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"Come,” Lin Jing insisted, “it'll be lots of fun!”
Perhaps Shen Wei should've resisted more, but Dixing had been quiet ever since the Regent had choked on his food and been replaced with someone with more urge for modernization, and Zhao Yunlan told him to go have fun. So he booked the transit, agreed to share a hotel room with Lin Jing, and bought a membership for Worldcon.
The problem became apparent when, a few weeks before the starting date, the con published the schedule.
“So, what panels do you want to go to?” Lin Jing asked.
All of them, Shen Wei wanted to answer. “All the ones I'm interested in are on top of each other,” he complained.
Lin Jing shrugged. “That's common. Every year you get people wishing they could time travel to attend all the programming – wait, can you travel in time? You can freeze time, and teleport, so the logistics of getting to the next panel is easy, but can you time travel?”
“No, I can't.” Shen Wei had heard of some with such a power, but he hadn't had the chance to acquire it yet. “I'd also rather pick a different place to reveal the possibility of violating relativity.”
“But time travel exists, right? So faster than light travel is also possible.” Lin Jing leaned over conspiratorially. “You'd be really popular with the science fiction authors if you told that their FTL was accurate.”
Shen Wei snorted. “Do you have such a time machine?”
Lin Jing shook a finger at him. “That is an excellent question! No, not yet. But I think it should be possible to make one.” He pulled out a pen and paper. “I can sleep on the plane to Chengdu...”
Shen Wei, of course, had his day job as a university professor with accompanying research, teaching, and paperwork duties, but the SID had to have someone on call around the clock, so Lin Jing had a few evening and night shifts Shen Wei could come to assist on. Zhao Yunlan was bemused and perhaps exasperated, but every time he seemed to come over to make them stop, he'd take one look at Shen Wei enjoying himself and have second thoughts.
Three days before the con started, they had a working prototype.
“I think we only have enough energy to deploy it once during the con,” Lin Jing said.
“Then let's decide when that'll be,” Shen Wei said, and pulled out the programming schedule.
They decided upon deploying it on Thursday at noon, so they could both enjoy one panel, then teleport back to catch another one. On the time chosen, they retreated to the enclosed staircase which everyone had forsaken in favor of the elevators.
Lin Jing pressed the button. Nothing happened.
Shen Wei elegantly raised an eyebrow. “Does it not work?”
The device started buzzing. “I think it needs to gather some charge-”
The door to the stairs opened and a young man strode in. He made eye contact with Shen Wei and Lin Jing for one long second before the device finally activated.
“Your bonus,” Shen Wei declared, “is toast.”
“Yeah, but the device worked,” Lin Jing said. He'd lifted out his phone. Its large digital clock really did claim that it was now one hour in the past.
Shen Wei was about to reply when a burst of dark energy came from next to them.
The young man who'd caught their time travel stared back at them and blinked. “Um...” He quickly looked around himself, then whispered furiously, “Lord Envoy, please spare me at least until the end of the convention! I'm the concom's favorite gopher, I guarantee that I only use my powers for good! Please, the con-”
Shen Wei silenced him with a raised palm. “Neither I nor the SID are in the habit of dragging well-behaved citizens back to Dixing. Stay here as long as you want.” He paused. “Though I would enjoy the chance to observe your power in action. Time travel?”
“I can travel exactly one hour backwards in time,” the young man said. With a bit of craning, Shen Wei could see that his badge read Ji Shiqi. “I really need to go do some crowd management now, though. There's a room party in the bar at ten?”
“Of course.” Shen Wei smiled. “We have panels to queue up for, too. See you in the evening.”
“May I ask which panels?” Ji Shiqi asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
Lin Jing immediately answered, “The plausibility of FTL.”
“The ethics of secret power,” Shen Wei beatifically answered.
Lin Jing and Ji Shiqi shared a glance. “What do you plan on doing with that panel?” Lin Jing hesitantly asked.
“I'll use the insights gained from it to annoy Zhao Yunlan, of course,” Shen Wei answered and walked out of the staircase into the crowds.
It had been the best moment to exit the conversation impressively. Besides, he really did want to get in to that room.