“Absolutely,” and then he pressed a key.
The next moment I saw him stepping away from the control board.
“How do you feel?”
I took a couple of big breaths and breathed out and I felt clear as a bell. “Fantastic,” I breathed. “ You see, Malone that the chair and the paraphernalia deconstruct you, reducing you to a matrix of numbers stored in the crystal,” he said, giving it a pat,“the more you can adjust how you reconstruct that information is what gives the ability to separate you from the microbe.”
“I thought Nemor said that you just hung around waiting to be reassembled.” “ Pah! That fraudster! That was just palpable nonsense once you explored the issue properly. No, without the crystal you would just be reduced to atoms but captured in the crystal you could be reproduced as many times as you like,” he said hinting at outrageous possibilities.
“What about all those stories of doppelgangers and their need to kill their second self?” I asked, somewhat shaken. “ Malone, even with your meagre intellect I would have faith that you could see the bigger picture,” he said gathering me out of the chair and back into the corridor, “just think of the possibilities two Edward Malones could make. You could safely report from a dangerous scene, such as you did in the last Great War, and know that whatever befell you it wouldn’t be the end of you.”
“ I think that would change the way you saw things, they wouldn’t be so real, so pressing if you have that sort of parachute,” I replied struggling for an effective metaphor.
“ Pah! My boy, you are not some sort of fighter pilot that to make sure you do your duty you cannot have a parachute, nonsense though that was,” he chided me and presently I found myself sitting in what seemed to be a replica of his old study from his Enmore Park days. He continued as he stood over me, striking what one might call“The Heroic Pose.”
“No, and talking of the last Great War…”
“You sound as if you believe there might be another!” “ That is because I do so believe and no amount of petty politicians will dissuade me from my convictions and it is for that matter that I thought you and I should have a chat.
“ Malone, my dear boy, (Such a sentiment without me complimenting him gave me a shock, I can tell you.) I fear that the world will soon see a cataclysm much worse than last time but science must not retreat, indeed it must advance. Advance, I say! Hmm, anyway, here there are preparations to continue the advance away from here and so that we can return once mankind has left its childish ways behind and will benefit from the wisdom and knowledge of George Edward Challenger.
“So, the question is, Malone, would you want to come and be the faithful chronicler of future discoveries?” “ Well, I have a family now,” I answered trying to weigh up the offer in its proper light and I found myself quite indignant as a sudden thought struck me, “As do you, you can’t go gallivanting around like this nor can you expect Victoria and Albert to come along on such a trip, to do so would be a cruel depravity on them. You need the ability to make, and keep, friends to come out proper.”
The Great G. E. C. leaned back on his desk, looked me in the eye and said, “And is that your final inconsiderate and shortsighted answer?”
I stood up to assert my conviction,“It is, sir, and I would be glad if you could see my reasons for it.”
“Never mind, Malone,” he said, shaking his head sadly, “I had thought you might have glimpsed the bigger picture but if family comes first then to family you must go.” “Very well,” I replied coldly. “I’ll see you to Captain Storlock and he will convey you back to the Canary Islands,” he said as he guided me through the door and back down the corridor towards the quay.
“ If you have managed to crack rocket technology so you can go into space, don’t you think you owe it to the scientific community to let them know your progress?” I asked aghast at what seemed like a denial of his most fervently held beliefs.
“ And what of last time when you had scientist competing with scientist for the best formulae of air borne death? No! Malone, no,” he subsided into gently chiding me, “They will take my advancements and grasp for the stars or maybe just the moon, knowing how short sighted my fellows are and some politician or general will throw it from city to city. No, it wouldn’t do, Malone, I hope you understand,” he finished as we stood be the dock, Storlock’s little brass boat just coming back into the harbour.
“ Well, he knows what to do, wish Enid and the two grandchildren all the best,” and with that he strode off without even waiting for any words of farewell I may have given him.
The journey back proved to be uneventful and on my return, I found Enid going through Victoria’s home work. Tired as I was from my travels, I joined her round the table.
“How was he?” asked Enid. “ More abrupt and stranger than normal, but he does always remember you andVictoria here and Albert, wherever he is…” I trailed off not knowing what to say.
“I suppose he got you to sit in that great chair?” “Yes, yes, he did,” I replied, my mind racing with ideas. “ It seemed odd,” continued Enid distractedly, “every time he got us to sit in that contraption he said he had to change that great big crystal. In the end there was one for each of us,” she said with a light laugh, “Father does have his funny ways but it kept him happy and it is a strange isle, is it not?”
“I could not agree more,” I replied, “I think I’ll have a drink to wash the dust from my throat, do you want anything, dear?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” Enid may have been fine but the image of my entire family passing through the disintegration machine gave me a chill I desperately needed to shake off.
2 The next moment I saw him stepping away from the controls only to sneeze uncontrollably, “I thought you said you could fix that,” I said, motivated by my own selfish peeve, but I had thought he would be able to do what he claimed, he always had, in the past.
