Journey Through Time (A Time Travel Adventure Collection Part 1)

by G. J. Winters

  Chapter Thirteen

  SCHEDULING A MEETING with the Council of Thirds proved to be less of a problem than Unquill had said it would be.

  Kenneth wondered if the Council, like Unquill, had knowledge of events that hadn't happened yet.

  Had they set aside some time in their schedule just for a meeting they foresaw?

  Kenneth could not say for certain.

  The notion made him curious about the world he'd been transported into.

  If one saw the future, then prepared for it, all the surprise of life would be gone-provided, of course, that people looked into their own futures.

  Kenneth thought these people did.

  He'd been so busy talking with Savannah about her idea-that Unquill and Hinjo were the same person-that he hadn't noticed himself exiting the computer room, or boarding a lift.

  Nor had he even observed Unquill strapping him against a wall.

  Looking about, he realized that while he hadn't paid attention to his surroundings, the world had gone mad for a moment.

  He struggled against the yellow straps that held him tight against the cold steel wall even as he observed Unquill strapping himself in place. Kenneth noticed Savannah, pinned against the wall as he was, counting up to one hundred with her eyes closed.

  The door of the lift closed with a loud thrum. The pungent scent of motor oil wafted through the tight, confined space.

  The overhead light switched off, replaced by a red emergency light.

  A countdown sounded from somewhere.

  Kenneth counted up to five when the floor vanished underneath his feet.

  He yelped, kicking his feet about.

  Then, he fell.

  The wall itself conveyed him downward, together with Unquill and Savannah. Kenneth felt himself hurtling forth at a speed he never would have guessed he could endure. He felt his stomach rising while various floors whizzed past him, numbers flashing by so quickly that he missed them when he blinked.

  After ten seconds of falling, he squinted his eyes shut. His whole body felt heavier, as though it mocked him for even thinking he could be thin.

  Just as soon as it had started, the ride ceased.

  The wall slowed his descent gradually so that, by the time he reached the bottom, he felt the mechanisms slide home when the wall locked into place.

  Everyone's restraints let go at once.

  A white bag inflated around Kenneth's feet.

  He picked it up and retched into it, leaving the bag on the floor.

  While Unquill looked no worse for wear, Savannah looked pale. All the color had drained out of her face. "What was...that?"

  "Instant gravity transport," Unquill said. He then saw her expression and added, "It's the fastest way to transport oneself from one level of the Constabulary to another. We are now at the topmost level, 126-A."

  "Top?" Kenneth said in between ragged breaths.

  "Yes, the Constabulary maintains a system of artificial gravity so that, for lack of a better way to put it, one stands on the ceiling and reaches up to the floor. This system was constructed to accommodate our mode of transit from one area to another. You will see, you will see," he said, beckoning them both to follow him.

  Savannah grabbed her unused inflatable bag, carrying it with her. Kenneth didn't want to carry his along with him. He held his stomach, trying not to think about the method of transit Unquill wanted them both to use.

  At the top level, Kenneth noticed that the air felt somewhat thinner than it had before. He grew tired easily. Neither he nor Savannah could keep up with Unquill's long, flowing strides.

  Unquill soon left them behind in an enclosed hallway. Kenneth sat down on the floor. Savannah followed his example.

  They struggled to catch their breath.

  Before long, Unquill came to fetch them. He didn't say a word as he pulled Kenneth up by his arm.

  Kenneth didn't know where he found the strength to complete the journey down the long hallway, yet he found it, for after some time had passed, he found himself standing at the end.

  The end, to Kenneth's surprise, was a bullet-shaped craft, painted red with a thick purple stripe along the middle. Unquill touched a part of the craft and a door disconnected, tipping over until it served as an entrance ramp. Savannah boarded first, walking with slow steps, fearing some mishap. She sat down in a leather seat, strapping herself in at once.

  Unquill prodded Kenneth along, who found a seat next to Savannah. He worked at the restraints for a time until he managed to secure his neck, legs and upper body. His arms hung loose at his sides.

  Unquill did not strap himself in. He stood at the forward section of the ship, only short strides away from Kenneth, while the door retracted. It latched shut with a hiss of air.

  A visual display materialized in front of him. He moved various objects around until he found the configuration he wanted. Then he pressed his palm in the middle. The display turned green, then faded from view.

  Unquill lay face-down on the floor.

  Before the craft had moved more than a few inches, the gravity normalized. Unquill fell upwards into what Kenneth saw was a padded ceiling.

  Savannah's hair stood straight up, as though attracted by magnetism.

  Kenneth felt blood rushing to his head.

  For him, nothing had changed. He still thought of the floor as the floor and the ceiling as the ceiling.

  His sight told him otherwise, for Unquill stood up, having suffered no ill effects from the change.

  He pushed a button on Kenneth's chair, and then Savannah's chair. The chairs rotated in place 180 degrees. Kenneth's head stopped pounding once the motion completed.

  Unquill said, "You may unstrap now."

  THE CITY APPEARED as nothing Kenneth had ever seen before.

  Looking down, he couldn't make out much of the surface. He saw metal polygons, shapes whose function he could not discern. Around him rose all manner of buildings, some extending so high he could not see their summit.

  Vehicles moved about in every direction across the bottom of a system of beams that reminded Kenneth of train tracks. The beams never intersected, nor crossed one another. Instead, they existed in layers, a great number of layers.

  Kenneth could not see where the system began or where it ended.

  He expected the craft to leap out of its starting position to race along its beam. Instead, the craft lurched its way forward before establishing a slow, easy pace. Kenneth then saw all the other craft moved in the same manner. He supposed that, if a person happened to live for hundreds of years, no one bothered much with speeding. He further supposed that the future did not have its own equivalent of stock car racing.

  Now and then, he saw what he could only describe as a spaceship passing across the top of the world. He saw ships shaped like oblong eggs with a conical spike at each end. He could only guess at how such craft moved about, for he saw nothing like the warp engines he'd seen on television. He thought about asking Unquill, yet the large man seemed not to notice anything.

  Savannah kept her eyes shut.

  Kenneth remembered she was afraid of heights.

  The journey lasted over an hour. Kenneth couldn't take his eyes off the gigantic metal jungle that was the city. A city, Unquill said in a solemn tone, called Williamsport.

  He hadn't quite believed Unquill's claim of the world containing one hundred twelve trillion people, yet looking around at all the activity, he found that he could believe it. The human activity was so relentless, in fact, that Kenneth thought about asking Unquill if he'd got the number right. One hundred twelve trillion, to Kenneth, didn't seem like enough.

  The craft came to a stop at its destination. Unquill said, "If we have time, I will teach you the proper ways of reverence for the gifts bestowed upon us."

  Savannah, who found she could look about again, said, "Gifts? What do you mean? Why do you have that gravity thing going on? I didn't see why the accommodation needed to be made."

  "You had yo
ur eyes closed."