Trans-Temporter by Christopher M Robinson - HTML preview

Chapter 1

Introductions

Hello. My name’s Ben and I’m 23. I’m guessing you have read what my uncle wrote some years ago? I suppose strictly speaking he isn’t an actual relation and it is an honorary title we’ve bestowed upon him.

Let me tell you who “we” are.

As I said, my name’s Ben, Benjamin Evans. I have an identical twin brother, Chris or Christopher. Our parents are Dafydd and Frances Smith.

Dad invented the Pipeway transport system that was developed by the Chinese, though to be honest, it was only an adaptation of something that had been invented before.

Dad’s the real brains behind all the electronic bits and pieces that SSS use. Although his doctorate thesis was in regard to Pipe transport technology, he’s the one who understands the quantum entanglement the Temporter devices rely upon, but Auntie Lei understands quite a lot of it as well as she worked with it’s inventor Ivan who was killed in an accident; he was the only person who really understood it – but you’ve probably read all about that.

Mum lost her parents in a car crash when she was very small and was brought up by her grandmother, Edith Smith, and Bodhi and Amyra Patel, whom she thought of like parents to her. Their daughter, my Aunt Saanvi, is again not an actual aunt but has been a very close friend with my mum since they were babies.

They gained qualifications in biomedical engineering together, developing and inventing devices to help everyone from arthritics to paraplegics and amputees. They head up Ark Medical which is the part of Swan Science Solutions dealing with medical and health matters.

Auntie Saanvi’s husband, my Uncle Noah, heads up the legal department of SSS, working out of their offices in Lesser Heath.

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Dad’s parents, my grandpa and nan, are Aled and Megan Evans. He helped my mum and Aunt Saanvi start up Ark Medical, the company that has been involved with so many medical innovations, especially the Hospital Stasis Units invented by my courtesy aunt, Chen Lei Miller, mother of Aveline and founder of SSS.

Ava is like a big sister to us, she’s seven years older than Tanvi, Chris and me. Tanvi Beauchamp is Auntie Saanvi and Uncle Noah’s daughter, whom we think of as like a sister as she’s only a couple of weeks younger than us. And then there’s Valu, Tanvi’s younger sister who’s three years our junior and the baby of us ‘kids’ at just 20.

Ava got married four years ago now to Kabir (Kab). She’s just had her 30th birthday. I hoping it won’t be long before I am an ‘uncle’ myself.

Ava’s dad, Mike, is also an identical twin, so we’re not as rare as some people think. I’m told probably one person in every hundred and fifty is an identical twin. He was my mum’s teacher when she was at school.

Uncle Mike says he’s getting old now but he’s only 77 and with the advances made by Ark Medical, he ought to be good for another 25 years or so but, although remaining fit for his age, he has been told he may have a heart problem. With nothing actually confirmed in tests nor detected by Ark Medical’s monitors, they haven’t been able to suggest any of their devices to help. He just gets breathless at times.

He does wear their normal health monitoring devices and clothing which is linked automatically to Auntie Lei’s old-style mobile phone, and she and Ava are always looking out for him and fussing over him, which he hates.

Auntie Lei is ten years younger than he is and as sprightly as ever. Uncle Mike says he’s had a good life and if it ends now he’d rest happily saying that if any of his bits are any use to anyone else once he’s gone, they’ll be found in the Organ Stasis boxes at SSS.

Oh yes, that’s one of the uses of the Temporter that hadn’t been originally considered but it may be they didn’t think it feasible as I’ll explain later.

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Most of us work for Swan Science Solutions whose head offices are in Lesser Heath, Hampshire. Their motto, “Harmony through Science,” reflects their focus on providing solutions to problems with science rather than creating them with war.

SSS works co-operatively with all other nations sharing the latest scientific advances to help heal a broken world. Projects include work on the environment and climate as well as transport and health and conflict resolution.

I remember when I was at school being told about the parable of the reed and the oak tree. The Oak tree was always boasting about how big and strong it was and mocking the reed for bending in the wind. However, when a storm came, the oak was uprooted and fell, while the reed survived unharmed. Another parable showed that, although a single reed may be easily torn apart, a bundle of reeds is really strong, in the same way as strong steel cables are made from loads of wires tightly intertwined. Whereas the individual strands could break, all the strands work together to hold heavy bridges in place or stop boats from drifting away from the dockside.

I believe these are the tenets to which SSS abide.

…

My principal interests are science and engineering. I guess it was inevitable growing up with my parents and Tanvi’s. We joined Junior Inventors as soon as we were able to.

Mrs Price, the headteacher at Lesser Heath Primary School, had let Chris, Tanvi and me, join as soon as we started in the infants. I think Uncle Mike had actually had a hand in starting the club.

