The Fire Crystal (11 page)

Amber had told him “Once in ancient times
, a ship had activated hyper drive too close to home.”

She went on to explain.
“In those days hyperdrive wasn’t safe to be around. No one was hurt, but the tidal wave that followed was enough to drown the island. When it had subsided and drained, there was just bare rock left, and a fault line almost right across the land.” It had almost split the island in two. She told him that it was over a foot wide in some places. The island was a visitor attraction now, and small children were told stories by their fathers, about the giant who lived in the canyon.

Calvan jumped back to the present
, and suddenly realized in spite all that was happening he was homesick, and hoped his parents were not too worried.

They left the vehicles
, and climbed some steps to a raised platform, where the leader of the elders was waiting for them to arrive. They stood in line for their medals, and shook his hand. What impressed Calvan was this man’s manner. He thanked every one of the mission crew, as if they alone were solely responsible for its success.

Once back at their base Calvan, Tom and Amber were able to kick back and relax. They played computer games together for a while. This was the best of all thought Calvan. He
’d seen nothing like this before.

The games took place in a large domed room. Once the main lights
were dimmed and the game started, they moved into another world - one of adventure, excitement, and make-believe danger. Everything seemed so realistic, and it had taken Calvan a couple of days to get used to this. Unlike the computer games he was familiar with these ones involved lots of running around. He’d switched the beam weapon so that it had an endless supply of ammunition, and the devices on his feet allowed him to hover and jump. In two days he’d managed to save a dozen worlds from any number of grotesque creatures, and was ready to drop with exhaustion. Still they kept coming.

“Can we start a new game?” he shouted across to Amber.

“Lets finish this one first” she answered. She was good, and could aim and fire two guns together, never missing the targets, no matter how fast they moved. He’d never seen her get shot, and knew that he was no match.

This was a
great vacation Calvan thought. They were spending a few days in the country. He was with Amber and Tom, and all three of them had been relaxing. They were leaning against some rocks on a riverbank. His eyes traced the winding path of the river, higher and higher, until it seemed to disappear into the mist. There in the far distance was a mountain.

Tom told him. “I climbed this mountain a few years ago. It’s where the river starts.”

Everything on this world was so clean and bright, and the colors seemed to shift gradually over a few days, as the twin stars waltzed around each other in their orbits. There was a lot of wilderness left to enjoy.

Even with no cloud cover there
was no glare in the middle of the day. Amber explained why. “It’s the radiation shield that you saw from space. It reflects harsh light back up. Long ago we started to engineer our own climate, because we were making too much heat. As we advanced we were able to step back from this, but kept the shield anyway because people find its effect pleasing.”

The vacation was over too soon and they were back in Star Base Eleven, Tom and Amber’s hometown, and one of the many spaceports dotted around the planet.

Amber had told them she had a surprise
, and taken them to a large square windowless building. As they walked its seemingly endless corridors, Calvan realized that each one ended with another locked door. Amber used her pass to open each door, and eventually they entered a large well room.

As they walked through the entrance Calvan was thinking out loud,
“There must be something special here.” Then he saw the machine. It was in the middle of the room - an almost featureless square box, big enough to accommodate them all.

“Climb aboard
,” Amber said.” “I promise you that once inside you’re in for a surprise.” They both climbed onto a platform, and followed her through an opening.

Once inside there was just a large smooth metallic cubicle. Then they saw that each wall was
really a full-sized screen. One of the walls had images of dials, sliders and buttons. Amber jabbed one of the buttons with a finger, and the other three walls just seemed to drop away. Tom and Calvan tensed, as if they were about to fall.

“Good trick Amber, but what is this?” Tom
asked.

“It’s a magicians disappearing box,” Calvan said, knowing that he didn’t have a clue
really.

“It's no trick, this is the real thing. Welcome to the first time machine” Amber replied.

“I never though it was possible,” Calvan said, not sure if this was an elaborate joke.

“It’s even got its own hyperdrive,” Amber told them.

She went on to tell the boys how it would travel not only forwards in time, but also backwards, and because of the hyperdrive it could also cross great distances.

“So
,” Calvan said, “it can travel in all four dimensions, and also take shortcuts.”

“Exactly Calvan
, I'm impressed.” she answered.

“So how does the time travel work?” he asked
.

I don’t fully understand it myself.
What I can tell you though is this. It’s like a computer-display with a difference. You can step through the images, and you really are there, in the place that you can see.”

Calvan thought about this and said. “So
, what happens if you meet yourself in the past. For example you could meet yourself and arrange for the other ‘you’ to step into a crack in the ground, and disappear.”

Tom thought about this and said with a frown. “Then you wouldn’t be here to travel back, and so you wouldn’t arrange the ‘accident’ it in the first place.”

“Well done both of you,” Amber replied. “Now you both can see why this thing is so secret. We simply
don’t know
what would happen, and there’s no intention to find out.”

“So why build it in the first place?”
Calvan asked.

“We had to” she answered. “Once we knew this could be built, then we had to have one. Who knows what we may face in the future. What if we meet
alien races, even more aggressive than the Zaarks? They may already have these machines, and if they used them against us it would be game over.”

“They could go back to a time when we were primates living in trees.” Tom suggested. “Then they could make a few adjustments. Instead of all this, we might still be walking around grazing our knuckles on the rough ground.” Both boys laughed, but they got the point.

