Ranh

by Ian J Miller

  * * *

  Athene stood beside the server and looked across at the crew, who numbered four, and to Dr Chu, Harry Grenfell and Captain Black. The news had spread, and there was general excitement, although Dr Chu's expression was as inscrutable as at most times, while Harry Grenfell seemed almost amused at everyone's behaviour.

  "The good news," Athene started her speech, "is that humanity has been saved. Earth is working well, and the population is roughly like when we left."

  A cheer rang out.

  "The less good news," Athene continued, "is that it isn't quite the same Earth. It is on a completely different timeline. Strictly speaking, what you had before you left has gone forever, although there might be something almost the same there. There is no changing that, ever."

  There was stunned silence, although again, neither Dr Chu, who had expected this, nor Harry Grenfell seemed to be particularly concerned.

  "The indifferent news is, this station cannot continue. It violates physics, and is only here because the paradox has a final event required to resolve it." She smiled as she saw the puzzled looks on some.

  "The really good news is, the resolution is the attempt at our rescue. Notice, I said 'attempt'. I have been informed it should work, but only if we do exactly as ordered. Absolute discipline is required; we must all follow instructions exactly. If anyone tries to cheat, or behaves impulsively, all die."

  "Which brings me to the military view," Captain Black said. "Anyone who disobeys in any way will be left behind, or shot." With that, he showed the only pistol on the station.

  "Hopefully, there will be no need for that," Harry Grenfell said. "I assume we all want to live." He looked around, and it was fairly clear all did.

  "What about our prisoner?" one of the crew asked.

  "He will be offered the same opportunity to leave as everyone else, but he will be at the back of the queue, so to speak," Captain Black said. "One piece of stupidity from him, and he stays behind."

  "Now, instructions," Athene said. "The big problem is that to swap timelines, there must be an exact balance of matter and energy. Accordingly, there will be a problem with personal possessions. Only the most personal can be taken. If you have anything that can be converted to digital form, we shall convert it and send that. Information is easy; mass is hard. Anything solid can only be taken if it can be defined completely, and," she emphasized the 'and' very strongly, "if an equivalent of it in composition can be provided from there. Personal photos will have to be digitised. However, there will be keepsakes, small personal things like rings and jewellery. These will all have to be taken to our control room, then be described as far as composition and weighed. The description will be sent across, and if the answer is yes, it can be taken; if the answer is no, you have to accept that.

  "The good news," Athene explained, "is that an equivalent item is not needed from there, but merely a match of the elemental composition.

  "Now, here is what will happen. We must put what we want to take in a polyethylene bucket. They will have to provide an equivalent. We must then all be weighed, naked, then we must cover ourselves with a standard bedding sheet. There must be no hair clips, no metal, no nothing attached to us. We then go to the air lock, whereupon I shall signal that we are ready. They will produce a bridge, we close the air lock and open to the bridge and proceed out in an orderly fashion, where we shall see a large disk, or more precisely, half a large disk. There will be a dark wall dividing the disk in two. On this disk, there will be spots with our names marked. We must stand on these spots and hold onto a pole. They will insert equivalent matter on the other side. All of this has to be done as quickly as possible. The dark wall divides the time lines, but bringing the bridge to our side introduces an instability, and this will be compensated for by the annihilation of part of our satellite, so once out there, there is no going back.

  "When ready, Captain Black, you must throw your pistol and any ammunition back into the air lock, then the disk will rotate. We all hold on, and pass to the other timeline. Once the disk stops rotating, you will see a hatch open. Walk through it in an orderly fashion, but reasonably quickly. Do not worry about vibrations, because there will be some fairly horrendous ones. We have to keep doing what we are asked to do. They are the instructions. Now, we have time to get ready, but once we step into that air lock, everything must be done as quickly as possible. I have here an outline of how the disk is marked. Learn your places, and go there. They are important, because as the disk rotates, the mass leaving has to equal the mass entering, and if you are on the wrong spot, we may all die. Equally, if we don't do this smoothly, we may be in deep trouble."

  * * *

  Eight bare-footed people desperately covering themselves with sheets stood in the airlock. The door behind them had closed, and it was getting stuffy, when there was a violent shaking of the satellite. A voice came across the speaker in Latin, "Don't worry! I am dephasing part of your satellite to permit the bridge to be linked."

  "Why is he speaking in Latin?" one of the crew asked. "Doesn't he trust us?"

  "It is because there is a new language you have to learn," Athene explained. "It is called English. The two timelines evolved with significant differences, it appears, and Latin is our only common language, except possibly ancient Greek."

  "This is going to be interesting," Harry Grenfell remarked. "For a historian, anyway. A whole couple of millennia of new data."

  Suddenly, there was another very strong jerk, a scraping sound, then the sound of something boring into the wall of the satellite. Then silence. Then more Latin.

  "Right, we can open the door," Athene said. "Dr Chu, you take the bucket of items and place it on the spot in front of your allocated spot. When we get through and leave, you carry it through."

  "Yes, your divineness," Dr Chu said with a broad grin. Captain Black had walked forward and was opening the hatch door.

