The God Equation and Other Stories by Michael A.R. Co Read Free Book Online

he thought, the time machine would ’ ve been used by the Chinese. A world ruled from the dragon throne would be no better than one ruled by capitalist Europeans as far as he was concerned. Even if the communists could build another prototype, it would still take at least twenty years to produce and accumulate enough antimatter to power the device. But the matter, no pun intended, is moot.
    Professor Ibrahim smiled as he waited for the altered timeline to propagate across the decades. Although eighteen men will have to die, their deaths will effectively end a five-century-old insurgency by eliminating the root cause. With the Spaniards out of the way, the sultans and rajahs of Borneo, Sulu and Mindanao will have a chance to consolidate their power, push further north, and establish an archipelagic empire strong enough to repel any foreign invader. Five hundred years of freedom w ould be coming in just a moment as t he new timeline ripple d across the centuries ; he and his crew would remain unchanged within the submarine, which was protected by the same displacement field generated by the singularity. He almost cried.
    A minute passed, then another, and another. Nothing seemed to be happening outside , nothing seemed to change.
    Perhaps they got lost, he thought. Impossible. He had personally reviewed the quantum equations with great care, and he was confident that they had accurately measured the total mass required for temporal displacement. Besides, they had navigational charts, and enough food and water to last five days, seven at most. What else could ’ ve gone wrong? Maybe sharks ate them. Or cannibals.
    The professor ’ s earphone crackled with static as the voice of one of his technicians came through.
    "Sir?"
    "What is it, Omar?"
    "Sir, um, I was doing supplementary research on the Magellan expedition, and I discovered a small error or rather, an oversight, in our calculations. It might not be significant to be alarmed about, and the team is putting together several possible mission scenarios, but we ’ re still wondering how this skipped our attention, though we ’ re doing our best to find out, and I don ’ t know how to say this but it could happen to anyone and — "
    "Oh just get to the point!"
    "Ah, yes, well, it ’ s about the year 1521."
    "And?"
    "It was a Julian year, sir."
    "Julian who?"
    "Not who, sir,” said Omar clearing his throat, “but what. It ’ s the calendar instituted by Julius Caesar over two thousand years ago. But then the Christians deleted a number of days from the month of October."
    "What the —   why the hell would they do a thing like that?!"
    "Um, s-says here that it had something to do with fixing the vernal equinox on March 21 or to making sure that Easter always occurred in spring or maybe just to have a calendar named after their pope. Catholic history isn ’ t my best subject, sir."
    "Typical."
    "Sorry, sir."
    “When did this adjustment happen?”
    “In 1582.”
    “And how many days were deleted?"
    "Let me see ... Gregory ordered the 5th to the 14th da y of October to be stricken off ... so that ’ s — "
    "Ten days," the professor said as his vision started to blur.
    "Yes, sir. Ten days." 
    * * *
    They had arrived ten days too early.
    “I had a weird dream,” she told Tomas as they dismantled their camp and prepared to load everything they had into the rubber boat, “that we sunk three ships this morning.”
    Tomas stopped what he was doing. “You suggesting we should wait?”
    She looked at her ankle. “No, it was just a dream.”
    Tomas looked relieved.
    “I couldn ’ t see my feet,” she said. “I couldn ’ t see yours either. I don ’ t think we had any. We left them on the shore. As the ships burned, we floated across the water to finish off the remaining crew. But the lifeboats were empty except for one person who wore a pig snout made of papier maché like those worn at Venetian masquerades. I asked him who he was and he said he was with the