Out of Time

by Bruce Macfarlane

  "No, Elizabeth. It's not luck. We are here because we are here. But remember a lot of decisions weren't critical. We could have gone to Rievaulx by the diary rather than by plane, train, dog cart and horse. I could have forgotten my torch. The Martian ship would have blown up whether I looked in the capsule or not."

  "We could have forgotten to bring a change of clothes." I said.

  "But from our experiences there was a high probability we would make that right decision."

  “Maybe I do feel a little less convinced that we had no free will, James. I suppose the real test is now how do we get back. Will we make the right decisions?"

  "Maybe it's impossible to get back."

  “If that's the case I would look after you, James, in the same way you looked after me."

  ---~---

  J.

  There were a lot of attractions about living in the late Victorian and Edwardian period. I would see the Belle Epoch and Art Nouveau. I would fill our house with Arts & Crafts. However to take advantage of it I felt I would have to be reasonably wealthy. Mind you, I could mop up by publishing Einstein’s theories of relativity before him. I imagined it: James Urquhart's Theories of Time and Space. I was away with the fairies - until an image arose of our children being called up in the First World War.

  "Thank you, Elizabeth. I know you will look after me. But how long could we prevent ourselves from not trying to help people avoid the future? You know, such as the Boer War or even the First World War."

  Wells interrupted. "What happens in this first world war, Mr. Urquhart?"

  How could I tell him that in my world his son would be killed and he would spend many years at séances trying to contact him?

  I kept my reply simple and change the subject. "Like all wars a lot of people will die who didn't want to die. But, Wells, do you have any idea how we can get back to my time?"

  "You still have the diary. You could try it again." He said with a smile.

  Elizabeth and I looked at each other. I could see she was expecting another decision. I took out the strobe and pressed the button.

  ---~---

  E.

  I opened my eyes. We were still here. Mr Wells was looking at us quizzically.

  “Nothing has happened, James.”

  “I think the battery is flat.” He said.

  “Do you have another, James?”

  “No I don’t. Perhaps you have some spare batteries in one of those FIVE bags you brought with you.”

  His look suggested that this was one of those occasions when one’s offer of assistance is not met with the gratitude it deserves and that any teasing would not be met with his usual humour. However, I felt that this was not the time to kowtow despite the risk. I persevered.

  “What about the battery in your flash light? Would that not work?”

  “Yes, it would.” There was now a tinge of gratefulness in his expression which I knew had to be exploited quickly.

  “James. You can’t remember everything. Imagine if you had not brought a torch or change of clothes”.

  He removed the battery from his flash light and placed it in the strobe. He held my hand and pressed the button.

  Still nothing. James was looking quite angry now. I thought it best to keep quiet. Then he said.

  "Right, Elizabeth. I've had enough of this bloody adventure. I'm taking you home. And before you ask, Captain Intrepid is not getting a look in."

  I was I admit a little afraid. “I’m sorry, James, if I......"

  But before I could finish he turned to Mr Wells and said with much emphasis.

  “Can you do anything to help us, Mr Wells? You seemed to have damn well ‘helped’ us with everything else.”

  ---~---

  J.

  Wells was looking too comfortable considering our plight. What Elizabeth had said about how we were making decisions struck a chord. It was time for a little interrogation.

  "This is the year you publish your Time Machine, isn't it?"

  "Yes, Mr Urquhart, and I'm pleased to say it has proved very popular."

  "And from what I can remember you describe a four-dimensional universe in which the fourth is time. Something that didn't really get accepted until Einstein about ten years from now."

  "Yes, but as you know scientist have been producing papers on the four dimensions since the 1880s. It is nothing new. Newcomb and Hinton have done some excellent work on this."

  "But if I remember correctly they were talking in four spatial dimensions. I believe there was a letter published by an anonymous author who proposed that time itself was the fourth dimension. I think he or she called it time-space. Was that you?”

  “It is something I believe in."

  "I agree, Mr Wells, because you go to great lengths in your book, The Time Machine, about time being the fourth dimension but unlike Newcomb who you name in your story, you postulate that you can move up and down the time dimension. That's very brave of you to challenge an eminent scientist - unless you knew something that he didn't."

  “He was so close. I thought he needed a little help."

  "You thought he needed a little help! Interesting. Now let's look at something else: Elizabeth's conjecture is that there are too many coincidences, Mr Wells. You turn up in the cavern at Midhurst just when we get there. You manage to operate the time machine and take it to Hamgreen even though I had taken the control levers out. Then there you are again when we were transported to Rievaulx via the diary. And surprise, surprise, here you are waiting for us at the Black Swan when we returned from the Castle."

