Uchronie

by Richardson, Ian

A still picture of Wayne and Nate appeared and their distant words echoed through the Uchronie‘s loudspeakers.

  ‘Wayne…’ called Nate. ‘DON‘T…The Uchronie’s too far away to power it. Eleven years too far away. RUN!’

  The sound faded.

  ‘Sir. Wayne tried to shoot Hitler with Nate’s Wave gun.’ said Captain Wright. ‘But the gun didn’t fire properly.’

  ‘Hmmm…typical.’ said DeBlanc, consulting his handheld tachyscreen with a grim smile. ‘It is what Wayne always said he would do and it explains something that has been puzzling me.’

  ‘What’s that, sir?’ asked Captain Wright.

  ‘I previously detected a Wave signal in 1926.’ said DeBlanc, typing numbers into his keypad. ‘It has to be the gun Wayne used. We have to recover him. When does the Hindenburg depart from Frankfurt?’

  ‘Erm… it’s scheduled for this evening.’ said Captain Wright, consulting his clipboard.

  ‘So, as long as Nate stays in 1926 he has no chance of getting aboard.’ said Commander DeBlanc, scrolling through his screens. ‘This may be a rather fortuitous accident. If Nate is not on board the Hindenburg it will surely crash when it arrives in America and thus bring the age of airships to an end. Already the main time streams are returning to normal… Hitler dies within seven years.'

  ‘Seven years of bad luck.’ said Lolly, grimly.

  ‘We can bring Wayne back if he activates the One Time Pad.’ said Commander DeBlanc. ‘But it may be better to leave Nate where he is.’

  ‘Daddy!’ exclaimed Lolly.

  ‘Although there may be other outcomes.’ frowned Commander DeBlanc, adjusting his monocle. ‘The time streams are still fluctuating.’

  ‘We don’t want to send a rescue team.’ said Captain Wright. ‘Not after what happened to Ginger.’

  ‘Yes! That’s right.’ said DeBlanc. ‘We’ll keep Nate a long way from home. Biffo… can you get a fix on Wayne?’

  ‘Tune in…‘n that.’ said Biffo, from the shadows. ‘Listen… bit echo… may… be pictures… but...’

  A silent image of Nate and Wayne standing in the forest in front of a firing squad appeared on the screen.

  ‘Turn the translator on.’ ordered Commander DeBlanc.

  Suddenly the sound came on as well.

  ‘Remove your backpacks.’ ordered the Captain of the Guard, as he folded two blindfolds. ’And put these on.’

  ‘I ain’t wearing no blindfold.’ said Wayne, trying to get hold of his One Time Pad as he took his back pack off. ‘When you shoot me, I want you to look me straight in the eye and know that our fight against your kind will never end.’

  ‘Pah. Your puny words cannot harm us.’ snapped the Captain, turning to his firing squad. ‘READY.’

  Nate’s backpack fell over as it hit the ground.

  ‘AIM.’

  Doctor Mentor’s hand tumbled out and rolled across the ground.

  ‘HALT. What is this?’ shouted the Captain, looking directly at Nate. ‘Is it yours?’

  ‘No.’ I said, watching Wayne slide his hand deeper into his own backpack.

  The black uniformed soldiers lowered their rifles.

  ‘Take off your flight gloves.’ ordered the Captain, examining the intricate brass hand. ‘And come over here.’

  As slowly as I could I removed my flight gloves and walked over to him.

  ‘You as well!’ snapped the Captain, turning suddenly and pointing his revolver at Wayne. ‘Remove your gloves and keep your hands above your head.’

  Wayne pulled his hand out of his back pack and did as he was told.

  ‘So.’ smirked the Captain, taking hold of my hands and turning them over. ‘Two hands.’

  ‘Yes.’ I said, wiggling my fingers. ‘Both made out of flesh and blood.’

  ‘Show me your identity papers!’ barked the Captain. ‘And be quick about it.’

  I took out my identity papers and handed them to him.

