Chapter 19 – Now that’s what I call a Bang!

The inner workings and doodads of the time machine whizzed up to its new full speed again. Squealing and whistling from the extreme heat, the device sucked more and more power through its electrodes and ‘what you call it’s, that looked like rubbery tubes, anyway’. All the power it was drawing didn’t seem to be enough and the machine started to suck up more and more power through its connection to the town’s electricity grid, so that it could carry on with its mission of travelling back through the fabric time and space. The two men barely noticed the light go out because of the power hungry machine hunger; mainly because the whole of the machine had started to glow white hot which was lighting the room even better than the regular dusty old light bulb ever could have achieved. They were so captivated by the promises of things to come that they didn’t even feel the temperature rise and automatically loosened their shirts, while quietly waiting for the next video feed.

As sweat poured from their brows and smoke began to fill the room they both leaned closer to the screen, like moths drawn to a brightly flickering flame, ignoring the growing danger in the world around them for another quick glimpse of the unknown.
Images on the screen flickered back into focus, only this time there were ten individual video feeds. Three of the video feeds could be clearly seen, whilst the other ones were either shrouded in darkness or a flickering in and out of focused in a changing blur. The Professor shifted his chair forwards to see the three smaller images more clearly and as he did he asked his assistant “what’s the approximate time, please”, said with hesitation in his voice.
His Assistant paused whilst slightly before taking a double take and then saying “Zero… it just says zero”, “What” shouted the professor not moving any part of his body away from facing directly towards the screen. “Can you remember what time it displayed before it reset to zero” impatiently said the Professor. In a worried voice Alan answered the Professor saying “I think the last number it displayed was ‘minus thirteen and half billion years, on Sunday the 1st’ I can’t remember the month”. “Oh my sweet mother of eternity” said the Professor, after hearing the time. Exactly as he said ‘eternity’, all ten pictures flashed on, most videos still in darkness with only slight suggestions of shimmering lights dancing across what looked like floating rocks through space. Others images showed a blaze of light, speeding through a starless pitch black sky.