Before the Storm

by Sean McMullen

‘And if the Battle Commander rebels, the crew always follows?’ asked Emily.

  ‘No other BC has ever rebelled,’ replied BC, looking and sounding oddly crushed.

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘I led the rebellion, my crew followed. I was so proud of them; it was all that allowed me to bear the disgrace. We had won the antipodean boat race championships, and were hailed by King Charles himself as the fittest, strongest and most disciplined war academy crew in the Australian Commonwealth, and a model for all other cadets to follow. In just ninety seconds all that had changed. We knew the winning crew was to be honoured by being made part of the guard for the Flinders Chronologic Research Station for an afternoon, and we made a desperate plan to get back to this time, before the storm that was the Twentieth Century.’

  ‘Station?’ said Emily, trying very hard to understand. ‘So there was a time train there?’

  ‘A time weapon, not a train. We rebelled during the parade in our honour, shot our way into the laboratory, set bombs to destroy the time weapon, then … then the two of us who were still alive vanished into time before the bombs went off.’

  ‘You used a time weapon without having lessons first?’

  ‘Weapons are easy to use. Repairing the damage they do is the hard part, and we did a lot of damage. I betrayed my academy, my family, my class, my king and my empire. My name will be cursed forever. I am command class, and I have betrayed command class. I led my crew against no enemy; instead we destroyed the most important weapon in the British Empire.’

  ‘Well, I still think you are brave and noble!’ declared Emily.

  ‘Why?’ asked BC with a shrug. ‘I am a traitor, Emily. Fox and I are both traitors.’

  Emily had to stop to think about just why she still admired the dangerous killer who was sitting on her bed and wallowing in self-pity. At school one had to be part of a group, or one was a social outcast. The girls in Emily’s group wore three ruffles at the necks of their blouses and read Jane Austin. Emily did not like ruffles and preferred Jules Verne as an author, yet she went on pretending otherwise, rather than leaping into the abyss and losing her friends. BC had been far braver. She had leaped, she had broken out of her trap. Emily wondered whether she could do the same, or even do something to help Daniel.

  ‘Fighting your own people is a much braver thing than fighting an enemy,’ Emily said slowly. ‘Nobody is there to cheer you on, and nobody will weep when you fall.’

  ‘What is weep?’ asked BC.

  Something gave way within Emily, and she felt herself beginning to crumble from within. At her first sobs BC sat up immediately, wide-eyed and thoroughly alarmed. She can cope with everything except sadness, observed Emily.

  ‘Weep … is when you are very sad,’ Emily sniffled. ‘I’m very sad now. Very sad … because seven strong, noble, brave, handsome, well-mannered boys, the boys from your crew … are dead.’

  BC squirmed.

  ‘Four of them were girls,’ she announced softly, hunching over and staring at her tightly clasped hands.

  Now Emily’s tears came out in a very impressive flood.

  ‘What does one do about weep syndrome?’ asked BC, sounding concerned yet helpless, and making no attempt to touch Emily. ‘Is it like battle fatigue or post-combat stress?’

  ‘BC, just shut up, will you?’ shouted Emily. ‘Just … no, no, I’m sorry. You don’t understand, you can’t understand. Just leave me alone, this will pass.’

  ‘My people died bravely. They took sixty guards with them into the House of Death,’ said BC, trying to comfort her in the only way that she knew. ‘Actually it might have been sixty-one. I am sure JetS5 hit two with one shot before she died.’

  The scene from the projector machine flashed through Emily’s mind. She fought down the urge to be sick, and wondered how she could ever have thought that war was a glorious adventure.

  ‘Is that meant to make me feel better?’ she asked, her voice becoming steady again.

  ‘Did I say something ill-mannered?’ asked BC in turn.

  ‘No, no, you could never say anything ill-mannered. This is for me to understand. Please, help me to understand. Tell me about how you rebelled.’

  ‘There is little to tell. FoxS3 did forbidden studies when he was allowed into libraries to read of technical matters. He learned real history, dissident opinions, even songs sung in old courtly, the form that we are speaking now. He learned a song about rowing. It was from a time when rowing was a sport, not a way to bond the most deadly of our warrior squads. It was such a sweet little song, all about sunny days on the river, doing things together, and ties that bind friends forever. He was singing it one day when the provosts heard him. They put him on a charge, and he was flogged.’

