‘I think I landed on my phone. How’d you do?’
I considered the fight and shrugged. ‘I beat the bad guy.’
‘Yeah?’ Sammy cocked his head. ‘So, who is he?’
‘No idea. You’re more important.’
‘Shut up, I’m fine!’ He pointed up. ‘I’ll be okay, you go find out who Nemesis is.’
I turned off my costume and looked at him. ‘He got away.’
‘What? Why?’
I shrugged at him. ‘Making sure you were okay was more important than finding out his identity.’ I reached out a hand, which he took. I effortlessly pulled him to his feet, and he dusted himself down.
‘Well, then. Let’s get back to-’
A loud humming noise filled the air, and a maniacal cackle reverberated around the room, coinciding with a purple light which came from underneath us. As we peered down, we were jostled as the Chitin under our feet rose, and we slid off to the floor.
‘Time to go.’ Sammy pulled at me. ‘We need to stop Penderghast. Now.’
‘Why, what’s he doing?’
He stared at me. ‘You’re kidding, right? He’s going to start the Danti War, tonight!’
Chapter 21
Lemniscate
‘We have to stop him.’ Sammy yelled as we ran towards the light. The area was surprisingly vast, and although I could have flown us there much faster, I felt like I had to discuss something with Sammy.
‘Yeah, you said.’ I easily kept pace with him. ‘The Danti War and all that.’
‘Exactly. We can stop it from happening! All those people would still be alive.’
‘Except...’ I reached out to slow him down, thoughts racing through my mind. I stopped and turned to face him.
‘What?’
‘What if he’s right?’
Sammy shook his head. ‘Penderghast has no way of knowing what’ll happen to the world. He said it was estimates, remember?’
‘Yeah, but he’s studied this for years. He’s a doctor! He’s smarter than both of us put together.’
‘So? It doesn’t mean he’s right! All he said was that he suspected we’d die. There’s no evidence to his claims! He says he remembers another timeline, but what if he remembers a dream? Or he’s just crazy?’
‘No.’ I looked at him blankly. ‘The mad scientist who genetically enhanced humans to go back in time to kill other humans might be crazy? Who’d have thought it?’
He let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Think about it, Jay. Penderghast said that the world before the Danti invaded was doomed to fail... but we don’t live in that world! The Danti did invade! We don’t have to go through it again. Surely we’ve changed the world enough with the Danti Tech now? We have flying cars that run on methane, for God’s sake! We’re living in a mostly clean environment, no fossil fuels, unlimited clean energy... the world may not end anymore if we stop the Danti.’
‘Okay, so what happens? We stop the Danti going back in time and magically still get to keep the Danti tech, and... then what?’
‘Life goes back to normal?’
‘For who?’
‘More people than there were yesterday!’ He rapped the top of my head. ‘Think, McFly, think! No Danti. No SabrexTech. No war.’ He looked at me meaningfully. ‘No Squaddie to take Emily away from you. We could just go back to being us, before the war.’
‘Yeah, but-’
‘But what?’
I sighed. ‘Emily. She wasn’t happy. But now we... we could be.’ I frowned. ‘I think. I dunno, Sammy. I just... I don’t know.’
Sammy rested a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me. Then, before I could react, he cuffed me round the back of the head. ‘You moron. You’re talking yourself out of saving billions of people because of Action Barbie?’
‘I really wish you wouldn’t call her that. Anyway, we are who we are now. Maybe the war wasn’t a bad thing after all. Maybe we should just... let it happen.’
Sammy stared at me, stunned. ‘What do you mean it “wasn’t a bad thing”? How can you be okay with this just happening?’
‘It isn’t “just happening”, Sammy!’ I tried to get him to see the point I was beginning to grasp and ignored the hurt and confused expression on his face. ‘It already happened, remember? The world changed because of it. We live in a world of technology and wonder like we only saw in movies! People have powers, I have powers! We’re making the world better even without them with the Foundation! All we have to do is just let this ship go through, and we can have everything we always dreamed of. We could try.’
