The Nick of Time

by Mike Parker

  After supper, the time travelers wandered around the ship soaking in all the sights and sounds. Ainsley wrapped her arms around Nick and leaned against him as they listened to the string quartet play. It seemed as though the ruse of being a newly married couple gave them permission to act in ways that perhaps they would have liked to in other situations but were too timid to do so. They held hands as they strolled once again along the upper deck and kissed in the moonlight before calling it a night and returning to their luxury cabin.

  The fairy tale experience had momentarily distracted them from the dangers and stresses of their mission and from the unnerving eavesdropper on the Turtle Dove’s messages. None of that mattered for tonight. Tomorrow, no doubt, reality would start to infringe again as the clock ticked down to their teleportations to who-knows-where, but for now, they were embracing a few blissful moments aboard the grand vessel.

  – 29 –

  The Unsinkable Ship

  Nick and Ainsley woke up the next morning and slipped into a less formal set of clothes, also provided by Mr. and Mrs. Carruthers. They enjoyed a late breakfast in the dining room and then met up with their patrons for morning tea. Following a light lunch, the pair returned to their cabin to record a message to send back to the lab and wait for incoming recordings from Carl and possibly the enigmatic Barry.

  “Hi guys,” Ainsley began. “It is about two-thirty in the afternoon on April 14, 1912. Nick and I are having a delightful time on the Titanic. This seems to be her maiden voyage across the Atlantic and we are having such a blast! I wish you had built an override into the Little Bird so we could stay longer. We’re definitely coming here again sometime! Anyways, we’re both doing well. I’ll let you know where we end up after our next teleport. Take care. Love ya.”

  “Did I hear that right?” Carl asked.

  “Did she say they were on the Titanic?” Doctor Stevens said in shock. “And would like to stay on aboard a few more days? What day did it…”

  “I’m checking,” the physicist interrupted, frantically scrolling through websites on his phone. “It hit the iceberg at 11:40 PM on April fourteenth. Two hours and forty minutes later it was all under water.”

  “Why don’t they get off? Why don’t they warn someone! Why don’t they stop it?”

  “It would seem,” Carl said thoughtfully, “that in whatever timeline they are from, the Titanic didn’t sink and therefore they are unaware of any danger.”

  “But they came from this timeline,” the doctor protested.

  “True, but somehow their being on the ship or the ripple effect of something else they did in an even earlier time period impacted the events on the Titanic. Which means, now it will sink. Which is why we remember that it did sink.”

  “Whoa! That’s messed up.”

  “The question is, will it sink before or after they have a chance to teleport off the ship?” the scientist pondered.

  “Ainsley said it was about two-thirty when she recorded the message so, if we assume she recorded the message just prior to overriding, that means her recall time is likely around three o’clock in the afternoon,” Doctor Stevens hypothesized.

  “If that is true,” Carl continued. “They must have arrived at three o’clock yesterday, April 13th.”

  “Nick is on a 36-hour cycle which puts his next teleport at three o’clock in the morning. That’s about forty minutes after the ship goes down.”

  “Can he survive in the water that long?”

  “Maybe,” the doctor said, “But just barely. The more troubling news is…”

  “My sister just overrode the Turtle Dove’s recall which means she won’t have another chance to teleport until this time tomorrow which is about ten hours too late.”

  “Perhaps she will manage to secure a spot in one of the lifeboats. That should buy her enough time,” the doctor offered optimistically.

  “I certainly hope so,” Carl replied solemnly.

  Ainsley and Nick had just concluded a nice post-dinner game of shuffleboard and were headed back to their cabin to settle in for the evening. It had been a wonderful day and they truly hated to see it end.

  “It’s too bad that you have to bolt out of here in the middle of the night,” Ainsley chuckled. “I could handle a couple more days like today.”

  “Too bad indeed,” Nick agreed. “But look at the bright side, you don’t have to leave until tomorrow afternoon.”

  “I hope Mr. and Mrs. Carruthers don’t get too worried about us,” the reporter said worriedly. “They’ve been so kind to us and I’m sure they’ll notice that we’re not around. I’m half tempted to leave them a note here in the cabin.”

  “Yeah, right,” her companion laughed. “What are you going to tell them? Sorry, we left, but we teleported to another time. Or perhaps, we’ve decided we don’t want to go to America so we’re swimming back to England.”

  “Very funny,” the reporter laughed. “I know there’s nothing reasonable to say, I just feel bad disappearing on them after all the nice things they’ve done for us.”

  “I know what you mean,” Nick agreed. “So, I guess I’ll just sit here in this chair. No need for you to wake up at 3 AM to see me off. Just make sure you’re standing right next to this chair when your turn comes.”

  “Okay,” Ainsley said and then added, “Oh, no!”

  “What is it?”

  “I just realized something,” the reporter said, her face turning white. “This ship is traveling at close to twenty-three knots, which means that twelve hours after you leave, even if I sit in the chair myself, I’ll be teleporting from over three hundred miles from where you were.”

  “That’s okay,” Nick said doing his best to stay calm. “Carl said you could track me with the Turtle Dove, right? You can cover three hundred miles in thirty-six hours.”

