The Valteran Ascension (A Paradox of Time Book 1)

by Mara Amberly

  He closed the casing and plugged it back into his TSAI 40, concerned about what might happen if he blew his means of time travel. It was reckless even trying it again, but he gave it one good go before giving up. The power light lit up, but when he tried to use it, a hologram of a different face flickered to life for a moment, before it died again. For now, he set it aside and began packing his tools away. On the one hand, it felt like retrieving it from the cave had been a wasted effort, but at least now he knew what had become of it, and he wouldn’t waste further time trying to retrieve it. It didn’t seem there was much he could do about it for now but perhaps in the future it could be fixed.

  It still felt strange that Cora had been there to help him in the past. The more he thought about it, the odder it seemed that his Projector should have been kept in the cave, regardless of its reputation. No, he suspected he’d arranged this for himself at some future date. If so, it meant he’d found his Projector another way first and left it there to find. He’d also likely begun the rumours that had guided Eric to it in the first place. That meant it mustn’t have been his first effort to repair the rifts or the first time he’d met Cora. This cycle of events had to have occurred at least once already. It left him wondering if something had gone terribly wrong. It wasn’t a comforting thought.

  There was a double-knock on the door and Eric glanced toward it. No one knew he was here unless he’d been followed or word had gotten out about where he was staying. People could talk and he’d certainly made an impression the night before.

  Eric pulled the tablecloth over the few remaining tools on the table and the Projector, and strode toward the door. He didn’t call out, he merely answered it.

  Cora was standing there, gazing back at him.

  “Hello Eric,” she said, wearing the same dress as before and a friendly expression. “I heard you were staying here and I thought we should talk.”

  “How did you know?” he asked, wondering if she’d followed him. Still, he wouldn’t have put it past himself or her nudging him from the future.

  “I overheard a conversation about you.”

  “Didn’t you have a chaperone coming?” he asked, even more confused.

  “She did. She’s at the tea room down the street. You should let me in before I’m seen.”

  Eric opened the door further and took a step back, letting Cora slip by.

  She brushed past him, just enough that he was well aware of the fact.

  The room was small but pleasant, despite its simplicity. It held a bed opposite the table, and a window looked out over the street below.

  Cora sat down, pulling out the seat on the other side of the table. She seemed curious the tablecloth was covering something, but she didn’t enquire nor remove it.

  When he pulled the tablecloth back, she was interested to see the tools and objects that lay beneath it.

  Eric cleared them away quickly, then joined Cora at the table.

  “Why are you here?” Eric asked, already suspecting her answer.

  He found her intriguing, but also a little erratic. He still wasn’t quite sure what to make of Cora, so he just left it to her to show him who she was.

  “I’ve decided I want to come with you, despite the danger. It’s a rare opportunity to travel and learn more about science. A boring life of safety isn’t going to offer me that.”

  Eric had reasoned that if she was destined to accompany him, there would be some inciting event or reason she would. It seemed finding him at the guest house might’ve been all it took to serve that purpose if he let her join him. He had mixed feelings about it, but it was more to do with the nature of the mission than personal preference. In almost any other situation he wouldn’t have hesitated so much, but Eric felt he had to put his people first. He couldn’t afford to fail, even if it meant sacrificing everything.

  “Have you already packed?” he asked her, stifling the smile that threatened to tug at the corners of his mouth.

  “Maybe… a little. Yes,” she finally admitted. “I wanted to be ready in case we had to leave in a hurry,” she said, grinning. “I even wrote Father a letter, but I thought I should talk with you first.”

  He couldn’t help it – he smiled back. “I can see why you would… write him a letter,” he said, surprised at how quickly she was willing to uproot her life. He felt honoured by it, but also concerned that she might not understand just what she was getting herself into.

  “You can come, but talk to your father first. He deserves to hear it from you and have the chance to say goodbye.”

  “I can’t do that,’ Cora told him with a sad expression. “We both know he’ll say no. If I leave him a letter, he’ll know I wasn’t stolen away by a strange man.”

  “I don’t know about that. It’s bound to hurt him and permanently injure your reputation,” Eric said.

  “I know,” she replied. “Accompanying you wouldn’t be without sacrifice. My life is heading in a direction I don’t want and this feels like my last chance to live life on my own terms while I can.”

  “I see,” Eric replied, sighing softly. He wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  “If you’re certain it’s what you want, we can set out around lunchtime tomorrow. We’ll have a lot of walking to do and probably won’t have accommodation overnight, so you might want to dress for it.”

  “What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed now?” she asked, confused.

  “You’ll be cold,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Forgive me for asking, but why did you come to Shrewsbury? It seems like you needed to be where you’re headed, not here.”

  Eric thought Cora was the reason he’d ended up in Shrewsbury but he didn’t say it.

  “I was aiming for there but I ended up here. Sometimes this isn’t an exact science, even though it should be.”

  “So you only met me because of a random error?” she asked.

  “Perhaps,” he replied, though he didn’t quite believe it.

  Eric wondered if he or Cora might’ve tampered with his travel coordinates at some future point in time. If they had, it meant they had probably reached his ship in order to do it.

  There was another possibility too: reality might’ve been more damaged than be thought, and instead of his true destination, his TSAI had brought him to a safer location. If so, he had to act with the utmost care.

  There was a knock on the door; Cora was closer, so she got up to open it.

  A woman stood there, richly-dressed in navy blue. She was at least twice Cora’s age, her hair short and curled, and she wore a gold signet ring on her right hand. It appeared quite manly for the day.

  “I’m sorry. Wrong room,” she said, with a slight nod, before walking away.

  Cora turned back to Eric.

  He’d moved in time to catch a quick glimpse of her through the doorway, but by the time he looked down the corridor, she was gone. He closed the door and locked it.

  “Were you expecting someone?” Cora asked him, a curious tone to her voice.

  “No, I wasn’t. I have no idea who she was, but I made an impression last night when I arrived in town. It’s possible she heard about it.”

  Eric was being quite honest. He wasn’t expecting any guests, with the possible exception of Cora.

  “Word gets around here,” she said, smiling.

  “Is there anything you want me to pack in particular? Anything scientific in nature?” she asked.

  “No, but bring at least three days’ food and water with you. I’d say that’ll be heavy enough to carry.”

  “I wouldn’t have access to that,” she said, drawing a blank stare from Eric. “We could find transport there. There are always people headed north. Where exactly do you need to go?”

  Eric hesitated, and then he brought up a historical map of England on his TSAI. The hologram was cast from his wrist device and enlarged to several feet in size. She already knew about the holograms, so it seemed there was little reason to keep it to himself. />
  He was taking her into his confidence now and he enjoyed sharing future technology with her, even though some voice at the back of his mind warned him to be careful.

  “Goodness, I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes,” she exclaimed.

  “We’re here,” he said, indicating Shrewsbury on the map. He zoomed in further and there was a small blinking image north of the town.

  A string of unfamiliar characters were listed below it, and Cora wasn’t sure what they meant. Coordinates maybe or words in another language?

  The roads seemed to run north-east and north-west but not due north.

  “We shouldn’t have trouble finding transport to either one of those roads,” she said. “There will still be a walk, but nowhere near as long, and there’s a village around here,” she said, indicating a point on the map just west of the eastern road, where his map didn’t show anything of the sort.

  “I might count on you to arrange that,” Eric said. He reasoned that she obviously knew the area better than he did.

  “I’ll have to see if I can find the time away from my chaperone. If I can, it would make for an easier journey for both of us. I just hope word won’t spread back to my father or our journey might be over before it begins.”

  Chapter 4

  March 1724 – North-east of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England

  Cora arranged a shared carriage and they disembarked in the mid-afternoon. There wasn’t much around – just farmlands and countryside, but they’d passed through a village not twenty minutes before.

  “It’s beautiful out this way,” Cora mused aloud, enjoying a rare trip away from the town. She’d travelled widely with her father, mainly throughout Europe, but most of their time was spent at home.

  “It’s a good day to be out walking,” Eric agreed.

  His mind was more on the task at hand than his surroundings, but had he known that transport was assured, he could’ve left the journey until the next day. It seemed better not to take a chance on it, and he wanted to deal with the rift as soon as it formed. The universe was fragile and the more rifts or holes made in its fabric, the weaker it became. Repairing them neutralised the threat, but it would take time for them to knit together strongly again.

  There were dangers, but thankfully his TSAI monitored for most of them. Still, he was all too aware that if he travelled to a place and time that was too damaged, the entire fabric of space-time there might unravel. The more damage he could repair, the safer everyone would be. At this point in time the rifts’ effects might be small, but in the future, the rifts he hadn’t repaired yet would be larger and more dangerous, and they had the potential to destroy everything. It’s why he couldn’t let them go.

  “My ship did this. It caused the older rifts I’m repairing, but there are more that are further away,” Eric explained. “Each is like a tear in reality and I can’t afford to leave them there.”

  He knew it wasn’t entirely his fault. There was someone more responsible for their presence, but Eric was in a position and of a mind to do something about it, and they were not.

  “Why did your ship do this?” she asked, wondering what Eric’s role was in all of this.

  “I was trying to stop my people from doing something stupid, so I came to Earth. We had a research base and resources here; it doesn’t exist yet in this time. I knew there was a huge risk travelling back through time with the prevailing conditions, but I did it anyway. I needed an advantage, and that was when it happened.”

  He sighed when he said it, as though he might’ve destroyed the universe with one bad decision.

  “What did?” she asked him. “I’m curious about your ship. How it moves…”

  Cora suspected it wasn’t the type of ship that travelled on the water, but until today it was the only kind she’d known. She truly had no idea what it would look like, but where her knowledge ended, her imagination took over.

  “My people were greedy, selfish and they believed they could be gods. Power corrupts, Cora, and at the time I hadn’t realised how much.”

