-----------------------
E.
I could not believe what I was hearing!
I said, “Father, forgive me, but I must speak my mind. This is too much! All that time I was left on my own you were buffeting about up and down the centuries,! I suppose you were in cahoots with Mr Wells in manipulating James as well?”
“Of course I did. Do you not think he is a good match for you?”
I looked at James who had a rather stunned expression upon his face. "Please do not tell me you are complicit in this charade as well?"
"Certainly not, Elizabeth! I am quite shocked being used like this."
At this point, Mr Wells, who until that moment had expressed no interest in this exchange said, "I can assure you that both of you have not been used. A trail of clues and hooks had been set for some years. Many people found them but only you two had the curiosity and free minds to pick them up and understand them. You should congratulate yourself and also have some sympathy for your father who could only stand aside and watch. You do not know how much he loves you, Mrs Urquhart."
I looked at my father. He was twiddling his thumbs and had that comforting smile I remembered he reserved for me when I was young and found myself vulnerable in a world I did not understand. I was about to reach out and embrace him when Wells said, "Now, as we are all here we must address the real task: the end of time."
As he said it I noticed the room had become quite dark. Without prompting Mr Hyatt stood up and said he would fetch candles. A weak light cast shadows on the walls, removing much of the colour. I went to the window and to my amazement saw the tree-lined courtyard as it stood in my time silhouetted by an evening sky fleeced with golden clouds. I turned to Mr Wells for an explanation.
"What time is it here, Mr Wells?"
"In here it is always 1895. But for you it is time to go."
James said, "And what are we expected to do?"
"That is your choice. You can explore the end of time or you can go back home. There are no constraints."
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Chapter 9
J.
No constraints indeed! Wells knew our natural curiosity would get the better of us.
We stepped through the portal door of the house and saw again the great comet floating in the sky just above the glowing horizon. It was unnatural, like a death white nebulous head with its two shrouds trailing behind. In the west a red-horned moon and Mars added to the hellish landscape which I'm sure Dante could have used in his first book. The air smelt of burnt hay.
It was just Elizabeth and me who formed the heroic team as Marco had decided it was best to 'volunteer' to stay behind, ready, as he explained it, to help out if or when we returned. Though what help that would be wasn't forthcoming.
I opened the door of the machine and we entered. The sound of the wind abating gave us a semblance of protection.
"Which way shall we go, Elizabeth?"
"You know there is only one way."
I really must find a girl who runs away at the first sign of adversity so I don't have to pretend to be the hero.
I pushed the time lever gently towards 536 AD. At first nothing seemed to happen. The wild scene on the wall didn't change but as we got closer to what we thought was the time edge a shower of molten, glowing rocks suddenly lifted up to the sky from the horizon and became meteorites which travelled towards the comet. We sped backwards through days and watched more and more glowing fragments as they rose up to the sky. On the horizon the air flickered in hues of red and orange. I could not imagine what hell it was for those witnessing it in the sixth century while we sat safely, or we hoped safely, inside the machine. Suddenly the broken trees around us rose and righted themselves although they were affected by storm filled winds which blew towards the north. Then an orange, glowing, elongated ball flew up into the sky no more than half a mile away. As we watched its fiery trail a shadow appeared on the horizon and grew bigger. At first we didn’t comprehend what was going on until to our horror we realised it was a wall of earth rising like a wave and coming towards us!
We held each other tight frozen with fear. The wall rose higher and higher. Then my nerve broke and I reached for the time lever to propel us back to our future. But just at that exact moment the vision changed. I still do not know whether I, or time, changed it but we found ourselves on Mars. A Mars of blue skies and oceans.
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E.
I was transfixed by the suddenness of the apparition before me. My mind was still racing from the shock of being plucked from what I thought were the jaws of death. I was standing on a golden shore. Before me great blue waves slowly rose and fell in the weak gravity. I recognised where we were but it was impossible! In the sky hung Phobos and Deimos. But then I realised ‘when’ we were for the third moon appeared over the horizon and once again Marco's white boat appeared sliding up and down the waves towards us.
James grabbed my hand, "We're here again! And there's Marco coming towards us. How did we come back here?"
"Move the date forward quick!" I shouted for I feared we would find ourselves travelling in some circle of time around the nexus from which we could not escape. James pushed the lever forward. With relief we found we were still on Mars but as we moved into the Martian future, to our horror the moon started to fall toward us.
I realised my mistake almost too late, "It's the wrong way, James! We have to go back to the nexus!"
"What? God, you’re right!"
He pulled back the lever and the moon receded. Then we arrived at the nexus and found ourselves back on Earth only to be confronted with the mountainous wall or wave of earth rising towards us again! Without prompting James moved us forward in time and thankfully the wall receded, the trees fell back to the ground and we found ourselves outside the house again in relative calm.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, James, I did not think," I said.
"But you did think and I thought it was the right move as well 'till it was bloody obvious to both of us it wasn't."
"Yes. But I wish, if you do not mind me taking a liberty with your language, James, I wish sometimes that things were more 'bloody' obvious a little sooner. I do not know how we get away with it sometimes."
"Nor do I. But now I've got a great idea."
