The Last Beginning

A story by Ella Walker, age 11

Clove Sutcliffe
& the

*Regency**

** Cyborg **

Found this in your drawer when I was looking for headphones. Totally not judging, but did you write fanfiction about me when you were little? – C x

NO, NO, NO! I THOUGHT I’D DESTROYED THIS. I have to go and have a very angry discussion with my mum. If you hear the sound of screaming, don’t worry, I’ll just be murdering her. Ella xx

Kate jumped in surprise when Ella and Clove arrived back in the motel room. “You’re back already? You were only gone thirty seconds!”

“Time travel,” Ella explained. “I had a great time sneaking up on Clove before she knew I had a Skim.”

“That’s how you were always so quiet in 1745!” Clove said, with dawning realization, thinking of the time Ella had found Clove in the stables and interrupted her when she’d been trying to get Matthew’s DNA. It seemed so much longer ago than a few days. “This makes so much more sense.”

Ella smiled. “It isn’t that complicated really. Clove and I are in love in the future, just like you and Matt are in love in the past.”

“That isn’t simple at all,” Clove interjected. “And stop telling people that we’re in love! We’re not!”

“Not yet,” Ella said with a cheeky grin. “And – speak for yourself.” She shot Clove a salacious look.

Turning red, Clove let out a loud sigh, hoping that it conveyed the heavy weight that all of Ella’s drama was adding to her life.

“Do you know my grandmothers?” Kate said, clearly eager to change the subject. “In your time?”

Clove shook her head. “I didn’t even know you and Matt were my parents until a few weeks ago. I don’t know anyone at all from your side of the family.”

“Oh,” Kate said in disappointment. “I wonder if they’re still alive in 2056. I hope they are. You would like them.”

“Maybe you can introduce me to them?” Clove said. The question made her nervous, but Kate just broke into a brilliantly bright smile.

“Of course! But … I think we should rescue Matt first. He’s been in prison for nine months now, after all.”

“Right,” Clove said, and turned on her watch. “Spart, have you managed to find out anything from the prison’s system?”

> I have successfully obtained access to the Wakefield network. Subject allocation “MATT”’s prison cell is number 345.

Kate lit up with joy. “That’s on Spart’s map! I knew my ancient one would be out of date by now. We can Skim right into the room! Is Skim a verb?” she asked Ella. “Can you Skim through time? It should be. It sounds magical and scientific all at once.”

Clove grinned to herself. She liked Kate a lot, especially now she wasn’t so sad. Instead, she was almost giddy with relief that they were so close to saving Matt.

> 345 is a single occupancy cell, so you should be able to gain access and remove “MATT” from the premises without being observed.

> The CCTV network was also decidedly simple to access. If I were more morally inclined, I might update the system for them.

“You’re just used to technology decades more advanced,” Clove pointed out.

Ella choked, and everyone turned to her in surprise. “Nothing!” she said. “Nothing. It’s just … ‘vintage software’. There’s a human/cyborg Regency romance novel called that in my time. Not that I … er … read those kinds of things.” Ella flushed red and suddenly became very interested in the design of the curtains.

“I definitely want to hear more about that later,” Clove told her. “But now is not the time. Kate, do you think this is going to work?”

Kate nodded. “We should set the wormhole to arrive at night, so we know he’ll be in his cell.”

Clove agreed. She sat down with Kate to make a plan, reluctantly looking away from the attractive shade of pink that Ella’s cheeks had turned.

By the time their strategy was ready, it was midnight. They decided to wait until tomorrow, because Clove couldn’t remember how long it had been since she’d last had a proper night’s sleep, and Kate was still recovering from childbirth.

Kate took one of the twin beds, so Clove and Ella were left with the other bed, which made Clove feel a little awkward. In the end, there was nothing to be nervous about. Ella kissed the tip of Clove’s nose, then fell asleep in seconds.

Clove watched her for a few minutes, taking in the long curl of her eyelashes against her cheeks in the dim glow of the streetlights through the curtains. She didn’t think she was in love with Ella, but then she didn’t have much of a comparison. She did like Ella a lot, and she liked the thought that one day they might be a couple, as in sync with each other as KateandMatt or TomandJen.

