Folly Light

Folly Light

William flicked the reins against the mare's haunches.
"Git up old girl or we'll never get there." The horse picked up a
little speed on the muddy road, but soon slowed to the pace which she
found most comfortable pulling the empty cart. The milestone indicated
five more miles to Wantage.
"Not long now old girl. Hay for you and pie for me." William adjusted
his hat against the driving rain which had been their companion most of
the way from London.
"Three more days of this old girl, then we'll be home." The old horse
snorted as though she understood.
Horse, cart and driver arrived at the market square in Wantage after
dark. They soon found the inn; they had done this journey many times
before and usually stayed at the same inns on each trip. William helped
the stable boy undo the straps and harness from the mare. He rubbed
down the weary horse with straw in an effort to dry her against the
cool night. The mare responded to the attention with a snicker and a
grateful nudge, and took the hay when it was offered.
"How far you going?" asked the stable boy.
"Back to Stroud for the next load of wool. Then off to London again.
That'll be our last load this spring. It might be the last load ever
for this mare, she's getting on a bit now."
"Will you put her out to grass?"
"No lad. I can't afford pasturing for a retired animal, more's the
pity. She'll be for the knacker's unless someone wants her for light
work."
The boy passed no comment. Almost every week a horse died on this part
of the London road; over worked and under fed as most of them
were.
"She isn't so bad. Got some good muscle there still," he was passing
his hands down the mare's legs.
"We'll see how it goes. I don't want to lose her, she's been a good
worker. I've had her ten years, and they've been good times. But the
canal is taking all the trade now, so my living's going. That's
progress I suppose."
"We get less trade these days 'cos of the canal. The master is
thinking of building a place over at Radcot, but most of the bargees
live on their boats, so it'd only be ale he'd sell."
"I hear tell that there'll be a mail coach service this way soon."
William mused on the prospect of being a mail coach driver.
"Yes. It might bring more custom. Can I get you some food?"
"That'll be good. I'll come inside to see what there is. Anything good
on tonight?"
"The salmon pie is tasty, but this weather you'll want something like
me mum's beef and tripe pudding."
"Sounds good." William patted the mare's head and followed the boy
into the supper room of the inn.

*****

"It'll be foggy in the morning, William. You mind how you go along the
vale, it's mighty wet at the moment as you get near Farringdon. Thought
of taking the Ridgeway?" The master of the house was talking of the
high ground to the south of Wantage, which was the more usual road
during the wet months.
"I went up to London that way, but it is a bit further. I'd like to
get back as quick as maybe for the next load."
"Well, mind yourself in the morning." William gave a nod of thanks for
the advice.

*****

"How's the final laser pulse amplifier going, John?"
"Nearly set up, Prof. Just a few more tests and we'll be ready to
couple it up to the main array."
"Good. I'll start connecting the array to the computer for final
tests."
The Professor left the laboratory and opened the door to the computer
room. In front of him was the huge bank of computers which would
control the experiment. He went behind this wall of nearly living
silicon to the connection matrix where the array of pulse amplifiers
and their sensors were routed to the computers. The Professor began the
long process of connecting and testing each element of the array.

