Phil Brown
Writes as Wyken Seagrave
After extensive reader feedback I am completely re-writing Time Crystal. I've thrown away the first 30,000 words. This is how it starts now. Your comments gratefully received.
'Open your eyes, Samuel.'
Sam lay trembling with shock and fear and rage, his eyes and his mind firmly closed against Michael's command.
'I know you can hear me, Sam. Come on! We don't have much time. Don't you want to save the world?'
Sam's rage boiled over. 'That's rich, coming from you!' he screamed, opening his eyes and looking up. 'It was you put the Earth in danger in the first place!' Above him the black sky was dotted with thousands of planets, most of them so far away and tiny, but one was very close, filling half the sky. He felt he could reach out and touch the little blue clouds floating above the pink ocean. Sam lifted his head off the hard surface beneath him and looked round. He did not see Michael, but what he saw sent a shiver of fear down his spine.
He was balanced precariously between the flat ends of two enormous slivers of crystal. Through their transparent blueness he could see them tapering away below him and joining with hundreds of others to form an enormous geometrical grid that surrounded him.
The blue clouds had all gone and he could clearly see the pink water, so far below him it looked as smooth as a billiard ball. A long oval shadow, bending with the curvature of the planet, was the only feature visible from this height. Sam shivered again as he imagined what would happen if the crystals moved and he fell through the gap. The grid reached out over the ocean, curving downwards until it finally disappeared behind the distant horizon.
'I'm over here, Sam,' he heard Michael say. Sam raised his head and looked around. A gigantic oval body hung, white and bloated against the black sky. Hundreds of blue crystals enclosed it, trapping it like a fish in a net. Sam could see two tiny arms and legs sticking out of the smooth curving flanks like fins. A gondola hung down near the back in the shape of a man's private parts. A monumental face was carved on the front like a ship's figure-head. It still belonged unmistakably to Michael Zhang. Then the heavy, oriental eyes turned towards him, the thin cruel lips opened and Sam heard Michael's voice say 'Now stand up. I need your help and there's not much time.'
'My help?' Sam said in disbelief. 'I'm not helping you, Zhang, after everything you've done--'
'Do not use that name!' A darkness suffused Michael's gigantic face. 'I used to be Michael Zhang, but now you will call me Lord.'
'You? I certainly will not!' Michael had been odd before, but now he had gone totally insane.
Michael's eyes narrowed. 'I am as wise as what you would call a god. You don't believe me? I can easily prove it. For example, I know everything about you. You are Samuel James Fitzpatrick. You were born at 23 Old Blackrock Road, Cork, at 2:54 in the afternoon of 7th of July 1959. Your father was James Rossiman Fitzpatrick and your mother was Irene Juliet Blanding. You lived there for the first six years of your life. Then on August 9th, 1965 your family moved to Limerick and you went...'
Sam couldn't believe it as every detail of his past was reeled out, including many facts he didn't even know himself but which all had the ring of truth. And when Michael described his father's infidelity with a neighbour, a close family secret, and correctly stated the woman's name, Sam was convinced. 'Stop!' he cried. 'How do you know all this?'
'I know everything, Samuel. Everything! The things I have told you so far are trivial. I know the deepest secrets of what man calls the Universe. Every secret that science struggled to understand has been revealed to me. Now call me Lord.'
Sam stared at Michael's bloated body, oval as an airship, large as a planet, naked and obscene. How could he use such a word for such a monster?
'If you do not acknowledge me as your Lord then when I get free from this mesh I will destroy you.'
'Please do! I don't care. I've lost everything. Death would be a mercy.'
'So you do not want to save the world? You do not care about your wife and family?'
Michael's words cut into Sam's heart. He suddenly saw his step-daughter's face, her ginger hair sticking out in wild disarray, her eyes lost and confused. 'You mean the world hasn't been destroyed?'
'Not yet, but it will be if we do not act fast. Now are you going to help me or not?'
'Is Catriona still alive?'
'That's what I want you to find out. Stand up!'
Sam had no choice. If the world could still be saved, if Catriona was still alive, then he had to help her, no matter how much he hated Michael. He pushed against the smooth crystal faces and tried to get to his feet. Immediately he slipped and fell heavily back into the little valley between the huge crystals. He lay as still as he could, terrified they would separate and he would fall through the gap.
'Take your shoes and socks off,' Michael said softly.
Sam removed his footwear and managed to stand with one foot on each crystal face, afraid his weight would push them apart and much relieved when they did not move. He was at the junction of dozens of blue crystal shards. They surrounded him, layer upon layer of transparent blue polygons, twisted at crazy angles.
'Look down the middle of each crystal,' Michael told him.
As Sam looked around he began to understand what he was seeing. He was inside a hollow crystal ball with flat faces, like a large football but with many more sides. It was formed by the flat ends of dozens of crystal shards which pointed inwards towards him. Their edges fitted neatly together except for a gap just above his head, where one crystal appeared to be missing. He could see the black sky through the triangular hole. He guessed the absent crystal was the one that Michael had smashed.
'Look into the centres of the crystals, Sam. What can you see?'
