Somewhere Else Entirely

6 - A World of Machines

Garia struggles to make Morlan understand her world but it seems the gulf may be too great. She discusses her predicament with the King and later discovers some interesting side effects of her new body...

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Morlan scowled when Keren followed Garia through his study door but made no other comment. She stood in front of the desk and took a deep breath.

"Master Morlan, I apologize if anything that I said this morning caused you offense. I am unfamiliar with your language and I may have accidentally said something in such a way that it had a different meaning to what I intended."

"Very well, Mistress," Morlan replied. The polite apology surprised him, and he began to revise his opinion of the young woman standing in front of him. He stood and gave her a short bow. "We will say no more about the matter. If you would seat yourself." His eyes went questioning to the Prince, standing behind Garia.

"Since Mistress Garia is not entirely familiar with our language," Keren said, "I have come to provide any assistance she may require. I trust that this meets with your approval, Master Morlan?"

Since Morlan could hardly refuse the presence of the Prince, he graciously assented and Keren brought another chair to put beside Garia. As before, Jenet remained unnoticed in the background, but even she felt more comfortable with the Prince in the room. Once Keren had seated himself Garia began to speak.

"Over lunch I have given consideration to my position in this time and place," she said, raising Morlan's eyebrows with her choice of phrase. "I believe that I can resolve some of the difficulties which you perceive, Master Morlan, but that may make the answers you seek harder for you to understand, not easier."

Morlan waved a hand to indicate that she should proceed, but there was skepticism plain to see on his face.

"Firstly," Garia said, "there is the question of my age. I have realized that it is possible that we may both have been correct. Can I ask you, how many days there are in a year?"

"Why, three hundred ninety one of course," Morlan said. "Any child knows that."

Garia shook her head. "Not on my world, there aren't." She stood and gestured at the blackboard. "If I may?"

Morlan nodded. This nonsense again! But he was interested to see what she would do.

Garia strode to the board and found a cloth to wipe out her name before using the chalk to calculate the age she would be here. This was tricky, as she didn't know exactly when she had departed from Earth, but she decided to use her seventeenth birthday which was recent enough for the present purpose. She rapidly multiplied and divided, Morlan watching her with astonishment.

"That looks like... fifteen years and eight-tenths of a year," she said finally. She made another calculation. "...and that eight-tenths of a year is about three hundred forty-four days."

Morlan and Keren had got up and now stood either side of her.

"Fascinating," Morlan said. "I don't think I could have made the calculation that quickly. These are what your numbers look like?"

"Yes, Master Morlan."

"And how long is your year, in this calculation?"

"Three hundred sixty-five days plus a little under a quarter."

"I see." Morlan turned to Garia. "It seems I also owe you an apology, then, assuming this information is real, of course." He gestured. "Shall we sit down again?"

"That was my next point," Garia said after they had regained their seats. "Whether my information is real or not. Master Morlan, you have to consider this from my point of view, if you can attempt to do that. There are a number of possibilities as I see it. Firstly, I might be insane, as you have been suggesting, and that any previous existence I might be remembering never really happened, that I might have always been part of this world."