England Time

 

The vegetable soup was hot, in stark contrast to the cool and overcast day. In the middle of what used to be called the English countryside a small group of people discussed things over a mid afternoon meal.

They had missed the usual lunchtime by a few hours, but wanted some relative privacy. The small cottage cafe had a number of tables that stretched quietly into a sheltered garden away from the main building.

The researchers had made a habit of having most of their group chats there. Away from the lab, where there was so much equipment, you never knew if things were being recorded. They had nothing sinister in mind, nor would they mind discussing it, but didn’t want snippets to be taken out of context.

Their experiments had shown that some people were more anchored in time than others. Not strictly in the physical sense, though that was definitely part of it. Mostly though, they organized their minds around things that weren’t tied to specific events, or locations.

“So, do we move them or don’t we?”

The question had been brought up before, and the usual arguments came up.

“It’s not in the records.” said Callum. Edwards shot back “Yes, but that’s not conclusive. It’s not going to be in the event log till we do it.”

The argument would go in circles, day after day. Karen, one of the Cafe’s staff, got tired of overhearing them. “For cutting edge researchers, you’re treading the same ground an awful lot. Do something, or quit arguing.” She didn’t know what they were talking about, nor did she care. In broad strokes, she was right though.

The group was taken aback somewhat. They started to see how much they were conditioned to office politics and standard lab procedure. It wasn’t technical difficulties or lack of understanding that kept things at a standstill. It was a question of ethics.

Callum was on the establishment side of things. He figured that everything was fine now, and there was no need to expand the scope of the experiments. Edwards was more adventurous and felt they should push things a bit farther.

Callum argued “I know I wouldn’t want to be orphaned somewhere different in time.” Edwards laughed “It’s a good thing we’re not talking about you then.” “So.” said Callum, not seeing the point. Edwards explained. “Not everyone thinks like you, feels like you, believes like you. This could be the best thing that ever happened to them.”

Callum struggled with that kind of empathy. He cared for people, but felt like they should all see things in pretty much the same way. “If you’re doing this. I want no part of it. I won’t stop you, but I won’t help either.”

Edwards rolled his eyes. “Because you can’t understand a viewpoint other than your own? Fine.”

The others in the group mostly sided with Edwards, but there was a few that joined with Callum.

The next day they did an informal vote. “9 for. 3 against.”

Callum and the two others left the main work area to do some old paperwork. The bulk of the team got ready to do the experiment.

“We can probably use the reorientation field for a clear scan of the area.” Edwards prompted the group.

“Readings are... unremarkable” said Harkett. Edwards was hoping for something more conclusive. “Low intensity scan, several days”.

The field began to set up a resonance from the location. “We can influence random incoming signals, with only minor aberrations” Harkett reported.

“Upload to the simulation AI.” was the response.

Here they could generate new content based on the context they were given. It wasn’t enough for a direct message, but they could do almost anything short of it.

“What’s the goal of this, exactly?” asked Harkett. Edwards was deep in thought. “See how they do with simulated time displacement, and then try the real thing, I suppose.”

It wasn’t a solid answer, but it was something to work with. “We can see their output here, before it affects the rest of the timeline.”

This kind of experiment had been done before, but usually on people that were specifically volunteering. It was also usually attempted at a much smaller scale.

It was a week later, and they found the subject’s current self living nearby and willing to come in and answer questions. Records showed the move had happened a while ago, but timelocked backups had showed this was actually a new development.

“Did you remember anything specific about the interference?” asked Harkett. “Not really, no.” said the subject. “Then how did you end up here?” “I’m not sure, I guess I was just kind of drawn to the location.”

It didn’t seem like a sensible kind of answer. They checked their experiment again. It seemed like the focus on the past version was splitting the person apart. It wasn’t something they had seen earlier, but then, there wasn’t normally so much time between the procedure and the result.

Callum seamed to gloat over the predicament. “I knew it.” he said in a sneering kind of way. Edwards was unperturbed “I didn’t notice either one of them complaining. Besides, you didn’t say anything other than you wouldn’t help. If you were concerned you’d do something besides gloat.”

Callum felt a flush of anger. Edwards was right and he was just being difficult. He swallowed his pride and asked “So what are the plans to join them back together.”

