Part 1 London, 1987
(1)
Bodie swirled the teaspoon around his cup, sat back and scowled. As often happened when he was unoccupied and bored, he sought a source of amusement. One such source sat across the desk from him, carefully turning the tiny screws of the loading spring of his .45 semi-automatic Remington. "Do you know," he finally asked, "what a fetish is?"
Doyle continued working. "Happens I do. What is it, word of the day?"
"I looked it up. It's an idol worshipped by heathens or something somebody fiddles with to the point of obnoxiousness."
"Obsession. You mean obsession. No such word as obnoxiousness."
Bodie took a swig of his tea and made a face. "There is, and you're it. This tea's cold. Your turn."
Doyle put the gun back together with practiced precision. "What am I, the butler? Make your own bloody tea." He slid the gun into the holster under his arm and looked across at Bodie.
Folding his arms across his not-unimpressive chest, Bodie looked disdainful. "You know, its ten years I've been partnered with you. I'm woefully underpaid, considering the load I bear."
Doyle was trying to come up with something better than a simple "get stuffed" when Cowley called for them. They crossed the office to his door, entered and closed it behind them. They sat in the two chairs opposite their boss and waited while he rearranged the files on his desk.
Time and pressure had marked George Cowley, turning his hair silver, carving their mark in the shadowed grooves of his face. The years had wizened him. But those blue eyes could still dissect with a glance, and the mind behind them was still as sharp, and as cunning. While it was so they knew he would continue, as would they.
Cowley opened a file, closed it again, tapped the desk with a pencil. Doyle straightened a little, became more alert. Anything that had his boss nervous was worth his attention. He expected the unusual and got it.
"What do either of you know about the fourth dimension?"
Doyle shrugged, lost, then turned to stare as Bodie answered.
"Time. At least I think its connected to time somehow." He noted his partners look and raised his eyebrows. "Readers Digest."
Doyle grinned. "Long stakeouts, eh?"
Cowley hushed them and they quietened. "As it happens, Bodie isn't far wrong. I'm about to ask you two to get involved in something very...unusual. More important than I can say, and I can't order you.
The two agents exchanged brief looks before Bodie answered. "Volunteers? Could be interesting. What's it about?"
Cowley sat back and rubbed a tired eye. "Two days ago I had a call from an old friend, Dr James Potter. We were at Edinburgh University together. He was always a bit scatterbrained, but clever, smart as a whip. So when he called I knew it would be interesting." He gave a brief snort of laughter. "Interesting...an old Chinese curse for the days we live in. It seems that Jimmy's experiments have made our days even more interesting." He shook his head abruptly. "No, we'll not discuss this any further here. Meet me at the Commerce Research Institute on Holland Road just off the Kensington High Street, at 1.30. I think Jimmy'd better explain it himself."
The old sandstone building crouched between a firestation and an even older pub and looked as scientific as its neighbours...and James Potter was equally misleading. His lab coat was blindingly white, and covered an expensive suit. Only his hair fit the picture; it was thining, with what remained frizzing out from his skull like escaping cushion stuffing. Steel- rimmed glasses perched on an outstanding nose, and he blinked over them and smiled uncertainly as he was introduced to Bodie and Doyle.
"It was good of you both to come. I suppose George told you..."
"I didn't tell them anything, Jimmy. I want you to do that. As you did for me - simply. Neither of them are scientifically minded." Cowley perched himself up on a stool, looking for all the world like an over-age school boy, and smiled benignly at his top operatives.
Potter pushed his glasses up his nose, took his pipe from his pocket and stared at it for a moment. He looked up and shook his head.
"Do either of you know anything about the unified field theorem?"
Bodie scratched his nose and nodded gravely. "The old UFT. Studied it for my doctorate."
"Ahem. Well, let me see....I'll avoid specifics, which aren't all that relevant anyhow. The end result is what counts, not the means. If you would like to take a seat, I'll make this brief."
