Timebroker - Chapter One

[ScarletSabre]

Hey everyone, just thought I'd share the first draft of the first chapter of a new story idea that popped into my head yesterday ^^ Be warned, it's a first draft so probably pretty damnation unpolished, but I think that there's no spelling or grammar mistakes...

Hopefully you enjoy, and please tell me what you think!

Spoiler

"An' just sign here." Elson said, smiling as he held out the sheaf of paper to the man in front of him. The paper still felt strange in his fingers even after all this time handling it. Maybe it was it not being the synthetic, recycled kind he was used to.

Any discomfort he might have shown though, the man in the ill-fitting suit didn't notice. He took the papers eagerly, pudgy fingers scrawling his name on the contract. Sweat sheened on his face as he looked up at Elson. "That's it? One signature and I've got the funds?"

"Well, no." Elson said as he put the papers back into his shiny briefcase, reaching into the inside of his suit jacket. "You need to press your finger to the data slate so it can verify your identity." he said, offering it to the other man.

His client frowned as he took it. "Data slate?"

Elson cursed internally. "The tablet. Sorry, force of habit. My, uh, kid calls it that." he said, coughing as if in embarrassment. It was technically true.

He left out the fact that the last time Elson had seen Danal, everyone else had been calling them that for a hundred and eighty years.

"Ah, gotcha." the man chuckled, nodding in understanding as he took the unassuming rectangle and put his finger on the indicated part of the screen. "My kids call all of 'em 'touch-screens'; can never tell if they mean the phone or the tablet, or whatever the hell a phablet i-OW!"

He pulled his finger back from the tablet, sucking on it for a moment, then looking down at the bead of blood on the tip of his finger. "How the..."

"Proprietary software an' hardwear." Elson said smoothly as his client stared at the screen, which had no sign of blood, or the needle that pricked him. "Gotta take your biometrics. It's a one time thing, no worse than giving blood."

"At least then I get a cookie..." his client grumbled, but complied, putting his finger back on the screen with a wince. He held it there until the tablet in his hand dinged, the screen changing from red to green. Pulling his finger back into his mouth, he handed it back to Elson, who tapped it a few times.

"Ugh, that didn't feel like giving blood... Felt worse." he said groggily. He was paler than before, pasty, his face lined and eyes bloodshot. His skin seemed sallow, washed out... aged.

"Oh, tough it out." Elson said as he snapped his briefcase shut, standing up. As he walked past his client he put a hand on the slightly panting man's shoulder. "You just rest up and think about how you'll invest your millions. I'd put a bet on the next election if I were you, the long shot is a shoo-in."

The man nodded blearily, chins resting on his chest as he slumped forwards, almost headbutting the table of their booth.

Elson chuckled as he walked past the bar, nodding to the bartender. "My friend seems to have succumbed to the heat, mind checking on him? I've gotta run to a meeting, I'm late."

The bartender nodded his head as he went to check on Elson's client, the model of courtesy. And for all the money Elson had put into renting this place out for the afternoon, he should be.

Though it wasn't like Elson couldn't afford it. Hell, he could buy this place, the hotel it was situated in, and it'd barely be pocket change thanks to his own investments.

Leaving them both behind, he entered the elevator, resisting the urge to pull out his data slate right then and there. He'd chosen their booth in the bar for it's blind spot to the security cameras, after all, it wouldn't do to waste that foresight with a few minute's impatience.

The elevator dinged as Elson stepped out onto the top floor of the hotel, then instantly turned to the stairs, ignoring the plush carpeting and gilded hallways as he headed up to the roof.

Stepping out into the baking heat, he glared up at the sun, then stepped into the shade of the stairwell, putting his back to it as he looked out and down over the Las Vegas Strip.

He tossed his briefcase, bought just an hour ago from the travel store down the street, and full of the terms and conditions for some computer program that he'd printed out, over the side of the roof casually as he sat down. Only then did he let himself grin and pull out his data slate.

A few taps on it transferred the money to the correct accounts, and then a few more falsified the documentation and bank trails to several companies he knew were going to go bust in the next few years. Possibly due to that documentation, but Elson didn't particularly care.

"Now, let's see what a week's work got me..."
He swiped back to the program that his mark had been using, the smart-liquid of the synth-screen moulding around his finger for maximum comfort as he did so. Bringing it up, he set the program to run, and watched the spinning white circle slowly changed colours, seeming to pulse in time with his excited heartbeat.

After a few minutes, there was a ding, and a slot at the bottom of the slate slid aside as a coin, almost half the size of his palm was produced. It shone red-gold as it fell into Elson's hand, slightly warm to the touch and seeming to pulse softly as the colours swirled through it's metallic surface.

"A big one..." he muttered in approval, running his thumb over the embossing on the surface of the coin, feeling the number rather than seeing it as he just stared at the swirling patterns running through it.
Twenty one... He hadn't thought the portly man had that many years left in him.

