Uchronie

by Richardson, Ian

  Suddenly the gun went off and I let go.

  I couldn’t feel anything at all now.

  Slowly, I slumped forward into the body shaped outline that the shattered pieces of my coronation mug had made for me on the floor.

  Next episode: ‘I’m looking like the man in the mirror.’ released 21 January 2013

  ‘I’m looking like the man in the mirror.’

  A series of bizarre events confound Nate’s notion of reality and he begins to wish that he had never set foot aboard the Uchronie.

  As I struggled, face to face, with the hooded intruder who had burst into my cabin, his gun went off and, in that noisy instant, my world stopped dead.

  In a state of shock, I fell forward on to the floor among the broken pieces of my coronation mug.

  Although I lay face down on the floor I, somehow, found myself looking down on my body from high above and I watched, helplessly, as Lolly tackled the intruder alone. As they grappled, fighting for control of the gun, she pulled back his hood and revealed, what I fancied, was a whiskered, cat like, creature. In my curious state of consciousness I imagined that this creature’s face was the same as mine. The half human, half feline tore itself free from Lolly’s grip and raced into the mirrored bathroom. There was a strange sound like a race car accelerating into the distance and, in my extraordinary state of mind; I imagined that I saw it disappear through the mirror.

  At the very instant that the creature vanished, I awoke to find myself lying on the cabin floor - again.

  ‘Was it a car or a cat I saw?’ I groaned as I struggled to waken and tried to turn over.

  ‘Did…did… did you see what happened?’ gasped Lolly, helping me up off the floor. ‘Did you see the intruders face when I pulled his hood off?’

  ‘Yes! Somehow, I was able to see the whole thing.’ I said. ‘I saw you struggling with a cat like creature that, I fancied, had my face. I don’t understand what‘s happening any more.’

  ‘Oh, my goodness.’ said Lolly. ‘I think you just saw your doppelgänger.’

  ‘My what?’

  ‘You saw your own ghostly double.’ said Lolly. ‘Doppelgänger means double walker. A look-alike who walks with you but lives an opposite life in another space. When someone sees their own doppelgänger it means they are about to die.’

  ‘What?’ I gasped.

  ‘And I’m afraid there’s even worse news.’ said Lolly. ‘People usually see their doppelgänger just before it kills them and takes their place.’

  ‘WHAT?’

  ‘Don’t panic. I don’t think you’re about to die. I believe we are in a very different situation.’ said Lolly. ‘Daddy’s reverse time manoeuvre has caused a leak between two parallel spaces and we are, temporarily, able to cross over from one to the next. Time and space have been crumpled; spaces and events that should be kept far apart have been pushed together.’

  ‘How can that happen?’ I asked.

  ‘Imagine that space is a sheet of newspaper.’ said Lolly. ‘Then imagine crumpling that sheet of newspaper into a ball and sticking a needle through it. The needle will make holes next to each other that are actually far apart when the newspaper is straightened out.’

  ‘So in some nearby universe that‘s usually far away from ours… I’m a cat.’ I said, studying my face in the mirror.

  There was no sign of any whiskers.

  ‘Yes. Your mirror self.’ said Lolly. ‘Everyone and everything that exists has a doppelgänger. In some universe, somewhere, sometime, there is a miniature steam powered submarine called The Unbelievable Nonsense. In some universe somewhere there’s an old man called Lolly with two bulldogs called Tirant and Winston.’

  ‘Did I really see my copycat creature disappear through that mirror?’ I asked, pointing at the mirror in the bathroom.

  ‘Yes.’ said Lolly. ’I think that mirror has been forced into the gap between our universe and the one we’ve been crumpled up against.’

  ‘A parallel dimension.’ I said, touching the marks on the mirror that I had made earlier. ‘Where my alternate self lives.’

  ‘Well…Let's not call it that.’ said Lolly. ‘A parallel dimension is actually a parallel space. But people have been calling them dimensions for thousands of years. Heaven and hell are parallel spaces imagined by ancient artists and writers.’

  ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall. I said, pushing against the marks that I had made and, again, wondering what size my head was. ‘I’m not going to find out I’m one of the seven dwarves, am I?’

  ‘Don’t go accepting any apples from wicked witches.’ said Lolly. ‘But… seriously… your doppelgänger must have done something improper in their parallel space on the other side of the mirror for this to be happening to them as well.’

  ‘I wonder if my alternate self knows what they’ve done and why all this is happening to them?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t think you can really call it an alternate self.’ said Lolly. ‘It’s more accurate to call it a mirror self.’

  ‘What’s the difference?’

  ‘An alternate self is another aspect of the same person.’ said Lolly. ‘But your mirror self lives an opposite life in a separate timeline. It seems that your polar opposite is currently living in the gap between two spaces caused by the divergence manoeuvre we made.’

  Tattarrattat.

  There was a knock on the open door but I could see that there was no one there.

  ‘Not again.’ I groaned.

  ‘Ignore it.’ said Lolly. ‘Or you’ll just set off another bizarre set of incidents.’

