Changing Yesterday

by Sean McMullen

  ‘You planned the whole thing.’

  ‘I was all shocked ’cause I was an orphan.’

  ‘Your father was shot after you stole the weapon.’

  ‘Oh, yeah. But we was gonna give it to the king, but them Lionhearts come after us. Luker was shot. So was Lurker the Worker. So was me old man. It was them Lionhearts.’

  ‘Out of all those people, only you knew about the weapon,’ said Liore, advancing on him.

  Barry put his hand out to stop her. It passed right through her arm.

  ‘’Ere, you’re a ghost!’ he cried.

  ‘Why did you steal it?’

  ‘If you’re a ghost you can’t hurt me,’ said Barry, suddenly smiling and looking relieved.

  ‘But I can!’ said Madeline, getting up and jamming the barrel of her Webley into Barry’s ear. ‘Now answer Commander Liore’s question.’

  ‘Yeah, well, after ya gave them railway coves the big push I thinks, Barry my man, this stuff ’s too big for even some warrior baggage from the future. Er, no offence, like. A loyal subject of the king orta give it over, ’cause kings know what to do with that sorta stuff.’

  ‘For a modest consideration,’ said Daniel.

  ‘Yeah, well, the king’s got lotsa money. Danny boy, I deserve it. I saved the world, I stopped parlyment gettin’ bombed. Wot reward did I get?’

  ‘Liore set you up with a proper apprenticeship and a bursary for the mechanics college.’

  ‘I had to study, it were too hard. I’m a doin’ sorta cove.’

  ‘Barry, you had it all, yet you threw it away, and for what?’

  ‘I was bein’ loyal.’

  ‘Undoing what you have done will be harder than stopping the bombing of parliament, Barry Porter,’ said Liore. ‘I am not sure what to do now. The next stop is London, and –’

  ‘Oh yeah, an’ London is where the king lives. Now we can get the weapon back from them Lionheart coves an’ hand it on to the king –’

  Barry hesitated when he noticed the expression on Liore’s face.

  ‘She’s gonna murder me, Danny boy! Can ghosts murder people?’

  ‘Shut up!’ shouted Daniel. ‘Why were your father, Lurker the Worker and Luker the Lurker involved?’

  By now Barry was so severely frightened that he was telling the truth without thinking.

  ‘Only Luker. I asked him to give me an introductory to some cove wot knows the king.’

  ‘You what?’ snapped Liore.

  ‘Well I don’t know how to tell the king I’ve got somethin’ for him. I asked Luker to find me someone important.’

  Daniel seized Barry by the collar and glared into his eyes.

  ‘So you told the most untrustworthy character in all of Melbourne that you had the most advanced weapon on the face of the Earth and wanted to sell it to the king, so could he please let His Majesty know that Barry the Bag has a deal that he just can’t refuse?’

  ‘Well, I had a business arrangement with old Luker. Thought I did, anyway.’

  ‘Barry, now listen to me and listen very carefully,’ said Madeline. ‘You are so far out of your depth that you could not touch the bottom with a thousand bargepoles tied together. Leave everything to us, do nothing unless we tell you to, and do not lie to us under any circumstances at all. Oh, and keep your hands off other people’s property.’

  ‘But I gotta earn a crust –’ began Barry.

  ‘Or I will kill you!’ continued Madeline.

  ‘Slowly,’ added Daniel.

  ‘Yeah, well, suppose bread’s free on the ship,’ mumbled Barry.

  Chapter 10

  HERO

  In the days that followed, Daniel always spent the mornings with Madeline. The other passengers began spreading rumours about a romance, or even the makings of a love triangle with her and Liore. Daniel and Madeline always had dinner together in the saloon, and then Madeline attended whatever entertainment had been arranged for the passengers. When Liore was not seen out and about for several days, rumours spread that she was in her cabin, heartbroken because Daniel had not chosen her. Daniel vanished from sight in the evenings, but was generally in Elizabeth’s cabin. He was discovering that teaching courtship was the best way to learn more about it.

  One night Daniel returned to his cabin a little after midnight, and had just turned off the light and got into bed when he discovered that he had company.

