TRAIN FLIGHT

In the spaceless realm of the time vortex, the Captain and his crew were in trouble. There had been a thud from the Train’s mechanics. Usually, a gentle thud was normal after taking off, but this thud had sent the three travellers buckling to the floor of the strange, little spacecraft, and there had been a lot of turbulence following. “My controls aren’t working!” the Captain told his little crew. “Nothing I’m doing is making the slightest difference!” Having come to the conclusion that the controls were locked, the Captain told Evelyn and Paulo to start feeding the Train’s furnace with Carnane fuel. “Shovel in as much as you can fit! We need to try and get some thrust from somewhere!” There was a special stash of Carnane fuel in the floor in between the engine room and the cozy, old fashioned single carriage of the Train. While Evie and Paulo worked like a machine, shovelling in the coal as fast as they could, the Captain managed to get a reading of the controls. “This makes no sense,” he said to himself. “These controls are never wrong!” “What’s it say?” Evie shouted. “It says we’re going back in time. And really, really fast! I can’t stop it! 1991, 1973, 1805, 1633, 1211, 321...you’d better get down on the floor, quick! I don’t know when this girl’s going to stop, but it’s certainly going to be a big crash!” “But the furnace...” “Leave it now, you’ll have to!!” Now every time traveller knows that a time crash is much more dangerous than a physical crash–like something dropping from a great height. So as Evie and Paulo closed and secured the furnace door, the Captain made one last attempt to regain control of his Train. But it was no use. He crouched down on the floor as he’d commanded the others to do and said, “God protect us!” and then waited for the inevitable to happen. The ‘crash’ was considerably smoother than what he expected. One could hardly even call it a crash at all. There was a long... silent... wait. “Was that it?” said Evie, afraid to open her eyes. The Captain opened one of his, and glanced around at his all-in-one-piece Train. He opened his other eye and began to get up. Typically, he left Evie in suspense by not replying, and merely looked over the control deck and navigated his hand over all the controls. This was something he did often. If he was blindfolded he would still be able to find every one of the Train’s controls just by touch. He’d probably even be able to fly it. Running a hand over the control deck gave him a sort of comfortable feeling. A familiarity. A feeling of being at home. However, as comfortable as it made him feel–especially so, now that the Train was still in one piece–the controls were still locked. It was just like a computer when it’s frozen, only you can’t just turn it off and on again. Evie and Paulo stood up slowly, balancing themselves by walking their hands up the wall. “Every-everything alright?” asked Evie, timidly. The Captain just frowned down at his controls. She tried again, “Captain, what’s...what’s happened?” She waited. Then a smidgen of her timidity vanished. “How come I can hear my voice but no one else can?” “I can hear you, Evelyn,” he said, without looking up, “but technically you shouldn’t even be here, so I shouldn’t have to be answering your questions.” Evie was hit hard. This Captain that she’d only met a day and a half ago was so unpredictable. One minute, he was really nice and the next, he could seem so cold. But then he looked up and his eyes met hers. One side of his mouth curled up slightly and he said softly, “I’m sorry. You were going home, and now you’re far from it. “You’re only fourteen and I was supposed to be taking you home.” Afraid, but trying not to show it, Evie tilted her head slightly to one side and said, “Where are we?” The Captain, leaning back against the control deck, was plain and straightforward. “We’re in the year 4 B.C.” “Is it... necessary to leave the Train?” asked Paulo. “Are you kidding?” said Evie. “We’re two thousand and... fourteen years back in time. This has got to be the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me. Of course it’s necessary!” She got a rush of nervous excitement as her foot trod down on the ground from inside the Train. She wasn’t even born yet and her foot made an impression in the soft grass. “Hang on,” she said, “what planet are we on?” “Two thousand and fifteen to be precise and it’ll make a nice double surprise for Paulo. We’re on Earth.” “Earth,” Evie said, trying to get her head around it. “Earth, in 4 B.C.” “This is Earth?” asked Paulo–also with nervous excitement, (but a tad more nervous than excited). “It doesn’t look any different from 2011 so far,” said Evie. “Why is it that we can’t see your spaceship, Captain?” Paulo asked. He’d wondered that for a long time now, but this had been the first appropriate moment to ask. “It’s the paint,” he said. “It’s not invisible,” Evie added, “You can actually see its surface.” “The paint causes an optical illusion and your eye sees whatever it expects to see behind the Train. There’s nothing but countryside out here and your eyes fill in the big gap where the Train is.” “I know what your next question is,” Evie said, with a smile, “and it’s because the Captain wears special glasses and sometimes his driving-goggle things, so that he can see it whenever he wants to. It’s only through the lenses that you can see it.” “I’ve never heard of anything so ingenious. The perfect hiding place, anywhere you go.” “It doesn’t stop people bumping into it, though.”