There was still so much she didn’t know about her, though. Besides, how would it even work, having a girlfriend who lived in the future? You couldn’t get more long distance than that. Would they be able to message each other when Ella went back to her own time? Could the Skim send emails through time?

“Matt,” Kate mumbled sadly in her sleep, and then rolled over and snorted out a dream-laugh. “My delicate flower,” she said affectionately.

If Kate and Matt could make it work over all of the years they’d been together, then maybe Clove and Ella wouldn’t have a problem.

The next morning, Kate woke Clove up before six. “Can we go now?” she asked, as Clove blinked sleepily and tried not to breathe morning-breath all over the place. “I’ve been lying awake for hours and I know it’s still early, but I need my Matt back. Please.”

Clove let go of Ella’s waist, which she’d somehow wrapped her arm around during the night. “All right,” she said, sitting up. “We can go. I need something to eat first, though.”

“Tell me about it!” Kate said, looking vindicated. “Matt doesn’t think it’s that weird, even though it’s so gross. But there’s still milk rationing because of the war.”

Ella, who was somehow still asleep, rolled over and pushed her arm over Clove’s stomach, mumbling something incoherent. Clove patted her consolingly on the head and began eating.

When they were ready to leave, Clove held Ella’s waist, then took Kate’s hand. Ella had entered the exact coordinates of Matt’s prison cell into the Skim, along with the time they wanted to arrive – about 1 a.m. that night. All the time jumps made Clove’s head spin.

Ella pressed the Skim on her wrist, and they were all sucked into the wormhole in a mess of limbs and sparks of phosphenes.

“No prison security against wormholes,” Ella whispered, shaking her head. “Amateurs.”

Once Clove’s vision had adjusted to the light, she could make out a door in front of her. As Clove touched the handle, an alarm sounded − a harsh klaxon that echoed all around them. A beam of scalding bright light shone down from the ceiling to reveal a long hallway lined with rows of metal doors. Prison cells, Clove realized. Somehow they had arrived in the corridor instead of in Matt’s cell.

“We’re on the wrong side of the door!” Clove had to yell to make herself heard over the blaring of the sirens.

Ella grabbed Kate’s hand and dived for Clove. Then they were gone, twisting around in another wormhole. Seconds later they reappeared somewhere else dark. The alarm was still screaming.

“On the other side of the door!” Ella replied. As she was speaking, the alarms cut out, and she found herself yelling into a sudden silence. “Oops,” she whispered.

Clove checked her watch, hoping Spart would have an explanation. “Spart, what’s going on? Can you shut down the security system?” If he didn’t, they would have only a matter of seconds to get Matt out before the guards arrived.

> I have succeeded in gaining control of the security system. I have cut off the CCTV feed for this floor. You’re not being recorded.

> I have also adjusted the records to state that the alarm was activated in a different cell block, so no guards should investigate here.

“Spart’s in the system,” Clove whispered to Kate and Ella. “We’re safe for now.”

Clove turned on her watch’s torch. A sparse prison cell became visible, with a narrow bed along one wall, and a sink in one corner. There was a figure sitting up in the bed.

“Matt!” Kate dived for the bed and the figure, wrapping her arms and legs around him. She pulled him into a kiss. Matt grabbed the back of her top in his fists so tightly that Clove could see the skin on his knuckles turn white. She widened her eyes in embarrassment at Ella, but Ella didn’t notice. She had her ear to the metal door of the cell, presumably listening for any sounds of movement outside.

“Here we go again,” Ella muttered, as Clove braced herself. She didn’t know if he would remember her or not. Kate remembered her past lives, but that didn’t mean Matt would.

“I know who you are,” Matt interrupted. He swallowed nervously. “Hello again, Clove. I haven’t seen you in three centuries.”

“You know who she is?” Kate asked. “How?” She couldn’t seem to stop running her hands over his arms, shoulders, through his hair.

He kissed her again. “I’ve been waiting for you since the alarms went off,” he said. “It took me a couple of months to sift through my memories from 1745, but eventually I remembered Clove, and how she took me – me in 1745, I mean – to the future. I knew you’d come for me, eventually. Or I hoped, anyway. I knew you were trying to find me.”

