Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

In space, on route to SEG002

Gabriel was laid back on his cot. He was reading a printed copy of the Journal of Intergalactic Mining / Transhipment, SEG’s inhouse magazine. It was a compilation of articles written by SEG senior management and technical staff. It effectively comprised a view of SEG’s activities across all the years of its operation. It included accounts of other companies operating in the transhipment area, including ACME INC. SEG published it periodically. This one wasn’t the most recent version, but Vicky had said that it was a rather lovely artefact. It was one of the special versions, where a bit more effort had been spent on the production. It had a very soft leathery cover, and the pages looked like some old manuscript. It made a sort of crackly noise when you turned the pages. Just holding the book and turning the pages seemed a pleasurable thing to do.

“Some of the stuff in this journal,” Gabriel said, “it sounds a bit ... I dunno ... maybe a bit biased.”

“I don’t think the submissions were moderated,” Vicky said. “Also, you might notice that some of the submissions are highly critical of the work of other contributors. It gives the journal a ...”

“Well, it makes for an interesting read,” said Gabriel. “Even if bits of it is like reading a gossip column.”

“I suppose,” said Vicky, “it’s because the people who contributed to it were interested ... maybe fascinated even ... by the industry they worked in. They could see the changes that technological progress brought. That’s probably why people saw fit to document Sofia Carvallo’s progress, writing it up in the journal. She worked for ACME INC. She didn’t work for SEG. She never did. But people in the industry could see that big changes were coming.”

“God ... when she discovered time travel ... to have been there then ... can you imagine it?” said Gabriel.

“She didn’t really see its use, you know,” said Vicky. “She reported the finding back to the management board. Almost an incidental piece of information, embedded in a progress report. Can you imagine what it would have been like to see something like that. Somebody who works for you has just made a monumental discovery. And they’ve just brought it to you, to use as you see fit.”

“She became known as the ‘Mother of Time Travel’, didn’t she?” said Gabriel.

“And rightly so,” said Vicky, “although she later said that it wasn’t so much a discovery as an observation. She was just investigating WORM-LYNK transhipment anomalies, as she described it. She was a very humble woman. Her team loved her.”

“You sound fond of her, yourself,” Gabriel said. “Anyway, how’s Ginny getting on?”

“She’s doing pretty well,” Vicky replied. Since we’ve got a bit of time ...”

“163 years, or thereabouts,” Gabriel quipped.

“Are you still planning to take a slow journey to SEG002 ?” asked Vicky.

“Yeah, I think so,” said Gabriel. “I know we could get there in a few days at full thrust, but we might as well use up some of the time we need to lose. If we take eighty years to get there, then we’ll have used up half of the time we need to lose.”

Vicky said nothing.

“I guess a slow flight means that the Ramstat engines will be barely ticking over,” said Gabriel.

“That would certainly be the case,” agreed Vicky.

“Plus, this slow journey is giving Ginny the chance to learn to fly the starship,” Gabriel said.

“And she is really enjoying it,” Vicky said. “I’ve found her a cluster of meteorites that she can practice flying around. She seems to be doing fine, don’t you think?”

Gabriel tried to feel if the starship was making any frantic movements, but as Vicky had explained, the ship protected its inhabitants from any sudden movements. If it didn’t, the tremendous acceleration that such ships were capable of would leave the crew flattened against the bulkhead walls.

“When you say she’s doing fine, by that do you mean that we haven’t hit anything yet?”

“In reality, the Ship wouldn’t let her get too close to anything,” Vicky said. “The client safety features are there to prevent accidents and mishaps, but she hasn’t triggered any avoidance manoeuvres yet. That’s what I mean when I say that she’s doing well. She’s flying close, but not dangerously close. Why don’t you take a look?”

Gabriel pushed himself off his cot and walked through into the cockpit. Ginny was sitting in one of the two seats. She had requested the deployment of the manual controls, which now extruded from the control panel. She was staring out into what looked to Gabriel like a large mass of huge rocks that appeared to be flying directly towards them.

“Shit, Ginny,” Gabriel said, with real terror in his voice.

“Stay calm, boyfriend,” Ginny said. “I’ve got this.”

As Gabriel watched, their tiny spaceship seemed to drift and curl away from the huge rocks. It was as though some sort of magnetic force was keeping them away ... but not by much. She had turned the cockpit transparent, and as Ginny pulled their craft around the meteorites, Gabriel could see the rocks grazing past maybe twenty feet below their hull.

“Aren’t we just a bit too close?” Gabriel said. There was a distinct tremor in his voice.

“I’ve not even hit one once,” Ginny said, laughing.

Gabriel sat down in the other cockpit seat and tried to feel calm. As Vicky had explained, ACME INC built their gear with client safety in mind. It was probably impossible for Ginny to actually collide with one of these huge rocks, and yet ...”

And then they were past them. In front of them was empty space. Gabriel realised that his body was rigid with anxiety. He made a conscious effort to relax back into the seat.

“So, are you proud of your little ittsy bittsy girly?” Ginny said.

Gabriel tried to think of a suitable response. Yes, he was very proud of her, even though she had possibly given him one of the most frightening experiences of his entire life.

And then the phone rang.

“What’s that noise?” Gabriel said. It sounded like the noise his mobile phone made when somebody rang him.

“It’s a call from Barney,” Vicky explained.

“But how ...?”

“I took the liberty of setting up a worm-lynk to Barney’s phone,” Vicky explained. “I thought he might try to call you.”

“But we’re in space.”

“That’s precisely the conditions that worm-lynk was built for ... instant communications across vast distances.”

The ringing stopped.

Gabriel looked at Ginny. “Should we ring him back do you think, Ginny?” he said.

“He’s probably worried,” she said. “It might be a kindness to call him.”

“Can we do that, Vicky?” Gabriel asked.

“I’ll put your call through now, sir,” Vicky said, chuckling.