‘There has been no word from anything which might be in the cylinder and there is nothing we can do but wait.’
‘Aliens. In central London,’ I said.
‘Should we do anything?’ Hazel asked.
‘Like what?’
‘Like stocking up with tinned goods or something.’
‘Maybe. Let’s see how it develops.’
The news broadcast had moved on to scenes of central London which showed thousands of people heading away from Westminster.
‘It is like a scene from H G Wells’ War of the Worlds with people fleeing into the countryside,’ said one of the political journalists. ‘Panic is setting in and we’ve seen quite a few people falling and almost being trampled.’
The doorbell rang.
‘Who the hell is that, this time of night?’ I said.
Hazel shrugged and I went to the door. ‘Freeze the programme for me, Hazel. I don’t want to miss this developing.’
Outside were two men of Middle-Eastern extraction.
‘Don’t be alarmed, Mr. Mackay. We are friends,’ said the shorter of the two.
‘I’ve never met either of you before,’ I said, wedging my foot against the door in case they tried to push it open.
‘Mr. Mackay, Henry, your wife is Hazel and you have a small dog called Addy, you are a consultant. Can we come in to talk to you?’
‘Well. It isn’t very convenient. There’s some major news breaking on the television.’
‘Is it about this?’ I felt my limbs freeze. I was unable to move.
‘Damn it all, what is this?’
‘Henry, we are with the cylinder in London and need to talk to you about it.’
‘Why me?’
‘Both of you. Because both of you were integral in the wonderful thing which is about to take place.’
I looked at him, gobsmacked, silent for a few seconds. Should I let them in? Somehow, I trusted them, but didn’t know why. ‘You’d better come in.’
I don’t know why I let them in so easily, but it seemed to be the right thing to do and, in the lounge, they tried to explain a little about why they were here but said it would soon become clear and we should continue watching the news programme.
Hazel pressed play and we watched the story develop. Everyone in Downing Street still seemed to be frozen, but then the famous black door, with the number ‘10’ upon it, opened. The Prime Minister emerged into the street and stood still beside the lectern and microphone, which had been there from an earlier announcement. He faced the cylinder.
An opening appeared in the curved steel and the most incredible individual stepped out and bowed to Mr. Leyton, who dipped his head in return. The difference in their heights was huge. The Prime Minister stood about five feet ten, but the visitor was close to eight feet tall, rippling with muscles and wearing skin-tight clothing.
They stood side by side at the lectern. As if by magic, the microphone rose into the air to head height for the visitor.
‘We are sorry to have arrived so unexpectedly, but it needed to be done this way for both our worlds. I have been speaking to Prime Minister Leyton for the last twenty minutes over a radio connection, explaining why we are here and why the arrival should be so public.’
The microphone returned to the level of the Prime Minister’s head.
Mr. Leyton said, ‘I want to reassure everyone in Britain and, indeed, the world, that Earth is not under attack and Grensk is no threat to us. In fact, Grensk and his people are human, not aliens. I shall allow Grensk to explain.’
‘We are from the distant future. The Earth was in grave danger from problems with the sun which was threatening to expand and destroy us all as it reached the end of its life.
‘We used a time machine to come to the twenty-first century where we met a number of individuals in secret. They helped us to come up with a plan to save the whole of humankind.
‘As part of that, our entire population moved back to your time and have been living on Mars. I regret that we needed to cause all your Martian probes to send false images and data so that we could keep our presence secret. We actually had to disable your Curiosity Rover to prevent it catching sight of one of our domed cities.
‘Now, however, it is safe for us to make contact with you without causing the most dreadful temporal paradoxes to occur. Our future is no more, but we all still live on doomed planets.
‘Working together we are going to save our future generations. Our technology combined with your materials and both our intellects, will provide us with a way to go to other stars – not today, nor next week, but in hundreds, thousands, and millions of years’ time.’
Mr. Leyton spoke again. ‘Over the next weeks, the future people, together with our own scientists and government, will explain the situation. Nothing will harm any of us and I am sure you will all join me and other governments in welcoming our future selves to the present time. Grensk will now be leaving and will spend most of the next year visiting every country and every head of state to reassure and explain how the present is going to prevent humanity’s demise in the future.’
‘Before I leave,’ the giant said, ‘I need to point out that the individuals who helped us save the world are, this very moment, being visited by our people to give them our thanks and to enlighten them about their achievements.
‘We had to temporarily remove their memories as a paradox avoidance measure, but they will soon return to normal and will help explain why they were so crucial to saving the world. Several of them, particularly Jennifer Ivory, Greg Martyn, Henry Mackay, John Straker, and Mike Wilkes are Earth’s real heroes and heroines and should take the glory.
‘Now I shall leave to visit President O’Hara at the Whitehouse.’
I was shocked to hear my name mentioned. Surely it was another Henry Mackay? The two shook hands and Grensk entered the cylinder which promptly vanished in a cloud of swirling mist. The Prime Minister stayed by the lectern and took some questions from the Downing Street press horde who were suddenly freed from the force field.
‘I’m a hero. How can I be a hero?’
