by Jason Ayres
“Because it’s warm and flat and horrible?” suggested an elderly gentleman sitting further along the bar reading a copy of the Racing Post and sipping from a pint of lager.
“You keep your opinions to yourself, Nobby,” retorted Lauren.
“Suit yourself,” replied Nobby. “I’ve got a cast-iron certainty in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham tomorrow. I was going to tell you, but you can forget it now.” Grumpily, he got off the stool and hobbled across to a table out of earshot where he could return to studying the form in peace.
“Blimey, I didn’t realise that was old Nobby,” said Josh. “He’s been coming in here, like, forever. He must be the only punter left in Britain who still buys the paper version of the Racing Post.”
“Most of his generation are gone now,” replied Lauren. “We occasionally get one or two in during the week when it’s quiet but they mostly come in the morning and drink tea or coffee.”
Josh looked around him to see that the pub was pretty quiet. Other than Nobby there were a couple of young guys playing pool at the far end of the room and a group of three women wearing Lycra in their thirties sat in one of the window bays and that was it.
“You’re right, it is a bit quiet in here. I thought you were doing a roaring trade.”
“She is,” remarked Hannah, eavesdropping from the table. “That’s why we picked a Tuesday to meet up. Peter’s getting on a bit now. He doesn’t like it when the music’s loud and there’s nowhere to sit down. He won’t come here at the weekend.”
The other laughed, to which Peter replied, “To be fair I am officially eighty-five years old, according to my birth certificate. Surely I’m allowed to take it steady at my time of life!”
There was more laughter, the others of course knowing that although Peter had indeed been born eighty-five years ago, his body was twenty years younger because of his lengthy stay in the Time Bubble.
Josh turned back to the bar to see Lauren already pouring their drinks – she didn’t need to be told what they wanted.
“I hear this place is all yours now,” remarked Josh.
“Yep, lock, stock and all the barrels,” replied Lauren.
“I like what you did there,” replied Josh. “How much do I owe you?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Tonight’s on me.”
“Great!” said Nobby from his table which clearly wasn’t out of earshot after all. “In that case I’ll have another pint of lager!”
“Nice try, sunshine,” replied Lauren.
“There’s nothing wrong with his hearing, is there?” remarked Josh.
“Have a heart,” said Nobby. “I had a bad day at Cheltenham today. The favourite was brought down in the Champion Hurdle.”
“Well, perhaps you shouldn’t bet so much,” replied Lauren.
Muttering, Nobby returned to his paper.
“How did you end up taking over this place?” asked Josh.
“Kent finally decided that as he was nearly eighty it was time to retire. He and Kay have sailed off into the sunset: Tenerife, to be precise. She’s got a holiday home over there. She’s made a lot of money these past few years from her travel documentaries.”
“Who would have thought it, eh?” asked Josh. “Remember when we used to come in here when we were teenagers? She used to get in a right state then, didn’t she?”
“She’s certainly turned her life around since then,” replied Lauren. “I didn’t realise it at the time but her and Kent go way back. Apparently, they were teenage sweethearts, but due to one thing and another it took over fifty years for them to finally get it together.”
“I guess everyone’s got a backstory, and one of the great things about time travel is that you can go back and find out what it is,” replied Josh.
“Mine would be pretty scandalous,” said Lauren, “verging on the pornographic, even.”
Josh cast a nervous glance in Alice’s direction to check she hadn’t overheard this. She had always been jealous about Josh and Lauren’s past.
“Yes, well, the less said about that, the better,” said Josh. “Anyway, there is one good thing about the pub being quiet tonight. You can come and join us for a few drinks.”
“I can do better than that,” she said. “If no one else comes in, I’ll close early. Those three at the window will be off to finish their run in a few minutes. They only sneak in here for a quick vodka – apparently, it’s part of the training. The two lads playing pool normally only stay for one or two, and it’s well past old Nobby’s bedtime. Once they’re all gone, we can have a proper party, just like in the good old days.”
Lauren had finished pouring the drinks now and put the last one, Alice’s G&T, onto a tray for him to take over.
“Like I said, on the house,” she said.
He carried the drinks over to the others, where Kaylee was excitedly telling them her latest news.
“So, as of next month, I am going to be the leading weather presenter on BBC News!” she exclaimed. “I’m so glad I didn’t take that job in Australia now.”
She was referring to a major project to control the weather she had been asked to join a few years previously. Ultimately, she had decided staying with Lauren and her other friends was more important, as well as being around to support her kids through university.
“That’s two famous female TV presenters who have been regulars in this pub now,” remarked Hannah. “You and Kay.”
“I’ve loved every minute of working at the Met Office, not to mention the bulletins on Radio 2 all these years,” replied Kaylee. “But presenting the weather on the BBC is a dream come true.”
“And she might be bumping into me while she’s there,” added Charlie. “You know that they’re revamping Doctor Who and bringing it back for a new series? Well, they’ve only gone and asked me to write a script for it. I knew writing all those time travel novels would pay off eventually.”
“It looks like we’ve got a lot to celebrate tonight!” said Josh. “I hope you’ve got plenty of champagne on ice, Lauren,” he added, turning back towards the bar.