  "The only reason I am giving orders is I am the only one who speaks Latin," Athene said. "The orders are coming from over there. Anyway, the door's open. Let's go, and be orderly."

  To her surprise, the exit was orderly, everyone had memorized their spot, they went there, and held the pole with one hand, the sheet with the other hand. They stood there for a minute, as there were a number of very strong vibrations, but these started to dampen.

  "Sorry about the shaking," Athene translated. "I am getting the balance right. Now, hang on. This is where it is made or broken."

  The floor they were standing on began to rotate, and the first person went through the black wall. At the same time a pile of meat, a sheet, and a small amount of other material came through the other wall. Athene was fascinated as the disk continued to turn, people disappeared, meat and sheet appeared, the disk seemed to be in danger of shaking itself to pieces but it held somehow, everyone clung onto their pole as tightly as they could, then she was through, and then she could see meat and sheet disappearing and people appearing. The whole floor was vibrating so strongly she thought the whole would disintegrate. The floor stopped, another hatch door opened, and a hand waved them to enter. They did, promptly, but orderly, with Captain Black the last to go through. Then the hatch door closed, and there was further violent shaking, and the whole room they were in, lurched to the left.

  "Welcome aboard the battleship Actium," Athene translated. "You must now all follow Marcellus, here, who will take you to where you can get more suitable clothes. I gather there are also choices to be made."

  "Choices?"

  "Wait and see."

  * * *

  "The good news," Athene translated, "is that we made it, but we now have some difficult choices to make. You cannot go back to Earth and to your property or your loved ones because none of that exists. Worse, there may be equivalents of you, thus records show that there is another Dr Chu in China, who, as far as we can tell, is genetically identical to you. It has been decided on Earth that bringing us all back would create too many difficulties."

&nb
sp; "Then what's going to happen to us?"

  "The choices are these. You can go back to Earth but go to another country and start your life again as someone else. I don't think they want that to happen," she added, "because this is the one option where you don't get any other help."

  "Then what?"

  "The second best option, from the point of view of the help they offer," Athene continued, "is to settle on Mars. There is a promise to help integrate you into life there, and there is more help offered as outlined in a sheet that will be given to you, once our language is incorporated into this ship's database."

  "And what do you assert is the best option?" Harry Grenfell asked with something of the wry look of one who suspects it will be best for the bureaucrats on Earth rather than for those on the ship.

  Athene in turn gave a look that said she was unsure just how better it really was, and explained, "We shall be taken to a planet around Alpha Centauri, which is reasonably Earth-like. Earth has apparently developed interstellar space technology, and to test their newfound skill, they are sending five shiploads of settlers, who are selected for specific skills, mainly in science, electronics, engineering and medicine. We shall be on those ships."

  "Test subjects!" Captain Black scowled.

  "The ships have been certified as safe by local Ulsians, who have millions of years of space travel experience," Athene said. "The ships will be safe. There will also apparently be two-dozen shiploads of settlers from a planet around Epsilon Eridani. These are humans whose ancestors were abducted and sent there, and are now returning to what we hope will be an Earth-like environment, and the start of another human civilization. They also bring some advanced technology from that civilization, so overall there will be a few thousand settlers, all of whom have to create a new life. We also start Earth's space expansion."

  "And that is our best option?" Captain Black asked.

  "It is the one Earth wants. There will be three groups there," Athene explained, "All of whom have to learn to accommodate each other, and each of the three brings something unique to the mix."

  "Look at it on the bright side," Harry Grenfell said. "Everyone you knew before won't know you now. Everything you owned before will be owned by someone else, or it won't exist. Still, I must admit I am curious about Earth's history on this timeline."

  "Information is no problem," Marcellus said. To the puzzled looks, he said, "You have been talking long enough that now I can also speak your language, and I shall help you learn the new one. Now, back to information, tell us what you want to know, and it will be provided. The only reason they don't want you to go back is because of the obvious disputes, and the psychological problems of being displaced and being an alien in your own country, and possibly meeting someone who is equivalent to your wife, but is actually someone else's and has no idea who you even are. Yes, you will have problems where you are going, but they will be problems you can solve."

  "Then I think we should go to a new planet," Dr Chu said. "I for one am going. All my life I read about people going to new planets, and now I get the chance. This I cannot turn down."

  One by one, the others agreed.

  "Then you should each come and be prepared for space travel," Marcellus said. "There will be an added bonus, in that if you have anything wrong with you, you will be repaired."

  "Repaired? Earth has advanced that far?"

  "No, but Ulse has, and you lot get that extra benefit. Oh also, Pallas, Gaius has invited you to a genuine Roman dinner. It is a long time since he has had a guest who can speak Latin, and the chance to speak to a Goddess was too much to resist."

  * * *

  "Now I have the ability to speak in your language," Gaius said to the prisoner, "I am curious to know what you did with your temporal interference."

  "Look, unlike what the others think, I didn't do anything for personal gain. I thought I was doing something really beneficial." The man had an almost fawning plead, but he also had the fearful look of one who would not be believed.

