God Save the Queen

Chapter 1: Enter the Time Loop

Ahmed had just gotten out of his physics class when he decided to take a slight detour back to his dorm. The campus had just installed a new form of high rail transport called the “hyper loop.” It was a shuttle on tracks that could take him to any point on campus. Being a physics student enamored with mechanical engineering and anything in fast motion—Ahmed was excited to try it out. He was glad to see that there wasn’t even anyone else in line to board. ‘Awesome, I’ll have it all to myself.’

Ahmed thought. Ahmed wasn’t exactly a loner, he had plenty of friends, but he also greatly appreciated moments of peace and solitude in which he could reflect on his life, and more often than not—the very nature of reality itself. Ever since he and his family arrived in Britain, as refugees from Iraq, Ahmed had worked hard to get to where he was.

He made straight A’s in high school, and was now making use of a full ride scholarship. Ahmed had always been a dreamer and a thinker, and in his studies in physics he was eager to crack open the very secrets of existence. And as much as Ahmed was interested in science, he still found room to religion. He was a dedicated Muslim who found no trouble bringing both the tenants of his faith and his discoveries in science together. So yes, a quiet ride by his lonesome in school’s new shuttle wouldn’t bother him in the least.

This was his quiet time to reflect and contemplate. Upon sitting down in the shuttle however, something very unusual happened. Suddenly Ahmed had this bizarre feeling that he was falling. “What’s happening? Am I falling off the track!?” Ahmed shouted out loud to no one, yet everyone in particular. As the falling sensation increased, he felt a sensation of losing oxygen, as if he were about to pass out. Finally, all Ahmed could do was gasp, “Oh no!” as everything went black.

* * *

Moments later….

After blacking out for an undeterminable amount of time, a very groggy Ahmed came to. He wasn’t sure what had happened but as his eyes adjusted and his vision was restored he was in for a shock. He was no longer on the school’s shuttle car. Somehow or other, he was on a train.

Instead of being ensconced in the plush seating of the sleek shuttle car, he was sitting on a hardback, roughhewn bench, on some sort of old school, noisy locomotive, rapidly rolling down railroad tracks, and he had no idea of how he got there. It was as he was mulling all of this over that he heard a voice behind him say, “Hey there stranger! Where you headed?”

Ahmed turned around and found himself in even more of a shock. The guy seated behind him looked like he could have just stepped out of a Victorian detective novel. He was wearing a dress shirt, with a bowtie adorning the collar, and had on a shiny vest, as well as a snazzy overcoat over the shirt. His head was also topped off with a classic stove pipe hat. The likes of which were sported by Abraham Lincoln or any number of characters from a Charles Dickens novel.

“Hey uh—are you part of some sort of production?” Ahmed managed to get out. It was the first possibility that came to mind. The notion that this was a fellow college student, engaging in some sort of theatrical production. Hence explaining the archaic threads that he had on his person.

“Production?” The man asked, giving Ahmed a quizzical glance.

Ahmed then seeking to clarify, explained, “Yes, a theatrical production.”

At which the man brightened up, “Oh the theatre! Like someone acting in a play!”

Ahmed nodded, “Yeah, that’s it.”

The man then slightly frowned, “Me in a play? Oh no not hardly.”

He then chuckled, “You know what—I was going to ask you the same thing.”

He then paused as he looked Ahmed up and down. Taking in his polo shirt, khaki’s and sneakers, he remarked, “Considering the odd outfit you have on—I thought maybe you were some sort of actor yourself.”

Ahmed, laughed, “Me! Wearing an odd outfit? You’ve got to be kidding! You’re the one dressed like someone who just came right out of the Victorian era.”

Ahmed then heard a voice to his left boom, “God save the Queen! Did someone mention my favorite monarch’s name?”

Ahmed looked turned his head, and saw a guy standing in the middle of the aisle, stove pipe hat and all, very much dressed like the first individual he encountered. Ahmed met his gaze and the man cheered, “Long live Queen Victoria!”

Coincidentally enough, Ahmed had recently taken a history class, in which he had read up on Queen Victoria—the long-lived British monarch who ruled from 1837 to 1901. So, he knew both the monarch and era in question.

And now that he was being confronted with two men who seemed as if they came out of central casting from the Queen’s court—he was forced to consider that either he was being made the subject of an elaborate ruse, or that something entirely bizarre had happened to him.

Ahmed then recalled the odd sensation of falling and drifting, when he was in the school shuttle, he had felt almost as if he were fading away. But fading away to where—or perhaps even more startling, to when?

Chapter 2: A Time of Celebration

As Ahmed contemplated these thoughts, the guy behind him spoke, “Oh well—anyway mate. My name’s Richard.” He then pointed to the guy in the aisle, and remarked, “And that bloke over there—why that’s my good man Jack.” The rather rotund Jack then piped in, “But they sometimes call me Fat Jax for short.”

Which provoked a response from Richard, who snapped, “Ah… bloody hell, mate… You just had to go and do that didn’t you?”

Jack asked, “Do what?”

“You just had to ruin the Queen’s jubilee with your stupid jokes!” Richard hissed.

Jack grew a bit red as he insisted, “Hey it’s funny...” He then pointed at Ahmed, and remarked, “See—he’s laughing ain’t he?”

Richard then took one glance at Ahmed and flatly reported, “No Jack he ain’t laughing.” Richard then asked Ahmed, “You know, come to mention it—you seem a little out of sorts. Are you alright?”

Jack then remarked, “The Queen’s golden jubilee is a time to celebrate after all. So don’t look so glum chum.”

Upon hearing these words, flashcards that Ahmed had just been flipping past his mind’s eye in order to study for an upcoming history test, popped into center focus. “Victoria’s Golden Jubilee—that took place in 1887!” Ahmed exclaimed.

Both Jack and Richard chuckled amongst each other, before Jack remarked, “Took place? You mean it’s taking place.”

Richard then quipped, “Yeah! The party’s not over yet.”

From his previous studies, Ahmed new that the Queen’s Golden Jubilee was in celebration of her 50th birthday, and all of England was encouraged to celebrate with lavish parties and gift giving, with the Queen herself passing out commemorative souvenirs during her appearances.

It was as he thought all of this over that Richard, still seated behind him, dropped a shiny medallion of some sort right in front of his face. “You see that! That’s an official jubilee medal! I got one at the last shindig held in London!”

Ahmed managed to hiss between his teeth, “Nice…”

His mind was reeling however, as he considered the possibility that either these two men were insane—or perhaps he himself had lost his mind.

It was then Jack who pushed the issue further, by stating, “Hey uh—you don’t exactly seem like you’re from around here. If you don’t mind me asking—where are you from?”

Whether he was dreaming or not, Ahmed didn’t know, but he answered as best he thought possible. “Oh… I’m British just like you… Spent half of my life in Britain in fact… But I’m originally from Iraq.”

Upon hearing the name “Iraq” both men had rather puzzled expressions, cross their face. Richard then spoke up, “You say you’re from A-Rack? Umm—Just what exactly is that?”

It was then that Ahmed remembered that the region was not referred to as “Iraq” until the 1920s. Iraq had historically been known as Mesopotamia. It wasn’t until the fall of the Ottoman Empire, of which Mesopotamia/Iraq had been a part, that the notion of the nation state of Iraq came into existence.

But instead of giving these two Victorian era stalwarts a history lesson however, Ahmed decided it would be best if he simply changed the subject. “Hey… uh… where is this train going anyway?”

“Why we’re going to Windsor palace! We’re going to see the Queen!” Was the immediate response.

Ahmed at this point, really felt like he was losing his mind. If these guys were playing a fast one on him. He figured he might as well go for broke, and call them out on it. “Hey come on guys…. The Queen died a long time ago. What are you trying to pull here?”

Ahmed was then startled to see Jack nearly feint. The blood drained from his face and he had to steady himself against a side rail, as he exclaimed, “What? No!! Gracious me!! The Queen’s dead?!”

Richard then put his hand on Ahmed’s shoulder, and demanded to know, “Mister…. Hey… uh….”

He hesitated, realizing he didn’t even know the stranger’s name. Ahmed helped him out by stating, “Ahmed… My name’s Ahmed.”

Richard continued, “Ah yes—Mr. Ahmed… Please let me know…. Just what in blazes are you talking about? All of this business about the Queen being dead?”

Ahmed unsure of what else to do, slipped into the insanity of the moment, and simply blurted out, “Well, she’s not dead in your time… the uh… Victorian era…. But she’s dead in my time.”