“I’m one step ahead of you there,” replied Lauren, who was already making her way across from the bar with an ice bucket and a bottle of Moët & Chandon. This didn’t go unnoticed by Nobby, much to his disgust.
“I can’t get a free pint and you’re handing out free champagne!” he grumbled.
“Oh, have a pint, then, you grumpy old sod, but after that you can go home. And if that horse wins tomorrow you can buy me a double vodka with your winnings,” said Lauren.
“Cheers, Lauren,” said Nobby, apparently satisfied.
“I have to hand it to you, Charlie,” said Josh. “I read your latest book on the plane on the way back from Australia and it’s a cracker. I should ask you where you get your ideas from but, as usual, I already know. In fact, I ought to be asking for a cut of the royalties!”
“I loved all that stuff with the alternate universes,” added Peter, “very imaginative” and he gave Josh a knowing look.
Peter knew very well where Charlie had got his ideas from, and also knew that Alice didn’t know the full truth. As was often the case, what Josh hadn’t told his wife he had confided to his two best mates over a few pints. Perhaps this hadn’t been the right thing to do, but Josh felt that there were times in life when it was easier to share secrets with one’s close friends than with one’s spouse.
“I do get asked that question a lot at book signings and in interviews,” said Charlie. “But I just give vague answers about it all being down to my imagination. I wouldn’t want to attract unwanted attention from the wrong sort of people who might believe it was more than pure fiction.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” replied Peter. “After all, when H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine I doubt whether he had the government knocking at his door to check he hadn’t secretly built one himself.”
“Speaking of letting on, I know we all agreed we would never involve anyone else, but afte
r our recent visit to Australia, the time may have come for that to change,” said Josh.
“Seriously?” asked Hannah. “I thought we all agreed that we never would.”
Of the team, she had always been the most vociferous opponent of involving anyone else in their secret world. She knew from her dealings high up in the police force that there were certain agencies that they didn’t want to get even a sniff of what they had been doing.
“I know, but I’ve got a pretty good reason. I know you probably won’t agree, but since we’re all here, you may as well hear me out.”
Over the next half an hour or so and copious amounts of alcohol he excitedly explained in detail everything that had gone on in Canberra.
By the time he had finished, Charlie had almost drained his bottle of wine.
“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” he said. “When we’re old and about to pop our clogs, you can use a combination of your current technology and Henry and Vanessa’s mind transference techniques to send my mind back into my younger body so I can live my life all over again.”
“That’s it, in a nutshell,” replied Josh.
“But wouldn’t that mess up all the timelines?” asked Hannah. “If we all went back in time and lived life all over again, wouldn’t we do some things differently – or maybe not at all?”
“Good point,” said Lauren. “I wouldn’t have shagged that bloke who was running the dodgems at Witney Feast when I was eighteen, for a start. I got crabs off him.”
“Lauren!” exclaimed Hannah. “That’s way too much information.”
“Took weeks to get rid of, they did,” continued Lauren, regardless. “I had to use this stuff like head lice shampoo which stank ten times worse and it didn’t work the first time. I even stayed in the bath for an hour to try and drown them, but that didn’t work either. After that I shaved the whole lot off and I’ve kept it like that ever since.”
“Exactly what part of too much information didn’t you understand?” asked Hannah, while most of the others were creasing up laughing. The only one who wasn’t was Alice who had a disapproving look on her face.
“Leaving Lauren’s sordid exploits aside,” said Kaylee, “it does sound like there are a lot of implications.”
“Not necessarily,” said Peter. “You’re forgetting about the multiverse.”
“Exactly,” said Josh. “I’m sure I’ve explained all of this to you all before.”
“Countless times,” said Lauren. “But I forget how it all works because every time we get together to talk about this stuff I always seem to get horrendously drunk and have such a bad hangover the next day that I can’t remember anything.”
“You’re not the only one,” remarked Charlie. “I have to say this red wine is pretty decent by pub standards. It’s a shame there’s no cheese to go with it.”
“I’ve got Mini Cheddars,” said Lauren. “Are they any good?”
“It’s not quite what I had in mind, but they’ll do,” said Charlie. “And you’d better get me another bottle while you’re at it.”
Lauren headed back to the bar for the umpteenth time, as Josh continued his enthusiastic explanation.
“The existence of the multiverse means that when we go back in time, we create a new universe which is a direct copy of this one. What this means is that you’d be starting your life over again in a new universe without affecting anything you already did in this one.”
“How far back would you suggest going?” asked Kaylee. “Would you go all the way back to childhood?”
“You could go back to any time of your choosing,” said Josh. “And what’s more, you can do it repeatedly. In theory, you could live forever, barring accidents. Statistically you’d be bound to be hit by the proverbial bus eventually. But even that needn’t be the end if you back up your brain regularly.”
“And you’re saying anyone can do this?” asked Hannah. “This Vanessa’s a big businesswoman, isn’t she? Is she proposing offering this to the whole world? Because there are some huge implications I’ve thought of already, just while you’ve been talking. I would be very concerned about people using this for the wrong reasons.”