He packed his pipe and lit it, taking a noisy puff. "It's remarkable, really, where these things come from. Discoveries, I mean. Sometimes a person can work all their life on a project and get nowhere. And sometimes the most amazing finds practically fall on one, out of the blue. I'm starting to believe the Universe is rather more open to random chance than science would have us believe."
He studied the two younger men for a few thoughtful moments. "So, something extraordinary has occurred, possibly the most momentous discovery since fire." He indicated a large video screen tucked inconscipously amoungst the clutter of his office. "It might be better if you saw the effect first. It will save a lot of words." He turned to a VCR on the workbench behind him and pressed the play button.
The screen flickered to life, showing an image of that same laboratory. The focus was on a set of apparatus in the middle of the room; a beam of light appeared from off screen and hit the centre of the equipment, which almost immediately became obscured by a creamy sphere of light that entirely surrounded it. Potter froze the picture and turned back to his audience.
"I was working on an idea of mine regarding energy conservation, involving the use of space-grown crystals, magnetic fields and lasers. The crystal I was using had some physical abnormalities - I didn't know how abnormal it was until this experiment. To cut a very technical explanation extremely short, I managed to create an energy field with properties previously unknown to human science. This..thing...which I have called a four dimensional sphere, seems to have been produced when the area within the containment system was, for the merest fraction of a second, accelerated beyond the speed of light."
"I thought Einstein said that wasn't possible," Bodie said, and Potter nodded.
"Einstein didn't take tachyons into account, but he was basically correct. It isn't possible - not in this universe, at least. Somehow a hole was punched through into an alternate universe with a different set of physical laws to our own. This sphere is the result. But the sphere isn't the only reason I called George. I entered the sphere to take readings...." He paused momentarily in response to the chorus of surprised shuffling from his audience, then continued, the picture of insoucience.
"...and once in there I found that while a person is inside, they are cut off from what I have come to call their "parent" reality. I also observed that the past and present, as I know it, has become altered. Changed. And my discovery was the principle element of that change."
Potter wiped his eyes and looked suddenly very tired. "To put the matter briefly, gentlemen - history has been altered in a very direct and disastrous way. And not by me. This sphere," he said, tapping the screen with his pipe, "transports whatever matter is within it to a place that I call at right angles to our three dimensions. Once there, it is possible, by adjusting the energy flow, to move the sphere's contents to any point in the past...."
"Hold it!" Bodie made a time-out signal. "Are you trying to say you've invented a time machine?" He looked at his partner. "Well, is he?" He looked back at the Professor, who shook his head, then changed his mind and nodded.
"In a way. It isn't a machine, exactly. I've created a field generator; the machinery doesn't go anywhere - it projects a field which is able to transport one to any time in the past."
Doyle and Bodie studied the Professor for a few moments, then switched their joint gaze to Cowley. A man with far less nous could have read their sceptical disbelief.
"Bear with us - neither Jimmy nor I have lost our minds. Go on, Jimmy, tell them the bad news."
Bodie muttered to Doyle from the corner of his mouth. "Why did I know there had to be bad news!"
"Yes, the bad news." Potter looked grim, staring at them over his half- specs and chewing on his bottom lip, as if noticing them for the first time. "We scientists are not necessarily stupid, you know. I saw it at once, the potential for distaster. I decided to destroy it, and my notes." He sighed heavily. "I was too late, one of my assistants had already used it. I tried to correct the mistake, to find him, but I couldn't. And when I came back," he gestured around the comfortable cluttered space, "everything was -- wrong."
"Wrong?" Doyle was experiencing a major goosebump reaction. "What does that mean...wrong?"
"The world. Everything. That young man altered history. And I do not speak of a minor alteration - his interference has caused a catastrophic transformation of the timestream."
Cowley studied their faces intently. "First things first. I want you to experience the thing yourself. It's the only way to convince those sceptical minds of yours that the both of us haven't gone completely daft!"
