Ridin’ the Rail

I’d spent most of last week worrying so much about that damn I.D. card that I totally forgot about the train journey and my secret mission in Manchester.

After I got the message from Kaz to destroy the card, I charged downstairs and raided the kitchen drawers for some scissors and then ran straight back up – worrying about leaving the card unattended for even the smallest amount of time.  When I got back to my room, Jenny was rooting around my desk and my stomach lurched.

“What’s this?” she asked, still with her back to me.

“Err…”

But as I got closer I realized she was holding the card reader and hadn’t yet discovered the I.D. card.
“It’s just something for my computer game,” I lied.

“You still stuck on that level,” she teased and skipped off.

Phew.

I carefully cut straight through the chip, assuming that was the bit that contained the dangerous information. And then I began rubbing it up and down the edge of my desk, filing away and remains of digital code that contains information about my time travelling adventures. I must have sat there for at least an hour just rubbing away at the chip, but eventually, all that was left was a tiny pile of gold dust on my carpet. I rubbed it away with my sock and then began to cut the plastic into tiny pieces. I threw half into my rubbish bin and put half of the pieces into my pocket.

***

Finally, it was time for my train trip.  I’d already written up all the boring factual stuff plus some morbidly funny stories – like the one about the guy who got his arm chopped off cos he was in the way of a train and just moved out of the way in time and the other one about the guy who died cos he just stepped off a moving train going at full speed – cos Victorians, they’d never experienced anything that went that fast, so they didn’t realize how dangerous it was.

I got the 09:45 from Nottingham, which got me into Piccadilly station at 11:36 and then I had to find the ‘metrolink’. Piccadilly station was about as busy as Nottingham, but way scarier cos I’d never been there before. I had a good couple of hours before my train to Liverpool so I wasn’t too stressed about finding my way to the MOSI place.  I just stood for a while looking around, people weaving in and out and pushing bikes around me, I kinda knew I was in the way, but I wanted to take it all in. Mum had packed me some sandwiches, but on the way to the station Dad had slipped me a tenner.

“Just in case…” he said.

‘…in case there’s a big massive burger kind right at the end of the platform.’ That’s definitely what he must’ve meant!

I love burgers! And we hardly ever get to eat junk food, so I decided to treat myself.

I washed down a bacon double cheese burger and fries with a strawberry milkshake – and it was goooooooooood!

I followed yellow signs to the metrolink and went down loads of stairs onto a concrete platform that kind of looked like the tube, but wider and with way less people. According to SHARP’s helpful instructions I got on the tram destined for ‘Altrincham’ and then got off at Deansgate. And when I got off, this massive tower was right by the stop, it was huge and shiny and even though I must’ve looked like a right tourist. I stopped to find my camera and take some pictures.

I walked down the steps and out onto a busy street. SHARPS instructions flashed across my phone. Triggered by some kind of link up to the GPS device in my phone. It was like my own personal sat nav – from the future!

>Turn right in 3.86 metres

I kept walking and then made a right and went under a bridge, heading towards the front of the tower – cool.

>Continue for 25 metres

The phone flashed again and then another message came up:

>Watch out for the…

Too late. I’d tripped right over a homeless guy sitting under the bridge. He just laughed, but I felt really silly. Especially in front of all those people.
“Spare any change, mate?” he asked.

I knew I should really keep my last fiver for a real ‘just in case’ moment. So I delved into my bag and handed over my mum’s tuna sandwiches. And he was so grateful, I felt bad for not wanting them earlier.

After that rather embarrassing moment where I was briefly on all fours in the centre of Manchester, I followed SHARP’s direction whilst keeping one eye on the street in front of me. Pretty soon I could see the MOSI sign in front of me and shoved my phone in my pocket, feeling the familiar shards of my plastic I.D. card.

Once inside , a very enthusiastic man with an American accent directed me to the original station. He said there was lots of info and stuff in there that would help me with my project, even the original first class booking hall, the original platform and tracks…and I could even take a ride on the steam train.  It was so cool. I took loads of photos and got loads of information about the station for my project.  And then I felt a familiar buzzing in my pocket.

The orignal first ever passenger train station that ran from Manchester to Liverpool at MOSI – Museum of Science and Industry…and you can see the tower in the background!

