Time reversed and Nigel sped back five years. The novelty of time travel had long since gone for him. It now seemed almost routine, but he was most used to just travelling back a few hours to bet on sporting or other events and then return.
He saw the power the machine gave him, but he also saw that it corrupted those who used it - it made them give up their life and encouraged them to play god with their alternative selves. He was basically rolling the dice another time, hoping this time it would come out all right.
Nigel arrived back in the old country cottage. His plan this time was to set up his Nigel Johnston identity five years in the past, set up share accounts and buy shares that would do well but not exceptionally well. Then he would jump forward five years and live off that income.
It took him five days in the past to set everything up - then he returned to the cottage and went forward five years to arrive in a new future reality.
The new reality appeared very similar to the last, but Nigel knew full well that they all looked the same - this time he would be more careful. He booked a room in an anonymous chain hotel in London and dyed his hair dark brown, bought a pair of sun glasses and a fake beard and then went in search of the other Nigel. He wanted to work out what had happened in this reality.
Suitably disguised, Nigel knocked on the door of his old house. A young pregnant woman in an ill-fitting dress answered the door.
“Yes?” she asked.
“Err… I am looking for Nigel Saunders?” stuttered Nigel.
“The Saunders don’t live here any more. I think Mr Saunders is dead,” replied the woman, in a matter-of-fact way.
“Dead? Do you know what happened to his wife and children?” asked a concerned Nigel.
The woman looked aside for a second and then decided to indulge in some gossip. She lowered her voice.
“I heard that she ended up in a mental asylum. The kids are in care, I presume. It’s a really sad story. They were all kidnapped and he died and then she had some kind of mental breakdown. Apparently she kept going on about people in the future coming back to kill her or something. Like that woman in the Terminator films.”
Nigel was horrified. He thanked the woman and went back to his hotel and wept. This reality was awful - he wondered if he could fix things. An idea came into his head. He could go back in time and try and save this reality from its horror.
He left his hotel room and went back to the cottage. He would go back days before Raymond arrived and stop him before he even bothered this reality’s Nigel.
This time the journey was much shorter and Nigel arrived two days before the date Raymond had kidnapped him. He hid the machine in the cellar and waited upstairs. Time went by and Nigel cursed the fact he had no idea when or how Raymond had first gone to the country cottage.
Suddenly Nigel heard the door swing open and Raymond appeared. Nigel raised his gun and pointed it at Raymond.
“I am here to make you leave me alone in this time,” stated Nigel.
“What? How is this possible?” stuttered Raymond.
“In my time-line you killed my family - never again.”
Nigel went to fire the gun but it jammed. Raymond, on seeing this, rushed outside. He jumped onto his time machine that was right beside the cottage. It was the original platform design one. Before Nigel could catch him, Raymond was activating it - Nigel read the display and it said he was going forward 10 years. Nigel rushed back inside and onto his own time machine and set it for 10 years forward.
As Nigel activated his machine, something unexpected happened. Lightning sparks started erupting from the machine in the general direction of Raymond’s machine. The two machines were reacting to one another.
Nigel tried to stop the machine but it was not responding. He looked outside and rather than seeing time going forward he just saw a great darkness, flowing around like great dark liquids in the sky. The only other thing he could see was Raymond’s machine. Raymond looked as terrified as Nigel was.
“What is going on?” cried Raymond.
“I don’t know - looks like the two machines are reacting to one another.”
“How can we stop it?” asked Raymond.
“I have no idea!” shouted Nigel.
Then he had an idea. He still had Raymond’s futuristic weapon. He pulled it out of his bag and aimed at Raymond’s time machine. He fired at the time unit behind the base of the machine, narrowly missing Raymond’s backside.
The dart from the gun vapourised the time unit and the darkness began to recede. Raymond and his time machine disappeared and Nigel’s machine began to shake uncontrollably and then emerged into a reality quite unlike anything Nigel had seen before.
He was no longer in a cottage but on a platform above an enormous tower overlooking a vast but beautiful city. It was a cityscape of impressively intricate buildings within a warren of rivers and green parkland.
Nigel came to a halt. He really had no idea where he was. Two tall robed men came out of a doorway on the side of the platform and greeted him.
“Welcome!” one of the two men said.
“Where am I?” asked Nigel.
“Don’t you know?!?” The man seemed surprised.
“No, sorry - I don’t know - my transport malfunctioned.”
“Your time machine you mean?”
“Yes,” Nigel was surprised they knew what it was. It suggested to him he was distantly in the future.
The two men talked quietly to one another. They seemed very excited.
“Did you have an incident with another time machine?” asked the man.
“Yes - everything went dark but I managed to disable the other machine and then I ended up here.”
