Time's Chariot

Hossein Asaldra. ‘No, don’t bother. The complaint came from this office so the apology comes from me. And he wasn’t masquerading, he was there by appointment to retrieve an item of equipment. He probably doesn’t want it docked from his pay. Had that occurred to you?’

‘As you will.’ Asaldra seemed to dismiss the subject for something he found far more interesting. ‘If you’ve got a moment to project, Commissioner, there’s something I thought you might like to see.’

Marje was infuriated by the complete lack of interest shown in his change of subject. ‘What?’ she snapped.

‘Only something that could clear up a mystery several centuries old. Are you interested?’

The cavern was still hazy with smoke, and the technicians and Security Ops moving around in it, studying the slagged remains of the equipment, wore breathing gear. The eidolons of Marje and Asaldra were unaffected.

‘That’s…’ Marje said, gesturing at the object in the centre of the cavern.

‘It’s a transference chamber, yes.’ Asaldra actually had a hint of excitement in his voice. ‘Essentially the same as the type we use nowadays, though the design is more basic.’

Marje looked around her. The walls were smooth but still had the look of having been hacked out of bedrock, and were lined with equipment. It reeked of antiquity, if antiquity was the word — it couldn’t pre-date the College, and the College was only four hundred years old. ‘What is this place?’ she said.

‘I think it’s where Morbern did his original experiments.’

Marje let out a whistle. It made sense. Jean Morbern had come to the Antarctic in the first place because he wasn’t sure how dangerous his experiments might be to other people; going underground as well would be one more sensible precaution. ‘And it’s been running all this time?’

‘Apparently. But all the machines were just ticking over, and everyone thought the power was being used by something else so no one ever checked. All the tunnels to it were blocked off, which helped.’

‘What changed?’ Marje said. She should be getting back to work — she oughtn’t to have time to spare to investigate strange caverns that had suddenly been discovered — but she was caught up by the mystery nonetheless.

‘This.’ Asaldra indicated a nearby bank of equipment which was still gently steaming. ‘A sudden power surge was picked up and Maintenance sent some people to investigate. They found this place. Something must have given and this meltdown resulted.’

‘That’s some surge,’ Marje said. ‘Didn’t Morbern use a clever twenty-sixth century device called a fuse?’ Asaldra just shrugged. ‘Well, there goes the museum exhibit.’

‘A lot of the equipment seems to be duplicated,’ Asaldra said. ‘If the museums want a console that Morbern sat at, there’s plenty more left.’

‘Hmm.’ The suspicion growing in Marje’s mind was so inevitable she couldn’t believe she had been the first to have it. ‘Hossein, could this equipment have been used?’

‘All College personnel are accounted for,’ he said. ‘I checked.’

‘They’re all here?’ Marje said sceptically.

‘They are either in the Home Time or they left it via an authorized chamber.’

‘There are non-College personnel at the College.’ It was a ghastly thought, but it had to be said. Non-College personnel, non-adherents to Morbern’s Code, unleashed on the past… a nightmare scenario.

He paused. Perhaps that point hadn’t occurred to him. ‘I don’t think anyone else would have been able to work it, Commissioner. Look at this.’ Their eidolons moved towards one of the panels. ‘We’re all too used to asking the Register to set coordinates. Could you work out how to do it manually, this way? It would be difficult enough for one of us, and for someone not trained in the theory…’ His gaze moved to a point behind her and he drew himself up more smartly. ‘Good day, Commissioner.’

‘Good day, Hossein,’ said a man’s voice. Marje turned to see Yul Ario’s eidolon standing there, looking about him appreciatively. ‘Quite a place you’ve unearthed here.’

‘Maintenance unearthed it, sir,’ Asaldra said. ‘I just reported it.’

‘Yes, why?’ Marje said, suddenly curious. Fascinating though it was, it was nothing to do with her job, or Asaldra’s. Asaldra looked artlessly at her.

‘I thought you’d be interested,’ he said.

‘Quite right. This is history, Marje!’ Ario threw his arms wide to encompass the cavern. ‘A capsule of history right under the College, and we head the College. Of course we had to know about it. Well done, Hossein.’ He squinted up at the ceiling. ‘Speaking of under the College, which bit are we under?’

‘Residential and administrative. The Appalachian consulate and various others,’ Asaldra said.

‘Really? Well, I can see you’ve got everything under control, Hossein,’ Ario said. If he had spoken to Marje in that patronizing tone, Marje would have hit him, but it seemed to go down well with Asaldra, who didn’t show the least sign of irritation. And the subject of irritating people led Marje inevitably to think of Op Garron, so she made her apologies and withdrew.

Marje had only met Garron once before, but still she hadn’t been entirely accurate when she had told Ario she could pass the Field Op in the corridor without recognizing him. In the eidolon the blond stubbly hair and burning eyes hadn’t changed. It was satisfying to note that when she had seen him in Daiho’s apartment he had looked smug; now he just looked wary.

‘Yes?’ he said.

‘Acting Commissioner Orendal,’ Marje said.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I remember.’ His voice was a lot colder than it had been before.

‘I hope this isn’t a bad time to call?’

‘I’m just off on a field trip.’

‘I’ll be quick, then. I owe you an apology, Op Garron.’

That took him by surprise. ‘Really?’

‘I gather a complaint was made against you that resulted in a reprimand. I’m sorry and I apologize on behalf of my office. The complaint didn’t come from me.’

‘Really?’ Garron repeated. ‘Could I ask who, then, Commissioner?’

‘An over-zealous subordinate. It won’t happen again.’

Garron didn’t say anything but his expression made clear his opinion of that particular promise. ‘Is my record going to be altered?’ he said innocently.

The thought had occurred to Marje, but it was a sad fact of office politics that such things didn’t happen. A really serious mistake would have led to an enquiry, Asaldra’s disciplining and the altering of the record, but this sadly wasn’t that serious and Asaldra didn’t deserve that level of rebuke. And the system didn’t allow for the correction of more minor errors.

Op Garron, she suspected, knew all this perfectly well, so she didn’t answer the question. ‘I’d like to make up for it in some way,’ she said.

‘Well, you could find my computer…’

‘You mean, you never did?’

‘Didn’t have time before Security kindly showed me the way out. Some other Field Op will have it now, and the data’ll have been erased anyway.’

‘Have you tried chasing it up?’

‘I keep checking at the wrong time. All I ever get is a 'that item is not presently located in the Home Time', any time of day or night. I can take a hint.’

‘I’ll find it for you,’ Marje promised. ‘That’s the least I can do.’

Garron still looked unimpressed. ‘Can I go now, Acting Commissioner?’

‘If you like.’ Marje was struck by inspiration, remembering her conversation with the other Commissioners about sponsors. ‘Listen, it’s possible I’m going to make patrician, and I’ll have vacancies for sponsorship…’

She almost flinched at the sheer hate in his expression. ‘Thank you, that won’t be necessary,’ he said. ‘Out.’ He vanished.

Well, up yours too, Op Garron, she thought bitterly. So much for trying to help. She half stood, then sat down again. No, she would find that computer. She had decided she would help Garron, and she would, and if he got even more annoyed then so much the better.

She didn’t know when Garron had had the computer, so she symbed into the College records.

‘Request number of field computers signed out by both Field Op Rico Garron and Commissioner Li Daiho in