  ‘By your leave, speaking courtly,’ a voice announced.

  ‘Liore!’ exclaimed Daniel. ‘How did you get in here?’

  ‘Through the wall.’

  ‘Oh, yes. So why are you in here?’

  ‘There was not much privacy in Elizabeth Bunting’s cabin.’

  ‘You were watching?’ exclaimed Daniel. ‘Don’t tell –’

  ‘Muriel. Upon my word of honour as a battle commander, I swear it, but only if you help me destroy the weapon.’

  ‘I’ve already said I would.’

  ‘Go to your door and let Madeline in. We need to talk.’

  Daniel put on a dressing gown, turned on the light and opened the cabin door to admit Madeline.

  ‘According to the radiocomms, the Millennium was doing thirty knots after leaving Port Said,’ Liore began, floating in the air before Madeline and Daniel, who were sitting on the bed.

  ‘Even if the captain agreed to give chase with the Andromeda, we could never catch up,’ said Daniel.

  ‘We are not even bothering to track it any more,’ added Madeline.

  ‘There is no need,’ added Liore. ‘My new memories of the future tell me that the Millennium will proceed to the Baltic Sea, and in late September it will attack the German fleet at Wilhelmshaven and start the Century War.’

  ‘All this almost convinces me that you really are from the future,’ said Madeline.

  ‘You need more convincing?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘Actually, I don’t,’ said Madeline.

  ‘What happens if we fail?’ Daniel asked Liore.

  ‘If you had failed in the future, I would not be fading.’

  ‘So we succeed,’ said Daniel hopefully. ‘I mean, that’s why you are fading.’

  ‘The time loop has healed itself twice, but I have a good feeling about this, our third attempt to change history. All the important Lionhearts are aboard the Millennium, so . . . ’

  ‘So?’ asked Daniel.

  ‘So nobody will be chasing Madeline, you and Barry,’ said Liore, avoiding his eyes. ‘You must travel to Wilhelmshaven, and be ready when the Millennium appears on the horizon on the twenty-ninth day of September.’

  ‘And when it appears, what then?’

  ‘The disruptor’s pulse will release the energy crammed into the PR-17 with the force of . . . of the biggest bomb ever built.’

  ‘The biggest bomb is a torpedo!’ said Daniel. ‘So, it will be like one of the Millennium’s own torpedoes exploding. The Germans will think it’s just an accident aboard a British ship.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But that would be murder.’

  ‘Younger boys than you help operate the guns and torpedoes aboard British warships. Remember, you two are just soldiers. I am your commander, so the responsibility is mine.’

  While Liore’s words were convincing, Daniel could not help feeling that something was wrong. She was being evasive, yet Liore had never been evasive before. On the other hand, everything that she said seemed to make sense, so there was no alternative to doing things her way.

  After Liore and Madeline had left, Daniel lay back with a great many thoughts cascading through his head. All that had been happening had distracted him from pining for Muriel, but now thoughts of her were creeping back. If Liore was fading, Fox would be fading, too. When the weapon was destroyed, Fox would vanish and Muriel would be on her own again. Daniel was now much more accomplished at courtship than before, and he suspected that Fox’s experience of courting girls was still confined to what Muriel had taught him.

  If I arrive after Fox is gone, perhaps I
can win Muriel back before some French artist comes along, thought Daniel as he drifted away into sleep. I wonder how long it takes to travel from Wilhelmshaven to Paris?

  On the 28th of August they passed Malta in the early morning, and all that day steamed parallel with the coast of Sicily. Daniel gave Barry his daily outing on the promenade deck, and pointed out that they could see part of Italy.

  ‘So that’s where spaghetti comes from?’ asked Barry.

  ‘Yes,’ said Daniel. ‘And Italians, the renaissance, universities, Galileo, Michelangelo, the Roman Empire, and –’

  ‘Oi, hang on! The Roman Empire comes from Rome.’

  ‘Rome is in Italy, Barry.’

  ‘Oh. But we’re not goin’ there?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘That’s good. I was told they feed people to lions in a great big footy ground while the crowds bet on wot lion can eat the most.’

  ‘Not for the past sixteen hundred years.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Barry, who then borrowed Daniel’s telescope and peered at the distant coast. ‘Don’t look like much.’

