Hurtling down the steep mountain pass, Scott felt that rush of adrenaline, the knowledge that if he fell off the edge the bruising would be considerable. Well, it was unlikely to happen, he guessed. His bike adjusted its suspension and tyre pressure in accordance with the terrain.
But something distracted him, a shape moving, floating along the lower end of the pass.
He went too far to the edge, feeling himself lose that vital balance as he futilely tried to correct the errant steering bar. He slid down the rutted slope, bike dragging along, entangled in his legs. Fortunately it was a cool day and he’d opted for leggings, which would protect from the worst of the grazing. Finally stopping amid an outgrowing shrub. Annoyance turning to the inevitable stinging pain, then distracted even from that by the wonder of what was caught in the periphery of his vision.
He pulled himself out of the bike-frame, clambered back up to the path with the bike hoisted on his shoulder.
Before having time to consider whether to remount, Scott let the bike fall to the ground; the figure was moving up the path. It was human, he thought, but couldn’t be sure: not sharply defined, but a blue and beige ghost of a man.
Him!
Scott recognised the man from the planet Eludi-4, only now an apparition. The ghost of a man who jumped from a mountain side? Then he remembered witnessing the ransacking their base-camp. There was something desperate about the man’s actions, frenetic if not insane.
As the figure got near, Scott said, ‘Who? Who are you?’ His voice tremulous.
‘I am here to warn you that your life is in danger.’
‘I guess you know what it’s like to put your own life in danger.’
‘Please, this is serious.’ The figure shifted about, the ill-defined edges making Scott squint in a reflex need to resolve focus on it.
‘How can I take a dead man seriously? Or a dead who’s not entirely sane?’
‘If you lived my life you might be driven to--- Anyway, I am not dead. I am merely from another time and cannot be here in physical presence, for reasons that would take too long to explain here.’
‘You could be a figment of my imagination. An effect from the accident. Perhaps really I’m unconscious.’
‘Let’s assume I’m not, and you are wide awake. And that you give me the benefit of the doubt.’ The figure moved in close, causing Scott to stagger back. Nothing seemed real. ‘Your visit to the planet using generated quantum-tunnelling technology has attracted some unwelcome attention,’ the man continued. ‘The Elusivers sense you as a threat to their plan. They have been focusing their attention, their Temporal Eradication device, on that planet.’
‘So no one can return there?’ This was surely all some trick of his mind, but he would play along with it for now.
‘No one can establish a colony there. The point is, your visit has effectively advertised a technology they find threatening. It’s a vindication for them to focus their device onto this world. ’
‘But what can I do?’
‘You can go back, to a time before the journey; prevent it from ever taking place.’
‘What are you suggesting exactly?’
‘That I can take you back to that time in order to sabotage the mission.’
‘And whilst I’m there I can say hello to myself.’
‘You will not be able to physically interact with anything or anyone, such as yourself, but you can persuade your former self to do what is necessary to stop the mission.’
‘This is all very interesting, but how can I persuade---’
‘Please. Something awful will happen if you do not cooperate?’
‘Care to explain?’
‘Something worse than death.’
‘What could be worse---’
‘Listen. For your own safety it is best you do not know.’
‘But what you’re suggesting – that I could go back in time – seems so incredible, impossible ... insane.’
‘You’re not the first, Scott, to tell me I am insane. So at least humour me by agreeing to go along with my plan ... just in case.’
‘Just in case.’
‘At four a.m. Next morning I will again visit you. So be prepared.’
‘Sure thing, err … what was your name?’
‘Torbin Lyndau. But do not speak of me.’ He then vanished, literally fading into the pure mountain air.
*
What was it about this man that so disturbed her?
Raiya stared at the the data-log record containing this strange man’s physog profile, the scan results not matching any on file. She wondered how anyone could evade a scan-check on entering the country. The institute’s database contained all seventy-eight million Canadian residents, shared with general medical records. So he had to be an illegal, yet when his profile was cross-checked with the global database, still nothing. A true alien but with a Canadian accent. Of course, this anomaly automatically flagged the authorities into action, and they were on their way.
She contacted her colleague Leonard Heigener on an audio link, gave an account of the strange man’s visit. ‘Len, what do you make of this anomaly?’
‘That it is an anomaly,’ he said with his professional impassivity. ‘But his delusion – if that is so – is unlike any case I have encountered.’
‘Could someone have really erased my memory of him?’
‘Yes, in theory. But we’re talking illegal technology here.’
‘But memory of someone’s existence; surely the erasure could only be achieved through psychological conditioning. Precise removal---’
‘I believe it can be done. Given that a traumatic event can be extracted with no residual then all associations with a contact can be removed.’
‘But so many points of removal? I think if what this man says is true I must have have some knowledge however well hidden, of him.’
‘You know the dangers, Raiya, of a full scan.’
‘If he can proffer some evidence then I will have that scan.’
‘That’s what I like about you, Raiya; you never take things on face value: I can’t think of a single shrink who wouldn’t have simply dismissed this man as being a delusional, however inexplicable the anomaly.’
‘Hey, they’re not all by-the-books.’
‘Well, I’m not exactly a conformist, but I still need some persuading.’
‘Evidence, Len, I know.’
***