Immortal Suicide: A Fight Across Time And Space

by Simon Bown

  She got to her feet and peered into the rift. In the darkness of that night, she could only make out that the streetlights appeared to be not working. The cool air drifted into the basement chilling Lucy, she took a deep breath and the fresh clean air filled her with delight. Cautiously she passed her hand through the event horizon, nothing, she felt nothing, except for the fact the air was cooler than the room. Fortified by this she leant forward and passed her head through the rift. As it crossed the boundary a dizziness swept her mind and, for an instant, a myriad of sensory input overwhelmed her. Sights, sounds, smells, even emotions flashed through her consciousness. She saw London during the great fire, she then soared over the pyramids as if flying alone in the air. She could see, hear and smell a market place in ancient China hundreds of years out of time. She found himself standing in a white circular room behind a woman breastfeeding, as the woman turned to look at her the shock propelled her at that instant to an alien world where men in space suits work to construct some piece of equipment. Lucy quickly withdrew her head and fell backwards to the floor. She put his hands over her eyes and lay still waiting for the subtle effects of the time shock to dissipate. This most unexpected side effect caused Lucy to laugh. She had not considered time travel to be possible in any direction but to the past and yet she had just witnessed future times and possibly distant worlds.

  It was now time to step through the rift and experience her dream. Lucy got to her feet, clenched her fists and jumped through. She stood for a moment on the wet pavement and let her mind process the countless sensory events. The air smelled fresh and clean, she slowly examined the area around her. To her left she could make out a blank brick wall, ahead on the street corner, an unlit lamppost and to her right an iron fence marked the edge of a park. She took a few steps to the pavement and turned to look through the rift. The basement was plainly visible as it was better lit than its surroundings. A border of blue light clearly defined the edge of the rift. She checked her watch and decided on a brief ten-minute exploration. Taking those first few footsteps away from the rift gave Lucy a thrill as she had never experienced before and she looked about in wonder. The one thing that troubled her was the lack of street lighting. There had been no problems the night before with the electricity supply that she could remember and yet not one of the streetlights was operating. Her view was quite limited and she moved forward with great caution. A stranger coming upon the rift would be undesirable particularly if she wasn’t there. She felt somewhat exposed as her footsteps echoed off the walls around her. After taking the left turn into the high street she was able to make out more of her surroundings due to the bright moonlight. An uncertain peculiarity about the area made her uneasy, the near-darkness prevented her from getting a good look in any of the shops. She stepped up to the closest and was surprised to see a cross of white tape on every pane of glass. A display of nineteen forties dresses filled the window. Lucy’s first thought was that she must be in the wrong part of town because there were no costume shops in the high street, then it dawned on her, it wasn’t the wrong part of town it was the wrong part of time! Her doubts over the calculations had been correct and she had travelled years instead of hours. Truly excited she bit her curled forefinger to stop herself crying out. This had been an experiment of unexpected success. Exercising more caution than she previously thought necessary she made her way down the high street studying every shop window. The next was a bookshop and after that another woman’s clothing shop. The style was so different from her own underling a problem she had not considered, how to go unnoticed in the streets of the past. She couldn’t just walk in and buy the clothes, as she didn’t have the currency, all the coins and notes of this era are no longer in use. Some elements of time travel were only now making themselves prominent in their importance.

  Lucy was suddenly wrenched from her contemplation by the sound of approaching footsteps. Realising she would appear out of place in her clothes she decided that she should make herself scarce. Meeting someone from this time frame was not something she had planned for and an encounter as such was not something she would like to improvise. She crossed the street and entered a recessed shop doorway, the shadows concealing her presence. The footsteps followed her across the street and Lucy now slightly worried, crouched in the darkness. The footsteps stopped at the doorway. Lucy held her breath and looked up at the large shadowy figure.

  “Alright, I heard you, come out and show yourself.”

  The voice was full of authority. Lucy began to sweat, this man sounded like a policeman. If she was caught and questioned she could be in a lot of trouble and it would not be easy to explain away her clothes or what she was doing here. There was nothing else she could do. She would have to run.

  “This is a Home Guard patrol I know you’re in there. Come out, or I’ll come and get you”.