‘But-’
Something clicked for me. ‘If we don’t let this happen, I think I’m going to die. And since I’m not dead, we let it happen.’
‘What?’
‘Lemniscate. Nemesis. They’re Greek terms, aren’t they?’
‘Uhh...’ Sammy looked confused by my change of thought process. ‘Yeah? Nemesis was the God of vengeance, and Lemniscate is a maths term, to represent...’ I saw in his face he understood.
‘Right?’
‘Right.’ He completed. ‘Lemniscate represents the infinity symbol. The figure eight sideways.’
‘Infinity.’ I repeated. ‘It has already happened. And it has to happen again. It did happen, so it will. Sammy... I’m not wild about it. I hate the thought of all those people dying. But they’re dead already. We might change things and make them worse. But-’
‘No.’ He put a hand up. ‘Go back. What do you mean you think you’re going to die?’ He fixed me with a stare. Jay... how did you get the lottery ticket?’
I sighed. ‘The winning numbers dropped through the letterbox in an envelope on a note.’ I shrugged. ‘I never gave it much thought, but the note was kind of compelling.’ I paused. ‘Mostly because it was written in my own handwriting.’
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah.’ I cast my mind back. ‘It asked me to play the numbers and trust a shooting star I’d seen the night before.’ I pointed at my chest. ‘That’s why I chose this comet.’
‘It’s a fireball.’ Sammy corrected me without thinking.
‘I owe everything to that shooting star...’ I ignored him, and then something else clicked. ‘And I’m pretty sure that shooting star was me. Travelling back in time to deliver the letter.’
‘So you in the past saw yourself, as you are now, as a shooting star.’
‘Yeah.’
Sammy gave me a faint, knowing smile. ‘Did you wish on yourself?’
‘That’s not important.’
‘You totally wished on yourself.’ His smile broadened. ‘What did you wish for?’
‘Sammy.’
‘Was it money?’ He paused. ‘Damn. I need to wish on myself more often.’
‘Sammy.’ I rolled my eyes, just as a loud thrum echoed through the chamber, and the purple glow intensified. It lit up Penderghast, who stood by a control panel laughing. The Chitin silently glided forwards, edging slowly towards the glowing purple light.
I shook my head. ‘You decide, Sammy. I can’t. Stop the Danti War, but potentially kill me; assuming Emily would still leave. You saw how bad I was then. If you let the Chitin go through, it happens just the same as we remember. Lemniscate. Infinity. But I have to go back in time, too. I can’t stay! I need to give myself the winning numbers, or nothing will stop me from killing myself. I have to set all this in motion on my end, otherwise there’s no point.’
‘I just... you can’t put that on me, man. You just can’t. That’s not fair! I’m not exactly unbiased here, myself, am I?’ He turned away from me, and we watched in silence, about three seconds later, as the Chitin sailed silently through the portal. Slowly, we turned to stare at each other.
‘Well,’ Sammy mused. ‘That’s one less thing to... worry about?’
So, we didn’t prevent the end of the world. But that’s okay - in failing, we actually ended up helping save it. Which is good. I guess.
By the time we got to the portal, Penderghast had already programm
ed the time machine to the evening of the day I saw the shooting star, as well as what looked like a rough location above the house Sammy and I used to share. ‘You need to win the lottery.’ He nodded; somehow, he already knew what I had to do. ‘There is, however, one slight issue.’
‘Which is?’
‘Radiation poisoning.’ He shrugged apologetically. ‘My men... the “Danti” as you call them... were engineered, in part, to survive the temporal displacement. You, however, won’t have that protection. There’s a very high chance you may end up with severe radiation poisoning. Even if you don’t... well. You won’t be able to time travel back to this moment. There are no portals in the past, only here and now. Even if there were portals there, you definitely wouldn’t be able to use them, because your chance of contracting radiation poisoning would increase drastically.’
‘Radiation poisoning?’
Penderghast nodded. ‘My men were dosed with small amounts of the radiation over time, to build up an immunity. They were in a secure lead lined environment for that purpose.’
