The Time Bubble Box Set 2

by Jason Ayres

  “She has a point,” said Josh, thinking about how he had learned to time travel, contrary to popular scientific belief. “How does it all work?”

  “It’s quite simple really,” remarked Henry from the couch. “You see this dish here?”

  He gestured upwards to a large, white, curved spherical disk on the ceiling, several feet above him.

  “Yes,” replied Josh.

  “Well, this is going to scan my brain completely and upload it into Henry Junior here. The whole process is going to take less than a minute.”

  “As simple as that?” asked Josh. “I’ve seen this sort of thing done in old films and they always had some big helmet or something they had to wear with loads of wires and stuff sticking out of the side.”

  “Oh yes, I’ve seen those old black and white movies, too,” replied Henry. “But they were made a century ago, long before the makers could have had any concept of wireless technology. The modern equivalent is far more straightforward – and completely painless, too.”

  “It doesn’t harm you at all?” asked Alice.

  “No – we’ve tried it a couple of times already. I’m not losing any brain cells in the process. It’s a pure copy we are creating, with the original left intact.”

  “What happened to your earlier copies?” asked Josh.

  “They’re right here,” said Vanessa, gesturing at the body on the couch. “We’ve used this same body each time. There were a few teething problems with our previous attempts which meant we had to wipe the earlier versions.”

  “What sort of teething problems?” asked Alice, feeling a little wary.

  “Oh nothing to worry about,” replied Vanessa, sensing Alice’s apprehension. “We are reasonably confident we have ironed most of the issues out now.”

  “When do we start?” asked Josh, fascinated to see the outcome of the experiment.

  “Right now,” replied Vanessa, pressing a large, green square on the touch screen panel on the headboard of Henry’s couch.

  “And now we stand well back,” she said, gesturing to the others that they should follow her back to the other side of the room. “We don’t want the scanner picking up any stray thoughts from us and putting them into his head.”

  “It’s a bit like being at the dentist when they have to leave the room when they take the x-rays,” observed Josh.

  “Good analogy,” replied Vanessa.

  From a safe distance they watched as the equipment emitted a barely audible hum.

  “I thought it would be a bit more dramatic than this – all flashing lights and sparks,” remarked Josh.

  “That’ll be down to watching too many of those old movies you were talking about,” replied Vanessa.

  After less than a minute there was a repeated beeping noise and the low hum of the machine stopped.

  “It sounds like an old microwave,” said Alice.

  “Another good analogy,” replied Vanessa. “Our new Henry’s effectively cooked and ready to go. Let’s go and meet him.”

  The original Henry was already sitting up, none the worse for his experience.

  “All present and correct, I think,” said Henry. “The thing about this process is you don’t feel a thing. Now let’s see how my copy has turned out. Computer – activate Henry Mark IV.”

  The android Henry’s eyes glowed blue and he instantly sat up and looked around him.

  “Obviously, other than the shirt he doesn’t look exactly like me – at least not yet. Like I said, we haven’t worried too much about the aesthetics, but we do possess the ability to graft a person’s exact features on if we so wish. I could make him indistinguishable from myself – couldn’t I, Henry?”

  “Indeed you could,” said Henry IV in the same slightly robotic-sounding voice that they had already heard from Dani.

  “He doesn’t sound like you either,” replied Alice.

  “Yes – but he could,” replied Henry. “We can in theory replicate any human being in every detail – including their voice, mannerisms, and that one thing that makes humans stand out from robots – our imperfections.”

  “But it would still be an android?” asked Alice. “Not a living, breathing creature?”

  “It wouldn’t be breathing,” replied Vanessa, “but as for living, that really depends on your definition. If it can feel emotion, then surely it must be alive, mustn’t it? Why don’t you ask it?”

  “I’m not an it,” protested Henry IV. “I’m a he.”

  “How do you feel?” said Alice.

