33
Thursday, April 26, 1792 – 4:51 p.m.
Fairhurst Castle, England
Ailsa had barely looked away from the spot where Mack had left in his Bubble Chamber when the room lit up in an array of beautiful colors and he returned. As the last remnants of red faded from the room, Ailsa was met by not one, but two men. One was Mack, the other one was strange. His hair, although half combed, had an unusual spiky look to it. He was wearing rings and strange metal objects in his ears and his face looked like death; his eyes surrounded by dark circles and his skin pale. When he opened his mouth in astonishment, a glint of metal reflected off his tongue. His garments were black and covered with chains and metallic objects. Strange black boots adorned his feet. As far as Ailsa could tell, he was some kind of knight in training.
“Move,” Mack said to Spike as he ordered him toward Ailsa.
Spike walked as directed without saying a word. Seeing Ailsa sitting in a chair handcuffed next to the lab bench he stopped and looked at Mack.
“Who’s this?”
“Someone who shouldn’t have been snooping around.”
“What, so now you’ve captured her too?”
“For the time being, yes. But I wouldn’t say captured. I think I like the term ‘preventive measures’ better. Although she didn’t see me at first, she did see what I was doing. Had she gotten out, she would have brought who-knows-who down here and my whole project would have been shot. That I couldn’t have, not after all the work I’ve put into it. Therefore, to prevent any problems, I caught her and brought her here. When I’m done and gone I’ll let her go. Then she can say all she wants to whoever she wants and they’ll be no evidence left to implicate me in any way.”
Mack began pushing Spike again toward another chair ten feet from Ailsa. Locking him to the lab bench with another set of handcuffs, Mack went back and picked up his backpack. Ailsa and Spike sat quietly watching him occasionally glancing at each other. Mack walked over to the bench along the far wall and opened his pack. Pulling out a small jar, he opened it. Donning a pair of rubber disposable gloves, he carefully dumped its’ contents into a tray. Then, taking a scalpel, he carefully cut away part of what he’d dumped into the tray and using a pair of tweezers placed a small amount on a microscope. After a few minutes of intense study, he took another small piece and went about testing it.
“What is he doing?” Ailsa asked Spike in a low voice.
“I think he’s testing it for something. I’m not sure.”
“My name’s Ailsa Fairhurst.”
“I’m Spike Michels.”
“That’s an interesting name. I’ve never heard of Spike before.”
“It’s more of a nickname. It kind of stuck when I started getting into the Gothic look.”
“Gothic?”
“Ya, you know dark clothes, dark eyes, pale skin, lots of body piercings and tattoos, stuff like that.”
“But why? Why would you want to look like, well, like someone who’s dead or dying?”
“Why not? It makes a statement. Says I’m different from the rest of the civilized world. All those geeks and nerds, athletes, government bureaucrats, religious fanatics, business leaders and all. I want to be someone that gets noticed, someone who makes a point.”
“And the point is?”
Mack glanced up at Ailsa and Spike’s conversation. Fools he thought. Fools. They don’t know anything. I’ve got it all figured out and my life is set. These fools, these idiots will be left behind with their pitiful lives and foolish aspirations. What a waste!
Spike gave Ailsa a quizzical look. “The point?”
“Yes, the point. I see no point at all.”
“The point is I can be different, be myself, and be somebody.”
“But you already are somebody. Why do you have to change your lifestyle to be someone you’re not?”
“This is me!”
“Only after you changed and became that way. What were you like before you took up this, what did you call it?”
“Gothic lifestyle.”
“Yes, this Gothic lifestyle.”
“I was a nobody. A weakling. I was always getting picked on, beat up, and made fun of. I was nothing. Now that I’ve adopted this new image, people look twice at me. They think twice before messing with me. For the most part they leave me alone.”
“I don’t blame them. You look frightening.”
Spike smiled. “That’s the whole idea Ailsa, to look intimidating.”
“So why haven’t I seen anyone else like you before?”
“I have no idea. Where do you live?”
“Right here.”
“Right here, in this lab?”
“No. Right here on this piece of property. This is part of my home. It’s an underground lab that I didn’t know existed until a couple of hours ago. Above us is my home.”
“And where is home?”
“Penzance, Cornwall, England.”
“England! England! How is that possible? I live in the Alaska.”
“Alaska? What’s that?”
“What do you mean what’s that? Alaska. You know, in the United States?”
Ailsa looked at Spike with a strange look.
“Alaska. The big state above Canada?” he reemphasized.
Ailsa shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Spike laughed aloud. Turning toward Mack he yelled, “She has no idea what Alaska is. Can you believe that?”
Mack didn’t look up but said “Yes. I know she doesn’t know.”
“What do you mean you know she doesn’t know?”
“She doesn’t know.”
“And why wouldn’t she know?”