‘Oh. Well, I’ll be okay.’
‘Are you sure, Mr Anson?’ He peered over his thick glasses at me. ‘Because I’m not. You may die. You may not. And if you don’t, you won’t be able to get involved in events. You won’t even be able to tell anyone who you are - remember, the day after you arrive, you’ll be the most famous man on the planet. You’ll have to find somewhere and wait, alone, for several months.’
I nodded slowly, taking all this in. ‘And if I don’t go?’
‘Then there’s no guarantee that whoever wins the lottery... if it is just one person... will be as benevolent as you, and Lemniscate may not get the funding we need to develop the Danti, and the world will end.’
‘So... no pressure, I guess.’ Sammy smiled, seeming more like his old self and patting me on the back.
‘I have to go back.’ I shrugged, resigned to my fate. ‘I already have, right?’ I turned to look at the purple doorway and took some steps towards it. Sammy had a tear in his eye. When he saw I’d noticed, he wiped it away, moved towards me, then hugged me hard. ‘See you soon, yeah?’
‘Count on it.’ I grinned. ‘Hey! With all the time I have free, I may grow a beard.’
He laughed. ‘I’d like to see you try that.’
‘Deal.’
Doctor Penderghast coughed. ‘Gentlemen, the power output needed to sustain the time displacement portal is astronomical. If you don’t go now...’
I nodded at him and slapped the disc on my belt. Sami powered up, and I flew through the portal.
I didn’t know what I had expected, going through a time portal. Would it be a long, glowy tunnel where I would have flashbacks to things I had seen and done since the night I saw the shooting star, and Marlon Brando’s voice would echo through, warning me not to meddle in human history? Would it be a psychedelic trip like in 2001? Would there be a swirling blue time vortex, letting me see I was travelling to the past?
Sadly, none of the above. I went through the portal and was instantly spat out over the coast of what I hoped was England. The only thing I knew for certain was that I was nowhere near my old home.
‘Sami, what time is it?’
‘Please wait. Adjusting to local time.’ I tried to get my bearings, but I was pretty high up and honestly, navigating by sight when the only real landmark is “Oh look, a cloud” is pretty tricky. I felt a slight panic and my stomach clenched.
‘Current time is 18:37.’
‘Oh! That’s loads of time.’
‘Warning - incoming craft.’
‘What?’
‘Behind us. Initiating evasive manoeuvres.’ Sami did so, bringing up a rear view for me. Two fighter jets were roaring towards me.
‘Go up!’
‘Compliance.’ Sami angled us vertically, and we blasted up through the clouds.
‘Who the hell are these guys?’
‘Scanning... Royal Air Force.’
‘Why are they attacking me? I’m a British citizen. I pay taxes, dammit!’
‘They probably think we’re an intruder.’
‘Why?’
There was a fraction of a pause - I had come to recognise these as Sami’s way of communicating that she thought I was being stupid. ‘Because we just appeared out of thin air, have no flight plan filed, and the last time that happened there was an attack on the entire planet.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ I felt panicked, and the twisting in my gut felt worse.
‘Your heart rate is elevated.’ Sami informed me.
‘You think?’ I snapped. ‘Just get us out of here.’
‘Compliance!’
We shot up higher and faster, and I could see that we were losing the jets.
‘Okay, Sami. I think we’re safe now.’
‘Incoming missile.’
I sighed. ‘Of course.’ I felt bile rising in my throat, and my panic got worse. ‘Sami, I think there’s something wrong.’
‘Affirmative. You appear to be experiencing high levels of anxiety.’
‘We’re being shot at!’ I howled.
I spun us and we dove suddenly, moving too erratically for the missile to track us properly. It overshot us and I resumed my ascent, until the air got too thin to breathe properly.
Or maybe that was just me.
‘Warning.’ Sami stated. ‘Reaching upper levels of breathable atmosphere.’
‘Okay, good. It’s not me.’
‘It is you as well. Your anxiety levels are well beyond your norms.’