  ‘Oh, no!’

  ‘The actual charge was speaking in courtly – that is forbidden to his class. The rest of the crew watched. He was cut down from the triangle; then, with the blood streaming from his back, he had to apologise to us for bringing disgrace upon the crew. For me, that was the end. I started to think about things. I started to get ideas.’

  ‘Dangerous people, girls with ideas. Father keeps telling me to avoid them.’

  ‘For me, nothing was ever the same again. We of the crew all knew each other, totally and completely. I knew that the crew believed in me, so if I thought something was worth fighting for, they would fight alongside me, and even die. I thought about FoxS3 being flogged, and then I thought about the academy, the Empire, the war, and even about saving the world. Out on the water, rowing, in the privacy of the boat, I had discussions with my crew. I told them that it was the provosts who ought to have been flogged, not FoxS3. FoxS3 said that destroying the world to save it from the Germans was immoral. StrokeS8 said that he would be willing to die as a traitor, in disgrace, to save the world. The rest agreed. Now seven of us are indeed dead. Only Fox and I are left, trying to change our yesterday.’

  Emily took a very deep breath. ‘No, not just Fox and you,’ she declared. ‘Daniel, myself and Barry make up a coxed four with the two of you. I know I am not much of a warrior, BC, but nobody will be more loyal or try to work more perfectly with the rest of your crew. Since I discovered that you are a girl too, I have realised that I need no boys to free me from my cage or solve my problems for me. You are the perfect boy, yet you are a girl. This may be the most important thing I ever learn.’

  ‘But I am not perfect.’

  ‘Yes you are,’ said Emily as she reached out to BC. ‘Now come here.’

  ‘I am a girl too, remember?’ gasped BC in alarm.

  ‘Girls are allowed to do this,’ she explained, putting her arms around BC. ‘It is called a hug, it makes sad people feel better.’

  ‘It is therapy for weeping syndrome?’ asked BC.

  ‘Yes, but close friends just do it anyway.’

  The day of parliament’s opening began as something of a blur for Emily. After the events of the previous night, she had managed to get no sleep at all, and was intent on surviving the day, rather than directing it. One thought was, however, foremost in her mind. BC was a girl. A century in the future, girls were allowed to be stylish, dashing, brave, and even heroic. Girls could lead. That sounded as unlikely as Barry the Bag being a battle commander, yet BC was the proof.

  During the night Emily had managed to deduce that she was so attracted to BC because she wanted to be like her, not because she desired her. Perhaps many girls courted dashing and heroic boys because they wished to be near the sort of person they secretly wished they could become. Obviously boys of the future would follow a girl into battle. What about boys of 1901? It was only now that Emily suddenly realised how she might extract considerably more dedication and loyalty from Daniel and Barry.

  While Mr and Mrs Lang were still asleep, Emily ejected her brother from his bed and told him to get dressed. She then marched him down to the railway station. As usual, Barry was at the ticket window.

  ‘Thought the gentry was goin’ to parlyment by carriage?’ b
egan Barry cheerily, as Daniel and Emily stood before him.

  ‘Come out onto the platform, Barry, we need to have a serious talk,’ snapped Emily.

  ‘Cor, wot’s I done now?’

  ‘Nothing. This is about what you will be doing.’

  Out on the platform, and away from inquisitive ears, Emily stood before the two boys with her hands on her hips.

  ‘Now then, this is the day that the future can be saved,’ she began. ‘All of us must do everything we can to help our battle commander, Miss Liore BC, to –’

  ‘That thing’s a girl?’ exclaimed Barry.

  ‘I will thank you not to refer to your battle commander and my best friend as a thing.’

  ‘We are still talking about BC, are we not?’ asked Daniel, whose face had suddenly lost all trace of colour, and whose voice was barely audible.

  ‘BC is sick and wounded, but she still has to fight the bombers. It is up to us to help her however we can.’

  ‘Bleedin’ ’ell. I’d never live it down if some daft baggage got shot instead of me!’ declared Barry. ‘I mean blokes are supposed to get shot first, Danny Boy told me.’

