A large steel box suddenly appeared in the dark workshop, lit by a shaft of moonlight coming in through a dirty skylight, muffled cursing could be heard coming from within, or would have been if anyone had been listening. The currently assigned listener was dozing in his van, he had the microphone switched to the other side of the old warehouse and he wasn’t wearing his headphones.

The box rocked and then moved slightly, pivoting on a small contact point. There was a bang, sounding very much like someone hitting their head against a solid steel wall. The swearing from inside rose in volume.

Eventually, there was a tiny click and the lid popped up, followed by an arm and a knee. “Oh for… ARGHH!” Came a now understandable scream of rage, and a loud tearing sound. Colin’s torso emerged from the box, somehow unfolding from around a mess of wires and electronics. He stepped from the box holding his bare shoulder where his shirt had been torn, blood was dripping from a small gash. He promptly tripped, sprawling hard on the painted concrete floor. He lay there for a long minute, both thankful to be alive and nursing numerous pains in his skeletally thin, abused body.

Eventually, he worked up the will to move. Finding his feet and turning he gave the box a solid kick, “Mother… mmmmmmm.” He hopped about, nursing a now very sore toe, tears welling up in his eyes. “That was stupid Colin. Oh, you don’t have to tell me that Colin, it’s my bloody toe.” he hobbled around the workshop, trying to walk off the pain.

Sitting down to rub his foot he noticed the couch had been made up to be a bed, only then did he realise it was almost pitch black in the workshop, “What time is it?” He said out loud, he hadn’t brought a clock into the basement and obviously, his internal clock had drifted somewhat, he had thought it was about midday. Suddenly his eyes widened, “Oh no Colin, did you get the settings wrong, did you send me into the future?”

He hurriedly raked around the break area, looking for a newspaper or something with a date on it. What he found was a large kit bag with a letter on the top. He opened the letter, thinking it may at least have a date, angling it to catch the moonlight he saw that it did contain a date. He hadn’t gone forward in time, at least if he had then not by much, unfortunately, though, his friend had been called up for the Airforce, he threw the letter across the room in disgust.

“We have to do something Colin, we have to fix this. We can’t let him go.” He got up and paced, up and down, around the tank then around the couch; he had probably walked a mile or so by the time he decided that time travel was the only solution.

“Right, install the do-hickey!” He marched up to the tank and swung the door open. He stared in disbelief, “The lazy buggers didn’t install the generator! What was the point of all that work with James if we need to plug into power anyway?”

Fuming, he started pulling things off shelves, looking for parts, he wasn’t very careful and the place was a tip by the time he found the correct connectors. He then trotted outside into the yard to find some suitable cable.

***

“Sir, we have the target. He is currently in the warehouse on Station Road. Yes sir, nobody told us to stop surveillance, sir.” The soldier bit his lip, it wasn’t their fault they had been told until further notice. “What do you mean sir? All of them? Erm… okay.”

He had already woken his comrade Liam since he outranked him as a Warrant Officer first class, now he was getting confused looks from the man who had until moments ago been asleep on the floor as his side of the conversation made no sense.

“We’re back to being British.” He whispered, covering the microphone on his headset.

“What?” His exclamation had come out exceptionally loud and he cringed, whispering his apologies. They had been working on surveillance jobs for years together and his friend wasn’t the sort of person to fool around but it sounded impossible. “What do you mean?” he insisted at a much lower volume.

Ruairidh again covered the microphone, “All the officers are dead, our guys surrendered to the British forces yesterday. Apparently, they forgot to tell us.” He uncovered the microphone, “Yes sir, we understand sir. We will keep a discreet eye on him, sir.” He ended the call and turned to Liam “Well, we’re off this job as of this morning, someone is going to come and speak to this Colin bloke.”

“Oh wow, dispatch isn’t having you on? This is real? Oh god, are we at war with the Reich? If so, we are so dead.”

“Good point… damn. Should I call them back?”

***

With three people, getting onto the roof of the shed behind the yard was easier, but there was still a small amount of scuffing which caused the three to freeze every time

They ghosted through the silent yard, eyes wide and straining in the early morning moonlight, trying to spot anything odd. They heard Colin way before they got to the door, relief was tempered by fear, the idiot was ignoring the bugs and nattering to himself loudly, he also appeared to be singing some made up song about stripping wires.

