Making Time

Making Time - Iceman - 09.06.02

When Ross opened the door to find out what all the noise was about he saw two people
arguing. The louder of the two, getting quite red in the face, was Haliman of the Faculty
of Temporal Physics, whose laboratory was downstairs in the huge basement underneath
the Wyndham building, the other was a mousey haired woman who Ross reckoned was
as ugly as sin from the Faculty of Archives and Information. Haliman was shouting about
something which had happened in 1977, an important event of some significance which
the woman from archives was refusing to accept had ever happened. Something about a
missing file, so Ross thought.

"Excuse me," Ross began. The other two ignored him. "Excuse me," he repeated raising
his voice. Haliman, a man in his fifties with a penchant for brittle toffee and jazz, broke
off from his discussion.

"What is it, Ross? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I'm trying to work next door, I have a huge report to review before lunchtime and I need
a bit of peace of quiet to work."

"Ross is from Admin," Haliman told the ugly girl. "He does all the paperwork that keeps
things moving along. It's a pity your department isn't better organised. I need that file.

"The file, yes," the woman said slowly as if trying to grasp a difficult concept. "I still
don't understand why you need it. What possible relevance could it have with Wilson's
time machine?"

"I thought I had told you why I need the file. I know it's classified and I shouldn't really
look at it, but according to Wilson it's the only proof we have."

"I cannot locate the file, I have already told you this. No amount of shouting is going to
find it."

"Let's see Wilson, perhaps we can find out why the file is so damn important," Ross
suggested. "But the woman stays here. Wilson's lab is restricted."

The woman looked at him daggers and then announced she had better things to do than
wait around for something to happen. After she had gone, Ross and Haliman went down
to the basement to where the Temporal Physics lab was situated.

The lab resembled a cross between a garage service shop and a library. About halfway
down the lab they saw Wilson sitting at a workbench, perched on a stool, doing
something to a box with many flashing lights, that every now and then emitted a loud
beep. As they approached the workbench, Wilson broke the screwdriver he was using.
The screwdriver had snapped off at the handle and with a snarl of rage, Wilson hurled the
handle at the wall nearest him.

"Something wrong, Doctor Wilson?" Ross asked, as they came to a halt in front of the
desk. Ross thought that Wilson was looking more and more like a gnome every day, as he
was quite short and dumpy and had a huge nose. Wilson said nothing, then hefted the box
up off the workbench and lobbed it across the lab where it hit the wall and smashed in
half.

"Hah!" said Wilson. "It's broken now, by god."

"I see," Ross said, glancing at Haliman who studiously ignored the look of concern on
Ross's face.

"Don't worry, Ross, it's nothing the Faculty paid for, I bought it at a boot fair last Sunday
and I had hoped to get it to work. Well, what can I do for you, gentlemen? I'm quite
busy, or rather I was," Wilson added looking at the smashed box ruefully.

"Haliman says you need a file from the 1977 archives. Archives say it's not there and
Haliman is a bit upset," Ross said. "Is the file really that important?"

"The file is absolutely essential. However, since they have lost it we shall have to hope
that nothing else goes wrong."

"Wrong?" Ross asked.

"Wrong, yes, wrong. Somebody left the time capacitor running. It dug a tunnel back to
1977 and prevented a huge riot in Notting Hill. There was one in 1976 we know, but not
in 1977. They used water cannon and live ammunition, seventy people were killed and
many more injured, but now since it didn't happen&;#8230;" Wilson paused.

"But isn't that a good thing?" Ross asked. "I don't remember a riot&;#8230;"

"That's precisely my point," Wilson replied angrily. "My fiancee was one of those killed.
Haliman lost his brother. But I suppose since you don't remember anything about the riot,
you were not directly involved. I remember because my fiancee is fresh in my thoughts
each day I wake up."

"But then," Ross babbled excitedly, "she must be alive still. And so must Haliman's
brother."

"I know, I know," Wilson muttered. "I have already checked on the mainframe database,
she married some American and now lives in California with three children. Haliman's
brother was lost in action during the Gulf War. Apparently he has, or had, a wife and
daughter name of Sarah. Haliman wants to find out where they live. God, this is all so
bloody complicated. Apart from you, Haliman here and myself, nobody else knows about
this."

Ross shuddered. "But I have no recollection of the riot."

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Wilson stormed off to where the time machine stood. The
phone rang on the workbench. Ross picked it up, wondering why Haliman was so quiet,
he looked around him and saw that Haliman had gone over to the time machine with
Wilson. Wilson was waving his hands about and Haliman seemed to be trying to calm
him down.