  ‘Are you sure she’s a girl?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘You have my word for it,’ replied Emily. ‘Barry, where will you be today?’

  ‘Helpin’ Foxy, an’ workin’ on me secret plan, like ya said. I’ve got Lurker the Worker to –’

  ‘Don’t tell me! A secret plan is meant to be secret.’

  ‘Can’t I come along and fight?’ pleaded Barry. ‘I feel like such a pansy, lettin’ some girl get shot at instead of me, like even though she’s stronger than I am, an’ killed more coves than I’ve eaten hot pies, and –’

  ‘What about me?’ pleaded Daniel. ‘I could stand in front of her or something if people started shooting.’

  ‘Hang on, why can’t I do nothin’ brave?’ demanded Barry.

  ‘Well, you can stand in front of Emmy,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Wot? Waste me life on … no offence Miss …’

  I have them, thought Emily. To save the world, the boys are willing to fight. To save BC, they are willing to die. To save BC, I suppose I am, too.

  BC accompanied the Lang family in their carriage as they made the journey to the Exhibition Buildings. She had removed some parts from her gun so that it was shorter, and looked more like a pistol. Concealed under her coat, nobody would have guessed that it was there. Fox had not come home at all, but via his telegraph device he had reported to BC that he was watching for the Germans somewhere in Carlton, and that no explosives had been planted in the Exhibition Buildings during the night. Emily actually dozed in the carriage, leaning against BC. By now the idea of physical contact with the warrior from the future no longer had the same allure. She was shaken awake as they were getting out of the carriage. Then the groom drove it away, leaving them to mingle with the crowds.

  ‘Now then, everyone, I have a special treat arranged,’ Mr Lang announced as they strolled together into the Exhibition Gardens. ‘Lieutenant, that even includes you.’

  ‘But Sir, I am to participate in the ceremony,’ replied BC at once.

  ‘Are you indeed? Well, I do wish I had known that in advance.’

  ‘I must be going now, but I shall meet with you again when the opening is over.’

  With that, BC vanished into the crowd.

  ‘Such a pity about that,’ said Mr Lang. ‘I have passes for all five of us to get into the actual ceremony.’

  Emily’s blood went cold, and she was instantly wide awake. By the expression on his face, she could tell that Daniel realised the danger as well.

  ‘There, there, dear, if Liore is part of the ceremony, he will be inside as well,’ said Mrs Lang. ‘Oh look, there are the Wilsons.’

  As the adult Langs stood exchanging pleasantries with their friends, Emily drew Daniel away for a hurried meeting.

  ‘Now what?’ demanded Daniel. ‘Do we all go inside and get ourselves killed?’

  ‘Fox found no explosives last night, and the Germans have not been near this place since then,’ said Emily. ‘Perhaps history has already been changed.’

  ‘I just have a bad feeling about this,’ insisted Daniel. ‘There are too many people telling me that everything is all right, and you are one of them.’

  ‘I am only telling you what I know.’

  ‘Well, even that much makes me worried.’

  ‘I think we should just do nothing for now.’

  ‘No! That way we are going to be in there when the bombs are meant to bring the roof down.’

  Other children were milling about, mostly of parents who had invitations to be inside for the actual opening of the first Australian Parliament. Daniel and Emily were not inclined to talk with them, but they did exchange greetings.

  ‘We should mix with the crowd,’ Emily whispered to her brother. ‘You never know, perhaps BC will need us.’

  ‘We need to ask BC what to do,’ suggested Daniel. ‘Come on, let’s find her.’

  Daniel told their parents that he was bored and wanted to look for his friends.

  ‘Very well, but Emily must go with you, to remind you when to come back,’ said Mr Lang. ‘If you are late, your mother and I shall go in without you.’

  They slipped into the crowd, trying not to look as if they were hurrying. After some minutes of searching they had not found BC, but they did encounter a lot more friends from their schools.

  ‘Oi, Dan Man, how go your prospects?’ called a gangly youth wearing a straw boater hat.

  Emily knew the speaker to be one of Daniel’s classmates, but not one that he was especially friendly with.

  ‘Good prospects for being bored, William,’ replied Daniel.

