Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time

by Angeline Fortin

  “Americans!” he muttered under his breath. “Fine then,” he replied, indignantly crossing his arms over his chest to make sure she knew she had upset him. “The siphon cut a hole in the fabric of time sending us backward, of course, since everyone knows that you can’t travel forward. Instead of measurements of distance, the siphon calculated days and years. We are now standing one hundred and thirty-six years in the past right where my lab will someday be.”

  “We traveled back in time one hundred and thirty-six years,” she repeated, hating herself for sounding like an idiot but for some reason the concept would not take hold. “This is one hundred and thirty-six years ago?”

  “That’s right!”

  “In England? One hundred and thirty-six years ago?”

  “Yes.”

  “One hundred and thirty-six years.”

  “Yes,” David answered again, the corners of his mouth turning down as they tended to when he was annoyed. “Really, Kate, I thought you were cleverer than this.”

  “You’ll excuse me, David, if I have just a little problem digesting all of this!” she snapped at him, taking another look around trying to absorb what he was telling her. Finally, she looked back at David. “What are you wearing?”

  “Do you like it?” he asked, standing and jerking down the bottom of his jacket before smoothing his hands down the front. “It’s new.”

  Kate looked over his suit. It was dark brown, maybe wool with a white, high-collared shirt. A striped tie was knotted around his neck. Underneath the jacket, she could see a vest of striped gold and red with a wide lapel that crossed low into a double-breasted closure. A gold watch-fob dangled across the front. The suit was horribly old-fashioned but might have fit right in during the 1800s.

  A lump lodged in her throat prompted Kate to swallow deeply taking a moment to digest everything David had just told her. His wormhole device was actually a time machine. A time machine…really? Her mind lingered there for several long minutes before another question nudged its way into her mind. “Why one hundred and thirty-six years?”

  “Well, yes, the matrix I had developed for the destination was perhaps flawed in a small way. I had thought it was measuring distance when in fact it was measuring time. It took me quite some time to figure that out after I arrived, I can tell you. But the whole thing is brilliant, don’t you think?”

  “No, David, I don’t think!” Kate bit out as she got to her feet. She was light-headed and reeling now, not because of the machine’s effects but rather because of the enormity of what was happening. “Are you telling me that we’re stuck in the past? And why are you dressed like that? You only left a second before me.”

  “That actually took me a bit of time to decipher as well. I mean, first of all, I had to repair the laptop. The screen was damaged in its fall. Without LED technology available, I had to go back to basic CRT development to create a screen. After that, I was finally able to calculate the delay in arrival which I’ve been able to determine was due to the time dilation effects near the event horizon of the singularity.”

  “English, David.”

  “Goodness, Kate! You are a scientist!”

  “I’m a scientist with a colossal headache,” she returned. “Boil it down for me.”

  “Those items entering the wormhole arrived here at a time difference exponentially larger than the difference of when they fell into the wormhole,” he told her. “Is that simple enough? The pen and chair arrived first, I imagine several months before I since I haven’t seen them. That was probably the actual computation of distance in the device. Then I arrived,” he explained. “Even the siphon itself, which entered the vortex a split second after myself, arrived days after I did. But never worry, Kate, I can get us home.”

  There was no denial in Kate at all. No head-shaking insistence that it wasn’t true, that it was all some prank. That he was just making it all up. It felt true. The ground beneath her felt very real. To her, science was filled with mysteries to be solved and scientists solved them. Sometimes accidentally as David had done. Think penicillin. Science fiction of the past often became the future’s reality.

  Of course, this was one area of study she’d never considered a breakthrough of this sort in, but still…

  No, it was all too real. She had seen the siphon at work and still felt the results. Unless David had somehow drugged her and kidnapped her to a place without any modern structures and… No, it wasn’t a joke. As Sherlock Holmes had long claimed, once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. God, she was such a geek if she recalled such a thing so vividly. “Well, get us home then!”

  “I can’t…yet,” he verbally stumbled and Kate’s heart skipped with trepidation. “But I can and will. I had hoped to have the problem solved before you got here but I haven’t quite mastered it yet.”

  Kate’s heart sank before she suddenly thought to ask, “How long have you been here? How long have you been trying to figure it out?”

  “Well, I did have to wait for you, you know…” he replied testily.

  “How long?” she bit out having taken all of David’s superiority that she could hold.

  “Three hundred forty-nine days, four hours and…” he checked his watch, “thirty-eight minutes. Give or take. It surprised me at first that it wasn’t still December when I arrived as it was in our time but rather May and the spring air–”

  “You’ve been here for almost a year?” Kate drew back in shock, her mouth gaping like a landed fish for a few moments as she digested that bit of information. “How is that possible?”

  “It’s rather interesting really. As I mentioned, delay in entry was exponential upon arrival. Every sixtieth of a second of delay on entrance to the singularity at our end amounted to a difference of approximately one day on exit. This was obvious from the arrival of the machine and I calculated, given the rate of pull from the vortex and your position in the room, that you would be no more than five to six seconds after me, which brought me here tonight!” he finished triumphantly.

  “So you came here tonight, this single night, to get me?”

