Pivotal Moment Read online

  ***

  Creeg looked out into the room beyond. It was cavernous, a huge space carved out of the rock deep underneath the Ministry building. Machines and computers filled most of the space around the edge of the room. Creeg had no idea what he was looking at, but the size of the cables made it clear that this was a machine with a voracious thirst for power. It was the machine in the centre of the room that captured his attention. In fact, two machines. Long devices that stretched out on either side, disappearing into tunnels on either side of the room. They were enormous devices that almost, but not quite met in the middle of the room.

  Reptiles in lab’ coats scurried around, operating computer consoles, talking in small groups. Everyone was busy, it reminded him of army-reptiles readying to fight. Off to the right was a slightly raised area, a control platform, and standing on it Creeg recognised the Chief Scientist, and next to him was the imposing figure of Science Minister Vraag.

  Actually, Vraag wasn’t that imposing. The Chief Scientist was slightly taller, but he stood with a stooped posture, it was clear who was the authority figure. Creeg moved closer to the platform.

  Vraag turned to look at him. 'I expected you sooner,' he said, and turned back to the Chief Scientist.

  Creeg was close enough now to hear their conversation.

  'The machine is ready, yes?' Vraag asked, more statement than question. 'You’ve already done a successful low power test.'

  'Yes, we have,' the Chief Scientist’s voice was hesitant.

  'Then I want a full power test, now.'

  'But Minister, we should do more proving before we…'

  'No,' Vraag cut in, his voice dripping with authority. 'You will do it, now.'

  The Chief Scientist dropped his gaze, he was outmatched. 'Yes, Minister. We will need your authority.'

  Vraag stepped down from the platform and came closer to Creeg. Creeg realised he was holding his breath, but Vraag reached past him to the computer console. Vragg slipped his own ID badge into the slot.

  A voice boomed out of the walls, 'Command controls are unlocked, all power levels are available.'

  Vraag leaned a little closer to Creeg. 'You brought your own ID badge, as instructed?'

  'Yes Minister, I did.'

  'Good. Watch, listen, do nothing, and learn where real power comes from.'

  Vraag turned to the Chief Scientist, and said in a louder voice, 'Begin, now.'

  The Chief Scientist turned to his colleagues and started giving orders, the instructions spread out through the assembled scientists and engineers, who began operating keyboards and dials. Creeg could feel a vibration through his feet, beneath them something of enormous power was waking. Whatever this thing did, it was immense. The vibration became a hum, and grew into a drone that filled the cavern.

  Someone’s voice came over the PA system, loud enough to cut through the droning which was booming louder and louder. 'Rift generator now at threshold power.'

  Almost in unison, everyone in the cavern turned to look at the centre of the room, where the two arms of the machine met. Crawling, so slowly, the two arms glided apart, pulling away from each other, and there was a bright crackling of light as forks of lightning stretched between the separating arms. The air between them started to swirl almost smoke like and Creeg had the sense that the two arms were pulling something apart, something that really ought not to be pulled apart. The lighting leapt from each arm of the machine and curled in the space in the centre. As suddenly as it had begun the lightning stopped, the swirling stopped, and the centre of the room was now occupied with… Creeg wasn’t sure what it was. A hazy image filled in the centre space vacated by the arms of the machine, like a circular image projected by the machine. Creeg looked, the image was of buildings, streets, cars, reptiles walking around. It seemed a huge amount of technology to create such a simple image. He had to admit that the 3-D effect was very good, the image was very life like.

  'Tell me,' demanded Vraag, 'what am I looking at?'

  The Chief Scientist consulted with his colleagues, checked some screens, then answered. 'It’s the Capital, the financial district.'

  'I don’t understand.' Creeg had spoken almost without realising it.

  'Don’t you?' Vraag sounded almost disappointed. 'This machine opens a rift in space, it allows me to see anywhere, it’s the ultimate surveillance tool.'

  Creeg stared at the street scene. No wonder it looked real, it was real, it was a window opened in reality, a view directly into another place. Creeg started to wonder just how much power this would give Vraag, when Vraag’s voice interrupted.

