Page 10 - Indies Roundtable 2nd Anniversary Edition
P. 10
Science Museum
London, 2065
“…and this is the world- “…so the story goes that, back in
famous H.G. Wells’ time the late twentieth, some kid gets
machine,” the guide had
reached his favourite part of separated from his class on a trip
the tour now, he enjoyed telling to this very museum,” the guide
the story, liked the fact it was spread his arms to indicate the
still a mystery, “including, of ornate marble hall that housed the
course, the finger.”
Wells Machine, his audience gazed
Which was what they really around them, presumably
wanted to hear about. Terry’s visualising the scene for
finger. themselves, not difficult since the
The rest was old news by building had changed little in the
now. intervening years, “and what we
think happened was, Terry, his
“The rest” was the discovery, name was Terry Baldwin,
ten years earlier, that old man somehow managed to get into the
Wells hadn’t in fact been
writing a future sci-fi classic in sealed security case, possibly
1895, more a sci-fact memoir. during routine maintenance by
staff, and got himself locked in
His machine had been real. there.”
Time travel was possible.
He waited, knowing a question
And it had taken 170 years of wouldn’t be long coming and he
invention, ingenuity, creativity wasn’t disappointed.
and sheer bloody-mindedness
by some very clever scientists, “So what happened to him then,
to realise he’d already beaten how did he get out?”
them to it, before they, or even
their grandfathers, were ever It was a studious-looking teenager,
born. his expression one of cynical
But the finger, that was a
different matter, nobody knew
if it was true, that was the
thing.
And everyone loves a
mystery.
London, 2065
“…and this is the world- “…so the story goes that, back in
famous H.G. Wells’ time the late twentieth, some kid gets
machine,” the guide had
reached his favourite part of separated from his class on a trip
the tour now, he enjoyed telling to this very museum,” the guide
the story, liked the fact it was spread his arms to indicate the
still a mystery, “including, of ornate marble hall that housed the
course, the finger.”
Wells Machine, his audience gazed
Which was what they really around them, presumably
wanted to hear about. Terry’s visualising the scene for
finger. themselves, not difficult since the
The rest was old news by building had changed little in the
now. intervening years, “and what we
think happened was, Terry, his
“The rest” was the discovery, name was Terry Baldwin,
ten years earlier, that old man somehow managed to get into the
Wells hadn’t in fact been
writing a future sci-fi classic in sealed security case, possibly
1895, more a sci-fact memoir. during routine maintenance by
staff, and got himself locked in
His machine had been real. there.”
Time travel was possible.
He waited, knowing a question
And it had taken 170 years of wouldn’t be long coming and he
invention, ingenuity, creativity wasn’t disappointed.
and sheer bloody-mindedness
by some very clever scientists, “So what happened to him then,
to realise he’d already beaten how did he get out?”
them to it, before they, or even
their grandfathers, were ever It was a studious-looking teenager,
born. his expression one of cynical
But the finger, that was a
different matter, nobody knew
if it was true, that was the
thing.
And everyone loves a
mystery.
