13. The Big Title

The residents of New Adapolis hurried into the streets, startled by the display of blue lightning within their homes.  Women chattered with one another about the strange occurrence.  A vicar connected indexes and thumbs as he stood outside the local rectory.  He observed the flurry of activity with his usual calm.  Henly and Lord Myron strolled through this scene, anxious but silent.  Henly deduced the vicar had warned his minions of similar inevitabilities as one would have expected of the times, only the vicar didn't know he would not be exempt from the  city's fate.

"Things are falling into place, Lord Myron," he said just loud enough to be heard by one man, "and not in a good way."

"So I gathered," replied  Myron.  His pale skin drew beads of sweat as the two maintained a running walk across town.

People left behind half-filled cups at a tea parlor to join and learn from those already in the streets.  Barbers, engineers, coachmen, society women and seamstresses, urchins darting about the adults like trees... It appeared that very little of the active populace were unaware of the phenomenon.

With so many citizens suddenly in evidence, Henly took in the great diversity of species.  Amphibian, furred, one type resembling simian, several reptilian but each unique from the other, plus all manner of humanoid beyond Terran.  Indeed it was that everybody came from somewhere else.  And they all lived by the same social code. The concept was positively exhilirating.

At last they reached the piers - and headed for one in particular.

"I'm overriding the filter and narrowing the band as far as it will go.  At this frequency I can pinpoint just about anything, but risk detection."

Lord Myron looked into the murky water, knowing what lay below.  He noticed Henly playing with the scanner's settings without hesitation and agreed privately that at this stage action was paramount.

Henly whirled and pointed his device past Myron's shoulder as the scanner gave off a sequence of high-pitched tones.   Myron turned slowly to determine the destination.

Facing back toward the street one could hear the snapping of sparks nearby as the robots welded submersible vehicles without deviation.  There was another sound mixed in as during their prior visit, only now that second sound was prominent.  It was like a rhythmic steam engine propelling metal on metal.  Or so Lord Myron could best categorize.

Henly looked up in revelation.  It came from the nearest building.  "Whose establishment is this?"

"Someone from the city counsel," Lord Myron said.  "This is a major landmark at this time. Its dome is in the first glimpse of skyline for approaching merchant and airships. There are many engravings, some of night scenes depicting an exceptionally bright..." his voice trailed off.  

Henly stepped past Myron toward the building.  The grating effect was unlike any steam powered contraption he'd ever heard.  "What did this official do?"

"The official title is His Right Honourable Chairman to the Ministry of Science. You can imagine such a position ranks high in this society."

Henly nodded while looking up at the patina dome.

"They say he was the man who unlocked the secret of our ancestors, made it possible for my people to utilize their technology on a small scale..."

"...he made your time machines possible..."

"He may have," Myron said slowly.

Henly turned back toward him.

"You know how these work.  Sometimes they take the credit for the the efforts of someone in their charge..."

"-but you don't think so..."

"They say this was built to his exact specifications, that he was a hard practitioner."

Henly took the inaccurate translation to mean the man was obsessed, a fanatic. "And he disappeared with the city?"

"Presumably."

"What would you say to paying this prominent and well-respected member of the community a visit?"

Lord Myron lifted his hat enough to wipe some perspiration from his hairline. "I was afraid you might suggest that."

12 - The Forboding Incident

Henly grimaced.  Yes the field of chronoton particles covered a wider range at the pier, but the center of the disturbance shifted like a roiling cloud.  So much for human hunches. 

"A pence for your thoughts," said Lord Myron patiently.

Henly managed a smile, not removing his attention from the tricorder.  "I'm thinking the sphere isn't everything."

"I agree," Myron said.

"-and I may know its purpose.  I hope for everybody's sake that I'm wrong."

On that ominous note Henly and Lord Myron set out for one of the designated spots where a time travel device would be.  An odd cabinet or shed stood beside a townehouse in an alley.  They went to a second location.  A similar cabinet sat in a corner of a carriage house.  A third led them to a large wardrobe in a parlor seen through a window from the street. 

"They possess a mechanism which camouflages them in various scenarios," Lord Myron explained, "for a society such as this where their use is commonplace, this is more for vanity and a desire to accessorize than to escape detection.  Hello what's this then?" A fifth target baffled Myron, who raised his derby to scratch his head.  A small tabletop lamp in the same room gave off strong emissions, by Henly's tricorder display stronger than the cabinet.

"I believe," Henly said cautiously, "that the item over there could be one of the articles from the sphere."

The front door was unlocked when they tried it.  The two men stepped in and nodded in turn to a man wearing engineer's coveralls as he passed them in the foyer to leave. This had to have been another boarding house.  They turned into the day room and stopped at the table where the lamp was set on a macramé doily.

Myron thought to touch the object.  It looked perfectly innocuous: a hurricane lamp of blown, frosted glass with a floral pattern etched with soft curves.  He thought the better of it and withdrew his hand. "What function does it serve?"

"It could be a phase shift inducer.  There were some within the sphere.." Henly looked up. "But why would anyone here need such a device?"

"What can it do?"

Henly's brow could be seen  frowning behind his goggles.  "Based on what you've said," he whispered, "a series of these could create a net of energy and collectively move the city, only but not spatially.  Temporally or transdimensionally."

After a pause, Myron asked: "Could this be why these objects were created?  To be set throughout Neo Adapolis undetected to relocat the city by this means?"

"I would say that's a distinct possibility."

"And what of the sphere?  Would that be the mechanism with which the city would be removed?"

"Not if my theory is correct.  We should return..."

Suddenly lines of static snapped to life in the room.  They passed through the lamp, bending as though passed through a prism.  Henly took care to keep his distance for fear of deactivation.  His tricorder output a cacophony of sounds. Henly and Myron stared at one another.

Suddenly all was normal.

"Blimey... What does the scanner say?"

Henly raised his tricorder and played with some switches.  "This is a pattern enhancer in the guise of a hurricane lamp.  A network of lamps set within structures around the city's perimeter to encompass everything within for... for... "

"What? For what?"

"This must have been a 'test drive'.  And according to readings during those few moments, the source of the emissions did not originate from the sphere."