“Colin!” Guy hissed, waving his hands and signalling him to be quiet.

“Oh hi, Guy! It’s okay, I covered your bug.” He pointed to the middle of the room where a cushion was on top of the original bug, weighed down with a spare tire.

“What about the dozen other ones!” Guy asked sarcastically, still hissing in a low voice. The other two men were already barring the doors to the workshop.

Colin looked around the workshop dreamily. “Oh…oops?”

“Damnit, tell me you brought the control chip?”

Colin reached down and picked up a small case, waving it around. “Needs programmed though, I had wiped it again after my last test. I had intended to load the data for this location but then I got waylaid.”

“Okay, pass it here. Rich, fire up your computer, we need to get this thing working, we don’t have long before the Jacks are breaking down the doors.” Guy accepted the case and pulled out the chip writing interface, helping Rich hook it to the computer.

“I’m going to weld this door shut. Its lock probably makes it the weakest entry point just now.” Nik said, always keen for an excuse to weld.

“Good plan.” Guy finally looked properly at the emaciated man, “Colin, you look like death. I’m glad you’re alive but what the hell are you doing?” Guy asked as he screwed the interface to the back of the computer.

“Cable!” Colin said with a smile, holding up his work.

“But why? All we need is the chip.” Guy asked, flummoxed by Colin’s pointless actions.

“Well, if you have one hidden I couldn’t find it. I wouldn’t need to make one if you had made those modifications you promised, you know, the generator.” Colin waved randomly in the direction of the tank, he still seemed slightly out of it.

“Told you nobody would be able to tell!” Rich shouted to Nik who had wheeled the welding machine to the door, “You owe me a beer!”

“Yeah, okay. If we get out of this I will buy everyone a beer.” He flipped his helmet down and sparks started to fly from the heavy door.

“Can we run the coordinate program at the same time as the chip programmer?” Guy asked as numbers started flowing down the screen.

“Erm…yes, I think so.”

“Good, get us the coordinates of the yard outside and set the date for some time in the summer of nineteen fourteen.” Rich grabbed the map referencer from their stash of useful army gear and raced outside to take a reading.

“Colin, help me throw this box on the roof of the tank, there’s no way we’re going to leave it for the Gerries!” He grunted as he realised it might be a four man lift. “Second thoughts, get the overhead hoist.

***

In the surveillance van, the two soldiers looked at each other.

“Did I hear that right? What does nineteen fourteen have to do with anything?” Ruairidh asked. He just got a shrug in reply, they hunkered down and listened to their headsets.

There was a massive clang which caused both men to cringe and hold their headphones off their ears briefly. “Damn, I’ve had to do that more often with these guys than the rest of my career put together.” One of them muttered.

“Hold on,” Liam twiddled some knobs, trying to get a better signal, “I am fairly sure I heard the words ‘time machine’. Did you hear that?”

His colleague looked at him wide eyed and nodded. “You think that’s why we’ve been here for months?”

“It would make sense. More sense than just being forgotten about.” They stared at each other for a long moment.

“You know, I think I would rather join these guys in the past than be at war with the Reich,” Liam suggested.

“Hmmm, I do like these guys,” Ruairidh said, giving serious thought to the idea. Neither man had any serious ties, their work was not conducive to having a social life and they had been recruited partially due to their lack of family since there was a great deal of travel involved.

“Let’s do it.” They got out of the van and saw that Nik had been busy, there was smoke coming from a weld on the small door and the roller door had a glowing line of weld where he was still working.

“Back door?” Liam suggested and they headed down the street in the early dawn light.

***

Having spent weeks being mildly peeved at the situation Colin had left them all in, newly minted Lieutenant-General Carton de Wiart found himself in the confusing situation of owing the man an apology. He had gone into the entire operation thinking it was at best a waste of time, at worst a suicide mission. Just this morning the new British government had been contacted by the continent, and the resistance movement there had progressed to a point that there were only tiny pockets of German commanded Reich soldiers fighting the bulk of what used to be their own army.

Even better than that, there had already been overtones of peace from the Asian government. Apparently, their spies had heard of the change of leadership, he suspected there may have been a small amount of quiet assistance too.

