by E M Gale
“But if you were in trouble, Anna, I’d probably have a good idea why, so I could go straight to you.”
‘The whole thing’s academic, as Anna’s too sensible to get herself into trouble.’
“Well, anyway, I’m glad you’re OK.” She still sounded slightly put out.
Rob was the only person standing up and he was fidgeting.
“That done with?” He was practically bouncing up and down on his heels. Anna looked less pissed off, so that was good.
“Yes.” I stood up and walked over to the vending machines on the other side of the room.
“Clarke! Where the hell are you going now?” yelled Mark. I turned back in surprise.
‘What is he so het up about?’
“Just getting a coffee. Calm down.” I fed coins into the vending machine. I’d figured out that the red buttons under cans with coffee beans on vended hot coffee. Canned hot coffee seemed a strange idea to me. The can was too hot to hold comfortably in my hand, but my need for coffee was strong enough that I put up with it. I wandered back over and perched on the end of the couch Anna was sitting on, my feet on the seat, my posture relaxed. I was feeling pretty good. Sex does that to me.
“This was why I didn’t like living with you,” stated Anna. We had been flatmates in the last few years of my degree.
“You what?”
“Guys,” said Rob, waving his hands.
“You were always wandering off at odd hours.”
“Sorry,” I said, not really meaning it. “But I don’t really like being cooped up. I like to walk.” I took a scalding gulp of very hot, very sweet coffee and wondered just what orcian coffee tasted like. “And you didn’t have to bother yourself checking up on me, you know.”
“Guys,” said Rob.
“Of course I did! You’re my friend, of course I would worry if you go missing at odd hours.”
“Guys!” said Rob, practically jumping up and down. We all looked at him. “Let’s talk about getting back. Now, I’ve been–”
“Wait.” I held a hand up. The room we were in was empty, but it was large, open and overlooked by the upper-storey corridors. In short, it would be next to impossible to not be overheard by someone. “Follow me.”
Unfolding myself from the couch, I padded up the stairs. I didn’t need to look back to check that they would follow me. I went to the room Jane, Anna and I were occupying and started laying out the cushions in a circle on the floor. My friends walked in. When they were all in, I looked out into the hallway. I knew that there was no-one there, as I couldn’t hear anyone, but I thought I should check. Then I shut the door.
“Go on,” I said to Rob, who looked stunned at my behaviour.
“Who are you scared will hear us?” asked Jane.
“No one really. But better safe than sorry. I certainly don’t want wannabe time travellers following us around.”
Rob nodded as if it were a wise idea that he had thought of.
I sighed. “Well, Rob, I presume that was the subject you were about to raise.”
“Yes, I’ve been thinking about how to get back.”
‘I suspected you would.’
He then launched into a long description of what he thought had happened and how he intended to redo the experiment. I let it wash over me. It was like being in a seminar, but better as I didn’t have to take notes. I just drank my over-sweetened coffee, breathing in its smell and thinking wistfully about filter coffee.
Rob finished his explanation. Anna was looking confused, while Jane and Mark just looked bored. I sighed loudly, then spoke:
“Rob, how will you tune your experiment to ensure that we end up back on Earth when we left and not floating in pieces somewhere in space?”
“In pieces?” Anna squeaked.
“Ah, well,” started Rob, “if we reverse the polarity of the magnetic field, then, in theory, we should go backwards. I think.”
“‘In theory’?” That didn’t sound very convincing to me.
“You do know that theory is not a word for half-baked guesses, but refers to coherent, testable bodies of thought built up with logical reasoning upon self-consistent mathematical assumptions?”
He frowned.
‘And anyway, there’s no way I’m going to be anywhere near that experiment.’
“OK, Clarke,” he said sheepishly. “Do you want to model it after all? That way we can predict what we need to do to get back?”
I was stunned, then I frowned.
‘Model what? We still don’t know what got us here in the first place. And anyway, I don’t want to be near the experiment, but is that all? Do I really want to go back home anyway? It seems more interesting now in the future…’
Rob misunderstood the reason for my silence. “And… I’ll put your name on the paper…” The next sentence seemed dragged from him. His eyes were downcast. “I suppose… we can share the Nobel Prize.”
‘Oh, that’s what he thinks I’m holding out for, is it?’
I sighed. “Rob, I can’t model it.” He looked at me in confusion. “I have no idea what caused the phenomenon. Where would I start?” I held my hands up and empty to show my lack of a solution.
‘I could spend a lifetime modelling that damn experiment and not get an answer.’
‘I am interested in time travel, but far more interested in immortality, people and vampires as a field of research. And anyway, I’m not sure I want to research and theorise when I have a galaxy to explore and learn about. This whole event has served to show me how little I actually know about the universe. I think I need to know more before I can even attempt any useful theories. Plus, if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’m bored with academic research.’
“You must have some ideas?” said Rob desperately.
“Nope, none.”
“C’mon, Clarke, you’re good at all this formulae stuff.”
‘I love the way he still disparages theory as a lesser partner to experiment even while he’s begging for my help.’