“What do you mean your time?” Richard insisted to know. Ahmed sighed, “I’m from the year 2023.”

Richard, stunned at the answer, looked over at Jack as he quietly intoned, “The year 2023 you say…”

Jack then sat down across from Ahmed, and muttered, “Oh blimey, bloody me—somebody’s off their rocker. I guess I better sit down before I fall off mine too.”

Chapter 3: It’s All Just a Matter of Time

“Alright if you guys are for real. Then something really incredible has just happened” Ahmed informed his new acquaintances. Staring at Ahmed with an unblinking expression, Richard asked, “Something incredible?”

Ahmed nodding, “Yes—I mean, we talk about this sort of thing in Physics class all the time. About how time travel—hypothetically at least—might actually be possible.”

Ahmed then reached into his bookbag, and pulled out a thick tome, and presented it to Richard and Jack. “This is my physics book.”

Craning his neck to see, Richard asked, “What’s physics? Is that like physical fitness.”

To which Jack smacked his fat belly and laughed, “If so—then you can count me out mate.”

Ahmed ignored the jokes and flipped through the pages of his physics book until he came upon a chapter on “time slips and vortices.” Putting his finger on a paragraph emblazoned from one of his previous forays with a yellow highlighter, Ahmed explained, “Yes—it says it right here. According to Albert Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, time is not fixed, and the structure of time itself can change from place to place.”

Ahmed then looked up at the roof of the rumbling train he was in and recalled, “When I was on that shuttle car on campus, I suddenly felt like I was falling. But it wasn’t like a normal fall, it was as if my complete frame of reference was somehow being sucked up in some kind of a vortex.”

Ahmed then added, “Just we had always talked about in class, about what the phenomenon of frame dragging might be like. It’s as if my personal framework of time was dragged from 2023 all the way back to 1887!”

Ahmed then slammed the physics book shut as he declared, “That’s it! I believe it! I’ve somehow randomly fallen backwards in time!”

Ahmed overcome by the sheer incredible nature of the event, exulted, “This is amazing! I’ve actually traveled through time!”

As the two Victorian era gentlemen—Richard and Jack—stared back at him, the reality of his dilemma truly sank in, as he realized, “But how am I going to get back?”

But even though Ahmed had convinced himself that time travel was a reality, he hadn’t entirely convinced his new traveling companions. It was Richard who spoked up and asked, “Look buddy, you are a bit of an oddity, with your strange clothes, and all of your strange tales and terminology. But how do you expect us to believe that you’re from the future? That’s quite a leap for us, don’t ya think?”

Ahmed agreed, “Yes—it is. And I don’t blame you for being skeptical. But….”

It was then that he thought of a way to impress his new friends. ‘My phone!’ Ahmed’s mind practically screamed the thought. And in an instant, he was pulling his smart phone out of his pants pocket, ready to demonstrate the high water mark of early 21st century technology. He was absolutely certain, that once these 19th Century, Victorian era folks got a load of calling, texting, snapchat, seamless images, and mobile internet, they would be incredibly impressed.

With his trusty cellphone in hand, Ahmed pressed the side button on the device, fully expecting the screen to come to life. But there was no response. “Oh no….” Ahmed groaned, as he realized his battery must be dead.

Richard staring at the phone remarked, “Well, that’s a nice shiny little trinket you have their son—but it will take a lot more than that to impress me.”

Giving the dead phone a sidelong glance, Jack then agreed, “He’s right Ahmed, a shiny object doesn’t do much to help your story—because I’ve got one too.”

It was then that Jack pulled a shiny flat rock of obsidian out of his pocket and held it up in the light. As it glinted in the dimly lit gas light of the train, it actually did look kind of impressive. It was perfectly flat and rectangular, and it’s dark black, flat surface, in fact, didn’t look too much different from Ahmed’s dead cellphone.

Richard motioning toward Jack, and his obsidian rock, remarked, “See he’s got a shiny rock too—that doesn’t really prove anything, now does it?”

With a gleam in his eye, and waving the obsidian flat rock in front of his face, Jack joked, “But oh yes it does! Because I’m a time traveler too!”

Jack then announced in a mocking, comic voice, “Don’t you see? I came from the year 3033!” Ahmed sighed, “Alright—alright I get your point.”