  “But it won’t be three hundred miles,” Ainsley noted. “It could be three thousand depending on how far we travel.”

  “Don’t worry, Ains,” he comforted. “I will stay put and I know you’ll find me. Worse case scenario, you return to the lab and Carl will figure out another way to get me back.”

  The two time travelers held each other close, comforting one another against the uncertainty of the next day. After a while, Ainsley drifted off to sleep and not much later Nick did the same. They remained that way, peacefully cocooned in their slumber, until a violent jarring shook the entire boat.

  “What was that?” Ainsley said wide-eyed.

  “I’m not sure. Stay here and I’ll go check it out.” Nick left the cabin quickly to investigate the noise. By the time he had returned there was quite a commotion going on in the hallway. “Apparently, we hit an iceberg.”

  “What!” the shocked reporter gasped.

  “The Captain said it’s not a big deal and we should be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “His exact words were: They don’t call this the unsinkable ship for nothing,” Nick chuckled. “Besides, we know how this story ends remember?”

  “Of course,” Ainsley agreed, calming down significantly. “The Titanic travels back and forth across the Atlantic for years, setting the gold standard for luxury ocean liners. Eventually, she is retired and was docked in South Hampton where it was turned into a museum.”

  “Exactly,” the time traveler replied. “This iceberg thing is just a little bump in the road. I don’t even remember it being mentioned in the history books. Maybe a footnote or something, I don’t know.”

  “Absolutely, I don’t recall it in the history books either,” Ainsley affirmed.

  Having reassured themselves, the time travelers decided it was best to just stay in their cabin and avoid all the chaos building in the hallway. They were confident that Captain Smith and his crew would calm everyone down and things would return to normal. However, things did not calm down at all. Instead, the commotion outside their cabin grew steadily with each passing moment. Nearly an hour after the initial bang, there was a pounding on the cabin do
or. Nick walked over and opened the door cautiously.

  “You’ve got to get out of here!” Mr. Carruthers demanded. “They are loading the lifeboats. Women and children first of course.”

  “What? That’s not possible,” Ainsley replied in confusion.

  “I’m afraid it’s true, love,” the gentleman answered. “The ship is sinking.”

  “But we’ve got time, right?” Nick asked.

  “Get up there right away,” Mr. Carruthers instructed. “There aren’t enough boats for everyone and people are starting to get manic.”

  “Okay,” Nick said. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you in one of those boats.”

  As they waded through the masses of people headed in all directions at once, Ainsley pleaded with her companion to come with her. “Nick, you can’t go down with this ship,” she implored.

  “I can’t get in one of those boats either,” the time traveler explained. “You know that if I get in it means that someone else might not. Who knows what implications that might have.”

  “I don’t care, Nick,” the reporter insisted. “None of this was supposed to happen in the first place, so I think it’s pretty safe to say the timeline has already been shot, don’t you?”

  “I suppose,” he conceded. “But, listen. It’s got to be close to one o’clock by now. I only have two hours left here. This is a big ship. I don’t see how a little hole from an iceberg can take us down that quick. I’m sure I’ll be gone before the last of it goes under.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “It wouldn’t be my first choice either, but it’s the way it has to be. You, on the other hand, have fourteen hours left. There’s no way you can survive on this boat or in that freezing water anywhere close to that long. So you’re getting in a lifeboat. Now.”

  Nick pushed his way through the crowd, pulling Ainsley behind him until they got themselves into line for one of the lifeboats. The scene was total chaos as the crewmen did not know exactly how to operate the boats or lower them into the water. People were pushing and shoving, trying to get to the front of the line. Some were offering money and jewelry to be loaded aboard before others. Finally, Ainsley made it to the front of the line and a crewman helped her into the boat.

  “That’s it!” the crewman called out and the boat began to swing over the edge of the ship and descend into the water.

  “See you soon!” Nick called out.

  “You better!” Ainsley replied with a forced grin.

  Once Ainsley’s lifeboat was safely in the water and being rowed away from the doomed ship, Nick tried to assess the situation and discern what would be the last square foot of real estate to go under. It seemed that the damage to the hull was primarily on the front end of the boat which was causing the bow to dip lower and lower with each passing minute. Nick decided the stern would likely be the safest place to be and made his way, against the flow of people to the rear of the ship.

  There was nothing left for him to do now, but nervously wait and count down the minutes. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was a quarter after one. He just needed two more hours. He thought he should be in good shape until he heard a passerby say that the waterline was now up to the nameplate on the bow. He remembered vividly leaning over the edge to read that nameplate when they had first arrived so he knew exactly how close the water was to rising over the bow. After that, it wouldn’t take long for things to go literally downhill and fast.

  Nick stood at the stern of the ship watching all the lifeboats that had made it into the water without capsizing row a safe distance from the sinking vessel. He tried to keep track of the boat Ainsley was in and he believed they had rowed safely away, but he could not be one hundred percent sure. The stern of the boat got more and more crowded as time passed slowly by. Nick was glad he had arrived early and secured a place at the very back against the railing. Not only should this be the last part to go under, but it also gave him something secure to hold on to if the ship started to tip.