‘It is true, you helped prevent us making a dreadful mistake which would have caused the most awful time paradox to develop. Failure could have meant more than six hundred million living beings ceasing to exist.’
‘We helped save so many. How?’ asked Hazel.
‘My name is Zmblist and I’m one of our senior scientists and specialise in time paradoxes. You, Henry, with Greg, were one of the key figures who helped prevent a serious crisis for our people. You helped us see the way to resolve our problems.’
‘I’m Schletz,’ said the shorter man. ‘We had to blank your memories as it made it too difficult to return the two hundred of your people who were in our time without causing potentially disastrous paradoxes. However, we will be reinstating everyone’s memories who had been living in the future with us.’
‘Living in the future? And who is Greg?’
‘Greg Martyn, the member of parliament.’
‘But I’ve never met him.’
‘Yes, you have. You just don’t remember it. You will meet him again soon. We are able to refresh all of your memories, but we felt it should be done in one action.’
‘I don’t understand any of this,’ said Hazel.
‘Both of you, please come with us and all will become clear.’
Hazel and I left the house with our visitors and we walked a few streets until we arrived at the green door in the convent wall.
‘Where did that come from?’ asked Hazel, almost in shock.
‘Yes. I saw it today, but had never seen it before,’ I said.
‘We had concealed it from you like this,’ said Schletz and we watched the door vanish and be replaced by some patchy, ivy covered wall. ‘However, its concealment is no longer necessary.’
After a few seconds the door reappeared, Zmblist opened it and we entered. Both Hazel and I ran our hands over the peeling paint of the surface of
the door, checking its reality.
We walked along a badly overgrown path to what was, evidently, a small ancient chapel. A few other people were standing nearby and some more were following along behind us.
Schletz said, ‘Although you don’t remember each other, all of you were living in a future community together. We will be refreshing your memories shortly.’
Zmblist opened the chapel and indicated for us to enter. ‘Come. We must stand centrally. You are about to be taken into the future, our future – where the Earth is dying. Don’t be alarmed by the grey mist. When we arrive, you will meet many other friends you have forgotten and all will be explained.’
The swirling of particles surrounded us as the time-vortex carried us into the distant future. We emerged into a small dome on the surface of what appeared to be Mars, but the gravity was the same as Earth. How could that be? There seemed to be over a hundred people there and more arriving every second. Above us, the M31 Andromeda galaxy spectacularly filled the night sky. Hazel told me she was experiencing déjà vu and it seemed to be familiar to me, too, like a dream trying to escape my memory.
It was quite clear there was no atmosphere outside the dome, as the sunrise occurred without any early-warning lightness in the sky. A huge glowing orange ball rose over the horizon and illuminated the scene outside the dome with an eerie light. It illuminated crumbling buildings, stretching in all directions, outside the dome. They gave the appearance of having been a deserted city for centuries.
‘Where are we?’ I asked.
‘This is the future Earth and it is about to be destroyed by the swelling sun. Your actions and the help you gave us, saved almost six hundred million people from being roasted alive in the immediate future. We promised to bring you back here once we had been saved to refresh your memories,’ said Zmblist.
‘Are you serious?’ asked Hazel.
‘Quite serious, Hazel. Not long to wait. Our leader will be here shortly.’ Schletz left us in the company of Zmblist.
We watched the growing crowd which soon exceeded two hundred. On a raised platform to one side, Schletz stood by a lectern. He tapped a microphone.
‘Dear ancients. Welcome to this sealed dome which is protecting us from the vacuum and the growing heat of the sun as it enters its final phase. Sadly, this is what is to become of the Earth. It is a long time in the future. Because of our relocation to the past, the future was changed and no one has lived here for centuries. The galaxy you see above us has been approaching the Milky Way for billions of years. Soon they will collide, although the sparseness of space means there will be few actual collisions, except in their densely packed cores.
‘We have brought you here to inform you of the wonderful help you were in saving the human race. Our leader is about to arrive.’
Schletz stepped to one side and we saw a swirling mist develop alongside him. The huge individual we’d seen on the news in Downing Street appeared, accompanied by two extremely tall, beautiful women and another extremely fit-looking male giant. The leader stepped forward to the lectern while the others stood formally behind him. The microphone rose into the air.
‘Dear ancients. You have helped save the world. We blocked your memories for paradox reasons but are now delighted to be able to return them. Firstly, however, I want to apologise for having imprisoned you all when we first made contact. We were struggling to understand how time paradoxes worked and held you all captive for a considerable period. You will remember this shortly and we wanted to ensure you knew we considered it vital and unavoidable, but ultimately, regrettable.
‘Now. Please stand silently looking towards me,’ he said and a glowing ball of light rose from his hands into the air about ten feet above his head.
‘Concentrate on the ball. Keep your gaze fixed upon it.’
There was a blinding flash and I staggered slightly, grabbing hold of Hazel who also almost fell. John helped me lift her back to her feet. John? John! Who was John? How did I know this man? I did know him, and he knew me. We shook hands and all the memories flooded back.
Grensk said, ‘I am sorry if that was a little traumatic, but it could not be done any other way.’