Ahmed watched these shenanigans with incredulous contempt, but he got their point. Despite his incredible experience in travelling through time, he had absolutely nothing to show for it. Putting his dead cellphone back into his pocket, Ahmed felt more dejected than ever.

He was now an official time traveler, but not only did he not know how to get back to his own time, he couldn’t even prove to anyone that he actually time traveled in the first place. Furthermore, he figured if he stayed in this time and place much longer, speaking of his belief in time travel, his eventually getting locked up in the local looney bin, would probably be just a matter of time.

Chapter 4: A Strange Yet Familiar Place

Ahmed was entirely at odds with what he could possibly do. Most others would probably be panicking in a similar situation, but Ahmed’s friends and family had always respected how cool and calm he could be under pressure. He had learned to develop his stoic nature from a young age. Ahmed always chalked up his strong resolve, to his early experiences as a refugee from Iraq.

His early memories of his childhood hadn’t faded with time. Just prior to his coming to Britain with his family, his childhood home had been destroyed by an extremist group. The assailants simply didn’t like the fact that his father—an interpreter—was working with the Allied forces that had come to occupy his home country.

It was due to their being targeted by hostile groups, that their application for refugee status had been streamlined, and their move to Britain had been expedited. Such tough circumstances tend to give one a thick skin, and a measured and determined mind. In such conditions, one learns rather quickly that giving one’s self to emotional abandon accomplishes little, when it’s a cool, steady hand that’s needed, in order to be able to overcome.

Considering as much, Ahmed tried a different tack with his associates. Ahmed moved himself to a relaxed position with his back against the wall, and his side toward Richard and Jack. “Alright guys—forget about me. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. I don’t blame you.”

Ahmed then looked over to Jack and Richard, and reasoned, “Alright--instead of listening me and my crazy thoughts—why don’t you tell me yours?”

Richard asked, “Ours?”

Ahmed nodded, “Yeah, such as why you boarded this train.”

Richard nodded, “Well—it’s our duty to the Queen I suppose….”

To which Jack rudely interrupted Richard by exclaiming, “Duty? Is that right Richard? It’s your duty, is it?”

Jack then laughed, “Well—I don’t think that you are duty bound so much as you just want an excuse to get drunk!”

Suddenly sitting up in his chair, as straight as a board, Richard glared over at Jack. “I beg your pardon?”

“I haven’t been drunk all evening.” Richard snapped.

It was at this point, in the midst of their jolly old banter that Ahmed found an opening. He simply asked, “And at what time did you get on the train?”

It was then that these two men, seemed to become bizarrely bewildered. Richard muttered, “What time?”

Jack sighed, “Hmm… Well, it seems like we’ve been here a while…”

Richard agreed, “Way too long actually...” Richard then pointed at the gold chain poking out of Jack’s vest, and shouted, “Your watch, Jack! Your pocket watch, mate! What time do you have?”

Jack then dutifully pulled out the watch as asked, and stated, “It’s a quarter till midnight.”

Richard gasped, “What? That can’t be right! How could that be? I know for a fact that we boarded this train early this afternoon! And we couldn’t have been on here much longer than 20 minutes at most! How could several hours pass us by without us noticing?”

As alarmed as Richard and Jack had become, Ahmed seemed to expect as much, and was already pulling out his Physics text book. He quickly flipped through the well worn pages, until he found what he was looking for. Pointing at a heading the book, Ahmed remarked, “Yep—it’s alright here. You guys are experiencing a little something called time dilation!”

Squinting his eyes at the print in the book, Richard muttered, “Time dia—what’s that?”

Ahmed nodded, “Yes, it’s called time dilation.”

Taking a breath, Ahmed then explained, “Einstein proved that time is altered at various speeds. And the faster one travels; the more warped time gets.”

It was then that Jack looking out a window that seemed to have a permanent blur of scenery going by remarked, “You know—come to think of it, this train certainly doesn’t seem like it’s slowing down.”

Ahmed agreed, “That’s because its not! It’s speeding up!”

Ahmed then stated, “I don’t know exactly what kind of time warp I fell into, that dragged me to this point of reference. But it seems that all three of us our now in some sort of time bubble, shooting off at a terrific rate of speed.”

