The Sphere: A Journey In Time Read online

  Noah gave me a sympathetic look. We both knew it was pointless to think such things. Going back again would absolutely be out of the question. Scouts were the only people allowed to cross visits, and that was only because they were so good at hiding from the rest of us. For some reason they thought that stumbling upon another version of yourself would be disastrous.

  I always thought this was a rather silly rule though. If I ran into another version of myself or a colleague, I would understand what was going on. I wouldn’t even think it shocking to find a stranger who appeared to be out of time. I actually found it rather hard to believe that there were not already other people out there traveling through time. If we had the technology, then what was keeping the European Coalition from finding it as well? If there were other travelers, I had to believe they had rules like ours. Maybe our lab just didn’t want other countries to know we had the same technology. It all seemed rather sophomoric to me; the idea that everyone thought they were the only ones with this big secret, when in actuality, everyone had the same one.

  However, in the opposite extreme, if we were the only ones who had the ability to travel through time, then that was definitely something we needed to guard. We were strictly forbidden from making any changes that would seriously alter the course of history. It was hard to not fantasize about killing Hitler and saving the lives of millions of people and preventing a world wide war. I understood the reasoning behind it, but what’s to say another country would agree with that assessment of non-interference?

  I thought back again to my journal entries of Byron and realized that the strangeness I felt from him could actually have been a sense of misplacement. "Have you ever suspected someone in the past of actually being from the future?" I asked Noah.

  He cocked his head at me and raised an eyebrow. "Where did this come from?"

  "I was just thinking about some of the rules. About not going back and interfering with your previous timeline and thinking that at some point in the future, I have to imagine more countries will have this technology and would be sending their own people back."

  He mused about the idea for a moment. "Can’t say I ever had that suspicion. Have you?"

  I looked down at the wine as I swirled it. It was mostly for dramatic effect, not hesitation. There was nothing I wouldn’t tell Noah. "I think maybe on this mission."

  "Did you tell them?" he involuntarily smiled at the idea of me committing a potentially seditious act, even unintentionally. Although Noah enjoyed this life as a librarian, he also found these stretches of real life boring. That was why he developed his hobby of experimental cuisine, to break up the monotony of his time in normal time. Any bit of scandal was exceedingly intriguing to him.

  "I'd completely forgotten about him by the time I got back,” I said. “It wasn’t until I reread through my journal that the memory was triggered. Guess they're finding out now." Without realizing it I looked around, as though expecting to see a microphone somewhere. Someone, no doubt, was listening. Someone was always listening in this place, that was no secret. I couldn’t fault them for that. We were dealing with such an explosive technology that they were very serious about guarding our secret. It took an enormous amount of trust on their part just to let us go on a mission in the first place. I figured I might as well expand on it for their benefit. "It was an acquaintance of William's. Actually, it was someone on the list."

  "Your scout's list of men of interest?"

  "Yep. He came around to the house a couple of times. He seemed different somehow. I don't really have any proof that he wasn't who he said he was. It was just...a feeling. Like he knew more than he was letting on about my being there. Some things he said seemed out of place." I thought back again to my survey this morning of the entries mentioning him. Perhaps his implied suspicions about me were rooted in his own history.

  "Maybe he was from another lab, just like ours and on a similar mission," Noah said.

  "If so he's very good at it. The two of them were quite chummy when he was around." I frowned at the idea and felt a bit jealous. Though William had liked me well enough there was a definite distance forced by my relative station. Mary had frequently warned me I was too familiar with him, and it was not just her paranoid jealousy speaking.

  "You succeeded well enough. We're subject to the rules of the time. It's not like you could've joined his theatre troupe or anything. Any man would have had an advantage over you."

  “Ah, wouldn’t that have been sweet though,” I mused. “Performing in a Shakespeare play with him at the helm!” Noah was right, of course, and I felt a little guilty that my obsession with all things Shakespeare was what got me that mission. A man surely would have had an easier time of it. Then again it was also said that if you wanted to know what was going on in a house, work in the kitchen. Mary had certainly known all the dirt on the household and was more than willing to share any gossip.

  My mind kept returning to Byron. I suddenly had an overwhelming desire to return and question the man further. Again, a useless thought. I sighed in frustration and said "Well, he doesn't matter. He wasn't the subject of my mission and there's not much in my journal on him." I laughed once without humor. "We need their surveillance systems." I glanced around the grass again.

  Noah caught the reference immediately. "They really need to fix that." It irritated him immensely that nothing electronic could be sent through time with us. It was not such a problem for recent trips when we could simply purchase the surveillance products we needed. Though as I had just demonstrated by my lack of memory, there were so many details we missed that could prove essential later on.

  "Well, enough of that,” I said, with a dismissive wave of my hand. “ What are you working on?"

