by Jason Ayres
“OK,” he conceded. “I’ll go. But before I do, I want to go back to that point in time I told you about earlier, where the universe seemed to splinter. I’ve established the exact time and date, and I want to find out what happened there on that day to cause it. Allow me to do that at least. Then we can go.”
“I guess that’s fair enough,” she conceded. “When were you planning to go?”
“Well, there’s no time like the present, is there?” said Josh. “Or do I mean the past?”
Alice groaned and rolled her eyes. “Do you know, that’s about the hundredth time you’ve made that joke? It’s getting really boring now.”
Slightly hurt, Josh replied, saying, “Wow, you really do need a break from this, don’t you?”
“Just a tad: did I make it that obvious?”
There was no denying it, he was going to have to take a back seat from this for a while and dedicate some time to her. At least he had the compromise of one last adventure to look forward to first. He had better make the most of it.
“Lame jokes aside, I’m ready to leave right now,” he said.
“I thought you might be,” she said. “You wouldn’t have worn your retro outfit today if you weren’t planning on jaunting off to the past.”
He was wearing a classic VANS T-shirt, of a design that had endured for decades. It was his favourite item of time-travelling gear because he could wear it to virtually any date in the past century without looking out of place. His outfit was completed by a pair of jeans, again an item immune to changes in fashion, and a classic pair of Dunlop trainers. He had learned from a couple of scrapes in his earlier time travels that it was always useful to have a decent pair of running shoes just in case.
“I just need to put my coat on,” he added, taking down a thick parka jacket from the hatstand next to the lab door. He would look odd if he went outside currently wearing this, as it was completely at odds with the heatwave which Oxford was currently basking in.
“I take it the weather’s not so nice where you are going, then?” she enquired.
“Alas not,” he said. “Destination: January 2025. It’s going to be absolutely freezing.”
“Money?” she enquired.
“All sorted,” he said, reaching into the pocket of the parka and pulling out a wallet. He opened it to show her a thick wad of polymer notes, with the image of Queen Elizabeth II on the front.
“I’m an old hand at this now,” he boasted. “I’ve got all the bases covered.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” she said. There had been a number of mishaps involving currency and clothing during his early trips through time, but he had learned from those experiences.
“There is one thing that does worry me,” she added. “This business you’ve described about universes fragmenting. What if you get caught up in the middle of it? What if you are inside that bottle when it breaks? I doubt whether there is going to be some cosmic version of Susie out there ready to scrape you up and put you back together. And assuming you even survive, you could end up anywhere.”
“Relax,” said Josh. “I’ll be fine. As long as I’ve got the tachyometer then I can make my way back. And you’ve got the spare here. If I don’t come back, come and rescue me.”
“What, and risk getting shattered in the exploding bottle, too?” she said. “No thanks.”
“I’ll show you exactly where I’m going and when. I’ll arrive before the event takes place. If it all goes wrong and I don’t come back, all you need to do is get there early and warn me. Screen on.”
At these words, one whole wall of the lab lit up with a map of Oxford on it. To the east of the city was a large red cross.
“X marks the spot,” he said.
She looked closely at the map. “That’s the John Radcliffe, isn’t it?”
“Got it in one,” he said. “To be precise, it’s somewhere on level 6, close to where the men’s ward used to be.”
“I still think this whole expedition sounds dangerous, almost as if you’re putting yourself into the path of an F5 tornado,” she said. “Do you really have to go there?”
“I have to find out what happened on that day,” he insisted. “It’s a pivotal point between the universes. I’ll never be able to relax if I don’t get to the bottom of it.”
Alice knew there was no way to dissuade him: there never was when he got like this.
“Go on then,” she said. “But this has to be the last time, for a long time. We’re taking a year off after this, and that’s final.”
“You’re the boss,” he said, already scheming ways to get around it. Yes, she wanted a year off, but he didn’t have to come straight back after his trip to the hospital, did he? He could go off exploring other universes for a few weeks and come back at his leisure.
Maybe he could get the travelling bug out of his system if he gorged on it for a bit. As long as he made sure he returned to the lab a few minutes after he had left, she would be none the wiser.
“And you still want me to come and look for you if you get lost?” she asked.
“Yes,” said Josh, handing her one of the spare tachyometers. “Use this one to get there. I’ve set it for five minutes before I arrive. It will set you down outside in the hospital gardens, hopefully unseen as it will be night-time. Then just wait for me to appear. And don’t forget to wear some warm clothes.”
He handed her a sheet of paper with the precise details of the location of the X on the map. Then handing her the third tachyometer, he added, “And bring this one along, too, so we can both get back just in case anything’s amiss with mine and that’s why I haven’t returned.”
“How long do you want me to wait before I come to look for you?” she asked.
“If I’m not back here by this time tomorrow, then something’s gone wrong,” he said. “Not that it will,” he added. “I’m an old hand at this now. What could possibly go wrong?”
As always he was confident – too confident perhaps. In a few hours’ time he may have cause to regret these hastily spoken words.
