Déjà Vu To The Nth

By Peter Apps

The asteroid heading for Earth is nearly a mile wide. If it struck, it would destroy all life but diverting it is all in a day's work for Stuart and his team. Then he has to do it again on a parallel Earth, then again and again. Hoping each time is the last, Stuart despairs as yet another Earth needs his help and he is drawn inexorably into the heart of the crisis.

Are the asteroids an accident or an attack on Earth? Was his Earth the real target or just collateral damage?

The feeling that he is being guided doesn't help. Who is guiding him and why?

Enjoy the third of the Stuart Johnson Chronicles as Stuart struggles to find answers in an increasingly complex universe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Apps
• Release date: Jul 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9780957220539

Peter Apps

Peter Apps is an award-winning journalist and Deputy Editor at Inside Housing. He broke a story on the dangers of combustible cladding thirty-four days before the Grenfell Fire. He has not stopped reporting on this national tragedy since, and his coverage of the public inquiry has received widespread acclaim. He lives in London.

Book preview

Déjà Vu

To The Nth

The Stuart Johnson

Chronicles III

A Sequel to

The Long Way Round

&

Time Askew

By

Peter Apps

ISBN: 978-0-9572205-3-9

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, situations and incidents are the product of the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Published by Taup UK at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Peter Apps

[e-mail]

Chapter 1

What can be more English than a game of cricket? Stuart, Brian, Richard and Dave were trying to teach James and Gable the rudiments of the game. Now that they were settled into the village they wanted to become part of the scene and the village team needed fresh blood. They had taken the day off and travelled to a quiet spot where they could get in some practice.

During a brief lull, Stuart took in the scene. He liked to remind himself just how his life had changed and what he now called ‘normal’ or ‘everyday’. There was James. He was born in 1939 but had travelled forwards in time from 1973 to the present day. The real problem at the moment was that he was an American used to baseball, trying to grapple with bowling instead of pitching. Then there was Gable. He was brought up on a distant planet, in harsh conditions that left little time for any sort of game, but at least he had no preconceptions of how cricket should be played.

They were split into two teams, with some of the locals acting as fielders for both sides. Stuart was not worried that these locals were intelligent monkeys with highly developed telepathic skills, though he struggled to explain the concept of the game to another local, a lizard who was communicating with every other lizard on the planet, describing the peculiar activities of their human guests. He regarded the lizard as his friend and felt completely at home on a planet in the next galaxy to the Milky Way.

Not so long ago the whole scene would have seemed bizarre, terrifying even, but then he was just a carpet fitter, a school drop out who had not met Brian. Stuart was gay. From the moment that Brian moved into the village, Stuart was attracted to him in spite of the age difference. Being intrigued by the work Brian was doing helped. He seemed so different to anyone Stuart had ever met before.

Brian wanted to develop a transporter that would allow him to explore space. It was a portal that connected two points in three dimensional space allowing objects to pass through it.

Stuart thought of it as bending a sheet of paper, so the area stayed the same but the edges became much closer together. Pass a pin through the fold and two distant points become joined. The portal acted as the pin in three-dimensional space, joining two distant places. When Brian tried to explain his theories, this was usually as much as his listeners understood before he started using highly complex mathematical models to describe how to create a suitable field which was able to bend a multidimensional continuum.

Brian built his first portal in a quarry on his property and Stuart became involved when he helped Brian after an accident. Brian was also gay, but it took time and their experiences on other planets before they found the courage to admit their feelings for one another.

Despite such dramatic changes to his life, the only thing Stuart found difficult to accept was his mother, cheerfully chatting to a couple of Terzon women and another lizard as she laid out a picnic lunch. Terzon was the first planet with intelligent life that they had discovered and the women were James and Dave's current girlfriends. Mavis, his mother, was completely unfazed by the idea that she was talking about her recipes with aliens who had never heard of gooseberries let alone tasted them baked in a pie.

Her pies were also a hit with the locals, especially the monkeys. They enjoyed Stuart's gifts of apples, pears and other exotic Earth fruits that he brought whenever he visited, but cooking was a complete new technology and the new range of tastes had the monkey population talking on their 'telepathic Internet', overriding everything else.

