by Jason Ayres
“Bloody rip-off,” he commented to a young man at the next machine. “And I bet they still don’t run on time.”
Bemused, the young man was lost for words, which was just as well, as Dan didn’t have time to stay and chat. He grabbed his ticket as soon as it was dispensed, ran across to the gates, scanned it, and passed through onto the platforms. This didn’t pose any sort of challenge as the machines were exactly the same ones that Dan had been using all his life.
In this futuristic world where there was so little he had had to learn again from scratch, it was always reassuring when he came across something that hadn’t changed.
As he turned right, he trod carefully. He couldn’t see Josh, but there was only one train on the platform in the direction that Josh had taken. It was on platform 3, bound for Cambridge. A quick glance at the departure board showed Dan it was due to leave in less than two minutes.
Walking as closely as possible to the edge of the platform, to minimise the view of him from the train’s windows, he walked to the first door of the first carriage and pressed the button to open it. Entering, he saw that the carriage was only half-full. There was no sign of Josh. That was a relief from the point of view that he hadn’t blown his cover. On the downside, not only could he not be certain that Josh was actually on this train, he also had no idea of when or where he would be getting off.
He’d just have to sit by the window and watch at each station to see if he got off. At least his ticket was good for the train he was on, as least as far as the first stop. Perhaps that was where Josh was going: he did come from the town after all.
The swift, modern train covered the journey to his town in just 12 minutes. He sank a little lower in his seat as he watched the passengers streaming off the train, a mix of locals and shoppers, drawn to the ever-popular shopping outlet. Just as he was beginning to think he must have lost Josh, he caught sight of him towards the back of the crowd, heading for the exit from the station.
He jumped up and got off the train just in time. Seconds after he alighted, the doors swooshed closed and the train began to depart. He was only about five yards behind Josh. It was risky being so close, but better than getting stuck on the train.
As they approached the gates, he hung back, waiting until Josh got a safe distance ahead. Once they were both out of the station he could resume stalking his prey.
He followed Josh along the main road, through the town centre and out the other side. As they headed along the path that led towards the HS2 railway line, it became quite apparent where they were going. Josh was heading directly for the tunnel where all the trouble had started.
This couldn’t just be a coincidence. Whatever Josh was doing there, it had to be in some way connected to what had happened to Dan. This could be his big chance to find out how to get back to his own time.
There were not many people around, so Dan kept his distance. To be spotted now after getting so close to finding the answers he craved would be devastating.
As Josh reached the tunnel entrance, he paused and looked around him. Dan quickly darted to the side of the path, about two hundred yards behind, and ducked behind one of the horse chestnut trees. He waited a couple of seconds and then risked peering around the side of the tree.
Josh wasn’t giving any indication that he had seen Dan. He had taken his backpack off and was now reaching inside. Dan noticed that he was looking around the whole time, glancing first one way and then the other. Clearly whatever he was doing, he didn’t want to be seen. What did he have to hide?
From his position behind the tree, Dan was ideally placed to see what Josh was doing. His whole body was obscured by the huge trunk, and he was far enough away, with various bushes and brambles blowing around in the wind between as to be practically invisible, as he continued to observe.
He watched as Josh pulled the tachyometer from his pocket. Dan had no idea what it was, of course. To him it just looked like some sort of long, metal stick. Whatever it was, it was clearly something important, judging by the attention Josh was paying to it.
Fascinated, Dan watched as Josh held the device out in front of him. What on earth was he doing? A few seconds later he had his answer. With a last look around him to check he wasn’t being watched, Josh did what he had done so many times before. He stepped forward and vanished.
“So that’s how…” uttered Dan.
There was no doubt whatsoever in his mind about what he had just witnessed. He’d seen Peter vanish in the same way.
Josh was travelling in time, just as Peter had, and just as he had. It had to be something to do with the strange metal device he’d been holding. That was the key.
Now all Dan had to do was get his hands on it.
Chapter Twenty
July 2108
When Peter emerged from the bubble, it was all quiet in the tunnel. When he had departed there had been an HS2 train roaring overhead, but it was all quiet now.
It was early in the morning but it wasn’t cold in the tunnel. He checked the list of dates that Josh had given him. It was the 13th July 2108.
It was a relief that there was no one around. It meant he didn’t have to jump back into the bubble straightaway. He would have a chance to look around, as long as he didn’t stray too far away.
The tunnel itself was crumbling and in a state of disrepair. The once smart brickwork was dirty, faded and cracked. Nothing had been done to it for years. The lights alongside the tunnel were still the same fluorescent yellow strips that had been there when the tunnel had first been built, almost a century ago. Hardly any of them were working now. An aura of neglect hung in the air.
He was keen to take a look outside. What would have changed in the 45 years since he’d been gone? Could he risk leaving the tunnel and the bubble unattended? It didn’t look as if anyone much came down here.
He walked up to the end of the tunnel leading to the housing estate. When he got there, he marvelled at what he saw.