  "Salem."

  "Ooh, a witch hunt?"

  He smirked. "Something like that. My scout has nailed down an event that nobody can explain by mere visual examination. A witch survives a burning."

  "Really. What happens?" I asked. I was enjoying the wine much more with the risotto, and scarfed down a few more bites of my meal as Noah talked.

  "She gets tied to a pole with a bunch of hay and wood piled at the bottom. When they set the hay on fire, she screams for a few minutes as the flames start to engulf her, then she simply jumps off the wood pile and runs away. The crowd is too stunned to do anything. We're pretty sure the fire burns through her binding, but the flames are up to her chest at that point. So, how would she do it?"

  "Who are you supposed to be?" I leaned back into the grass on my hands to listen, full from the meal.

  "A doctor," he made a quote motion with his fingers, "and sympathizer for the dark arts. I get to befriend her, then be hiding in the woods where she runs to. Try to get to some meetings, see what sorts of rituals they do. It's more a research trip than anything else. They have a low expectation that I'll actually be able to get her to tell me how she does it."

  "They'll be distrustful of a man. Why are you being sent on this one?"

  He puffed his chest up and grinned. "I'm the best fake doctor we've got around here.”

  We were discouraged from talking about our pasts, but I knew that before Noah was recruited here he was a medical consultant for the government. He made it about halfway through his residency before getting too bored to finish. I couldn’t imagine being a medical consultant was that exciting either, but the hours would’ve made it easier for him to pursue interests outside of work.

  “Not that it’ll be that hard,” he said. “They had very little in the way of modern medicine in that time period. Most likely I’ll just treat a few wounds that have a good chance of becoming infected and pass out a bunch of meaningless herbal remedies to people with various ailments." He smiled conspiratorially at me. “They’ll probably think I’m a witch myself. Done?"

  "Yes. It was delightful." I sat back up and picked a soft but fibrous yellow square out of my bowl of unfinished risotto with my fork. "What are these?"

  "Monty just created them. He
's calling them montbeats,” he said with a small flourish of his hand. “He showed it to me when I was wandering around in the gardens the other day and asked me to give it a try. What do you think?"

  Though I was plenty full, I plucked the montbeat off my fork and chewed slowly to give it a more thorough exam. I never went to the gardens. Noah found them fascinating, but I found them to be dull. It was probably an extension of his medical background to be curious about herbs. "A bit chewy."

  "Sorry about that. I should've tried a few methods of cooking before throwing them into something."

  "It's okay. I didn't notice it until I had one on its own.” Being now well satiated I stretched out my legs and leaned back again and sighed. The gloom had started to dissipate and the sky, though still cloudy was getting lighter. “Well, I should probably get back to work."

  He groaned slightly. "Same here. I need to get my trunk list in to the prep team today."

  "What are you planning on taking other than the basics?" We were allowed one small trunk or appropriate container for the time period on each mission. Almost every librarian left with a journal, money, a toothbrush, and an adequate supply of toothpaste for the intended length of our mission. Most toiletries we could do without, but we all hated not being able to brush our teeth. That reminded me, I was probably due for a cleaning.

  "My scout applied to an apprenticeship with the main doctor in the town on my behalf. I'll need to look like I've traveled from afar, so they've also reproduced a fair amount of money for me to buy a real trunk and clothes and whatnot. Unfortunately this is far enough back in time there isn’t really any medical equipment I can take with me. They didn’t even have stethoscopes back then." Noah had a collection of ancient medical equipment from his missions hanging on one of the walls in the dining room. It added to the unsettled feeling I experienced when in his quarters. “Well, come on then,” he said as he rose from the grass.

  We carried our dishes and the empty bottle back to his place. I helped him get them into the cleaner and waited as he wrapped the leftovers up. He walked me back to the door and we hugged again. “I’m off in a few days and I guess you’re swamped with your work for the next few,” he said.

  “Yeah, this journal rewriting is going to be a pain. It’s fun, but trying to get the grammar right is rough.”

  He nodded. “Well, maybe we can do a quick lunch again before I leave.”

  “Maybe,” I said, as I turned away to walk back across the courtyard to my quarters. "Good luck with the witches!”

  Chapter 6

  I finished rewriting my journal the afternoon before I was to leave for my vacation. I had forced myself to take my time going over it, checking on the style before handing the first draft off to the planters. They had only minor edits for me to make on that last day. I was excited about getting out of the laboratory complex for a while, but slept more soundly than I would have the night before a mission.

  Shortly after lunch I walked to the entrance of the complex. Jim was there waiting for me. The door in front of us slid open and we entered the vestibule that separated us from the outside world. I heard the hiss of an air handling system as the door closed again and we waited in silence for the scan to confirm our identities. I had only been through here once before, about five years ago when I was hired. At the time I was uncertain what I was getting myself into and the vestibule unnerved me. Connery’s voice confirmed our identities and permission to depart. The door opposite the one we had entered slid open and we stepped out to find a car waiting for us. We both got in and it automatically set off.