Richard looked toward the front of the train, where the locomotive steam engine would normally have been, and audibly gasped. He didn’t quite understand Ahmed’s terminology, but he knew that things were certainly moving along at a rather rapid clip. And Richard said as much, when he exclaimed, “You mean to say that we’re on a runaway train?!”

Ahmed then nodded, as he offered the astute correction, “Actually—we’re on a runaway, time traveling train!”

Chapter 5: Where it Stops Nobody Knows

Time travel. As incredible of a concept as it is—Ahmed had long wondered if it might be possible. And now he had somehow stumbled right into a time traveling vortex of some sort. He just couldn’t figure out why he would randomly pop into the Victorian era. Or then again, maybe it wasn’t so random after all.

‘Was there a purpose behind it all?’ Ahmed couldn’t help but wonder.

Ahmed’s fellow passengers Richard and Jack in the meantime, began to also wonder about their current predicament. “Blimey! We should have been to the jubilee already!” Richard exclaimed.

Jack agreed, “You know, it seems like we’ve been on this train forever….” Jack then yelled toward the front of the train, “Hey! Where are we headed?”

It was then that the thought then came to Ahmed, “Who’s driving this train anyway?”

Richard shrugged, “You know—come to think of it… I haven’t seen anyone else on this train since I stepped onto it.”

Jack agreed, “Yes… I came on board as right as rain, ready to greet her Majesty’s conductor—but so far, I haven’t actually seen a single soul on board.”

Richard gasped, “What? But there has to be someone driving this train.”

Ahmed then stood up, and balancing himself on the chairs, promised, “I’ll take a look.”

Richard, not wanting to just sit on the sidelines, followed suit, and offered, “I’ll go with you mate.”

Carefully holding onto the side railing, Ahmed then made his way up to the front of the train. The train cars were all open, so it was quite simple to move from one to another. Ahmed plodded forward car after car, until he reached the very front of the train where the train’s driver or “engineer” should have been.

At first, it seemed that no one was there, but then he eyed what initially looked like a pile of clothes in the corner bench, and realized that something wasn’t quite right. A foot poked out from under what looked like a burlap sack, as Richard exclaimed, “Oh my! Is that the engineer?”

Ahmed turned to see the crumpled-up form shift his position slightly. A face then emerged from the dirty rags, that the dozing engineer was using as blankets. The man then made eye contact with Ahmed and seemed to begin humming what sounded like the defacto British national anthem, “God Save the Queen.”

Richard realizing as much, ran over to the engineer and gave him a rough shake as he yelled, “What are you doing mate! Someone needs to stop this train!”

The sleepy engineer coughed and then gasped, “Yes… That might be a good idea….” But the heavy dose of alcohol he had consumed had already run its course, and moments later the guy was zonked out and snoring.

“Mate! Mate!” Richard practically screamed in the drunken, comatose engineer’s ear, in an attempt to rouse him. But it was no use, the guy was unreachable.

At a complete loss, Richard turned to Ahmed and gasped, “What are we going to do?”

Taking a deep breath, Ahmed advised, “Hold on… hold on…. Maybe we can figure something out….”

Richard was simply not so sure as he groaned once again, “That’s it! We’re done! We’re all gonna die!”

Just then there was a ruckus behind them, as Jack made his way to the front of the train. Jack saw what they were all seeing and exclaimed very much the same thing, “No one’s at the helm! This ship is doomed!”

Richard apparently now resigned to his fate, sighed, “Well—at least we’re going to go out with a bang.”

Ahmed not quite understanding asked, “With a bang?”

Richard solemnly nodded, “This train is scheduled to arrive at the Windsor depot, and if no one puts the brakes on it—we’re likely to slam right into the terminal. Ahmed considering all of the countless revelers for the jubilee that might be present, suddenly realized just how terrible of a calamity they were in.

Not only would they be killed, but likely hundreds if not thousands of bystanders at the train depot would perish as well. Ahmed gasped, “Oh no—this is terrible. We have to stop this train.”

Jack sighed, “Well—good luck with that. There’s not an engineer in sight.”

Ahmed then glared at Jack with steely eyed determination as he declared, “Oh yeah? Think again. Because you’re looking at one!” Although not a classical “train engineer” Ahmed’s many years of studying physics and engineering, put him in a position, quickly decipher how machinery worked.

