Chapter 9. Back in TIme
‘This isn’t a game,’ frowned Jupiter. ‘Angelica, you know quite well you are absolutely forbidden to touch those machines.’
‘I’m trying to send the whirble to another galaxy,’ faltered Angelica, with a scared look at her father.
Jupiter snorted. ‘That’s ridiculous. It’s totally impossible. We can’t even retrieve from another galaxy, let alone send something back.’
‘Yes she can,’ Kate blurted out. ‘She got us. I know Angelica told you we were from Lunar Circle but it’s not true. We come from another galaxy.’
‘Is this some sort of joke?’ demanded Jupiter.
‘It’s true,’ said Celeste desperately, as Angelica stood there white faced and unable to speak. ‘You don’t think Angelica has any talent but she must have a really strong one.’
‘That’s complete nonsense. Come away from that column Angelica,’ snapped Jupiter.
Angelica gave him a despairing look and pushed the main power switch. There was a flash of green light and where the whirble had been there was now a large orange egg wobbling on the receptor plate. As the girls stared at it open-mouthed, there was a hiss of a descending hoverpad and the tall black form of the Master stepped out. Jupiter took a step back in amazement, as the Master picked up the egg and cradled it in one large hand.
‘Did you do this Angelica?’ he enquired calmly.
‘She did indeed. I watched her do it,’ said Jupiter grimly. ‘But I don’t understand how she did it.’
‘Do you know what you did?’ the Master asked, looking at Angelica with a piercing gaze.
‘I don’t know,’ sniffed Angelica. ‘I reversed the settings, that’s all.’
‘It shouldn’t have worked at all,’ said Jupiter, shaking his head. ‘Where did the whirble go?’
‘I fancy the answer is in this egg,’ said the Master with a gleam in his eye. ‘This is a whirble egg, is it not Jupiter?’
‘Well yes,’ said Jupiter. ‘But I don’t see what that has to do with it.’
‘I suspect that Angelica has successfully reversed the transducer, but instead of sending the Whirble back in space she has sent it back in time. It is now an egg again.’
‘Is that possible?’ Jupiter asked in amazement.
‘I would have said no, except for a few very interesting things that have happened around here lately,’ the Master stated. He pointed a long bony finger at Angelica. ‘Have you been having trouble working the machines? Do they do unexpected things for you?’ he asked intently.
Angelica stammered. ‘Um, yes. The food machines were the first. They changed stuff so couldn’t eat it. Now nearly all of them do weird things when I touch them.’
The Master smiled in satisfaction. ‘I knew I was right. Jupiter, your daughter has a very strong talent. So strong that a part of her brain can override the instructions in the computer. Not only that but her alpha waves can form a link and forge new pathways of circuitry. It has enabled her to retrieve and project specimens in time as well as in space.’
‘By the stars! That’s fantastic.’ A grin spread across Jupiter’s face and he gave Angelica a huge hug. ‘You’ll really show them at the Glory Walk,’ he beamed. ‘This is amazing news. Wait until I tell Astrid. She’ll be so proud of you.’
‘But what is it?’ wailed Angelica in bewilderment.
‘You, my girl, have the Memory Talent,’ the Master informed her. ‘It makes whatever you touch, and concentrate on, return to the memory of what it was. Look at the whirble. It has become an egg again. And food will break down into its original constituents. It is such a rare talent that only one or two people in each generation have it and they generally become Masters when they have learned to control it.’
The girls were all stunned.
‘But what about us?’ said Kate at last. ‘I don’t understand. How did Angelica bring us here?’
The Master turned to her slowly. ‘She brought you here through time.’
‘What do you mean,’ asked Phoebe timidly.
‘As Jupiter told you, there are no other life forms like ours in our galaxy and it is not possible that you came from another galaxy. Even Angelica doesn’t have the power or talent to do that. So you are from the same planet as us but from a much earlier time. I suspected as much when you were unfamiliar with our symbols, which even a child from Lunar Circle could have followed. Then the System researched the information you entered and it turned out that your calculations and writing were from an earlier, more primitive era. It has certainly been fascinating to observe how you have coped with life as we live it.’
Kate and Phoebe were stunned. ‘You mean we’ve travelled to the future?’ squeaked Kate.
The master nodded.
‘But that’s impossible,’ Phoebe blurted out. ‘We only have one moon and the stars are different.’
Jupiter smiled at her. ‘The stars change their configuration over time,’ he said kindly.
‘The moons were created by our System several chromoturns ago,’ added the Master. ‘They are actually observatories and many people live and work up there.’
‘I used to,’ Jupiter laughed. ‘It was on Beta Base that Astrid and I met. But we decided to move down to Aquarius Base when we had Angelica.’
‘What happened to the real moon?’ Kate croaked.
‘It was struck by a meteor which changed its orbit and it took off towards the stars,’ muttered Angelica ‘we all…’
‘Yeah, yeah. I know. You all learn that as little children,’ said Kate rudely. She was feeling rather light headed at the news she and Phoebe had time travelled and her legs were feeling decidedly wobbly. The master snapped his fingers and a long stem pushed out of the ground behind Kate. The top opened to form a cushioned seat and she sank gratefully onto it. Other seats sprang alongside her and soon everyone was sitting comfortably.
‘Our planet has been though some major upheavals since your time,’ the Master told the girls. The oceans have risen and most of what was land in your days is now water. There are only two land masses now, each at opposite ends of the planet. Once we managed to create the new moons we could stabilise the weather patterns. It’s very useful, as we no longer have darkness so our crops grow much faster.
‘What happened to the animals?’ Kate asked in fascination.
‘They couldn’t cope with the climatic changes and they all died out. We’ve been running our transducer programme to see if we can find any which would tolerate living here naturally but so far none have been totally acceptable.’
‘Wow. We’ve travelled to the future. Wow!’ Kate was still hardly able to take it in. Phoebe was equally shattered but managed to gather her wits to ask the Master, ‘Will it be possible to send us back to our own time?’
‘With Angelica’s talent it ought to be,’ said the Master. ‘What do you think, Jupiter?’
‘She should be able to get the machines to follow the memory of what they have done. It would have to be done within the next two revolutions, though, as otherwise the planets will be in the wrong configuration.’
‘They will need a lot of charms to protect them,’ suggested the Master. ‘Otherwise there is a strong possibility they would turn up in the right time but as babies or as Old Ones.’
‘I can help with that,’ said Celeste eagerly. ‘I can stitch a robe with strength and good fortune. All the sewing circle will help.’
‘Good.’ The Master passed the egg to Angelica. ‘I must be off to consult the System for the best time to carry this out. Jupiter, you had better give Angelica a few tests and find out what she can do. And for heaven’s sake try to teach her a little control.’ Nodding at them, he snapped his fingers and boarded the hoverpad that glided to his feet.
‘Okay,’ said Jupiter, leaping to his feet. ‘This is going to take a while to organise. Angelica you’d better bring that egg inside. It’s bound to hatch into a Whirble at some time soon so we need to get it to a safe place. They feed on me
at until they’re fully grown and they’re not too fussy where they get it from.’
Angelica gave the egg an alarmed look and held it at arms’ length. Jupiter strode through an archway into the dome, with the girls following closely behind him.
The Glory Walk Page 9