Episode One
Debrief
Frederick and Thaddius materialise out of the time vortex in a dark place. They remember their previous mission but their memories of what happened to them after that are patchy apart from the debrief.
They appear to be inside a wooden room that creaks and smells of tar. The floor appears to bob up and down. They guess they must be inside a wooden ship. They look around and their guess in confirmed. They appear to be in a ship’s hold, with a small number of creates with SS Red Queen stamped on them.
Crew Room
After exploring the hold, they find a door and leave. There is a wooden corridor lit by a lamp. A figure in uniform is stood at the end of the corridor momentarily, but disappears around a corner. They follow it and find the door to a crew room, where 20 or more crew are all sitting around waiting. They are greeted as fellow members of the crew.
Frederick finds a newspaper on a table and sees that the date is March 1907. They discover from the crew that there is to be some sort of race and they are to be crewing the ship.
An officer enters the dorm and deliberately walks over to the two time travellers. He greets them by name. “Mr Arrington. Mr Rutherford. This way please.” He seems to know who they are, which surprises the travellers. They decide to co-operation and follow him.
Captain Striker
The officer leads them down some corridors to a dining room – the Captain’s dining room. Captain Striker and First Mate Mariner are sat at the table and greet them. They are welcomed as guests and invited to sit and eat.
Captain Striker tells them they were not invited on board but they are welcome to stay. He tells them they are time travellers and asks why they are here. Before they can answer, he tells them they do not know. He seems momentarily amused by this. He then returns impassively to eating.
Frederick and Thaddius are suspicious and awkward, not sure what to say. Frederick tries the food – it is delicious.
Space Ships!
A communication pipe whistles. Mariner answers and tells the Captain the wind is getting up. Striker abruptly rises from the dinner table and excuses himself, they must prepare and get the crew ready.
The travellers decide to follow and they arrive at the wheelhouse. The view is obscured by wooden panels. Captain Striker orders them opened to view their competitors. Mariner opens a lid and reveals an advanced electronic control panel. He presses a switch and the wooden panels slide back electronically, to reveal view screens. They show stars outside – they are in space!
To the side they see ships from different periods of Earth history all lined up next to the Red Queen. Mariner then begins shouting orders down a pipe to get the sails ready, it will soon be time to get underway.
The Race Begins
The Officers of the ship seem busy so Thaddius and Frederick just watch while they get the ship ready and then the race begins. They see all the ships in the line suddenly move. The Red Queen has a good start and in one of the front runners.
Captain Striker is pleased and he relaxes, while Mariner goes aloft to supervise the sails.
The Eternals
Thaddius decides to check his psychic paper and he sees one of the ships explode. He attempts to read his mind and finds a powerful, vast and overwhelming mind. The Captain seems to sense what he does, but is simply amused by it. Thaddius is left with the impression that while the mind is powerful, it is also empty, emotionless and … bored.
He and Frederick take this opportunity to question the Captain further. He seems to consent to this, telling them the ship is run by Eternals, being that live forever. The crew are Ephemerals, beings who live and die such brief lives. The race is simply a distraction for the Eternals to help pass eternity.
The Captain is amused that they are time travellers and what they do. He seems to be able to read their minds at will, mocking them with events from their past. When Thaddius attempts to resist, the Captain firmly puts down his resistance and continues to read his thoughts, a contest the Eternal seems to enjoy momentarily.
Strange Rooms
The Captain suggests they look tired and suddenly they do feel tired. He has Lieutenant Mercer escort them to their room. There they find a strange room with two beds and items from their own homes back on Earth, items that are of personal or sentimental value.
They talk a little but soon drop off, although Thaddius does not need much sleep and soon wakes again. He tries thinking of things he misses, wondering if it will cause them to appear, but nothing happens. He looks around the room and examines some of the weird things from Frederick’s side of the room, especially the Teasmade, which is plugged into the wall.
Lieutenant Mercer enters and takes them to breakfast. He tells them an energy barrier maintains the atmosphere around the ship. He offers to take them aloft once they finish.
Mercury
Their meal is again interrupted by events. The communication whistle blows and Mercer says they are closing on Mercury, he must go to the Wheel House. The travellers follow.
Captain Striker insists on taking the turnaround Mercury very fine. They undercut the Greek ship and begin to pull ahead. The Greeks are not far behind with the Buccaneer ship closing alone side them. Suddenly there is an explosion and the Greek ship goes whirling into Mercury, burning and falling to its destruction. Thaddius and Frederick look at each other – Thaddius saw this in his paper!