  ‘Ah, so you don’t have a pass to get inside?’

  ‘That’s just the trouble, I do have a pass. I’ll be there for everything.’

  ‘Then you will not be bored.’

  ‘I shall indeed. Hours of speeches, and people clapping only because they are relieved when the speakers finish.’

  ‘What about when the snow starts to fall?’

  ‘It’s May, and it’s Melbourne,’ laughed Daniel. ‘You have a better chance of passing algebra than Melbourne has of getting snow.’

  ‘Oh, but there will be snow, that’s why I have my hat.’

  ‘You have your hat because you’re daft, William. It’s too hot for snow.’

  ‘But what about paper snow?’

  ‘You’re still being daft. Snow is made out of ice crystals.’

  ‘Well, I think that a couple of dozen bags on the ceiling full of shredded paper will produce what looks like snow.’

  ‘How did you find out about this?’ asked Emily suddenly.

  ‘Dad’s company is staging it. Firecrackers will burst dozens of bags of paper scrap on the ceiling, causing a snowstorm inside. Dad’s workmen carried them up this morning. Nobody is meant to know, ’cause it’s meant to be a special surprise.’

  Emily took Daniel by the arm and dragged him out of earshot from the others.

  ‘They must be the bombs!’ she hissed.

  ‘But look, people are starting to go in,’ replied Daniel.

  ‘I was right, the future cannot be changed!’ whispered Emily in desperate frustration.

  ‘Daniel, Daniel!’ shouted a female voice.

  Emily knew the voice. Judging from Daniel’s reaction, he knew it too. Muriel Baker came rushing along the gravel path toward them, her hair brushed out and a blue beret on her head.

  ‘Daniel, the Germans are here!’ Muriel announced, taking Daniel’s hands in hers. ‘Last night I followed them – oh, hullo Emily – last night I followed them on my bicycle. Their beards and noses are false. I saw them peeling their disguises off in an alleyway, and –’

  ‘Daniel Lang, where and when did you meet this, this floozy?’ demanded Emily.

  ‘She’s not a floozy!’ snapped Daniel.

  ‘We’ve been holding hands for a week,’ added Mu
riel.

  ‘You’re courting her?’ Emily shrieked at Daniel.

  ‘I didn’t see you doing any spying, Emily Lang!’ retorted Muriel.

  ‘Daniel! How much did you tell her?’ demanded Emily, so outraged that their mission to save the future was forgotten.

  ‘Sorry. I have to put my own plan of last resort into action,’ cried Daniel, suddenly breaking away from them.

  Muriel tried to run after Daniel, but Emily seized her by the arm. Daniel ran for three policemen who were standing beside a small service door in the side of the building.

  ‘Muriel Baker, how dare you defile my brother’s good name?’ demanded Emily.

  ‘Let me go!’ cried Muriel, slapping Emily across the face. ‘Those three policemen are the Germans!’

  Emily gasped and whirled around, but it was too late.

  ‘Constables, you must get the people out of there!’ Daniel shouted as he ran. ‘The decorations that were put in the roof this morning, they’re bombs; they’re going to kill everyone!’

  To Emily’s astonishment, then horror, she saw the police surround Daniel, clamping a hand over his mouth and pinning his arms behind his back. All three of them looked furtive and fearful as they bundled Daniel through the small door beside them.

  ‘Nothing to worry about, ladies and gentlemen!’ called one of the police as he pulled the door shut behind them. ‘Just a schoolboy prank.’

  For some moments Emily and Muriel stood with their mouths open. Here was proof that the conspiracy was real; here was proof that bombs were in place. Here was also proof that at least the police, and possibly a lot more people, were involved. The idea that the police could not be trusted was all but unthinkable to Emily. She had been brought up to believe that you could always trust a policeman, so what could she do now?

  ‘Silly cow, I tried to warn you but you wouldn’t listen!’ shouted Muriel.

  ‘Daniel, they just took him away!’ gasped Emily. ‘Those police.’

  ‘They’re not police!’

  ‘But they had uniforms.’

  ‘Give me your measurements and some cloth, and I could turn you into a policeman!’ shouted Muriel, stamping her foot.