by Ken Webster
‘As soon as Ken entered I drew his attention to the chalking. I then felt a little annoyed with myself as I thought I should have been more observant, so that I could have seen the name being written. But then I did not expect anything to occur. Had Lukas been trying to communicate? I thought so. Was he puzzled, annoyed, dismayed or saddened? All these questions I took home with me.’
35
23 October
I was offered the Manchester job and would leave teaching at Christmas to take up a research post. We continued to use a borrowed computer while SPR tested ours, and received this from 2109:
PSYKABILLIES
HELLO GROWING IN NUMBERS ARE WE! NO HE DOES’NT INTERFERE WITH THE COMMUNICATIONS – WHAT’S HIS REAL NAME, MORE INFO NOT
ENOUGH GIVEN ON THIS MAN. BEFORE WE REPLY TO YOUR QUESTIONS THIS MAN APPEALS TO US. WE WOULD SOONER HAVE SOMEONE WITH MORE EXPERIENCE.
ONE THING YOU ARE GOING TO LEARN QUICKLY IS IF YOU ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE RULES i.e. SNEAKY LOOKS THROUGH WINDOWS INSIDE ‘ZONE’ WF WONT PI AY BALL!
WE REFUSE TO ANSWER YOUR STAR QUESTION. NO REASON. YES WE UNDERSTAND FULLY WHAT
YOUR TRYING TO ACHIEVE BUT WE ARE NOT THE ONES IN NEED OF HELP. ANSWERS AFTER MORE INFO ON THIS MAN.
2109
No salvation yet. They seemed to want to focus on the big man, Nick. I think they knew who he was but were taunting SPR.
There was another part to their message, an add-on item for my eyes only.
KEN
JUST TELLE JOHN THAT SOMEONE DISRUPTED
THE COMMUNICATION BY COMING TOO CLOSE TO THE COMPUTER WHEN IT WAS IN OPERATIONS.
GET THE OTHER COMPUTER (BBC) AND WE SPEAK TO YOUR PSYBILLIES. NO POINT OTHERWISE. THOMAS WILL SPEAK LATTER
2109
I thought, ‘Stuff this, just give me the answers!’
I rang John Bucknall the next day and told him the news. He thought that 2109 were backpedalling very fast and being unreasonable. 2109 had got the test they wanted so where were the answers? John refused to give any more details on ‘Nick’ as, he said, it was irrelevant. I was stuck in the middle of all this, feeling very foolish. I gave the gist of our conversation to ‘the little numbers’.
They replied between 5.15 P.M. and 5.45 P.M. and tried to persuade me that they would certainly obtain the answers to the questions just as soon as they had tracked down Nick. There was the inescapable feeling that trenches were being dug and that I would stay between the parties in no man’s land. 2109 told me they thought Nick had disrupted the communication on the 22nd and that they needed to trace him so that they could, er, alter history a touch … I thought, ‘Here we go again!’ and wrote: ‘Sure, fine, anything you say!’ Then I tried in the other trench. Could I please have Nick’s name? John very reluctantly gave it – Nick Sowerby-Johnson. He also said that they couldn’t get the disk drive to work and had been unable to check the disk yet. I groaned to myself over the likely expense but thanked him profusely for Nick’s name then went over to the other side and told our ‘time monsters’. They assured me that in a matter of forty-eight hours or so they would have found out what they needed to know.
What a life!
36
27 October
I left the following message in frustration:
2109
FORGIVE MY FORGETFULNESS, HOW MANY HOURS TILL YOU TRACE NICKS PATH? … DON’T DISAPPOINT ME OR ELSE I WILL … WHAT CAN I DO? NOTHING!!
They responded:
KEN
WE CANNOT AT YOUR PRESENT TIME FIND WHAT CAUSED THE DISRUPTION AS THE QUESTIONS WENT OVER
QUESTION: DID THE PSYKABILLIES CHECK THE INFO. WENT ONTO THE COMMPUTER? IF YOU COULD JUST ASK THIS QUESTION IT WOULD SAVE MUCH TIME, IF THEY MADE SURE IT WAS ON THE COMMPUTER TRANSMITTING THEN THERE SHOULD BE NO PROBLEM AND WE WILL HAVE THE ANSWERS BY TOMORROW 8.15 AM. BY THE WAY - YOU
So infuriating that it was not completed, but tramping the village for so long was getting to be a drag. There had been too much tramping and not enough constructive action all month. I’d been out twice that day already; now the unfinished message determined that I’d go again. I sat in the car on the drive. I only gave it ten minutes but we were in luck.