  Leaping to her feet Lucy ran forward and tried to push past the man. She nearly succeeded but the man got a grip on Lucy’s sleeve and she was pulled back with a sudden jerk. Lucy struck the man in his face with her free hand while struggling to release the other. The blow was ineffectual and her sleeve remained in the grip of her would be captor. Lucy brought her fist down again but it was also seized. Feeling trapped and in great danger Lucy surprised herself and with all her strength brought her forehead down into the man’s face. The shocking sound of a breaking nose seemed to ring on in her head as she freed herself from the weakened grip and fled. She ran as fast as she could to the end of the street and as she stopped to get her bearings, the shrill sound of a police whistle broke the silence. Running footsteps of at least two men resounded from the direction of the rift. Only one route was available to her. She turned the corner and crossed the road into an alley between two houses. She stopped in the darkness and listened for a clue as to her pursuers’ location. More footsteps passed the top of the alley and she made her way around to the back of the houses and jumped over a fence into a back garden. Waiting for the search to move off was not a great option, what if they stumbled over the rift? She had to move quickly. As her breathing settled down to a normal pace she decided it would be all right to move and she climbed back over the fence into the alley. The sound of the creaking wood heightened her awareness of the noises she was making and she moved with greater caution. At that moment an awful wailing noise started just a few streets away. For a second Lucy was confused but then he recognized it, it was the air raid siren. The back doors of the houses around her opened as the occupants made their way to their garden shelters. Lucy found the top of the alley and looked out to gauge the route back to the rift. A distant, dreadful bass tone highlighted the danger Lucy found herself in. She left the relative safety of the alleyway and ran in the direction of the rift. The German bombers grew near the fearful sound of their engines resonating from every direction. A Home Guard private appeared from the high street and ran to intercept her. Lucy turned to face him, ready for a fight with adrenalin surging through her veins. The bombers poured out their payload and the distant explosions lit up the sky over the high street catching the private in menacing silhouettes. Lucy elected to take the initiative and changed direction for the private. The two of them collided at full sprint and each suffered a glancing blow to the head. Bringing her fist up with all her strength Lucy punched the private in the solar plexus. The blow forcing the air out of the private’s lungs, he collapsed to his knees. Lucy grabbed the back of the private’s head and pulled his face onto her knee. Before the private had dropped to the ground Lucy bounded over him and come face to face with the sergeant.

  “Got you, you bastard. Don‘t move.”

  The words were spoken with absolute confidence as though Lucy was already behind bars. The sergeant was very used to people doing what he told them, he was therefore surprised to see Lucy turn and run. He put his whistle in his mouth and ran. The shrill noise fought with the sound of the exploding bombs. An explosion at the other end of the high street threw shrapnel high into the air and Lucy felt a
vague heat as the blast dissipated. As she crossed the high street another private appeared from the smoke of the blast, Lucy braced herself and dropped to one knee, with the other leg out stretched she tripped the private over onto his face. The sergeant was on Lucy before she had a chance to recover her footing and he hit her with a tremendous force. The blow caught Lucy squarely on the nose sending a blinding pain across her face and deep into her sinuses. She fell onto her backside, momentarily dazed and felt a hand on her shoulder pushing her over onto her front. Lucy went with the momentum and rolled a few more feet confusing the sergeant’s grip. Another bomb detonated but this time much closer and the cloud of smoke and dust shrouded them. Lucy struggled to get to her feet as glass and wood fell all around her. She made her way toward the rift, coughing as she went. She quickly recovered her breath and broke into a run. The sergeant gave chase and was soon keeping pace with her. Lucy looked over her shoulder to see how close the sergeant was, tripped on a lose paving stone and tumbled across the pavement onto the road. Unable to stop in time the sergeant jumped to avoid falling over Lucy. Seeing the opportunity Lucy kicked out and caught the sergeant’s legs sending him head over heels. They both scrambled to their feet and with one last jump Lucy made it through the rift into the basement, she turned to see a bewildered sergeant looking through the rift as she cut the power.

  Lucy slumped into the chair by the table, her heart was pounding with her breathing keeping pace. She put her forehead on the table and closed her eyes. She was a scientist not a wrestler, it seems time travel in its most basic form is more dangerous than she thought. Only her quick thinking in the violent situations had saved her, although she had surprised herself. Lifting her head, she opened her eyes and became aware of the blood leaking from her nose. She pulled some tissues from a box on the table and wondered how she was going to explain this injury at work tomorrow.

  With the system shut down Lucy took her time putting the radioactive fuel back into its box. The headache and shooting pains making this easy act an endurance test. As she sat down he noticed wet footprints on the floor by the reactor, she walked over and placed her foot on one of the footprints. Lucy found it too small to be hers. Someone from the past had been in the basement while she was away! She quickly looked around the room but found nothing obvious missing. The footprints went as far as the stairs and then returned to the rift. At least she could be sure the intruder had not gone out of the basement. Before her next trip in time she would have to come up with some way of protecting the rift.

  BARTON HARTSHORN

  (800 Years Earlier)

  Barton Hartshorn looked down on the stadium from the space plane and pulled a short, sharp breath through his teeth. As president of Tceles it was his honour to open the Teg commonwealth games. He had addressed large numbers of people before but never in person and not a capacity crowd of one hundred and twenty thousand. He focussed his attention on the interior of the space plane. “Preston, do you have the update on the Asieynos ship movements?” He asked.

  Preston Wynne, the presidential military intelligence advisor opened his small handheld terminal and checked for the update. “I will check now. Six more of their ships have crossed the boundary into the Tceles area. The navy has assigned the last of our ships from deep space to take up patrol duty in the Tceles system.”

  Barton was angry he had to open the games when he should be back at the Central Military Station. “I want to leave here and return to CMS as soon as possible.” He told his assistant. “And tell Holme Lacy to meet me there.”

  The security force field opened for just enough time for the presidential space plane and its escort to drop to the sheltered landing bay behind the stadium. Barton waited for the protection team to take up their places before he and Preston stepped out of the craft. He shook hands with the waiting guests and dignitaries and followed his assistant through into the assigned office.