"Guess he was planning to retire and start eatin' healthily." he chuckled to himself as he rolled the coin between his fingers, letting the light play off of it for a moment.

Well, no sense in waiting. Elson had all the time in the universe, but that had never helped with his patience.

He gripped the coin between two fingers, and pressed his thumb sharply against the middle of it. It snapped like a cookie, the molten innards of gold and red the chewy centre.

The outer shell of the coin dissolved into twinkling bits, which were then absorbed by the liquid spreading across Elson's hand. It flowed across his skin, encasing it until it looked like he was wearing a form fitting metal glove, the red and gold shimmering with a light all it's own as the clouds covered the sun above.

The liquid was hot, but not painfully so, it was the heat of a lover's skin held against Elson's own. The comforting pulses running through it started to shift their pattern, adjusting to match Elson's own heartbeat.

As it did, the thick, viscous liquid started to fade, absorbed into his skin like rain on parched earth. Elson could feel it in his veins and arteries, flowing through them like honey, the energy, the power, the life. It flowed through his system, spreading from his hand up his arm.

The sensation began to fade as it reached his heart, and was distributed more evenly throughout his body, going from a rush of ecstacy to a pleasant tingle that left his muscles brimming with energy, his mind clearing of tiny fogs he hadn't even realised were there. He could feel his skin tightening ever so slightly, the nigh-imperceptable creases on his forehead smoothing out.

Elson sighed, closing his eyes and just basking in the feeling as the time he had taken from the man rejuvinated him. That was MUCH better.

He hated approaching middle age again, but now he was back in his mid-twenties, going by his reflection in his data slate. Turning his head this way and that to admire the effects, he nodded to himself.

Nodding in approval, he stood up, wondering what to do next. Usually he'd just head to a fun part of the world and enjoy himself for a decade or so, living hedonistically and making sure his investments continued to grow.

That's what he'd done for the last ninety or so years, at least, until he'd felt middle age creeping up on him again and went to work. Usually only for a week or two, maybe a month, depending on who he chose and how he went about it. But then he could do whatever he wanted for decades. Youth really was wasted on the young.

He picked up his data slate and tapped it thoughtfully. "Maybe I should go see Danal for a while..." Mentioning his son not ten minutes ago had reminded him that it'd been what... eight years since he'd last seen the boy? Maybe nine.

But then again, it would only be a week or so for Danal after all. Plus Elson was younger now than he'd been when he last saw him. He could do that later, in a few years maybe.

Instead, Elson decided that he may as well continue working, get a small stockpile of Bloodtime for later. That way he could spend more time just enjoying eternity. Maybe try a new hobby. With the things he'd seen maybe he could write a book? Nah, sounded like it'd take too long.

Smiling to himself, he opened the correct program, and looked at the date on the screen. He started adjusting it, scrolling the year from 2015 all the way back to 639. That would be a good year, it was always easier back in the days when blood rituals and contracts were more widely accepted, he'd probably only need ten minutes to get some Bloodtime if he convinced someone he was a wizard or god.

Though with the average life expectancies and diseases, he'd be lucky to get five years from a person, and he couldn't do too many in the same place without risking consequences... Ah well, he'd just have to make several trips.

Date set, he entered the rough coordinates of where he wanted to go, and tapped the start button. Instantly his data slate hummed in his hand, it's edges glowing as it accessed the energy contained deep within it's core.

The white light expanded around the slate, forming a ring of whiteness that swirled with every colour of the rainbow, trails of light dancing like stars being sucked into a black hole.

At the centre of this vortex was a growing circle of utter blackness. That had worried Elson at first, but it made sense. Opening a superliminal wormhole meant going faster than light, after all.

He strode through the blackness confidently, the white glow that surrounded his data slate coating himself like a barrier as well. There was a moment of stretching infinity as he passed through it, but then the barrier of light, and the wormhole, collapsed and winked out as Elson stepped out onto a rocky mountain pass.

Spotting a village at the foot of the hills, he put his data slate into his suit jacket to recharge, put his hands in his pockets, and started to walk, whistling a tune that wouldn't be popular, or even heard, for another three thousand, three hundred and eight years.

-------------------------

When Elson arrived at the village, he frowned. He glanced up. The sun was still high, shouldn't the villagers be out... villaging? He knew that back in these days people toiled the fields or didn't eat, and he could see chickens and the occassional cow just wandering about un-peasanted.

Had something scared them off? Had the data slate brought him to the aftermath of some bandit raid or something? No, there was no signs of bodies, a fight, or looting. Maybe they were all in prayer or something? Religion was/is still a thing people did back then/now, right?

Elson frownd, hands on his hips as he strode towards a well near the centre of the cabins and huts. He hadn't spent more time in these times than was necessary to talk the Bloodtime from a bunch of serfs or the occassional minor noble, so he had no idea how to check if the well had been poisoned, but he figured looking to see if it had bodies floating in it was as good a start as any.

Until his data slate finished recharging there wasn't much else he could do.