“Nope.” I smiled. “And anyway theories can’t reveal the truth of the world, wasn’t that what you said? ‘Theory is useless, pointless, a complete waste of time.’ You’ve said all of that before. After all, ideas can’t hurt you, can they? No, apparently not. Equations can’t bite, but one idiot with a misaligned helium-neon laser can fire you across space and time. What good would a theoretical model be in that situation?”
I paused. It seemed I was more upset about all of this that I had thought. Rob was frowning at me now.
I continued: “We have no data from the incident. I can’t even guess which force moved us, whether it was one we know of or one mankind has never seen before, at least in the twenty-first century anyway.”
He shrugged.
I jabbed my thumb towards my chest. “So I’m supposed to come up with a brand-new grand unified theory of everything, which just happens to include some weird force that arises from an electromagnet, plasma and red light assembled by a monkey, and if I spent a lifetime doing that, and believe me, it would take a lifetime, I get to go back with you and you’ll be so kind as to share your Nobel Prize with me!”
He was about to interrupt, but I didn’t give him the chance.
“Well, thanks, but no thanks.”
Rob’s mouth was open now.
“And anyway, you were wrong. Ideas can hurt. They are the most dangerous thing in the universe!”
‘OK, maybe that last sentence was overkill.’
I expected that Rob would blow up at me, like he usually did when we started the old theory-versus-experiment argument we so enjoyed. But oddly, he didn’t. He still looked like he wanted to beg me for help, but didn’t do that either.
‘Damn.’
I breathed slowly to calm myself down.
There was near-silence in our room. I smelt the wood of the inn, heard the other residents moving around on the creaking floors. Anna was close to tears, Rob was pacing, Mark and Jane looked depressed.
&nbs
p; ‘I shouldn’t have said all of that. When will I learn to keep my mouth shut?’
I sighed, letting the tension escape with my breath. Then I tried to sort things out.
“Anyway, I can’t model it, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up.” I said it nicely. I even smiled.
‘Can’t model it or don’t want to, Clarke?’ I asked myself. Luckily, no one else did.
‘What is their problem? They’ll be fine here. Rob can find spaceships to play with, and the others can get jobs. And anyway, why aren’t they working on doing that, rather than daydreaming about Nobel Prizes awarded from people two hundred years in the ground? At least I’ve been doing things that were useful.’
Rob glared at me. I guessed he wasn’t going to bother begging me then, which was probably just as well. It would be uncomfortable for both of us.
“Fine,” he spat, “how do you suggest we get back, Clarke?”
‘Well, about that… In the past there’s one world, Earth, in the future hundreds, thousands, maybe more occupied planets. In the past one species, humans, in the future many aliens. In the past vampires are mostly unknown, and if known they are feared, in the future they are known and, if not exactly loved by all, at least accepted. Why would I want to go back exactly?’
They were all quiet and looking at me.
“Well?” asked Rob. He was too incensed to see what was clearly written on my face. Anna could though.
“Seriously, Clarke?” she asked incredulously.
“Seriously what?” Rob barked. “Well, Clarke, how do we get back?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think we can at the moment–”
‘–I don’t think I care, really.’
Rob ran his fingers through his hair, pulling it up into unruly spikes. “So you don’t have any idea how to get back and you’re disparaging my attempts at it? If you don’t know, don’t stop me!”
“I’m not stopping you, do what you like,” I said. “But I think we need to find some way of getting money, and, to be honest, I think that’s more important right now. It’s a lot easier to have philosophical discussions about time travel once you have food in your belly and a roof over your head.”
Rob threw his hands up. “Gah! Money again! Yes, yes, we know, you pawned your stuff for money, but money’s not important, we’re talking about science here!”
The guy was lucky enough to have never been poor. He’d never had to have a real job, all his money came from grants or his parents, so he didn’t know what poverty entailed or how easy it was to land neck deep in it.
“OK,” I said, “how are you going to get access to the stuff you need for your experiments?”
“Well, I’ll find a university, get a grant,” he said as if it were obvious.
“The universities are only on Earth.”
“How’d you know that?” asked Mark.
I glanced at him. “Library research. That’s why I spent my afternoon there yesterday.”
‘Why haven’t they thought about this stuff? Why do I have to sort it all out?’
“So we go to Earth then,” said Rob.
I smiled coldly. “OK, how do we get there?”
“I don’t know.” He waved his hands in the air in a vague shrugging-like gesture. “A spaceship or something.”
“Ah, a spaceship. And tell me, how do we pay for this spaceship?”
“Well… we pawn more stuff,” said Rob weakly. All we had arrived with what was in our handbags, coats and pockets. I estimated that if we pawned all our devices as antiques, we could live for a little while. But that wasn’t sustainable and probably wouldn’t be enough for five people’s transport to Earth.
‘Four people’s transport to Earth. I don’t want to go back. There’s a great big galaxy out there, a lifetime’s worth of places to explore. And didn’t the orc say that Ragnarok IV is a dull backwater place? What the hell else is out there? I want out! Sod this time travel stuff, let’s try space travel!’
Rob slumped to the floor, deep in thought. Jane was observing me with narrowed eyes and Anna was watching Rob. I sighed and pulled my computerised notebook out of my handbag and turned it on.
