Missing the Train
Posted on Mon Apr 18th, 2016 @ 10:31am by Lieutenant JG Ricki St. Louis
Edited on on Mon Apr 18th, 2016 @ 10:46am
Mission:
Brave New World
Location: Cow Pasture, England
Timeline: March 18th, 1896.
[ON]
Ricki St. Louis felt the disorientation of flashing through space and time. Having presence of mind enough to switch on all tricorder wands, she felt lost in the sense of timeless movement without movement. A single flowing band of light fluctuated up to and around the capsule. Either that, or the capsule was doing the same around it. At last, however, the seemingly interminable flight came to an end. The capsule settled in an early dawn pasture.
Ricki was startled by the sharp blast of a whistle, followed by a rumbling sound. Suddenly, a serially segmented vehicle shot by along what appeared to be guide rails.
Herbert looked pained, "Oh no..."
"What is that? Is it dangerous?"
"No, it's the morning train bound for London. I should have remembered!"
"A 'train'?"
"A cargo transport. Propulsion is provided by a tractor vehicle that utilizes steam pressure."
Ricki shook her head, trying to make sense of such a method.
Herbert pushed the capsule door open, "Please?" The two got out and watched the train snake into the distance. "We followed the trail of the stone back to this time, but I forgot that it didn't arrive in London until the day before I made my accidental jump into the future."
"The stone is currently aboard that vehicle?"
"Correct. My past self will be picking it up from the station at 9 am."
Ricki considered for a moment, "Do you remember meeting yourself?"
"No, I did not."
She sighed, "Which means we're not going to catch up with you before you make the jump tomorrow." She turned to look at the capsule, "We must lift off again."
"We cannot for another hour. The system must settle and stabilize."
"Then we leave in one hour. It doesn't look like-" She stopped. "What... are those?"
Herbert was a bit puzzled as he surveyed the pastures and scratched his head, "Cows. You've never seen them?"
She shook her head. "Are they dangerous?"
"Oh, not those. Rather lazy, actually. Just watch were you step around them."
Ricki nodded, "All right. Herbert, how do you actuate directional control over this thing?"
"Actually... I don't."
She gave in an irked look, "What? It just randomly appears? There must be some sort of spatial method. This planet revolves. It flies along with your sun through the galaxy. I'm no astrometric expert, but it's pretty obvious. If jump outside normal time and reappear later, you'd find yourself in empty space! The planet would have moved on. You departed normal space, so gravity would no longer be a factor."
He gestured up his index finger, "Well... technically, that would be true. But somehow, the capsule remains within the aura of Earth's mass."
"Aura..."
Herbert shrugged, shaking his head, "There must be... some sort of extra-dimensional affinity bound to planet."
"All right, mysterious hyper-gravity. Let's accept that imaginary. What about planetary rotation?"
"Ah. Now that is definitely an issue. I made passage to the year nineteen hundred and seventy nine... where I met my lovely wife. I started in England but arrived in America."
Ricki's eyes widened, "Herbert! This capsule has no environmental system! If you emerged over an ocean you'd sink!"
"Well..." He cleared his throat, "Technically, yes. But!"
"I'm beginning to suspect that you're insane."
"My wife says the same thing." He collected himself, "Land mass and sea mass are different. The landing point appears to favor greater mass."
Ricki considered perils of lava and winter ice. "Oh, that's comforting."
Curious mind piqued, Herbert went to the capsule. "Not having that stone available, nothing will attract us in the correct direction."
"Don't tell me that we're going back into the future and try again?"
"We can't. There's no path for us to follow. Even if we could, there is some sort of temporal displacement which prevents it. I intentionally ran an experiment whereby I would meet myself using repetitive jumps to the same point. It never worked out. Couldn't make it happen. I tried for weeks!" He chuckled, "Imagine that! Repeat that trick a dozen times over!"
"Herbert. Focus!"
"My wife says that, too." He momentarily opened a panel to check the fading glow. "I'm afraid I don't have an means for granular control of the time jump. I can get it within about one day, but that's it."
"Maybe I can help." Ricki opened her wristbook and drew one of her tricorder wands, "I can compute planetary rotation based on the change of solar location in the sky. A half hour measurement will give us precise data."
"What good will that do? We're too far north and have no directional reference."
"Yes we do. Herbert, I want to use the computer in my tricorder to give us more granular control of the time. We jump back one day."
He nodded with a shrug, "That should keep us in relatively constant position. But... what then?"
Ricki smiled, "That train will come through, will it not?"
His eyes lit up, "Of course! The train is carrying the stone. As soon as it draws near, we have a chance of it snagging us once again! We follow it to London. But... again, I've never been able to meet myself."
"Worst case scenario, we arrive at your original launch point after you departed for the future."
"And quite possibly after your Monday Starr arrived." He gave a satisfied nod, "We'll just have to catch up with her! But..."
"But what?"
He was reluctant to confess, "My wife will be returning mid-morning. If she finds Monday, then I think quickly figure things out and things will be all right."
Ricki shook a puzzled head, "You don't seem too happy about!"
"I... promised her that I'd dismantle the time capsule. It precipitated unmitigated disaster, and it's simply too dangerous for our day and age."
Ricki folded her arms, "And now you get to explain to your wife why you didn't do it?"
Herbert returned sheepish, pained nods.
[OFF]
Dr. Ricki St. Louis
Herbert Wells
Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet
