Harri and Elliot stood in the cave, having heard Ben’s video recording. He told them the same story you’ve just read, but from his perspective. I’ve listened to the recording so many times, but it doesn’t give me enough. I want to know how he felt knowing he was leaving us behind, to understand how he felt about the sacrifice he’d made, but he explained it to them in very mechanistic, practical terms, perhaps to dissociate himself from the huge emotional implications of what he’d done.
Elliot was shaking with grief and anger, and Harri was shell-shocked.
“So now you know,” Ben said on-screen. He put his fingers to his eyes and removed the amber contact lenses he’d worn for so many years, revealing Elliot’s electric-blue eyes.
“Oh my God,” Harri remarked.
“You could have brought them back,” Elliot responded coldly. “Bring them back. I want my mum and dad. Bring them back to me.”
“And if I did, what would that do? Would you devote your life to unlocking the secret of time travel? I know you, Elliot. I am you. An older you who has already walked the paths you’re yet to tread. I know you’ve already started working on a theory, a theory you’ve never shared with anyone. I know what you’re capable of.”
Harri looked at Elliot and saw, from the surprise on his face, that Ben’s assertion was true.
“Part physics, part biology, tapping into the coding of the universe,” Ben went on. “The language and data sets that give the cosmos order can be rearranged, just like a computer program. I know you can already see that. You’re not like other people. You perceive time differently. It is not a chain of events; it is a simultaneous moment, all occurring now, all having occurred, all to occur. It is a happening and the potential to happen, and with the right key, one can move between moments. Would you even be thinking that way if your parents were still around? Our love drives us to do incredible things.”
“No!” Elliot said. “I don’t want this. I want them back.”
Ben smiled softly.
“You’ll see them again, Elliot. When you come back from Australia, twenty-one years ago. Or eleven years from your current age. You’ll see them again and share their lives as a friend and you’ll save her. You’ll tread my path and then you’ll know you had no choice. You save Beth. You save our mother.”
Elliot trembled. His whole body shook as he struggled to absorb a new and troubling reality. Harri reached out a soothing hand and rubbed him gently on the back.
“Time travel?” she said to the screen. “The world needs to know—”
Ben cut her off. “And what would the world do with this technology? What do people do with anything of true value? Nations would go to war for it. It must stay secret. How much evil would be committed in the name of setting things right?”
On-screen, Ben—or the older Elliot, as Harri had started to think of him—hesitated. “If you could travel in time, what would you do? What better purpose than to save a life?”
“Sabih’s life?” Harri asked. “Or was he not worth saving?”
Ben looked pained. “I’ve been back to that moment countless times. I can never save him.” He looked at Elliot, and Harri wondered where Ben really was. How could he see them and respond to what they were saying? “Those research trips, when I left you with Mrs. Hughes, I was trying to undo my one great regret. No matter what I try, Sabih Khan always dies that night. No matter how hard I try, there is no way out for him. Just like the rest of us, his path is set.”
Ben fell silent, and for a moment the three of them said nothing. Harri saw Elliot struggling for composure. She was finding this difficult, but she couldn’t imagine what it was like for the young man who was coming to terms with what was expected of him. There were differences in the two men, but now that she knew the truth, the resemblance was too profound to ignore.
A resemblance Ben could have used in other ways.
“The cliff at Arthog,” Harri remarked. “That wasn’t David Asha, was it?”
On-screen, Ben shook his head. “Margery Allen saw me. I had to tie up loose ends, removing the remotest possibility anyone ever gets near the truth. David’s sudden disappearance would have raised questions, so I gave him closure. Probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve used these transits; it takes a lot to convince yourself one will save you from a fatal fall. But it was necessary. The resemblance was good enough for Margery Allen to believe she’d seen David jump, so when the police showed her his photo, that’s who she thought she saw. Your investigation tied up all the loose ends.”
“And if I don’t do this, I’ll create a paradox,” Elliot remarked.
Harri sensed resignation in his voice.
“It’s never not been done,” Ben said on-screen. “But if it were possible to break the chain of events, I imagine the consequences would be profound.”
Elliot hesitated. “How? How do I do this?”
“You leave now,” Ben replied.
A light came on farther into the cave, illuminating an old backpack. Harri recognized it as the one Ben had been wearing the night Sabih had died. Next to the backpack was a sphere, one of the transits.
“There’s a passport, identity papers, academic credentials, and bank cards in the name of Ben Elmys. The real Ben Elmys died in the car accident with his friends, but I altered the official record to show he was the sole survivor. This will be your name from now on.”
Elliot walked over to the backpack. He picked it up and pulled out something about the size of a shoebox. It was made of metal and covered in digital input panels, some of which were cracked.
“This is how you make them, isn’t it?” Elliot asked.
Ben nodded. “Yes. It’s called a forge. It creates the spheres. I call them transits. It was broken during my fight with Sabih. You can reverse engineer the technology to help you build a new one.”
“The missing cobalt?” Harri asked, gesturing at the device.
“Yes,” Ben replied on-screen. “I took it from the university and used it to power the forge.”
Elliot picked up the transit that was next to the backpack. “And this?”
“One of only three transits that now exist. The last three I created before the machine was broken. It will take you to Sydney, thirty-one years ago. Inside the bag you’ll also find all the letters I wrote to you from prison. The ones you destroyed. I wrote two copies of all of them, because I knew you would never read the ones I sent you. They will tell you everything you need to know about your path.”
“What about me?” Harri asked.
“You’ll be given a choice, but not until Elliot leaves. He can’t know what you’re going to do. The temptation to look for a shortcut or an easier path would be too great. Moving in four dimensions requires paranoia about security and timeline constancy.”
“Do we meet again?” Elliot asked.
Ben shook his head. “You won’t see me, but you will meet your childhood self. Be kind to him.”
Elliot studied the sphere. “I just crush it?”
Ben nodded. “The nanoparticles create an energy field. It will recode your genetic information to manifest you in Sydney thirty-one years ago. One last thing. There’s a letter with instructions about the minor plastic surgery you need to have, and the contact lenses, so our resemblance isn’t absolute.”
Elliot took a deep breath.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Harri asked. She was in awe of the bravery and sacrifice of this young man.
“What would you do?” he asked. “If you had the power to save the life of someone you loved, how far would you go? What would you sacrifice? I miss my parents every single day. All I have is memories. If I get to see them again, and save them…”
Elliot slid the backpack over his shoulder and crushed the sphere. The stars rushed up his arm, expanding to become the geodesic mesh that flared brightly.
“Goodbye, Detective. I’ll see you again in another time,” he said before he vanished.