Mavis' husband, Richard, had always been interested in history and the Terzons were just beginning to take an interest in theirs. He was regarded as something of an authority on ancient artefacts and worked closely with one of their archaeologists, Roswana, assisted by Gable. Roswana occasionally travelled to Earth to visit museums, so she had been seen in the village.

Although well into her hundreds, young by Terzon standards, she was still a beautiful woman.

When Mavis overheard Stuart warning Richard to be careful with Roswana and suddenly changing the subject when he saw her, she did not jump to the conclusion that they were investigating some ancient and unsafe cellars on the distant planet of Terzon but rather that he was having a very Earth-type affair with another woman. Once it was in her mind, she was determined to deal with it.

If Mavis was more of a feminist or a businesswoman she would have created a successful interior decorating business or a restaurant. Instead, she took pride in her house, regarded as one of the most stylish in the village, and was always asked to supply cakes and pies to village events. It may sound old-fashioned, but she demanded an equal say in the marriage, enjoyed the lifestyle that she had chosen and heaven help anyone who crossed her.

Security at the quarry was a compromise. If their computer monitoring picked up anything serious or organised then it could be locked down so tight that no one on Earth could penetrate it. On the other hand none of them liked working in those conditions and so, normally security tended to be very lax. It could cope with curious kids nosing around, governments investigating their secret but it could not cope with a suspicious wife checking up on her husband.

Mavis found Gable's set of keys, gathered up some of her most popular pies, made some flasks of fresh coffee and headed up to the workshop in the quarry. When Richard worked at the garage, his boss had enjoyed her pies as much as anyone and tolerated her disturbing Richard at work, providing she was careful to arrive just before his break. Now, Richard did not work to set hours and the quarry was considerably more remote so she could not 'just pop in while passing'. She knew they carried out very sensitive work so it was not a good idea to disturb them too often. However the pies and fresh coffee still gave her an excuse to visit and find out what was really going on there.

She let herself into the workshop, only to find it empty. She thought she heard noises coming from the big cylindrical thing in front of her and headed over to investigate. Had she stood to one side a little she would have been more concerned but she could not see the weird optical effects caused by the portal disappearing into folded space. The portals were designed with an array of safety features to prevent disaster but this one was a permanent link between Earth and a space station. The airlock, linking the local and remote end of the portal had been upgraded using Terzon technology, was made of extremely light but super tough materials which opened and closed automatically. As Mavis approached, the hatch swung open for her. She knew by then that the noise was just the hum of some sort of machine but she had got that far and was not going to stop now. She stepped through. The hatch swung shut behind her while another, about ten feet in front of her opened wide.

Still determined to find out what Richard was up to, she stepped forward only to stumble as something seemed to pull her backwards. The airlock now seemed to be pointing upwards but as she took another step forwards it seemed to be pointing upwards even more, yet she was able to pull herself along by the rails. By now she was completely disorientated, too frightened to move. In panic she called out. A figure appeared at the open hatch. It seemed to be floating and was dressed all in white.

It grunted something which she did not understand before saying in English, Lean forward and pull yourself along the rails. Let your feet trail behind you.

She complied only to be astonished to find herself floating out of the hatch to be caught by the figure and guided to a handhold.

She had no idea what was happening and needed something familiar to get her bearings, Do you know Richard? she asked, Where is he?

He's on Terzon. the figure replied, I'm not sure where but I can find out.

How about Stuart? She asked, only slightly reassured by his answer.

It depends on the time zone where his base is. If it's their daytime he'll be on the Lizard Planet otherwise on his space station. Brian's at the Control Centre, can he help?

Now that she could see him she assumed that the figure was human. She was beginning to realise that the half serious gossip and the odd comments that she had overhead were all true and that she was probably in space. Unable to do much more than hang on she waited quietly until Brian arrived.

Hello, Mavis, he said, It's nice of you to drop in. Would you like a cup of tea?

Yes please, she replied, That would be lovely. Is there any way I can stop my skirt floating upwards?

Brian grinned and helped her through an enormous metal cavern, through more airlocks and finally back out into the open air. More importantly, she was no longer floating helplessly around and the ground was firmly beneath her feet where it belonged.

