Джек Макдевитт - A Voice in the Night

“And you think she did it?”

“I think she got close but something went wrong. And look, I know how this sounds. But how crazy is it out there today?”

“Have you ever seen the time machine, Mr. Brockner?”

“Yes.”

“But you’ve never seen it work?”

“No. Of course not. Listen, I’m not one of those UFO morons. I never took it seriously. But now I’m not so sure.”

“Thank you, Mr. Brockner. Paula, this is Ura Kabele. Ura’s house is inside the bubble. Along with her kids. Ura, what do you think is happening here?”

“It’s a divine warning. And I think we better pay attention.”

“Thank you. And that’s it from FEMA. Back to you, Paula.”

“Thanks, Whit. Stay safe. I don’t know what to make of all this. But we have a map up now. The shaded area is the affected section. Those of our viewers familiar with the area will see that several of the major hotels are inside.

“We’ve been informed that one of them, the Days Inn, is hosting a science fiction convention. It’s called—I think I have this right—Eeriecon. And considering what’s been happening, it’s certainly got the right name. Yes, Leon, what do you have?”

“Paula, we’ve got our first reports of brownouts. The power plants have begun cutting back. Large areas of eastern Canada and New York state are already being affected. The Power Commission has issued a statement warning that it could get worse.”

“Okay, we’re going back to the Falls.” (Sound of helicopter engines and blades.) “Mark Espy is in the newscopter near Rainbow Bridge. Mark, what have you got?”

“Leon, the gull is moving!”

“The one that’s been stationary above the bridge all day? It doesn’t look to me as if it’s going anywhere.”

“Watch its wings.”

“I think you’re right, Mark. They’re moving. But in ultra-slow motion.”

“So’s the river. Look! The water’s flowing again.”

“You couldn’t prove it by me.”

“That’s the slowest gull I’ve ever seen.”

“Everything is slow. But look, the little boy’s balloon is moving too. And we’re getting a shot of the Falls now. You’re right. The water’s beginning to flow again. But look at it, Mark. It looks like syrup.”

“No, it did for a moment. But I think it’s alright now. Paula, are you getting this? The Maid of the Mist is underway again. Maybe it’s over.”

“Let’s hope so.”

“We’re going to try to get a bit closer. If everything looks okay, we’ll set down at the bridge ramp. See how everybody is.”

“That’s probably not a good idea.”

“We’ll be careful. Any indication at all of—.” (Helicopter sounds cease.)

“Mark, are you there? Mark?”

“We’re good, Paula.”

“Whit, what’s going on?”

“I’m on Pine Avenue, Paula, near Main. The people across the street are moving again. It looks as if things are getting back to normal.”

“Wonderful. Do they seem okay? The people?”

“They seem fine. The police officers are all right, the driver of the pickup is out of the vehicle now, I guess wondering what happened. There are smiles all around and backslapping, and somebody got some coffee somewhere and he’s carrying it over. Here’s a woman who got caught. Excuse me, ma’m, can we talk for a minute?”

“Of course. What happened?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you. You were in there for more than seven hours.”

“What do you mean, ‘in there’? In where?”

“Ma’m, you haven’t moved since about eight this morning.”

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about, young man. It’s only a little after eight.”

“Take a look at your watch.”

“Looks fine to me. See? Ten after eight.”

“Sherry Weinberg, north of Rainbow Bridge. Paula, the WKBW newscopter is just hanging up there.”

“It’s not falling?”

“No. Fortunately not. In fact I can see the blades turning. Turning slowly, too slowly to keep the chopper aloft. But they are turning. Maybe one RPM. There’s something else happening. Can you see it?”

“It looks as if the river is getting smaller. And the Falls. I think we need to calibrate things.”

“No. That’s what it looks like to me, too. In fact, I think everything is shrinking. As if all of it, the Maid of the Mist , the river, the bridge, as if it’s all pulling away from us.”

“This is incredible, ladies and gentlemen. More land is appearing inside. The ship’s moving faster.”

“Yes.”

“And the cars. They’re roaring across the bridge and out onto the road and north on the highway. It looks as if the entire surrounding countryside is flowing into the bubble and shrinking. Incredible.”

“It’s an illusion of some kind.”

“Must be. It can’t really be happening.”

“The Maid of the Mist is moving faster, passing beneath the bridge, but more of the river has appeared, and it doesn’t look as if it’s gotten any closer to the edge of the bubble. What’s happening? Sherry, are you okay?”

“We’re fine. I know it looks as if the whole of northern Niagara Falls is inside now, but we haven’t moved.”

“The gull is gone.”

“So’s the newscopter.”

“Sherry.”

“Yes.”

“The river’s becoming a torrent.”

“The good news is that whatever was blocking the Niagara above Goat’s Island seems to have gone away. Here’s where the blockage occurred. And you can see the water’s moving through there now. Moving through the bubble. Maybe the flooding will stop.”

“More like roaring through the bubble. It’s coming out the other end like a firehose. Hey, it’s getting hard to see.”

“Everything’s getting blurry. I don’t know what’s happening.”

“We have Professor Abraham Harding with us. Professor Harding is speaking from the University of Toronto. Professor, have you been watching?”

“Oh, yes, Leon. No way I’d miss this.”

“Can you tell us what’s happening?”

“We talked earlier about the likelihood that time had stopped inside the bubble.”

“Yes.”

“I’m looking at the picture on your screen now. Everything’s blurred.”

“Yes. It’s impossible to see what’s going on in there. Are the people in danger?”

“I don’t know. I was glad to see that the few who got out earlier seemed okay.”

“Except for memory loss.”

“I don’t think that’s what it was.”

“But they couldn’t remember that they’d been trapped for almost eight hours.”

“Because it didn’t happen to them. When they came out, it was only seconds after they’d gone in.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it, Professor. What happens next?”

“It looks as if the temporal continuum is trying to compensate for the warp, the breakdown, whatever you want to call it. It obviously returned to the normal flow of time—.”

“But it hasn’t. We can’t even see into it now.”

“Well, it more or less snapped back. It had to accelerate. And it looks as if it kept accelerating.”

“You mean it moved past us?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. Right now, if we can say that, time is moving more quickly inside the bubble than it is in the normal world.”

“So it would be dangerous to enter the bubble?”