Love in a Strange Time

By Natalie Black

Lucie Jones is a scientist obsessed with history, and it's been her lifelong goal to build a time machine and travel back to a more...primitive time. She's never felt like she's belonged in modern society, with modern relationships.

When Lucie finally perfects her machine, she disappears into the prehistoric world and awakens feelings and desires she never knew were inside her.

While trying to find food and shelter, Lucie comes across a terrifying Triceratops and, rather than being frightened, she finds that she is ideally suited for the savage time...and all of its fiery passions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roja Publishing
• Release date: Nov 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540160973

Book preview

Lucie Jones sat in her laboratory. The electrical lights hummed overhead and she pinched her nose, trying to force away the strain that her eyes were feeling. In front of her on her desk were pieces of paper, haphazardly strewn about, and as she looked over them she scowled and huffed in frustration. She held her head in one hand and in the other she pulled her blonde ponytail around and brushed it against her cheek, as she was wont to do when she was annoyed. Suddenly, she heard the air conditioner come on and a sharp chill shot through the lab. Lucie scratched her skin to try and warm it up, but she soon found herself taking her lab coat that was hanging on the back of her chair and putting it on, wrapping it tightly around her.

What is it with these damn figures, she muttered. The equations were beginning to blur together and there was some vital piece missing that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

At least there’s nothing wrong with yours, a voice said, making her jump. She swiveled on her chair and saw that it was Mark Prenton. He stood in the doorway, drinking in her beauty with his eyes. Assuredly, he moved forward and leaned over her so that he could whisper in Lucie’s ear. His cheap aftershave almost made her gag.

Why don’t you come out for dinner, we can get a few drinks, loosen up those brain cells and work on the problem together?

I don’t think you’d be able to grasp this no matter how loose your brain cells become.

Mark laughed and rose, You wound me Lucie, he said, leafing through the papers on the desk, much to Lucie’s annoyance. She stood up and took the papers out of his hand.

I have these in a specific order, do not mess them up. This isn’t like your simple little experiments; I’m trying to figure out how to travel through time.

I don’t know why you’re wasting your time, it’s impossible.

Nothing is impossible.

A-ha! Then I do have a chance with you, Mark said, smiling with glee. Lucie let out another exasperated huff.

"I take that back, you’re impossible!"

She noticed his gaze drift from the paper to her ample cleavage, and she found his fixation unsettling. She pulled her lab coat even more tightly around her and turned away from him.

I think you should go, I need to focus on my work, she said. Mark’s face darkened and he slammed the papers down on the desk, making her jump.

"Work, work, work, that’s all your concerned with. There’s much more to life that you’re missing out on. How can you stand it, being stuck in this lab all day every day? It’s not even like you’re doing anything important, time travel, hah, he scoffed, even if you do find a way to make it work do you really think anyone will let you use it once the secret is out? It’ll be taken from you and you’ll be left with nothing, and what’s worse is nobody will even care because you don’t let people care about you. You’ll just be left here, in this empty space with nothing."

You can be a real jerk sometimes, she shouted after him as he stormed out; his bitter words caused Lucie’s eyes to well up with tears.

They glistened in the light, but she caught control of herself before they rolled down her cheeks. She didn’t mind the insults so much; all her life people had attacked her for her attitude. Never had she made any real, intimate attachments and she was fine with that. Ever since school she had been the quiet loner and it always puzzled her how people made connections so easily with a quick laugh or a flash of a smile, but they were concepts that always eluded her. She had learned to accept her lot in life but it was incredibly frustrating because there was a passionate undercurrent flowing underneath her icy surface and she so badly wanted to unleash it, but she had no idea how to go about doing so.

What hurt more though were his attacks on her work as part of her feared that he was right, that she would be left with nothing. She had long abandoned hope of living a fulfilled personal life so she had poured everything into her profession and the past few years had been dedicated to getting a time machine to work. She knew the risks going in, if she did manage to get it to work she knew the government would most likely take it away, but it was the only way she knew for a shot at immortality, a chance to make her mark on the world. But she still had to invent it first.

‘Damn him,’ she thought, slamming her fist on the table. He had completely distracted her and broken her flow of concentration, and now was when she needed it the most. Earlier she had received a memo notifying her that the institute was going to pull her funding if she didn’t come up with some tangible results soon. Lucie had worked too long and too hard to abandon her research now, especially when she was so close.

She knew the solution of the mystery was tantalizingly close yet it still remained elusive, and now all she could think about was Mark’s words. They rattled around her head, mingling with all the equations creating a messy mass of words and numbers that only served to confuse her already tired brain. She let out another cry of frustration and swiveled away from the desk, examining the rest of the room to try and distract her thoughts.

The wall and the doorway in front of her were made entirely of glass, giving her a view of the spacious corridors outside. Usually they were a hub of activity but this late in the evening she was practically the only one left in the building. Most of the lights had been dimmed, creating a spooky atmosphere, and if she had been prone to wild imaginings she would never have been able to turn her back to the door. To her right was the prototype of the time machine. It was an unobtrusive piece of equipment that ordinarily would not attract a second look. It was a small, squat piece of metal with open sides that housed a stool and a computer display. At the moment colorful wires were spooling out in a tangled mess as she tried to find the right combination to make the device work.