"Hello? Yes, this is Ross from Admin. Okay, I'll be up shortly." Ross put the receiver
down. "I have to go now." Neither Wilson nor Haliman appeared to have heard him. Ross
waited for some sort of response then turned and left the lab.

In Ross's office stood the ugly woman from archives and a young lady from the
Department of Art and Literature. Ross shook hands with the young lady and asked her
name.

"It's Vicki, Vicki Stanforth," said Vicki nervously.

"I'm Ross. I'm the College Administrator. How can I help you both?"

"This is a very difficult situation," the ugly woman began. "Victoria here is George
Haliman's niece. Her real name is Sarah Haliman but for reasons which are abundantly
obvious she is here under a nom de plume."

"So you're Sarah? Hmmm. Your uncle's downstairs."

"I know. Mrs Frood told me that Uncle George is downstairs with Charlie Wilson," Vicki
said. "I need to see him right now."

"Found the file yet?" Ross asked, going off at a tangent.

"Not yet, it's a damage control exercise," Mrs Frood said. "We have to locate everyone
named in the file and find out what happened to them. It's going to take forever."

Ross smiled. The ugly woman wasn't really that ugly, he thought, just that the eyebrows
were quite obvious. A make over and she would be quite attractive. The phone rang on
Ross's desk. He picked up the receiver.

"Yes? This is Ross. Okay." He put the phone down. "Mrs Frood, they've found the file,
that was Carter. Seems the file was hidden behind a filing cabinet."

"That figures," Mrs Frood said. "I'll leave Vicki in your hands and see what Carter has to
say." She left Ross's office leaving him alone with Vicki.

The phone rang again, interrupting the awkward silence.

"Ross. Okay Doctor Wilson, we'll there in a minute." Vicki was quite pretty, and she had
great eyes. Ross smiled. "We are going to meet Uncle George."

They went down the stairs to the lab and then Ross showed Vicki in. Haliman rushed
across, with his eyes alight with a gladness that Ross found strangely touching. Haliman
was normally a very sad sort of person and kept himself to himself. This was the most
animated that Ross had seen him.

"Hello Sarah," said George Haliman then hugged his niece, tears forming in his eyes.
Vicki / Sarah looked upset as well. Ross felt embarrassed standing there and wandered
away towards where the time machine stood. Wilson was working on it through an open
access panel.

"Broken anymore screwdrivers?" Ross asked.

"No, Ross, not yet," Wilson replied. "She's ready for a test, you know." He indicated the
time machine with a sweep of his hand.

The time machine resembled a small submarine and was painted in blue and white, the
college colours. There was a small conning tower and Ross assumed that entry was via
the hatch in the side of the tower. At each end were huge crystal objects like the lens
from a lighthouse light.

"When?" asked Ross. "Soon?"

"Soon as you're ready. George and his niece may as well come with us. We cannot cause
anymore chaos than we have already."

"They've found the file," Ross said. "Archives said&;#8230;"

"Yes, yes, I know. Carter called me after he called your office."

"Are you sure you should test the time machine? I mean after the business last night.
Aren't you afraid of changing the past?" Ross looked worried, and quite scared. "I
thought we had to be careful about creating paradoxes."

"Don't start, Ross, I've had it up to here with people going on about paradoxes and such
like. There are no such things as paradoxes. Time re-adjusts itself to avoid them. You
know about world lines?"

"No, I don't."

"A world line is a sort of time track from the past to the present and from the present to
the future. In the future there are an infinte number of world lines, but in the past only
one, unless something happens to throw off another one. As of today there are two world
lines, and there is of course no way to travel from one to the other. The world line that
existed yesterday has closed to us forever. I mean we still exist on the other world line,
but , well, you see my point?"

"Not really, Doctor, but I think I can grasp what you are driving at."

Haliman and Sarah came over at that point. Wilson wiped his hands on a rag and then
smiled. "Fancy a drink before we go? Wondered whether you would like a drink in the
Queen Anne, the pub near the college?"

"Have we time?" Haliman asked.

"All the time in the world, George," Wilson said. "I assume that Ross can join us, and
Sarah of course."

"Love to," said Sarah happily. "Be nice to have a pint with Uncle. Dad always said that
Uncle George would have liked that."

"What time is it?" Ross asked.

"About four o'clock," Wilson replied glancing up at a five foot wide clock that was fixed
to one of the walls. Ross reddened. "Don't worry, it's so huge, nobody sees it unless they
look."

"No can do," Ross said, "I have another meeting of the Finance Committee at four thirty.
Maybe some other time."

