Sometime Never by Justin Richards

Author:Justin Richards [Richards, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Science Fiction, Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 9780563486114
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2004-02-03T08:00:00+00:00

He peered down at the circular opening in the floor, as another – a sixth –

crystal faded into place, snug on its velvet cushion. ‘Just two left,’ Singleton murmured. ‘They cannot be far away. And then, we shall have a complete set.’

‘Collect the set,’ Trix said out loud. ‘Why do you want them? What good are they to you now?’

The old man shrugged. ‘Oh they have their uses. You could, for example, grow a thousand – or a hundred thousand – crystals like the one you have from these archetypes.’

‘If you wanted them for some reason,’ Trix said slowly, the ghost of an idea forming in her mind. ‘But I guess the last two will have to hurry if the universe is about to end.’

‘It’s exponential,’ Korsann told her. ‘Nobody realised that at first, but of course as the energy and matter rush inwards, towards the centre of the sphere where there is less space and a narrower diameter, they speed up.

That’s why the end has come a few millennia before anyone expected it.’ He gave a snarl that might have been a laugh. ‘You would think we would spot the fact that the universe is coming to an end, wouldn’t you?’

‘This energy,’ Fleetward said, ‘surely it would have to come from very large scale events. Events that in effect change the course of History itself.’ He was looking at Trix, and she realised that he was trying to steer them on to the question the Doctor had sent them here to resolve.

Singleton thought about this. ‘Not necessarily,’ he said, but he seemed less When it Comes to the Crunch

184

certain of himself now. ‘Some of it, yes. But as Korsann pointed out, there is less history available to the crystals as we near the end. And there is a huge amount of potential energy available in the end of the universe itself.’

‘But no way to pay it back,’ Fleetward persisted. ‘They can’t be using that, can they?’

‘And anyway,’ Trix said, ‘there must be some purpose, some reason. What are they – whoever they are – trying to achieve?’

‘I told you, survival.’ Singleton seemed sure of this. He sighed, and sat down again. ‘I don’t know who sent you, or what you are really after, or even how you got here, although I fancy I could guess. When the universe ends,’ he paused to check his pocket watch, ‘in a few minutes now, then the crystals held in the outer rings of this station will be crushed into the centre.

The transduction barriers that hold everything here in stasis will bend and collapse to allow the energy in-rush. Space-time will fold in on itself. The only energy left, aside from the collapse itself, will be in the crystals.’

‘But to what end?’ Fleetward asked him.

‘To allow them to slip out of existence, through the opening holes in reality as its fabric is ripped apart, and into the time vortex.’ He looked from Fleetward to Trix and back again. ‘That is where they will survive.

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