Chapter 16 – Fruitless Efforts

"She's not here," Emmy said simply. "There's no sign of anyone in that flat."

"So, what do we do now?" Luke asked. "Do we wait for her to return, or do we go back home and wait for news on the machine?"

"I say we go back," Hershel replied. "There's no sense in standing around all day. Besides, she may have moved her position in case we go out looking for her. We really shouldn't rule out that possibility. And anyway, I'm sure she'll want to make her presence obvious when the machine is working. I say we head back and wait for our older selves and Dimitri."

"I agree," Emmy said. "Let's head back."

"Yeah," Luke said glumly. "There's no sign of us making sense of any of this yet."

Emmy noticed his downcast expression and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Here now, don't be such a misery-guts. I'm sure my Hershel will sort everything out soon. And besides, if we're heading home, then our route will take us past a certain ice cream parlour that one of us is so fond of."

Luke looked up and smiled. "I agree. Let's head for home."

"So, what now, Professor? No one appears to have seen anything of Andrea."

"Well, Flora, we may not have a clue as to her whereabouts yet, but we still have a time machine to fix. What with having the assistance of Markus and my older self, I'm sure Dimitri is making steady progress. I say we head over and see how they're doing."

"I guess so," Flora agreed, taking the professor's arm. They walked back down the park road towards Celeste's house. "Professor... I was wondering..."

"Yes, my dear?"

"Is Emmy okay? Because whenever I see her on her own, she always looks so down. She seems so stressed."

"Well, I'm sure that is because of the current situation and the baby too. But I'm sure when all of this time machine business is over, Emmy will be absolutely fine. I assure you."

"Well... I don't know, Professor. I have a feeling that it's something more than that. You see, I've noticed that her older self is always looking at her, as if she's worried about her. And she should know better than anyone if Emmy is going through a rough time, so maybe there is something else wrong..."

"Well..." the professor sighed. "Emmy is... still experiencing terrible nightmares about last year's ordeal, with the Grounds of Rebirth and her father..."

"Yeah..."

They arrived at Celeste's house and knocked on the door. Celeste answered, looking very stressed.

"Hello, Hershel, Flora. Please, come in." She stepped aside and let them in. They stepped inside. The professor turned to Celeste.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Celeste sighed heavily. "That bloody machine is doing my head in. Stopping and starting and stopping again... and Dimitri kicking the living daylights out of it... and he won't let your older self or Markus anywhere near it and he keeps snapping at poor little Alfendi..." she sighed again. "Honestly, if that's the way he works in a lab, then I don't know how my Claire ever put up with him."

The professor smiled. "May we go up and have a look?"

"If Dimitri will let you anywhere near it," Celeste replied, pointing down the hall to a ladder leading up to the attic. "Good luck with that, Hershel."

"Right you are." The professor and Flora headed down the hall and climbed carefully up the ladder. As soon as his head was visible in the attic, he heard cursing of an unbelievable scale, the kind of language which he would rather not have let his adopted daughter or future son hear.

"YOU STUPID GOD DAMN PIECE OF SHIT!" Dimitri yelled. "WORK, DAMN YOU! WORK!" he kicked it with all the force he could muster, then grabbed his foot, cursing even more. The professor cleared his throat and everyone looked over at him.

"Hello, Hershel, Flora," Emmeline said cheerfully. "Have a bean-bag." She patted the one next to her.

Flora hurried over and sat down beside her. The professor turned to Dimitri and looked at the machine.

"What appears to be the problem, my good man?" he asked calmly.

"I'm trying to get it into rotation, but it's no good," Dimitri panted, frustrated. "I've tried everything I can think of, but nothing still."

"Well, you have been at it for hours, Dr. Allen," Emmeline pointed out. "Why not take a break and let Markus have a try?"

"Because all he and his team of researchers in Sweden could come up with is a bunch of theorems on a bit of paper and nothing concrete," Dimitri snarled.

"That's better progress than you ever made. From what I heard, all you managed to come up with was a fake town and ten tonnes of scrap metal," Markus retorted.

"For your information, we built a partially functional time machine," Dimitri boasted.

"Which blew up and had molecular stability problems, therefore resulting in my sister's death," Markus droned. "A resounding success I'm sure. I bet Claire was very proud."

"Honestly, you two, will you please stop bickering?" an irritated voice came from behind them. They turned around to see Celeste standing there with an annoyed expression on her face. "Dimitri, Emmeline is right. You sit down and have a cup of tea while Markus takes over." She beckoned for Dimitri to sit down and she poured him a cup of tea. "And Markus?"

He looked up. "Yes, mother?"

"Grow up."

Dimitri snorted halfway through a mouthful of tea while Markus looked disgusted. "Yes, mother." He turned to the machine and looked carefully. The professor joined him.

"So, what exactly does this machine have to do?" he asked.

"We need to get it into rotation, though I really don't know how this is going to get us to time travel at any rate," Markus sighed.

"That's because you're stupid," Dimitri retorted.

"Well, what is it, then?" Markus rounded on him.

"Oh, boy," Emmeline sighed.

"It's obvious!" Dimitri shouted. "We need to get those arms to rotate in order to create curvature in space-time. And the only way that will happen is if we can get it to rotate at a fast enough speed, which is clearly impossible for someone like you."

"What, because you can't do it? And that automatically means that no one else in the entire existence of the world can do it?" Markus snarled.

"Gentlemen, please!" the professor interrupted. "If we can get a look at the power source then we'll have a better idea of how the power is connected to the arms. Take a look. You see how the buttons and the screen here are all lit up? That means that power is running through the entire machine except for the arms, so if I were to guess, I would say that the connection between the arms and the power source has been cut off somewhere."

"And all we have to do is reconnect it!" Markus exclaimed. "Someone pass me a Philips screwdriver; I need to get the back off this and check that it's wired up properly."

Dimitri abandoned his tea and leaped up to help. He picked up the screwdriver and handed it to Markus. "You open it up and I'll hold the torch and we'll get a better look at this wiring."

They both crowded around the machine as it was opened up. Markus cursed under his breath. Bronev, who had been asleep in the corner the entire time, woke with a start.

"What is it?" Bronev asked, rubbing his eyes. "How long have I been asleep?"

"The entire time we've been here," Emmeline replied, smiling.

"Have you figured out what's wrong with the thing yet?" he asked sleepily.

"No. We got power flowing into it, after I plugged it in, and now there's a break in the connection somewhere."

"And the connection is probably longer than a football pitch," Markus said, sighing heavily. He and Dimitri stood back to reveal the back of the machine, full of cables. Everyone sighed in unison.

"Granted, this may take some time to fix," Markus said.

"Wait... could you not have merely asked my future self what the problem was?" the professor asked.

Everyone turned to Layton, who was playing chess against Alfendi. He sat back and smiled.

"Check mate."