Post by Catsmate on Nov 28, 2023 10:27:07 GMT
Wanderers in Time.
Wanderers in Time is a short story written by the British author John Wyndham (wiki), better known for his novels Chocky, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Day of the Triffids, and published, initially in the pulp magazine Wonder Stories, in 1933. While it is a time travel story, and an interesting one (hence this post) there is actually little ’wandering’ in time. I has more, thematically, in common with the ‘stranded on an alien planet’ trope.
There work is available here, in the usual formats.
Summary.
The story opens in 1941 (without reference to certain then current hevents, as Wyndham wasn’t that good at forecasting the future1) with the materialisation of a metallic cylinder in a field, observed by a passer-by named Henry Q. Jones. The operator of the craft exits and briefly interacts with Jones before holding him at gunpoint and tying him up, identifying himself as Roy Saber. Jones doesn’t believe this as he’d seen Saber onto a train that morning.
Sometime later Saber returns with “a girl whose fair hair shimmered in the shafts of sunlight”.
The girl is, we will learn, Betty Mordan and she disappeared one day in 1941. Naturally Saber was in love with her and spent the next decade brooding and constructing his time machine. Unfortunately Saber wasn’t very good at knots (the Boy Scouts wouldn’t have made this error) and Jones escaped and summoned the police. Escaping into the cylindrical time machine the pair escape,but the craft is damaged by a gunshot.
They end up in the far, far, future many millennia in the future in fact. There the twentieth century pair encounter several other time travellers and groups of mysterious machines that control the period. Adventures, survival, treachery and battle follow. And the revelation that humanity is extinct *and presumably the Sol system abandoned); the machines are operated by ant colonies.
- Shades of the Great Race of Yith. Who'd be very interested in time machines....
Several of the travellers are visibly different from common humanity:
He stood barely four feet in height, and his body, hands and feet were in good proportion to that size. But his totally bald head was of normal dimensions—perhaps a trifle larger—and gave an odd effect of being insecurely balanced on his small frame. His visible clothing consisted of a single silvery garment designed on the lines of a smock, but caught around his waist by a broad leather belt to which a number of dangling objects were hooked.
Roy looked the man over. He stood perhaps six feet and was built with slender strength, in excellent proportions. His hair, though fine and sparse, was jet black as were the eyebrows which ran in a single frowning bar across his forehead. His jaw was square, his mouth, thin-lipped and firm and his eyes, keen. The strength of character which he showed seemed out of accord with the soft silk (or synthetic silk) garments which clung in lustrous folds to his knees. One of his companions was similarly clad. The third newcomer hung back; little more than a shadow in the dim light.
“Who are you, I say?” repeated the speaker.
It was Del who answered. He gave particulars of his own group and countered with a like request. The new arrival put away his tube.
“I am Hale Lorrence, and this is my companion[Julian Tyne2],” he indicated the other silk robed man. “We have come from the year 3920.”
“And the third member of your party?”
The man who called himself Hale, shrugged his shoulders.
“She has told me that her name is Jessica Tree. She claims to have started from 2200 AD
“Who are you, I say?” repeated the speaker.
It was Del who answered. He gave particulars of his own group and countered with a like request. The new arrival put away his tube.
“I am Hale Lorrence, and this is my companion[Julian Tyne2],” he indicated the other silk robed man. “We have come from the year 3920.”
“And the third member of your party?”
The man who called himself Hale, shrugged his shoulders.
“She has told me that her name is Jessica Tree. She claims to have started from 2200 AD
Three creatures from the eleventh millennium are also encoutered, referred to as 'Numen'. The trio from that era speculate they were deliberate creations of one of their scientists.
All three stood well over six feet, superbly muscled and completely naked. Their heads were small and seemed even smaller above their magnificent chests and the broad spread of their shoulders. A look of bewilderment in their eyes gave way, as they caught sight of Kal and Ril, to relief, mingled with a piteous gladness.
All three bowed before the two dwarfs in a trustfully submissive manner, and the latter, after momentary confusion, acknowledged the salute by raising their arms in some ancient greeting. The e newcomers slouched back a few steps and stood waiting while Kal and Ril hurriedly conferred.
All three bowed before the two dwarfs in a trustfully submissive manner, and the latter, after momentary confusion, acknowledged the salute by raising their arms in some ancient greeting. The e newcomers slouched back a few steps and stood waiting while Kal and Ril hurriedly conferred.
Certainly they could not,” Kal agreed. “At a rough guess I should say that they were taught to work the thing and sent on an experimental trip by an inventor who valued his own life."
Not all the time travellers made it to the distant future alive. One in particular seems a homage to Wells.
The shrivelled body of a man, in a far state of decomposition, lay huddled into one of the further corners.
......
One wall was lined with rows of tubes and resistances, while on another were control panels attended with tortuous convolutions of wiring.
......