“ There was no mention of your cold here,” he said tapping a sheet stuck to the crystal, loaded as normal into the machine. “Hmm, Number Twelve,” he muttered under his breath before continuing, “I am afraid that one of the unexpected side effects has been that we have developed our own, individual idiosyncrasies and Number Twelve’s is being rather remiss when it comes to the small, but nonetheless important details.
“So how long has it been since…” I trailed off, some fear against mentioning my own disintegration draining my vitality. “Since you’ve been smashed to bits and stored in the old crystal?” he asked rhetorically, “It has been a good while now, perhaps two years and a couple of months.
“ On the other hand, you are here at exactly the most pivotal time for the whole endeavour,” he finished, puffing his chest out like some bird making a mating display. Despite his brilliant mind he did sometimes make himself at least appear foolish. I was willing to forgive that, but I wanted answers – two years and some spare change! How was…
“ Oh don’t worry, you’re Malone Number Two, Malone Number One will be tucked up with my daughter and grandchildren. You have no need to worry about them,” he said brusquely.
I almost sank back into the chair but I recoiled from it as if from a viper, “Just what is this most pivotal time?” I asked slowly and deliberately in an attempt to find something concrete for me to hang on to.
“We are almost ready to launch!” he cried as my vertigo claimed me. I came round, still feeling dazed and unsure of myself as it seemed there were two identical Challenger heads swimming in my vision, they seemed to be talking over one another and I only heard their voices as if from a very great depth. But as my hand stroked the floor’s stone surface I was at least reassured I hadn’t just been plucked by some strange god into another time. It was when I sneezed that everything broke into reality, “Bless you,” said the Challenger on my left, “Poor fellow,” condescended the Challenger on my right.
As another Challenger strode into the room, bearing a tray of medicinal drinks, I sank back once more. When I nex
t awoke I was on the couch in the replica study. I could tell it was the replica study as the light came from those strange bulbs in the ceiling and the windows had painted views of England rather than the far side of Enmore Park. One of which reminded me of the view from the house in Rotherfield.
“It does draw the eye, that one,” observed the professor, or should I say, a professor from behind the desk. “ I think I’d like to go home now,” I said. I may be an international reporter, recorded instances that no man should see at war and played international rugger, but this had defeated me. The sheer unknowability of just what I should be feeling with a strange sense that there was no going back to the Gazette, McArdle or even my beloved Enid.
“ You have missed that boat, I am unafraid to tell you,” he said calmly, coming over towards me, “You may have a calming drink, sherry, brandy or whatever, but I am afraid that calming as a good cigar may be to you in your state, it would be rather dangerous.”
“ Brandy and water,” I said as I swung my legs down. Sat upright, I took the proffered glass and asked, “Just how many of you are there?”
“ A score or so,” Challenger shrugged, “The work and study requires more than one pair of hands and investigating combustibles that will lift a craft out of orbit has its own attendant risks. There have been losses.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the reality that this was all real and that I was crumbling at what one of the GECs correctly called a pivotal moment. Still, I had my family to consider, “and how do you think my family will take losing me.”
Challenger gave me one of his trademark cold smiles, “Now there’s the beauty of it. You are here, but you are also there, in London unless you are on one of your assignments that you justify neglecting my daughter and her children for. It’s entirely up to you, or him if you prefer?”
“ And we have also considered you,” Challenger sat down in a chair and actually, for a change, looked fatherly at me. I shivered as he continued, “In their own crystals we have my daughter and in their turn your children,” he shrugged, “I am a grandfather,” he said, smiling indulgently.
“So you could just reproduce us all?”
“Yes, isn’t that wonderful, Malone?” I shuddered, I always knew that Challenger’s ego was large but I did not believe it would stretch as far as being able to play god with his own family members. Despite my misgivings the brandy was working and I decided to concentrate on the present.
“ This really is the most utter garbage I have ever read!” a Challenger burst into the study waving a thick manuscript at the one I was conversing with.
“What page are you on?” asked my Challenger to the interloper. Oddly enough, I did not find having two Challengers in the one room as disturbing as I thought I would. I am making progress, I thoughtfully congratulated myself as the Professors continued.
“I have wasted my time reading the first 87 pages of this drivel.”
“It will become clear when you reach page 94,” retorted the Challenger who had been comforting me, smugly.
“It’s all very well for you to say that,” the newcomer started to raise his voice.
“We have a guest in our midst,” said the incumbent, nodding his head towards me.
“Guests!” he shot before storming off. I am sure that if not for my presence they would have wrestled over the matter. To fight off another sneezing fit, I blew my nose and that drew my hosting Challenger’s attention back to me, “We could fix that?” he offered.
“No thanks,” I replied through my handkerchief.
“It’s a damn waste that they didn’t see to it when you had passed out, really.”
“I would at least like to be able to give my consent…” “ Consent!” he interrupted me, “Consent to chronicle one of the truly great moments in human history should always be acceptable. Malone you must learn to see the bigger picture,” he finished as if chiding a child.
“Still I suppose we should not put off the Grand Tour any longer; that is if you think you are fit enough for that?”
