Free Asher's Dilemma by Coleen Kwan Page B

electrical voltages I need to calibrate the conveyance.”
    Quigley stepped back. “No.”
    “No?” The other man gaped at him. “You’re not going to tell me?” His voice rose in utter disbelief.
    “No. And I will never tell you because it’s too dangerous. Asher, listen to me. You must destroy this monstrosity. You must destroy it and all your blueprints and notes, and you must promise never to rebuild it or even speak of it to anyone. This machine can only bring ruin. You must believe me and act.”
    His conviction appeared to make an impression on Asher. Frowning, the other man contemplated the apparatus he’d labored over so much, but when he turned back his jaw was set in stubborn lines.
    “Why must I believe you? What terrible thing will happen if I refuse your request?”
    “History will be altered, lives will be destroyed.” He paused, knowing he could not go further, not with Minerva just behind him. “I am you, Asher. Surely you trust yourself?”
    But doubt still lurked in the other man as he shifted away towards his precious invention. He brushed his hand slowly over the promethium magnets dotting the outer shell now correctly aligned, and the expression on his face made Quigley’s heart sink.
    “What if I took one journey in it, just one, and then destroyed it?”
    “No, you cannot do that.”
    “Why not? What’s the harm in one journey?”
    Asher of the future sighed. “Because it would be a one-way journey,” he said wearily.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “It’s simple really. Your— our —invention is not quite complete. Rather than a chronometrical conveyance, it should be called a chronometrical catapult .”
    Comprehension quickly flooded Asher’s face. “Ah, I see.”
    From behind him, Minerva spoke up, “By a catapult, do you mean…?”
    Slowly Quigley turned to face her. “Yes, it means I have been lobbed back into the past with no means of returning to the future. Otherwise, there would have been two contraptions here instead of just one.”
    Dismay clouded her eyes. “But that means you’re trapped here, unless…unless you use this machine here to catapult you back to the future.”
    “No, never. It doesn’t matter what happens to me. All I care about is making sure this infernal device is forever destroyed.”
    A rough hand grabbed at Quigley’s arm. He turned to find Asher’s eyes spitting at him. “You! It was you. You set the fire in here and tried to burn down my machine.”
    There was no point denying it. “Yes, and I don’t know how I failed. I poured gallons of whale oil all over the damned thing, stuffed it with wood and kindling, and set it ablaze, yet look at it. Barely a scratch on it.”
    “You almost burned down the entire workshop, you bloody vandal.” Fury raised the veins in Asher’s temples. “Have you no shame?”
    “None at all. I did what I had to do.”
    “Does that include the ruin of all my calculations?” Asher’s wrath mounted. “Because of you I had to ask for Schick’s help in the use of his analytical machine. And because of that I’ve been forced to deal with…” He ground to a halt, his gaze flicking across to where Minerva stood.
    Quigley followed his line of sight to Minerva’s tense figure. A trickle of sweat stung his eyes. He wiped it away, but Minerva continued to blur, that unnatural fog blotting out parts of her body. She was starting to fade once more.
    “Look,” he hissed at the other man. “Look at her. Can’t you see what’s happening?”
    “What the deuce are you talking about?”
    “How can you be so blind?” He rubbed his eyes furiously, but still the insidious mist continued to wrap itself around Minerva. “You must destroy the machine before it destroys Minerva.”
    Complete silence greeted his words. Asher stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. He opened his mouth to rail at him again, but the futility of arguing made him shut it. Words were of no use now; only action could win. He would