  It had been close to an hour, as near as he could figure, and Nick began to think, maybe, just maybe, he would make it to three o’clock and teleport safely out of there. It had been 45 minutes or so since the last of the emergency flares had been fired and it seemed as though all the lifeboats that were going to launch were now in the water.

  The stern of the boat had been slowly rising as the front end sank deeper and deeper, but suddenly that ascent became much more rapid. Though he could not see it, Nick knew that the bow of the ship must have dropped below the waterline and the vessel was diving into the icy ocean depths with increased velocity. As the front end of the Titanic dove deeper and deeper, the rear of the boat rose high into the air until it seemed the boat was almost standing vertically on her nose. Nick clung desperately to the railing with all his might as his body and legs dangled in mid-air.

  Suddenly there was a loud sound of metal being torn apart as the foremost engine funnel snapped and then plummeted into the water, mercilessly destroying all lifeboats and swimmers in its path. The funnel created a large wave, splashing even more water over the front half of the ship. The Titanic jarred several times as stress fractures appeared across the middle of the ship. Then, without warning, the boat snapped in two. The stern of the ship fell rapidly back down to the ocean hitting the water with immense force. Nick climbed back to his feet and, realizing his time had run out, he hopped over the rail and dove into the frigid ocean below.

  The icy cold water was a severe shock to his system. His muscles instantly began cramping up. He remembered this feeling from before. “Just like back at Lake Chalupa,” he said to himself, gasping for air. The only difference was this time he had to survive forty minutes instead of forty seconds and doc wouldn’t be on the other end of his teleport to give CPR. No, this time he had to keep his head above water, somehow.

  Nick knew that it was only a matter of moments before the Titanic would plunge straight down to the ocean floor. He also knew that when it did the ship would likely suck down anyone nearby. He did all he could to force his body to swim away from the impending vortex. He just didn’t know if he could get far enough away in time. Even if he did, the time traveler figured he would need to survive forty to forty-five minutes in the hypothermic water until it was time for him to teleport again – assuming the ocean hadn’t short-circuited the Little Bird by then.

  – 30 –

  Hello, Miss Earhart

  Ainsley sat shivering under a blanket on the deck of the Carpathia. It was nearly two hours after she watched the last little bit of the Titanic sink beneath the waves before the Carpathia had arrived on the scene. Priority was given to finding survivors in the water, of which there were very few, and then those in the lifeboats were brought aboard. Ainsley’s lifeboat was rescued about halfway through the four-hour process. She had wandered through the survivors looking for Nick, but he was nowhere to be found which meant one of two things: Either he had teleported out or he was somewhere in the depths of the ocean. She knew that even if he had teleported it may have come too late.

  As she sat there, cradling a mug of hot coffee in her hands, the reporter replayed in her mind the messages the Turtle Dove had delivered the day before. Her brother’s message was short and simple.

  “Hey, sis. Hope you’re somewhere nice this time ‘round. We got your last message. I do remember those visits to Grandma Ethel’s home. I get what you mean, this is kinda like the games we used to play on her phone. We’re still looking into the accident and trying to figure out the cause, but nothing new to report on that front at the moment. Stay safe. Hope to see you again soon.”

  Carl’s message was not a big surprise. If he had really understood her message he would have realized that anything he said might be heard by the mystery man listening in on their conversation. And since they did not know if this eavesdropper was for or against them it was best to divulge as little as possible.

  The message from the future was slightly more perplexing. For th
e third time in a row, the enigmatic Barry had sent the Turtle Dove the exact same message.

  “Greetings Mr. Jones and Ms. Ryan. I’m sure you are surprised to hear from me. My name is Barry and as hard as it might be for you to believe, I am from the year 2042. I know you have no reason to trust me, but I need you follow my instructions. I know you have been jumping all over time, randomly so it would seem. You need to keep going. Do not return to your lab. If you continue to leap through time you will eventually end up here. You must end up here and when you do, you need to find me. It is critically important that I talk to you face to face. I need to explain…”

  Nick had suggested that perhaps it was just one single message being sent out on a continuous loop. Whenever the Turtle Dove came online to receive a message from Carl and Doc, it also picked up the message from the future as well. If the message was in fact from the future. There was really no way to tell where or when the message was actually originating.

  Ainsley did her best to keep a low profile while aboard the Carpathia. There was a man from the White Star Line company, the company that owned the Titanic, who was making the rounds and interviewing each of the passengers to get their eyewitness report of the iceberg collision and subsequent sinking. She took special care to avoid this man so that there was no official record of her presence on the ship. The reporter did spot Mrs. Carruthers at one point but chose not to speak to her either. It was clear that the woman’s husband had not survived and Ainsley felt it would be best for the timeline if the woman believed she and Nick had not made it to the Carpathia either.

  After being served a warm bowl of soup for lunch, Ainsley went to look for a quiet corner where she could discretely teleport from when three o’clock rolled around. She still had a bit of a chill, but at least she had stopped shivering. As the time for her teleport drew near the reporter decided she should likely prepare a message to send to Carl and Doctor Stevens. The tragedy of the Titanic would, no doubt, be a well known historical fact for them, so they would most likely be greatly concerned for her welfare.