The two men seemed ecstatic. “He’s the Founder! He’s the First one!” said one to the other.
“Come with us! Welcome to Previum. We will take you to the City Elders - I think you will find it interesting.” On saying this the man gave Nigel a circular device and slapped a similar one on to Nigel’s time machine. It stuck like a magnet to the machine’s side.
“Ready?” the man asked.
“Yes”, Nigel replied not quite sure what to expect.
With that the robed man pressed a button on his device and Nigel, the two men and the time machine materialised in a great hall. On a dais at the far end of the room were assembled seven hooded people seated on great ornately crafted thrones.
One of the two men knelt down and addressed the throned people. “Lords, we believe this man is the First One. He described the creation event!”
The throned men seemed ecstatic. One man in the middle got up and lowered his hood. He addressed Nigel.
“Sir, we are honoured. You probably don’t understand why yet. Your accident made this place possible.”
“What?” asked Nigel, genuinely confused.
“The accident you had created a rupture in this part of reality.”
“And that is a good thing, how?”
“It wasn’t a permanent rupture - only for a million years or so. But it meant that we could build this place in the empty existence it left.”
“Well, glad to help, but why did you need to build a new reality?”
“In our time, human kind is enslaved to an alien race called the Bilozians. For some reason they cannot travel in time or realities like humans can. The last free humans built a great machine to transport their last outpost and sun to this reality. That was one hundred years ago.”
“Wow, I never dreamt I would save mankind.” Nigel seemed genuinely proud. “But do you know if it is safe for me to travel back in time from here?” asked Nigel.
“Sadly, sir, that would destroy you and your machine. There is no easy way for you to return to your own time. But do not fear we will treat you well!”
Chapter 10
In Nigel’s opinion, Previum was a fantastic place. Admittedly this was the only futuristic city he had ever been to, so he didn’t have much to compare it against.
He d
idn’t feel at home here though, despite the reverence that the people here gave him. It was just so boring because everyone led very moral and fulfilled lives. As far as Nigel could tell, there was no vice, no equivalent of the trashy TV of his own time. He was sad to say that he missed it.
Nigel felt too unworthy for Previum - the people were just too pious for his liking. He discovered in conversations with the citizens of Previum that they were all refugees - they were fleeing from the chaos, oppression and anarchy of the real world outside this haven in time.
He asked them if there was a way to leave Previum, but few would give him a straight answer - they were all so surprised that he even wanted to. Nigel was desperate to get back to his own time. He had tried to use his time machine but it just rebounded back off the rupture in time he had created.
One day while walking down the side of the beautiful main canal in the centre of Previum he saw what appeared to be a shudder in the air in front of him and then suddenly a young man appeared wearing tatty clothes and holding a long blue rod with buttons on it. He turned and looked at Nigel.
“You’re not from here, are you?” asked the man.
“No - I kind of crashed here,” replied Nigel.
“I could tell - it’s nice here but it is so boring.”
“Yes, I know - how did you get here?”
The man held up the blue rod. “I used this.”
“What is that?”
“Are you serious? You’ve never seen a dimension cutter before?” The man seemed genuinely amused by Nigel’s ignorance.
“I’m from way in the past - we didn’t have much back then.”
“Oh - so you were the guy who made this place possible?”
“So I am told. Over and over again.”
“Well, my name is Zac - do you want to get back to reality? It’s rough out there, but I prefer it to here. I’m a Zeta Radical - we believe in trying to fix the present rather than hiding here.”
“My name is Nigel. I will take you up on that offer, as long as I can bring my time machine with me - I presume I can use it to get back to the past once we get back to the real world?” asked an excited Nigel.
Zac looked a bit apologetic. “Sadly the Bilozians have raised a massive force field to stop people going back in time. I think it is possible to get around it but there is only one place I know where there isn’t a force field and you wouldn’t want to go there.”
“Well, I need to get back. Where is this place?”
“The Bilozians send power around the universe using energy beams. At the hub of that network is their trapped super-nova energy source. The energy it produces is so intense it disrupts the time force field.”
“And I guess it is so hot it would destroy anyone trying to time travel there anyway?” said a disappointed Nigel.
“Actually no - they have harnessed it in an energy field so the heat is contained. However they have also built a massive fortress around it. It is said the emperor of the Bilozians resides there. You really, really, don’t want to go there.”
Zac knew that Nigel definitely wanted to go there. “You still want to go there, don’t you?”
“Yes - I can’t live in this time - I don’t belong here,” said Nigel.
“Well - if you must go - then at least make sure you have a plan. As things stand you wouldn’t last five minutes there.”
“Can you help me?” Nigel tried his best to look pathetic and in need of help.
“Well OK - I’m always up for a mission with no chance of success. They are always the most fun,” mused Zac.
