Страница 54 из 86
Wells said, “I compare it to the disorientation one experiences when travelling in an exotic culture, but it’s far more pernicious.”
Raghavendra said to Burton, “Your history as an explorer has given you a degree of resilience—”
“Not enough,” he interrupted. “I don’t recall a damned thing about our return from the museum.”
“Whereas Mick,” she pressed on, “is only fifty-four years ahead of his native time period, so 2022 feels a little more familiar to him.”
Farren blew cigarette smoke out through his nostrils, obviously not in full agreement.
“On this occasion, poor Daniel bore the brunt,” Raghavendra said.
Trounce looked across to Gooch and muttered, “And I know exactly how you felt.”
Gooch compressed his lips, nodded at the detective inspector, and asked Raghavendra, “What makes Algernon more resilient, do you think?”
“He has a unique brain,” she responded. “He’s extremely odd.”
“Steady on!” the poet squealed. He jerked his leg, convulsed an elbow, and crossed his eyes.
“It’s apparent to us all,” Burton observed, “that his brain is arranged in a different ma
“Disarranged, I should say,” Trounce muttered.
“I say! Let’s settle with unique, shall we?”
Burton continued, “My fear is that, for the rest of us, the effects are liable to get worse and the recovery time—providing we can recover—considerably extended. On this occasion, it’s taken five days for us to properly regain our faculties. We’ve been safe enough, cooped up aboard this Concorde, hidden away in Bendyshe Bay—but what will we find at our next stop? What if the bay no longer belongs to the Ca
“The groundwork laid by your brother and Thomas Bendyshe back in the 1860s was pure genius,” Patricia Honesty said. “It’s endured all this time, and, with each successive generation, the Bendyshes have developed it and adjusted it to suit the period. I’m pretty certain the bay will stay in our hands, and if it doesn’t, the Ca
“Be that as it may, we need our wits about us, and we’ve come to the point where the doses of Saltzma
“Ha!” Swinburne cried out. “You’ve changed your tune.”
Sadhvi Raghavendra nodded her agreement.
“Nevertheless,” Burton said.
“We’re not even halfway through our voyage,” Trounce observed. “How are we to endure the rest?”
“Nine years away from the halfway mark,” Krishnamurthy added. “A hundred and eighty years until 2202, and I doubt our stay there will be brief.”
“Give me a bottle of the tincture,” Patricia Honesty interrupted. “I should have thought of this before. Chemistry has advanced. We’ll analyse it. Reproduce it. Or something similar.”
Her daughter gave a gesture of approval. “In the space of fifty-four years, we’ll probably create something considerably more effective and without any addictive qualities.”
“You’ll have twice as long,” Burton said. “I intend just one more stop before our target date. If Spring Heeled Jack has integrated himself with this Turing Fulcrum of yours, he has power over a considerable portion of the world. Let’s see what he makes of it by 2130. Will one of your number join us?”
“Not this time,” Patricia Honesty said. She handed him The History of the Future, volume three. “We haven’t the perso
A little over a century later, the chrononauts gathered by the ship’s hatch and welcomed a single Ca
“You’re the spitting image of your ancestor!” Burton exclaimed as he shook the man’s hand.
“Hallo!” Bendyshe said. “I’m a great deal of him, but explanations must wait until later. First, let’s replace your bracelets and transfer you to the new Orpheus.”
Though he didn’t appear to do anything to prompt it, the bands around the chrononauts’ wrists instantly snapped open and slid down to their knuckles. Bendyshe collected the bracelets and put them into a cloth bag. Setting this aside, he then took a small container of pills from his pocket and distributed them among the chrononauts, two each, a blue one and a yellow one. “Swallow. They’ll release AugMems, CellComps, BioProcs and other nanomechs into your bloodstream.”
From his visions of Edward Oxford, Burton vaguely comprehended these terms. He knew that AugMems were capable of overlaying a man’s perception of reality with an artifice. Oxford had used them in his suit’s helmet, so when he arrived in 1840 to observe the attempt on Queen Victoria’s life, it would initially resemble his own time. He’d pla
“Nanomechs,” he said, testing the word. Its meaning played at the peripheries of his mind; Oxford’s knowledge, not his own.
“Molecular-sized technology,” Bendyshe said, “blending biological and artificial components.”
“By Jove!” Trounce muttered in a sarcastic tone. “I’m glad you’ve cleared that up.”
“Are they safe?” Herbert Wells—now fully recovered—asked.
“Perfectly,” Bendyshe responded. “They’ll integrate without any ill effects. They’ll carry your false identities, in case the authorities check, and will also enhance your senses.”
“I’m in,” Mick Farren a
“Ah yes, the 1960s,” Bendyshe said. He laughed. “I’m afraid they’re not recreational pharmaceuticals, Mr. Farren.”
“No? Enhance in what way, then?”
“They’ll show you whatever the government wants you to see.”
Farren made a noise as if choking and stuck out his tongue, trying to regurgitate the pills. He spat an epithet that caused Sadhvi Raghavendra’s eyes to widen. “Now you bloody well tell me!”
“Mr. Farren, your misgivings are entirely justified,” Bendyshe said. “Fortunately, we Ca
“That,” Farren replied, “I like.”
“Providing we behave normally,” Swinburne echoed doubtfully.
“Algy has a point,” Burton said. “To us, what you might regard as normal becomes ever more abnormal the farther forward into history we travel. There is also the matter of our behaviour being affected by the environment. Will the AugMems cause us to perceive this future world as a copy of our own? Do they render Saltzma
“No, Sir Richard, there’s a very good reason why they can’t give you an illusion of 1860s London. You’ll understand why later. However, there’s a compound in the yellow pill that’ll act much like Saltzma
“Then Patricia Honesty was true to her word,” Burton noted.
“She was always the most reliable of us,” Farren murmured. A strange expression crossed his face. Burton sympathised. It was difficult to process the notion that people who were alive yesterday were now long gone.