  “I feel great,” replied Henry IV. “I had a bit of a toothache earlier and that’s gone for a start.”

  “Yes, I really must make that dentist’s appointment,” said the original Henry.

  “You can remember the toothache and what that felt like, then?” asked Josh, addressing Henry IV. “Even though presumably you have no teeth yourself?”

  “Don’t I?” asked Henry IV. “No, I suppose I haven’t. And it seems I have no tongue either.”

  “But you still remember everything?” asked Alice. “You retain the essence of everything that makes Henry the individual he is?”

  “I certainly do,” replied Henry IV, gesturing across to the original Henry. “As far as I am concerned, up until a few minutes ago I was living in his body.”

  “And that doesn’t bother you?” asked Alice.

  “Why should it?” replied Henry IV. “If you think about it, I’ve just immortalised myself. Now that I’m in this new body I’ve just eliminated all disease, pain and fear of death. What’s not to like about that?”

  “And emotion? Has that been replicated, too? For example, do you still feel love towards Vanessa here?”

  The original Henry snorted with laughter at Alice’s question and said, “Maybe that isn’t the best question to ask him.”

  “Perhaps not,” said Alice, realising that if the original Henry didn’t have much affection for his wife anymore, the robot’s algorithms were hardly going to be pulsing with romantic overtures for her either. Then she thought about what the android had said earlier about having no tongue, which brought to mind a far more intriguing question.

  “Tell me, Henry Mark IV,” she said. “How much are you enjoying looking forward to that big steak tonight at Madison’s?”

  Henry IV’s LCD blue eyes seemed to glow more brightly for a moment and he sat up enthusiastically on the couch and said, “Mmm…can’t wait! Their onion rings are the best in Australia.”

  “But you’re an android now,” said Alice. “You can’t eat, surely? You’ve got no tongue. But the original Henry can.”

  “Oh,” replied Henry IV. “I hadn’t thought of that.” Although it was only a shell without the original Henry’s face or voice, it was still possible to sense the disappointment in the android’s speech.

  “How does that make you feel?” asked Josh.

  “Pretty lousy,” said Henry IV. “I’ll never eat steak again, will I?”

  “You’ll never eat anything again,” said Josh.

  “That’s really depressing,” said Henry IV, and he slumped back down onto the couch.

  “You can’t feel hunger, though, can you?” asked Alice. “You don’t have a stomach. Why would you still even want a steak?”

  “Because I can remember the pleasure of what it tastes like,” said Henry IV.

  “Yes, he would feel like that,” said the original Henry. “And I should know. This is one of the big problems we haven’t overcome yet. In a way we’ve almost done too good a job of replicating the human psyche. He’s got all the emotions and feelings I’ve always had, but without the capacity to enjoy life to the full – at least not in that body. There is much work still to do.”

  “I want a steak,” said Henry IV grumpily, sitting up again.

  “OK, I think we had better deactivate you now,” said Vanessa.

  “I don’t want to be deactivated,” said Henry IV. “You only created me five minutes ago and now you want to kill me? Yeah, you’d enj
oy that, wouldn’t you? Look, just forget about the steak, it’s no big deal. I won’t even mention it again.”

  “Computer, deactivate Henry Mark IV,” said Vanessa.

  The android’s eyes went out and it flopped back onto the couch before it could protest any further.

  “Looks like you’ve got more than a few teething problems there,” remarked Alice.

  “He was alright until you had to go and mention that steak,” retorted Vanessa.

  “I really thought he was going to be OK this time,” said Henry. “Vanessa and I have already had some difficulties along these lines and thought we had made sufficient changes to the algorithms to iron them out. But it seems the algorithms can’t override a sentient creature’s basic desires.”

  “On the plus side, you’ve certainly achieved one thing – you have indeed created, or at least re-created what I would define as life,” said Josh.

  “Did you notice how he didn’t want to be switched off?” said Alice.

  “An overriding desire of any living creature,” said Josh. “The desire to survive.”

