‘So Death-Wish Daniel dares to call me twisted?’
Daniel thought about this, and decided that she had a very good point. ‘I am . . . flattered,’ he managed.
‘Muriel is a fool for preferring Fox over you. You may not believe me, but it is true.’
They turned and walked back, both with their hands clasped behind them and their heads bowed. Other passengers smiled and nodded to each other, thinking that they were courting, but were a little too shy to hold hands.
‘Returning to the fate of the world,’ said Liore, ‘I estimate that the Ajax will reach Port Said this evening. The Andromeda is due to dock there tomorrow morning.’
‘Barry will have to really use his wits to stay alive with both you and the Lionhearts after him.’
‘Barry is proving to be fantastically resilient, considering how far he has come, alone, without getting caught or killed. Like you, he is just a schoolboy, yet he has managed to flee halfway around the world with only quick wits and petty theft to rely upon. I achieved a first-class distinction in Hunter-Killer 507 at the Imperial War Academy, yet he has managed to stay one step ahead of me. That takes talent.’
‘Are you going to kill him?’
‘Were the fate of the world depending on his death, would you kill him?’
‘I . . . I would have to be very sure,’ said Daniel unhappily.
‘Do you want me to spare him?’
‘I . . . well . . . yes. We’re mates.’
‘What is mates? I hear the word a lot, but nobody defines it.’
‘That’s when boys are sort of best friends. You do things together, you are totally loyal to each other, and sometimes you even die for your mates.’
‘Ah, I see. In my time, there are no more mates. The empire always comes first.’
They stood at the rail for a while, in silence. Daniel could see the distant shoreline of the Arabian Peninsula, which was a low line of lighter colour amid the horizon’s shimmers. The Red Sea was definitely narrowing.
‘Daniel, I am still trying to understand why Fox ran off with Muriel. He deserted our mission for her.’
‘I noticed.’
‘And she left you, yet you still love her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘This is very confusing. All my life I have had the empire to live and die for. My CO gave the orders, and my squad followed me. Now I need advice and orders, but there is no CO. I have mutinied, and set myself the objective of stopping a war in the future. I shall probably do that, and I may survive.’
‘But that’s good.’
‘Not so. I do not fit into your time, or into peace.’
‘People don’t always need an objective. Why not just live a normal life?’
‘Because I am not normal, Daniel.’
‘Of course you are.’
‘I am genetically modified.’
‘Oh. Did it hurt?’
‘I am a monster. I have shot cadets for even kissing during missions, yet last night you and Muriel saved yourselves by a show of – of recreational reproductive activities. The worst possible operational crime actually saved the mission. Worse, I do believe I felt jealous for the first time. Why should Madeline feel your touch but not me? I let myself be wounded, and you know the rest. It was worth it. I cannot say why, and I do not like that. I want control, but all I get is uncertainty.’
‘This is very hard to cope with,’ said Daniel, who was by now feeling quite drained, and desperately in need of a coffee.
‘You have no answers, so there is no more to discuss. Thank you for listening.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘What about Barry? He is dangerous and resourceful. In my century he would have got a higher distinction than me in Hunter-Killer 507.’
‘Leave Barry to Madeline and me. He is also more stupid and predictable than you could believe.’
‘Then you had better do whatever you are going to do to Barry in Port Said. The disruptor that I am building in our cabin is nearly complete. If the worst happens and we cannot get the weapon back, the disruptor can destroy it from a distance.’
‘But that’s wonderful!’ exclaimed Daniel. ‘Why didn’t you do this earlier?’
‘Because a very, very large amount of energy will be released.’
‘Oh. So Barry might find himself standing in front of a chap with wings and wearing a white nightshirt?’
‘In his case it might be someone with horns and a pitchfork, but yes.’
‘What happens if we fail? The Millennium will reach Port Said before the Andromeda. If the Lionhearts catch Barry there, they shall have the weapon.’
‘Then there will be one last chance to stop them. That will be in September, at Wilhelmshaven.’
The Andromeda entered the Suez Canal at sunset, so that most of Daniel’s view of this engineering marvel were the parts of the banks and the desert beyond that were illuminated by the lights of the ship. After dinner Daniel went to the forward deck, and stared out into the darkness in the hope of seeing something exotic like a camel. He was accosted by a girl named Elizabeth. She was about Muriel’s height, and was dressed in a serge skirt and striped tennis shirt with puffed sleeves. She was so concerned about her complexion that she carried a frilly parasol everywhere, even at night. By now she had given up on courting Daniel, and was just looking for someone to complain to.
‘Before we sailed everyone was telling me that I would see the world and have lots of adventures,’ said Elizabeth peevishly as they waved to some soldiers on the bank. ‘Instead, it has been boring, like living in a huge hotel, surrounded by water.’
‘True,’ replied Daniel. ‘I have been surprised by how little one actually sees from a ship on a voyage halfway around the world.’
‘So you are going to England to become a lawyer?’
‘That is the plan. And what about yourself ?’
‘I am to go to lots of dinners, parties and balls, become sophisticated, and marry someone with a title.’
‘The voyage must have been good practice for that.’