Sam's eyes moved across the crystal faces, uncertain what he was supposed to see. To his astonishment he caught a glimpse of a small rectangular box floating like a ghost far down inside one of the crystals surrounding him. He leaned sideways to get a better view and lost sight of it. It was only visible when his head was in exactly the right position, looking straight down the centre of the shard.
He was puzzled. Was it really a box? Carefully, trying not to overbalance, he felt inside his jacket. He was surprised and somehow comforted, to feel his spectacles still safely tucked away in his shirt pocket. He put them on. The box was a blue metal cabinet with two doors, the sort you might see in a smart garage workshop, but very small or very far away. He could just make out that its doors were dented, as if they had been hit several times.
It was obvious he was seeing something that belonged on the Earth. At the sight of it Sam's heart leaped. This was beyond his wildest hopes. Eagerly he turned and looked into another crystal. At first he saw nothing but by moving his head and closing one eye he found a red metal box with a cone sticking out of one end and some pipes out of the other. It was fixed to a white concrete wall.
Sam felt a strong mixture of apprehension and excitement. How could he see things which seemed so earthly, so human, when he clearly was not on the Earth? He longed to see more. He began to glance quickly into the other crystals. In one he saw a yellow metal girder, in another some tapering flat brown plates. Other crystals showed thick cables and a blue metal balcony. The more he saw, the more he had a feeling these were parts of the ATLAS cavern. It was not a place he was familiar with. He had only spent a half-hour or so in there, it had been dark and a lot had been going on, but when he saw a red cabinet with the word 'Savox' on the door he was sure it must be the cavern. They had passed a cabinet like this when they had first come into the cavern and walked along the balcony. These were almost certainly images of the same place. He was astonished. How was it possible--
'What can you see, Sam?' The anxiety in Michael's voice was palpable.
'I think I can see the cavern.'
'Call me Lord.'
'I think I can see the cavern, Lord.'
'I knew it!' Michael's voice was triumphant. 'Which parts?'
Sam was beginning to tire, his legs spread between the sloping crystal faces, his arms outstretched to balance, but he managed to find again the blue cabinet with the dented doors, the red box hanging from the wall, the yellow girder, and described each one in turn. He was still looking for the Savox cabinet when his legs gave way and he fell, trembling with exhaustion, to the crystal floor.
'Did you see any people?' Michael asked.
'No.'
'Have you looked through every crystal?'
'Not yet.'
'You must look into all of them.'
Sam longed to see Catriona. If only she was alive, it would give him something to live for. Once again he struggled to his feet, wondering why there was this urgency, and began to peer into the crystals, moving around and trying to check them all methodically. It was after about ten or a dozen crystals that he saw Maria Kissov.
More available on Time Crystal
'Open your eyes, Samuel.'
Sam lay trembling with shock and fear and rage, his eyes and his mind firmly closed against Michael's command.
'I know you can hear me, Sam. Come on! We don't have much time. Don't you want to save the world?'
Sam's rage boiled over. 'That's rich, coming from you!' he screamed, opening his eyes and looking up. 'It was you put the Earth in danger in the first place!' Above him the black sky was dotted with thousands of planets, most of them so far away and tiny, but one was very close, filling half the sky. He felt he could reach out and touch the little blue clouds floating above the pink ocean. Sam lifted his head off the hard surface beneath him and looked round. He did not see Michael, but what he saw sent a shiver of fear down his spine.
He was balanced precariously between the flat ends of two enormous slivers of crystal. Through their transparent blueness he could see them tapering away below him and joining with hundreds of others to form an enormous geometrical grid that surrounded him.
The blue clouds had all gone and he could clearly see the pink water, so far below him it looked as smooth as a billiard ball. A long oval shadow, bending with the curvature of the planet, was the only feature visible from this height. Sam shivered again as he imagined what would happen if the crystals moved and he fell through the gap. The grid reached out over the ocean, curving downwards until it finally disappeared behind the distant horizon.
'I'm over here, Sam,' he heard Michael say. Sam raised his head and looked around. A gigantic oval body hung, white and bloated against the black sky. Hundreds of blue crystals enclosed it, trapping it like a fish in a net. Sam could see two tiny arms and legs sticking out of the smooth curving flanks like fins. A gondola hung down near the back in the shape of a man's private parts. A monumental face was carved on the front like a ship's figure-head. It still belonged unmistakably to Michael Zhang. Then the heavy, oriental eyes turned towards him, the thin cruel lips opened and Sam heard Michael's voice say 'Now stand up. I need your help and there's not much time.'
'My help?' Sam said in disbelief. 'I'm not helping you, Zhang, after everything you've done--'
'Do not use that name!' A darkness suffused Michael's gigantic face. 'I used to be Michael Zhang, but now you will call me Lord.'
'You? I certainly will not!' Michael had been odd before, but now he had gone totally insane.
Michael's eyes narrowed. 'I am as wise as what you would call a god. You don't believe me? I can easily prove it. For example, I know everything about you. You are Samuel James Fitzpatrick. You were born at 23 Old Blackrock Road, Cork, at 2:54 in the afternoon of 7th of July 1959. Your father was James Rossiman Fitzpatrick and your mother was Irene Juliet Blanding. You lived there for the first six years of your life. Then on August 9th, 1965 your family moved to Limerick and you went...'