‘What’s happening?’
‘Hypothesis: you have temporal radiation poisoning.’
‘And it’s making me worried?’
‘Unknown. You would be the first person to experience this, so there is no benchmark against which to measure.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘Great.’ The compass and navigational menu came on. ‘Can you get us to where we need to go?’
‘Affirmative.’
‘Then do it. And don’t stop for anything.’
‘Compliance!’
We rocketed across the sky, skimming the atmosphere, for what felt like an age. I’m sure there were times I passed out, but instead of making the trip disjointed and shorter, the night stretched on.
‘Sami?’
‘Waiting.’
‘Are we there yet?’ I smiled, and I could feel how weak and feeble it was.
‘Negative.’
‘Why?’
‘You have not given me an address. Also, my navigational equipment has picked up what may be a slight malfunction due to the temporal crossing. I have been plotting a course over England, but without a destination it has been difficult.’
I muttered the address to her, not knowing if she heard me properly. She changed our course regardless, and we slowly began to descend.
‘I wonder if I can see myself yet?’ I whispered. ‘That... that would be cool.’
‘Mr Anson?’
‘How many times do I have to ask you to... call me... Jason?’
If Sami replied, I didn’t hear her. The world turned black once more, and the last thing I was aware of was the slow but inevitable sense of falling.
I could taste copper in my mouth when I awoke. I was laying in a field, a cow chewing cud overhead, sniffing me gently. I couldn’t tell if it was worried, or just decided to get revenge for all it’s kin I had eaten over the years.
‘Hi.’ I looked at it, suddenly squinting as the cow shifted and the sun blasted me in the face. ‘Sami, turn that light off!’ I grumbled. I felt as if I had the worst hangover of my life.
‘Sami?’
I looked down to see my own body. I must have turned the belt off, and Sami with it. The belt vibrated against my waist: Sami letting me know she was okay and listening.
‘We need to get going. I have to find paper, an envelope, and...’ I tapped my pockets. ‘And money. I left my wallet on the nightstand table.’ Cursing my lack of forethought, I stood and brushed myself
down. The cow stepped away, and we regarded each other. ‘I know: why did I leave the house not expecting to have to travel back in time to make sure I won the lottery, right?’ I scratched it on the top of it’s head, to which it snorted contentedly, and hurried out of the field.
You can probably guess the rest.
I did, indeed, find the right sort of paper and envelope. I used a pen in the local post office to scrawl down the numbers and wrote myself a short note. When writing to a past self, it seems like it would be a cathartic thing to do, to release your worries. Sadly (or perhaps luckily), I didn’t have to struggle over what to write. I knew, word for word, what I should put down as surely as if I had read the note before.
Because I had.
Dear Jason,
Please play these lottery numbers tonight. 03, 06, 09, 12, 16, 37. You can find a £5 note under the overturned pug-print cushion Sammy got you as a joke last Christmas.
Your life will change forever, and I guarantee you, you will be happy.
See you around sometime.
A friend.
For a moment I thought about adding a post-script. Something about Emily, or a warning about the dangers I was going to face to get up to that point. However, I decided against it, for two reasons:
Firstly, if I warned myself at all about anything, I might change the events that led me here. I may end up avoiding the explosion that hurt me or may even end up being more seriously injured when the crazy Sapiens First people captured me. Everything had to play out, from the Danti War to-
That froze my insides. I was complicit in the wholesale murder of 1.3 billion people. Soldiers, civilians... my neighbour’s wife. My parents. These weren’t just faceless brings, these were friends and relatives, and more than the entire population of England had ever been. I hadn’t launched the Danti invasion... I had even considered trying to stop it, in fact.
But I didn’t consider it very hard.
Using the old lady hologram, I waited until Sammy left our tiny old house, watching as he left, worry plain on his features, and posted the letter through my door. As I listened to myself shuffling around the staircase, I realised something...
‘Sami, where the hell am I going to stay until time catches up with me?’
Guardian's Rise Page 29
