of Finn and Andre's past, yet it was only an alternate future for himself, a potential future he had bypassed., It happened… and it didn't happen.
It was the sort of Zen koan puzzle that was taught in advanced temporal physics classes, a hypothetical set of temporal conditions that Zen physics professors referred to as 'problem modules,' situations that were mind- boggling, defying any application of conventional science or logic, capable of inducing nervous breakdowns in even the most gifted students who attempted to relate them to conventional reality or solve them with conventional reasoning. Only this was not a classroom problem module. This was real.
Ever since he had learned what happened, Lucas had been trying desperately to figure it all out, to assess the implications, both for himself and for the timeline. It was driving him to the brink of a nervous collapse. And he knew that now, of all times, he had to keep his cool, his mental discipline focused, and yet it was impossible. Thanks to Dr. Darkness filling in the blanks for him, he knew what the original scenario had been, before Dr. Darkness had effected his unique temporal adjustment. It was, of course, a scenario that Lucas had never personally experienced-not from where he stood right now. He remembered only part of it.
But from the vantage point of another time frame, he had experienced it. And it had killed him.
The tribesmen still trapped in the pass were run down and trampled by the lancers as they thundered through. Then the cavalry formed a line upon the plain and charged the fleeing enemy. There was no escape. The Ghazis died in the rice fields, run through by the lances and struck down by the cavalry sabres. Bodies fell everywhere as the lancers descended on the fleeing Ghazis and butchered them.
'Christ,' said Hugo, turning away from the carnage down below. 'I'm sorry, General, but that's more than J can stand to watch. I've seen enough of death.'
Churchill was riveted by the spectacle. 'They shall not forget this,' he said. 'it's probably the first time any of them have seen what cavalry can do, given room to deploy their strength. Henceforth, the very words, 'Bengal lancers' shall strike terror into their hearts.'
As he spoke, a lone Ghazi sniper, who had remained undiscovered, hidden behind the rocks of his crumbled sangar, rose to a kneeling position and brought his jezail rifle to bear upon the surgeon. Hugo, whom he mistakenly took 10 be the commander of the British forces. As he raised his rifle, Lucas spotted him.
Re yelled, 'Hugo. Look out!' instinctively, after so much time spent under enemy fire,
Hugo reacted by throwing himself down flat upon the ground. In an instant, Lucas saw that Hugo's combat- quick response had placed Churchill directly in the line of fire. In an instant of white hot, adrenaline charged clarity, he saw it all and made a running dive for Churchill — and landed on a hand woven carpet of Chinese silk.
For a moment, he lay stunned, unable to move. All he could see were the colours of the carpet, brilliant red, metallic gold and indigo a richly complex pattern, figured with dragons and stylised lions. Slowly, he pushed himself up and looked around..
He was in a large, circular room with a domed, observatory ceiling. The most dominant object in the room was a huge radio telescope. All around him were banks of computers and other electronic instruments he could not identify, with rows upon rows of blinking lights and dials and digital and video displays.
Laboratory equipment vied for space with exquisite Victorian antiques and bronze sculptures and impressionistic oil paintings. Books were everywhere, crammed to overflowing in tall bookcases, stacked upon tables and piled high upon the floor. As Lucas slowly stood, he turned and saw a huge, curved bay window behind him. The landscape outside was rocky and desolate. And red-orange. The vermilion sands stretched out for as far as the eye could see, nothing but an unbroken vista of rock-strewn, reddish-orange desert. And there were three moons in the sky.
'What the hell?' said Lucas.
'It does rather look like hell, doesn't it?' said a deep, vaguely continental voice from behind him.
Lucas turned to see a tall and slender man, with dark, unruly hair that came down to his collar in the back and a neatly trimmed moustache. He was gaunt, with dark, penetrating eyes and a sharp, prominent nose. He was dressed in a button-down white shirt, a silk tie with a regimental stripe, a dark brown waistcoat with a gold watch chain and a brown, tweed Norfolk jacket with dark wool trousers and expensive, handmade Italian shoes. He carried a hickory walking stick and wore a brown fedora. One moment, he seemed solid and the next, he was semitransparent.
He seemed to flicker like a faulty hologram.
'Darkness!' Lucas said. 'What the hell is going on? Where am I? What happened to the others? Where's Churchill? Is he all right?',
Dr. Darkness raised his eyebrows. 'Which of that plethora of questions would you like me to answer first?'
'How about where am I?'
'You are a guest in my home,' said Darkness.
'Your.. home?' said Lucas, feeling totally bewildered.
Darkness put the walking stick down on a table and then moved across the room toward a sideboard where he kept several bottles of whiskey, a gasogene and a decanter.
Lucas stared at him with astonishment. He had never before seen Dr. Darkness walk. However, what he was doing wasn't exactly walking. Darkness seemed to be moving in a series of extremely rapid, stop-motion frame, as if he were illuminated by a strobe light. As he made his way across the room, he left behind a series of blurred, ghostly afterimages of himself that faded out like contrails.
'I was once able to walk normally while I was here in my unprojected state,' he explained when he noticed Lucas staring. 'However, it appears that the stability of my atomic structure is gradually degenerating. I'm having some anxiety over it, since there doesn't seem to be anything that I can do about it.'
He poured himself a glass of single malt Scotch and then started to pour one for Lucas. He was at least twenty feet across the room when he held the glass out to Luca.‹;, but in the next split second, he was standing right in front of him, close enough for him to take the glass. Lucas blinked. He never could get used to the way the man could project himself through time and space. It was. unsettling, to say the least.
Lucas accepted the whiskey and took a hearty swallow from the glass. It felt good going down. 'Why am I here? What happened, Doc?' he said.
'Nothing much,' Darkness replied. 'I've only saved your life.'
Lucas stared at him. He felt confused. 'But what about… God, what about Churchill?'
'Rest assured that Winston Churchill is perfectly all right,'
Darkness said.
'But… how? He was right in the line of fire!' Lucas said. 'I jumped to shove him out of the way and… and the Ghazi fired and..' His voice trailed off. He had a horrible feeling that something was very, very wrong. 'Doe, tell me what happened back there!'
'I simply tached you out of harm's way,' said Darkness. 'Otherwise that bullet would have struck you and you would have found it decidedly unpleasant. '
'But… then what kept it from hitting Churchill?'
'I merely interposed another mass between Churchill and the bullet.'
'What are you talking about? What mass?'
'Your twin.'
'My what?'.
'Your twin from the parallel universe,' said Darkness. 'He was already dead, you see. Your friend Delaney killed him, which was quite convenient. All I did was move at multiples of light speed, take your twin's body and switch it with yours, taching you back here while I positioned your double's corpse in such a way that the ball from the Ghazi's rifle would enter at the exact same spot as Delaney's bayonet had when he killed your twin. It was actually rather complicated and it took some careful timing, but- ''
'Wait a minute, wait a minute!' Lucas said, staring wide-eyed at the scientist.
'What the hell are you talking about? What twin from the parallel universe? And what's this about Delaney killing him? When did all this happen? I don't remember any of this!''
'Well, naturally. That's because it all happened in a slightly different timeframe,'
Darkness explained. He hesitated. “After you… uh… died.'
'After I what?' Lucas suddenly felt as if his stomach were trying to turn itself inside out.
'Died,' said Darkness. He cleared his throat. 'After you died. Here, perhaps you'd better have another drink.