(1)
Bodie swirled the teaspoon around his cup, sat back and scowled. As often happened when he was unoccupied and bored, he sought a source of amusement. One such source sat across the desk from him, carefully turning the tiny screws of the loading spring of his .45 semi-automatic Remington. "Do you know," he finally asked, "what a fetish is?"
Doyle continued working. "Happens I do. What is it, word of the day?"
"I looked it up. It's an idol worshipped by heathens or something somebody fiddles with to the point of obnoxiousness."
"Obsession. You mean obsession. No such word as obnoxiousness."
Bodie took a swig of his tea and made a face. "There is, and you're it. This tea's cold. Your turn."
Doyle put the gun back together with practiced precision. "What am I, the butler? Make your own bloody tea." He slid the gun into the holster under his arm and looked across at Bodie.
Folding his arms across his not-unimpressive chest, Bodie looked disdainful. "You know, its ten years I've been partnered with you. I'm woefully underpaid, considering the load I bear."
Doyle was trying to come up with something better than a simple "get stuffed" when Cowley called for them. They crossed the office to his door, entered and closed it behind them. They sat in the two chairs opposite their boss and waited while he rearranged the files on his desk.
Time and pressure had marked George Cowley, turning his hair silver, carving their mark in the shadowed grooves of his face. The years had wizened him. But those blue eyes could still dissect with a glance, and the mind behind them was still as sharp, and as cunning. While it was so they knew he would continue, as would they.
Cowley opened a file, closed it again, tapped the desk with a pencil. Doyle straightened a little, became more alert. Anything that had his boss nervous was worth his attention. He expected the unusual and got it.
"What do either of you know about the fourth dimension?"
Doyle shrugged, lost, then turned to stare as Bodie answered.
"Time. At least I think its connected to time somehow." He noted his partners look and raised his eyebrows. "Readers Digest."
Doyle grinned. "Long stakeouts, eh?"
Cowley hushed them and they quietened. "As it happens, Bodie isn't far wrong. I'm about to ask you two to get involved in something very...unusual. More important than I can say, and I can't order you.
The two agents exchanged brief looks before Bodie answered. "Volunteers? Could be interesting. What's it about?"
Cowley sat back and rubbed a tired eye. "Two days ago I had a call from an old friend, Dr James Potter. We were at Edinburgh University together. He was always a bit scatterbrained, but clever, smart as a whip. So when he called I knew it would be interesting." He gave a brief snort of laughter. "Interesting...an old Chinese curse for the days we live in. It seems that Jimmy's experiments have made our days even more interesting." He shook his head abruptly. "No, we'll not discuss this any further here. Meet me at the Commerce Research Institute on Holland Road just off the Kensington High Street, at 1.30. I think Jimmy'd better explain it himself."
The old sandstone building crouched between a firestation and an even older pub and looked as scientific as its neighbours...and James Potter was equally misleading. His lab coat was blindingly white, and covered an expensive suit. Only his hair fit the picture; it was thining, with what remained frizzing out from his skull like escaping cushion stuffing. Steel- rimmed glasses perched on an outstanding nose, and he blinked over them and smiled uncertainly as he was introduced to Bodie and Doyle.
"It was good of you both to come. I suppose George told you..."
"I didn't tell them anything, Jimmy. I want you to do that. As you did for me - simply. Neither of them are scientifically minded." Cowley perched himself up on a stool, looking for all the world like an over-age school boy, and smiled benignly at his top operatives.
Potter pushed his glasses up his nose, took his pipe from his pocket and stared at it for a moment. He looked up and shook his head.
"Do either of you know anything about the unified field theorem?"
Bodie scratched his nose and nodded gravely. "The old UFT. Studied it for my doctorate."
"Ahem. Well, let me see....I'll avoid specifics, which aren't all that relevant anyhow. The end result is what counts, not the means. If you would like to take a seat, I'll make this brief."