He sighed and pulled himself upright, feeling every one of his ninety-two years. He glanced around his new office, it was exceedingly sparse now that the flags and memorabilia from the previous occupant had been removed.

“Someone get me some transport.” He said to his two aides, “Something impressive.”

The younger of the two ran off at a sprint and Adrian followed at a sedate pace, his Second aid falling in behind. They may be green and barely trained, but they certainly didn’t lack enthusiasm.

Reaching the entrance to the compound he looked around for a fancy staff car, looking forward to riding in style, then he noticed the armoured personnel carrier sitting with its engine idling and sighed. With its twenty millimetre cannon and a full complement of automated gun turrets it certainly was impressive, just not quite what he had meant. He shook his head wearily and walked up the rear ramp, not feeling like correcting the young private at this hour.

He sat in the uncomfortable steel seat, fastened the safety harness and banged on the wall to signal his readiness. There was a surge of power from the ten wheeled vehicle and he suddenly had a sinking feeling, he hoped Colin didn’t get the wrong idea.

It was a short ride to the salvage yard, no more than five minutes but enough to remind Adrian how uncomfortable military vehicles were, he had a feeling the driver thought he was in a rush.

They pulled up in front of the building and the driver left the engine running. It took Adrian a little longer than normal to undo the harness, his metal hand was useful but certainly not dexterous. He made a note to ask Colin for some modifications, with his new rank he could possibly get him access to a better workshop, being able to splay his fingers would be very useful.

***

Rich had climbed a ladder, peering out of the high windows into the morning gloom. He would have helped hook up the control circuit but there wasn’t exactly much space and he had conceded that Colin and Nik had the most experience, even though he had run all the wires, crimped all the terminals, shrunk all the heat shrink. It frustrated him somewhat.

He was about to give up his vigil when a tank came barrelling around the corner. “Sshhhiiiiit!” He called, riding the ladder rails down to the ground in a rush, “Tank! Guys, tell me you’re done?” He pleaded as he ran over to the tank.

“What kind of tank?” Guy asked, pulling his working antique machine guns out of the cupboard.

“I don’t know! One with lots of big guns which we have never been asked to take apart for scrap!” He said sarcastically, then he helped Guy with the guns, even though he was fairly sure they wouldn’t scratch the paint on the shiny new war machine he had seen racing down the street. They awkwardly loaded the armfuls of guns into the tank and Guy asked him to grab the ammunition.

“We’re almost done. Guy, start the engine, we need to charge the capacitor!” Nik said, wiggling the last terminals together whilst Colin held the control panel.

Seconds later the giant engine roared into life, preventing further conversation.

Rich was on his last trip, ferrying the really heavy cans of ammo when he heard something over the noise of the engine. There was what must have been a thunderous crash against the steel roller doors, moments later he heard someone attempt to break down the much closer back door. “Shit!!” He cried as he sprinted back to the relative safety of the tank.

“They have us surrounded, someone is hammering on the roller door and there’s someone trying to break down the back door.” He shouted at the top of his voice when he got back to the tank.

Guy looked at the back door and at his gun placements, he realised he was one short, covering that exact corner. He grabbed an old .303 P14, it wasn’t designed to fit in the machine gun housing but it would do, he jammed it in and sighted down the barrel. Deciding they weren’t getting out of this situation alive he fired directly at the door, the normally deafening bang hardly registering over the thunder of the engine, sparks flew from the steel sheet on the back of the door. He had no idea whether it had gone through.

“That’s it, we just need to wait for a charge,” Nik shouted as Rich pulled the door shut with a clang, plunging them into darkness.

Just then the back door burst open, the door jamb exploding into splinters. Two men in German uniforms ran in and Guy fired a shot, unfortunately missing both men but causing them to take cover behind the racking.

He could tell they were shouting something but he couldn’t hear the voices over the noise of the engine. “Press the button!” He shouted.

“It’s still charging!” Nik insisted.

“I don’t care!” Guy yelled, “Press the damned button!”

There was a flash of light and the tank seemed to scream.

There was a sudden silence in the workshop, the two spies peered out from behind the steel rack. Not believing their eyes they stood up, walking slowly out to where, seconds before, had stood a massive steel tank, belching smoke and firing live rounds over their heads.

