The Time Ships

“Genetic resequencing.”

“Genetic?” Nebogipfel explained further, and I got the general drift. “You’re talking of the mechanism by which heredity operates — by which characteristics are transmitted from generation to generation.”

“It is not impossible to generate simulacra of archaic forms by unraveling subsequent mutations.”

“So you think I am no more than a simulacrum — reconstructed like the fossil skeleton of some Megatherium in a museum? Yes?”

“There are precedents, though not of human forms of your vintage. Yes. It is possible.”

I felt insulted. “And to what purpose might I have been cobbled together in this way?” I resumed my pacing around the Cage. The most disconcerting aspect of that bleak place was its lack of walls, and my constant, primeval sense that my back was unguarded. I would rather have been hurled in some prison cell of my own era — primitive and squalid, no doubt, but enclosed. “I’ll not rise to any such bait. That’s a lot of nonsense. I designed and built a Time Machine, and traveled here on it; and let that be an end to it!”

“We will use your explanation as a working hypothesis,” Nebogipfel said. “Now, please describe to me the machine’s operating principles.”

I continued my pacing, caught in a dilemma. As soon as I had realized that Nebogipfel was articulate and intelligent, unlike those Morlocks of my previous acquaintance, I had expected some such interrogation; after all, if a Time Traveler from Ancient Egypt had turned up in nineteenth-century London I would have fought to be on the committee which examined him. But should I share the secret of my machine — my only advantage in this world — with these New Morlocks?

After some internal searching, I realized I had little choice. I had no doubt that the information could be forced out of me, if the Morlocks so desired. Besides, the Morlocks could not construct more Time Machines without the secret of manufacturing Plattnerite — which I could not divulge, for I was ignorant myself. And if I spoke to Nebogipfel, perhaps I could put the fellow off while I sought some advantage from my difficult situation. I still had no idea where the machine was being held, still less how I should reach it and have a prospect of returning home.

But also — and here is the honest truth — the thought of my savagery among the child-Morlocks on the earth still weighed on my mind! I had no desire that Nebogipfel should think of me — nor the phase of Humanity which I, perforce, represented — as brutish. Therefore, like a child eager to impress, I wanted to show Nebogipfel how clever I was, how mechanically and scientifically adept: how far above the apes men of my type had ascended.

Still, for the first time I felt emboldened to make some demands of my own.

“Very well,” I said to Nebogipfel. “But first…”

“Yes?”

“Look here,” I said, “the conditions under which you’re holding me are a little primitive, aren’t they? I’m not as young as I was, and I can’t do with this standing about all day. How about a chair? Is that so unreasonable a thing to ask for? And what about blankets to sleep under, if I must stay here?”

“Chair.” He had taken a second to reply, as if he was looking up the referent in some invisible dictionary.

I went on to other demands. I needed more fresh water, I said, and some equivalent of soap; and I asked — expecting to be refused — for a blade with which to shave my bristles.

For a time, Nebogipfel withdrew. When he returned he brought blankets and a chair; and after my next sleep period I found my two trays of provisions supplemented by a third, which bore more water.

The blankets were of some soft substance, too finely manufactured for me to detect any evidence of weaving. The chair — a simple upright thing — might have been of a light wood from its weight, but its red surface was smooth and seamless, and I could not scratch through its paint work with my fingernails, nor could I detect any evidence of joints, nails, screws or moldings; it seemed to have been extruded as a complete whole by some unknown process. As to my toilet, the extra water came without soap, and nor would it lather, but the liquid had a smooth feel to it, and I suspected it had been treated with some detergent. By some minor miracle, the water was delivered warm to the touch — and stayed that way, no matter how long I let the bowl stand.

I was brought no blade, though — I was not surprised!

When next Nebogipfel left me alone, I undressed myself by stages and washed away the perspiration of some days, as well as lingering traces of Morlock blood; I also took the opportunity of rinsing through my underwear and shirt.

So my life in the Cage of Light became a little more civilized. If you imagine the contents of a cheap hotel room dumped into the middle of the floor of some vast ballroom, you will have the picture of how I was living. When I pulled together the chair, trays and blankets I had something of a cozy nest, and I did not feel quite so exposed; I took to placing my jacket-pillow under the chair, and so sleeping with my head and shoulders under the protection of this little fastness. Most of the time I was able to dismiss the prospect of stars beneath my feet I told myself that the lights in the Floor were some elaborate illusion — but sometimes my imagination would betray me, and I would feel as if I were suspended over an infinite drop, with only this insubstantial Floor to save me.

All this was quite illogical, of course; but I am human, and must needs pander to the instinctive needs and fears of my nature!

Nebogipfel observed all this. I could not tell if his reaction was curiosity or confusion, or perhaps something more aloof — as I might have watched the antics of a bird in building a nest, perhaps.

And in these circumstances, the next few days wore away — I think four or five — as I strove to describe to Nebogipfel the workings of my Time Machine and as well seeking subtly to extract from him some details of this History in which I had landed myself.

I described the researches into physical optics which had led me to my insights into the possibility of time travel.

“It is becoming well known — or was, in my day — that the propagation of light has anomalous properties,” I said. “The speed of light in a vacuum is extremely high — it travels hundreds of thousands of miles each second — but it is finite. And, more important, as demonstrated most clearly by Michelson and Morley a few years before my departure, this speed is isotropic…”

I took some care to explain this rum business. The essence of it is that light, as it travels through space, does not behave like a material object, such as an express train.

Imagine a ray of light from some distant star overtaking the earth in, say, January, as our planet traverses its orbit around the sun. The speed of the earth in its orbit is some seventy thousand miles per hour. You would imagine — if you were to measure the speed of that passing ray of star-light as seen from the earth — that the result would be reduced by that seventy thousand-odd miles per hour.

Conversely, in July, the earth will be at the opposite side of its orbit: it will now be heading into the path of that faithful star-light beam. Measure the speed of the beam again, and you would expect to find the recorded speed increased by the earth’s velocity.

Well, if steam trains came to us from the stars, this would no doubt be the case. But Michelson and Morley proved that for star-light, this is not so. The speed of the star-light as measured from the earth — whether we are overtaking or heading into the beam — is exactly the same!

These observations had correlated with the sort of phenomenon I had noted about Plattnerite for some years previously — though I had not published the results of my experiments — and I had formulated an hypothesis.