He packed his pipe and lit it, taking a noisy puff. "It's remarkable, really, where these things come from. Discoveries, I mean. Sometimes a person can work all their life on a project and get nowhere. And sometimes the most amazing finds practically fall on one, out of the blue. I'm starting to believe the Universe is rather more open to random chance than science would have us believe."
He studied the two younger men for a few thoughtful moments. "So, something extraordinary has occurred, possibly the most momentous discovery since fire." He indicated a large video screen tucked inconscipously amoungst the clutter of his office. "It might be better if you saw the effect first. It will save a lot of words." He turned to a VCR on the workbench behind him and pressed the play button.
The screen flickered to life, showing an image of that same laboratory. The focus was on a set of apparatus in the middle of the room; a beam of light appeared from off screen and hit the centre of the equipment, which almost immediately became obscured by a creamy sphere of light that entirely surrounded it. Potter froze the picture and turned back to his audience.
"I was working on an idea of mine regarding energy conservation, involving the use of space-grown crystals, magnetic fields and lasers. The crystal I was using had some physical abnormalities - I didn't know how abnormal it was until this experiment. To cut a very technical explanation extremely short, I managed to create an energy field with properties previously unknown to human science. This..thing...which I have called a four dimensional sphere, seems to have been produced when the area within the containment system was, for the merest fraction of a second, accelerated beyond the speed of light."
"I thought Einstein said that wasn't possible," Bodie said, and Potter nodded.
"Einstein didn't take tachyons into account, but he was basically correct. It isn't possible - not in this universe, at least. Somehow a hole was punched through into an alternate universe with a different set of physical laws to our own. This sphere is the result. But the sphere isn't the only reason I called George. I entered the sphere to take readings...." He paused momentarily in response to the chorus of surprised shuffling from his audience, then continued, the picture of insoucience.
"...and once in there I found that while a person is inside, they are cut off from what I have come to call their "parent" reality. I also observed that the past and present, as I know it, has become altered. Changed. And my discovery was the principle element of that change."
Potter wiped his eyes and looked suddenly very tired. "To put the matter briefly, gentlemen - history has been altered in a very direct and disastrous way. And not by me. This sphere," he said, tapping the screen with his pipe, "transports whatever matter is within it to a place that I call at right angles to our three dimensions. Once there, it is possible, by adjusting the energy flow, to move the sphere's contents to any point in the past...."
"Hold it!" Bodie made a time-out signal. "Are you trying to say you've invented a time machine?" He looked at his partner. "Well, is he?" He looked back at the Professor, who shook his head, then changed his mind and nodded.
"In a way. It isn't a machine, exactly. I've created a field generator; the machinery doesn't go anywhere - it projects a field which is able to transport one to any time in the past."
Doyle and Bodie studied the Professor for a few moments, then switched their joint gaze to Cowley. A man with far less nous could have read their sceptical disbelief.
"Bear with us - neither Jimmy nor I have lost our minds. Go on, Jimmy, tell them the bad news."
Bodie muttered to Doyle from the corner of his mouth. "Why did I know there had to be bad news!"
"Yes, the bad news." Potter looked grim, staring at them over his half- specs and chewing on his bottom lip, as if noticing them for the first time. "We scientists are not necessarily stupid, you know. I saw it at once, the potential for distaster. I decided to destroy it, and my notes." He sighed heavily. "I was too late, one of my assistants had already used it. I tried to correct the mistake, to find him, but I couldn't. And when I came back," he gestured around the comfortable cluttered space, "everything was -- wrong."
"Wrong?" Doyle was experiencing a major goosebump reaction. "What does that mean...wrong?"
"The world. Everything. That young man altered history. And I do not speak of a minor alteration - his interference has caused a catastrophic transformation of the timestream."
Cowley studied their faces intently. "First things first. I want you to experience the thing yourself. It's the only way to convince those sceptical minds of yours that the both of us haven't gone completely daft!"