When I took it out Kaz’s face was tapping the inside of my screen.

“Danny,” he said quite loudly and I looked quickly covered the speaker – the whole room would be able to hear him. I fumbled with the volume as Kaz’s voice got quitter going, “you are supposed to meeting Atlanta, remember? She’s in building 4 – follow the railway tracks back towards the entrance and you’ll find it.

When I got to building 4, it was deserted. Well except for one person. A young girl, maybe 11 or 12 so slightly younger than me, she was engrossed in a display locked away inside a glass table. I wasn’t sure how to approach her, so I just kind of walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

She jumped a mile in the air and spun around quickly. She was really pretty too – she had dark skin and light brown eyes. Her hair was tied back and she was dressed way cooler than I would ever know how to.

“Err… hi…err…you must be Atlanta?” I asked, really hoping she was and I wasn’t about to make a fool of myself for the second time today.

“Yes,” she said and kind of giggled, “Do I know you?”

“Well, not really, but I’m…” I quickly checked around me – just in case MI6 were following me or something.

“I’m a time traveller, too,” I said.

My Xrosmonaut I.D. Card

Ok, so I’m pretty sure something weird is definitely going on and if I’m being watched by who I think I’m being watched by then…well…I’m in deeper than I thought!
So it all started when this came through the post:

It’s my I.D. card. I never even knew I was supposed to have one, but this morning an envelope, addressed to me, came with all the usual post and junk mail.

“Must be your train tickets,” Dad said sliding the envelope towards me at the breakfast table.

“Awesome!” I’m so excited about going on the train to Manchester and Liverpool (and also a bit nervous about possibly meeting another time traveller). I carefully opened the envelope so as not to rip the tickets inside. But it wasn’t a ticket. I peeked inside and could distinctly make out the white initials S.H.A.R…. the last letter must be a P. SHARP were sending me post? It was white and the size of a credit card.

“Well….” Dad said.

“Yeah, tickets,” I said and shoved the envelope and its mysterious contents into my pocket before Jenny could snatch it to have a nosey.

I shovelled the rest of my corn flakes down as fast as humanly possible and ran upstairs.

“You and that blimmin’ computer game,” I heard Mum calling out after me and then the low rumble of Dad’s voice muttering something about fresh air.

I shut the bedroom door and ripped open the envelope and the little white card fell to the floor. I shook the envelope but nothing came out. That was it – no note, no explanation, just this card.  It’s an I.D. card – like the card we have a school: our school card is like a debit card in reverse – you top it up with money from a machine and then you can buy your lunch and snacks with it. And the dinnerladies are supposed to check it’s really you who’s buying food with the card, but they never do. Anyway it’s kind of like that and it’s got a chip on it that’s pretty similar, too.

But what am I supposed to do with it?

I sat and stared at it for a while, wondering if it was going to spring into life, like my phone does, or start projecting a message from Kaz – my contact from the future, he works for SHARP. But…nothing.

I waited for it to do something for a good few hours and then thought to myself, ‘this is crazy, you’re waiting for a piece of plastic to start talking to you, pull yourself together, man!’

But my curiosity was too great. I gave in and text Kaz, even though SHARP are really busy and I’m only supposed to get in touch if it’s an emergency or if I’m doing a mission, which isn’t until next week when I go and meet Atlanta (the other time traveller) in Manchester.

Almost as soon as I’d pressed send, my computer flashed into life and the screen started scrolling black and white with loads of text and code I didn’t understand at all. It was like something from the Matrix.

weird, huh?

Then it went blank and a white cursor flashed for ages.

I kept staring until finally words I recognized started to scroll across the screen.

>Sorry about that, we were just checking for tracking devices

‘Is that Kaz?’

>Yes, it’s me, Kaz. So glad you have your I.D. card, but you were supposed to get that months ago.

‘Oh, so…’ I didn’t know what to type next.

>We have found several primitive tracking devices in your computer. Most were harmless 21^st century viruses and cookies, however, we did find some other tracking codes that route your activity through several proxy servers all over the globe.

‘What? What the?’

>Don’t worry. We have wiped out all of the viruses and tracking codes and installed a superior firewall that won’t be invented for at least 10 years from now. We’re now checking all other devices in your house.

