“He can’t be!” said Benson, when Zoe told him her theory that Zak was turning back time. “No one can do that. It’s impossible.”
“It fits in with what has been happening,” said Zoe, animatedly. “And don’t forget if he is the Soul Snatcher, he’s not just anybody… he’s an alien from a planet where they have far superior technology than we could ever dream of. He said that himself when we were in his space ship… remember?”
“But even if he could, why would he want to turn back time?” queried Benson. “And how can he get away with it? Surely in the whole World, someone, somewhere would have noticed? He can’t have everyone except us two under his control, can he?”
“It’s not the whole World though, is it?” argued Zoe. “He’s put a force field around Cristelee and isolated us from the rest of the World.”
“But why would he do that?” asked Benson. “Are you suggesting that time is only going backwards in Cristelee? How can you know that for certain?”
“I don’t,” Zoe answered, “but I bet it’s true. Why else would he cut the town off? And as for why he might do it, given what Amy told me yesterday, I’d guess he’s trying to get back to the time before we destroyed his ship. If he can do that, he’ll get his ship back and he can go home to his own planet.”
“Possibly,” mused Benson, stroking his chin, “but if he does go back to that time and then leaves, what happens afterwards?”
“I’ve no idea,” said Zoe, “but I bet it won’t be good. You do realise that if he gets back to that time and has his ship intact, he will also have the souls he took from those children? If he then goes back to his own planet, he’ll take them with him and, who knows, he might still be able to put his original plans into action and bring his people here to colonise the Earth.”
Benson sat back with his hands on his head. He looked at Zoe with a mix of disbelief and exasperation. “Do you really think he could do that?” he asked. “I mean get back to his ship and take the souls away too? Is that how reversing time works, do you think?”
“I don’t know,” said Zoe, feeling somewhat exasperated that Benson seemed to have no more idea of what might happen than she did. “I’m studying psychology, not astrophysics.”
“Well, we do know someone who might be able to supply some answers,” said Benson. “I’ll call Professor Tompkins and ask him to come over at once.”
*
“It’s possible I suppose,” said the professor, cupping a hand across his mouth, after Benson and Zoe had told him of their suspicions and conclusions drawn from Zoe’s theories about time reversing, “theoretically at least.” He continued, “We’ve never been able to test anything like this out, obviously, and to be honest I can’t think of anyone on Earth who might be clever enough, or advanced enough in scientific knowledge, to control time in that way.”
“That’s just the point,” said Benson. “The person doing this isn’t from Earth. He’s an alien from a planet called Zaarl, which he claims is in a different universe.”
Professor Tompkins stared dubiously at Benson. “You told me about this Soul Snatcher being an alien, but you never said he was from a different universe. He can’t be. There’s only one Universe, that’s why it’s called a Universe – uni means one.”
“Kazzaar told me there were lots of universes” said Benson.
“He probably meant solar systems,” Tompkins reasoned, “although I have to say I’ve never heard of a planet called Zaarl. You’d better refresh my memory by telling me everything you know about this alien creature. Leave nothing out, even if you’ve told me before. Tell me too about this girl Amy and what she said to you yesterday, and how this all links in with your own experiences, Zoe.”
Benson and Zoe hastily retold the story of their previous encounter with Kazzaar, along with their current suspicions. Zoe told Tompkins of her conversation with Amy and her own observations and experiences with clocks and calendars going backwards, the recently received backdated letters and the TV replays. When both Benson and Zoe had finished their stories, the professor pushed his chair back and rubbed a hand across his face.
“That sure is some story,” he said. “I didn’t realise its full significance when you talked about the alien when we first met. Now, I understand it all a little bit better. It’s very hard to imagine what has happened… not that I don’t believe you. I’ve been studying the cosmos for so long that I’m open to believing anything… it’s just the whole concept of what this alien creature can do and what his plans might be, which is causing me problems.
“It’s a tough one to grasp. We, as a species, are millions of light years away in our understanding and knowledge from what this creature seems capable of. So, if he is planning to turn back time in order to get his spacecraft back, and if that enables him to take control of the children’s souls again, then I have to say I’m afraid we can’t stop him.”
“What will happen if he does get his ship back and then leaves our planet?” asked Zoe. “Will time go forward again until it catches up with the present?”
“Hard to say,” answered the professor, sombrely. “From what little we know here on Earth, I don’t think it would. It’s far more likely that unless he has some way of reversing his action, then it would continue going backwards until it reached the point where the Earth was created.”
“What would happen then?” asked Benson.
“I don’t know,” said the professor, clearly overawed by the enormity of the situation that now faced them. “It might stop, then again it might carry on so that Cristelee explodes and once again becomes part of the molten rocks, dust and debris that were formed in the Big Bang.”
“And if Cristelee explodes, what about the rest of the planet?” asked a now very concerned Zoe.
“I couldn’t say with any accuracy,” explained Professor Tompkins. “It’s possible that the force field is strong enough to contain the explosion within it, in which case Cristelee will cease to exist and the rest of the World will carry on as usual, but with a big hole or a pile of rubble where Cristelee once stood. On the other hand, the explosion might be stronger than the force field and blow it apart.”
“What would happen then?” asked Benson, hesitantly.
“There would be no planet,” said the professor. “The explosion would impact all over the World and Earth would cease to exist, except in bits and pieces.”
“There must be something we can do,” said Benson in a state of exasperation. “What if we arrested Zak Araz… or even killed him? Surely that would change things?”
“It would only change them in so much as he would be locked up or dead,” said the professor. “The force field and whatever it is that’s driving time backwards would still remain. And if Mr Araz was dead, we would never know how he’d set these things up or where the central point of the force field was. Nor would we know whether the two events came from the same source, and consequently we’d be unable to stop them.”
“I think we need to talk to Zak Araz,” said Benson. “In fact, I think I’ll go and pull him in right now.”
“Be careful,” said Professor Tompkins. “Don’t let him know we are aware of what he’s trying to do. He could have a back-up plan. He has probably got the knowledge and skills to sabotage or destroy his own equipment by remote control, or even telepathy. And he could use any of the people he has hypnotised to help. He might even be able to speed things up so he gets his spacecraft back quicker… or he could decide to destroy the World anyway.”
Benson thought hard about what the professor had said. Then he answered, “You’re right. Maybe it’s best to keep him under surveillance… assuming I can find enough people in the force that aren’t under his hypnotic powers. In the meantime, I’m going to look through that backlog of CCTV tapes from the safari park to see if I can find the source of that force field, or any evidence that might give me an excuse to arrest Mr Araz anyway.”