingers through the Martian soil and pocketed a small pebble. In linear time, I was the first person to ever touch the surface of our mysterious neighbour and had a souvenir I’d treasure forever.

  The scenery outside the dome was not unlike that on the future Earth. A little redder and rock strewn, but very similarly barren and lifeless.

  ‘Is there any life on Mars, Schletz,’ asked Jennifer.

  ‘Only microbes found deep in the soil under the poles.’

  That would disappoint the scientists back home, I thought.

  In the near distance to our left, the rim of a crater could be clearly seen but the mountains were no higher than hills, with one exception.

  In the far distance the massif of Olympus Mons rose into the air, several kilometres. Its height was surpassed only by its enormous width as it filled our view from left to right as far as the eye could see.

  ‘Olympus Mons?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes, and still tall despite the billions of years of erosion. It is almost the last mountain left on Mars and most of the vall
eys and rifts have been smoothed out over the years,’ said Schletz.

  ‘Is that a crater?’ I asked, pointing at the low ridge about a mile away.

  ‘Yes. The inner planets still get bombarded from time to time. There is a large crater on Earth, which was formed about thirty years ago. If it had happened when we still had an atmosphere it could have wiped out life on the planet.’

  ‘So, worlds without atmospheres suffer less?’

  ‘Yes, but the impacts remain more visible.’

  We heard a kerfuffle behind us and turned. Zmblist and several other people, laden down with equipment, were stepping out of the vortex. He walked over to us and shook hands with each of us in a strange manner. As he shook my hand, his other hand gripped my shoulder. It seems this was the custom for the best of friends greeting each other.

  ‘I thank you so much, all of you, for being so forthright in your presentation of the facts to Nrgghnntitigzxt. We had been trying for years and were always being negated by the counsellors who stopped us from putting the issues to Nrgghnntitigzxt herself.’

  ‘Our pleasure, Zmblist,’ said Jennifer.

  ‘Are you here for surveying reasons?’ Greg asked.

  ‘More than that. Over to the east,’ he said pointing in the opposite direction to Olympus Mons, ‘there is a flat plain just south of Olympica Fossae which we know is similar in altitude to how it was in your time. We are heading there now with a time-logrol and we intend to establish a link back to 1900 Mars.’

  ‘Not 1800?’ I asked.

  ‘No. We think we can move everyone to Mars in fewer than one hundred years of Mars time, so 1900 is fine.’

  ‘What’s the schedule?’ I asked.

  ‘Come with us. We can talk en route.’

  ‘I’d like to get back to the dome, Zmblist,’ said John.

  ‘Me too,’ said Jennifer.

  ‘You three go with Zmblist. I’ll get the others back to Earth,’ said Schletz.