  “Well, actually I did arrive earlier in the week in case my calculations were off and planned to stay the week as well,” he admitted. “Couldn’t have you standing around wondering what had happened, eh?” David chuckled merrily at his own wit.

  “Oh, yeah,” Kate wrinkled her nose, feeling an unaccustomed nastiness welling up inside of her. It was one thing to be stuck in the past, but quite another to be stuck there with someone who considered it all a good thing. “I feel sooo much better knowing that you screwed up and sent me back in time rather than standing around wondering about it. What a relief! So what now, Einstein? When do we go back home?”

  “Now, Kate, you’re being a bit snippy, don’t you think?” he complained in petulant tones.

  “Under the circumstances, I think I’m allowed a few moments of snippiness, don’t you think?” she snapped back. A wave of panic washed over Kate as reality settled in. She didn’t want to be featured on a Reality Channel episode of When Science Experiments Go Wrong. Dr. David Fergusson had sent them into the past. Quick arithmetic put the year at 1876 or so and Kate was not an old-fashioned girl. David needed to get them out. NOW! “When? When can you get me home?”

  “I’m working on it. It shouldn’t be long,” he assured her with his hands spread in a pleading fashion. “I am sorry, Kate! I didn’t intend for this to happen and once I solve the power problem, we’ll be off.”

  “Do I even want to know what the power problem is?”

  “Electricity isn’t a common power source in this time, you know,” he waggled a lecturing finger at her. “Parts are hard to come by and, because of that, I’ve had to fabricate the torn power cabling myself – which isn’t easy, by the way – that is, of course, after I fixed the computer monitor. The cabling available cannot stand the power. We are talking about the raw underlying power universe…”


  “At a sub-quantum level, I know,” Kate finished for him. “Yes. You mentioned that.”

  David sniffed haughtily at her lack of appreciation. “Each time I’ve tried to run it, I’ve melted my cables. Nevertheless, I’m almost there! I swear! Another week, maybe two…or so.”

  “Then, what now?” she asked, her heart sinking as his time estimates grew. Whether he admitted it or not, they were clearly stuck here. “What do I do until then?”

  “Well, first, you need to put this on.” He walked over to the carriage and pulled a bag from the boot. “We’ll need to take the train into London to reach my house and we can’t have you being seen dressed as you are, can we?” David waved a hand indicating Kate’s jeans and trendy blouse that exposed one shoulder. “Such attire will only upset the natives, you see? So, if you’ll just put that on, I have a coat for you as well. Though it is May, the nights are still nippy.”

  Kate reached in the bag and pulled out a long, blue dress, followed by mounds of other frilly items she couldn’t identify. “You’re kidding, right?”

  Chapter Three

  St. John’s Wood, England

  May 1876

  “This is ridiculous,” Kate complained almost five hours later. After a long night waiting for the train and more than two hours on the train into London, she was simply exhausted. Though David had told her it was only just after ten in the evening, to Kate’s internal clock, it was a handful of hours following their dinner in Oxford, which had ended well past eight p.m. more than a hundred years apart from where she was now.

  If Kate had any remaining doubts about David’s claims, her time in the train depot and during the journey had given her more visual evidence than anyone might need to be thoroughly convinced. There had been dozens of people aboard that train all dressed in clothing similar to hers and David’s. If that hadn’t been enough, the wail of the train’s whistle and the first chug and jolt of the engine had driven it home.

  Kate hovered for a long while between shock and anger settling somewhere around pure angst. She’d not been very nice to David since her arrival – and, well, perhaps since the moment he’d insisted on showing her his lab – but she felt that she was handling it all quite well. Better than most, even. She hadn’t fainted, hadn’t harangued him at the top of her lungs and hadn’t yet resorted to physical violence, though she felt she might get there soon. A few choice words and a bitter tone should be easily dismissed given the gravity of the situation she’d found herself in.

  Yes, she was taking it all very well so far, Kate thought.

  She sat in silence for most of the train trip, swallowing against the unusual rocking motion. She would have given anything for some Dramamine. The light-rail in the Cities, as Minneapolis and St. Paul were commonly referred to, might not have been the smoothest ride but it was a swaying cradle in comparison. The upside of the upsetting ride was that it kept her mind from dwelling too hard on the reality of her situation.

  But now the ride was over and, with a lack of cabs available at the West Hampstead train depot so late in the evening, she and David were walking the final half-mile or so. Childish complaints hovered at her lips and, in her fatigue, Kate couldn’t stop them from slipping out. “Are we almost there?”

  “I’ve told you I’m sorry there was no hansom cab available,” David replied sourly. “My house is not much further so please cease your grumbling.”

  “I’m tired, David,” she shot back as they trudged along. “And hungry. And supremely pissed off so give me a break, will you? I think I’ve handled all of this pretty well so far.”

  Kate knew David thought she was being unreasonable and bad-tempered about everything, but, in truth, she felt unreasonable and bad-tempered. How could anyone be expected to act graciously in the face of such a revelation? He’d moved her through time, for Pete’s sake! Did he truly think she should be able to consider it all nothing more than some great adventure? It wasn’t an adventure! It was a nightmare! David had had the past eleven months to come to terms with it all and Kate suspected he hadn’t been all sunshine and roses in the beginning either!