“Because it doesn’t exist yet.”
Stunned, Spike stared at Mack and then looked at Ailsa again. Turning back toward Mack he said, “It doesn’t exist? What did you do?”
“Nothing. It just doesn’t exist yet.”
“And why wouldn’t it exist?”
“Because it hasn’t been admitted to the union yet.”
“Come on. Alaska was admitted in the 1950’s.”
“Exactly my point. In the 1950’s. This isn’t the 1950’s.”
“Of course not. It’s 2006.”
“Maybe where you’re from it’s 2006. But not here.”
“What do you mean not here?”
“I took you on a journey through time. You’re now in the year 1792.”
Spike’s mouth dropped open revealing his tongue stud. Ailsa’s face contorted in disgust.
“What’s in your mouth?”
Spike, still taken aback by the knowledge of what year it was didn’t answer.
“Spike!”
Turning back toward Ailsa he said “What?”
“I said, what’s that in your mouth?”
Answering in an uninterested voice he said, “A tongue stud.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“I said why?”
“It’s cool.”
Pausing briefly, he looked back at Ailsa. “1792?”
“Yes. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. It’s just that…”
“Just what?” Ailsa prodded.
“It’s just not possible.”
“I don’t think it is either, but how can I explain all this strange stuff here in my lab? I mean, it’s all foreign to me. Mack says he could take us to another time and show us, but he won’t. He says it would disturb something about time and space or something. I don’t understand it.”
“He’s right there. If he did disturb time, according to theory it would destroy the world, as we know it. Still, I can’t believe that he’s really done it.” Looking toward Mack who was still working he said, “How can you travel through time? It’s been the envy of scientists and humans in general for centuries, but no one has been able to accomplish it.”
Mack looked up. “Well, I did as you can see.”
“You say you did. But how do I, or should I say we know that this isn’t just all a set-up. I mean, as far as I’m concerned Ailsa could be a plant to make me believe that I’m back in time. How am I to know for sure?”
“As I told Ailsa, you’ll just have to trust me on this one. I don’t have time to go zipping around proving myself to you two.”
“But,” Spike said, “If you have a time machine, you won’t be wasting any time. Just take us somewhere, come back to this same time or even a time before this and you’ll have lost nothing. In fact, you could gain.”
“I know that. But from my standpoint, I would be losing time. Although I might come back at the same point in time here, I would still have used up my own time. I can’t add to what is my own personal time and me. Einstein talked about relativity. That’s where all that comes into the picture.”
“Who’s Einstein?” Ailsa asked.
“Come on!” Spike blurted. “Everyone knows Einstein. The famous scientist who discovered the relationship between time and energy.”
“Never heard of him. Remember, this is 1792.”
“Well, if it is, then no, you wouldn’t have heard of him. But I’m still not convinced.”
“Well,” Mack spoke up, “it doesn’t really matter. In just a short time, I’ll be gone and you two can chat all you want about Einstein and 1792 and Alaska or whatever else you want.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What’s what supposed to mean?”
“That the two of you can talk when I leave. If this is 1792, I’m sure not going to stay here.” The worry and concern in Spike’s voice was extremely noticeable.
“What’s wrong with staying here?” Ailsa asked.
“What’s wrong? Everything. For one, it’s not my time, two, I know nothing about the 1790’s and three I have a life in 2006. Think about what I’d be leaving behind, or ahead for that fact. Modern conveniences, technology, CD’s, DVD’s, telephones, cell phones, cars, planes, computers, the Internet, Gothic stores and clubs, everything. No way, you can’t leave me here!”
Ailsa looked perplexed trying to comprehend everything that Spike was talking about. She’d heard of none of the things about which Spike was speaking. His comments just solidified even more the fact that maybe Spike and Mack were from the future.
Mack spoke up, stopping to look at Ailsa and Spike. “I’m not worried about Ailsa. What she’s seen will do no harm here because no one else has seen any of it anyway. They’d think she was crazy. They might even consider her a witch. Besides, I’m cleaning this lab up before I go, so there’ll be no evidence left anyway. You on the other hand could cause some real problems. You know who I am. The probability of being doubted is a lot less likely since so many are more open-minded and willing to believe anything, and you know about the technology I’m using.”
“Ya, but I don’t know anything about how it works or stuff like that.”
“You may not; still, the chances are much greater.”
“But if you’re gone, what does it matter?”
“It might not. However, it will be in your best interest and mine to leave you here.”
“Why is that?” Spike asked with a sneer on his face.
“Because, when I go back to the hospital, I’m going to tell Ken that you are the one that has been tampering with the IV’s and syringes. Your disappearance will only add weight to my story since he’ll think you’ve run away to avoid the law and arrest. I’m not even considered as a suspect, therefore all the blame rests on you. If you go back, you’ll be a wanted man the rest of your life. Not only that, you’ll be wanted for murder.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“Why not? I get my money, go where I want and live out the rest of my life rich and free. Besides, don’t complain. I could kill you and Ailsa. This way you get your life and Ailsa gets hers. You just get yours in 1792.” Mack laughed, pleased with himself and his scheme.