  ‘But what is this!’ he said, running his finger over the black circle that had been stamped on my papers when I left the Hindenburg. ‘This is the mark of an airman... you have recently been aboard a German airship.’

  ‘Yes I have.’ I said. ‘I am an observer with the zeppelins.’

  ‘The flying marvels that will usher in a new Golden Age for us.’ bragged the Captain, studying me with renewed interest. ‘I do not understand. You fly our winged wonders and yet you attack our leader… our Fuehrer.’

  ‘I didn’t attack the leader.’ I said.

  ‘That is so.’ mused the Captain, still examining Doctor Mentor’s hand. ‘It was your crazily defiant friend. ‘Hmmm…Perhaps we should deal with you separately. The SS will loosen your tongues with a few direct questions before we decide how to dispose of you.’

  ‘You’ll get nuffink out of me.’ snarled Wayne, folding his arms.

  ‘Take them to the detention centre.’ ordered the Captain. ‘You two… take your backpacks with you and we shall see what else we can find.’

  Aboard the Uchronie, Biffo’s loudspeakers crackled and the sound went off again.

  ‘The discovery of Doctor Mentor’s hand has averted the immediate danger,’ said Commander DeBlanc, watching the soldiers escort Wayne and Nate into a complex of stone buildings surrounded by barbed wire, ‘and Wayne has managed to turn on the One Time Pad. We should be able to rescue him as soon as they stop moving.’

  ‘But what about Nate?’ asked Lolly. ‘We can’t just abandon him.’

  ‘Abandoning Nate may be the only thing we can do for him, my dear.’ said Commander DeBlanc, turning to Captain Wright and Doctor Mentor. ‘Gentlemen… I want you to bring Wayne back as soon as possible.’

  ‘We must take great care operating Wayne’s One Time Pad.’ said Doctor Mentor, cradling his injured arm. ‘We could create a white hole at the temporal horizon and we don‘t want any leaks.’

  ‘We just need to create a one way rainbow bridge that connects us to the ground.’ said Captain Wright, beckoning Biffo from behind the screens.

  ‘That is not a procedure to be carried out lightly.’ said Doctor Mentor. ‘The unseen world outside angled space can only be opened at the right hour.’

  ‘We must move quickly.’ said DeBlanc, interrupting their discussion. ’I am most concerned that we have already lost Dr Mentor’s hand. If the enemy gets hold of a One Time Pad, its advanced technology will give them great advantage in the conflict to come.’

  The Uchronie’s loudspeakers crackled into life again and a picture of Wayne and Nate sitting in separate holding cells flickered on to the screen. Their back packs were being emptied by the soldiers in the courtyard outside.

  ‘Right up to date n’that now.’ said Biffo, following Captain Wright and Doctor Mentor to the door. ‘This ‘sis live pick …ture… n‘that… but...’

  ‘Wot did ‘that firin’ squad Captain see?’ whispered Wayne, leaning on the bars between the two cells. ‘It saved our bacon whatever it was. ‘E were goin’ to ‘ave us shot until ‘e saw it.’

  ‘When I left the Hindenburg they stamped my papers with this circle.’ I said, showing him through the bars.

  ‘Who stamped it?’ asked Wayne, sitting down cross legged on the floor in the middle of his cell.

  ‘A customs officer in a brown leather coat.’ I said. ‘I didn’t ask his name.’

  ‘Wot time is it?’ asked Wayne, counting on his fingers.

  ‘It’s just gone noon, seven minutes after twelve.’ I said, checking my pocket watch.

  ‘An’ it’s a Monday… so that makes it the hour of the sun.’ said Wayne, drawing a circle in the dirt on the floor. ‘Perfick. That’s wot Doctor Mentor meant when ‘e said you ‘ad the rest of the code. It’s not a circle stamped on your papers… it’s a zero. That’s the missing number.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked, as Wayne produced the One Time Pad from under his jacket. ‘STOP! What are you doing now?’