Zac and Nigel spent the next few days in Previum, getting supplies for their mission to the Bilozian power hub. Nigel showed Zac the weapon he had taken off Raymond but Zac laughed - to him it seemed like a toy gun.
Zac handed Nigel a tiny metallic disk and told Nigel to attach it to the palm of his hand. It stuck like a piece of plasticine and Nigel wondered what it did.
Zac told Nigel to hold up his hand and just think about shooting a nearby tree. Nigel did this and an energy beam blasted from him, obliterating the tree. The locals of Previum nearby were not amused by this. Nigel apologised but Zac just laughed.
Another boon for Nigel was a diamond-shaped device that Zac gave Nigel. Its function was fantastically simple and massively useful. It could compress an object inside its small size and then re-materialise it at will. No more heavy time machine to lug around!
Finally Zac, with no little resistance, got Nigel to allow him to insert a device in his brain to allow the automatic translation of thousands of languages. Apparently almost everyone in Previum had one, as did Zac, so they could talk to Nigel and Nigel to them. However in the real world most people didn’t have the implant so unless Nigel got the same implant only Zac would understand him.
After a few more days, Nigel and Zac were ready to leave. They both morphed out of Previum using the dimension cutter and into a new reality in the future.
Chapter 11
Zac and Nigel re-materialised in a wasteland full of screaming people. The people were running away from what appeared to be spacecraft strafing them. Zac shouted for Nigel to get down and they both dived to the ground.
Nigel was in a panic. “What is going on?”
“It’s a Bilozian raid. They do this every week or so - to keep the population down.” Zac pointed at one of the ships. “This is exactly what we need,” he said.
“What?!?” exclaimed Nigel.
Zac pulled out a strange looking cone-shaped device. “You remember how to use your palm blaster?” asked Zac.
“Yes”
“Good.” With that Zac hit a button on the cone-shaped device and he and Nigel teleported inside one of the Bilozian spacecraft. There wasn’t much space left between Nigel, Zac and two Bilozians. Nigel was surprised how attractive they looked - they had multi-coloured skins with cat-like eyes, no noses and permanently smiling mouths. Zac blasted one of them with his palm blaster, blasting it out of existence.
Nigel was just in awe of the beauty of the Bilozian - it just looked so cute. He could hear Zac shouting at him but he was transfixed. He saw the Bilozian raise its hand.
Seeing the danger, Zac barely managed to vaporise it before it fried Nigel.
“What were you doing?!? You almost got yourself killed!” shouted Zac.
“I’m sorry - I’ve never seen a Bilozian before. They are really cute. Next time I won’t hesitate.”
“It’s funny you say that,” mused Zac.
“Why?” asked Nigel.
“The first humans to meet the Bilozians were so taken with them because they were so beautiful. We went to war with the Mindoans because they looked hideous even though they are actually very nice when you get to know them.”
“OK. I’m sorry. Where are we anyway?”
“Just outside Proxima Five. It’s the nearest human world to the hub. With this ship we can get a lot closer to the hub than we would otherwise.”
When Zac said “much closer”, Nigel discovered he was speaking in relative terms. It took almost three months to reach the hub. Zac said that it would have taken five years from Earth.
In the months it took to reach the hub, Zac explained the history of mankind and the Bilozians. For the first hundred or so years relations were very good. Bilozians were famed for being very empathic and peace-loving. Then in a matter of a few years they went from being peaceful to wildly aggressive and uncaring.
Mankind was caught completely off-guard. All but a few outposts were taken. Earth fell and all hope seemed lost. Those who survived were forced to flee all over the universe looking for havens until they discovered the time rift Nigel had created and built Previum. For some reason the Bilozians couldn’t or wouldn’t go there.
Something that occurred to Nigel on the way to the hub worried him deeply. If he was five years’ flight away from earth, even if he did get back in time, he would most probably be stuck in space and die instantly. He talked this through with Zac who saw
the problem but also proposed a solution.
Zac modified Nigel’s time machine to add a teleportation feature. It would automatically teleport him to the nearest habitable world when it had travelled back in time. It still meant Nigel needed some other way to get home - but at least he wouldn’t die in space.
While Nigel was extremely impressed by the level of technology, he was still shocked by the fact that there were no proper toilets in the Bilozian spacecraft. Those functions involved shunting a bag of waste into space. Zac seemed not particularly bothered by this, but Nigel was. Interestingly, Nigel found toilet paper had been replaced by nanobots - tiny microscopic robots - that did the same thing, ensuring that the expected hygiene problems of not having a toilet never became an issue.
Similarly, there were nanobots for shaving body hair that Nigel found extremely convenient. No more shaving, just tell the nanobots to keep it under control and they would.
Timeshock - I Want My Life Back Page 4
