Chapter 10

Magnus accompanied Will back to the library. Everyone was there sitting around the desk looking a bit worried as Druitt and Tesla argued.

"I've never heard anything so bloody ridiculous in all my life," Druitt was bellowing at Tesla. "You cannot even begin to compare the two. There are too many variables not to mention two world wars, the fall of an empire. The advances in technology alone are worlds apart."

"It's hypothetical John, not a fixed reality. Just imagine that it were a possibility, then what would happen?"

"What appears to be the problem?" asked Magnus.

Druitt and Tesla were fuming at each other. Bigfoot, Henry and Will were simply trying not to get in any way involved with the dispute.

Henry leaned over toward Magnus and whispered, "They're talking about cricket."

"What about it?"

Tesla turned to Magnus innocently, hoping for an ally.

"Helen, just imagine for a moment that you could transpose the entire 1901 English cricket team and switch it with the current one. Then have them play the Australians. Who would win?"

The look she gave him could have stunned a stampede of vampires in their tracks.

"I don't give a damn about bloody cricket," she snapped. "Why have you stopped working? Is it ready?"

"Helen," Tesla looked shocked, and did a good impression of hurt as well. "How can you say such a thing? Cricket is the game of the gods!"

"Nikola," she warned.

"Oh all right. If you must know, I'm stuck." He shook his head, finding it hard to believe he had admitted that he wasn't perfect out loud. "Something is just not right. I'm missing something, but I don't know what."

Will and Magnus joined them at the think-tank at the desk, wallowing in defeat.

"Wilberforce, my good man! We need wine. Wine helps me think."

"He keeps calling me that," Will muttered to Magnus.

Bigfoot looked to Magnus and she nodded. He got up and returned a few minutes later with a case of wine.

They discussed theories of time, space, quantum physics, alternate dimensions, the machinery they were constructing and the downright impossible. Everyone contributed on whatever level they could and had such a crash course in theoretical physics and electro-magnetics, they thought they could have taken a shot at building the machine themselves. That could also have been down to amount of wine consumed.

The wine bottles got emptier and as the hours went by they dropped off to sleep one by one. Will first, then Henry who whimpered in his sleep, and then Bigfoot, all snoozing away in their chairs.

The remaining three hit a temporary lull in the conversation, each lost in their own thoughts. Tesla stared off into space his mind a million miles away. His eyes narrowed as they focused on Henry who was snoring opposite him. With his physics t-shirt on.

He leapt up, spilling wine all over the paperwork and making Druitt and Magnus jump.

"By Jove, I do believe the wolf boys got it!"

"What is it?"

"'Elementary', to quote an old friend. One of the fundamental constants of the universe. Gravity. It's what's missing from the equation. I am almost embarrassed to say I nearly missed it."

"Almost, but not quite," observed Druitt dryly.

He turned with a grin to look at Magnus and Druitt, sickeningly pleased with himself. "A few adjustments in the morning to compensate for a monopole magnetism gravity shift and we are ready. All we have to do now is wait."

"You just said we were ready," pointed out Magnus.

"We are. I may be a genius but even I can't control the weather. We await an electrical storm," he pronounced dramatically.

"I'll drink to that," said Magnus and poured more wine. "Oh, and Nikola? I'd go with the 1901 England team, every time."

The main business finally out of the way the friends eventually found their way to talking about old times. Some a little worse for wear than others.

"Nikola," asked Magnus. "Do you ever wonder if you have a drinking problem?"

"Certainly not," he declared. "It's one of my super powers. I am impervious to wine!"

"I'm not so sure."

"A toast!"

Druitt sighed, "Not another one."

Tesla had been making random toasts ever since the gravity moment, even toasting himself on multiple occasions.

"To the Five. James and Nigel. I wish they could be here on this auspicious occasion, so that once again the magnificent five could break through the barriers of science." He knocked back his glass of wine.

"To the Five," agreed Druitt.

"The Five," said Magnus.

Tesla fell back into his chair and fell fast asleep.

"Thank god for that," groaned Druitt.

Ashley sat in the Lab, staring at the message. She had cleared away the rubble so that the ground was bare and moved the bodies into a pile in the corridor, out of her line of sight. The loose vampire heads were now stuck on makeshift pikes and placed outside next to the main gate, to warn off and wind up any vampires who decided to come wandering by.

She tapped her foot on the ground and waited. Patience was not one of her virtues.

After a few hours of waiting she decided to get rid of the bodies. She didn't want any potential rescue party asking awkward questions. She dragged the first one outside and laid it on the drive noticing as she did, five vampires outside the main gate. They were watching every move she made. When they saw her they scattered, at least they were still scared of her, for now.

Ashley walked the perimeter of the grounds and back to the main gate, just in case they were up to something. There was no sight of anyone or anything. As she alternated between the lab and the grounds, bringing up the rest of the corpses, Ashley noticed the vampires return. Each time she looked outside there were more of them. Like birds on a wire. They disappeared each time she made it clear she could see them.

With all the corpses finally outside she built a fire, a funeral pyre. Not that they deserved it, and it was good hygiene anyway, she certainly wasn't hiding any evidence. She placed it in the middle of the drive so every nosey, busybody, fanged freak could see. This time the vampires stayed.

Unafraid, on the outside, Ashley walked down the drive toward them. She stood there staring them down and pointed to the pikes with the heads of their comrades on. Then pointed back to the vampires. They snarled. And left.

Feeling very pleased with herself she wandered back down to the lab.