“I don’t think that’s the point of this” said the subject, who was still in an isolated interview room.

The group looked on. “What was that?” The subject sat up. “I’m not sure I want to join up again. This is much more interesting. It’s like I can slide along time.”

The scientists were still a bit behind in understanding. They got on the microphone to the to interview room again “How did you know the conversation was about...?”

“Oh, you didn’t notice? Your future selves already grabbed me from here and got me caught up on things.” said the subject in a matter of fact way.

“And if we don’t?” said Edwards. “The act of doing is superseding the inaction. Maybe you’ll find that it happens eventually anyway, or you lose the memory of the day if you decide you won’t.” came the cryptic response.

Callum, of all people, spoke up. “We’re assuming a single ‘now-ness’ that is synchronized and only happens once. Maybe neither of those things are true.”

The team decided to break for a late lunch again. Something about the lab was putting them on edge.

Callum bit down on a cold turkey sandwich. “I don’t see as we have much choice.” he said between mouthfuls.

Edwards wasn’t so sure “There’s always choice, if there wasn’t, there’d be no point doing anything.”

Callum shook his head “It’s not as though there’s a deadline. The subject didn’t say when anything was supposed to happen.” That was true. There were surprisingly few details in the subject’s assertion and only their knowledge of the other conversation as proof.

Karen wandered by their tables again. “Where’s your friend?” she asked. “Who?” asked Edwards. She described the subject perfectly. “Oh he’s not...” started Callum. Edwards hushed him. “He couldn’t make it today.” which was true, to a point.

Karen seemed disappointed. “You seemed happier when he was around. Less stuck in a rut.”

The team wondered if they were the ones in a different timeline, and the subject was just trying to ease them into it.

Karen spoke up again “Are you sure you didn’t lose time?”

The researchers had no answer for that, they weren’t sure when their work had gone public. Edwards spoke up. “What are you talking about?”

Karen laughed. “It’s no big secret. The work has already been done. You’re just the last to see it.” She pressed a small button on her watch. Everything around them shimmered for a moment.

“We only keep it looking like this for the orientation.” she said putting down the drink table and grabbing a data pad out of her pocket. It unrolled quickly, flashed quietly and became like hard glass.

The researchers looked around, slightly alarmed.

Karen sighed. “You didn’t think the future would let you run time travel experiments unsupervised, did you?”

Edwards was the first one to overcome the shock and disorientation and speak. “When did? What? How long?”

Karen tried to brush things off. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. You’re not ready yet.”

Callum stood up. “No. No. I get it. Non linear time. Everything is ‘Now’ and we collect memories like bits of code. It doesn’t matter when we are, we just make sense of what’s around us.”

Karen goes back to cleaning the table. The team isn’t sure if they’ve just been hallucinating or what. They return to the lab when it’s clear there’s nothing more for them at the cafe.

The subject is waiting for them in the lobby. The room seems superficially identical, but there was a strange feeling in the air, like things were organized differently.

“Anything odd happen?” asks the subject knowingly. The team heads back to the lab, trying to orient themselves. The boards and equipment have all been tidied away, like no-one has worked here in a while. The subject appears a moment later, interested but not pushing any agenda.

“Sorry we couldn’t make it exactly the same, but we couldn’t get a precise fix on a room state. A conversation here or there shifted the calculations by a day or two.”

Harkett spoke up. “You don’t track time the same way anymore, do you?” he looked for the clocks he normally had the job of synchronizing with Global Atomic Time.

The subject answered “There isn’t much point. We jump from day to day and just interact with people. It’s not for everyone, but there’s a certain lack of burden that comes with it.”

Callum started to understand. “I could see how that might work for some people.”

Karen reappeared in the doorway. “We thought you would come around eventually. It’s not like this everywhere in the world, but on this little island, it’s the norm.”

Edwards connected the dots. “I guess that’s the end result of our experiments.” He thought they’d have a different understanding of time, but didn’t expect a different understanding of how to live it.

“It’s not that bad, once you get used to it” said Karen. Edwards blushed, like he was aware that his mind was being read.

“Oh. Nothing like that” said Karen. “You just tell me what you were thinking this day. Eventually.”