  ‘May
be I am just a crazy defiant guy with a crazy plan.’ said Wayne, rapidly typing in numbers. ‘But it’s a plan that’s crazy enough to work and get me back to the Uchronie.’

  As soon as Wayne punched in the final zero, a white mist filled the air around him and began to glow as the floor vibrated violently.

  ‘Wayne… wait!’ I cried, trying to reach the One Time Pad through the cell bars. ’We both have to be in contact with the pad for it to work.’

  Outside, the guards emptying our backpacks looked up, alerted by my shouting and the strange vibrations pulsing through Wayne‘s cell. The blinding bright light swirled through a rainbow of colors, curving around Wayne and then shot up through the roof of his cell.

  ‘HALT!’ shouted the bewildered guards, picking up their rifles as they ran towards us.

  But they were too late.

  Wayne was already dematerializing.

  ‘No! Wayne… STOP! Don’t do it!’ I shouted, hauling at the bars between the cells as if I could somehow break through them. ‘What about me?’

  But it was too late.

  The guards fired, but their volley of bullets went straight through the vanishing Wayne as, in an instant, he was gone.

  Air rushed into his cell to fill up the space that he had left with a resounding ‘pop’ and the bullets ricocheted off the stone wall.

  The bewildered guards stood looking into the empty cell and then turned their rifles towards me.

  I raised my hands above my head.

  Ten thousand feet above me and eleven years in the future, Wayne materialized in the control room of the Uchronie.

  ‘Ah, Wayne. Thank goodness you’re back.’ said Commander DeBlanc, quickly taking the One Time Pad from him. ‘Pity about Nate. He was an interesting fellow… rather disruptive, but interesting.’

  A silent image of Nate being escorted from his jail cell froze on the large tachyscreen.

  ‘Daddy you can’t leave Nate there.’ complained Lolly, as the viewing screen darkened. ‘You can’t just write him off.’

  ‘Nate is out of the way and the time streams are returning to normal.’ said Commander DeBlanc, switching the tachyscreen off. ‘For him, I fear, this adventure is over.

  Next episode: St Arwar’s Day… Ginger Awakes.

  Ginger Awakes

  In which the crew of the Uchronie work together with the unconscious Ginger and learn something rather bewildering about Nate.

  Unknown to Nate, who was spending Monday afternoon languishing in a prison cell in 1926, Ginger, had already passed through Bechtsgaden earlier that same Monday 3 of May.

  He had arrived in the darkest hour before dawn, gliding his triplane to a silent landing out on the smooth lake. Then he had swum ashore and spent several hours searching for the Wave pistol that DeBlanc’s Chronological Order Detector had detected.

  A Wave gun should not have existed in 1926 but, as we already know, Ginger was wasting his valuable time searching for the rogue gun, because Nate had not yet arrived in 1926 and Wayne had not yet attempted to assassinate Hitler with the misplaced pistol. So the Wave gun still lay hidden in the undergrowth, where it had been shot out of Wayne’s hand by the bodyguards.

  Wayne, as we know, had already returned to the Uchronie and the safety of 1937, where Ginger still lay in the coma he had been in since his spectacular, and violent, return during the St Arwar’s Ball.

  Ever since the massive Corporal Price had carried Ginger from the bullet ravaged dance hall, Biffo and Doctor Mentor had been attempting to piece together what had happened to him, using their latest steam powered devices and Victorian medical expertise.

  Biffo claimed he had accessed Ginger’s comatose brain and displayed the rather disappointing, blurry, results on the large tachyscreen.

  Doctor Mentor had taken a simpler, more scientific, approach and sat quietly at Ginger’s bedside recording his vital signs. There was a graze on his left temple and Ginger was talking in his sleep. The good doctor recorded every mumbled word and phrase of the long night with his quill pen and parchment.

  At first the unwitting whispers and insentient information made no sense. The Doctor’s notes for the early hours of Sunday morning consisted of the word ‘racecar’ repeated over and over.

  The sleep deprived Doctor formed a fantastic scenario in which Ginger’s triplane had been hit by a racecar during his take off from Germany in 1926.