YOU CAN DISRUPT THE ENTIRE EXPERIMENT!
In this whirlpool of activity and confusion I hardly felt that we had any part other than to facilitate someone else’s manoeuvring of the computer and the pen and paper. I was still deeply pessimistic. Perhaps the hardest thing was not being able to concentrate on Tomas.
I decide not to co-operate:
2109
PERHAPS YOU HAVE NEGLECTED ‘1’s INFLUENCE. I DON’T HAVE BUCKNALL’S NO AND DAVE WELCH WASN’T INVOLVED. SORRY TO BE PESSIMISTIC. IF JOHN RINGS I SHALL ASK.
KEN.
Next morning was the end of British Summer Time. 8.15 – the time 2109 promised to have the answers – came and went. I inflicted my insecurity and my irritation on everyone. 2109, on the contrary, were brassily confident.
KEN
DON’T BE PESAMISTIC. YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR PROOF WE GUARANTEE. PLEASE DO NOT COMMUNICATE TO THOMAS ON PAPER THANK YOU
2109.
I gazed at the message a few moments and shrugged my shoulders. So what? I was going to lie to them again. I would not jeopardize the only worthwhile communications – those with Tomas.
There was some cipher traffic at the bottom of the screen. More shrugging of shoulders. I decided to do some work outside. I came in ten minutes later looking for a plastic bag, and as I did so I saw some more evidence of activity ‘elsewhere’ and ‘beyond’ us.
SM FIELDS WILL CAUSE MORE THAN DISRUPTION WITH THIS KIND! … NO MORE GAMES TELL THEM
WHY DON’T YOU
YOU KNOW WHY!
‘Who sent this?’ Deb inquired as she peered over a mug of coffee.
‘It’s “one” and 2109 arguing about something,’ I said, not really looking at it, not really thinking.
‘Why do they argue?’ she continued.
‘Don’t know.’
‘Why does it come up on the screen?’
‘Don’t know, perhaps its just for our benefit.’
‘Why?’
‘To convince us that 2109 are doing something about the SPR questions.’
‘You mean 2109 wrote it all? Why is the spelling OK?’
I was getting irritated again. I was so edgy by now. Why was I supposed to know what was going on? ‘Look. If 2109 answer the bloody SPR question does it matter about the small talk?’
Deb wasn’t giving up. ‘What does “SM” mean? Sadomasochistic? Secondary modern? SM fields? Secondary magnetic? Why that’s it! It’s to do with “lines of force” stuff.’
With a groan I walked out and then sat in the car and began unnecessarily to retune the radio as a distraction.
In school the next day I rang home from the phone box, after rudely shooing away some kids wanting to ring mum about their PE kit. Deb answered. No change. 2109 had not written. But my enthusiasm for them was returning. It was probably only a reflection of my changing moods but they had promised an answer.
The enthusiasm soon waned. The evening and morning of the second day passed.
Tomas continued to write, but this message at lunchtime on the 29th was very strange indeed.
felawe ken
2109 didst axe mynselve to put thyr wordes to papyr soe yow maye syght theyme an yn retorne thei wyl gyv papyr wen nedes me/ theym nath gyve me anie othir then thyr be moche amys thyr / wyth causioun methynks/ me dost axe yow goode brothyr yf yow canst rekone for myn scryt as methinkest yowr charyctore beest lyken to thy leems/ me hope yow dydst fynde myn tale o som desporte/ me han portreyd plas o greyns as hath yow mayde debbie/ love to yow brothyr
Fellow Ken
2109 asked me to put their words to paper so you may see them and in return they will give paper when I need it. If they don’t give me any more then there is a big problem, with caution I think. I wonder if you can understand my writing for your characters are like those shown by the ‘leems’. I
hope you enjoyed my tale. I have drawn ‘place of grains’ as you asked, Debbie.* My love to you, brother.
