A little backstory...
Eric can walk across time. Over the past couple of years, he's been around a lot, seen some very unusual timelines and acquired or modified technology that allows him much faster travel than walking pace, including a tall, tubular glass and steel contraption called a sender. A twin laser-powered device capable of sending people millions of miles away, to very different timelines to the one he calls home. Another, a smaller version, a laser pistol in which he's replaced the crystal with a very special substance.
The substance? An element that crashed into a world not too far from his in the form of a meteorite. An element that has the power to repel life, preventing anyone from getting anywhere closer than half a mile from it under normal circumstances. An element, that when energised, can send people large distances.
The meteorite killed thousands when it struck by sending them to distant worlds, in a vast uncontrolled explosion.
Now, the meteorite has begun to act strangely. It normally pulses with a violet light but that colour has changed, so, Eric decides to investigate.
* * *
Eric prepared for the survey of the meteorite itself.
Using the lay of the land he’d seen from the tower he selected what he considered the safest spot, the edge of where the crater was where it came down, twenty feet from the centre rather than risk falling into the crater itself. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he was thrown out below ground level.
He shifted, careful to align his raygun exactly right, faced in the direction of the meteorite and pulled the trigger.
The moment he fired, the whole area turned into a wasteland. Again, that sensation of flight. Not as pronounced as a sender jump but this time it was different. He’d only been travelling for a minute when he felt a sudden pressure as if he’d smacked into a rubber barrier that was trying to hold him back, but the force of his laser easily overcame it. The pressure was almost painful though. Momentum forced him onwards, the repulsion trying to force him back.
He stopped and almost stumbled down into the crater. He was staring it in the face for the first time since it’d flown overhead two years ago. Ten feet long, six feet wide. A rock, as had been described, about the size of a coach pulsing with a violet light.
And then it was gone. Less than a second to see it and the repulsive force took hold and flung him back. Back away from the world of the crater. Back physically too. He saw the land not only change around him but shift. Move under his feet.
As he was moving he noticed this was very different from what he was used to too. The trees and grass appeared almost the instant the repulsion sent him flying but there was no sense of growth. No new shoots. Snow and frost appeared and vanished and appeared again in quick succession.
Eric hit the cobbles with a crash but managed to catch himself before he broke anything.
He got up and brushed himself down, staring around in shock.
Well, it looked like his village. No snow but no springtime growth either. He wasn’t even on the hill, he was on a street he recognised in Talke.
A figure appeared at the head of the street. Eric slunk into a back alley and watched as Obediah ran past wearing coal stained work clothes carrying a large bundle of clothing across his shoulders, The boy… He looked younger, smaller and very determined.
Diah continued up the hill and onto the Kidsgrove streets beyond.
“Damn Marty. Why can’t you ever be right about anything?” Eric thought as he watched the lad unwittingly run to his year at sea. “Don’t meddle. They went through hell but I don’t want to break time. This is one thing where I’ve got no idea what I’m doing. I’ll drift back. Just hope I drift forward too.”
Eric packed away the laser and flipped the switch to nullify the omnium. He relaxed, daydreamed and the clouds began to dance in the sky.
This time it wasn’t just the clouds that danced. The sun swung across the heavens at an accelerated rate and began speeding up with every “day” that passed. Pretty soon it was a flicker. Night and day switching so quickly it would’ve been enough to give a photosensitive epileptic a fit.
Then, daylight. The clouds weren’t dancing, the sun was steady in the late afternoon sky, the snow was up to his ankles. He opened his senses and sighed with relief. He was home.
“Eric to Marty.”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got problems again. I was hoping.” Eric sighed. “Oh well.”
“What? Diah’s alright isn’t he?”
“It’s not Diah. When I took Phil and Ian to see their ground zero counterparts, Beryl told me the meteorite had changed colour so I went to investigate, conducted a few experiments and just got back from using my laser pistol to fire myself at it to get a closer look.”
“What colour’s it changed to?”
“It hasn’t changed, Marty. It just looks like that from a distance. And that’s not the worst of it. It’s causing a… Edmund came up with sinkhole in time. I’ve just broken another one of your rules.”
“Which one?”
“One of the first you told me. In my bedroom when you explained the dimensions. You can’t travel backwards through it and only vary your speed forward a little… I just have!”
“What? That’s impossible!”
