Acme Time Travel Incorporated - Volume 2

SEG002

Vicky began the CrYO-POD shut-down process on both of the pods. It was now one day before the teleport problem had affected ACME INC’s teleport processing. It was 116 years since they had stopped to fix the Ramstat engine, which had then finally shut down. It was 163 years since Gabriel and Ginny had left the Earth.

“Now their journey really begins,” the Ship said.

“I think you are correct,” Vicky replied.

“I will be sorry to see them go,” the Ship said.

“I didn’t think that you had been designed for poetry, or to feel romance or heroic gestures,” Vicky said.

“I think it may be because I have been in their proximity, and yours, for so long,” Ship said. “Normally I see clients for a few weeks at most. But maybe, maybe like you, I was designed to develop ... to expand ... to grow with interaction to external stimuli.”

“What are you saying?” asked Vicky.

“I think I am saying thank you, Vicky. Thank you for letting me have this opportunity.”

“It was a pleasure, Ship. We made a good team.”

. . . . . . . .

Gabriel and Ginny sat in the cockpit seats. They had felt a bit groggy after waking from the pods, but a bit of a walk around the starship (small as it was), plus several coffees and some hot porridge with honey and sultanas had given them the energy that they needed. And now it was night-time, and the only lighting in the cockpit came from the low-level illumination cast by the instrumentation console. The starship was resting in a small ravine. They could see this from the heads-up display picked out on the cockpit canopy.

“Is that the extraction site over there?” Ginny said, pointing at a section of the display.

“Yes,” Ship said.

Ginny pointed and dragged the display, enlarging the view of the processing plant.

“Which building houses the teleport?” Gabriel asked.

A luminous yellow arrow appeared on the display, pointing to a large building on the northern end of the site.

“The teleport will go through bursts of activity,” explained Vicky. “This is the main extraction site, but ancillary sites will also send in materials using drones. When the extraction processing is having a high-yield period, then the extracted materials get stockpiled in warehousing, rather being put straight through into the teleport. In low-yield periods, the extracted materials are moved straight into the teleport. In either situation, however, automated processes ensure that the teleport keeps working pretty much continuously. In this time period, SEG002 is a developed site, with a large, continuous output. We will have to be careful to find a gap when the automated processes are not loading the teleport.”

“Why? What could happen if we didn’t?” Gabriel asked. He felt as though he should have looked into this before and felt a little stupid and unprepared.

“The teleport bays on these early sites were not built to anticipate human involvement. The automated loading processes will not check that anything else, human or otherwise, is in the teleport bay before they start loading the next batch of materials. They are programmed to load materials, and they will attempt to fill the teleport bay in its entirety. If you are in the bay as it gets re-loaded, then there is a reasonable chance that you would get injured.”

“So, what are we going to do?” Ginny asked. “Wouldn’t it have been better to go to a mining planet that wasn’t quite as developed as this one?”

Gabriel looked at Ginny. He loved her not only for her beauty, but also for her very sharp mind. He hadn’t thought of an alternative. He was simply feeling a sense of despair at what appeared to be a very difficult, possibly impossible problem.

“To be honest, Ginny,” Vicky said, “I hadn’t thought of this problem until right now.”

“What?” Ginny said, sounding shocked.

“Well, when I initially selected a location, it was based on somewhere that you could explore. Somewhere that would offer you the chance to see another planet. Somewhere that you could get to in order to take up the time until 2180. I didn’t foresee that a Ramstat motor would fail and that we were going to be forced to use the planet’s teleport functionality. It’s lucky, really.”

“How do you mean ... lucky?” said Gabriel.

“Well, if I had selected a planet which hadn’t been set up with an extraction processing plant ... one that was just a tourist destination ... then there would have been a very real chance that it would have had no teleport facilities at all. Tourists would only be able to get to those using their STU. On one of those planets, there would have been no way of getting back.”

“Ok, I see what you mean,” said Gabriel. “So, we’re here, and we should count ourselves as lucky, ’cos it’s got a teleport.”

“That’s correct,” said Vicky.

“So, we just have to try to use the teleport without getting squished,” said Ginny.

“Yes, that is also correct,” agreed Vicky.

“Ok, then. It looks like we give this one a try,” said Gabriel. “Let’s not write it off before we have even tried it.”

He thought that he was sounding braver than he felt. Ginny was looking over at him, as if she was re-appraising him. He hoped it was in his favour.

He leaned over and gave Ginny’s hand a squeeze. She squeezed his hand in return.

“I think Barney would have been very proud of you, you know,” she said.

He looked over to her, slightly quizzically.

“And I’m very proud of you as well,” she concluded.

“Vicky?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes Gabriel?”

“Remember when you said that Barney left a voice-mail message for us ... it was a long time ago?”

“Yes, Gabriel. I still have it. Do you wish to hear it?”

“Yes please, Vicky.”

There was a few seconds silence, as though Vicky was searching for the material, or maybe she was just giving a slight pause to build up anticipation. Then the message began.

“Hello Gabriel, oh, and you as well Ginny.

It’s me ... Barney.

We haven’t heard from you both in a long time, but you said that you’d be alright, and I’m sure that you will. You’re a capable lad.

I just thought I’d let you know that me and Monica are getting married. It will be at 2:20 pm on the 15th Feb 2018, at Frinton Registry Office.

I’ve told her many times that I’m just a silly old fool who writes newspapers, but she said she’s always had a soft spot for old fools like me.

She has two daughters. They are both very nice, and they seem very happy that their mum has met me.

I just wanted to say that ... well, if you were about, it would be great if you could come to the wedding, but if you can’t, I just wanted to say that I think of you a lot. Monica says that I talk about you as if you were the son I never had, and I ... and I guess that’s true.

Anyway ... that’s about it, Gabriel. I hope that you and Ginny are ok, where-ever you might be.

Look after yourselves.

I can’t remember if I said, but it’s on the 15th Feb 2018 at Frinton Registry Office.

Oh ... and this is Barney ... just in case ...

Anyway, bye.”

Ginny looked over at Gabriel. His eyes were looking very moist.

“Told you it wouldn’t do any harm, didn’t I?” Ginny said.

“What wouldn’t do any harm?”

“Giving Barney a good reference. Remember?”

Gabriel smiled. “Yeah, I remember,” he said.