Chrono Voyage

     London 1880 a city full of buzzing life, the carriages just on about their business as the horse’s hooves clanked on the cobblestone street that was wide enough for a two-way lane, and the gas lamps on the side-walk illuminating what they can with the little power they had, the dark roofs with smoking chimneys, the dark gray sky. What a beauty London was in the industrial era. The Big Ben in all its lit glory and in the distance precisely Hyde Park something that drew everybody’s attention. You see those carriages are not some random folk carriages but rather the fancy ones. Those carriages drove the world’s most smart, influential, and rich people toward The Crystal Palace. You’d think they were gathering there for a presentation of new and mind-blowing inventions, but no…they gathered simply for a ball, courtesy of Queen Victoria of course. She probably thought that it’s time for the world's finest to take a little bit of time for themselves and have some fun.      Amidst these fine people is a rather peculiar fellow a doctor no less, a doctor, doctor not those physics and chemistry doctors but a real doctor a surgeon if you prefer, but our doctor is not an ordinary doctor simply because he has knowledge about everything that medicine encompasses not dentistry obviously. Benjamin Riddle was known to some, Doctor Riddle known to many as an American fellow with dark hair that was somewhat longer on the top compared to the sides that were shorter, he had brown eyes, a medium nose, thin lips, and a perfect male jawline. Everything about him was perfect, probably why everybody felt intimidated just by standing right next to him. He was smart, rich, had a p***s, qualities that every woman wants, except he wasn’t quite the charmer although he held such great gravitas, but not the eccentric type, no quite the opposite, when he wasn’t working you’d always find him in his study buried in books. ‘“You could never know enough,”’ he’d always say whenever he gets the chance or when someone is bothering him whilst he studies. It was only the relatives who were concerned about his well-being that made him finally get out of his study and go on this trip to London. They had finally gotten him out of his study that was towered with books, the windows completely blocked by them, it was a shame really, he blocked the sight that most people would probably kill for. Fifth Avenue is where he lived all alone with his servants and relatives who would visit from time to time, but such was the curse of the smart and wealthy folk in this world.         “Are we there yet?” he asked like a little kid when it’s bored by the long trip.                                                                                                                             “Soon sir,” answered the coachman that also happened to be his servant back in New York, as Benjamin just leaned back on the leather seat of the chariot and sighed, he really hated traveling, he placed his leg on top of the other and tapped on the leather seat with his fingers, soon after he remembered he was in London, there was so much to see.  He leaned out of the window and pushed the red curtain with his hand, he loved all kinds of architecture, from the middle ages to the Renaissance, and now he had the privilege to see the Victorian architecture which London was famous for, he saw the tall buildings and the authentic red brick that they were made off of. They moved past a gray building that was disastrously looking as if it were about to collapse any moment soon, Benjamin curiously leaned on the window of the chariot to get a better look of the building, but it had no sign indicating that it could perhaps be a store or a building where people actually live but nothing, even the windows were covered with paper, and no light seemed to be coming out of the building. “Probably just abandoned,” he thought to himself although he couldn’t really imagine anybody living there. And alas after a ten-minute ride since the building they arrived at the courtyard of the palace. The coachman opened the door for him and he stepped outside on the pebbles that covered the courtyard, he sprang up taken away by the breath-taking sight of the well-lit palace and the size of that thing and even further amazed by the crowd of people, he`s never seen so many people in one place it was quite the first experience he was experiencing. He saw the genius arched building, he was surprised that there weren’t any walls, just glass and metal holding it all together, he walked towards the marble stairs which had a decorative fence, and climbed towards the palace.                                             “And your name sire, would be?” a man approached him offering to take his coat as Benjamin looked at him confusedly and had no idea what was going on so much so that his servant had to step up.                       “This is Doctor Benjamin Riddle,” the servant told to the man that approached him.                                                                                                                                                    “Very well, I shall tell the announcer at once,” the man walked away, as Benjamin and his servant walked inside the palace. There was no end to Benjamin being surprised as soon as he entered he looked at the glass ceiling that was really high, this was surely something he couldn’t see in his study back in New York.                    “Doctor Benjamin Riddle!” announced the announcer as Benjamin walked inside the hall, and as you would expect everybody stared at him, he had no knowledge of experience for such occasion, he had no idea what to do as he just simply smiled and nodded at everybody and walked toward the table that had food as he just stood there observing everybody.                                                                                                                    “I heard he is such a fellow back in America,” the ladies started chatting about him.                                                “Yes, I’ve heard he is the best surgeon there is,” said another lady.                                    “Well he can surely operate on me in the bed,” said a third lady.                                            “Oh, hush you,” the ladies started laughing.                                                                                             €€€        The very same building that Benjamin passed and despised, the building that looked like it was going to come crumbling down any time soon started trembling and shaking. This was it, its time has finally come, it was the day that is about to collapse as the trembling and shakes intensified any time now it would give up, it intensified even more surely now…. But the building still stood as a strong short-lived burst of light came from inside and then it died out. The inside of the building was the same as the outside disastrous, everything was old and dusty, the wood on the shelves had so many layers of dust it wasn’t brown anymore it was gray of course there were spider webs all across the room, the floor wasn’t better either, there was little to no furniture and what furniture there was it was covered with white sheets that weren’t white anymore if anyone lived here it was a long time ago, it was abandoned. Until now that is, all the dust that was disturbed fell to the ground and on the furniture again, as soon it has settled it revealed a goldish round object with a window on the middle and a round handle like the one’s they use on ships. The handle turned and the round door opened releasing large amounts of steam and out of the steam was a female figure with short curly brown hair, thick red lips, brown eyes, and on them a steampunk-ish round glasses.                                                                                                                                    “Bloody hell!!!” yelled Elizabeth. “Look at the state of this place,” she looked around and recognized her laboratory, how was this called a laboratory was beyond everybody, but not in the state she left it. “How long have I been gone?” she asked herself as she swept her finger on one of the cupboards and inspected the dust that has piled up over the time, she turned back toward her machine. “What`s the matter with you?” she asked as she moved toward it could it be the new device she installed just last week? She opened up a panel on the side that revealed the complex circuitry inside. Elizabeth started messing around using various tools, surprisingly she knew her way around into what she was doing well it is to be expected after all she built that thing, whatever it was. “BLIMEY!!!” she sprang up. “Look at the time!” she looked at the grandfather clock. “I’m late,” she quickly put on some fancy clothes worthy of a ball and quickly left the building as she rushed toward The Crystal Palace.      Benjamin was taking his time with choosing what was it that he is going to eat from the table, just as he was in his thought’s the announcer rang the bell for everybody’s attention as well as Benjamin’s.                                                                        “Her excellency, Queen Victoria!” applause and cheers echoed across the hall as the Queen in all her glory walked inside the hall a woman in her sixty’s, she wore a black dress with a blue ribbon across, a hair flattened on both sides covered with a white veil and a crown, not just any crown but the royal crown. Victoria greeted everybody she knew and the ones that she didn’t know, after all, they were her guests and she is just showing good manners. Benjamin looked as everybody just bowed and kissed her hand as she was approaching them. “Alright… simple enough,” he said to himself. “Just repeat what they are doing,” he was really weird at times like this, and who wouldn’t be it’s not every day he talks to the queen herself, the only people he talks to are his patients and colleagues at the hospital he worked and as far as he knew none of them were kings or queens. He nodded and remembered what he is going to have to do the same when she came to him. But that was not to be as the announcer rang the bell once again. Who could it be now? Who has the decency to show up after the queen?                                                              “Lady Elizabeth Amity!” said the announcer the guests starred at Elizabeth and her messy hair as they were scoffing left and right, she just smiled and waved.                                                                          “Oh, come on you insecure freaks,” she said under her breath as she kept smiling and walked toward the queen bowing in front of her as the queen just stared daggers at her.                                                                           “Right I will be out of your way now,” Elizabeth bowed again and walked away towards the table with food as a rather peculiar man starred at her.                                                                                                                             “What?” she shook her head.                                                                                                    “Quite the entrance you made there,” said the man.                                                             “That accent, American?” guessed Elizabeth.                                                                             “I am afraid so,” the man held out his hand to shake with Elizabeth.      “Benjamin Riddle,” he smiled.                                                                                                                           “Just Benjamin Riddle?” asked Elizabeth intriguingly as she shook his hand.                                                                                                                          “Doctor Benjamin Riddle, but we can leave the formalities aside.”                                  “Alright then, Elizabeth Amity.”                                                                                                   “Just Elizabeth Amity? I could have sworn I heard Lady.”                                                    “Well I prefer more of an inventor Elizabeth but society is not quite there yet,” smiled Elizabeth.                                                                                                                          “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your meaning,” Benjamin was confused.                                        “You shall, in the future,” she smiled again, truly weird whatever was she talking about thought Benjamin, he had absolutely no intention of flirting with anybody tonight, nor was he going to hit on her. As he moved his focus towards the queen because she was approaching him slowly, just as he was next to greet her as he rehearsed in his head, a terrible earthquake shook the ground underneath their feet, everybody started panicking and screaming in the hall, and then a shock-wave not a dangerous one just the kind that would mess up your hair or blow your wig away if you were such a high nobility or a judge for that matter. The guests evacuated the hall along with the queen accompanied by her guards, there’s no telling when the ceiling was to crumble on top of them. But Elizabeth wasn’t worried about the ceiling but something else entirely, what could have caused this?                                                                                           “Oh…no,” she remembered as she moved away from the guests and looked in the distance towards London. The city was in a total blackout something she nor anyone present has seen before, she turned back to take a last look if everyone is okay and ran toward the building where her laboratory was. Benjamin really thought this to be quite odd, he starred at her as she disappeared in the night.      Upon arriving she looked at the machine and the thing that she feared the most happened, the machine was fried, she left her job half done and it led to some serious consequences so much so that the entire city of London went into a blackout. Before destroying itself the machine shook creating the earthquake that everybody felt in the hall, and as it shook it built up the electromagnetic shock wave that traveled all across London and beyond. She quickly changed her clothes into something more casual and put on a white laboratory coat, she also chose the tools she would need and started working on the machine. What the hell was even this machine that was so powerful that it crippled London? Elizabeth was really focused on the work, she was making progress in fixing it, the machine was the only thing that she held dear and she has to fix it at all cost until her focus was taken away by the creaking of the wooden floor on the old building.                                                   “Who’s there?” she reached the table and picked up something that looked like a gun like you’ve never seen before, with wires and openings where it probably shouldn’t be open, come to think of it maybe it was a makeshift taser, perhaps for a longer range. She charged it up and pointed it at whoever was coming inside ready to fire.                                                  “I bet that gun doesn’t have enough voltage to be fatal to the human body,” Benjamin came out of the darkness with his hands up high.                                         “Bloody hell!” Elizabeth was angry. “How did you find me?” she asked.                 “Well I followed you of course,” smiled Benjamin.                                                                  “I should just shoot you right now,” threatened Elizabeth.                                      “You know electricity would have nowhere to go and would just disappear before it came to me?” asked Benjamin who was so confident and sure that the gun is not that powerful.                                                                                                        “You seriously want to try?” Elizabeth asked him.                                                                                                                               “What have you got there?” Benjamin pointed at the golden globe. “Perhaps I can help?” he offered kindly.                                                                                                       “Oh, trust me this is not your ordinary operation,” smiled Elizabeth.                        “Well there are certain similarities when it comes to machine and a human body, things need to be placed precisely and in an orderly fashion just to function properly,” he walked toward the machine.                                                                          “Why did you follow me?” asked Elizabeth.                                                                  “You are intriguing Miss Elizabeth, when that earthquake struck you ran immediately as if you knew what the matter was, so I like any other gentleman thought you could use a helping hand.”                                                                                       “Well you thought wrong,” Elizabeth walked toward the machine and started working on it. “Now if you will excuse me I have work to do.”                                                                                                         “And I have some evidence that could put you to jail,” said Benjamin. “I could just say you created this device to cripple London and who knows perhaps you are aiding the enemy,” said Benjamin brazenly as Elizabeth looked at him angrily giving her all the more reasons to shoot him.                                                                      “Or you could just allow me to help you and I won’t hush a word,” smiled Benjamin. “It`s a win-win situation, well more of a lose-win in this case.”       “Alright then she paced angrily, make yourself useful and hand me those tools,” she pointed toward the table that had all sorts of tools.      Elizabeth and Benjamin worked and worked all night, Elizabeth was right, Benjamin absolutely had no idea what the hell was going on, this wasn’t like operating on a human being not close at all, besides nobody could blame Benjamin even the best mechanics in the world wouldn’t know what the hell was going on since this was the first machine of its kind. At one moment the sun rays struck into Elizabeth’s eyes and blinded her, as she covered her eyes with one hand and kept working, Benjamin of course made himself useful by handing her some tools that she needed. Dawn came and they were finished. Elizabeth was really anxious to fire up the machine, what if it doesn’t work? Did they work all night and for nothing? She opened the round door and stepped inside as she sat on the chair, Benjamin curiously looked inside he was really interested in what could be inside, and there wasn’t much, it's not like there could be much in a circular sphere, there was a black wooden plank on the floor so that it would be flat and not circular, beneath it, there were boards and cables that probably were important, above it was a black metallic round console along the walls of the sphere with a bunch of buttons on it and two leather chairs that rotated three-sixty, behind the chairs there was a compartment that looked like a mini-refrigerator, and on the wall opposite of the door was a first aid casing, and that was all there was, but Benjamin wasn’t fooled by the simplicity of the whole thing he had this feeling that there’s something more to it than the eye sees. Elizabeth sat down on one of the chairs and sighed out. “Here goes nothing,” she looked at Benjamin who stood outside like a dog waiting to be called inside by its owner, she crossed her fingers as she pressed the red button. Nothing happened for a moment as Elizabeth slouched and became disappointed, but then it fired it up, the engines revved and electricity surged all across the whole thing, out of the console appeared a hologram that showed images of various events across history, beneath these pictures it stood the date and year of the event. Benjamin, of course, being from the 19th century had no idea what a hologram was nor did he have any idea what had just happened, the hologram flashed in his eyes as he took a step back in fear that something might happen to him. The machine worked and it worked just fine, just as it used to, Elizabeth was happy really happy, the machine means so much to her that she would sacrifice almost everything to see it in its top-notch condition.                                                                                                                      “Now that all is fine and dandy, may I ask what is this contraption?” asked Benjamin.                                                                                                                                        “A time machine,” answered Elizabeth not even looking at him but rather starring at the console making sure everything is in order.                                                                           “I’m sorry a what machine?” perhaps he didn’t hear right.                                                                “Yes, you use it to travel around time, the future, the past, your choice really,” confirmed Elizabeth.                                                                                                               “Well,” scoffed Benjamin. “I thought of you weird, but crazy you didn`t strike me as the type.”            “Oh, right, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that,” Elizabeth was overwhelmed by happiness she forgot that she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about the machine that traveled through time. How stupid of her, all this time she managed to keep it a secret and now she failed. She just couldn’t imagine the terrible things that might happen if anyone were to steal the blueprints for a time machine and use it to travel through time, they would mess up the whole timeline, now that would be a disaster that Elizabeth could do well without. “So now I am weird and crazy?” she asked. “Maybe I should just kill you now?” she picked up the electric gun. “Besides you aren’t supposed to know that either way.”                                                    “Well, a time machine? I mean come on…”                                                                  Wow, he really didn’t believe that this was a time machine, Elizabeth felt insulted somehow, but she wasn’t going to have it, she was going to prove it to him that she could really travel through time and maybe afterward kill him or leave him in a different era. “Want me to prove it to you?” she asked.                                                                         “What?”                                                                                                                                        “Yes, come on then, hop on we are going on a time adventure,” she opened the door for him.