"HALT!" a voice rang out as Elson got to the well, and he looked up to see a head poking above the thatched roof of a hut across the dirt street. It was a face wearing what looked almost like a Roman Centurian helmet, shining and golden, though with white plumes instead of red on the top.

Elson snorted to himself as he saw the head rising up to glare at him. The lining of his suit had kinetic dampeners and lightning fields woven into it, he could handle anything these primitives could throw at him.

His snort died as the man stepped onto the roof fully, and spread his wings.

Elson's mouth dried and dropped open as the snow-white wings flared out from behind the golden breastplate the man wore as he stepped forwards and pushed himself off the edge of the hut, floating down in a graceful arc to land across the street from Elson, striding towards him without missing a step.

The man's angelic appearance wasn't the reason for Elson's sudden, rising panic, though. No, he could see that those wings were holograms, his slowed fall a product of the small hoverpack on the man's back that was beaming out the translucent feathers.

Elson turned and ran. He barely made it three steps before the earth in front of him exploded in a white hot flash, a fist-sized lump of plasma impacting and creating a small crater that knocked Elson off his feet.

Groaning, he rolled onto his side and saw, looking through the wings of the man still walking calmly and purposefully towards him, the still glowing barrel of a rifle. It was held by another man atop the roof, this one's helmet a much, much more modern military style, the HUD reflected in his visor just barely visible, and showing what Elson had a horrible feeling was a target lock outline...

The man in the golden armour loomed over Elson as he let himself go limp. He couldn't outrun a sniper, and his data slate wouldn't be charged for hours, yet. He just looked glumly up at the man as he was hauled to his feet.

"Elson Trent, you are accused of illegal temporal travel, life shortening, causing premature expiration and necrosis, temporal tampering, and theft." the man boomed as he clamped a pair of manacles onto Elson's wrists, the smart liquid flowing to cover them as the Bloodtime had done earlier in the future.

These metallic gloves didn't let his hands move as they covered them though, not even a finger twitch, and Elson was helpless as the Time Patroller reached into his suit, disabled the lightning field with ease and a touch of one of his bracers, and plucked out his data slate.

"Let's go, men." the captain said as other men, several with wing holograms of their own, stepped out from behind their light benders. Out of the corner of his eye, Elson could see a few faces inside one of the huts, but as soon as a man appeared beside their window, stepping seemingly from nowhere, a pair of ethereal wings on him, they quickly vanished. So much for the hope of help from the natives...

As they prepared to open a wormhole of their own, Elson could only wonder if he'd be able to get his son to visit him in time jail.

 

 

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by ScarletSabre
Fixed the spacing and changed the title to something better, I think

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

Wow! This is a really cool idea; I like it a lot. Your writing flows and is easy to read. The only thing I think it needs is more setting description to be really immersive. Other than that, I'm excited to see how this develops.

[ScarletSabre]

On 28/07/2018 at 1:23 AM, Kureshi Ironclaw said:

Wow! This is a really cool idea; I like it a lot. Your writing flows and is easy to read. The only thing I think it needs is more setting description to be really immersive. Other than that, I'm excited to see how this develops.

Haha, thank you for saying so! I'm glad you liked the idea and found it interesting!

I usually give TOO much description for settings etc, so I was trying to avoid getting too detailed and making it a wall of text, but I do agree! It could also probably be a bit more fleshed out with regards to seeing Elson in action, getting a grasp of his personality, I skipped over that for the most part to get to the interesting stuff,

Spoiler

like his origins and how he's staying young etc.

I could probably have added

Spoiler

another scene or two of him swindling/conning time out of people before the confrontation and arrest so we could get a better sense of him.

Overall though, I think it's not bad, if nowhere near as good as it could be.

Edited August 2, 2018 by ScarletSabre

[Kureshi Ironclaw]

I felt like I was getting a pretty good sense of him just through his behaviour and inner monologue, and there were enough clues to get a sense for how he was staying young, so I don't think you need to change too much in that regard. You might run the risk of slowing the pacing too much or making it very expository. I think you've conveyed a lot of information through showing instead of telling, and the things I don't know are the things that make me want to read more to find out what is going on.

[Snipexe]

This is really, really good. I wouldn’t mind a bit more world building, and some more explanations of the mechanics, but otherwise, this is really, really good. I like where it’s heading, and I definitely want to see more.

[ScarletSabre]

@Kureshi Ironclaw

I'm glad you think so! Yeah, I was worried about making it too much of an exposition dump, but I think I can get the balance a little better than I currently have it... We'll see, regardless, haha! Hopefully you'll like what I have planned and want to keep reading when I get to finishing the next part!

@Snipexe

Haha, you're too kind ^^ I'm glad you enjoyed it, and don't worry, there will be a bit more mechanics coming along and some worldbuilding when we get to a more permanant setting and have more characters to interact with. Hopefully I'll have the next part done soon enough, since I do have plans for it, just need to make sure I get it done and hopefully correct and decently written!