Ross left, leaving the other three to talk amongst themselves.

At six thirty Ross was sitting outside the Queen Anne enjoying a pint of Guinness. The
table he sat at was covered in bird droppings and he wondered why the pub staff never
bothered to clean the tables. Under his elbows was spread the evening newspaper which
he bought on the way to read while he had a pint or two. He took a sip of his pint and
then looked over at the other tables.

Most of the tables were empty, probably on account of the bird droppings, Ross thought,
apart from one where there was another couple arguing. Ross earwigged. The man was
going to the States and the girl with him was upset about this. After a few minutes the
man stood up, flung a tenner on the table and stormed off. Ross finished his pint, then
glanced over at the girl who was staring moodily into her glass of wine.

"He'll be back you know," Ross said loudly.

The girl heard him and looked round.

"Oh really?" She said. "Oh it's you, Mr. Ross. You work in Admin. It's Susan. Susan
Harris. I work in the accounts department."

"Ah," said Ross, floundering, "wait, you wrote that report Iwas copied in on. I was
reading it earlier today." He hated babbling when he had nothing constructive to say. He
wanted to come out with some trite platitudes about love and relationships, but for the
moment he could think of nothing else to say.

"You read it? Was it all right?"

"It made sense. Look, let's not talk shop, fancy a drink?"

"Oh yes, Mr. Ross, a pepsi will do fine."

"Not a coke?" Ross continued almost blurting out the question.

"What's a coke? Is that another name for a Pepsi Cola?" Susan asked.

Ross flushed. How could he have been so stupid. Everything was changing it seemed.
"I'll get you a pepsi, then," he offered.

He stood up. At that moment there was a sound like a jet roaring overhead from the
nearby American air base and Doctor Wilson's time machine materialised in the carpark
behind them.

Susan leapt up and shouted in amazement. "What the feck? What the feck is that, Mr.
Ross?"

Ross said nothing, he was watching three uniformed people come out of the hatch. They
climbed down the ladder at the side, then walked slowly towards where Susan and Ross
were sitting.

"But I'm telling you Wilson, you should have recalibrated before we left," one of them
said.

The other being spoken to removed his crash helmet.To the right of Haliman and Wilson
was Sarah, helmet already off.

"Oh look, Uncle George, it's Ross and some girl," said Sarah. "I bet he is wondering
what we are doing here."

"Some girl?" Susan said crossly. "Who's she, Ross?"

"Haliman's niece, forgive her she has only be around since lunchtime."

"What? What do you mean?" Susan asked. She was still trying to take in all that was
happening, including the appearance of a submarine painted in the college colours.

"It's a long story," said Ross, wishing he could better explain like the hero did in films.

"Is the field still on?" Haliman asked as they neared where Ross and Susan were sitting.

"I bloody well hope so," Wilson said.

"They'll have to come with us, we have no other choice."

"How much time is left?" Sarah asked.

"About five minutes, let's get them on board," said Wilson. "Ross, you and your girl
friend had better come with us right now, before the shockwave hits this place."

"Shockwave?" Ross asked. "Why? What are you talking about?"

"It's very simple," said Wilson testily. "You stay here, you disappear from the world line.
Come with us and you won't be here to find out."

Ross looked at Susan who was now looking terrified. "I think we had better go." He took
her hand and then the lights across the carpark exploded, one by one.

"It's almost here. Nothing we can do can stop it." Wilson beckoned with a gloved hand.
"Please, Ross, we don't want you and the girl to die&;#8230;"

Susan stood up and almost in a trance walked over to the time machine. Sarah put on her
crash helmet again and hurried over to make friends with Susan. Ross followed, leaving
the paper behind which now blew away in a sudden string gust of wind. The wind grew
stronger, blowing the pages everywhere.

They got aboard and the time machine disappeared. Nobody came out from the pub to see
it leave, for the same reason that no one came out in the first place to see it arrive, they
were outside the field of influence&;#8230;

Inside the time machine, Wilson was at the controls furiously flicking switches and
turning knobs on a huge dashboard in front of the pilot's chair. Haliman sat down in seat
in front of the time scope which showed they were on course for the moment. Sarah stood
beside him, fingers gripping the back of the chair her Uncle was sitting on. Ross and
Susan stood like lemons with their mouths agog, looking at the activity inside the time
machine, which Ross decided was really like a submarine.

"It was Wilson's fault," Haliman said, gravely. "You know what's happened now, don't
you? I'll tell you, he's changed the past himself this time. Rather than leaving the time
capacitor leaking chronons&;#8230;he materialised the time machine in 1977. I have no idea
why, but we landed in the middle of Hyde Park. And we were seen. There was some open
air rally there and hundreds of people saw us materialise and then disappear again."