  Wells said nothing but rocked slowly back and forth in his chair. He seemed to be smiling again. However, I was having some difficulty seeing the funny side.

  "OK, since you won't answer that. How about your amazing 'predictions' about the future? Let's list some: the war between Germany and Poland in 1940 and then between the USA and Japan; the use of atomic weapons which I believe in some circles led to the idea to develop an atomic bomb; predicting tanks in your book the Land Ironclads; and finally you gave yourself away when I asked you how you met us in the ruined abbey. Your reason was almost a verbatim copy of the ‘unknown’ hero in The War of the Worlds.

  I believe you are a time traveller, Mr. Wells, and you have manipulated us from Day One to further your own aims. What do you say to that?”

  ---~---

  E.

  James had amazingly put together, through his knowledge of physics and Mr Wells’ books, everything that was causing me concern. It all made sense though what sense it made I could not immediately calculate.

  I could tell from Wells’ relaxed manner that James’ deductions were close to the mark. Then Wells spoke.

  "Well deduced, Mr Urquhart. You are almost right. Yes, I do travel in time but not in my corporeal body. You may have noticed that apart from your travels in your time machine I have stayed in my time. And in case you’re wondering I am physically here, I have travelled up here. I do not know why I find myself out of my body at times and why I see things which others don't. I have some control of where or when I go but it takes great energy. There seem to be many time dimensions because each time I visit the future the world I see is a little different. But there is one thing that is common and that is the Martian invasion and my aim was to stop it.

  I could not tell people what I have seen for they would not believe me and so I hit on the idea of writing Science Romances. I have found people are very susceptible to ideas from fiction especially scientists. Were you not inspired to do physics because of your love of Science Romances or Science Fiction and Fantasy as you call it?"

  James nodded then said rather grudgingly, "Yes, but no one believed your stories so how do you think they helped?"

  "I gave people dreams which through experimentation became reality. You went to the moon, made atomics, guided rockets, air ships and death rays. I gave you the ideas which would eventually make you sophisticated enough to defeat the Martians."

  A t
hought came to me. I said, "Have you travelled to the past, Mr Wells?"

  "I'm not aware of having done that, Mrs Urquhart. Perhaps the past is more fixed in time than the future. A change to the past could generate a thousand different futures and the power required to change time-space could be enormous.”

  'That could explain the power needed for Marco's time machine." Said James.

  "I viewed his machine as extremely dangerous, Mr Urquhart. Just going to the past could destroy all our futures.”

  "We call that the butterfly effect. You travel to the distant past, tread on a butterfly and that insignificant action is magnified over millions of years."

  "So, James, each trip to the past has changed our future a little.” I said. “That could explain why we are not comfortable in the world to which we returned in your time."

  "So why didn't you tell us what you were trying to do?"

  “For precisely that reason, Mr Urquhart. That knowledge could have led you to different decisions."

  I felt slightly overwhelmed with Wells’ story; James and I had been used.

  Then James got to the root of this enigma.

  "Why did you choose us, Mr Wells, to save the world? I'm just a simple scientist and Elizabeth is an unemployed lady of leisure?"

  I thought this was a little unfair. I had worked very hard at my education and in many areas excelled James by a good mile.

  "I didn't. Your meeting was by chance brought on by a distortion in time-space. You were unique. Unlike me, both of you could actually bodily travel through time."

  “I don't like being used, Wells." Said James rather forcefully.

  "Do you like your wife, Mr Urquhart? Surely you do not regret the phenomena that brought you together?"

  James looked at me and then turned back to Wells. His shoulders slumped. I could see poor James was near the end of his tether.

  "How do we get home, Mr Wells? We are very tired."

  Wells came over to us and took the electric diary. He pressed a point on the back. Our surrounds blurred. I feared too late we were to be 'used' again.

  ---~---

  E.

  I opened my eyes expecting some new adventure. Instead I found us both in James’ attic. The relief made me almost faint. I turned to James. He looked shattered. No doubt I did not look much better. We held each other tight for some time in silence. And then I noticed on James' desk amongst the wires and notes our original diaries. Wells somehow must have retrieved them or made facsimiles.

  I opened mine and to my surprise found all our adventures recorded since we had given them to Wells and in my copperplate!

  "What shall we do with these, James?"

  "We will write a book."

  For some reason, my clothing felt very tight. I looked down to adjust my skirts and noticed my waist was larger than it had been. I did not think that was the result of the game pie at the Black Swan.

  "James?"

  "Yes, Elizabeth?"