  “We are right on time sir. You will be out on the podium in five minutes.” His assistant said.

  “Thank you, would you leave me alone with Preston please?” Barton sat on the large sofa and motioned Preston to take a seat.

  Preston pulled a chair from the wall and sat opposite Barton.

  “Okay Preston. I want you to be totally honest. What are the analysts saying that they don’t want me to hear?” Barton asked.

  Preston opened his terminal and brought up his notes. “Well sir there are a lot of opinions and most contradict each other so I don’t want you to think there is a consensus.”

  “Okay” Barton sat forward. “I’m listening.”

  “The Asieynos claim that they have no interest in the Tceles system and their continued military build-up is not an attempt at provocation. There are analysts that believe the Asieynos and do not support our movement of ships to patrol the area. They say it is an unnecessary escalation.” Preston paused and collected a glass of water. “The other set of opinions broadly support your strong posture but some say you have not gone far enough and should destroy any ship that crosses the boundary into our space.”

  “I will not start hostilities. If we fire first the Amalgam assembly would see us as the aggressors and condemn any action we took to defend ourselves. We must not lose the support of the assembly.” Barton was angry and frustrated. He could not allow the aggressive acts of the Asieynos but at the same time he did not want to go to war. The Asieynos claims were unfounded. Barton felt he was being pushed into a corner and violence was inevitable.

  Barton’s assistant entered the room. “Time to go now sir.” He said.

  “Thank you.” Barton replied. “Preston, we’ll continue this on the way to CMS.”

  “Yes sir.” Preston replied.

  Barton followed his assistant out of the office and to the left toward the stadium entrance. Six security personnel trailed Barton through to the end of the playing field access tunnel. He remained several feet inside and looked out across the track to the large wooden podium from where he would address the spectators.

  After waiting just one minute the music stopped and Barton was introduced to the stadium. He walked out of the tunnel and followed the carpet to the podium. Applause and jeering greeted him in equal measure. The six security men remained fixed to Barton’s side closely followed by Preston and Barton’s assistant. The security men fanned out into a semi-circle as Barton stepped up to the podium. Preston sat on a seat to one side.

  Barton addressed the stadium with the appearance of supreme confidence born out of years of public speaking. “It is one of the greatest honours of my presidency to be able to come here today and open the forty seventh Teg commonwealth games.” He felt a telepath try to establish a link without his participation, but his exceptional psychic skills made forced, unwelcome telepathic contact impossible. The background energy within the telepath’s psychic talent was completely alien to him. Something was wrong. “I have always taken a very keen interest in tough athletic competition, as a child it was one of my ambitions to win the marathon and collect a gold medal in this actual stadium. But alas I am to be the president and merely open the games.”

  The telepath continued to try and initiate a link. Barton opened his mind to the telepath to find out who this was, confident he could close the link quickly if needed. A powerful dizziness took hold of his mind and with a sudden shocking force he was knocked into a leaden state. Barton found himself in complete isolation. Sound and light were banished from his surroundings. He was trapped in an agonizing psychic confinement unable to grasp any information from any of his senses.

  High above the plane of the Teg system at ninety degrees galactic north a point in space lost cohesion and collapsed. The surrounding area contorted, stretched and fought for its natural form. Shapes and shadows danced across the chaotic, indistinct rupture as the core consciousness of the universe struggled to assert normality. A ferocious storm grew with a brutal velocity as the two battling cosmic forces resisted each other. And at once the melee ceased. The calm
mediocrity of existence had been allowed to reassert itself. Where there had been emptiness six alien star-ships held a perfect formation. Each ship a black stretched sphere, flawlessly smooth with not a hatch or seam visible. In complete darkness at the centre of the ship the alien crew traversed the threshold of a time space rift from their own base spatial dimension and took up positions in the control section.

  An artificial intelligence located at the core of the ship communicated with the crew via telepathy. Almost an organism in itself the ship could react to any given circumstance at the speed of thought. The ships crosschecked synchronisation and in perfect unison accelerated on a course for the Teg world.

  Barton fought to bring some semblance of normality to his surroundings. Waves of peculiar sensation washed over him confounding his attempts to make sense of what was happening. His conscious mind had been isolated against his will. For the first time in his life Barton was truly terrified, his extrasensory talent was at the very core of his nature and it had been violently removed. Anger now partnered his fear as the more he struggled the more he realised his isolation was beyond his control. An alien presence appeared at the edge of his perception. Barton reached out and tried to grasp his only prospect of escape. It moved beyond his grasp and spiralled out of his perception. Barton paused and brought his panic under control. Again he became aware of the interloper’s vivid character circling in the darkness, somehow teasing but without malicious intent. The rich tranquil essence came to the fore and Barton knew straight away it was his captor. The powerful alien presence entered his mind, he struggled to find a tangible defence and with great effort raised a wall around his centre of awareness. A communication of extraordinary clarity entered his mind, a perfect understanding of intent leaving no room for confusion.