Tomas I envied as he usually took no messing from 2109. But this message seemed to introduce another twist to the problem. When he said ‘an yn retorne [for carrying 2109’s messages to us] thei wyl gyv papyr wen nedes me’ did he mean that 2109 controlled his supply of paper? Obviously unlikely! Especially odd since 2109 had told us not to communicate with Tomas on paper, presumably because they could not interfere with the process. Anyway the paper was in my kitchen. It was my paper and my decision. They had bullshitted him into compliance unless there was some facet of this communication process that we had overlooked. Tomas urged caution, so I went along with the arrangement and said nothing to him about it.
felawe ken
2109 axith to plas thir words intyl myne scryt to myne felawes/ thoforthy
sorry to communicate this way but were trying to sort things out. continue wyth experment, we’ll doe are best
2109
Good Tomas had copied every word. If he was copying it and if he was ‘in’ our time when he wrote to us on paper – as we supposed – how was he able to see the ‘leems’ at the same moment? Evidently the ‘leems’ carried 2109’s message for Tomas to be able to copy it – but not on our computer on this occasion. Discussion did the rounds but as usual no one could sort it out.
Tomas went on to offer a verse from the poet Gower and to ask his ‘brothyrs’ to visit him – ‘lyks yow mayd’ – and to share his best wine. This was all very puzzling … Later the same day:
‘What’s this about Tomas wanting us all to visit?’
Debbie replied, ‘He says if I can do it everyone can.’
‘I didn’t know you “did it”, I thought it was accidental!’
‘It is mostly … He’s given me some hints about relaxing.’
‘He’s done what! Well, forget it, I am not going anywhere.’
‘It’s only like a brill dream …’
‘Forget it.’
‘I’ll show you …’
‘No way. You’re only dreaming and he’s in your dreams.’
‘Is that how he writes to us then with a dream pen and dream paper? Talk sense.’
‘So you’re doing what Tomas does? Oh, this doesn’t help us, Debbie,’ I said with vague and unformed anxiety. ‘Anyway I have to say something to Bucknall about the SPR questions. How about, “2109 gets Tomas to write ‘we’ll do our best’”? Huh! That’s the real problem. I can’t let Bucknall know all this.’
37
31 October
felawe ken and all yow friends
me dost thane yow for yowr scryt an me schalt replicacioune to alle o yow but fyrst myn ken/ me am tyrsom soe thys nyght an canna bryng a pleesing thenke to myne pan soe lene yowr ere goodlie brothyr that maye repyre me o myn myrthelis stat/ grovynore dost seyne III week me goe/ o wot strength yn myn love wot powyr that tyme beest blasted atweye an thyr be neought that we kan doe/ thys nyght me syghts myn canstyk an eye nor hert wol leve yt as me doe goe to myn planken to wrytes al questiouns that me must ax myn goodlie brothyrs an mayde
love Tomas
Fellow Ken and all your friends,
I thank you for your words and I shall reply to each of you but first my Ken. I am so anxious tonight and can’t bring a pleasing thought to my head so lend me your ear, good brother, so you may cure my unhappiness. Grosvenor says three weeks and I must leave. Oh, what strength in my love, what power that time be cut apart and there is nothing that we can do. Tonight I watch my candle burn, neither my eye nor my heart will leave it as I go to my table to write all the questions that I must ask my good brothers and maid.
Love Tomas
Three weeks and he goes. Three weeks. I wrote back with heavy heart that we loved him dearly.
1 November
Still no news from 2109. I wove a little more imitation Star Trek into the next message:
STATE OF PLAY??
They merely wrote:
WHO KNOWS!!!
It sent me into a silent, seething anger. But I moved to the ‘Biggies’ character. Some approach had to work!
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING CHAPS?? KEN
Nothing immediately. It was too late to go out again so Deb and I did some serious talking about how we should use these last days with Tomas. A priority, prompted by Peter’s questions about words, was to try and take him back to the beginning of the experience and ask for an explanation of how it all began and then to check on those early messages, one by one, and line by line, if necessary, so that we got a true idea of what he wrote. It was possibly the last chance to disentangle his words from 2109’s ‘editing’.
Deb left out copies of the first two messages for Tomas and the next day we received a reply – in two parts, due to it having been interrupted by someone walking into the room.
goodlie ken
preye yow forgyve myn wordes to papyr as methynks myn wordes maye mysapere yf 2109 does sytes theym/ thy scrypts yowr mayde dide shewe tmynselve arn nat altogedyr wot me dide sayn tho alle beest myne wordes thei beest upsoe downe/ thy scryt abowtes edmonde greye me never wryte thow thy wordes beest o myne ylk/ myne fyrst scryt didst seyen lyk forthe.