‘The voyage has been hopeless. You are the only eligible boy in first class, and you have been, ah, secured by those girls you rescued in Colombo.’
‘Not a bit of it,’ said Daniel. ‘We are indeed friends, but my heart was already lost to a girl named Muriel who jilted me for another.’ Daniel decided to make it clear that his heart was still lost. ‘She was quite wonderful at kissing, her lips were like warm roses.’
‘Ah, now that explains so much about you. Who was your rival in love?’
‘A soldier.’
‘Only a soldier? You’re handsome, your family is rich, your manners are perfect, you’re a wonderful musician, yet she left you for a soldier?’
‘I’m actually very shy, and he was more skilled at courtship than me,’ said Daniel, hoping that this would explain everything. ‘That counts for more than anything else.’
‘It does indeed. My father has a tannery and is quite rich, but that will not help me charm some earl’s son away from some ugly baggage who has a title as well as money. I need to excel at the arts of courtship.’
‘We do seem to have some problems in common.’
‘We do indeed,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Actually, would you be so kind as to escort me back to my cabin, Daniel? The air is getting rather chill.’
‘Of course, but what about your mother?’
‘Mother likes chill air. Come along.’
The moment that the cabin door closed behind them, Elizabeth flung her arms around Daniel and jammed her lips against his. In spite of his continued yearnings for Muriel, Daniel had by now learned that there was something strangely magnetic about the female body. Once contact was made, it was very hard to pull away.
‘What about your mother?’ hissed Daniel once he was able to draw breath.
‘She’s making sure we are not disturbed,’ whispered Elizabeth.
‘
What?’
‘How was my kiss compared to Muriel’s kisses?’
‘Oh, much too hard, it made my lip bleed.’
‘Sorry. What about this?’
Their second kiss was indeed an improvement, and Daniel said as much. Several kisses later they moved on to more subtle refinements.
‘You need to pout a little as you prepare to kiss me, and to half-close your eyes,’ said Daniel. ‘And Muriel put a hand behind my head as we kissed, then traced her fingertips down my cheek and ran her tongue across her lips as we drew apart.’
‘Oh, wonderful! Stand in front of that mirror so I can see what I’m doing.’
‘But if Muriel finds out –’
‘Muriel will never find out, and neither will whoever I marry. That is the whole point of shipboard romances. Yield to our circumstances, Daniel. We shall both step ashore at London as far more accomplished lovers. You may even win Muriel back.’
Three hours later Daniel emerged from the cabin looking rather dishevelled, pulled the door shut, turned, and walked straight into Elizabeth’s mother. He gasped with horror, and began casting about for words of explanation that he did not have when she smiled, kissed him lightly on the cheek, then winked and entered the cabin. Daniel returned to the forward deck, which was by now almost deserted. Madeline was waiting there.
‘Where in the world have you been?’ she demanded as she strode across to him. ‘I’ve been looking for you for hours.’
Daniel was tempted to say that he had indeed been in heaven, but unlike Barry he had the sense not to say whatever popped into his head.
‘Oh, here and there,’ said Daniel. ‘The smoking room, the gymnasium, my cabin, even here.’
‘I checked all those places.’
‘We must have just kept missing each other.’
‘Do I smell perfume?’
‘I was chatting with that girl Elizabeth – and her mother.’
‘The one with the parasol who wears a tennis blouse but never plays tennis?’
‘Yes. We were practising deportment and manners and –’
‘Later, later. Liore has finished the disruptor thing she’s been building. We need to see how to use it.’
Daniel and Madeline entered the cabin, where the disruptor stood ready on the writing desk. Curiously, Liore was dressed in her old parade uniform from the future, and was standing to the left of the desk.
‘My, my, you do look dashing in uniform!’ exclaimed Madeline.
‘From now on I can wear nothing else,’ said Liore.
‘What do you mean?’
‘All in good time.’
Daniel had seen the pieces of the device as Liore had been assembling it, but now that it was complete, it still made no sense. There were several heavy batteries from the Lionhearts’ spark gap transmitter, some coils and pipes, crystals mounted in ivory with sealing wax, glass tubes containing wires, crystals and mercury, six barrels, and brackets for the radiocomms. On the top was a small telescope. On the bottom was a makeshift switch in the shape of a trigger. Along the side was a row of light switches that had been taken from various parts of the ship, and two small electrical meters.
‘By your leave, speaking courtly,’ said Liore.
‘Of course,’ said Daniel.
‘Have you ever wondered why Fox and I did not cease to have ever existed after we stopped the bombing of parliament and changed the future?’ Liore asked as Daniel peered more closely at the disruptor.
‘Yes, but it made my head hurt,’ he replied.
‘The PR-17 is powered by a thing called a Macro-Quantum Device, and the radiocomms use tiny versions of MQDs as well. You don’t need to know what they are, but among their strange properties, they have an interaction with time that is poorly understood. Bringing Macro-Quantum Devices back through time with us was a total unknown, but I discovered a very curious thing. The power lattice of the weapon stored a huge amount of energy from the journey backwards, rather like a spring being stretched out.’
‘And the radiocomms, too?’
