The Twins Paradox by Alan Gasparutti (best contemporary novels txt) 📖

in conjunction with the left pedal, and found this to work well. The problem had been sorted. Or so he thought.
As he called Madaly over, to get into the car, a man came out of the pub.
“Oi! What do you think you’re up to?” the man shouted as the car was about to pull away. “What are you doing in my car?”
Major Retono stopped the car, as he tried to think of what to say.
“Hello, sir,” he replied. “Can I help at all?”
“Yes,” replied the man in no uncertain terms. “You can start by getting out of my car, or I’ll call the police.”
“I’m sorry, there must be some mistake,” Major Retono said to him. “This is my vehicle. There is a similar vehicle in the car park.”
“Well you must have got in the wrong car because that’s my car’s registration,” the man, who happened to be the landlord of The Ribblehead Inn, replied.
Major Retono switched the engine off and got out of the car, unsure of what to say next. Before he knew it, the landlord snatched the keys to the car. He checked them against the keys in his pocket, and found them to be very similar.
“Okay, let’s go and see this other car in the car park,” he said to Major Retono.
“Can I have my keys back, please?” Major Retono asked.
“When I’ve seen this other car,” the landlord said to him.
The car park wasn’t far away, just behind the pub. When they reached the car park, the landlord was surprised to see the bar-lady, who happened to be his wife, standing beside another green Nissan Primera.
“There you are!” she said aloud to her husband. “Where the hell have you been – half way up Ingleborough!”
The landlord looked at the car in disbelief. He looked carefully at the number plate, and noticed they were the same.
“Well come on then,” the landlady cried out. “We’ve got an appointment to go to. I doubt we’ll be in Kendal by 10 at this rate.”
The landlord took one more look at the number plates, before handing the keys back to Major Retono. While the Major said goodbye, the landlord said nothing, a little dumbfounded that two cars could have the same registration, and which happened to be the same make model and engine size.
Major Retono walked back to his car. As he got in, the others asked what had happened, and while they were in discussion, the other Primera sped past them, and onto the main road. Major Retono and his team tried to follow them, but to no avail. He noticed a wide space on the other side of the road, quickly turned the car, crossing the grass verge, before they went ‘home’.
When they arrived, Major Retono contacted Professor Wagstaff.
“Whereabouts are you at the moment?” he asked.
“We’ve just come out of the cave,” Professor Wagstaff told him. “We shouldn’t be too long. Gonchaves is manning the craft for the time being.”
“That route I suggested you follow - forget it for now.” Major Retono instructed. “Just follow the path until you reach the hamlet. A couple of us will be waiting for you there.”
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” said Professor Wagstaff. “I think we can find the way ourselves.”
“I don’t doubt you could,” replied Major Retono. “We have some transport, however, in which we can pick you up. It’ll save a bit of time, and will probably be less suspicious, not to say dangerous. I don’t want any of you walking along the railway line at this time of the day.”
Lucas then went to ask the Major if he could drive the car. Major Retono wasn’t too sure at first, but then he thought that it may be handy having a second person who could drive. Perhaps Lucas could give him a lift to Selside and pick up the Professor’s party, while he could go back to the craft to get some rest and speak to Commander Ondichi.
“Would you mind if I had a go at driving the car, sir?” Lucas asked again.
“Okay, but you’d better let me show you how to drive the car – it may need a bit of getting used to,” Major Retono told him. “Oh, and you’d better amend the number plates at the back and front of the car.”
Lucas was a little excited, but fortunately, didn’t take too long to get the hang of driving the car. He seemed quite sure of himself, and indeed, as he drove the car to Selside, he didn’t seem out-of-place driving along the road. Where he wasn’t too sure, he used a lower gear, even though it sounded a bit noisy.
When he and Major Retono arrived at the minor road which, from where the footpath to cave began, Professor Wagstaff and his party were already waiting.
“I see you have an escort,” he said to the Major, but when he had a closer look at who was driving, he was rather surprised.
“Don’t worry, Professor,” Major Retono said to him as he got out of the car. “Lucas seems okay with the vehicle. I thought it may be helpful if he took you all back to where we’re staying at. I don’t want you walking along that railway track – have you noticed how big some of those trains are? I wouldn’t want any of you to end up beneath one of them.”
“Well if you’re sure about this…” Professor Wagstaff said to the Major, before counting the seats inside the car. “Are there enough seats for all of us?”
“There’ll only be five of you in the car, as I won’t be going back this time,” Major Retono replied. “I want to speak to the Commander, and give him a report on how things are coming along down here.”
“Will you be coming back later today?” Professor Wagstaff asked him.
“I’m not sure,” replied Major Retono. “From what I heard in the pub earlier, there may be rules and regulations we will have to abide by. I want to check on any legal technicalities, too – we don’t want to do something which isn’t legitimate. Which reminds me, tell Lucas and Ramondo amend the car registration.”
Major Retono then waved farewell, as Professor Wagstaff got into the car. The journey was brief, though a little bumpy. Professor Wagstaff asked Lucas a couple of times if he knew what he was doing, to which Lucas replied everything was fine.