There was much mumbling and chatting, handshakes and hugs going on between the people who had once lived together in the communal dome.
‘Within a decade,’ Grensk said, ‘the sun will have swallowed the Earth. We are planning to film it from Mars, before it, too suffers the same fate.
‘Your help allowed us to travel back to twenty-first century Earth and many things will soon change for you. The matter-transfer devices will replace your planes and ships and trucks.
‘Where we currently stand, some five billion years in the future, mankind has already spread out into the galaxy and now occupies many millions of planets, each of which can be visited by vortex. The human race is forever saved and ships containing vortices are also on their way to stars in Andromeda and galaxies beyond. As long as the universe exists, so will we.
‘Our future, your future, is forever secure.’
The leaders vanished in the mist of a vortex and Schletz, once again stood alone before the lectern.
‘We shall now return you to your homes and hope you will enjoy recounting your adventure to others. We are sure the world will be fascinated.’
Conversations sprang up in the dome between new but old friends. Hazel and I looked at the growing mass of the sun in the sky and gazed again at Andromeda. How privileged to have been able to witness this day.
Schletz returned to speak to us and handed Hazel a small box.
‘Gosh. Our souvenirs,’ she said.
‘Oh yes, our photographs of our Martian holiday and my pebble from the Martian desert. Thank you, Schletz.’
‘My pleasure, Henry.’
‘Want to go home?’ I asked Hazel.
‘Addy will wonder where we are,’ she said.
‘No,’ said Zmblist, ‘you will return to the instant you departed. You will only have been away as long as it took to walk to the chapel.’
‘In that case, Zmblist, I think we’ll go home, please.’
THE END
A Word from Tony
Thank you for reading THE DOOR. Reviews are very important for authors and I wonder if I could ask you to say a few words on the Amazon Review Page. Every review, even if it is only a few words with a star rating, helps the book move up the Amazon rankings.
Tony’s Books
Currently, I have written five science fiction stories. Federation is the first of a trilogy and Moonscape is the first in a series about astronaut Mark Noble.
THE DOOR: Henry Mackay and his dog regularly walk alongside an ancient convent wall. Today, as he passes the door, he glances at its peeling paint. Moments later he stops dead in his tracks. He returns to the spot, and all he sees is an ivy-covered wall. The door has vanished!
He unwittingly embarks on an exciting trail of events with twists, turns, quantum entanglement and temporal anomalies. It becomes an unbelievable adventure to save humanity which you’ll be unable to put down.
The Door is an intriguing and unique science fiction mystery from the pen of Tony Harmsworth, the First Contact specialist who writes in the style of the old masters.
Discover the astonishing secrets being concealed by The Door today!
The Door on Amazon.com
The Door on Amazon.co.uk
FEDERATION takes close encounters to a whole new level. A galactic empire of a quarter of a million worlds stumbles across the Earth. With elements of a political thriller, there is an intriguing storyline which addresses the environmental and social problems faced by the world today.
The aliens’ philosophy on life is totally unexpected. With the help of intelligent automatons, they've turned what many on Earth felt was a reviled political system into a utopia for the masses, but are they a force for good or evil, and will the wealthy make the compromises needed for a successful outcome?
A Daragnen university g
raduate, Yol Rummy Blin Breganin, discovers that Earth failed in its attempt to join the Federation, and, for some unknown reason, members are forever banned from visiting or contacting the planet. Rummy had never heard of a whole world being outlawed. Perhaps it would be sensible to leave well enough alone but no, he decides to investigate…
FEDERATION is the first in a trilogy of near-future, hard science-fiction novels by Tony Harmsworth, the First Contact specialist.
Submerge yourself in humankind’s cultural and economic dilemma. Buy FEDERATION today.
Federation on Amazon.co.uk
Federation on Amazon.com
MINDSLIP: The radiation from a nearby supernova causes every creature on Earth to swap minds! Men to women, children to adults, animals to humans, old to young, and vice versa. How would you handle changing sex or species? Mindslip combines frightening science fiction with psychological anguish.
The change in astrophysicist Geoff Arnold is challenging, and his wife and children have vanished. He joins the government’s catastrophe committee with the brief to find a solution to Mindslip before it completely destroys society and the economy.
Millions die! Billions survive danger, harassment and abuse, and manage to adapt to their change of species, race, sex, and age. Geoff discovers that the change his wife has experienced is life-threatening. Can he juggle his new life, help save the world and rescue his wife in time?
This stand-alone work is an excellent example of Tony Harmsworth’s imagination. Science fiction with elements of soft horror, all in the style of the old masters. A real page-turner.
Become part of the bizarre, yet realistic world of MINDSLIP. Buy it today!
Mindslip on Amazon.co.uk
Mindslip on Amazon.com
MOONSCAPE: We’ve known that the moon is dead since Apollo. But what if something lay dormant in the dust, waiting to be found?
In 2028, Mark Noble is conducting a survey of a moon crater. The entity secretly grabs a ride back to Moonbase on Mark’s buggy. Once in the habitat, it begins to infect the crew. They find themselves in a frightening, helter-skelter adventure with only two possible outcomes: losing or saving the Earth.
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