  'More, I want to see more. Show me something else.'

  'But Minister,' the Chief Scientist begin, Creeg could hear the hesitation in his voice, no-one won an argument with Minister Vraag. 'We really must assess the stability of…'

  'No.' Vraag was adamant. 'Show me more, now.'

  The Chief Scientist gave orders and reptile scientists scurried around, operating their computers. The tone of the machine changed and the space in the centre of the room swirled and danced as reality strained to preserve its secrets, but the power of the machine won out, and new scene appeared. Huts. A village, a primitive village, small wooden huts, crude thatched roofs. Reptiles walking around, but wearing simple trousers and cloaks. Creeg stared, trying to place where in the world he was seeing.

  'Where is this?' demanded Vraag. Creeg had the thought that the villagers probably didn’t have any political or military secrets that would interest Vraag. There was no immediate answer. Lots of scientists stared at screens and pressed keys and talked to each other in hushed tones.

  There were gasps from the reptiles clustered around a computer screen. The Chief Scientist hurried over, pushing scientists and technicians out of his way. There were intense whisperings, heads shaken, low mutterings.

  'Tell me,' ordered Vraag, 'Tell me now, what am I looking at?'

  The Chief Scientist stared at Vraag. 'It’s the capital city, the Northern residential area.'

  'Nonsense,' Vraag retorted.

  The Chief Scientist’s voice remained calm and level. 'It’s the residential area, about five thousand years ago.'

  Silence fell over the reptiles, the only sound the thrumming of the machine. Everyone turned again to look at the village scene, trying to comprehend what they were looking at, “when” they were looking at. Creeg especially was trying to imagine the implications.

  Vraag was already there. 'So this machine allows me to see anywhere, and at any time?'

  No-one answered, no answer was needed. Creeg could almost hear the plans forming in Vraag’s mind. Creeg was trying to imagine the power of a machine that could snoop unobtrusively on any conversation that had ever been held, anywhere, at any time. The power it would give someone like Vraag was frightening. But Vraag had gone even further.

  'Can we send something through?' Vraag asked.

  'What?' said the Chief Scientist, obviously not as far ahead as Vraag.

  'Send something through, can we send an object back in time?'

  Again, silence. Lots of worried glances were exchanged, frowns, stares, but no answers. Finally, the scientists started to whisper and converse. Screens were consulted and keys were pressed. Answers were whispered to the Chief Scientist.

  'Possibly.'

  'Possibly? Can we or can’t we?'

  More whisperings. 'It might be possible, but it’s also possible that the quantum sheer in the rift would render…'

  Vragg cut across the Chief Scientist in no uncertain terms. 'Try it,' he ordered.

  'I suggest…' began the Chief Scientist. Vraag’s lip curled, the Scientist hesitated. 'I suggest we test it, move the rift to somewhere safe, where sending an object back wouldn’t do any damage.'

  'Damage?' asked Vraag.

  'Well, yes. Imagine something appearing out of nowhere in the middle of some significant event in the past. It could change events, it could change history.

  'Yes,' murmured Vraag, 'I
t could.' Creeg wasn’t sure he liked the idea of what was probably now going through Vraag’s mind. Vraag’s ambition to write the present was scary, the idea of Vraag re-writing history didn’t bear thinking about.

  As Vraag started his mental scheming, the scientists began working their controls. The machine whined and wheezed and the space in the centre of the room twisted and distorted and then finally lay calm, a forest scene, trees stretching out for miles.

  'Where is this?' demanded Vraag.

  'It’s on the Eastern continent, about five hundred years ago. We place it near the region of Tunguska. I don’t recall anything ever having happened there.'

  'Send someone through,' Vraag ordered.

  'I’d suggest an object,' said the Chief Scientist, pre-empting Vraag’s eagerness. 'We don’t know the effect of sending a living reptile through.'

  'What kind of object?'

  One of the younger scientists on the level nearer the centre of the room held his claw in the air. In it he held a paper aeroplane.

  “As good as anything,” was the look on Vraag’s face.