  “That would concern me,” said Alice. “What if he had found some way of stopping you switching him off and had gone rogue?”

  “It was just a trial. This version was never intended to be permanent,” said Vanessa. “We did say we had more work to do.”

  “But that’s not the point,” replied Alice. “As soon as you made that copy you created a real conscious being, even if it wasn’t made from flesh and blood. You’ve clearly mastered the transfer of emotion which is to be commended, but with that power comes responsibility. You could see how much the copy wanted to cling onto life by the way he reacted when you mentioned deactivation. But you turned him off as casually as if you were flicking off the switch on a life-support machine.”

  “We’re scientists. People used to do a hell of a lot worse experimenting on animals in the past,” said Vanessa.

  “That’s no defence,” said Alice angrily. She was taking a distinct dislike to Vanessa’s cold, detached approach to all of this.

  “This is all getting a bit heated,” interjected Josh. “Why don’t we go and look around some of the rest of the institute and we can talk about it all again tonight over dinner when we’ve all calmed down?”

  “It’s a pity Henry Mark IV can’t join us,” said Alice. “But then he wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it anyway, would he? Come on, Josh.”

  She turned on her heel and headed for the lab door.

  “You’ll still be there tonight, won’t you?” asked Henry. “8pm at Madison’s?”

  “We’ll be there,” replied Josh, hoping he could win Alice around. He was fascinated by what he had just witnessed, and his mind was alive with the possibilities it might bring.

  It could herald the beginning of a whole new chapter of adventures.

  Chapter Three

  September 2055

  “What did you think of those two?” asked Alice, as she and Josh strolled along a picturesque, tree-lined avenue towards the restaurant.

  The sun had just set and there was a glorious red sky out to the west on a spring evening which was still pleasantly warm.

  “Yes, they’re an odd pair, aren’t they?” said Josh. “You can’t help but admire their scientific achievements, but as for the rest of their relationship...well, frosty doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

  “I’d go so far as to say they can’t stand each other,” said Alice.

  “And they are pretty immature about it, too,” replied Josh.

  “They are. And they made little effort to hide it from us either, which suggests to me they are both past caring.”

  “Perhaps it’s all those years of working together so closely. They’ve been so obsessed with their work for so long that they’ve forgotten what brought them together in the first place,” suggested Josh.

  “Maybe – but then we’re in a similar position and we’re still OK, aren’t we?”

  “Of course,” said Josh which he meant now more than ever. He had almost lost her when he’d been stranded in the past for well over a year recently. He hadn’t told her the full extent of what had gone on during that time, much of which he wasn’t proud of. He also hadn’t told her exactly how long he had been gone. As far as she was concerned it had only been a few days.

  Eventually he had managed to get back to his right time and place and wasn’t about to waste this second chance. The genuine fear he had felt when he had been facing the very realistic possibility that he might never see her again had made him realise just how important she was to him.

  “We’re proof that a husband and wife can work together and not get sick of the sight of each other,” said Alice.

  “That’s true,” replied Josh. “As for them, who knows how they ended up in this state, but it’s not exactly the sort of thing we can bring up over dinner, is it?”

  “We might not have to, if what we saw earlier is anything to go by,” said Alice. “Once they’ve had a few drinks I imagine their tongues will be even looser than this morning. I wonder what sort of fireworks we can look forward to tonight.”

  “Hopefully not too many,” replied Josh. “I’m eager to find out why they are so keen to involve us in all this and it’s not going to be a pleasant conversation if they are going to keep sniping at each other.”

  “It’s not so much him as her,” replied Alice. “Henry seems friendly enough, but I didn’t warm to her at all. Even so, I am just as keen as you are to find out what all this is about, and clearly it’s something to do with the work we’ve been doing. Exactly how much have you told Henry about our time travel experiments?”

  “I guess I may have let the odd thing slip.”