Chapter Eight
January 2025
He materialised late at night in the gardens of the hospital, just as planned.
Acclimatised as he was to July temperatures, the cold January air was more of a shock to his system than he had expected. There was a strong breeze and even with the thick coat he was wearing, he felt the cold air slicing into him. Shivering, he pulled the hood of the parka over his head.
Of Alice, there was no sign. He had hoped that would be the case. If she hadn’t come after him, then it was reasonable to assume nothing could have gone wrong. He thought she had been worrying over nothing. Before she knew it, he would be back in the lab, safe and sound, barely minutes after he had left.
It might be minutes for her, but from his perspective, it wouldn’t be for a good few weeks. After he was finished investigating what had occurred here, he planned to go off exploring at his leisure. If Alice was going to force him to go on this sabbatical, then he was damned sure he was going to make the most of this trip while he could.
He was well prepared for an extended stay in the past. He had over two thousand pounds in currency on him, in the twenty-pound notes appropriate to the time. These were simple to forge with 2055 technology. No one had ever questioned their authenticity on his previous trips back to this time period. Technically it was a crime, but not one he was going to lose any sleep over.
Two grand was more than enough to keep him going for a couple of weeks. And if he needed more, it wouldn’t be a problem getting hold of some. Defrauding cashpoints was another little application he had built into the tachyometer. Their security was primitive by the standards of Josh’s time. He didn’t feel any qualms about obtaining money in this way, either. As far as he was concerned, rich banks who could pay their bosses multimillion pound salaries could afford to finance him on his trips.
The only downside to these cashpoint raids was that he needed to make himself pretty sca
rce afterwards, knowing his actions would be captured on the local CCTV. Being thrown in prison minus the tachyometer was not something he aspired to.
For that reason, he kept cashpoint scamming to a minimum and utilised a few other dishonest practices he had developed during his previous time travels. Dining out at Oxford’s finest restaurants wasn’t cheap – unless you had a tachyometer of course. Josh wasn’t averse to enjoying the best of the menu and the wine list, before excusing himself to the nip to the gents. At this point he would conveniently vanish from the scene. Again, it was stealing, but he considered it justified in the interests of “research”.
Standing outside the hospital, he was filled with ever greater confidence due to Alice’s non-appearance. Eager to get out of the cold, he began to make his way towards the brightly lit hospital entrance at the far end of the garden. It was very quiet and there didn’t seem to be anyone around at all, but that was hardly surprising considering it was 2am in the middle of winter.
Whatever was going to happen up on level 6 was going to happen at around 3am by his calculations. He had plenty of time to get to where he was going. He had allowed himself plenty of time and had even remembered to take into account the time differences between summer and winter, for once.
It was just as well that he had given himself an hour to spare because the hospital had been completely redesigned and refurbished in the intervening thirty years. Although the original building still stood in 2055, the interior had changed beyond recognition.
This was also something he had prepared for. He had gone to look around the modern version a few days before, then compared it to an old floor plan of the earlier design he had found on the internet. Familiarising himself with the older arrangement, he knew he had quite a trek to get to where he was going, but that wasn’t an issue. It would give him time to relax and get a feel for the place. If he did get lost, he had a copy of the map in his backpack that he could refer to.
The twin automatic glass doors in front of him slid open smoothly as he approached. Before he entered, he tucked the tachyometer safely away into his backpack. This was standard procedure when time-travelling. The last thing he wanted to do was attract attention that might risk having it stolen. Once that was done, he breezed confidently in through the doors, which swished closed again behind him.
As his map had suggested, he found himself in a brightly lit reception area. Unsurprisingly, there were few people around; a young man slumped in a chair asleep, and a concerned-looking older couple sitting opposite him, talking in low voices.
There were also a couple of beefy-looking security guards behind the desk, chatting away. They didn’t even acknowledge his presence as he walked past them. The very nature of hospitals meant that there would always be people wandering around at all times of day and night. As far as they were concerned, he was probably just another worried relative of someone who was sick or dying.
It was a sobering thought, but one which provided a useful cover, nonetheless. If they weren’t going to question his presence, hopefully no one else would.
Apart from the odd nurse he saw hardly anyone as he walked along the lengthy corridor that led to the lifts. It seemed to take forever to get there, but eventually he found himself alone in the lift, heading for level 6.
Leaving the lift, he made his way along more deserted corridors. With no one around, he was able to take his time, glancing into the doors of some of the rooms that he passed.
Looking through one, he discovered an unlocked cloakroom where he was able to acquire a white coat. He had been hoping he might find one as he wanted to try out a trick he had seen done in a couple of old television shows.
Whenever characters were up to no good in hospitals, they always donned themselves a white coat as a cover. Then everyone they met assumed they were a doctor. Would this work in real life or was it just a TV trope? Now was as good a time as any to find out.