  We moved fast enough that most of the scenery was a blur. Jim remained silent, and I took my cue from him. About ten minutes into the ride, the view on the left side opened up to ocean and we began to slow. The car stopped on a sandy peninsula and the two of us got out. A small seaplane was tethered to a short dock at the end of the road where we stopped. I followed Jim down the dock towards the plane and a man I assumed was the pilot. He nodded hello and opened the door for me. I turned back to Jim and said, “Well, I’m off then.”

  “I assume you’ll be a proficient sailor by the time your two weeks are over.”

  “How could you expect any less from me?” I smiled condescendingly at him.

  “I’ll be here to meet you in two weeks. The island residents will know how to get in touch with me if there’s an emergency. And I mean emergency. If you get bored, build a raft or something, but you’re not coming back for two weeks.” He waited for a confirmation. I rolled my eyes and nodded and he turned back to the car.

  I boarded the tiny plane with just a small bag of some personal effects. I had been assured that there would be ample clothing, food, and other necessities available when I got to the island. Since I was the only passenger on the plane I opted for the copilot seat for a better view. “Hey,” I said into the headset.

  The pilot turned his head slightly and smiled. “Welcome aboard. Hope you’re not prone to being airsick.”

  “Never been on one of these small planes, but I have a pretty good stomach. How long’s the flight?”

  “About 2 hours.”

  I nodded and looked out the front window as we took off. For a long while there was nothing to see but ocean. Then a dark spot appeared on the horizon. The pilot pointed to it, and informed me that was where we were going. I watched as it slowly grew into a mass of land. The plane splashed down not far from a long dock that led to a beach. There was a large sailboat docked halfway down. Beyond the palm trees lining the beach I could see the tops of a few thatched roofs.

  The pilot left the engine running as I jumped out onto the dock and shut the door. He immediately turned to taxi away. I lingered at the end of the dock for a minute to watch him take off again. I had never been in a plane capable of landing on water before and was interested in watching as the pontoons cut through the water. The plane headed out of sight and I turned back towards the island. I took in the sailboat as I walked down the dock. It looked like it could hold a dozen people. I had been hoping to learn in something a bit smaller and more manageable. But it was a lovely boat. The hull was hard wood and it had a sturdy yet rustic feel about it.

  I could see a man standing under a palm tree on the beach. I hitched my backpack higher on my shoulder and headed to meet him. The man standing there was barefoot, in a loose pair of shorts, wide brimmed hat and sunglasses. He had the physique and coloring of someone who spent most of his thirty something years outside engrossed in physical activity. "She's a beauty, ain't she?"

  I stopped short at the end of the dock. "Pardon?"

  He stepped out from under the palm tree and gestured back at the sailboat. "The sailboat. Her name's 'Time Passes Slowly'."

  I snorted slightly but kept the thought of appropriateness to myself. As I stepped off the dock into the sand, I took my cue from him, slipping off my shoes and picking them up with my free hand. I extended the other hand out by way of greeting. "I'm Ad-"

  He cut me off and gave my hand a quick shake. "Adelaide, I know. It's not like we get a ton of visitors here. I'm Adam. I'll be your activity manager and chef during your stay.”

  “Call me Addy.” I smiled in as flirtatious a way as I could remember how to.

  He tipped his hat in acknowledgement. “If you'll follow me then, Addy." He turned and headed for one of the thatched roof huts. They were exactly like the pictures I had seen as a young girl, complete with coconuts dotting the ground around them. The place had a surreal paradise feel to it, which was really quite something considering the places I had been. It was also completely relaxing. The sand was cool and soft on my feet and the wind blowing through the palms sounded like rain. I was immediately glad to have agreed to this, however reluctantly I might have.

  Adam led me to the hut closest to the edge of the beach. The door was unlocked and he held it open for me. Rustic and a perfect gentleman, I mused. "I hope you find it comfortable while you're here." It was smaller than my usual living quarters but n
ot by much. It had the sparseness of Noah's place, but the colors were warm and soft so I did not find it as unsettling as his. Adam walked over to a small closet and opened it. "They told us your size, so you're stocked with pretty much everything you should need while you are here, but if you find anything lacking, please let me know and we'll produce it as quickly as possible." There was an array of shorts and pants, lightweight tunics, bathing suits and sandals. Most were neutral in color.

  "We?"

  "My wife lives here with me on the island. She gardens and handles most logistics."

  I felt a small pang of disappointment from a long submerged part of my consciousness. It passed quickly. "When do I get to meet her?"