"And who set the field too wide then, George?" retorted Wilson. "That's why I had to
land again to recalibrate. And we appeared in Hyde Park. And bugger it, the past it's
changed. What the hell?"

He began throwing more switches and wrestling with the control wheel in front of him.

"There seems to be a discontinuity in the time space stream ahead of us. It's pulling us in,
and I can't break free. I'll have to try moving ten centuries of sidereal time forwards."

"It looks like a black hole," Ross said pointing at the view on the main monitor screen."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ross, nobody has ever seen a black hole close up."

"I have," said Susan, "it was in a film I saw when I was a kid. It had a big robot in it."

"That was a film, this is for real," Wilson said. "Time shift in five, four, three, two, one!"

Ross felt his stomach twist like he was being sick. Susan was sick and threw up over his
shoes.

"Wilson!"

"It's okay, we passed it now. No more discontinuity." Wilson locked the controls and
stood up. "I'll get Sarah to get you cleaned up, and you Ross, you both need to put on
special clothing. Where we are heading you'll need it to blend in."

Sarah let go of the chair. "Come on Susan, Mr Ross, this way, the living quarters are this
way."

Haliman stood up as well and went over to where Wilson was standing. He pulled out a
battered packet of Benson and offered them to Wilson. They lit up their cigarettes.

"Should we tell him?" Haliman asked Wilson.

Wilson blew smoke and shook his head. "Not yet. He'll find out soon enough."

About ten minutes later Ross and Susan reappeared dressed in grey blue coveralls, black
boots and crash helmets.

"What now?" Ross asked. "How long are we going to be doing this for? Susan lives with
two flatmates, and they'll be worried. I have to feed my cat, at some stage, otherwise he
starts destroying the furniture."

Wilson looked at him sadly.

"I'm afraid there is nothing we can do about getting you back. This is a separate world
line now. Remember what I said to you earlier today in the lab. The same goes for Susan
here as well."

"Oh feck!" said Susan.

Ross glowered. "Feckin marvellous Wilson. Absolutely feckin marvellous. Who's going
to feed him?"

"You are of course. Different world line, but the same people. Don't worry, your cat
won't know anything has changed. You will of course, but then it goes with the
territory."

"I'll never see Adam again!" Susan shouted. "You bastard, what have you done? I loved
Adam, I still do, but now. Feck!" She stormed off back the way she had come ripping off
the helmet and letting it bounce on the floor.

"I'll go after her," said Ross, "see if I can help."

"I doubt it," Wilson muttered. "Sarah, George, we are about to materialise in the year
3004. Stand by."

He flipped several switches, and the quiet hum that was the time machine in motion
ceased.

"On screen!" He flicked another switch and the three of them looked at the scene on the
monitor. A desolate landscape, scarred vegetation and in the distance a city in ruins.

"Where are we now?" Sarah asked.

"Well, it's the year 3004, and by my estimation the city over there is New Berlin, or
rather it was. We need to recharge anyway so we may as well get out here and take a
walk. There won't be anybody around, the whole area was struck by fusion bombs during
the War of Secession. It should be clear by now. The war finished fifty years ago."

"I'll see what's up with Ross and Susan," said Sarah and left them to look at the scene on
the monitor

"You've used the machine before haven't you?" Haliman said.

"Yes, I have George, I have been trying to rectify the damage I caused for the past six
months. A few world lines ago Ross was actually a very important man in the study of
Genetics. Now he is nothing but an administrator. What makes it worse, well, I'll tell you
later, George."

Ross and Susan reappeared with Sarah. Susan looked a bit happier. She held onto Ross's
arm. Wilson smiled. Of course if Susan knew the truth of the matter. That Ross was her
husband in another world line&;#8230;

Wilson looked at Sarah who was looking as beautiful as he had once known her once
before when he was younger than he was right now, or then, he wasn't really sure. There
was Ross's cat, and Susan of course. And Haliman, and Susan. And all of them had been
affected by his folly. But what really got to him, and why he had spent six months trying
to put right what had been changed was that Sarah was his wife. He knew this, Sarah
didn't of course, but then he hadn't met her in Australia when she was on her gap year
and he had been working on a novel during his sabbatical, and the world was so much
different, and nothing he could do would change it. He switched the monitor off, and saw
his reflection in the blank screen. And I had been taller and more handsome, instead of
this stunted man looking back at me with a huge nose. What have I done?