  The Chief Scientist gave the signal to the younger scientist, who turned and in a deft movement threw the paper aeroplane at the forest scene. The plane drifted through the air. It seemed to slow as it entered the space in the centre of the room, almost as though it were uncertain, and then it slipped through and the paper caught the sunlight above the forest.

  The explosion was titanic, a light so bright it was painful, a bang and a roar that tore through the laboratory. Reptiles staggered around, not knowing whether to shield their eyes or their ear slits, trying desperately to do both. Vraag was on the floor howling in pain, his hands over his head. Creeg dived behind a computer console, it protected him from some of the light but none of the sound. Eventually, the light started to dim, at least to the point where reptiles could start to uncover their eyes, the sound diminished, finally below the pain threshold. The scientists pulled themselves up and started to operate the computers. As the light receded from the rift, Creeg thought that even through all the rock above them surely the reptiles in the Ministry building above them must have heard something.

  'My Divine Reptile,' said Vraag, 'what happened?'

  'An inverse temporal distortion,' someone said. The Chief Scientist clarified, before Vraag could get angry. 'Anything going through the rift appears on the other side as pure energy, but the further back in time the more energy.'

  'So we caused the blast at Tunguska,' someone said from behind the Chief Scientist.

  'We have to shut the machine down, now,' said the Chief Scientist, his voice emphatic.

  'No,' said Vraag, his voice firm, and then softened as ideas came into his head, 'no, keep the machine running. I want another test.'

  'Another test?' the Chief Scientist could hardly believe what Vraag was asking. 'Send something through any further back in time and the explosion would be colossal.'

  'Another test. How can I direct the machine to a time and place and create just a small explosion?'

  There was quiet now between the scientists as they realised where Vraag’s thinking was going.

  'Small explosion?' gasped the Chief Scientist, 'This isn’t a weapon.'

  'Oh that’s exactly what it is, this is the most powerful weapon ever created, and I want to know exactly what can be done with it.'

  The argument was interrupted by more whining and screaming from the machine, the space in the room dissolved and shifted, it shimmered and flickered and finally stabilised; a scene of wet grassland, blue sky, and little else. Attention soon turned back to the matter at hand.

  'The machine is unstable, we must shut it down, before we do any more damage,' shouted the Chief Scientist, apparently losing some of his fear of the Minister for Science.

  'You will leave the machine running.' Vraag’s voice was calm, with a very chilling edge. 'You will follow my orders, and we will carry out another test.'

  'No.' It was the Chief Scientist’s turn to be emphatic.

  Vraag turned to Creeg. 'Creeg, enter your security card, please.' Vraag gestured to the slot in the security scanner. Uncertain what was being asked of him, Creeg unclipped his security card and pushed it into security scanner.

  The booming voice came out of the walls again. 'Command code accepted. All operating modes now under Science Minister Vraag’s verbal command.'

  Vraag almost winked at Creeg. 'I had your security card recoded for more than just the lift.'

  'What have you done?' gasped the Chief Scientist, 'We need to shut the machine down, now!'

  'No, the machine stays running, until I say otherwise, literally.' Vraag had a slight smile on his face, he always enjoyed exercising power.

  The argument was interrupted. 'Look!' All eyes turned to the space in the centre of the room. In the distance, across the grassland, a large animal lumbered. It was big, that was obvious, it stood on two legs, a tail swishing behind, horns on its head, and its scales glistening in the sun. Unmistakeably a reptile, a very big reptile.

  'When?' said the Chief Scientist, looking to the scientists around him, 'When are we looking at?'

  There was a pause, more consultation. The Chief Scientist looked up, hardly able to bring himself to say the words. 'It’s near the shore of the Southern Ocean, about sixty-five million years ago.'

  Everyone stared in almost disbelief at the scene in the centre of the room, staring back directly into prehistory.

  'Minister' said the Chief Scientist in hushed tones, 'I implore you. We must shut the machine down, now. Remember, the temporal inversion effect.' The implication was lost on the politician.