  ‘Nothing looks like much from fourteen miles away. Barry, I’ve been meaning to ask you about how you stole the weapon.’

  ‘Oh jeez, mate!’ exclaimed Barry. ‘I said I done it, can’t ya give it a rest?’

  ‘I want to know how. Professional techniques, and all that.’

  Given the opportunity to boast, Barry’s manner changed completely. He handed back the telescope and puffed out his little chest.

  ‘Oh yeah, well I took me time, kept suspicions down. First I did lots of observationals. I worked out that Liore had regular habits, that’s very important. I got me opportunity when Muriel dumped ya, ’cause that give me a reason to call in on Liore, and check out where she lived. She even invited me in, and I saw she had a trunk with a padlock. Dead giveaway, stuff wot’s got a lock. Just then her landlady called her away, so I was inter that padlock like a rat up a drain. I just had time to check the weapon was in the trunk ’fore she come back.’

  ‘Liore travelled regularly on the train, and she left you alone in her room?’ asked Daniel, who suddenly had a very bad feeling about what was going on around him.

  ‘Yeah. Don’t ya believe me?’

  ‘I believe you, it’s just that she told me that a good spy should never be predictable, and that a padlock on a box is like a sign that says, “Something in here is worth stealing”.’

  ‘She did?’

  ‘She did.’

  ‘Jeez Danny boy, ya gone more suspicious than a copper wot’s had his truncheon pinched.’

  ‘Being lied to continually by everyone is probably the cause. What about Liore’s hair? How did you get your sample?’

  ‘Easy pickin’s, Danny boy. I burgled her landlady’s garbage. That Liore, she had all her sweepin’s for every day bundled up in neat little packets. Plenty of her hair for a little ring, see?’

  Barry rummaged in his pockets, then turned them out while Daniel held the contents. There was no ring of hair to be found.

  ‘It’s gone!’ he exclaimed. ‘Jeez, I was guardin’ it with me life.’

  ‘Liore is fading away, so her hair must be fading, too. It probably just passed through the cloth of your pocket and drifted away like smoke.’

  ‘Yeah, well, suppose it’s no good without the weapon,’ he said grudgingly. ‘Oi, if Liore is fadin’, why ain’t the weapon and raddy things fadin’ too?’

  ‘Apparently they are part of the time loop, because of the way their batteries store energy.’

  ‘Wot?’

  ‘Different rules apply to them. Go on.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, well anyway, I waited until ya was goin’ away on this ship before I did the big snatch. Would have got clean away, ’cept the bleedin’ dog barked and spoiled it all.’

  ‘Does Liore’s room have a fireplace?’

  ‘Yeah, a little pot-belly stove.’

  ‘Was she using it?’

  ‘Yeah. It was still hot one time I sneaked in.’

  ‘So why bundle up her sweepings and put them neatly into the bin when she could just burn them?’ ‘I reckon that’s an obviously, she . . . er . . .’

  Barry quickly realised that it was not obvious at all. Daniel frowned and shook his head. Liore had not been outsmarted after all.

  ‘You were set up, Barry,’ said Daniel, shaking his head. ‘Liore let you know where the weapon was kept, how you could activate it without her permission, and when she would be out of her room.’

  ‘Oi, Danny boy, that can’t be right. I worked real hard to do that job.’

  ‘The harder you had to work, the more convinced you would be that Liore was not using you.’

  Barry turned away, his mouth hanging wide open but his head shaking.

  ‘She wanted you to steal the weapon, Barry, and she wanted the Lionhearts to take it away from you, aboard the Millennium.’

  ‘Wot? Why would she do that?’

  ‘Because perhaps it is she who starts the Century War.’

  ‘You’re daft! Why?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I’m trying to be a detective like Madeline. I’m following the evidence.’

  ‘Nah, them’s goods I can’t buy, Danny boy. That Liore’s been workin’ flat out tryin’ to stop the bleedin’ war from startin’.’

  ‘True, but nearly all of the important Lionhearts are aboard their disguised warship, along with the weapon. Even if she’s not trying to start the war . . . I have a very bad feeling about this. Come on, back to the brig.’