I remember we had a class project about tunnels which I’d never really given much thought to before. In Junior Inventors, we’d had boxes with sand, clay and gravel with the task of making tunnels through them using various methods involving those compressed cardboard lollipop sticks but also inventing machines to do the work from a limited selection of materials.

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Chris had made a tunnelling machine using a shallow wood drill bit which we turned by hand, that fitted snugly inside a metal tube that had once held some tablets for descaling kettles. We had to turn the drill bit and advance the tube very slowly. It had worked well in sand but was more difficult in clay and almost impossible in gravel. I had made a digger using a measuring spoon as a bucket to remove sufficient gravel to lay short tubes like the one I had used in a trough and packed around with the gravel again. Most people had tackled the clay which seemed the easiest but Tanvi had wanted a tank of water to lay a hosepipe through like my dad’s invention.

As part of the tunnel project, we had gone on a class outing to the Isle of Wight. A coach had collected us and driven to the Gosport peninsular and thence through the newly opened tunnel from Browndown on the mainland emerging on the island near Osborne House at a place called Whippingham where there is a tunnels museum which we visited.

Browndown had been an army cadet training camp with firing ranges on the sand burrows for practice artillery fire. It appeared to be sand on the surface but there was a good clay seam through which a conventional tunnel boring machine had dug two tunnels for road traffic. Another problem had been sweeping for and clearance of, any remaining ordinance.

There had been a lot of opposition to the tunnel as the islanders were worried it might spoil the uniqueness of their flora and fauna. They still had red squirrels which had mainly been eliminated by grey squirrels through many factors including the squirrelpox virus, which greys are immune to but is fatal for the smaller reds, and competition for food. The environmentalists needn’t have worried though as grey squirrels had not utilised the road tunnel nor the earlier rail tunnel nor had they felt any reason to hitch a ride on a vehicle through it any more than they would have done on the ferry. Although there had been concern about loss of business voiced by the ferry companies, they had become the principal investors in the fixed island links which are cheaper to maintain than the ageing ferries which are now mainly used as pleasure craft for those enjoying a leisurely outdoor view or suffering gephyrophobia (which

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means a fear of tunnels and bridges, but I like to show off with unusual words). The other major benefit is that the tunnels don’t need to be closed in adverse weather, although goods are still slightly more expensive on the island as shipments to the island have to pay tolls instead of ferry costs.

After eating our packed lunches in the museum’s schools’ room, we took a steam train. I’m not kidding you. They do still run occasional steam trains on a short section of the Isle of Wight tramways that links the line that runs from Ryde to Ventnor, and Newport, though they have to carry fire watchers.

Fun fact. The railway from Ryde to Ventnor starts half a mile out to sea at the end of a pier where ferries and tour boats still arrive. It is nearly 250 years old. Because of some small tunnels on the route, it used to use London underground trains before it became part of the extensive IOW tramway. The new lightweight tramcars also cause less wear to the pier.

The steam trains run as an occasional treat amongst the usual trams on a short section as historically that length of track was restored and maintained by a company formed by volunteers to preserve it. It used to terminate just east of Whippingham at Wootton but was extended to Newport on restored tracks by IOW Tramways who grant permission for occasional steam running west into Newport.

At Newport, we transferred to the more conventional trams which took us to Yarmouth and thence by tunnel to Lymington. The rail tunnel from Lymington to Yarmouth was the first fixed link to the island from the mainland although there is a long history which I’ll try to remember.

Over 200 years ago, the railway company wanted to build a tunnel to Cowes. They proposed going from Lepe on the mainland to Gurnard, which is part of Cowes, which is only about 2 miles but it would have meant tunnelling through gravel and the technology and finances weren’t sufficient in those days though it was discussed for about twenty years before they finally had to reject the idea.

Another plan had been to dig a tunnel to Ryde. It would have been about 4 miles. Because railways needed steam engines at the time, the tunnel would have filled with smoke and a ‘fort’ was proposed with a

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ventilation shaft to the tunnel emerging as a stone tower similar to those that already exist in the Solent known as ‘Palmerston’s Follies’ which were built a couple of hundred years ago to defend against a French invasion which never happened.

The Yarmouth crossing had originally been proposed at the start of the twentieth century by the South Western and Isle of Wight Railway company. The plans were disrupted by the first world war and, although the idea persisted afterwards, there was not the money available.

About 120 years ago, there was a proposal for an atmospheric railway under the Solent. It would have had the advantages of being able to manage steeper hills into and out of the tunnel than a conventional railway and not required steam engines apart from the pumping stations, but it never found funding.

The eventual tunnel was laid as a series of concrete boxes only about forty years ago by the IOW Tramways company to link the railway at Lymington with the extensive tram network on the island.

I think it was the interesting local history and the tunnels project that made me consider at one point becoming a civil engineer.

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