When they arrived at the new house, everyone was happy to be re-united. Lucas wasn’t allowed to see much of his girlfriend Zebrina, as Professor Wagstaff reminded him he had to amend the car registration.
When the others had gone inside, Lucas looked around the car. He managed to take the front number plate off, and with a little help from the replicator, changed the registration. He then took this to the back of the car and copied the registration onto the rear number plate.
Lucas became rather curious, as he noticed something round beneath the rear of the car. As he felt it, and then managed to look under the car, he noticed this was a spare tyre. He then looked into the boot, where he could tell there was something under the ‘carpet’ of the boot, which he noticed was the jack.
Lucas started playing around with the jack, and after a short while realised what this was for. He then looked under the car to find where to place this, and before long, managed to jack the car up from it’s rear.
“What are you up to?” shouted Ramondo.
“I’m just looking at the car,” Lucas replied. “I want to know how it works. Why don’t you come along and give me some help?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” said Ramondo, as he went over to see Lucas. “The Professor sent me here to check up on you.”
“At least one of us needs to know how this thing works,” emphasised Lucas. ”What if there’s an accident? How are we going to repair something we don’t know anything about?”
“How do you know we’re going to have an accident?” queried Ramondo.
“I don’t,” replied Lucas. “But if the roads or tracks, or whatever they’re called here, are as bumpy as the one we went along, there’s bound to be accidents.”
“Never mind any future accidents,” said Ramondo. “Have you amended the car registration yet?”
They then heard Zebrina call from the house, asking if they wanted a drink or a bite to eat. Lucas and Ramondo looked at each other.
“Go and get us something,” Lucas said to Ramondo. “I’ll be sitting on that mound of grass nearby.”
Lucas then jacked the car down, and fitted the amended number plates to it. He then looked at the car to try to open the engine, before Ramondo and Zebrina brought some drinks and biscuits along. They then went and sat down.
“I’m sure I can do something with this car,” Lucas kept saying. “I’m beginning to see how this thing runs, and I’m sure I can do something better with the car.”
“You don’t want to do something silly with the car, and end up upsetting the Major,” Zebrina told him.
Ramondo then took the replicator, and in a short space of time, created a new car, exactly the same as the other car.
“What did you do that for?” Lucas asked. “Now I’m going to have to change the registration again.”
“Look, silly, I’ve created another car, just in case you end up messing up this one,” Ramondo said to him. “Like Zebrina said, you don’t want to upset the Major. Besides, we now have a spare car – what’s wrong with having two?”
Lucas stared at Ramondo, uncertain of what to say. Before he could think of anything, Lucas whispered to Zebrina to go back and distract Professor Wagstaff and the others.
“I know how you feel,” Ramondo then conferred to Lucas. “From what I’ve seen of this car, and the others that have passed by on the road, I know we can build something a lot better. Now, we can go for a little ride, find somewhere quiet, and have a good look at the car without anyone wondering what we’re up to. And we can be safe in the knowledge that if we mess up the car, there’ll be another one back here for the Major.”
Lucas was now coming around to the same way of thinking. As he quickly got into the car, Ramondo grabbed the replicator, and before long they were gone.

Major Retono, meanwhile, was becoming ‘bogged-down’ and a little confused with all the regulations and licenses which were required for just about everything. To own a car, you were required to hold a Driving Licence; and the car had to be insured, taxed and tested every year. Where should he go to for all these requirements?
He then found ownership of property no less confusing. First of all, the property had to be within a local council, for which an annual tax had to be paid. But what was this for? Any development required planning permission by the council. Would this be required for the ‘development’ of the building he and the others had ‘acquired’?
The more he tried to find out, the more regulations he found, such as passports, National Insurance numbers, and Birth, Death and Marriage certificates. It also appeared that everyone had at least two names. In all the confusion, he contacted Professor Schmidt, to ask him how much he had found out about these requirements.

Professor Wagstaff, in the meantime, was getting a little concerned. There had been no sign of Lucas or Ramondo for several hours. Zebrina had said they had gone for a walk, but where could