The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 33

“Then we’re screwed,” replied Henry. “On a positive note, asfar as I can tell, the only new universes that have been created are ones I cantrace directly back to us, which suggests we are the only ones who can do this,at least at the moment.”

“OK, well, that’s a small crumb of comfort?” asked Josh.“But we certainly mustn’t create any more, so I guess this means no more timetravel. That’s a great pity because I was enjoying sending people back to thepast to see what they did. In fact, I just sent someone back to 1988 thismorning. I suppose he’ll be the last one for now.”

“Not necessarily,” replied Henry. “I think I’ve found aworkaround, but it’s not without implications of its own. Rather than explainit more than once, I think we need to get together with the girls and discussit. Vanessa’s coming back from Australia today and will be here bymid-afternoon, so how about the four of us get together for dinner tonight?”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Josh. He knew that Alice wouldn’tbe ecstatic, having endured a number of uncomfortable evenings in the companyof Henry and Vanessa, but this was important.

Later that evening, the two couples met at a small,attractive French restaurant in Little Clarendon Street. The walls were filledwith black and white prints of Paris in the early twentieth century and themood was set by the traditional café-style music of the time.

After a little small talk over cocktails, they ordered theirmeals from the middle-aged waiter dressed smartly in the restaurant’s whiteshirt and bow tie theme. He was also sporting a rather impressive moustachethat wouldn’t have been out of place in the period the restaurant wasattempting to re-create.

As he took their orders he spoke in an exaggerated Frenchaccent that reminded Josh of the over-the-top accents he had seen on theancient sitcom, ’Allo ’Allo, when he had been living in 1992.

At every opportunity the waiter would say things like “zee”instead of “the”, even though he was clearly every bit as English as Josh andAlice were.

While they waited for their starters, Henry outlined thecurrent problem to the others.

“Let me just see if I’ve got this right,” said Vanessa.“You’re saying that we can’t keep going back like we have been because we’llcause the annihilation of the entire universe?”

“And all the other universes as well, it seems,” addedAlice. “It looked like you’re going to have to forget about your plans for timetravel tourism.”

She couldn’t help feeling a little smug and tried not to letit show. Her dislike of Vanessa and her money-obsessed ways had been growingprogressively stronger every day since she had met the woman.

“Do you have any idea how much money I’ve invested in this?”fumed Vanessa. “I can’t believe you didn’t see this coming, Henry. And whatabout our plans to extend our lives by going back in time? Are you sayingthat’s all up in smoke, too?”

“Not necessarily,” said Henry. “We still have a goodthousand or so universes to play with. There’s no reason we and our closefamily and friends couldn’t do what we originally planned when the time comes.But as far as extending it to all and sundry, that’s a non-starter.”

“Josh said you had a possible workaround, though,” saidAlice.

“I do,” said Henry.

“Right, let’s hear it,” said Vanessa belligerently. “And ithad better be good.”

“It harks back to something Josh said to me when heinitially told me about his travels through time,” explained Henry. “Josh, youused the analogy of making a backup of a file on a computer and giving it aslightly different name, and that’s how the new universes get created.”

“It was a good analogy, I thought,” said Josh.

“It was – and it gave me a related idea which I’ve nowmanaged to test in practice. There are three options you can use when you savea file. You can save over the top, save as a different name, then there’s thethird option.”

“Merge?” asked Josh.

“Precisely,” said Henry. “It gives you the option to mergethe existing file into the old one, including the changes.”

“That’s what we need to start doing to stop creating any newuniverses. Then we can continue with the work,” said Vanessa. “Can you do it?”

“It’s not that different to what we’re doing now,” saidHenry. “I’ve figured out how to do this and fed the information into thetachyometer this afternoon. There’s no reason why we can’t trial it rightaway.”

“But if we do that, then we get into all the implications ofchanging history,” said Josh. “We could screw up our own universe.”

“Therein lies the problem,” said Henry. “And this is why Isuggest from now on that trips into the past are kept to a bare minimum, orpreferably none at all. Time travel should be only allowed for the gravest ofemergencies.”

“I can’t believe how much time and money I’ve wasted onthis,” said Vanessa. “And on you, come to that. You’re a total waste of space,Henry.”

“There’s no need for that, Vanessa,” said Alice.

“Isn’t there? It’s all very well for you with your perfectmarriage to say that. You’ve got the ideal man.”

“Hang on a minute, this isn’t Henry’s fault,” said Alice.“Look at everything else he’s achieved with you – the mind transference, therobotics. He’s helped you make billions. You’re hardly going to be impoverishedbecause this particular project hasn’t worked out, are you?”

“What would you know about it?” said Vanessa, angrily. “Youdidn’t want this project to succeed from the start. All we’ve ever had from youis negativity and moaning. It’s all ‘take a day off, Josh’, ‘let’s go onholiday, Josh’. He could have achieved a whole lot more in his life without youholding him back.”

“How dare you?!” reacted Alice angrily.

“Face facts, Josh,” said Vanessa, turning to him, “you’rewasted on her. You’d be better off with me, and you know it. When are you goingto admit it to yourself?”

“I’ve told you enough times, Vanessa, I’m not interested,”replied Josh.

Alice looked aghast, but Henry barely batted an eyelid.

“Enough times?” asked Alice, bristling. “Exactly how longhas this been going on?”

“There’s nothing going on – she’s obsessed with me and hasbeen trying it on for months,