"I'm not convinced I can take any more ideas."
"It's simple. We just sneak off to the future together and leave them all to it in that cursed house."
A sudden warmth of a childhood world protected from all danger washed over me. "It is an idea with great merit." I replied, "We will throw this confounded machine into the sea, then go home, change the locks, hide under the stairs and answer the door to no one."
"Yes, and we will only come out to make cake and babies."
I came close to him. I felt our hearts beating still fast and I whispered, "James, you should know that I would not normally accept that latter proposition in a place like this without due consideration but,” I gently bit his ear, “at this moment I confess I find it singularly attractive."
"Excellent. You will be held to that when we get home. But in the meantime shall we go and see what your damn father is up to?"
On this occasion I allowed James licence with regard to his description of my earthly creator.
------------------------
J.
Marco looked as though he was quite surprised to see us when he poked his head through the portal of the house.
An image from a fairground came to my mind and I said, "Marco, have you ever thought of finding employment in a coconut shy?"
It was quite gratifying to see the confusing look on his face not helped by Elizabeth 's rather unladylike snort of laughter.
We went through the portal into the warm safety of the house. Hyatt, Wells and Elizabeth's father were in the drawing room sitting around a table covered in drawings and maps. I could see her father was visibly moved by her safe return for he embraced her very enthusiastically
for a Victorian.
Wells came over and shook my hand and said, "Well done on returning, now please sit down and tell us what you saw if you can. But first I imagine you may be hungry."
He turned to Hyatt and said, "Mr Hyatt, would you be good enough to make our intrepid adventurers some tea? There is some bread pudding in the larder which I'm sure Mr Urquhart will appreciate."
Hyatt got up from the table, congratulated us on our return and shook my hand. And then being not sure how to greet Elizabeth shook her hand as well before disappearing into the parlour.
When we had finished recounting our trip, Wells pondered for a minute or so while we listened to the whistle of the kettle getting louder in the kitchen. When it stopped, accompanied by a muffled cry from Hyatt regarding the surprising conductive properties of metal pots, Wells said, "So what you saw suggests to me the catastrophe on Mars and Earth must be linked in time."
I agreed, "Yes, it's too much of coincidence. As we hit the time barrier we popped up on Mars just in time to witness its destruction."
Elizabeth said, "Yes, but what was unaccountable was that we arrived at exactly that time at, which we saw Mr Batalia in his boat."
Marco said, "What? You saw me? So why didn't you wait for me?"
"Because," I answered, "We feared we would find ourselves repeating that adventure all over again."
"So you just left me with the world about to end!"
"Yep. No, I’m only kidding, Marco. I'm sure the Marco that we saw will meet us in that time line, if you get what I mean, and rescue you. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation."
Before Marco could respond Wells brought us back to the subject. "Thank you, Mrs Urquhart. This must be a clue. It indicates that somehow time can be bent."
There was then another silence which was thankfully interrupted by Hyatt bringing in a tray of tea and cake. We tucked in. While contemplating whether to grab the last piece of bread pudding or offer it to Elizabeth an idea came to me. I said, "I think time has been distorted or fractured."
I looked around the table. No encouragement, only expectation, so I carried on. "Let me show you. Give me some paper from that table and a pen or pencil."
I drew a number of parallel lines on a piece of paper.
"Imagine," I said, holding up the paper, "this paper is Space and these are alternative time lines stretching from the past to the future through it. We know we can somehow cross from one time line to another but up to now I didn't think they crossed. Now watch."
I then tore the paper into two strips, then put them back together again on the table.
"See the lines are continuous across the strips, but if I move one of the strips sideways the lines are broken. All time is still here but it is disjointed and so you cannot travel from here to here."
Wells said, "So what you are saying is that all of history is still here but we can't reach it anymore?"
"It's only a theory. But watch this." I said, moving one of the strips at right angles to the time lines. "You see if you move this strip here further sideways the lines join up again."
"Of course. They are now joined to different time lines!" exclaimed Wells. "So if you go past this tear or fracture you end up in a different time line."
"Very clever, Urquhart," said Marco. "But that doesn't explain how you arrived on Mars?"
"I can only think that not only is time fractured but space as well. However, to visualise and understand that you need to see in five dimensions."
At that point everyone turned to the Martian who was now looking straight at me.
--------------
E.
The Martian creature, which had sat on the corner table under its glass cover almost unnoticed, was changing colour. Its white skin, if that was what it was, was now rippling with hues of the rainbow. Small gossamer wings lifted slowly from its back and fluttered minutely like a humming bird. Then it turned its gaze towards me. I grabbed James’ arm with both hands as I felt that familiar dream-like sleep waft over me. Once again a fear thrilled through me but I felt James' hand touch mine and I was not afraid.
The room dissolved and I was far away in space, black space, looking down on the planets. Shadows flickered close by. Then imperceptibly at first the worlds and moons slowly elongated into tubes of colour. They grew longer and longer and as they stretched out into space they twisted into corkscrew spirals which followed a path around the sun which itself was growing into a yellow orange glowing rod. It was beautiful. And then its wonder came to me. I realised I was seeing as a Martian saw our world. I was seeing time!