  He researched this possibility and discovered that steam powered cars had indeed existed in Germany in 1926. Since airplanes were such clumsy things to control he speculated that it would have been possible that Ginger had been caught out in this way.

  To test his supposition, Doctor Mentor had whispered ‘racecar’ into Ginger’s ear and the sleeping airman, still dead to the real world, had mumbled, ‘Was it a car or a cat I saw.’

  Dr Mentor prowled the archives of the Uchronie, searching for information about time traveling cats, and nearly went mad trying to force his scant information into a coherent theory that would explain Ginger’s catastrophe. He clung on to the memory that Commander DeBlanc had once described the Uchronie as a ‘cat that could walk among the clouds.’

  But, by dawn on Sunday, as the cold light of day dawned over Europe and the Uchronie, Doctor Mentor realized that the word ‘racecar’ and the mumbled sentence read the same forwards and backwards and were merely psychosomatic echoes from Ginger’s frozen mind.

  Corporal Price arrived to tell the dog-tired Doctor Mentor that Commander DeBlanc required his assistance in recovering Nate from the mirror world he had become trapped in. (see Chapter 20).

  At midday, Biffo came on shift, scoffing at the inadequacy of Doctor Mentor’s pen and ink, and continued probing Ginger‘s unconsciousness with his scanning steam laser.

  Doctor Mentor returned, after a short catnap, and between them they began to piece together what had happened to Ginger.

  It appeared that one of the soldiers guarding the camp of black uniformed soldiers had heard Ginger’s triplane taxiing for take off and had fired a single warning shot across the dark waters of the Triassic Age lake.

  This single bullet had hit Ginger, causing him to lose control at the crucial moment that he entered temporal flight and had sent him spinning into the angled spaces outside of time.

  ‘My goodness! What are the odds against that?’ said Lolly, when her father brought her to the secure medical area. ‘We have just discovered that the Uchronie has also come adrift in time.’

  ‘Well, it is just a fiction.’ said Doctor Mentor. ‘I won’t try to pretend that it is anything more.’

  Biffo conjectured that Ginger had gone so far back in time that the seven day week and calendars had not yet been invented and, accordingly, he had been sucked into some sort of prehistoric time vacuum. But it took them many hours to find out how Ginger had managed to get back to the Uchronie and why he had arrived on the Saturday night instead of the Tuesday morning when he had been expected to return.

  They knew that Ginger would have tried everything possible to escape and Biffo accessed the depths of his reserves in a desperate attempt to find the answer before anyone else. However, it was Doctor Mentor who revealed that it was an explosion that had thrown Ginger forward in time again.

  ‘Which explains his burnt flying jacket and subsequent coma.’ said Lolly.

  ‘What actually happened in this… um…big bang?’ asked Commander DeBlanc, getting more and more concerned that he was completely losing control of the Chronological Order.

  ‘It's hard to explain.‘ said Doctor Mentor, picking up his quill pen and drawing a line on a blank sheet of paper. ‘This line represents the main time stream. If I add branches to the line they symbolize the split time lines that can occur.’

  ‘Yes, yes. Alternate time streams.’ said DeBlanc, impatiently. ‘We are trapped in one and, up to now, we have been blaming Nate for causing it.’

  ‘Yes.’ said Doctor Mentor, picking up his glass of water and pouring it over the in
k drawing. ‘This is what happens to the time lines when a time machine explodes!’

  ‘I see.’ said DeBlanc, watching the lines spread in a formless mess as the ink ran in all directions. ‘What has Biffo found?’

  ‘Access in his dreams… n‘that.’ said Biffo, displaying his recovered images on the tachyscreen. ‘An… conch… us mind tell us, but…’

  ‘That’s preposterous said DeBlanc, ‘Dreams are nothing more than the illusions or delusions of a sleeping brain.’

  ‘Not so, daddy.’ said Lolly, taking of the white circular hat that she had worn to church. ‘Angels use dreams to communicate with us.’