‘Yes, but ten orders of magnitude more energy is now crammed into the weapon’s MQD than those of the radiocomms.’
‘What does all that mean?’ asked Daniel, who was having trouble matching up the numbers with reality.
‘The weapon gathered a huge amount of energy by being flung back through time, and it is using it to maintain a time loop that repairs itself and maintains the existence of everything sent back from the future to 1901.’
‘I still understand nothing,’ Daniel admitted.
‘Whenever we try to change the events that cause my future, the loop repairs itself.’
‘Um . . . so your weapon thing is keeping the future the same?’
‘Yes. We made two attempts to change history, and we did change history, yet the Lionhearts still manage to start a war that gets Britain invaded and that lasts for a century. Whatever we do, the Lionhearts survive and they try again. The Century War always starts, but just a little later.’
‘So destroy the weapon and you break the time loop?’
‘Yes, but that is easier said than done. It must be done at a great distance, for the explosion would kill anyone nearby. I was designing a device to do that when Barry stole the weapon. As you can see, that device is now complete.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’
‘You will need to do more than that. You and Madeline must use it if we do not recover the weapon at Port Said.’
‘I could never use something as complicated as this!’ exclaimed Daniel.
‘Playing the piano is harder,’ said Liore dismissively. ‘Madeline will read the meters and operate the power switches. Madeline, when you see that the inductance meter has reached the right level you will wait until Daniel has the target acquired, then throw the main power channel switch. When the feedback meter reaches this little red line, you will tell Daniel to fire. Daniel, you only have a half-second to pull the trigger.’
‘You mean the batteries will drain in half a second?’
‘No, the device will overload and explode.’
‘Oh. Will it be a big explosion?’
‘Yes.’
‘So . . . we may all be killed?’
‘Yes. Thanks to travelling back eleven decades through time, each radiocomm has the explosive power of an artillery shell with two hundred and fifty pounds of explosive.’
Daniel stared at the innocent-looking device.
‘So I was carrying something with the power of a two hundred and fifty pound shell in my pocket for most of the voyage?’
‘Yes.’
Daniel sat down heavily, closed his eyes, then took out his handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead.
‘I wish you had not told me that.’
‘Had it exploded, you would never have known what hit you.’
‘And that’s supposed to make me feel better?’ asked Daniel.
‘No.’
‘One last question.’
‘Ask.’
‘Why do I have to use it? Surely you are better at, well, everything.’
‘Because I can’t. Someone from this time must do it.’
‘Then you know something I don’t,’ he replied doubtfully, opening his eyes and staring fearfully at the device.
‘Indeed I do. Madeline, light a candle.’
Madeline struck a match and touched the flame to a candle’s wick. She held it up, uncertain of what to do next. Liore held her hand in front of the flame. The flame was visible right through her flesh. Madeline cried out and dropped the candle. ‘
That’s like magic!’ exclaimed Daniel. ‘How did you do that?’
‘The time loop that allows me to exist is now destined to break, so I am fading. It started the moment that I completed the disruptor, three hours ago. Someone has fired this disruptor in the future. The Century War will not happen. The future that I was born into is becoming more and more unlikely.’
‘So you will not exist at all once w
e fire it?’
‘True. I shall fade into nothingness.’
‘But that would be killing you.’
‘This is war, Daniel, and I am a warrior. Warriors die. All my life I have existed to destroy targets. Now I have no CO and no orders, but I have a target. Once the target is destroyed, I shall not matter.’
‘But what about eating, and, well, everything else?’
‘I can no longer eat, but I can breathe and interact with the ship just enough to get around. My uniform from the future is all that I can wear, for my body cannot support the clothing of 1901. I shall have to stay in this cabin, of course, or people are going to get really alarmed.’
‘I for one am already alarmed,’ said Daniel.
In his short but harrowing career at sea, Barry had made a great many discoveries. One was that a seminar on picking locks will gain you instant acceptance and a great number of friends in a ship’s engine hall. Another was that as long as you kept a low profile outside the engine hall, the rest of the crew left you alone. He also learned that voyages were quite boring, and that the stokers, slaggers and greasers spent most of their spare time playing cards and dice, talking about women, fighting about nothing in particular, and drinking.
Barry had the sense to balance his winnings and losses at gambling, but his most important breakthrough came on the second day when a stoker offered him a tin whistle in return for the lesson on making pickwires. Rumble Bill Markey, the deputy foreman, also had a whistle, and he offered to teach Barry how to play a few tunes. If Barry was playing the whistle he could not talk, and because he definitely did not want to talk about his immediate past, this meant that he practised his whistle whenever he got a chance. He could soon play ‘Three blind mice’, ‘Pop goes the weasel’, ‘Spirits of whiskey’ and some jigs that nobody knew the names for.
Barry’s conclusion about shipboard life was that it was like working on a really big railway station that moved. He knew that the ocean contained a very large amount of water, but wondered where all the fish in the South Melbourne market came from, because he saw very few from the ship. On having the Horn of Africa pointed out to him, he was disappointed not to see any lions, giraffes or elephants. His glimpse of the Arabian Peninsula was similarly free of camels, and the Red Sea was not red.
Changing Yesterday Page 21