Suddenly the lights flickered and a strange pink glow filled the room. My iPhone began to fill with the same weird text, as did my TV screen, the radio and my iPod. In the distance I could hear Jenny’s hairdryer flicking on and off and the hoover doing the same thing downstairs — a bug in a hoover, seriously?

>It’s just a precaution. And don’t worry the rest of your family have been frozen in time so that we can carry out these checks.

‘Woah, are we in danger?’

>_

No answer

‘Kaz?’

>Read these instructions carefully, Danny: on the shelf above you, you will find a card reader, plug it into your laptop and await further instructions.

I stood up and fumbled around behind books organized in colour order (I got bored of alphabetically ordering things). Sure enough, I felt something cool and plastic and pulled it out with a cable trailing behind it.

I plugged the USB wire into the computer and waited.

>Ok, now slide the card into the reader, chip side up, and as soon as the screen flashes I need you to pull it out as quickly as you can.

‘OK,’ I typed back. This was sounding super serious.

I pushed the card into the reader and stared intently at the screen, one hand still hovering over the reader…

It seemed like forever and then the screen began to flash pink and black, so bright I had to cover my eyes. I quickly pulled the card out and the screen returned to nothing.

The screen went blank for a long time. I wondered if Mum, Dad and Jenny were still frozen in time. It would be awesome to see. Maybe take Jen’s shoe off and put it on her hear or something, but I couldn’t leave the computer – I desperately wanted to know what was going on.

Finally it sprang back into life. A message from Kaz appeared with a picture of a map attached to it.

>Ok Danny, we have assessed the data from the card. It should have been given to you around 3 months ago. However, soon after the drop it made a journey to the centre of Nottingham and from there to this address: 85 Albert Embankment, Lambeth, London. Where it has stayed for the last 89 days until arriving on your doorstep this morning. Do you recognise this address?

It didn’t mean anything to me. Since my computer was out of action communicating with SHARP, I typed it into my phone.

‘One sec… just looking it up…’ I typed to Kaz. And then it came up: SIS building, Headquarters of MI6.

A message flashed across the screen.
>Danny. Please destroy the card immediately!

Special Top Secret Mission

How cool is this… SHARP sent me a message this morning and they want me to go all the way to Manchester to meet one of their other time travellers and do some weird futuristic programming stuff to her phone. It sounds a bit odd but I’ve got this massive long ‘source code’ or something I have to program in and a set of instructions on how to get into the phone’s programming chip (but I’m not allowed to put the info on my blog cos Nokia haven’t invented the technology yet, hehe!)

So they didn’t give me much information (I mean would t it be simpler if SHARP could just give me her phone number? Oh no, but this is what I found out:

Her name is Atlanta, she’s 12 I think, she lives in South Manchester, she plays the violin and SHARP are thinking of sending her back to 19^th century America to a time when earlier generations of her family were slaves (but she doesn’t know that yet, so I’m not allowed to tell her – something about causality and the space/time continuum, blah blah blah…)

Anyway, I’ve been wracking my brains all morning, working out how I’m going to get to Manchester and then I remembered: I’ve got that railway project. It’s due in pretty soon and I’ve literally done nothing on it since all this GCSE options stuff came up. My mum says I can’t think about two things at once, she says boys can’t multi-task.

So here’s the plan: I’m going to go to Manchester anyway so I can ride the original Liverpool to Manchester railway.

There’s no way Mum and Dad will let me do this, is there?

And here’s a cool coincidence (or it probably isn’t knowing SHARP): The original Liverpool to Manchester Railway went from a station in Manchester that is no longer there, well, not really. The original Manchester station got moved and is now Manchester Victoria, but as luck would have it, they’ve built a museum where the old station was – it’s called MOSI – the Museum Of Science and Industry (http://www.mosi.org.uk/) – and you can look round old steam engines and you can even visit the original platform and booking hall of the first of commercial railway station – how awesome would that be for my project?

This is outside the museum – should be pretty easy to find?!

But that’s not the coincidence; apparently Atlanta is going to be at the museum at some point in the near future. I just have to wait for SHARP to confirm the date and time and I can book my railway tickets.

MOSI has a working replica of Stephenson’s PLANET steam locomotive and you can ride on it to the original station – wow, I am doing that!

That way I’d totally be killing two birds with one stone – who says boys can’t multi-task, eh?!