Temporal Exploring 101 - Deep Future

IV.6 No, you can't

"No, you can't, Natalie," Professor Sara Jenkins repeated.

Even with the rather limited bandwidth of a normal transmission over the ansible line, it was not difficult to discern that my Temporal Instructor was starting to sound exasperated.

"But that's not fair. How come Cathy can transit back to the 23rd century for a few days and I am not allowed to accompany her?" Natty complained.

"We already explained to you at length that Catherine needs to return in order to  testify before the Foreign Politics Committee," Sara replied. "The importance and necessity of that ought to be obvious, in light of what happened here just two weeks ago."

She was of course referring to the autarchy's failed attempt of a military invasion of the Cities of the Alliance. It was an incident unprecedented in human history. From their own temporal era, a time more than a thousand years in our future, the autarch had sent his elite military forces to the early 23rd century, in a – as it turned out, misguided and ill-fated – attempt to conquer our Cities.

They had only managed that because of the carelessness of one of our own temporal explorers who had been working in the 1920s, an inexperienced young guy by the name of Elroy Hodgkins who had made the nearly fatal mistake of inadvertently drawing the attention of a team sent to the 1920s by the autarchy. Those agents had seized the young idiot and pressured him into revealing his true identity. Needless to say they had lost no time to inform their superiors back home in the deep future about their findings.

According to Hodgkin's later testimony, he had only revealed the bare essentials to them about my people's civilization. Regardless, the autarch and his advisors had devised and implemented a plan to conquer. As a first step, a large contingent of the autarch's elite troops – the Hounds – had transited to the 1920s. After that had been accomplished, they had forced the young man to contact his Temporal Instructor, Professor Levitt, under the pretext that his own life was in imminent danger.

Levitt and the people at the Transit Center had initiated an emergence retrieve. I imagine it must have been a terrible surprise for them when foreign elite soldiers had materialized on the transit pad. The Hounds had swiftly taken control of the building and had forced the technicians to assist in the transit of the remainder of the military troops.

The Hounds had then commenced to venture into the streets of our City, creating havoc and killing innocent passersby. They had even succeeded to invade several of our neighbor Cities before the spook had finally ended the next day when Special Forces had engaged them and driven them back to the Transit Facilities where the Levitt and the technicians were still being held hostage by the invaders. Shocked by the obvious technological superiority of the opposing forces, the Hounds had taken their dead and their wounded and had retreated to the 1920s, and from there presumably to their own temporal era.

Natty was looking mutinous. "I understand all about that. I understand that your people would wish Cathy to tell them all she had learned about the autarchy and the Hounds. But that doesn't mean I can't accompany her. There were no problems, technical or otherwise, when Cathy took me with her, last time she returned to the 23rd century."

"You and Catherine were trapped inside a building that had been set on fire at that time, Natalie. And even considering these dire circumstances one has admit that Catherine went against the most basic rules and regulations of temporal exploring when she brought you with her to the Institute in order to save you from dying in that fire." Sara cleared her throat.  "You need to understand that we are doing temporal research here, Natalie. We are not running a shuttle service for people eager to visit the 23rd century."

Natty did not reply to that. But she had her arms folded in front of her chest, and she was pouting.

"Besides, you are not even going to miss Catherine for any significant length of time," Sara continued, in a milder tone of voice. "She will stay at the Institute for a couple of days, but we shall see to it that she returns to your dorm room only a few minutes after she left, in your local time."

"But that's not the point here," Natty complained . "The point is that I want to visit the Institute of Temporal Physics again, myself."

"Well, you can't do that, Natalie. Consider what would happen if one of my colleagues were to find out that we brought you here from the past – not even to save your life but merely in order to indulge you in your curiosity ... The consequences for Catherine and for me, and even for Mira, do not bear thinking about."

"Hear, hear," her grad student Mira said. I had not known that she was listening in, as she had remained uncharacteristically quiet up to that point.

"But let's get back to you now, Catherine," Sara continued. "I shall want a detailed report from you while you are at the Institute. Also, we need to discuss in some detail what and how much of that you will need to tell the members of the committee."

"Sure." Truth to tell, I was not exactly looking forward to my appearance in front of that committee.

At least, we were not talking about the ethics committee.

"Good. I would like you to transit as soon as possible, Catherine. Preferably today. Do you need to make any preparations?"

"Let's see. No, I don't think so. Except I shall need a few minutes to get dressed."

I heard Mira snort on the other end of the line. "Are you naked, Cathy?"

"Sort of. I mean, I just took a shower."

"Uh huh."

Sara cleared her throat. "We shall prepare to have you transit in half an hour, Catherine. Would that be okay for you?"

"Yes, of course."

Thirty minutes later, I was standing by the window, now properly dressed in my school uniform, holding the ansible. The small gadget's green LED was flashing, accompanied by an insistent beep, as the device was getting ready for transit.

A sphere of blue light, a few meters in diameter, formed around me.

Natty was watching me intently. I noticed that she was no longer sulking or pouting. In fact, she was smiling.

I frowned. I knew that particular kind of smile. Natty was up to something, no doubt about  that.

"Um, Natty," I began. "What exactly .. Oh no." I broke off when I realized what she was planning to do. Belatedly, I took a step away from her. "Oh no, you don't."

It was too late. Natty flung herself at me and clung to me. I lost my balance, toppled and landed on my butt.

"Are you quite mad?" I shouted, just as temporal transit set in.

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