“This vehicle is radically different from ours. It does not plunge instantaneously through the time flow. Instead, it has the property of slowing down its contents so that the world outside slips by at high speed by comparison. A slow, inefficient machine—but it worked.”
"....if the operator turns this main dial to indicate a speed half way between the normal time flow, and complete insulation, events inside his chamber will take exactly twice as long to happen as they would in the outer world. During the period which seems an hour to him, the events of two hours will take place outside. If he turns the dial further, the events of a week, or a year, flash past in what appears to be an hour. See, he even has a window through which he can watch the happenings of the world fly past.”
......
One wall was lined with rows of tubes and resistances, while on another were control panels attended with tortuous convolutions of wiring.
......
“This vehicle is radically different from ours. It does not plunge instantaneously through the time flow. Instead, it has the property of slowing down its contents so that the world outside slips by at high speed by comparison. A slow, inefficient machine—but it worked.”
"....if the operator turns this main dial to indicate a speed half way between the normal time flow, and complete insulation, events inside his chamber will take exactly twice as long to happen as they would in the outer world. During the period which seems an hour to him, the events of two hours will take place outside. If he turns the dial further, the events of a week, or a year, flash past in what appears to be an hour. See, he even has a window through which he can watch the happenings of the world fly past.”
Finally they group escape the ants fortress and encounter Jim Hollis, a drifter from about the same period as Bettty, accidentally sent into time.
I was just hiking along hoping to jump a truck ride to Indianapolis, when a guy comes out from a shack by the roadside and says he’ll give me five bucks if I’ll lend him a hand. I’d mostly forgotten what five bucks look like, so I said I would. He’d got a piece of machinery he couldn’t move by himself and he wanted it brought out of the shack into the yard.
“Rummy lookin’ sort of cage with a sling seat in it. We got it out easy enough between us and then he went back to find the five bucks, so I sat down in the sling seat. There was a lot of little switches and thingummies in front of it, so I pressed one, just interested like—next thing I knew, me and the machine was crashin’ down through a lot of branches like these.”
“Rummy lookin’ sort of cage with a sling seat in it. We got it out easy enough between us and then he went back to find the five bucks, so I sat down in the sling seat. There was a lot of little switches and thingummies in front of it, so I pressed one, just interested like—next thing I knew, me and the machine was crashin’ down through a lot of branches like these.”
But why do all the time travellers end up there? Strangely no-one suggests the ants have a time-scoop, despite their advanced machinery. Kal, who seems the smartest of the group, speculates:
“. . . . therefore, this must be a kind of dead spot in time. It is as though our machines had been thrown into the flow of time and swept along until, for some unguessable reason, they met an obstruction at this point. Every one of us has arrived here because his machine was faulty in some way or other.
We are now at some period where the straight flow of time has been checked—perhaps it is even turning back upon itself. We know no details at present, but it is certain that the same curious phenomenon has thrown us all together.”
We are now at some period where the straight flow of time has been checked—perhaps it is even turning back upon itself. We know no details at present, but it is certain that the same curious phenomenon has thrown us all together.”
Debensea for example was located on such a spot that someone chose to use for their base.
While rather lacking in tools, spare parts, camping supplies, food, water and other such useful supplies the group is not unarmed.
“Four high-power heat tubes; two low-power tubes; one solid bullet projector4. Not too bad an armory, though I am sorry that my own heat ray was lost.”
Game use.
It's not a bad story and I do like the blending of the different personalities and backgrounds. A Whovian adaption could feature:
- A former Time Agent, originally from the seventeenth century, escaping from a Viking force.
- An Edwardian experimenter, with attractive daughter, who was experimenting with the ideas of Barrylight.
- A trio of Great War soldiers who'd overpowered the War Lords kidnapping them.
- A couple of UNIT operatives (scientist/soldier) in an experimental time capsule.
- A Dalek test subject hurled into the Vortex when their occupation of Earth was ended so abruptly.
And many more (Haiden Miller, the crew of the Achronic Omnibus and the teenage assistants of Pr. Adam Wagstaff for example).
Stuck possibly millions of years in Earth's future, beset by ants, they need to co-operate to improvise a time machine and get home.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Or indeed fashion:
The other’s clothes differed greatly from his captive’s propriety of dress. His suit was of an unusually bright blue and though the pants were full in cut, the jacket fitted closely; moreover, though it gave a double-breasted effect, the front flap was in reality carried right across to the left side and secured by a zip fastener. The broad lapel was of a slightly lighter shade of blue and stretched like a triangular slash from the right shoulder to its apex on the left of the waist. The neck opening showed a soft collar with surprisingly long points and a tie striped with the two blues of the suit.
2. This appears to be an error in the text as Tyne's name is omitted, though it is referred to later.
3. An assumption that a clever GM will play with.
4. Roy's revolver. The 'heat rays' act rather in the manner of a continuous beam laser and are useful tools as weapons.I'd model them as flashlight lasers.
[/font]