  "I think I am with child!"

  "What?" Then he looked at my figure. "Good god, so you are! We've only been, well you know, for about a month."

  I could not explain it for I had known no other man except James for some years. But I realised with my reputation much depended on his faith in me. Just then I heard Jill coming up the ladder.

  "Are you two back again? That's six months you've been away. What have you been doing this time?"

  "Oh", she said regarding my form. “Well, er, congratulations. Would you like a cup of tea and tell me about the other things you've been doing?"

  I turned to James who looked thankfully very pleased.

  It was time to risk a tease. "Well, James, I trust next time I advise you not to look out of a train window you will remember the consequences."

  ---~---

  The End

  Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to

  leave me a review.

  Thanks!

  Bruce - Author

  Other Books by Bruce Macfarlane

  from the

  Time Travel Diaries of James Urquhart and Elizabeth Bicester

  Book 1 Out of Time

  The first diaries of the humorous and sometimes romantic time travel adventures of James Urquhart, minor science lecturer living in 2015 and Elizabeth Bicester, lady of leisure, whom he stumbles upon at a cricket match at Hamgreen in 1873. Despite their banter regarding each other’s manners they manage through incredible feats of illogical deduction and with not a little help from James ll, H. G. Wells, the Martians and some strange time devices, to save the world.

  Book 2 A Drift Out of Time

  In this volume, they have returned home to find they are not only in an alternative future but a different aspect of themselves. To get back to their world they must travel between Mars and Earth, drifting across time and space, until eventually they reach home and discover who the Martians really are.

  Book 3 A House Out of Time

  Once again, the intrepid couple have “retired’ to a quiet life of ease in an alternative world after helping the Martians save the Earth and their own planet. Unfortunately, Elizabeth thought it would be a good idea to visit her ancestral home at Hamgreen to see what had become of it.

  ….Such is the curiosity of women.

  Book 4 The Space Between Time

  In these extracts from the Time Travel Diaries we find the intrepid couple enjoying a peaceful and romantic picnic by the River Rother when a motor launch turns up complete with Mr Wells.

  Apparently, a certain Mr Tesla has conducted one of his electro-magnetic experiments which has fractured time and dumped everyone in an alternative world of 1895. The problem is that only a few people have noticed the difference.

  Mr Wells wondered if James and Elizabeth would like to help.

  The Webs of Time

  Here are seven short stories from the time travel diaries of James Urquhart, minor scientist, who lived in 2015 and Elizabeth Bicester whom he met at cricket match in 1873.

  They are narrated by Professor Rolleston who discovered the original diaries and who spent his life, when not hunting fairies, trying to understand their contents and the reasons for their existence.

  Three of the stories, Northern Nights, A Holiday in Cornwall and the Haunted Mill, previously appeared in Three Tales Out of Time.

  Notes on Arthurian Literature.

  This book contains my notes on Arthurian literature examine the origins of Arthur and the historical events associated with him.

    It also reviews the Celtic origins of the Grail stories and the significance of their appearance at the time of the crusades after the fall of Jerusalem in 1009 and recapture by Godfrei de Boullion in 1099 and their re-emergence in Mallory’s Mort D’Arthur after the fall of Constantinople in 1454.

  Subjects covered in the book are;

  The Origins of Arthur.

  Possible Links to Historical Events.

  Problems with Dating Events in the 5th and 6th Centuries.

  Climatic and Astronomical Phenomenon in 5th and 6th Century Britain.

  The Appearance of the Grail Stories.

  Historical Characters and Events in the Grail Stories.

  Celtic and Other Origins of the Grail and the Grail Characters.

  Malory and the Tales of King Arthur.

  About the Author

  Bruce is a retired Health Physicist who lives with his wife on the south coast of England, just a few minutes’ walk from the sea. When he’s not researching King Arthur, he’s out walking on the South Downs with his wife and his friends trying to remember all the names of the flowers and mushrooms his wife has identified.

  When it’s raining he can be found sometimes in his "shed" as his wife calls it, trying to master new jazz chords.

  A life of writing scientific reports and reading early science fiction, especially the genre of time travel such as the works of Anderson, Simak and Wells encouraged him to start writing his own novels about t
he adventures of a modern man and a Victorian lady whom he met at a cricket match in 1873.

  His stories have been described as “Tom Holt meets P.G. Wodehouse meets Philip K. Dick meets Fortean Times.”

  You can get more information on this and his other books and hobbies at: his blog at:

  https://timediaries.wordpress.com

  Or you can visit our website at:

  www.aldwickpublishing.com