  ‘What do I do then?’ I asked.

  ‘Best to do nothing.’ said Lolly. ‘Just stay here. Biffo will come… tomorrow morning’

  ‘But what if we’re stuck in here forever?’ I asked, moving towards the door. ‘What if there is no tomorrow morning for us?’

  ‘Well there wasn’t one today.’ said Lolly. ‘And we’re still alive, aren‘t we? Please just stay here and keep calm.’

  I returned to the mirror and ran my hand over it again. Now the marks on the mirror seemed to yield to my probing fingers. For a split second the smooth surface rippled like water and then froze solid again.

  ‘This is some kind of magic mirror.’ I said. ‘I’ve read about magic mirrors in Fairy tales, maybe we can use it like a crystal ball and see what is going to happen to us.’

  ‘Crystal balls are used for seeing into the future or for observing events from a distance.’ said Lolly, studying her quivering reflection. ‘A mirror is much more versatile. This one seems to be the gateway to another universe. Look… the reflection doesn’t actually match the reality of your room.’

  ‘How is it different?’ I asked, studying my room in the mirror. ’It looks exactly the same to me.’

  ‘Look out the window behind you.’ said Lolly.

  I turned round and looked out my window at the crisp, clear, sparkling stars and then turned back to look at its reflection. In the window in the mirror the sky was full of swirling snow. I cleaned the traces of steam and dust from the mirror but the snow in the reflection was still there.

  ‘The only part of the world you can change is what you see in the mirror.’ said Lolly.

  ‘Yourself.’ I said.

  ‘Yes.’ said Lolly.

  I looked at myself in the mirror, unconsciously lining my head up with the two marks that I had made earlier, as I turned on the tap to get a drink of water. Suddenly, flames shot out of the tap and the room caught fire.

  In an instant, four fireman appeared and directed their hoses at the raging inferno.

  ‘Temp firemen Wolflow at your service.’ said the helmeted man in the yellow fire suit as he saluted me.

  ‘Don’t you ever knock?’ I shouted, above the noise of their roaring hoses.

  ‘All clear here.’ said fireman Wolflow, disappearing through the door again. ‘Sator arepo tenet opera rotas.’

  ‘Cats…Firemen… who else is going to burst in?’ I said. ‘I need to be
armed… especially if my doppelgänger from a mirror universe is trying to kill me.’

  ‘Don‘t say that!’ exclaimed Lolly. ‘You’ll set off another…’

  Her words of warning were overwhelmed by a loud ringing in my ears. Somewhere in the distance I could hear someone speaking. It was a voice that I recognized.

  A telephone rang and I picked it up.

  ‘Hello, hello! Who am I speaking to?’ asked Corporal Price.

  ‘It’s Nate here.’ I said. ‘Is my W@ve gun ready?’ ‘Who am I speaking too?’ demanded Corporal Price.

  ‘Nate Drywood.’ I said. ‘Listen… I rather need a weapon and Captain Wright measured me for a Duelist W@ve pistol the other day. It should be ready by now.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ said Corporal Price. ‘I have no record of a Nate Drywood aboard the Uchronie. You’ll have to give me all your details.’

  ‘I registered at Captain Wright’s training session the day before yesterday.’ I said. ‘When I came aboard with Ginger.’

  Lolly frowned and put her finger to her lips.

  ‘I’m sorry you’ll have to enlist.’ said Corporal Price. ‘I have no record of you and I can’t issue any firearms or equipment without proper authority.’

  ‘But I’ve already filled out my paperwork at Captain Wright’s training session.’ I said.

  ‘You have to fill out all appropriate paperwork before you can receive any equipment.’ said Corporal Price.

  ‘Ah… but I’ve already received equipment.’ I said. ‘I have it here in my cabin.’

  ‘No don’t.’ said Lolly, trying to stop me.

  I turned my back on her and ignored her protestations.

  ‘I’ve got my twenty four seven time card and my chart of link years.’ I said, undoing the buckles of my leather back pack. ‘That’s strange. I know I put them in here… but now I can’t find them.’

  ‘You can’t receive any equipment until you have registered.’ repeated Corporal Price. ‘It’s against the rules of the Chronological Order.’

  ‘Ah… but I have a holster for my W@ve gun.’ I said, picking up the belt and holster that Captain Wright had given me. ‘In fact you were there when he gave them to me.’

  As soon as these words left my mouth, the holster was pulled from my hand, fell to the floor and disappeared.

  ‘What’s happening now?’ I gasped, looking at Lolly.

  Behind her, in the window in the mirror, the moon was disappearing behind a blizzard of snow.

  ‘Please put the phone down.‘ said Lolly‘s voice. ‘We have to wait for Biffo. Don’t say another word… just hang up the phone.’

  ‘Hello. Corporal Price… HELLO!’

  There was no reply.

  The line went dead.

  Through the reflected window in the mirror I watched a blizzard swirling among the stars.