Amber said, “but now for something a bit lighter. I’ve got special permission from the Elders to test this machine, and we have the ideal mission. As you helped us so much Calvan, we’ll return you home in this. It will save you a lot of explaining, because we’ve been gone from Earth almost two months already.”

“How about if I meet myself?” asked Calvan looking worried.

“You can’t that’s why the mission will be safe. I’ll set the time for the next week after we left Earth, so no one will wonder where you’ve been.

She turned to face Tom, “You can come along for the trip, but keep all this a secret.”

“And you don’t miss out on any of your education,” Tom added trying to get the last word in as usual.

“Thanks Amber, I would be honored if I was your first passenger!” He turned to Tom with a smile, “Well done for working that one out Tom.” They all laughed together.

Five days passed. Calvan knew
that these were special times for him. They were back at the big building again, and inside the time machine. He was feeling sick, and admitted to himself that he was scared, but had no intention of showing his fear, either to Tom, or definitely not to Amber.

Amber raised her hand and asked for quiet, then swiped some sliders on the control panel. Numbers shifted, dials spun around
, and charts rearranged themselves in new positions. She announced, “lets go to Earth.”

She made one more adjustment, and told them to get ready. The boys braced themselves. Three of the walls just fell away, but instead of just a seeing a haze again, this time the images shifted and then seemed to freeze.

“It just needs a small adjustment,” Amber told them, and swiped the panel again.

They peered into the changing view, looking for something to focus on; both of them were feeling sick now. Finall
y things were coming into focus, and there was a view of rock.  Even when spread around all three corners of the walls it seemed familiar.

“Welcome back,” Amber said, and then explained as if it were obvious, “We’re on to Earth! It’s the inside of the cave
- in the cliff face.”

What had they expected, smoke, mirrors
, and explosions, a fanfare of trumpets? It was too easy, Calvan thought. They had traveled halfway across the galaxy, and gone back in time a couple of months.

Amber scanned
the area, and then announced, “There are a few traces of sulfur in the air, but its safe. We can all step out.”

They walked down the slope to the rock, and Tom began to roll it back. “Wait,” Amber said. “Lets check what’s out there.
” Something a bit strange and unexpected had happened on the trip, although Amber had not mentioned it to the boys. It was as if there were more twists in the wormhole that the computer expected

She decided to explain her caution. “That was some jump. There were massive gravity ripples - even stronger than I expected. Do you remember the pause after we started off? Well that was our navigation computer
, making billions of course corrections.”

Calvan said, “great to know Amber, but it’s back to college for me soon enough, can we just see the beach please? It’s been a long time”

Amber thought for a moment. Calvan was impatient, who wouldn’t be? “OK lets move the rock.”

Tom tugged one side of it, so that a bright sliver of light appeared. “Welcome home,” he announced with a wave. Calvan peered out slowly
then gasped, and jumped back struggling to speak. They both stared at him, and then took a look out for themselves.

Turning around to Amber Tom announced. “Maybe this is the right place, but I think we need to climb back on board that contraption
, and check the calendar. Things look just a bit different to last time we were here!”

They returned to the machine, and Amber produced a small camera. Going back into the cave, she had placed it in the gap, so that they could all get a better view of what was out there. Tom then rolled the rock back, so that it stopped the outside fumes from entering the cave. All three of them sat on the cave floor, and Amber projected the image from the camera onto the rock wall. There was no sea, just a great gray plain where it had been.

Calv
an remembered something from his childhood; his father had bought him a big picture book about dinosaurs, and it showed the great creatures walking among erupting volcanoes that belched great clouds of smoke into a yellow tinted sky. What little vegetation there was seemed to be squat and hardy, and only grew in the shadowy rims of craters. This was the scene, but without the dinosaurs.

“If you think it’s hot in here, believe me you wouldn’t want a stroll in the great outdoors. It’s over 5
0 C out there,” Amber announced.

“What does that mean?” Tom asked.

“It means keep the door closed, and stay home today,” Amber replied. “It’s time to climb back on board again.”

Amber punch
ed figures into her pocket computer as they sat around with nothing to do, but at least it was comfortable back here in the machine. Finally she’d finished, and put the computer back into a pocket. Her face was serious. “Stop talking both of you.” She turned to Calvan and held both of his hands in hers. “I’m afraid I have something to tell you,” she said. Her face was solemn, and there was something about her manner. Both of them knew that there was going to be some bad news.

“What’s wrong?” Calvan asked
. Surely you just have to make a few adjustments, and get us out of here - back into the future.”

Amber’s deep blue eyes stared straight into his now. “That’s just it,” she said. “We aren’t in the past. This is
the future, or at least the future of Earth.”

Calvan’s mind was working overtime
, and he had a look of shock. Amber had explained that they were at least ten thousand years into the future, and that what they had seen outside was a runaway effect of climate change.

“This is really just the start, one day it will probably be like your closest neighbor,
Venus,” she told him.

Calvan understood what this meant, and knew that the surface of Venus was so hot that it could melt metal, and that the atmosphere was so thick
, and corrosive that if it didn’t crush anything flat, then it would dissolve it with acid.

“How could this have happened?” he asked, almost pleading for an explanation.