The idea of remembering a plan you’d been told three centuries earlier was so incredible that Clove wanted to ask a dozen follow-up questions, but this wasn’t the moment for a tearful reunion. “We should go, before the guards find us. Spart sent them on a wild-goose chase, but we don’t want to hang around, just in case.”

Ella immediately began setting up the coordinates on the Skim to take them back to the motel. “Everyone, come over here!” she called when she was ready.

Clove wrapped an arm around Ella’s waist again, leaning against her side. Kate took Ella’s free hand and Matt held onto Kate. Clove closed her eyes, preparing herself for the tug of the wormhole and savouring the joy of finally finding both of her parents.

After a few seconds, she opened her eyes. “Ella?” she asked. “Why are we still in the cell?”

“What? Why?” Clove leant in to look. Despite the tension of the situation, she was desperate to get her hands on the Skim and find out how the intricate technology worked.

“Quiet,” Ella said, her voice strained. Everyone held their breath while she pressed her wrist, trying to make something happen. The Skim’s glow had dimmed to a weak shine.

“I didn’t realize how much power it would take to transport so many people. I don’t have enough charge to get us all home.”

“What do we do?” Matt asked, a tremor of panic in his voice. “There aren’t any plug sockets in here.”

Ella nodded. After pulling a solar-powered battery out of her pocket, she showed Clove how it worked. It wasn’t that different to how Clove charged her watch.

“So we wait until dawn,” Clove said firmly, squeezing Ella’s hand. “It can charge when the sun rises, then we’ll be ready to go before anyone wakes up.”

“I don’t know how long it will take to charge,” Ella admitted. She looked wide-eyed and terrified. “It could be hours.”

“We can start now,” Kate said. She shone her tablet’s light on the solar panels of the battery charger. “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. Clove, use your computer’s light too.”

They all waited in silence. After what felt like an eternity, the battery percentage flicked up a single per cent.

“We’ll be OK,” Clove said, reassuring herself as much as anyone else. “This will work. It’s going to be OK.”

“What a great escape plan you lot came up with,” Matt said, and sat down heavily on his bed. “Let’s get ourselves trapped in there with him, that’ll work!”

Eventually, when Clove had started to feel like time was standing still, the sun began to turn the sky a light grey. When Ella saw the light trickling into the cell, she hopped onto Matt’s bed to put the battery on the lip of the window, angling it towards the rising sun.

“How long do you think it’s going to take?” Matt asked. His arm was around Kate’s shoulders, fingers tangled in her hair. Much like Ella and Clove, they’d sat close together all night.

“Thirty minutes away.” Ella’s expression tightened. It tightened even more when they heard a noise from the next cell: a cough followed by the sound of feet hitting concrete. A moment later came the noise of the toilet being flushed. Matt’s neighbour had woken up.

“Be very quiet,” Matt said, the words barely more than a breath. “Noise travels.”

It was still barely light enough to make out each other’s faces. Despite Matt telling them to be quiet, Ella kept standing up to look at the battery. She was too nervous to sit still. After the third time, Ella shook her head. “It’s charging so slowly,” she mouthed. “Another ten minutes at least.”

Noises came from the other cells around them as more inmates woke up. When the lights in the corridor flickered on, Matt whispered, “We have to go. Now.”

“Is it enough?” Kate hissed. “We don’t want to get stuck somewhere between here and there.”

“It has to be,” Ella said, taking the battery from the windowsill. She tapped it to her wrist, letting the charge transfer into the Skim.

“Leave me here if it can’t transport all of us,” Matt said. “Leave me here, and get yourselves to safety.”

“No way!” Kate said. She grabbed onto his arm, her expression indicating that she would have to be physically removed from his side.

Ella turned on the Skim, her inhale of anticipation loud in the silence. As she was setting up the coordinates, footsteps could be heard outside the cell door, followed by the noise of a key turning in a lock.

Clove acted without thinking. She stuck her foot out and tripped up the guard. They were all sucked into the wormhole as he fell to the floor. He was left staring in surprise at the empty space where they had been.

CHAPTER 36