  There was more movement in the prehistoric scene, a small mammal scurried into view. Its size was hard to judge. Rat-like it scurried, sniffing the air, whiskers twitching. Everyone stared at the mammal, one of the earliest of its kind, obviously mammals had evolved little over the intervening millions of years. All the scientists were transfixed by the scene, the beginning of their domination over the other creatures of the world, everyone except Creeg. Creeg cursed under his breath looking around for his document case. It was on the floor where it fell during the explosion. Creeg reached for it, then swore more loudly, getting everyone’s attention.

  'What on earth?' began Vraag, spinning round, only to see Creeg playing reptile-and-mouse trying to catch the rat which had escaped from the document case.

  'Stop it,' Creeg shouted at everyone and no-one in particular. The scientists nearby tried to catch the rat, or stamp on it, or simply jumped out of the way, but the rat scurried around them, slipping under desks and then out again across the floor, towards the centre of the room. The sense of panic in the room rose as the rat ran loose, evading all attempts to capture it. Creeg even missed the irony of Vraag screaming and jumping on the nearest chair.

  The rat-like animal in the grassland scene stopped and sniffed the air, its nose twitching. The rat in the room stopped and sniffed the air, its nose twitched. It turned towards the centre of the room. Almost as one all the scientists in stamping range tried to squash the animal, which slipped by them all, heading closer and closer to the shimmering space in the centre of the room.

  'Computer, this is the Chief Scientist, shut down the machine,' he shouted.

  The voice boomed out. 'Unable to comply, all operations are now under the voice command of the Minister of Science.'

  'Minister, give the order, shut down the machine.'

  'This is Vraag, I order you to…' but he never completed the sentence. The last thing he saw was the rat passing over the threshold of the space in the centre of the room, almost floating for a moment, before it reappeared sixty-five million years in the past, and vanished in the biggest explosion the world ever saw.

  ***

  The rat poked its nose out of the grass, just a little, just enough to sniff but still be safe. It could smell, even if not see clearly, the creatures walking around. Tall creatures, walking upright on two legs, mammals, with hair. It
sniffed again, the air smelled right in some way. Somehow, in a very primitive rat-like way, the world just seemed okay.

  Read Simon Stanton’s new novel, A Mind To Kill :

  The first book in the Psiclone series. A secret military experiment gone wrong leaves four special-forces soldiers with powerful telepathic abilities. One of those, Michael Sanders, is now an MI5 field agent. Keeping his abilities secret, even from his own team, Sanders and the full surveillance force of GCHQ are on the trail of a far-right activist suspected of planning terrorist attacks.

  What should have been a routine surveillance mission starts to go badly wrong when the prime suspect is assassinated in front of Sanders. A telepathic message heralds the return of a deadly force from Sanders' past, hell bent on revenge. Events spiral out of control with murders, rocket attacks and kidnappings on the streets of London.

  Fighting to keep his secret, Sanders must battle to stay alive and find those responsible before they complete their plan and bring down the Bank of England.

  To find out more about the books in the Psiclone series visit the website at:

  www.simonstanton.com

  About the author…

  Simon Stanton fell in love with stories at an early age, reading and writing science fiction. Despite the best efforts of parents and teachers to broaden his horizons, Simon remained obsessed with sci-fi. Teaching himself to touch type so he could get his thoughts on paper quicker, Simon wrote shorts stories, ideas for bigger works, and finally his first novel length work - a piece which remains safely locked away. Then he stopped writing, and after a thirty year hiatus (which not even he can adequately explain) he began writing again, first short stories and then his first proper novel, A Mind To Kill. The Psiclone Series continues with more books now available.

 

  Simon lives in West Yorkshire, UK, and balances his writing with home life, a job in project management, and his practise of Aikido (a Japanese martial art.)

  To find out more about Simon, his (free) short stories, and the Psiclone novels (but, to be fair, not much about Yorkshire), visit his website at:

  https://www.simonstanton.com/

  or follow him on Twitter at:

  @TheSimonStanton

  or on Facebook at:

  https://www.facebook.com/simonstantonwriter