Most of the old, red-brick buildings were gone, replaced by new space age-looking dwellings made out of a material that Peter couldn’t immediately identify. It resembled some sort of silver plastic. The houses themselves had no corners, no straight edges, and as far as he could tell, no doors or windows either. Were they even human dwellings at all, or had the robots taken over?
A few yards from the tunnel, he noticed that the fencing that used to prevent people from climbing on the railway line had gone. He climbed up the embankment to take a look.
In contrast to the space age houses, all he found up there were rusting, decaying tracks. It was clear no trains had run along here for a long time.
As he scrambled back down, he noticed something extraordinary happen to the end house. A door-sized panel opened in the base of a wall that had previously been smooth, and a man and a woman emerged. So that was how people got in and out. They walked along the path and towards the tunnel entrance.
The man looked about 70; as for the woman, she was much younger and impossibly beautiful. As they approached Peter, he looked at her more closely. Her eyes were clear blue, her clothing immaculate. She looked almost too well groomed to be true. Suddenly the realisation dawned. She was not a human at all, but an incredibly lifelike robot.
He decided to engage them in conversation. What harm could it do?
“Morning!” he said to them both.
“Oh, good morning,” said the man. “It looks like it’s going to be another scorcher! I always get good weather for my birthday.”
“He is 98 today,” said the robot. “I am taking him out for a treat.” She spoke in a perfectly normal human voice, not with the stilted, computer-like voices that he’d heard from the robots of the 2060s.
“I bet you are,” remarked Peter, marvelling at how young the man looked for 98. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“It’s Jamie,” said the man. “And this is my wife, Annie.”
So, robot marriage was now legal, thought Peter, remembering how he and
the others had once joked about Charlie marrying his barbecue. Whatever next?
“It’s very nice to meet you both. I’m Peter. I must say, you look fantastic for your age. What’s the secret?”
“Really?” replied Jamie. “I thought I was looking a bit old. Still, you should see my dad. He’s still going strong and he’s 138!”
“Wow!” replied Peter. “So how long are people living now?”
“You mean you don’t know?” asked Jamie. “I thought everyone knew that. There was a piece about it on this morning’s retina cast, actually. Apparently the oldest man in the world has just celebrated his 160th birthday. He lives in Japan. They reckon with the current genetic coding techniques, we’ll all be able to live forever soon.”
He turned to the robot. “I’ll probably even outlive you, Annie.”
“You can always download me into a new botbod when I wear out,” said Annie.
“I’m sure you’ll wear me out first,” said Jamie, giving her a knowing smile. “So, what were you doing up on the railway line, Peter? I saw you climbing down a minute ago.”
“I was just wondering where all the trains had gone,” replied Peter.
“Trains?” asked Jamie, incredulously, looking at Peter as if he’d just asked where the horse-drawn carriages were. “You are joking me, right? There haven’t been any trains on that line for over twenty years. Where have you been hiding?”
“Oh here and there,” replied Peter. “It’s a hobby of mine, actually. I’m an amateur historian, doing some research for a book I’m writing.”
“You should meet my dad,” replied Jamie. “He’s an author. He published his first book when I was only two years old, can you believe? I keep thinking he’ll run out of ideas, but he keeps coming up with new ones. Anyway, we must be going. Annie’s buying me a milkshake at Neptune’s Diner.”
“Nice to meet you,” replied Peter. He watched as they turned and walked down the tunnel. Once they were a few yards away he heard Jamie exclaim “Trains!” again, and both he and Annie burst out laughing.
He watched them go down the tunnel. Fortunately they were heading toward town, which meant they wouldn’t fall into the bubble. He couldn’t hang around much longer, though, in case someone came up from the other direction.
Or could he? Just as Jamie and Annie reached the far end of the tunnel, Peter was startled as, right in front of him, Josh appeared out of nowhere.
“Bet that surprised you!” said Josh. “I’m glad I caught you, I was worried you might have jumped through already.
“Yes, you did surprise me,” replied Peter. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again quite so soon.”
“What do you mean, quite so soon?” joked Josh. “I haven’t seen you for 45 years!”
“That old chestnut!” replied Peter, laughing. “How many times have you pulled variations of that joke?”
“Ha, well there are not many people in the world that can, are there? And it never gets old, unlike us.”
“Fair point,” replied Peter. “So what brings you here? I’m guessing you wouldn’t have come without good reason.”
“Quite right,” said Josh. “I bring good news. I’ve worked out a way to switch off the time bubble temporarily. Come and see.”
He walked up to the exact location of the time bubble and pulled the tachyometer out of his backpack. “OK, watch carefully,” he said, and he demonstrated to Peter the exact procedure to follow.
He finished by pressing the red button on the tachyometer, whilst pointing it at the centre of the bubble. “Right, that should do it. Try it now.”
Peter walked round to the other side of the bubble, turned around, and walked tentatively through, as if he was ready to jump. As Josh had promised, nothing happened.
“I’m impressed,” said Peter. “But I knew you’d do it eventually. I was half-expecting you to turn up at some point.”