Doctors didn’t wear white coats anymore in his time, and he wasn’t even sure that they still did in 2025. He certainly couldn’t recall seeing any on his rare hospital visits in his youth. Still, the coat was here and hung up on the peg for a reason so it must belong to someone.
Leaving the cloakroom and walking along the narrow corridor in his white coat, he felt a sense of importance, as if he really was a doctor. Gaining confidence all the time, he felt comfortable enough to take out the tachyometer to help guide him to exactly where he needed to be.
Yet another enhancement he had given it was the ability to work with the primitive GPS positioning system of this time period. The map had already given him a rough idea of where he needed to be, but the tachyometer would pinpoint the place.
Turning a corner into a wider, more open area, he slowed his pace. According to the tachyometer, he was now less than thirty metres from his destination. In this area there were open wards to either side of him. As he passed them, he briefly glanced inside. There were beds inside, and at least one nurse in each ward, but none of them saw him.
At the far end of the room were two doors which Josh knew from his study of the hospital map to be private rooms. According to the tachyometer, it was in one of these rooms that the event, whatever it was, was about to take place.
As he walked towards the doors, one of them opened and a couple emerged, a young, blonde woman and a smartly dressed man in a suit. The man put his arm around the woman, clearly in need of comfort and they started walking directly towards him. Josh could see from the tachyometer that the room they had just left was the one where he needed to be.
The woman looked up at him briefly as they passed and Josh could see from the puffy, red state of the skin around her eyes that she had been crying. He had the feeling he knew her from somewhere, or at least seen her before, but couldn’t place her. She certainly didn’t show any signs of recognising him, not giving either him or the tachyometer a second glance.
Josh took this to mean that his involuntary disguise had been successful and she had assumed the tachyometer to be some piece of medical equipment.
Self-centred as he so often was, he hadn’t considered the more likely possibility that she was too consumed by grief to care. Either way, it didn’t matter to Josh. If they were leaving, that was all well and good. It would hopefully leave the way to his destination clear.
Pausing for a moment while he waited for the couple to disappear out of sight, he made a show of examining an old-fashioned noticeboard on the wall, to the right of the doors. It was full of the usual sort of stuff people posted on such boards. Feigning interest, he saw that there were rooms for rent, ads for Zumba classes and a flyer for the local panto starring someone Josh had never heard of called Timmy Mallett.
Taking a surreptitious glance behind him, he saw the couple retreating into the distance. They were not showing any signs of looking or coming back. As soon as they turned the corner at the end of the corridor, he seized his chance.
Moving quickly to the door of the room, he grasped the handle and opened it, wondering what he would find inside. What was there didn’t come as any great surprise, considering the girl’s tears. There was a body on the bed, with a sheet drawn over the face. This person, whoever he or she was, had clearly recently died.
It could only be about five minutes until the event he had come to witness occurred. What could possibly be going to happen here that would shatter this universe, creating so many duplicates? Everything seemed so normal – a quiet room, a dead body on a bed? It was hardly some pivotal point in the time-space continuum. But then what had he expected to see?
He had a brief look around the room. There wasn’t anything that looked out of place for a hospital room. The walls were pale and in need of a lick of paint. The bed was on the right-hand side of the room, with a small bedside table alongside.
Upon the table was a glass vase full of fresh, red roses and a small clock with a black LCD display against a grey background. The lighting in the room was low, but he could just make out that the c
lock read 2.56am.
There was tinsel draped across the window frame and a cheap-looking, plastic Christmas tree in the far left corner of the room. A large, gold star was perched slightly lopsided on top. It was all incredibly normal.
Then Josh looked at the chart on the end of the bed, providing him with a major clue. He discovered that the recently deceased patient’s name was Thomas Scott. It was a name that had been ingrained on his mind for many, many years.
Josh had encountered Thomas Scott in his youth, long before he had started experimenting with time travel. That meeting, in addition to the time bubble adventures, had been a major source of inspiration that had set Josh on the lifelong quest that had brought him here right now.
The circumstances in which he had met Scott had been highly unusual. Josh, a young man in his early twenties at the time, had been on a family outing to Cheltenham Races in December 2021. On that landmark day, Scott had approached him and claimed he could see into the future. When Josh had been sceptical, Scott had gone on to correctly predict the result of every horse race that afternoon.
Josh’s father had dismissed him as a conman, but Josh knew that was unlikely. No conman could have pulled off such a remarkable feat and if they were that good at predicting results, why would they even need to?
Scott had gone on to explain that he was living his life backwards through time. He said to Josh that if he ever discovered the secret of time travel, that he should come and meet him at a particular time and place in Oxford during the summer of 1990. Josh had duly obliged, making it one of the first trips he made once he had developed a fully working tachyometer. He was amazed when he found Scott there, just as he had claimed he would be.
The mystery of how or why Scott’s backwards life had happened had never been resolved, but surely the fact that his fresh corpse was here now at this precipitous moment had to have something to do with it.
Josh was shaken out of any further rumination by the door opening and a nurse coming in. She took one look at him and immediately challenged him.