Mavis spent a long time sitting out in the Terzon sun recovering her composure. There were so many questions she needed answering. What was that thing she had walked through? What was Stuart doing with his own space station? Was the Lizard Planet dangerous? What was Terzon? Where was Richard and what was he doing? What was Brian doing? Finally the big question, where was she?

Brian did his best to explain that Stuart had his own space station because he was a respected explorer in his own right and worked with his own team. While Brian worked with Terzon scientists doing detailed and methodical research, Stuart tended to follow his own instincts and jump around more, which was how he had got involved in time travel. Brian made a bad mistake mentioning time travel but at least had the sense not to mention that Stuart had once been trapped on a parallel world. However, he was almost able to convince her that the Lizard People were extremely friendly and hospitable.

So that tube thing where the doors opened and closed for me is your portal and that big tank where I was floating is a space station. she said, And now I'm on a different planet.

Brian nodded, I know, it's difficult to take in.

Being weightless and just floating around is difficult to take in. she snapped, I'm more worried about Stuart. What do you mean he does time travel experiments. I thought he was working for you.

It's complicated. Brian replied, If I said that science is a search for the truth and we're both searching using the portals then yes, he's still working for me.

And Stuart has a space station. Who's training him?

When it comes to the practicalities of working on a station then he teaches us. Brian smiled, Don't worry, he's remarkably level headed and sensible. He's OK.

Mavis sat quietly trying to take in everything that Brian had explained until Richard and Gable arrived. It took Mavis time to fully appreciate what she had stumbled across and then she just carried on as if nothing had happened. The biggest change came when she discovered that most of Richard's and Stuart's friends were vegetarians so it was a challenge to find pure vegetable ingredients for her recipes and she became a regular visitor to the Lizard Planet, sending the monkeys to collect a selection of their fruits and vegetables. Now when she cooked for the village fête back on Earth she included a range of exotic fruit pies never naming the fruits or where she got them from but they became very popular, and she even supplied some to the Wheatsheaf Inn.

She got on well with the Lizard People but found the Terzons cold and remote. Whenever she got the chance she would take afternoon tea, sitting in the camp on the Lizard Planet, enjoying the peace and quiet as well as taking the chance to find new ingredients.

In time Mavis became completely at ease with the idea that her family were space explorers, that she did some of her 'shopping' in the next galaxy. It was this calm acceptance that Stuart found surreal and also helped him to understand his mother better. She had chosen her lifestyle because it was what she wanted to do. She still wanted it but it did not stop her taking advantage of the portals to improve her reputation as a cook or to demonstrate her skills to whole new audiences. Stuart was sure now that she knew just how close Richard and Gable really were and he was equally sure that she saw it as just another facet to their travelling.

A yell from the game brought him out of his daydreaming just in time to see the cricket ball shoot high above his head. Gable had ignored the rules and thrown the ball rather than bowled it. James had swung the bat as if he had been playing baseball. It was not a bad tactic in this case but the yell had been because Dave suddenly fainted. At first everyone assumed that he was clowning around, pretending despair at the six Gable had just given the other team but Stuart began to think there was something wrong and hurried over.

Dave was struggling to his feet and, half crouching, appearing to be terrified and confused he looked wildly around, before he collapsed again. Seconds later he tried to stand again and this time he succeeded. He still looked frightened but seemed to be calming down.

I was on another Earth and I didn't like it. he said, Something was happening and everyone was scared.

You mean it was like those dreams we had before? Stuart asked.

Dave shook his head.

No. It was more like the jumps you described. I'm sure I was really there for a few minutes. I was starving and I think I passed out.... I mean he was starving... I don't know.

There was another you but not you, here. the lizard confirmed.

Is Dave all right? Mavis asked looking concerned.

He is well, the lizard confirmed, Stuart is being warned that his help is needed again.

Everyone stared at the lizard who stared calmly back.

It's something I felt, it said.

What's Mr. Lizard talking about? Mavis asked.

I'm not sure. Stuart replied, Last time anything like this happened I got stuck in a parallel universe because my time travel experiments went wrong. I think that the portal fields create eddies which provides links. I don't know anything about being asked for help though.

I don't think I want to know any more. Mavis said, It's bad enough worrying about his sister in London. Richard, I don't know what you're thinking letting him go off on these jaunts without supervision. Surely he should be training with a qualified pilot or something.