And looking around at the trappings of this old locomotive, Ahmed only had one question, “Where are the brakes?”

Chapter 6: How Do You Stop This Thing?

Ahmed wished he had his physics book with him, as he looked around the engine room. Everything was unfamiliar to him, but nevertheless, he knew that this old train must still operate on the tried and true, common principles of physics. Simply enough, it was going fast, so therefore a little pressure needed to be applied to slow it down.

Ahmed knew enough about old trains, to know that they relied upon a system of air brakes. Ever since the 1860s, complex air brake systems had been installed in trains so that the engineer could suddenly hit the emergency brakes from right there in the engine room. Ahmed just needed to find the emergency brake switch.

Giving a sideways glance to Richard, Ahmed signaled as much, “Where’s the emergency brake?”

Richard then looked over to Jack and asked, “Hey Jax old buddy? Emergency brake? Any ideas?”

Jack mulled it over, “Oh well—I believe they’re usually on a side compartment.”

Ahmed looked over to the side of the engine room and saw what he believed to be the emergency braking apparatus. There was a big lever ranged around a circular disk. Ahmed stepped over to it, and peered over the mechanism. He could see on the disk that it read “full speed” “half speed” and “full stop.”

Ahmed laughed to himself, “Simple enough! Full stop it is!”

Richard and Jack then broke into an impromptu cheer, “Hurray! Hurrah! This young chap’s about to save us all!”

Ahmed, warned however, “I haven’t done it yet—just keep your fingers crossed.”

Ahmed then grabbed hold of the lever and tried to pull it toward the emergency stop position. The lever seemed locked in place. With much strain and effort, he managed to pull it between gears, right in the middle of full and half speed, but then the shifter it seized up, right in between, without doing anything to slow the train down in the slightest.

“It’s stuck!” Ahmed exclaimed.

“Oh, bloody hell.” Richard muttered.

Jack echoed his distress, “We’re doomed I tell you! We’re all doomed!”

Ahmed however, persevered. Stepping back, he surveyed the equipment and insisted, “No—there has to be another way.”

Ahmed then kneeled down in front of the contraption, and insisted, “Even if this mechanism is broken, we can still stop the train, as long as we apply pressure to the right place.”

Ahmed then looked to his left and just happened to see what appeared to be a wooden mallet. He motioned toward it and asked Richard, “Hey could you hand me that.”

Richard dutifully complied, handing the blunt force implement off to Ahmed. “Here ya go mate.”

Ahmed then picked up the mallet and began smashing apart the control panel for the braking system. This prompted Richard to scream, “Oh no! What in blazes are you doing lad?!”

Ahmed shook his head, “No, everything is fine. Just trust me.”

Ahmed then gave the whole thing another whack, and the entire box split in two. Ahmed was then able to open it up like a cracked eggshell, and see the wiring underneath. Ahmed pointed to a long red wire, and remarked, “You see this? The lever is trying to pull up on this wire, so that it can activate the brakes.”

Ahmed laughed, “But I don’t need the lever when I can do this!”

Ahmed then reached his hand right in, and gave the brake wire a good tug. Immediately there was a screeching of metal wheels on the tracks as the train seemed poised to come to a stop. Richard and Jack both shouted, “You did it! England is saved. And bloody hell—you saved the Queen!”

Ahmed laughed, “You know what I guess I did.” It was no sooner than he said these words that Ahmed once again began to experience that same falling sensation, he felt in the shuttle car. He was once again light headed, as he heard Richard ask, “You alright mate?” The last thing he heard was Jack humming the strains of ‘God Save the Queen” before everything went blank.

* * *

Moments later….

Ahmed woke up with a start, just as his shuttle car was coming to a stop. He looked out the window to see his dorm complex in the distance. Students were now boarding. A young lady plopped down on the seat next to him and seeing Ahmed, she smiled, “Exams week are brutal, aren’t they?”

Ahmed was taken aback for a moment, “I’m sorry….”

The woman laughed slightly as she remarked, “Sorry… But I just couldn’t help but notice you were falling asleep in your chair. I figured you must have been cramming for tests all night or something.”

Ahmed hesitated for a moment, as he realized he was now back where he had started. He wasn’t sure if what he had experienced was real, or some sort of dream-like break with reality. After a moment, he simply sighed, “Yeah, it really was a rough night. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!”