  Eric released a sigh, gathering his thoughts.

  “I may be naïve at times, but I wouldn’t do what they did. I tried to get help, but I didn’t have the chance. I wasn’t intending to travel so far back in time. I lost control of my ship, and I suppose the rest’s history. I don’t regret trying, though I would approach things differently given the choice. Some decisions have to be challenged, Cora.”

  He realised then that he hadn’t told her about his ship.

  “My ship is the type that sails time and the stars. I think you’d like it.”

  “Not if it creates rifts,” she said, still somewhat confused as to what a rift was.

  Eric shook his head. “Our people were never meant to use time travel with the frequency I have been lately. Normally rifts are created sparingly and in a controlled way, and cause little damage. Even that damage heals fully after they’re repaired. This uncontrolled damage would never have come about from the normal use of the technology. I’m saddened to see it,” he admitted. “I’m using rifts to get where I need to be to fix it. They can be helpful when used carefully.”

  “I see,” she replied a little uncertainly. “So you haven’t found your ship yet?”

  “Oh, I have. You could even say I’ve found it more than once, but there are reasons I haven’t been able to get on board.”

  The ship’s power reserves had also been depleted and charging for hundreds of years according to his TSAI. Something was obviously broken.

  “I’ve seen it moving back through time and the ship was emitting radiation. Its eventual crash site was underwater. Even there, when I last saw it, I couldn’t get close.”

  “That would make it trickier,” Cora agreed. “What is radiation?”

  “Of course, it hasn’t been discovered yet. It can be useful, but think of it like poison, leeching into the world around it. Then add actual poison in the form of a chemical leak on board. It’s my hope it’s diminished by now.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” she admitted, wondering how far science would have to advance to reach that of Eric’s time.

  “The rift’s this way,” Eric said, nodding toward the west.

  Cora walked beside him as they crossed the field together.

  “So tell me about your world,” Cora said; a curious glint in her eyes.

  “It’s bigger, far from here and the people are worse – so much worse. Sometimes wisdom doesn’t keep pace with knowledge. They’re the best or perhaps the worst example of that I’ve known.”

  Eric suppressed a sigh because he’d once thought his people explorers and protectors who used their power wisely, and he’d been wrong. Oh so wrong, and even now, hundreds of years before they were born, he was disappointed in them.

  He wasn’t going to tell Cora why; not today, at least. He’d said enough, and reasoned it was perhaps her turn to answer some questions. A smile formed as he considered what kind of life she’d had before he interrupted it.

  “So tell me about yourself, Cora. I don’t really know that much about you yet.”

  “Oh, you don’t really want to know about me,” she said with a shrug.

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t. It’s only fair, so go on, surprise me.”

  “If you want,” she said, grinning back at him. “I have an older brother, Stephen, who’s in the army. My father’s a doctor – that you know, and he’s been teaching me the sciences since I was a young girl. I’m betrothed–”

  “What?” Eric asked, wondering if he’d have to deal with an outraged fiancé.

  “It’s set for the summer and I don’t want to marry him. I’ve been trying to wriggle out of it and he’s an insufferable man. He told me I had wrinkles already and I’d be like a prune by the time I’m thirty.”

  “You don’t,” Eric said, looking at her closely.

  “I didn’t think I did,” Cora replied, pleased by Eric’s answer. “I think he w
as just trying to put me ‘in my place’.” She said the last with a fake upper-crust British accent.

  “It sounds like he was intimidated by you,” Eric replied.

  “Truly?” Cora asked, beaming. “That would be so good if he was.”

  Eric laughed. “Absolutely. I hope you can avoid the wedding.”

  He was surprised Cora seemed to feel no guilt or doubt at trying to avoid her arranged marriage. He’d never known anyone who pushed back so hard against family and society’s expectations. But then he’d never faced those kinds of expectations himself.

  “I can tell you’re worried for me,” she said with a smile. “I’m infinitely resourceful when it comes to my freedom and hopeful when it comes to my future.”

  “I know the feeling,” Eric said with a smile.

  The night brought with it a light drizzle – not uncommon in England, as Eric now knew. He and Cora had found their destination; the approaching rift site would be at the back of a farmer’s property. There was a low stone wall and on the other side a small creek that probably flowed into the River Severn.

  They found a disused barn less than a mile away and opted to stay there for the night. It wasn’t cold enough to need a fire, but it was uncomfortable without one. His TSAI 40 cast enough light for them to see with, but it didn’t help with the cold.

  Cora pulled the blanket from her pack and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  “It’s not as good as a fire, but it’ll do,” she said.

  It wasn’t the first sentence she’d prefixed with ‘it’s not as good as a fire’, but Eric was reluctant to risk them being seen and driven away from the area. He wanted to be close when his ship passed through. He was already taking a chance by casting some light in the barn.

  “So tell me, how old are you?” she asked, twirling a lock of auburn hair around her finger.

  When his gaze met hers, she smiled. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it’s hard to tell. You look young but your eyes tell a different story.”