I know how you feel, dear, Richard replied, I've said the same thing but it seems that Stuart is the most highly qualified time traveller in at least two universes.

I wish I could tell his Aunt Maria that. Mavis said, She never stops talking about how well Caitlin is doing at university. I'm pleased for her but she doesn't talk about anything else.

The trouble is, I can't take any course or exam without cheating. Stuart replied, It's these Terzon translators. Even if I didn't wear one it would still have fed me everything I need to know. It would be unfair on the other students.

Mine doesn't. Mavis retorted.

You'd probably be surprised at the information stored in your brain now. Brian said, Most of it would be technical stuff that you don't use but I bet you know a lot more about plants and their chemical make up than you did.

That's right. Dave added, If I think very carefully, the translator tells me about something, I start knowing the information. It feels weird at times but at other times I find I just know without realising I've been told.

Dave seemed to have fully recovered and they continued with the picnic though no one seemed in the mood for any more cricket. Stuart had mixed feelings about being drawn into a new adventure. It could be exciting but it could also get messy and complicated, leaving him feeling lost and out of control again.

Although Brian, Richard and Gable were busy with their regular activities, it was routine. Stuart's team relaxed while Stuart struggled to deal with the masses of information his brain was absorbing. He had never been particularly scholarly but now he was stimulated by the problems that confronted him. He spent his time organising his thoughts, writing everything down to get his brain back under control.

During this time they did very little exploring taking on the role of tourists such as when they visited a planet that was just developing space travel. They travelled in a rocket liner to the outer moon which was exciting because it was so different from their usual transport. However, throughout all these diversions they felt that they were detached, restless and uninvolved.

Dave in particular was becoming restless while Stuart grappled with his problems and James got used to 21st century Earth. He still took his job as a handyman seriously working in Brian's garden and workshop but it was hardly demanding especially since Richard handled the technical side. He also helped maintain Stuart's space station, Resolution. That was more exciting, a novel experience. He could hardly call being weightless routine but there was still a sense of just going through the motions. None of it produced the same sense of excitement or involvement that their previous adventures had offered.

Dave's parents were disappointed that he seemed to be content to drift from one dead end job to another but again he could not tell them what he was really doing. His mother was an accountant, running her own business while his father was a lecturer in agriculture at a nearby university. Like the rest of the village, they were impressed with their son's ability to speak foreign languages and put Dave under extra pressure not to 'waste his talents'.

They were regarded by the rest of the village as a bit snooty, and although everyone was affable enough towards them the locals kept their distance. They were out of the circle of gossip so they had no idea of the rumours concerning Dave's real activities.

A few days later it was James who suffered the next episode. Luckily he was sitting in Brian's living room with the others gathered around.

I was back in Maine. he said, Like Dave said, I felt as if I was really there and it still seems real. The house was damaged and again, like Dave I was starving. I could just about see the sun through the clouds. It was so high in the sky it had to be summer but there was snow on the ground. I could only see my hands but they looked old.

What would you be doing if you hadn't met us? Stuart asked.

James nodded, It could have been me, retired and living in Maine.

James was adapting to life in the twenty first century. The world of 1973 which he’d left was still grappling with the death of Martin Luther King, just five years previously. Now he lived in a world where a black female lieutenant could lead a platoon of white male soldiers into action and men and women served side by side in the cramped conditions of a warship. He also lived in a world that tolerated homosexuality, allowing Brian and Stuart to live openly together in a small and conservative village. He was getting used to the idea but he was still uncomfortable about it.

On the plus side he admired Stuart for the way that, in a few months, he had gone from being a school drop out to respected scientist and explorer.

They met by accident while James was based in 1973 Portland. Stuart arrived there trying to implement a badly thought-out plan. For some reason, they trusted each other on sight and since James' life was going nowhere, he teamed up with Stuart.

Was there any sign of radiation? Brian asked.

You're thinking of a nuclear war. James said, No, I don't think that there was anything like that. I'm sure that I was angry with the sky but I don't know why. It could have been the clouds. What happened while I was gone?

He sort of gasped, 'Oh my God.' then you were back. Dave replied.

I can sympathise with him. James said, You've told me about all these jumps and things but you can't understand until you've experienced one. I'm still a bit shaken.