  "And what would that be?"

  "I found out about the humans on Ranh, and I discovered a young Ranhyn priest who wanted to be important, but who had blotted his copybook. I gave him a vision as if from the Creator, in which I offered to make him a Cardinal if he promised to return the humans to Earth."

  Gaius gave a startled look, and asked, "What was the name of this prospective Cardinal?"

  "Sender, I think."

  "I see. And what did Priest Sender have to do once a Cardinal?"

  "Build ships and return the humans. He agreed, so I showed him how to be Cardinal, and I gave a vision from the Creator to two Cardinals on the selection panel."

  "And you learned their language?"

  "Yes. It took quite an effort, but –"

  "How did you put 'return'?"

  The prisoner shrugged, and told what he had said.

  "I see," Gaius said, and shook his head. "I am afraid your pronunciation was terrible. You did not say 'return', but rather, 'remove'."

  "Was that bad?"

  "You could say that. Cardinal Sender then thought it was his holy duty to remove humanity from existence, and that the Creator had given him divine instructions to remove one of his creations." He paused, and shrugged as he said to Athene, who was in the background, and had been told what had happened on Ranh, "It looks like Sender was not mad after all, but he really thought he had been given instructions from the Creator."

  "So what happens now?" The prisoner looked fearful.

  "You shall be taken to Alpha Centauri, and you will be offered the same rights as the other settlers. If I were you, I would keep quiet about what you did, and I shall let everyone know that you made a hash of your pronunciation, and said something you did not mean."

  "Thank you. I'll –"

  "Just go and let Marcellus prepare you for deep space travel," Gaius said, then added, "before I change my mind."

  As Athene noted, she had never seen anyone scamper off to what was essentially a medical procedure so quickly.

  * * *

  "So, this is a typical Roman meal?" Athene asked.

  "No," Gaius admitted. "The average Roman probably ate only beans and bread, and pork takeaways now and again, as only too many had no real cooking facilities in their run-down living conditions."

  "But Claudians were not exactly average Romans, were they?"

  "No, and I feel somehow you have an advantage in peering at our lives."

  "Perhaps," she responded, "but you have had the advantage of having had ten lives, and only this one has not gone through as far as it could naturally."

  "Not much use, though, when you only know about one."

  "I could tell you something about the others," Athene said, "but I doubt it would do any good. For what it is worth, I have no idea what happened to you when I did not interfere, except that you were not very important and you would never have met Vipsania, and once the probability of resolving the paradox fell to zero on all the other timelines, what happened after that was lost to us, so I don't know what would have happened then."

  "Then how do you know I would not have met Vipsania?" Gaius challenged.

  "Because the original never got into the army."

  "But I did!"

  "That was because Caligulae had given the Centurion Bassus your appointment, but to be handed to you only if you impressed the Centurion. What persuaded the Centurion was the gold chalice incident, while the original Scaevola never thought about it." She paused and added with an impish smile, "That was in my first prophecy to you, and I put it in just because I needed something to add detail to the prophecy. That gave quite a jump to the probability."

  "But I had forgotten –"

  "It would still be in your subconscious." She paused, and added, "Look, I am sorry about Vipsania, but there really was no way to save her that I could think of, and saving humanity was more important."

  "Well, I guess what's done is done."

  "So, what happens to me?
"

  "That's up to you, but you'll have to decide more or less now. Shortly, the Actium will head off to the Alpha Centauri system."

  "That seems to be the best choice for me, too, from what you said."

  "Oh, I am sure it will be. Pallas Athene is one of the few names known to them all there."

  "Then I guess I had better transfer to one of the ships going there."

  "Not necessary. The Actium is not exactly a luxury transport, but I can find you a bed, and I assure you that while travelling at relativistic speed, you are basically unconscious. So, if you are going there, dine well, and Marcellus can get you prepared to travel."

  "So," she said, and raised a goblet, "I hope they have grapes on Alpha Centauri."

  "Believe it or not, I made sure some vines are included," Gaius said, and clinked goblets.

  Author's note

  Thank you for reading this. If you enjoyed it, why not write a review? Such reviews really help authors, and I would certainly appreciate such a review.

  I also hope you liked the drawing on the cover; this was by Nancy Batra, so thank you Nancy.

  As in my other futuristic novels, I have named future objects by the nearest word in current usage that reflects what they do, more or less. Thus a television is something that transmits images and sound from A to B. I have tried to make the science as plausible as I could, but of course there are parts where considerable imagination was required. The star Epsilon Eridani is about 900 My old, and we know it has a giant planet with an eccentricity of about 0.7. There is as yet no evidence of inner rocky planets, while the evidence of the distant giant planet stated in this book is thin, to say the least, but the dust we see suggests it is plausible there could be a planet at about 60 AU from the star, but then again, maybe not. There have been other reports of uncertain validity of a distant gas giant, and for fictional purposes, I included it, not the least because the plot needed it. As far as I know there is no evidence of rocky planets around Alpha Centauri A, but there is room there in the double star system for such planets to be dynamically stable, if they survived whatever happened shortly after stellar formation.