All around the rest of the room were posters and artifacts pertaining to different periods of history. There was stuff from Ancient Greece and Egypt and Rome, rocks that dated even further back, before civilization had begun, and there were her pride and joy; fossils from the greatest species that ever walked the Earth. Lucie rose from her chair and held the small piece of fossil in her hands. It amazed her that what she held was the remains of a majestic creature that once walked the Earth, and now, millions of years later, this is all that remained. It made her wonder whether anything of her would remain millions of years from now, or whether humanity would just disappear like dust in the wind.

Still holding the fossil, she moved her eyes to look at the poster that ran around her wall. It depicted the progression of dinosaurs through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. She always marveled at the diversity of the species, and how it was so cruel that they were wiped out in one single cataclysmic event. However, it only made her more determined to prove that she was right and that her device could work, for her life, and every person’s life could be futile if another stray meteor came Earth’s way. Before she got back to work her gaze lingered on the Triceratops, her favorite dinosaur. There was something about the horns and the ridged shield that struck her as beautiful. For a brief moment she lost herself in wondering what it must have been like to witness these titans as they walked across the land, and she knew somewhere in that stack of paper was the key.

Sitting back down, she pored through the equations and symbols but still Mark’s words reverberated around her mind. It angered her that he could have such an effect on her, but she couldn’t shake his words away.

‘You’ll just be left here in this empty space with nothing. Left here...empty space...nothing. Left...space...nothing. Space.’

Suddenly something clicked in her mind. Lucie leafed through the papers, trying to find the right one. She scattered them about all over the floor and they flew up into the air as she passed over the ones she didn’t need. Her thoughts whirred and all the possibilities came to her like a torrential flood. Her head ached again but it was a different ache now, it wasn’t brought on by frustration or tiredness but by inspiration and anticipation, by the thrill of being on the brink of discovering the secret which she had yearned to know for so long. All her doubts began to vanish as she grew closer to what she knew in her heart, and then she found the piece of paper she was looking for.

It was an ordinary thing, with only one equation written on it that would easily have been lost in the shuffle had she not been paying attention. She pulled out a pen and made a few marks, correcting her sums as she went along. These new calculations led her to redo other ones, so she spent the next few hours going through all her work and making the necessary adjustments, but eventually it all came together so naturally that if she wasn’t a scientist she would have claimed it was pre-ordained.

‘I feel so stupid for not having seen it before,’ she thought, ‘but it’s so simple! How could I have not seen it? It’s not enough to travel through time...I have to travel through space as well!’

She spun in her chair and raised her hands to the ceiling, delighted with herself for finally unlocking the mystery. It was all so clear to her now, and she laughed at herself for not seeing the solution sooner. The reason none of the experiments had worked before was because travelling through time was only half of the necessary procedure. She had forgotten to take into account the Earth’s rotation, because the coordinates she programmed in would only have led to her drifting aimlessly through space. The Earth was continually on the move through the cosmos so she had to enter not only the right timeframe, but the right location too.

Galvanized by her breakthrough, she pored over the instruments and tweaked some of the wiring, working hard through the night to perfect her machine. The hardest part was calculating where exactly the Earth would have been all those millions of years ago, but once she had figured that out it was only a small matter to prepare the time machine.

Wiping the sweat from her brow she stood back and admired her work. The machine was now complete; all the wiring was connected properly and it was ready to be used. She looked around, and wondered which time period she should visit first. Would it be the age of enlightenment in the golden age of philosophy in Ancient Greece, or would she travel down the Nile and witness the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza? There were so many possibilities that she furrowed her brow and chewed her lip trying to decide because she wasn’t sure whether she would have time to visit them all. Once her superiors were notified of her discovery they would take it away for their own testing so it may have been possible that this would be her only trip.

As she looked around the room trying to find some spark of inspiration, her eyes drifted towards the long poster that surrounded her. Gazing at the images of those extinct animals quickly made her mind up, and it was an easy decision. No-one had ever laid eyes on a living dinosaur, and it thrilled her to think that she would be the first human ever to witness them in all their glory and she was sure that her name would be passed down through the annals of history.

In her final preparations she gathered up a notepad, pen and a camera, then just before she left she decided to leave a note:

‘I, Lucie Jones, hereby declare myself as the inventor of a time machine. I am embarking on my first adventure to a land long lost, where dinosaurs ruled the Earth. To anyone who finds this note, await my return where I will bring with me proof of my journey. If some cruel fate should befall me, remember my name and all I have done. This is the summation of my life’s work, and I go forth into the unknown willingly.’

Lucie emphatically signed the note and left it on her desk. She climbed into the machine and laid out her equipment by her feet. Taking a deep breath, she entered the coordinates and the year she wanted but then, just as she was about to activate the time machine, she heard a commotion outside. She peered out of the side of the machine to see Mark stumbling into the lab. His clothes were disheveled and his normally impeccably-parted hair was wayward and tousled. She rolled her eyes.