“I think I’ll be able to stumble along behind you,” I grumpily replied, before standing.
“Very well, follow me,” he commanded imperiously. Once out of the study, I was struck by the complete change from comfortable study to bar rock passageway. Unaware of my sense of dislocation, Challenger ploughed ahead. We followed the corridor into the artificial isle and eventually we came to a point where the once empty lines which carried track from hither to thither. Now however they once more boasted iron rails. We followed the beginning of this line onwards into a grand warehouse or factory floor. Now that the interior was cleaned out I could see that this chamber stretched onwards so that the lights seemed to recede into the distance. The far side of was hidden by a hive of activity and on the realisation that all the workers were indeed Challengers I felt a wave of vertigo, which I managed to overcome, this time.
In the middle of the room there seemed a huge arrangement. Over a great metallic platform hung an immense discuss and there were wires converging on it. One side seemed to be behind a glass partition and a Challenger was there, in front of another electromatic typewriter’s keyboard as, by a system of pulleys, a group of industrial drums was being lowered onto the platform.
“ You see as long as we can store within the crystals fuel and equipment we can greatly reduce what we actually need to take with us,” explained my guide.
“You cannot take everything like that?” “ Apart from needing to take one smaller version of Nemor’s invention and maintaining living conditions within the space needed to control the craft, I believe we can,” came the shocking reply.
“ Let us go up and you can see the rocket,” and with that we headed off towards one of the vent holes that I remembered led to the topmost surface. On gaining the vent, Challenger pressed a button and cables and winches stirred into life as an open elevator platform rose towards us. On boarding, Challenger strode to the controls and gave the command stick a jerk down and then placed it firmly in the up position. We rose slowly and deliberately.
“ We can store oxygen tanks, even the odd automobile for exploring when we land. We have altered them so that they will be able to operate in essentially a vacuum, for all intents and purposes,” he explained as if he was talking about how to get the train from London to Rotherfield.
The difference in what I saw compared to my expectations when we reached the summit could not have been more stark. Gone was the small mound of scaffolding and there, stark against the skyline was this gigantic needle of gleaming metal. Running up to two thirds of its height was a bare tower running cables and pipes up and down. The monstrous machine dwarfed the accompanying tower but that was large enough to have industrial sized lifts for loading materiel and crew aboard.
“Impressive isn’t she,” said my guiding Challenger,“We’ve decided to call her Jessie One,” here at last was the emotional side of my friend, still mourning the loss of his dear wife. “I could not save her but I can save the rest of my family and I intend to do so whilst carrying on my life’s work as a scientist, Malone.”
“Don’t you mean your lives’ works?”
“I suppose I do,” he admitted softly, still feeling the loss of his beloved Jessie.
“So how will it land?” I asked. “ We will crash into the first target, which is Mars and safely tucked away in containers the crystals will be used to reconstruct us. Once we have a big enough base built there and with the lower gravity, we will patch her back up before going on.”
“Are there no limits to your horizon?”
“At one time, Malone, at one time,” he replied wistfully.
“So what happens with the launch?” I asked, turning the conversation back to where we were. “ A couple of us will stay behind and using the disintegrator remove all the work we’ve done that could be made into a weapon,” he answered plainly and then they will be left with the option of leaving some booby-traps. If someone comes with scientific curiosity they
should be safe enough, but,” and here he shrugged, “if they come for other reasons they might be in for a surprise, Malone.
“ We have been back to the plateau after your trip with Lord Roxton and have some of those dinosaurs tucked safely up in the odd crystal. If that does not cause them some problems I would be surprised,” he ended with a cold laugh, “Come on, let’s get back inside and we can talk.”
And back inside we went. The next two weeks were a maelstrom of activity that I was mostly oblivious to as I was only able to be in one place at a time whereas the Challengers were everywhere. At the end of these weeks I was having lunch back in the study, where I admit I felt the most comfortable, and in came a Challenger waving his study copy around. I had found that every so often, each Challenger would write down his further knowledge and so it had grown.
“ Malone, you seem sensible from time to time,” he paused and squinted at me to make sure I agreed with him, which was the only sensible thing to do. “These other Challengers are all nincompoops, poops I tell you,” he started to raise his voice.
I held my hand up to stop him from getting excited and turning violent, “Are you at page eighty-seven?”
“Well, yes, but how did…” he answered as he checked where his thumb was in that wad of paper. “ Page ninetyfour is what you need to get to, I’m afraid,” I broke in on him. It felt good to be able to play his game at him, for once.
“I’m much obliged, Malone and if you don’t say a word to the others I’d be grateful,” he replied bending conspiratorially close to me.
“Of course, a journalist has to know how to protect his sources,” I replied evenly.
“Mind you’re right about this or I’ll have words with you,” he replied fiercely as if I had just condescended to him.
Silence, I felt was the better part of valour and with his notes in hand he prowled away. “I just thought I’d pop in to give you a last tour to show you how we’re going to leave the island when we leave,” said a Challenger on entering what had increasingly become my own domain.
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