  Shaking her head, Kate looked around the neighborhood they were passing through. It was all pretty nice in general. Some streets were more upscale than others. One street might be lined with modest, red brick homes or double-fronted homes with matching bow front windows then the next would reveal larger, more ornate homes in a variety of sizes and styles. Despite the diverse economic range suggested from street to street, overall the area seemed to be one of the middle upper class. Homes where the owners were certainly comfortable if not well-to-do.

  “How could you afford a house here, David?” she asked curiously, trying to keep her mind off the larger predicament.

  “Quite nice, isn’t it?” he said with a superior smile. “Did you know that in our time a simple flat in one of these homes might sell for over a million pounds? A single family home like that one,” he gestured to one as they passed, “might sell for three or four million.”

  “Well, I’ll assume that they aren’t that much now, but still,” she glanced up at him. “How did you afford it? These look pretty spendy even now.”

  “It wasn’t easy. I wasn’t able to purchase it until just recently, in fact. Not surprisingly, there isn’t much work right now for a quantum physicist but I’ve found work as a tutor here and there to pay the bills. I’ve also become something of an inventor and made some profitable investments from time to time.” His self-satisfied tone reared Kate’s curiosity.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s just say that knowing how things are going to go has proven beneficial.” He shrugged modestly though his whole attitude reeked of self-satisfaction. “My compulsory university courses in history have paid off well.”

  “What did you do?” A dreadful feeling was gnawing at Kate’s gut though it might just be hunger pangs.

  “Nothing anyone in my place would not.”

  “Since I doubt anyone’s yet been in your place, why don’t you tell me?”

  “Nothing of importance!” David protested defensively. “Just speeding up the invention of a couple of minor items.”

  “Define ‘minor’,” she insisted, feeling as if just one more bit of ugliness had been dropped in her lap. Apparently, Kate wasn’t as good with surprises as she’d always thought she was. “I hope we’re not talking about the telephone here.”

  “Of course not,” came his offended response. “Just a couple things I needed to operate the siphon and computer, electric welding, cathode ray tube…that sort of thing.”

  Kate just shook her head, dumbfounded. “You just ruined someone’s whole life.”

  “Let’s not be dramatic about it, shall we?” he grumbled some more, clearly displeased with her lack of enthusiasm for his efforts. “I hardly see anyone beyond my students and their parents. I’ve kept it all very low-key.”

  “Well, I hope you’re not warping some poor kid’s mind with tales of the future, David! You’ll probably get the kid sent off to an insane asylum or something,” she grouched, wondering what she had ever liked enough in David Fergusson to date him before remembering that she hadn’t really. She had given in to one of the oldest means of persuasion. Peer pressure. “You just can’t change the past, David! It’s against every ethical standard ever written.”

  “Now you’re really being over dramatic, Kate,” he returned testily. “Who's to say this isn’t the way that things are meant to be? The coincidence is simply too much to bear. Oh! I must tell you who one of my students is!”

  Oh God! “Who?”

  “He’s a boy by the name of Bertie. About ten years old and very bright. His father works as a gardener for some rich chap in town,” David babbled on. “But guess who I think he really is? I’ll give you a hint. His name is Bertie…Wells!”

  Kate stopped in her tracks and gaped at him for a full minute while the ramifications of his words sunk in. “Have you gone completely insane?” she screech
ed. “Are you telling me that…that you think this Bertie is H.G. Wells? My God, David! Have you completely lost your mind? You can’t just come back in time and tell people about the future! Haven’t you ever heard of the Prime Directive?”

  “The what?”

  “The Prime Directive. You know, from Star Trek? That whole policy of noninterference?”

  “That was only on the telly. It isn’t as if it’s a law or some such.”

  “Well, it should be! You could really mess with these people, David. Think of what you’ve done to that poor kid in there!”

  “Inspired him to write novels about the future?”

  “OH! MY! GOD!” Kate screeched, clenching her hair in her fists and pressing them to her temples as she turned and stomped on. “You’ve been here almost a year, David! How many people have you told? I’m surprised they haven’t locked you up in the loony bin yet! We can’t stay here! You have to take me home NOW!”

  “Will you keep your voice down?” he hissed at her. “You’re being hysterical and you’ll wake the neighbors. Besides, we’re here.” David gestured to a neat red bricked Victorian – Kate felt a jolt of hysterical humor shoot through her when she realized they probably didn’t call them that here. The house sat behind an ornate fence of brick and iron and had a charming white-painted portico over the front door. The door was flanked symmetrically by two wide windows with three matching windows across the second story. The one in the center was surrounded by a small balcony with a wrought iron railing.

  It was neat and tidy, everything she might have expected from David. Reluctantly, Kate had to admit she was impressed… or would have been, had she approved of his methods. David pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door before stepping back with a gesture for her to precede him.

  “Come, I’ll show you around.”

  Kate stared at him dumbly for a moment. “No, David, we need to talk about this!”