Last time a lot of people got dreams and only I had these blackout things. Stuart said, How come no one's dreaming and I'm not jumping?

Something is connecting this universe to a parallel one again. Brian said, I don't suppose the effects will be identical. Maybe the jumps and dreams are caused in slightly different ways.

But it hasn't happened yet. Dave said.

So?

Dave thought for a moment.

OK! Multi-dimensional time and space. Dave replied sheepishly, I can't take it for granted the way you can.

So why does it cause these jumps. James asked, I don't believe in mind reading and the like. James paused looking just as sheepish as Dave had a moment ago.

Except with the Lizard Planet. he exclaimed, But they don't jump around like this, do they?

They've never said. I never learned anything about my jumps so I'm still guessing but I think that all these universes are connected. Stuart replied, When we tinker with time and other dimensions we make the connection stronger through the eddies I mentioned. When another me went through a traumatic time, that connection activated. The other 'yous' seem to be going through a bad time so that's activating your connections.

Will it happen again? Dave asked.

I don't know. Stuart replied, These dreams and blackouts, jumps if you like, seem to happen before we know about the connection so it depends on how far ahead it is. Our brains might be more receptive when we don't know what's happening and we're not actively involved in dealing with it.

Stuart seemed thoughtful.

I'm a bit worried, he said, How do they put it in those war films? We're going from Defcon five to Defcon four. James, practise your Internet skills. See if you can find all the possible causes of a nuclear winter then see if you can find anyone getting alarmed about seismic activity. Dave, the only natural causes I can think of are a super volcano, a meteor or a comet. You deal with outer space. Find out what we can do about long-range detection. Check to see if anyone has spotted anything yet.

Yes Commander, James replied. Stuart did not like being called Commander but every so often James acknowledged that he was in charge. Dave just nodded.

I don't think that we can do much more, Brian said, How worried are you?

Like I said, on a scale of one to five I've gone from a relaxed five to an uneasy four. If we find anything then that'll be a three and if we have to do anything that'll be a two.

What happens if it goes to one? Brian asked.

We either panic or evacuate as many of our friends and relatives as we can to Terzon or the Lizard Planet.

Stuart felt a little better. His relationship with the Terzons had cooled because they could not agree on what constituted interference and what was help but they had no problems with pure research. Resolution was in an orbit around the sun at a distance of about five billion miles. The orbit was at right angles to the plane of the solar system so they could virtually look down onto the Solar System. With the camera display and software the Terzons could supply they would begin a serious search for trouble from space.

Stuart had helped a planet devastated by earthquakes. They had become highly knowledgeable on seismology and so he intended gathering up all the information he could on Earth's seismic activity then ask them to check it.

Satisfied that he could do nothing else, Stuart tried to relax but he still had the feeling that trouble was looming. He just wished he knew what.

Part of the answer arrived a day or two later. Stuart became concerned that Dave had not turned up on Resolution and headed back to the house. He found his friend in a bad way, shivering despite of the heat from the central heating which was on maximum and surrounded by the wrappings of the food he had taken from the larder. He may have been shivering but he was far too hot to be safe. Stuart turned the heating off and threw open the windows before turning to comfort his friend. Dave could just about focus on Stuart's words and, gradually, the presence of another human brought him out of his trauma. As his strength returned he rushed to the toilet to bring up the food he had gobbled up. He was more composed when he returned and sat down to tell his story.

I'd finished my chores in the house and was going to the quarry. he said, I did another one of those jumps. I was in my old room at my parent’s house but it was bitterly cold, with frost on the walls. There was a large crack down one wall and the window glass was smashed and just boarded up.

Dave paused and shuddered before continuing, Fuck, was I cold and hungry. I was under a pile of bed clothes but it looked as if he... I was trying to stuff scraps of an old newspaper into his shirt for insulation. While I was there the room seemed to get darker. It wasn't nightfall or anything, I think I was blacking out, maybe dying.

Dave paused again, his body trembling as he relived the incident, "I was holding a newspaper page, a front page. The headline read, 'IT'S COMING. All hope gone. Impact expected tomorrow 300 miles north of Beijing, China.’ There was a picture released by an observatory. It didn't show much, just a picture of the night sky with a grey disc in the