"The amp is finished Prof." John put his head around the door. He
walked to the connection matrix and put the amplifier down on the
bench. "Need any help?" he asked the Professor.
"Yes please, John. Can you find the cable for element five three, I
appear to have lost it." The Professor seemed to be standing in the
midst of a sea of multicoloured spaghetti, cables of different colours
drooped over both shoulders and dangling from his hands.
"All the fives are in green, Prof. It's on your left shoulder."
"Ah yes. Thanks. You can do the amplifier now John."
"OK Prof."
The pair worked at their respective tasks for the rest of the
afternoon, pausing only for consultations on matters of detail.
"How are you fixed for tonight, John? I would like to make a brief
test during darkness so that we can see the laser beams."
"I'm OK till about nine. I promised to meet Betty at the pub about
then."
"That should do quite well. We will know in the first ten seconds just
how successful we have been."
"Shall I go up the tower and open the shutters?" The main laser array
was at the top of the Folly, safely behind steel shutters.
"Yes please, John. I'll start the final checks. Don't forget to set
the laser interlock when you go into the upper chamber. We wouldn't
want an accident."
"OK Prof." John climbed the steel ladder from the underground
laboratory to the open air. He replaced the man-hole cover so that
no-one could see what was happening under the base of the folly. He
took out his key to the folly door and let himself in, locking the door
behind him. His hand found the light switch, as if by instinct. The
small entrance vestibule lit up, as did the staircase leading to the
top of the folly tower. John opened the terminal box tucked behind the
stairs and set the laser interlock to "safe".
The climb to the top of the folly tower was breathtaking, as was the
view of the surrounding countryside. Dusk was passing over the land.
The long shadows made by the setting sun melded into dark pools of
night. As he opened each shutter, John paused to look at the scene.
Seven counties could be seen from this vantage point. He resolved to
bring maps up here, one day, to pin point features in each
county.

"All shutters open Prof," said John on his return to the
laboratory.
"OK. Check the external video cameras to make sure no-one is walking
nearby."
"All clear, Prof."
"Check the laser interlocks."
"All OK."
"Check the power surge circuits."
"All OK."
"Check the main breakers."
"All OK."
"Check recorders."
"All running."
"OK John. This is it. Start automatic countdown."
"Started at ten seconds." The computers began their own countdown,
free from human intervention. A million checks and tests were carried
out as each second ticked by. At four seconds the humming began; the
kind of hum that precedes the sudden breakdown of air when lightning
strikes.
At two seconds the humming had become a shrill whistle, a pitch too
high for most human ears, but one that splits the head with its
sub-harmonics.
At one second all sounds ceased.
At a half second the lasers began to glow, their power levels building
towards maximum.
At a quarter second the scanning mirrors flashed the laser beams to
sub-divide the space around the tower into countless billions of
sectors.
At an eighth second reality began to disappear.
At a sixteenth second the air around the folly tower glowed blue as it
broke into its sub- atomic parts.
The sub-division of time continued.
An infinity of sub-divisions exist between one and zero; an infinity
of existences occur between one second and zero time.
But even the biggest computer cannot subdivide for ever; as the
computer is finite, so is the smallest increment of time that it can
compute.
The countdown ended.
"What have you got on the monitors, John?" The Professor dare not move
his eyes from the antics of the computer displays.
"All the distance ones are blank. The close ones show the
tower."
"What sort of blank?"
"Dark, it's night time. Oh, I can see the street lights in the
town."
"And the tower?"
"It's base is hovering above the ground. We've done it Prof, we've
done it."
"OK John. Begin the shutdown."
"Shutdown started."
The subdivided time re-multiplied back up the harmonic chain doubling
at every computation cycle of the linked computers.
"There's something wrong Prof. The videos show the tower still
floating. It's light all around the tower. I can't see any distance,
it's just like thick fog."
"OK John." The Professor paused while he scanned the computer
displays, "We have a computational error. The starting point for the
time re-multiply chain was not zero. The error has been amplified by
the scale factor. We are adrift by centuries."
"Can we correct for it?"
"Eventually, yes. It will take me some hours to modify the software.
Take a tea break John. I hope we have enough backup power to
last."

