The rifle is hand pumped incapacitant weapon that fires a50,000 volt barb up to 30 feet. This will induce muscle-spasm electric shockand set the perpetrator unconscious. It is classified as non-lethal but thosewith heart defects may die.
– Extract from Taskforce TrainingManual, Section 17 – Electric Rifle Usage, 1970.
Billwoke up the next morning under heavy blankets, in an old bed with a sagging mattress.He sat up, got his glasses from the bedside cabinet and had a good look round.The room was shabby, with peeling wallpaper and an old wardrobe in the corner.He didn’t recognise it or remember how he got there, but guessed it must havebeen one of Doctor van Devlin’s bedrooms.
As he stretched, yawned and began tofully wake up, a very strange thing happened. He realised his mind was filledwith thoughts and images that were his own but were very odd and unfamiliar.What had been a void was now a long and varied mishmash of detailedrecollections, stretching way back. Professor Nox’s treatment must have worked!He knew his former self! It all began nearly one hundred and fifty years ago...
He remembered his kind but God-fearingmother Jane, his father Fredrick who was a prominent civil servant, and hisdear young brother Oscar. How wonderful to know his family again. He’d spent ahappy childhood on the south coast, fishing for tiny crabs in rock pools,paddling in the sea and spending cosy evening singing around the piano withMother and Oscar.
When he’d grown into a young man heattended Middenmere University, where he was star pupil at Scientiam college.He remembered happy times as an undergraduate in the rooms he shared in CurzonStreet with his three great friends, Giles, Freddie and Jack. What dearlong-lost friends he once had! He recalled his graduation day, with a doublefirst, and his start of employment as a Government Officer for Science, wherehe met and married Trudie, his boss’s daughter.
But not all his recollections werehappy ones. Life became much darker when his dear wife was beaten to death byan insane street hawker in Grayschapel. She was carrying their first child. Thecase was solved when the killer attacked a group of children at Friar’s Gatestation. This brute of a man was arrested and executed in Gallows Pole prison.But justice did not stay his pain. He remembered many subsequent years ofburying himself in his work – making great advances in the field of occultbiology – and privately grieving for his wife and child. Aged forty five, hewas made a member of the Royal Society, a great honour, and publisheddistinguished papers that speculated on methods of transformation of the humanform. Then he'd received a lucrative private commission from the wealthy LordPercy Valentine. He'd travelled to Brimstone Manor, met his beautiful wifeRowena and began building his greatest achievement, the Scrinium Regenerationis...
Bill was shocked. He’d finallydiscovered who he was and it all seemed so strange. Such a long time ago! He’djust got used to himself as a young lad, a student, but now he was somebodyelse entirely – a distinguished middle-aged scientist from Victorian England.It was scary knowing he had such a strange past, but in the end he was gladhe’d finally discovered the truth. He was still Bill, but now a different Bill.
He got out of bed, pulled on flaredblack trousers, white shirt and paisley cravat, and went downstairs to tellArthur his unbelievable news. As he went into the living room he saw Mordredrunning a feather duster over the bookcases. Beryl and Doctor van Devlin wereon the chesterfield, looking at him with anxious anticipation.
“Saints be praised,” said Doctor vanDevlin. “The injection was not fatal.”
“Well?” said Beryl. “Did it work? Areyour memories restored?”
“Yes, full restored. I remember everything.”
“Excellent.”
“Why didn’t you tell me who I wasbefore?”
“Would you have believed me?”
Bill considered this and shook hishead. “Where’s Arthur?”
“Your little friend has been takencare of,” said Doctor van Devlin.
“What’s that supposed to mean? He’snot harmed I hope?”
“Don’t worry,” said Beryl. “He isquite well. When you slipped into the transtemic state he got very agitated andtroublesome, so Frank took him off. He’s with the Choral Society, in their safekeeping.”
“I want to see him.”
“You will stay here. You are to startwork.”
“I’m leaving! I need to see Arthur.”
“Mordred, the Persuader if youplease,” said Beryl.
Mordred reached a hand inside his suitand pulled out a short wooden cudgel. He looked at Bill and held it up.
Bill wanted to make a run for it butrealised the lethal looking thing in Mordred’s hand could do a lot of damage.He was a prisoner.
“Sit down,” said Beryl indicating achair by the fire. She pressed William Whitebeam’s journal into his hands. “Youneed to find out what went wrong, work out how to fix the cabinet.”
He reluctantly opened the journal andstudied the contents. What a difference in perception from the last time he’dgazed at these pages! Now the whole thing made perfect sense. The scrawledhandwriting was done in his own hand, as were the diagrams. Studying theseintellectual ruminations from his former life, Bill couldn’t help but becomeengrossed, despite his concerns for Arthur.
He sat by the fire for many hours –with Mordred supplying food and drink – and read through his journal countlesstimes. He knew that his cabinet had some fatal flaw – he’d come out of it amuch younger version of himself – but despite considering every aspect offormula, construction and execution he couldn’t see why the Scrinium Regenerationis wasn’t working. After afew more increasingly frustrating hours he snapped the book closed and sighedheavily. It was hopeless! He’d failed to see an error in his calculations.
He got up and paced theroom.
“I shall call ProfessorNox,” said Beryl. “Have him administer some more serum. Maybe your memory isstill fogged.”
“Lady, I am well,” saidBill.
He considered one of the longmathematic formulas in the book and with a blinding flash of inspiration couldsee a tiny error. How could he have missed it!
“More magnesium ions, of course!That’s the answer,” he said with some excitement.
Beryl looked hopeful. “Are you sayingyou know how to fix it?”
“I think so, yes. All we need is avery subtle change to the chemical mix – the subject will be brought back thesame age