me speke tyow that yow maye answere/ wy
preye yow kepes myn wake a nyght wyth
this straunge devyse that doe shyne lyks
devylls teethe atte myneselve … yowr
wordes doe cause me to thynks that yow
beest illschoold or yow dost com ovre
see/ yowr facioun beest uncouthe to
mynselve an yow hath manye costly thyngs
that onlie myn kyng canst afore/ tis a
barful thyng thys devyse for me conserne
that yt be a scathful thyng/ wy be thise
goode men an swete she be walks through
myn house/theye art wel com bot wy dost
thei non syghts mynselve preye/ wy dost
yow put alle myn possessiouns al
abowten myne howes an breek al myn
bounds that me be wreathed / me canst
nay alowe yow to brybe myn farme less
yow expowne yow intendaunce
Good Ken
Please forgive my words to paper as I think they may be removed if 2109 see them. The words your maid showed me are not altogether what I said, though they are all my words they are jumbled. The words on Edmund Grey I didn’t write though these words are like mine. The first script said as follows:
So the second message was entirely fake and Edmund Grey could be laid to rest along with the more speculative notions of Tomas’s ‘antic’ and ‘breaking atwain’ his ‘bound’. These had been of interest throughout the last year.
Tomas said the ‘leems’ shone ‘lyks devylls teethe atte myneselve’ and he noted the primitive wording he saw on it. Tomas had been in communication with someone else before us.
2109 were not absent from the screen for long. They wittered on about Nick Sowerby-Johnson.
YOUR FRIEND NIK IS A CRASHING BORE, WHERE DOES HE WORK?,MI5?.USSR? – CANT FIND HIM ANYWHERE, MAY BE HE’S ‘ONE’?!!. NO MORE GAMES WITH SPR.,WE’VE HAD ENOUGH – JUST LET THEM ANOY US ONE MORE TIME …
– THEYLL SO KNOW THIS ISNT A HOAX!!
2109
I didn’t know if they were serious. However, the upshot was that 2109 couldn’t trace Nick, our bossy investigator. (Deb had never believed they had the power to do this.) 2109 thought Sowerby-Johnson a ‘crashing bore’. They’d obviously detected my Biggies. I wasn’t in any mood for this childishness. What a bore they were.
2109 kept up the friendly banter, and even analysed Frank’s wife’s medical problem! What a magic box this was turning out to be! ‘The oracle is in: bring your problems – obscure words, illness, missing persons, computer communications – all will be dealt with circumspectly and ambiguously by the very shady Dr 2109; or directly, if you can read the writing and put your case in late Middle English, by Dr Tomas.’
Some proper control was needed, there were important questions to be pursued and just about none of them were for, or about, 2109. That was my prejudiced opinion. And these questions were about more than the use of late Middle English words. ‘It’s my time, my problem, my house!’ I said rather desperately.
Debbie was also concerned. ‘I never see you,’ she said. She was right. When I was not at work I was out so she could ‘ghostbust’. She said that half the time we were probably ‘ghostbusting’ some other person’s questions. They got the benefits, we got the costs. I must have been asleep to let this happen.
I wrote to Tomas, trying to latch on to a few problems from the earlier messages as this was proving a most fruitful avenue. I also included a few names and historical facts. It was all madness and impossible to sustain at this intensity, for we were receiving up to four messages on each of the good days and ‘ghostbusting’ for about four hours every night, though not always with success.
There were other kinds of madness ‘out there’, as this vicious exchange, presumably between ‘one’ and 2109, showed:
2109
POOR, POOR, JACK-IN-THE-BOX, WHAT WILL HE DO WITHOUT A SPRING, NOW HE’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO PERFORM FOR THE CHILDREN. OH, AND HOW THE CHILDREN WILL CRY!
WON, WE PRESUME?!. CUT THE CRIPTIC, YOAR TOO OBVIOUS ANYWAY!. TRYING TO PLAY THE BRAVE SUMARITAN EH?!! REVERT TO CIPHER YOAR JUST CONFUSING 1985E. THEY KNOW NOT TO TRUST YOU!.
‘In action watch the timing.’ So says the Tao te ching. ‘One’ had, we surmised, taken the spring out of the 2109 jack-in-the-box at exactly the right moment. The spring, their raison d’être, had been the promise to catch the message transferring between the SPR computer and disk. ‘One’ had knocked it out and 2109 couldn’t meet their obligation.
Curiously, if we were the children we did not cry. Personally I was relieved, happy that 2109 were defeated. Maybe it was their arrogance, perhaps just their failure. Debbie and I went to town to talk over what to do next and to drink tea in the cathedral. The cathedral cloisters are old enough for Tomas to have known them. I would ask him. It felt good to be in the even coolness of those reassuring stone walls. We talked for an hour or more and our attention moved to the second part of this most recent exchange.