As they twisted around the sun's path a white line suddenly appeared growing brighter and brighter which curved towards the Earth. But before I could look closer the whole vision became distorted by an invisible wave which pushed the tubes and lines backwards and forwards. Then another ripple, then another but each less powerful than before. It reminded me of being at the seaside amongst the rock pools where the ebb and flow of the waves tossed the seaweed and starfish back and forth.
Then the scene faded and I found myself back in the drawing room.
I turned to James, his hand still holding mine tight but before I could speak Marco said. "Did you all see what I just saw?”
We nodded silently.
"Thank God for that!" He exclaimed with some relief. "I'd thought you'd drugged me with the tea."
I ignored his rather crude remark and the disappointment of not thinking of doing that to him a long time ago for I had noticed the Martian had returned to its white immobile self.
---------------
J.
I'd guessed since we saw that Martian perched on the gatepost on our visit to Hamgreen that they had an interest in what we were doing although until now it hadn't been clear what they were up to nor why they had waited till now to help. But maybe they'd been helping us all along in their own way. What was obvious though was they seemed to need our help. But for what? As far as I could tell this Martian had tried to show us what had happened by trying to present his five dimensional universe in our 3D world. But why did it need to tell us? Were we expected to deduce something from our group dream and carry out some action?
I thought I'd ask Wells first.
He said. "My view is they have shown the passage of our solar system through time by making time look like a spatial dimension. But I do not subscribe to that view. Time is time"
"Yes, Wells, but we all move through space-time at the speed of light which suggests it has spatial properties."
"But we are here and I don't feel us moving at all."
"That's because we only see in 3D. We are travelling actually through time at the speed of light even when we are standing still. Everything - and I mean everything - is travelling at the speed of light. Not a bit less or a bit more. That was Einstein 's great insight."
"But when I drive or ride I would then go faster than that speed."
"No. Time slows down or space contracts so that you still travel at light speed. In the four dimensional world of space-time everything travels at that speed."
"But when a light beam travels, what happens to time?" said Mr Hyatt demonstrating he was obviously doing a good job at keeping up.
"It's reduced to zero.” I said, “A light beam takes no time to go from point to another."
"That cannot be right for we know that light from the nearest star takes about four years to reach us."
"Yes. That is because its distance in space is four light years and we travel along our time line for four years and to us that's the time it takes. But if you sat on the light beam you would arrive here in no time at all."
Hyatt said, "Sorry, Mr Urquhart, I have lost the road now."
Elizabeth said, ignoring Hyatt. "But what about those ripples which buffeted the moons and planets? Did you see them, James?"
"Yes, I did. I think what we were watching was a massive gravitational wave from a collapsing star or galaxy."
There was then much discu
ssion where I tried quite abysmally to explain the concepts of black holes, super novae and how space could be squeezed and stretched.
When Elizabeth began to realise I was on the limits of my knowledge and about to topple off she came to my rescue. Just in time, I might add, as even I was beginning to not believe what I was saying.
"So if I understand correctly," she said holding my hand again for she could see I was getting a little stressed with being the house answering service, "this wave buffets space, wobbling everything about and causing the moon to crash on Mars and send Halley’s comet closer to Earth."
"Yes." I said, relieved that someone was following me. "And when we reach 536 AD we hit this wobble which is so powerful it makes it impossible to travel further back in time."
"I thought the Martians tried to destroy the moon but failed to do it properly," said Marco.
"Maybe they would have done it properly if the gravitational wave hadn't passed through the solar system." I said.
"Point taken."
"But why do you end up on Mars?" said Wells.
"And Urquhart," said Marco, throwing in another penny's worth. "Why is it we used to be able to see the Milky Way and can't see it now?"
I was beginning to understand what it must have been like to be Chief Wizard in a primitive village. Everyone keeps on asking you questions you can't answer or they can't be bothered to answer themselves. And the more questions you answer the more they ask. Eventually the people stop thinking for themselves and the wise wizard gives up as well and just feeds them anything that comes into his head.
I'm sure one of the big problems with our species is if something seems sensible we believe it's right. You know what I mean. From my seat here the earth is flat and the Sun goes around the Earth. Obvious to anyone who looks, isn't it? Then some bright spark asks what's holding the flat earth up and you tell then it's sitting on a turtle, hoping they'll go away. Then another hundred years goes by with everyone happy with that until some idiot asks what's the turtle sitting on? Eventually you have to tell them you made it up and it's all lies and actually the Earth is round and goes around the Sun. This goes down well because they tell you they've always thought the Sun God was really important and it makes sense he should be at the centre of the universe. However, when you tell them, a bit too smugly, it's just one of billions of suns and we live in a dark nondescript place on the edge of a galaxy and they should all grow up and live with it, they begin to doubt your wisdom. Then just when you’re consoling yourself that you’re the only intelligent person in the village and everyone else is a fool, some railway clerk arrives and tells the villagers that time isn't constant and solid matter is nearly all empty space even though you can't see through it. You know at that point that your wizard accolade is about to come to a sticky end. However, sensing I still had the pointy hat I continued.
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