They were knocked from their reverie by a massive bang of steel against steel, reminding them that they might be in a small amount of bother.

***

“Sir!” Adrian heard a voice say from behind the steel door, “Erm, you might need to come around the back.”

Adrian lowered his steel knuckles, “And why might that be?” He asked.

“Erm, the doors are welded shut sir. That’s why we came round here.” Adrian glanced at the sides of the roller door, right enough he could see a very neat seam of weld running about a metre down each side. He walked to the small door and found the same. He sighed.

“You lads got that vehicle kitted out for ramming?” He asked his erstwhile chauffeur who was still in the driver’s seat.

“No sir, if you just want the door off though, I can do that easy enough.” The man called down confidently, at Adrian’s approval he reversed the personnel carrier and parked it on the other side of the road before getting out and pulling a winch from the front of the vehicle. He towed it to the roller door and worked the big hook on the end underneath the door before rotating it ninety degrees. “Best stand back sir.”

They all moved to behind the tank and the man pressed the button on a remote control, the line went taut and instantly the door began to bow outwards, there was a scream of tortured metal, and the point from the hook burst through the door skin and the steel track either side of the door slowly pulled free of the wall. Within seconds the door fell, pivoting outwards and down. The crash was monumental.

Adrian walked forward towards the two soldiers inside the workshop who were standing open mouthed at the destroyed door. “Now, how about you tell me what happened here?”

The men fell over each other trying to explain that they had heard the men in the workshop talk about welding the door and had decided to cover their exit.

“So why did you smash your way in and how did these four men get past you?” Adrian asked eventually.

“Erm… you scared them with the tank and they were going to use their machine,” Ruairidh said nervously.

“Their time machine.” Liam clarified.

“We thought that perhaps we could talk them out of it.” Ruairidh continued.

“But they shot at us and disappeared.” Liam finished.

“We have the tapes. You can listen if you like.” Ruairidh offered.

Adrian stood silent for a minute, he knew what had happened, Colin had stolen more than computer backups that day. That annoyed him and from the way the two soldiers In front of him were cringing, it showed on his face.

“Show me.” He turned to his aides, “Cuthbert, secure the building, guards on both doors.” He then motioned the two spies to lead him away.

The men spread out to cover the entrances to the building and the rear yard. Nobody noticed a red phone box appear for a few seconds where the tank used to sit before apparently teleporting to a corner of the workshop.

A teenage boy came out, he spared a look at the soldiers, all of whom were watching the exterior of the building. He briefly snuck around the workshop, obviously looking for something.

Finding the computer with the settings still displayed, he wrote them down and then unplugged the machine, taking it with him.

The red phone box disappeared just as Adrian walked back in and spotted it, yelling at the young man to stop.

***

“Holy cow! We need to get some hearing protection before the next trip. My ears are ringing.” Guy said after stopping the engine, it was pitch dark in the tank and he could hear someone fumbling to open the door. There was a clunk and a crack of moonlight illuminated the inside of the vehicle.

“That’s our workshop!” Nik declared as he stepped out of the tank.

“No, it’s not. That is the army quartermaster warehouse which my father bought and turned into our workshop.” Guy said from inside the tank, “Well, hopefully, it is, considering the previous owner of this time machine never worked out backwards travel… who knows.” He relaxed into the driver’s seat. “At least nobody is shooting at us.”

He clambered out of the seat and followed the other three men from the vehicle. They paused a moment to take in the familiar but slightly different yard and building. The outdoor racks were gone, replaced by telegraph poles, rolls of rusted barbed wire and a lot of items they all knew would not sell well on the second-hand market. The building looked new, resplendent in its British armed forces paint job and with a large painted gold crown over the doorway.

“Now, I just hope my dad was lazy when he bought the place.” He pulled out his keyring and found the key for the back door. Walking up to the building he put his ear to the door, listening for any sign of people. As far as he could tell it was silent so he slipped the key into the lock, it turned easier than he ever remembered, then he laughed as he realised, it was a brand new lock. “We’re in luck.” He swung the door open and stepped in.

“Hey guys, nice tank.” A young voice came from inside the building. “Come have a cup of tea.”

They all shared a glance, wondering how the person inside knew about the tank. There were no windows in the building which were not ten feet off the ground.