You are too beautiful to spend your whole life wasting away in a lab, he slurred, I declare myself to be yours, in whatever way you wish. I know sometimes you don’t really like me but I can prove to you that I am worth a chance. I spent so long pining for you and tonight...did you know it was the anniversary of when we first met? I wanted to show you that I think of you often, and not just when I’m...you know...being intimate with myself.

As he said all this he made emphatic hand gestures and stumbled around the office, it took him a while but eventually, through his bloodshot eyes he saw that she was sitting in the time machine.

What are you doing in there? he asked incredulously, screwing up his face.

I’m just testing something, Lucie replied, go home and sleep Mark, you’ll feel better tomorrow.

No. No I won’t. You always tell me to go so this time I’m staying. I love you Lucie. You may not believe me but I do, with all my heart and soul. I will never leave you.

In that case I’ll have to leave you, she muttered, pressing the buttons to activate the time machine. It started to whirr and violently sparked into life, shuddering and shaking as the machinery powered up. Lucie held on tightly, almost tossed from her stool as the machine jerked, when a pale blue haze emanated from the roof and enveloped her. Mark watched on with wide eyes, barely believing what he was seeing, but in a few seconds of either courage or foolishness he flung himself forward and was caught in the temporal wave.

The blue sphere surrounded the both of them and it throbbed and thrummed, so much so that Lucie was afraid the whole thing was going to tear itself apart. Then, suddenly the air around them swirled and the lab disappeared, replaced by a blue spiral that changed formation and color; it became purple and black and grey and white and red and pink and Lucie became disoriented and dizzy and lightheaded and it seemed to last forever until finally the vibrations ceased and the sphere around them dissipated.

Lucie remained on the stool for a few moments, afraid to let go. Her knuckles were white and her mouth was dry, but eventually she worked up the courage to exit the time machine. What she saw took her breath away. The sun was low in the sky, and it burnt a deep orange. Thick forests of trees looked like black silhouettes against the horizon, but the whole vista was a picturesque sight that had no blots of civilization. There were no malls or skyscrapers around her, there was just the untamed world, and she knew she belonged there. But her personal paradise was ruined as Mark coughed and spluttered.

What the hell are you doing here? she said, her mood instantly darkening, having not noticed him jump into the time stream at the last moment. He began to respond but it was curtailed by his realization of where –and when- they had arrived. Even through his drunken haze he could make sense of it all, and his mouth dropped agape at what he was seeing and feeling. The air was thick and humid, and it was alive with smells that almost overwhelmed their senses and cleared Mark’s head instantly. Even though the sun was setting, this world seemed brighter and more vibrant than their old one.

This is, oh my God...you did it! This is amazing Lucie, you actually did it!

Even though she was annoyed at his presence she couldn’t help but admit to herself that she was glad she had someone there to witness her feat.

But where are we? he asked. Lucie scanned the horizon and then pointed over to her left, where the trees cleared. Small blots appeared; a massive crowd that was racing along the ground. It was soon apparent that they were a herd of dinosaurs marauding through the land.

The thunderous roar of their stampede traveled to Mark and Lucie’s ears and they could barely believe what they were witnessing. They watched on, transfixed as the galloping Ankylosaurs raced in front of them. Lucie shouted; it was only then that she remembered she had brought a camera. She quickly fetched it from the time machine and began snapping photos. However, she forgot that the flash was on so bright lights sparked in the dusky twilight, but she carried on taking photos.

After a little while though, Mark moved toward her and in a low voice he said, Lucie? I think you may want to stop that.

Why? I need to get as many photos as possible, who knows how common this is.

I understand that, but it seems as though they have changed direction and they’re coming straight for us!

Lucie lowered the camera and saw that he was right. They both screamed and tried to get out of the way of the onrushing dinosaurs, huddling in the fetal position as the mighty creatures stormed through the field, their heavy tails swinging low against the ground. Lucie shut her eyes and just hoped that she would survive, but amidst the chaos she heard the twisting of metal and the crunch of something being crumpled effortlessly. She dared not move though, so she remained there for what seemed like an eternity until finally the sound of the march faded and everything was quiet.

Raising her head, she was greeted by the sight she was dreading; the time machine had been buffeted back and forth and was completely destroyed. Evidently the Anklyosaurs had cared not for the time and effort that had gone into constructing that unique piece of machinery.

Despondently, Mark walked up to the remnants of the machine and fell to his knees.

There’s no way back is there, he said, it was more of a statement than a question, and Lucie didn’t feel a need to answer it.

Come on, let’s go and find some shelter, she said.

Lucie walked off and Mark eventually followed. It was a strange feeling that came over her, one more of relief than despair. She knew rationally she should have been crazy with sorrow at being stranded from her own time and place, but for the first time she felt free of the pressures of society, and she knew that she could finally be herself, although there was still Mark...

For hours they