  Daniel jerked at the handcuffs, but as they turned away from the rail they came face to face with Liore.

  ‘I can explain,’ she said in a whisper that was almost lost on the wind.

  ‘You no longer have to,’ replied Daniel.

  In the evening Daniel had dinner alone, because Madeline had told the stewards that she and Liore were seasick again, and were not to be disturbed. Daniel no longer considered himself to be in Liore’s service, so he went to the Italian Festival Costume Dance. There he practised his new skills at being charming with Elizabeth and the other girls in her circle of shipboard friends, while yet more girls tried to join in.

  A distinct change was taking place in Daniel, yet it was a change that he scarcely noticed. He was no longer pining for Muriel, but practising to be better than Fox. On one level, he wanted to get Muriel back, but on another he wanted to be superior to the boy who had run off with her. Losing Muriel had involved humiliation as well as heartbreak, and although he did not realise it, Daniel wanted to wipe that humiliation away.

  Securely locked in their own cabin, Liore and Madeline were discussing Daniel as he danced and flirted.

  ‘Breaking the time loop is something that neither Fox nor I could ever have done,’ said Liore. ‘I understand it now. Daniel worries that he could never be Fox’s equal, but here at last is something that is beyond all of Fox’s talents. Neither Fox nor I could stop the Century War and save our world.’

  ‘But now Daniel hates you, and will not help fire the disruptor.’

  ‘Yes. The fate of the world depends on you, Madeline, but I can still help by reading the meters and telling you when to fire. You must travel to Wilhelmshaven alone and destroy the Millennium there.’

  ‘But that would mean killing you and Fox,’ said Madeline.

  ‘Not kill. Our potential to influence the future will cease to exist. It is the time loop that you will destroy. We depend on the time loop to exist, so we shall vanish when it does.’

  ‘But I would still feel like I was shooting you.’

  ‘Do not think of me as a real girl, Madeline, think of me as a thing. As you might have noticed, I am not human. I have been engineered as a leadership machine, designed to inspire people to follow me and be loyal. The physicians of the future consider that a leader loses some loyalty if they fall in love with one particular person, so my brain has been designed with the capacity for affection sliced out.’

  ‘How aw
ful!’ exclaimed Madeline.

  ‘After seeing what love has done to Daniel, I am not so sure. Still, I am not able to make judgements on that. Concerning Fox, he is a deserter, and is subject to execution. Just like an artillery shell, I am designed to be destroyed when I hit the target. You must not worry about killing us.’

  ‘And are you sure it is worth it? There will be no war?’

  ‘Oh, there will be war, I already have new memories from the edge of the time loop. It will be terrible, but will last only four years.’

  ‘I’m fascinated by the way your memories keep changing as future history changes.’

  ‘It is very confusing, having so many alternatives in my head. Now I see that on the twenty-eighth of June 1914, in Serbia, at Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand will be shot. He is the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s throne. That leads to a war, but as I said, it does not stretch out over a century and ruin the world.’

  ‘But should I try to stop it?’ Madeline asked.

  ‘Do you think the Archduke will listen to you, a waitress?’

  ‘I suppose not. Liore, why did you deceive Daniel?’

  ‘Deception needs to be convincing. Daniel was convinced, as was everyone else.’

  ‘Are you deceiving me?’

  ‘With regard to some details, yes.’

  ‘Daniel thinks it is you who will start the Century War. Is that true?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘And you told him that?’

  ‘Yes, but he did not believe me. Too many people have deceived Daniel, so now he trusts nobody. He also hates everyone who has lied to him.’

  ‘I have never lied to him.’

  ‘Daniel would say that you just never had the chance.’

  The following morning Daniel ignored Madeline in the breakfast saloon, instead sitting with Elizabeth and several other girls. After that, he took his leave of them and collected Barry from the brig for his morning excursion. Being Barry’s guard gave Daniel a type of status with his admirers, but the price of that status was having Barry next to him. Unless Barry were gagged, this could be a dangerous thing. The compromise was to be seen with Barry on the way down to the engines. None of the girls or their mothers would venture down there, so Barry could say what he liked without offending anyone.