  I touched the marks I had made on the mirror and found, to my surprise, that I could now slide my hand right through the mirror.

  ‘Nate! Stop! Look at the sky.’ cried Lolly. ‘

  I turned round.

  Outside the window the black shadow of a giant hand swept the stars from the sky.

  ‘The stars are going out.’ shouted Lolly. ‘The whole world will be plunged into darkness.’

  I looked through the window in the mirror and heard a noise like a racecar disappearing into the distance.

  Lolly was right.

  The snow was swirling away into a corner and taking the stars with it. The Dig Dipper and the pole star had already gone; navigators everywhere were losing their way.

  ‘Cygnus the white swan has turned into Cygnus Noir.’ I said. ’The Black Swan.’

  ‘That’s very poetic.’ said Lolly, in a strange, echoing voice. ‘Compare that face with some that I show and I will make thee think thy swan is a crow…’

  I searched the room for Lolly but I couldn‘t find her.

  Tarrattarrat.

  I opened the ruined door and looked up and down the long, deserted corridor. There was no one there.

  I knew that Lolly had told me several times not to leave my room but I had to tell Commander DeBlanc what had happened. Without thinking I ran through the vast, cavernous passageways and empty, echoing, service tunnels until I found the empty control room.

  The observation windows revealed a crisp, clear, starless black sky, but there was no sign of Commander DeBlanc or any of his crew.

  In a panic, I rode the pistons down to the furnace room, jumping from platform to platform as agile as any cat. When I landed on my feet among the coal and ash, I saw that the fires still burned but there was no sign of Wayne, Dwayne or any of the steamchavs.

  I ran through the immense emptiness of the Uchronie shouting for help but no one answered.

  Everywhere I went I was met with silence.

  What had I done?

  When I stopped running and stood for a moment, gasping for breath, I realised that I was alone, aboard a vast, deserted, ghost ship.

  Next Episode: What Nate found through the looking glass. Released 28 January 2013.

  What Nate found through the Looking Glass

  Nate confronts a strange new world alone and discovers that his belief that he is unique means that he is the same as everyone else.

  Outside the window it was dark.

  The moon had gone, the stars had all fallen from the sky and I had been plunged into a strange, abandoned, mirrorworld that I couldn‘t comprehend.

  I ran alone through the empty, high ceilinged, corridors and broad service passageways of the Uchronie, unable to find another living soul on board. Every way I turned was deserted, devoid of any human life or warmth.

  I’d even run back to my own cabin, hoping that Lolly would, somehow, have reappeared, but I discovered that even the posy of flowers which I had brought aboard from Lakehurst had vanished. It seemed that I was the only living, moving, thing aboard this abandoned, steam hulk.

  Flames still flickered in the Uchronie’s furnaces but they gave no heat; the massive machinery still twitched but the huge brass pistons and gears of the mighty steam engines could only jerk back and forth ineffectually.

  Everything was in a state of stasis.

  All the clocks had stopped, their second hands stuttering as Time itself faltered… caught in an endless repeating loop. The hours of the sun and the moon no longer applied.

  Nothing was moving.

  Except me.

  My final hope was the Great Hall… that was the last place that I had seen any of the crew. ‘Surely there will be someone down here.’ I said to myself as I scurried through the maze of dark, derelict abandoned, corridors.

  Suddenly my heart leapt.

  I could hear music in the distance!

  My brown leather boots pounded on the metal floor in time to the stuttering jazz tune as I turned left and raced, as fast as I could, towards the Great Hall. As I ran, I convinced myself that Wayne and the night shift boys would be there, working hard to repair the damage wrought by the enemy planes.

  Either that or they would be sitting around playing cards. I felt inside the top pocket of my flying jacket; I still had the blank playing card the steamchav’s had given me. I smiled to myself; I would finally learn the secrets of the mysterious card games they all played.

  The bullet-holed banner for the St Arwar’s ball still hung listlessly above the double doors of the great hall. Only a few hours earlier this corridor had been full of crew, bustling with life, looking forward to a party.

  I threw the doors open and shouted into the darkness.

  ‘Hello! Is there anybody in here? It’s me! Nate… Nate Drywood!’

  The jazz music lurched nauseatingly as my voice echoed around the empty room. The great hall was deserted, patched up with green canvas that was held together with hastily nailed boards. Through gaps in the roof the enormity of the black, empty void of starless sky almost overwhelmed my soul.

  Then I saw a glimmer of light shining beneath the door at the back
of the stage. That was where the jerky music was coming from as well. That was where the crew would be!

  I wrenched open the door and found a brightly lit casino bar. Its mirrored walls were lined with row upon row of gaudy bottles and drinking glasses. At any moment, I expected to be greeted by a gang of rowdy steamchav‘s, but this back room was as deserted as the rest of this empty vessel.

  On a small card table next to the door I found a half finished card game. Colourful chips were strewn across the table and there were blank white cards sitting on top of every pile. Behind the empty chairs, an ancient wind up gramophone played the same few bars of music over and over again.