Ailsa looked at Spike. “It’s not so bad here. Besides, no one knows you so you can be yourself. If you really are from the future, you could help us with many things, things we probably can’t even imagine. You’d actually be a godsend to us. I’d like to know more about the world in the future. And I have plenty of rooms in my home.”
Spike was overwhelmed by the thought of being left in 1792. He looked at Mack who was busy working again and then back at Ailsa.
“I don’t know. It’s really scary. I mean, just a few minutes ago I was in 2006 minding my own business and now here I am in 1792. Talk about culture shock!”
“You weren’t minding your own business,” Mack said. “You were snooping around in the frig. You saw the bodies, what I did to Benita. I couldn’t leave you there to tell others.”
“That’s ridiculous. Ken or someone else will come looking and they’ll find the bodies. They’ll tell the authorities. Someone’s still going to be looking into it.”
“Well, I didn’t want to take a chance. Besides, as I said, you make me a good alibi now. That concern of mine is solved thanks to you.”
Pausing, Spike sat thinking. The sounds of Mack’s chemistry lab and related machinery hummed softly in the room creating a low level of white noise. Finally Spike asked, “So why did you tear out Benita’s eye?”
“I had no choice. I had to get to her brain. I needed a sample from the occipito-temporo-parietal junction in the gray cortex at the back of the brain. The easiest way to get there without removing the top of her head was through the eye socket. It was a lot less messy and quicker.”
“If you were so concerned about getting caught, why didn’t you at least stick her eye back in the socket?”
“I would have if you hadn’t showed up. I had to move quickly just to save what samples I did have. Then I had to hide before you found me.”
“If I hadn’t hit your foot, I wouldn’t have known you were even there.”
“Well, you did and here we are.”
“So, what’s the point of all this anyway?”
“It’s top secret. An experiment for the government to stop terrorists and enemy soldiers from overtaking the U.S.”
“So you inject them with this stuff and they have nightmares. That sounds real helpful.”
“Not just nightmares. Nightmares so powerful and overwhelming that it drives them to their deaths.”
“Like Benita.”
“Yes, unfortunately, like Benita. The dosage I used on her should not have killed her. However, in her already fragile mental state, the drug worked more effectively than I’d imagined. She died within 24 hours. What horrors she died from no one will ever know.”
“You’re a sick man. Why would you even think of doing something like this to other humans?”
“Money my friend, money. The world runs on money. I don’t want fame or prestige, just money.”
“So you’re willing to drive people to insanity and death to get it.”
“Not me, the government. I just made what they wanted. What they do with it is their problem.”
“Like you don’t have any liability at all?”
“I don’t think about that aspect of it.”
“What kind of world do you come from?” Ailsa interjected.
“A violent, sick one,” Spike said. “And it’s people like Slick that add to it.”
“Slick?”
“Yes, Slick. Him.” Spike pointed at Mack by the bench.
“That’s Mack.”
“Mack? What’s that, some pseudo name you’ve given yourself?”
“No, Mack Goddard is my real name. You’ve just always known me as Slick. It’s a nickname that stuck years ago because of my smooth personality and my neat, organized disposition. Look around you, everything in it’s place, nothing out of sync, all in perfect order. Moreover, I’m the epitome of a well-toned, well-manicured human being. The women swoon over me, but being the gentleman I am, I don’t take advantage of that. I have other interests to keep me occupied.”
“Ya, like killing innocent people. And to think that all this time that I’ve known you, I thought you were a little conceited, but otherwise a decent guy. Wait till I tell the others.”
“Sorry, you’re staying here, remember.”
Spike’s fear ran down his face again.
“Well,” Slick said, “I’ve got to be going. It looks like my drug is ready to go. First, I need to return to the hospital to help Ken realize that it is you that’s responsible. Then, I deliver my drug and finally get paid. I come back here, clean up and release you two to live happily ever after. Of course, even though I may be gone for weeks, to you it will be only seconds. I’ll come back before you even know I’m gone.”
“You’re sick!” Spike yelled out. “Let me go back. I won’t tell anyone, please. I’ll just disappear. Just don’t leave me here.”
“Sorry pal. I can’t do that. It just won’t work out for me.”
“You’re a jerk! A thoughtless, inconsiderate megalomaniac.”
“Thank you.” Slick packed up a few things and placed them in his backpack all the while ignoring Spike’s barrage of insults. Finally, he stepped to the corner of the room, punched in a few buttons on his Bubble Chamber and in an array of rainbow colors, disappeared into the future.
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