“How many times have you said that about stuff I’ve done before now? I just witnessed Diah running away to burn all their clothes! Didn’t follow him of course, I didn’t want to be seen. Decided the prudent thing would be to just get the hell out of there. Fortunately I drifted forwards too.”
“Why? I would’ve seriously been tempted to follow him all the way.”
“I didn’t want to change things. I know I don’t remember seeing another me that day and I’ve got no idea if the tree can grow new timelines further down the branch. Didn’t think it was worth the risk. Could’ve created a paradox or something for all I know.”
“I see your point. I take it you want me back then?”
“Yes. I think this is going to be another all hands on deck situation eventually. Now we know the thing’s not only having relativistic effects on the light it’s giving off, it’s made travel over a year back in time possible. It seriously needs breaking up. It’s too dangerous to exist in its current state anymore.”
“I’m near Wrexham right now. Not too far off from Shropshire canal, I’ll hop barges until one’s passing. Shouldn’t take more than a few days.”
“Thanks Marty, Eric out.”
Eric trudged back to the top of the street to take the bridge across the canal. Here, the hill was no longer a viable option. The cutting was too far along to cross now. it’d taken two years but soon that canal would be open again.
The professors and Tad were still there when he entered the pub half an hour later. He slumped down into his seat and sighed.
“It’s worse than we thought.”
Martin stared at him. “Worse? How? It was bad enough before!”
“I zapped myself to ground zero for speed, spoke to the bloke on the tower again, then asked Beryl to pack a couple of bags and ask them to too. Just in case. It first got noticed about a year ago by someone who’d spent a couple of weeks off but the rest didn’t notice a change for another six months, it was so gradual. It’s been blue for three. But it isn’t blue and when that thing repelled me out again...”
“What?”
“Still got the sheet?”
“Yes, Eric. Here. Why? What happened?”
Eric drew an arrow on one of the branches near the edge and wrote “we are here.” above it.
“I zapped myself to it with this.” he held up the pistol. “Saw it for about a second before being flung out again.”
He drew the arrow leading from the start point into the dip.
“So?”
“It flung me out this way.”
He drew another arrow straight across the tree to a branch his world had branched off. “I just watched Diah running away with all their clothing ready for that bonfire.”
Tad stared at the sheet of paper in shock. “Why didn’t you stop him?”
“Because I know that isn’t what happened. This is new to all of us. None of us thought time travel backwards was possible, only sideways. If I’d stopped him, I dread to think what would’ve happened. Besides, Diah found himself on that ship. I wouldn’t want to deprive him of that experience!”
“What do you mean what would’ve happened?”
“Do you remember Diah running away and staying missing for over a year?”
“Of course!”
“And if I changed that? Would the you I’m talking to still even exist? Would I for that matter? I wasn’t willing to take that risk.”
“How do you know it wasn’t just a world with a time delay?” Martin pondered. “One where everything that happened here just happened, well, a year later?”
“For one, the drift would’ve taken years. Remember, I’m the only me that can do it, so I’m the only me who could’ve got the families here. Add to that, Diah looked younger and when I did drift back I saw a year pass by in a matter of minutes. The sun flashing across the sky so fast it turned into a bloody strobe light.”
Martin nodded gravely. “That clinches it then. We’ve got to find some way to fix it. Disperse the meteorite.”
“More than that, we’ve got to find a way to do it safely. We know what happened when Yates tried the explosive approach. It’ll be a slow process, picking it apart with boring machines. Think that’ll be the only way though. I just hope we’ve got the time. We’ll need help.”
“Help from who?”
Eric sighed. “I’ll contact Yates. I’ve not spoken to him in a while. Maybe Seymore had a play with designing something we could use. We’ll lack the modern materials of course but that can’t be helped. I’ll nip over to Liuyisan too. Tell them some of the requirements.”
“What do you plan to do with it once it’s been dispersed?”
“Can’t leave it all in the same world. We’ll need to use senders, spread it around as widely as possible. I’m sure Yates would jump at the chance of getting his hands on more of it. I’ll have a word with Gareth too. See if he can think of a way of increasing the range of our radios.”
“Why?”
“Because if it’s happening to ours, there’s no saying ours was the biggest strike. There might be others. It could tear their world apart. At least, I think it might be able to.”
“But if the stuff did land elsewhere… And it was bigger…”
“How would they get it to experiment with? I know. I’m clutching at straws here.”