“Hi…” Guy started, cautiously edging further into the building. There was a teenage boy, or perhaps a young man, standing by a flickering pot belly stove in the far corner of the building. Guy looked backwards, considering bolting.

“Come on, you can tell me about your time machine.” That had their attention, had it not been for the lad’s age they absolutely would have run for it, it was their interest that kept them inching forwards.

“Don’t worry, I have one of my own.” The boy pointed to a red box with windows a little way from where he was standing. “I could use some advice though.”

They relaxed a little, “You’re a time traveller? Do we… know you? In the future? Erm… our future?” Guy asked, a little confused by the idea.

“Not exactly, I’m John, I think I accidentally stole your tank in nineteen ninety-two.” Suddenly they were all talking at once, everyone had questions, and there was a general disbelief that the boy was from the future.

They sat with him, the lure of tea too strong to resist. John had a number of ration packs pilfered from the warehouse racks, “Oh lord, corned beef!” Rich exclaimed, spotting the can peeking out the top of the ration pack, he grabbed the square tin hungrily and started unscrewing the lid with its key.

“Biscuits!” Collin said, tears in his eyes. He opened the packet and was shoving them into his mouth as if they were about to disappear.

John looked on in pity, the bare shoulder where Colin had torn his shirt betraying how thin he had become. “You have something to eat… I’m just going to grab you a clean shirt.” He sniffed, “And perhaps some trousers.”

They finished an entire ration pack, washed down with numerous cups of tea before John had finished giving them a rundown on how he came to be talking to them. He and his friends had been very unlucky, they had fallen into the tank, instantly branching a very different timeline and getting stuck in the past. That had been years ago from John’s vantage point, now, he had left his friends in a different timeline in the hope he could work out a way for them all to get back to their own branch of the continuum.

“So, the magnet drew too much power? I can fix that. I had meant to put over-current protection into that circuit.” Nik said, dipping what must have been his tenth biscuit into his tea.

“No! You can’t. If you do then it will just branch off another alternate timeline.” John hurriedly explained, “I need fewer timelines, not more.”

“Oh… yeah, sorry,” Nik said, embarrassed he hadn’t thought of that.

“So, you built that original machine, any idea how to get back onto a specific timeline?” John asked them, his eyes filled with hope.

The men all looked slightly embarrassed. “You see, the thing is… we only put the thing together, our understanding of the workings are limited.” His eyes widened, “Oh shit! We left the computer on the bench!” Rich threw his hands up and pulled on his hair, “Oh god, if the army gets hold of it we might be in big trouble.”

“It’s okay, that’s how I found you. I went to the workshop just as you left and whilst the soldiers weren’t looking I stole your computer.” John said to a chorus of relieved sighs. “I also read your history book, those people in your workshop didn’t seem so bad though.” He had only heard snatches of conversation whilst he rummaged through the workshop but it had all been innocuous.

“It’s like with all armies, individually the soldiers can be really nice people. Unfortunately, though, they like to follow orders, and the people giving those orders tend to be really bad people.” Guy explained.

“So, if it wasn’t you, who did invent time travel?” John asked, trying not to be too frustrated that the men didn’t have the answers.

“Ahh.. yes… that was one of the people who actually believes in all the bad stuff, he actually seemed really nice, until I got to know him. He was actually a bit of a prick. Liked to experiment on people… whatever you do, don’t look at the pictures on that computer.” Colin shivered thinking about it.

“Damn, so that isn’t an option. Well, I guess we’re going with plan P, in this case, it’s P for poop since it really isn’t a good plan.” He got to his feet, “I don’t suppose you guys fancy chasing down some famous physicists with me?” He asked.

“Will there be food?” Colin asked.

John smiled, “Yeah, this time I did a little bit of prep work. I have all sorts of money and information. Ever stayed in the Ritz?” John looked around at the warehouse, understanding dawning, he set out to equip the tank with some brand new First World War memorabilia.

“What’s the Ritz?” Nik asked as he helped carry the stuff John was pulling from the shelves.

“Oh, you’ll love it. It’s the swankiest hotel in London. A week or two there for you to put on some weight and we can go find Einstein.” John said, finding the great coats and loading four into Nik’s arms.

“Who’s Einstein?” Nik asked.

John’s head whipped around and his jaw dropped, “Oh… poo.”