“Oh, you bought one of those notebook things,” observed Mark. I ignored him.
I’d grabbed as much information as I could from the library. I’d been sure to get everything filed under ‘Science’. I scribbled in the words ‘time travel’ and searched. A few hits came up. I skimmed the titles; they were all theoretical papers, there was nothing about practical time travel.
‘Hmm. If I want off this planet, perhaps persuading them to go to Earth might be a good idea. Not that I think that Earth is a good place to go. They’re very big on regulations there, and will probably catch us out as time travellers. Then we’ll find ourselves on the wrong side of a government research project. Well, I certainly will at least…’
“Clarke? Hello?” called Mark, waving his hands to attract my attention.
“I suppose we could get jobs,” Rob muttered, not looking very happy at the prospect.
“Well, we could try to get to Earth,” I said. “But let’s leave the subject for now. We’re stuck here for at least the time being, right?”
“Ah.” Anna smiled with relief. “So you have got a plan, then.”
I shrugged.
‘Well, pick up the IDs, find a ship, find money, something like that.’
“No, not really, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.” I smiled.
“Crazy stupid,” muttered Jane to herself. I only heard her because of my newly sharper hearing so I ignored her.
“Ah ha!” cried Rob, jumping up to his feet, I looked at him in alarm. He started to rapidly pace up and down the room. “When I get back I’ll write up my papers on the subject, so all we need to do is find them!”
“I looked in the library,” I said, “there was nothing on practical time travel.”
“Really?” He stopped mid-stride, one foot held above the mats.
“But that said, that library didn’t have access to all the papers ever written. Earth seems to be in some sort of intellectual isolation. They don’t share much of the work done there with the rest of the galaxy. And, as I said, all the universities are on Earth.”
Rob grinned, taking the crumb of hope I’d thrown him as evidence of a whole cookie. “Well, that’s it then,” he declared, stamping his foot down. “Obviously, the work is there in the archives, we just need to get to a university campus on Earth!”
“Riiight,” I said.
“So… we figure out how get home, by reading the papers that you wrote, after you figured out how to get home, by reading the papers…” puzzled Mark. “Is that even possible?”
Rob shrugged. “Ask the theorist.”
“Clarke?”
I smiled at Rob. “As an esteemed experimentalist once said to me, ‘Let’s find out.’”
Rob smiled at me gratefully.
‘Good, I think that’s the end of our argument, for this evening at least.’
Jane glared at me and then Rob. “If this all goes wrong and we end up going back too far, I’m going to find your grandparents and kill them.”
I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. It was something about the look on her face, she looked almost serious. Rob was uneasy.
“Was that aimed at me or at Clarke?” he asked, as if it was even a possibility.
“Both of you. Then I wouldn’t be in this ludicrous position in the first place.”
“Oh.” said Rob. He considered that for a moment, then asked: “And if we undershoot?”
“I’ll just have to settle for you then.”
I laughed again and she frowned at me.
Shortly after that, the guys filed out of our room to theirs. I bathed and changed into the dressing gown thing most the guests wore in the evenings–Anna had helpfully informed me that it was called a yukata.
Anna and Jane were taking turns drinking tea, flicking through the guide books, and mo
ving things around the room.
I unrolled my futon and lay down on it. I stared at the ceiling and tried to go into the connected state. I felt connected to something within myself, but the sense of being connected to something outside of myself had gone.
‘What does that mean? Will I wake up d…’
‘Will I wake up a human or a vampire tomorrow?’
I gave up fighting it and I fell asleep in seconds. It was as if sleep was there, just behind me, waiting to grab me as soon as I let my guard down.
* * *
I woke up, or rather, I regained consciousness. It was still dark out, but the sky was lighter. We were in astronomical twilight again: morning was on its way. If we weren’t off the planet by then, I would be looking for sunglasses. I looked at my watch. I’d been out for exactly twelve hours, which was a rather long time to sleep. Anna and Jane were still asleep. So this time, to save Anna from worry, I scribbled a note: ‘Gone out, will be back later, don’t worry. By the way, when I get back we should shop for clothes for our trip. Get money.’
‘Yeah, that’ll do.’
I headed outside the ryokan and walked into town. The night felt pleasant on my skin. All my senses were stronger. I was able to use my vampire senses continually now. It felt normal and I couldn’t get them to go away even if I wanted them to. I was getting the hang of filtering out the extra stuff I could smell, see and hear that was unneeded, and that helped me feel less overwhelmed.
Physically, I was no longer strangely tired. In fact, I felt pretty good, other than my canine teeth, which hurt. I stopped: they never used to hurt. I tongued them gently. They wobbled in a way I had not experienced since I was a child.
‘Am I losing my teeth?’
If I was, it just made my mission that evening even more important. I explored the bars in the centre of town, wandered through the high-class night-spots, strolled through a few dives. For once, I didn’t stop for a drink, and only smiled and moved on from the people checking me out.
‘No time for that right now.’
But I found nothing.
‘If there’s a vampire here in New Kyoto, they’ll be out in the bars, right? They gotta… hunt… where else would they go? And I ought to be able to tell what they are, surely? There must be some way that vampires recognise one another.’