“Like what?” asked Kaylee.
“Where do I start?” asked Hannah. “OK, how about this? What if some man’s wife was murdered thirty years ago and he decides to use his newfound ability to go back in time to before it happened so he could unmask the culprit? But then, instead of involving the police, he decides to get revenge by killing the murderer in the other universe.”
“I’d say he got what he deserved,” said Lauren.
“It would be anarchy,” replied Hannah. “If everyone’s running amok there would be no consequences for anything anyone did.”
“But you’re talking about different universes – not ours,” said Josh.
“Not necessarily,” said Hannah. “What’s to stop people here deciding to settle a few old scores before they leave for their new life in the past? It’s hard enough tracking down criminals in our own time and place, let alone trying to chase them through the multiverse.”
“Isn’t there a multiverse version of Interpol for this sort of thing?” asked Charlie.
“You are joking, right?” said Hannah.
“Obviously,” he replied.
“I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought about your second point,” said Josh.
“That’s right, you hadn’t,” said Hannah. “Do you ever think these things through before you start doing them? From what Peter tells me you bit off a lot more than you could chew on your last jaunt back through time, and you’re meant to be the expert. Are you seriously telling me you think it’s a good idea to have all and sundry playing about in time?”
“What’s she talking about?” said Alice. “What happened on your last jaunt back through time?”
“Never mind about that now,” said Josh, hurriedly. If Alice knew the truth she might well ban him from travelling back in time ever again. The less people knew, the better.
“Perhaps you ought to ask your husband what went on during his trip through the multiverse last year,” said Hannah. “And don’t you think he’s aged a lot recently? How long did he tell you he was gone exactly?”
“Woah, cool it,” remarked Lauren. “This is meant to be a friendly reunion.”
“That’s right,” said Josh, grateful for Lauren’s intervention, but as he spoke a brief memory flashed into his mind about something that had gone on between the two of them in one of those other worlds. He quickly banished it from his thoughts. It had been a desperate time and he had resorted to desperate measures and he hadn’t told anyone about it, not even Peter and Josh.
“Josh, exactly how much have you told this Henry and Vanessa about what you’ve achieved in terms of time travel?” asked Charlie.
“They know I can travel in time, but not the mechanics of how it’s done.”
“And do you really think that it may be possible to merge their technology with yours?”
“They are both brilliant scientists and have achieved some amazing things. I don’t see any reason why, given enough time, we couldn’t run some tests.”
“What do you think about it, Alice?” asked Hannah.
“I feel we are duty-bound as scientists to at least explore it,” she said. “We’re talking about the chance to live forever, one of humanity’s holy grails. Who wouldn’t want to be offered that opportunity?”
“I’m not sure I would,” replied Hannah. “When our time’s up, our time’s up. We’d be messing with what makes us fundamentally human and driven to succeed. Knowing we only have one shot at life makes us fight to make the most of every precious moment that we have. With mortality removed, what motivation would we have? We’d just descend into a life of decadence.”
“A life of decadence sounds good to me,” said Lauren.
“In your case, it wouldn’t be much different to now, would it?” remarked Alice who had always disapproved of Lauren’s lifestyle.
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br /> “What about the rest of you?” asked Hannah.
“I’m tempted,” said Charlie and the others nodded in agreement. Each of them was already thinking about what they might do given the opportunity to go back into their own past.
“It seems I’m outnumbered,” said Hannah. “But I think you’re playing a very dangerous game.”
“We can sit here and discuss the moral and philosophical implications all night,” said Josh. “But it doesn’t alter the fundamental truth which is that if we don’t do it, someone else will figure it out eventually. I would far prefer it to be us.”
“I understand that,” replied Hannah, “but the whole concept doesn’t sit well with me.”
“I appreciate that and, believe it or not, it’s been duly noted,” replied Josh. “You’ve made some valid points and I agree this isn’t something to be rolled out to the general public, even if that is what Vanessa has in mind. But in the interests of science, I feel that we must at least explore this. I suggest we follow the same rules as before and keep it amongst ourselves.”
“Plus Henry and Vanessa, obviously,” added Alice.
“And can we trust them?” said Hannah. “Are they going to be happy to keep it quiet when you turn around and say this hasn’t got any commercial value.”
“It’s a valid question,” said Alice. “Vanessa’s built up a multimillion-dollar empire pretty much from scratch. She’s also been bankrolling a lot of Henry’s research. She’s in this for the money, of that I’ve no doubt. Whoever controls this technology will be very powerful indeed.”
“You had better find out exactly what her intentions are before you take this any further,” said Hannah. “Make it clear that whatever the final outcome of this is, it’s not for sale.”
“We’ll find out soon enough,” replied Josh. “They’re coming over next month for a three-month sabbatical. Vanessa’s made an extremely generous donation to the university and they’re welcoming her with open arms.”
“I suggest you lay down the rules to them right from the start. Make it clear this isn’t a commercial operation. And at the first sign of trouble, you pull the plug. Then perhaps I’ll countenance this, but I’m not happy about it,” said Hannah.