*****

William slapped the reins on the horse's rump.
"Git along there old girl." The fog was thick in the morning, just as
the Master of the House had predicted.
"It's good the road is well marked," William said to the old mare.
There was no one else to talk to this early in the morning. No sane
traveller would be up this early.
Horse and driver journeyed west for two hours towards Farringdon. Now
and again the road disappeared beneath a shallow flood, a product of
the recent rains.
"I can't see the road yet, old girl, we must have missed it in that
last flood." William stopped the cart, hoping to hear other road users
through the thick fog, though it was still early in the day.
"I suppose we can sit tight till the fog lifts, but it might be
tomorrow till it does." He got down from the cart and picked his way
through the mud to the horse's head. William fondled the mare's ear.
She snickered in recognition. Now at ground level, William could feel
the slope of the land. He took the reins and led the horse towards
higher ground.
"Sometimes the mist lies in the hollows. Let's get to high ground."
The horse snorted. When the ground began to slope down again, William
knew it was no good; the fog was just as thick.
The old mare snickered and shook her dew covered head.
"What's the matter, old girl?" She began to stamp her front hooves,
shaking her head from side to side.
"Whoa, old girl. What's the matter?" William looked around for any
cause, perhaps an animal, a fox maybe. He could see nothing on the
ground nearby; the horse's senses were always more acute than his.
William got up onto the cart and stood listening, looking all around
him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw flashes of light. He looked
directly at them, they disappeared. It was only when he looked away
that he could see them.
"Them's is strange lights. Too high in the sky to be
will-o'-the-wisp." William turned horse and cart towards the lights. As
they got closer, William could see the light flashes by looking
directly at them. All shades of blue danced in the distance above their
heads. The soggy grass suddenly gave way to stone.
"This must be the road, old girl." William stopped the cart. He sat
for a moment, deciding whether to turn left or right along the road.
The lights kept flickering in the air on his left. Out of the thick
mist from the same direction came a large black shape, crunching on the
stone road. Another cart.
"Hi there," William shouted.
"Ho there," came a returned shout.
"I'm lost. Where are you coming from?" shouted William.
"I've just come from Farringdon, an hour since," the stranger shouted
back.
"That's the way I'm going. What's the road like?" asked William.
"It's good, friend. How about towards Wantage?"
"Flooded in places. I lost the road for some time. But for the lights
I would still be lost."
"What lights is they, friend?"
"The blue ones behind you." William pointed behind the other traveller
who turned in his seat.
"Wo. I've not seen them afore. Looks like they're from the Farringdon
Hill. They do say that there be spirits up there, what with all the
killings in the old forts, and the barrows and all." The traveller made
the sign of the cross and urged his horse onwards. "Mind how you go,
friend. Keep to the left of the hill, mind."
William thanked him for his care and turned the mare towards
Farringdon.
The lights went out.
"Them's spirits have gone, old girl." The horse snorted and nodded her
head. They had reached Farringdon. They rumbled through the town and
stopped outside the Bell Inn.
"Hi, sir," called the stable lad, "Did you see the lights on the
hill?"
"I did lad. They saved me from getting lost in the vale fog this
morning."
"They say a big tower appeared with the lights, like a fairy
castle."
"Didn't see no tower, but I was glad of the lights, lad. Get me a hot
broth will you?"
"I will sir. Shan't be long."

*****

"Found the bug, John. Won't take long now." The Professor attacked the
keyboard with great vigour.
"We have twelve giga joules left in the energy cell Prof. The final
surge will use ten, that leaves us about four minutes of power."
"Nearly done. Turn off all unnecessary equipment."
"I've already done that Prof."
"Good. Start the reset procedure."
"Reset started." The computers began to recalculate the new temporal
trajectory. The final burst of energy pulsed through the laser array,
splitting reality into a near infinity of pieces and constructing a new
reality around the folly tower.
"Back to time zero Prof. Wow. What a trip." John looked over at the
Professor who was hunched over the displays. The Professor straightened
and turned to John.
"Yes, some trip. A qualified success I think. If we close down now
John, we'll be in time to get to the pub to meet Betty, and have a well
deserved drink. We should see the tower flicker with our laser light at
about nine forty, as near as I can calculate."
"Where did we get to after the first return, Prof?"
"I'm not too sure, somewhere late in the sixteenth century, but
luckily it looked like a foggy day. Just think of the consternation if
anyone had seen us."

End