“The good thing is that now the bubble’s safe, you don’t have to jump over and over again straightaway. It gives you time to explore some of the future worlds you’ll be visiting. I have to say, I’m envious, I really wish I could come with you, but the tachyometer won’t take me that far.”
“Well since you’re here now, and we’re not in any hurry, how about exploring this one? You wouldn’t believe the houses they are living in now. I want to find out what they’re made out of.”
“Sounds like a plan,” replied Josh. “There is one thing, though. I could really do with a coffee.”
“Me, too,” replied Peter. “But how are we going to pay for it? I doubt whether these euros will be any good now.”
“Well, let’s go into town and find out,” said Josh. “I’d love to see what the town centre looks like now.”
“I’ve heard that Neptune’s Diner does a good milkshake,” said Peter. “I made friends with a guy earlier who was heading down there. Perhaps if you use your legendary charms to chat up his robot wife, she might buy us a drink.”
“Good idea,” said Josh. “I think I’m going to like the future.” Together they walked down the tunnel to explore the town.
It was late in the afternoon when Peter and Josh returned to the tunnel after a truly fascinating day. Although still clearly recognisable as the old town they’d known and loved, there were all manner of changes, of which the most striking was the architecture.
Traditional old brick and stone listed buildings still survived, but sat side-by-side with the latest buildings, made of a revolutionary type of living plastic, which could be remodelled and moulded at will by the occupant. That was how Jamie had managed to create a door out of what was seemingly a blank wall.
They had once again met up with Jamie and Annie, and had gratefully taken up their offer of a coffee. Over an hour or two they learned all about how the world had changed over the past forty years.
“Now we’re back,” began Josh, “let me show you how to restart the bubble. Then you can jump on to 2198 and I’ll come and join you there.”
The operation to restart the bubble went as planned, and Peter disappeared as expected. Josh set the tachyometer for the time he was due to reappear and created his own bubble, arriving at the end of the century at almost the same time as Peter.
“Wow! Look at this!” remarked Peter enthusiastically, as Josh appeared beside him.
The tunnel was gone, as was the railway line. They were now standing in an open area between incredibly sophisticated-looking buildings. Sleek, silver vehicles, with no obvious wings or wheels, flew swiftly and silently overhead. This was the first time Peter had seen this, but it didn’t come as such a shock to Josh. He had travelled to this time period before.
“I’ve seen it before,” replied Josh. “When I came to…” He paused, not wanting to say what was in his mind in front of Peter.
“I know,” replied Peter. “It was when you came to the future to look for a cure for Hannah. It’s OK.”
“I was in Oxford then, rather than here. You should have seen it. Remember all those horrific traffic jams in the city centre? That’s all very firmly in the past. These things were flying up and down St Giles’ at terrifying speed, but they never hit each other or anyone in the street. The AI that controls them is incredible. Apparently there’s not been a fatal accident involving one of them anywhere on the planet for over fifty years.”
“I’m amazed to see all this open space. I’d have thought it would have been all concreted over by now,” said Peter. “With what we found out about the human lifespan last time, the world population must be enormous by now.”
“I never got the chance to find all that out last time I was here,” replied Josh. “We’ve got a chance to find all that out now. Shall we go and see?”
“Lead on,” said Peter. Despite suffering from cancer, the excitement of the adventure was giving him an adrenaline rush that was keeping the illness at bay, for now. He may not have long left, but he was determined to find out every single thing he could about the future before his time was up. H
is was a unique opportunity.
“Take careful note of where we are,” said Josh. “With the tunnel gone, we don’t want to lose where the bubble is.”
He deactivated the bubble, and they went off exploring together once more.
It was late in the evening by the time they returned, amazed at what they’d seen.
The future was a true utopia. Death and famine had been all but eliminated. Humans and robots were now almost indistinguishable, with the majority of the population now consisting of hybrids of the two. It was even possible now for the female robots to conceive and carry a child to full term.
The world population had risen to over 35 billion, including the robots, but there was no shortage of space to live. Mars and the moon were fully colonised, as were several asteroids and moons of the outer planets. It had all been made possible by incredible terraforming techniques. There was no need to live under a dome – the colonised worlds had perfectly breathable atmospheres and controlled climates.
Exploration beyond the solar system was well underway, too, with the first pioneering colonies soon expected to be formed around neighbouring stars.
Josh and Peter had become aware just how anachronistic they must have looked to the inhabitants of the future world. They looked as out of place as if they’d turned up in their own time wearing Viking costumes. Fortunately no one questioned why they looked the way they did, and they even managed to have a few conversations with people in the park.
Money no longer existed, but lacking any implants to pay for things, they contented themselves with sitting in a park eating the sandwiches and drinking the drinks that Josh had brought with him in his backpack. This, too, must have looked odd to the inhabitants who doubtless wondered why they were drinking cans of a soft drink from the last century.
Josh said if anyone asked they would just say they were making a historical movie. Peter had replied by pointing out that perhaps movies no longer existed either. Since no one asked, it never became a problem.
