A Song of Spiders

Chapter 1 - Hacking Titanic

'Are you ready to go back to Titanic?' intoned Dex.

'... you cretins.' whispered Karma behind from beneath her dark red curls. She rustled forward, an angry cloud of pink crinoline.

They stood under a spotlight at the beginning of a narrow gangway that led to a metal wheel-activated door. There were sounds around them of humming engines and lapping water. On the air was a faint smell of rust and motor oil.

Dex swept up his hands as he strode up the gangway in a crisp White Star Line uniform. He was small and gaunt and had a slightly large, narrow head covered with short blond hair. His mechanical legs creaked slightly as he headed up the gangway.

They stepped over the door frame onto the icy cold, dark and windy deck of the ship. Dex shivered slightly. Warm amber light glowed from nearby port holes and people could be seen moving around in a large dining hall. Dex stepped in front of the group and held up his hands.

'My fellow time-trippers, we have just stepped across the chasm of time. It is no longer 2112, it is now the fateful night of April 14th, 1912.' Pause for drama and to help the ones that can't add, he thought, 'Two hundred years ago.'

Karma herded the flock forward, keeping them together with quick words and well-faked smiles as Dex continued.

'The RMS Titanic, bound for New York, from Southampton and on her maiden voyage, collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic. We are now mere minutes away from that terrible impact. We have time for some questions. If you're new to time tripping, don't be shy, any questions you have, I'll endeavour to answer.'

'Will those people be able to see us?' asked an old lady in an expensive-looking fur hood.

'No, madam,' said Dex, 'they are simply shadows of the past. They can no more see you than those captured in a photograph could. This is what we call a history extrapolation. Computers are simply rewinding the clock of time and then running it again so we can experience what happened in the past.' He checked his watch, he had 3 more minutes.

'We can't change the past then, warn them about the iceberg?' an old sergeant-major type asked.

'No sir, the past has already happened, we can't really go back and we can't change it. This is just like a dream for us, and they are simply actors in it.' Dex smiled a little wistfully.

Dex returned to his scripted lines and raised his voice dramatically. 'No ladies and Gentlemen, there is no way to warn the passengers that their doom is moments away! Time's arrow can no more be diverted than this poor doomed leviathan can be redirected from her final resting place on the sea bed'.

The tour group were all quiet now, but he could sense their excitement. They knew that the boring education bit was over and the real entertainment was about to begin. They all looked out ahead into the shimmering black of the simulated night.

'Now, if anyone has any questions from this point, could they please hold them until the end?'

'Just one small thing, if you please,' said a man at the back. 'I'll only take a moment of your time.' Dex eyed the man's ashy grey hair, scruffy beard, tiny reading glasses and clump of notes with dismay. Oh great, he thought, a history nut.

'Very well sir, a quick question is fine,' he said, trying to be polite. He eyed his watch.

'By my calculations, which I assure you are accurate,' said the man, 'there were exactly 800 bundles of fresh, ready-to-eat asparagus on the Titanic, were there not?' He looked at Dex for acknowledgement. Dex smiled blankly and nodded slightly, just hoping he'd get to the point quickly.