Categories > Celebrities > Beatles > Future Imperfect
Sir Paul stared at the photos in front of him in shock and bewilderment. He had read the report that had accompanied the photographs in amazement - it had been extensively simplified for a civil service layman such as himself. Stripped of its technical jargon (much of it invented by Professor Schmidt who had been responsible for the existence of the device in the first place), it was still a document that was hard to understand. In fact, Sir Richard had been trying to help him understand it for the last half hour. Sir Paul had been attempting to understand it for a lot longer.
Finally, Sir Richard had given up, and dropped the photos onto the desk in front of him and had sat down to wait for his old friend's reaction to them.
The photos were unmistakeable. They had obviously been taken back in the early to mid 1960s, before America had disintegrated. It was equally unmistakeable that they had been taken in America. Sir Paul could see the Statue of Liberty in the background of one of the shots, miraculously free of the graffiti which covered it these days.
"The older man in the suit was known as Ed Sullivan," Sir Richard explained helpfully, indicating the people in one of the photos. "The two people who appear with us are known as John Lennon and George Harrison. MI5 has informed me that Lennon plays with a skiffle group known as The Black Jacks. He has a minor criminal record - petty theft, disturbing the peace, that sort of thing. Harrison is an electrician. Good marks at school, no criminal record. Respectable sort of fellow, although even for an electrician, he spends a lot of time in hospital suffering from electrocution."
Sir Paul gestured helplessly. "But what were we doing?"
"As near as I can tell," Sir Richard said slowly, "Playing rock and roll."
Sir Paul's eyebrows went up. "Rock and roll died when folk music became popular, Richie."
Sir Richard Starkey, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Defence and Joint Head of the Civil Service, sighed heavily and started to explain the concept of alternate realities to his non-science-fiction-reading friend, Sir Paul McCartney, Cabinet Secretary and the other Joint Head of the Civil Service, for the umpteenth time.
Finally, Sir Richard had given up, and dropped the photos onto the desk in front of him and had sat down to wait for his old friend's reaction to them.
The photos were unmistakeable. They had obviously been taken back in the early to mid 1960s, before America had disintegrated. It was equally unmistakeable that they had been taken in America. Sir Paul could see the Statue of Liberty in the background of one of the shots, miraculously free of the graffiti which covered it these days.
"The older man in the suit was known as Ed Sullivan," Sir Richard explained helpfully, indicating the people in one of the photos. "The two people who appear with us are known as John Lennon and George Harrison. MI5 has informed me that Lennon plays with a skiffle group known as The Black Jacks. He has a minor criminal record - petty theft, disturbing the peace, that sort of thing. Harrison is an electrician. Good marks at school, no criminal record. Respectable sort of fellow, although even for an electrician, he spends a lot of time in hospital suffering from electrocution."
Sir Paul gestured helplessly. "But what were we doing?"
"As near as I can tell," Sir Richard said slowly, "Playing rock and roll."
Sir Paul's eyebrows went up. "Rock and roll died when folk music became popular, Richie."
Sir Richard Starkey, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Defence and Joint Head of the Civil Service, sighed heavily and started to explain the concept of alternate realities to his non-science-fiction-reading friend, Sir Paul McCartney, Cabinet Secretary and the other Joint Head of the Civil Service, for the umpteenth time.
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