"No no, this can't be right."
Lord Myron observed Henly's annoyance with interest.
"This was where I had teleported to, presumably while Mrs. Farnsworth had been pulled from the water.".
"Ah."
There were more items from the period with barely any recognizable future tech. Well, it was all from the future...
"Everything here looks like ordinary furniture or appliances, but they aren't," Henly fingered a hurricane lamp, wondering briefly why it was named thus when its shape did not resemble a storm system, "they're scanners, environmental fields, gravitational emitters... Some I cannot detect what their function is," he walked to the console at the center, "but they output a tremendous amount of chronoton particles. That's what brought me here. Wherever this is, the emissions are bleeding through to wherever Neo Adapolis' harbour is."
"This I recognise," said Lord Myron as we stepped over to the center console. He fingered the workmanship; it had taken on a fine wood surface since Henly's first visit. "My people use this technology for relative travel."
"'Relative travel'?"
"We have learned that the universe is convoluted rather than one vast expanse. We have found that it is not necessary to travel a straight line to reach distant destinations. Mass and light bend to give the illusion of an expanse from our poont of view. These allow us to pass through these so-called edges of space into the next - 'bend in the road' so to speak."
Having no eyebrows, it was not apparent that Henly's would have been raised, his eyes wide behind anagraphic glass. "More than just a theory..."
"Yes."
"Why that means time travel is possible as well. You visit a star system eons before its state appears through telescopes back on your home planet..."
"Telescope?"
"A..." Henly was caught somewhat offguard, "...a device consisting of several lenses with which to view distant celestial-"
"Aha! See, now *this* my people call a 'scanner'."
Well, Henly thought, that cleared everything up.
"How did your people come to achieve this sophisticated level of travel?" Indeed Lord Myron did not appear familiar with much of the phenomena the two encountered this past hour.
"It is 'borrowed' technology from a culture long gone from the cosmos. It was quite easy for our people to adapt it, even in Neo Adapolis's heyday."
By "heyday" it was easy to conclude that Lord M was referring to the Neo Adapolis they had been traversing. So he was a direct descendant.
"I keep seeing a smattering of small objects emitting chronoton particles throughout the city. They come and go. Approximately one meter wide and deep."
"That would be Relative Capsules being used for travel."
Suddenly they were in black seawater.
Henly deduced they had spent twelve minutes in the mysterious room while he acted quickly and grabbed Myron by the scruff of his collar to pull him toward the docks. It wasn't the most ideal method but there were no signs of distress or asphyxiation. Henly gripped a corner post with one hand, deftly repositioned his other hand to grasp the back of Myron's coat, and hoisted the man over and onto the pier. Henly then lifted himself out of the water to stand beside Myron, who was taking in great gasps of air while lying in a small puddle. Seems that despite its gill-like application, Myron's invention was ill-equipped to shield him from fluids.
A nearby dockside pub cast its light on the two men, who would have appeared as two roiling, glistening dark masses from dingy windows.
It seemed Myron had kept a firm grip on his hat the whole time; he now tilted it to pour off the water before returning it to his head with an air of stubborn dignity.
Henly waved his device up and down between them. "You're fine. None the worse for wear.."
Lord Myron nodded.
"Come, I have a room," said Henly.
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