  “I knew it!” exclaimed Alice. “You just can’t resist it, can you?”

  “Relax,” replied Josh. “It’s fine. I may have hinted that time travel is possible, but I haven’t given him any information as to how it’s done. He doesn’t know about the time bubbles or tachyometers or any of the detail.”

  “Right, good. Just be careful what you say. After what we witnessed earlier, I’m a little wary about these two. Don’t go giving all our secrets away, especially not without consulting the rest of the team. I take it you haven’t told Charlie or Peter about any of this?”

  “No, and don’t worry, I know what I’m doing,” replied Josh loftily, as they reached the large double doors of Madison’s, one of Canberra’s newest and swankiest restaurants.

  Not only was it the top-rated restaurant in the city less than two years after launch, but it also had the attraction of a Michelin-starred chef-in-residence who was a big star on Australian TV. Madison’s was the place that all the top people were eager to be seen.

  They had both dressed for the occasion. Alice had chosen a long, blue summer dress, whilst it was one of the rare occasions that Josh had made the effort to wear a suit and don a tie, not wanting to look scruffy in such an esteemed establishment.

  As soon as they entered the leafy green reception area, they realised that formal dress wasn’t a requirement. The other diners milling around waiting to be seated were pretty casually dressed, with the ageless jeans and T-shirt combo seemingly being the order of the day.

  Alice wasn’t bothered about being overdressed. She had been lugging her dress around in her suitcase for weeks and had been waiting for an opportunity to wear it.

  It was crowded in the bright and airy, conservatory-style reception room, but Henry was easy to spot. He stood out like a lighthouse in another of his Hawaiian shirts. This one was a bright sky blue, predominantly featuring coconuts. As Josh and Alice approached, he eagerly rushed over and greeted them in the same manner as he had at the institute earlier that day.

  “Delighted to see you again,” he gushed enthusiastically, as if he hadn’t seen them for months. “My goodness, you look quite the part,” he said to Josh.

  “I fear I may have overestimated the dress code here,” replied Josh.


  “I forgot how formal you English are,” replied Henry. “This is Australia – we don’t stand on ceremony here. Besides, it’s too hot for suits and ties most of the time.”

  “Where’s Vanessa?” asked Alice.

  “Just powdering her nose,” replied Henry, just as she re-emerged through the crowd. “Ah, speak of the Devil, here she is now. Shall we go through? The table’s ready.”

  They passed through a small archway into a spacious room lined with native plants on all sides. The restaurant had gone for an arboreal look and this was borne out by the tables, which were plain, old, circular oak, with no tablecloths. Henry led them over to one of the larger tables at the back of the room, close to where waiters and waitresses were scurrying in and out of the doors leading to the kitchens beyond.

  “This makes me think of King Arthur and his Round Table,” remarked Alice.

  “I guess that must make me King Henry, then,” remarked their host.

  “Not the Eighth, I hope,” quipped Alice.

  “Don’t give him any ideas,” remarked Vanessa. “If he had been Henry the Eighth, I suspect my head may have been chopped off by now.”

  “Just kidding,” said Alice hurriedly, not wanting to give either of them any ammunition that could lead to an argument, and she had practically given Vanessa an open goal already with her Henry the Eighth comment.

  The waiter was a young perma-tanned man with bleached blond hair who looked as if he had been out surfing all day. He handed them their menus and asked if they wanted anything to drink.

  Josh was delighted to discover that Henry was a red wine man like himself and they ordered two bottles, while the ladies ordered from the cocktail menu. As they waited for their drinks, they eagerly perused the menus.

  “The seafood here is to absolutely die for,” remarked Vanessa, “if you like that sort of thing, of course. Henry here prefers his meat, don’t you, Henry?”

  “I certainly do,” replied Henry. “You have to try these steaks, Josh, they’re out of this world.”

  “I’ll try some fish, Vanessa,” said Alice, who rarely ate red meat. “What would you recommend?”