Sam couldn't believe it as every detail of his past was reeled out, including many facts he didn't even know himself but which all had the ring of truth. And when Michael described his father's infidelity with a neighbour, a close family secret, and correctly stated the woman's name, Sam was convinced. 'Stop!' he cried. 'How do you know all this?'
'I know everything, Samuel. Everything! The things I have told you so far are trivial. I know the deepest secrets of what man calls the Universe. Every secret that science struggled to understand has been revealed to me. Now call me Lord.'
Sam stared at Michael's bloated body, oval as an airship, large as a planet, naked and obscene. How could he use such a word for such a monster?
'If you do not acknowledge me as your Lord then when I get free from this mesh I will destroy you.'
'Please do! I don't care. I've lost everything. Death would be a mercy.'
'So you do not want to save the world? You do not care about your wife and family?'
Michael's words cut into Sam's heart. He suddenly saw his step-daughter's face, her ginger hair sticking out in wild disarray, her eyes lost and confused. 'You mean the world hasn't been destroyed?'
'Not yet, but it will be if we do not act fast. Now are you going to help me or not?'
'Is Catriona still alive?'
'That's what I want you to find out. Stand up!'
Sam had no choice. If the world could still be saved, if Catriona was still alive, then he had to help her, no matter how much he hated Michael. He pushed against the smooth crystal faces and tried to get to his feet. Immediately he slipped and fell heavily back into the little valley between the huge crystals. He lay as still as he could, terrified they would separate and he would fall through the gap.
'Take your shoes and socks off,' Michael said softly.
Sam removed his footwear and managed to stand with one foot on each crystal face, afraid his weight would push them apart and much relieved when they did not move. He was at the junction of dozens of blue crystal shards. They surrounded him, layer upon layer of transparent blue polygons, twisted at crazy angles.
'Look down the middle of each crystal,' Michael told him.
As Sam looked around he began to understand what he was seeing. He was inside a hollow crystal ball with flat faces, like a large football but with many more sides. It was formed by the flat ends of dozens of crystal shards which pointed inwards towards him. Their edges fitted neatly together except for a gap just above his head, where one crystal appeared to be missing. He could see the black sky through the triangular hole. He guessed the absent crystal was the one that Michael had smashed.
'Look into the centres of the crystals, Sam. What can you see?'
Sam's eyes moved across the crystal faces, uncertain what he was supposed to see. To his astonishment he caught a glimpse of a small rectangular box floating like a ghost far down inside one of the crystals surrounding him. He leaned sideways to get a better view and lost sight of it. It was only visible when his head was in exactly the right position, looking straight down the centre of the shard.
He was puzzled. Was it really a box? Carefully, trying not to overbalance, he felt inside his jacket. He was surprised and somehow comforted, to feel his spectacles still safely tucked away in his shirt pocket. He put them on. The box was a blue metal cabinet with two doors, the sort you might see in a smart garage workshop, but very small or very far away. He could just make out that its doors were dented, as if they had been hit several times.
It was obvious he was seeing something that belonged on the Earth. At the sight of it Sam's heart leaped. This was beyond his wildest hopes. Eagerly he turned and looked into another crystal. At first he saw nothing but by moving his head and closing one eye he found a red metal box with a cone sticking out of one end and some pipes out of the other. It was fixed to a white concrete wall.
Sam felt a strong mixture of apprehension and excitement. How could he see things which seemed so earthly, so human, when he clearly was not on the Earth? He longed to see more. He began to glance quickly into the other crystals. In one he saw a yellow metal girder, in another some tapering flat brown plates. Other crystals showed thick cables and a blue metal balcony. The more he saw, the more he had a feeling these were parts of the ATLAS cavern. It was not a place he was familiar with. He had only spent a half-hour or so in there, it had been dark and a lot had been going on, but when he saw a red cabinet with the word 'Savox' on the door he was sure it must be the cavern. They had passed a cabinet like this when they had first come into the cavern and walked along the balcony. These were almost certainly images of the same place. He was astonished. How was it possible--
'What can you see, Sam?' The anxiety in Michael's voice was palpable.
'I think I can see the cavern.'
'Call me Lord.'
'I think I can see the cavern, Lord.'
'I knew it!' Michael's voice was triumphant. 'Which parts?'
Sam was beginning to tire, his legs spread between the sloping crystal faces, his arms outstretched to balance, but he managed to find again the blue cabinet with the dented doors, the red box hanging from the wall, the yellow girder, and described each one in turn. He was still looking for the Savox cabinet when his legs gave way and he fell, trembling with exhaustion, to the crystal floor.
'Did you see any people?' Michael asked.
'No.'
'Have you looked through every crystal?'
'Not yet.'
'You must look into all of them.'
Sam longed to see Catriona. If only she was alive, it would give him something to live for. Once again he struggled to his feet, wondering why there was this urgency, and began to peer into the crystals, moving around and trying to check them all methodically. It was after about ten or a dozen crystals that he saw Maria Kissov.
More available on Time Crystal
Good luck. 