Future History (Quintessence Trilogy lead-in)

Time traveling, gene-altered house pets, an exploded moon, an earth populated with mutants, and an erotic redhead with revenge on her mind. A few pages of my first book.

 

            The professor from the future lived the culmination of events that went before without considering the immensity of historical turns resulting from his future presence in the past. Of course, he didn’t realize. No one knows the whole truth even now except for him and me. He did not know the historical journeys because so much history had been lost, so that was his intention in a lifelong study to understand how certain single historical events came about. To accomplish this, he, like his associates, journeyed back to a point in time and toured history. His position maintained a sworn oath to silence and secrecy forbade foreknowledge to the historical peoples under study. Revealing the truth and the players and idiosyncrasy information was strictly forbidden, and if the oath broken, he would be denied history touring for the remainder of his days. Adhering to the strict imposed rules while touring history and effectively observe the period under study, he must become one of the inhabitants of ancient earth.  

 

Eddy placed his hand before the floating translucent glowscreen, wiggled his fingers, and a reflected corrugated radiance fell across his aged and knowing face. He flicked a finger, and the memory storage module sprang to life accompanied by a cranky sounding vocal that said, “Inquiry please.”

Eddy pointed and said, “Social and cultural data of Earth’s First Platonic Age, mid period.”

“Accessing,” came the audible response.

As the display flickered, his fingers flicked on a subprogram pane and manipulated the floating three-dimensional sliders to channel information and sounds. Sophisticated music arose from the display, and Eddy played with the tempo, speed, and levels to his satisfaction.

Musical accompaniment of all computerized equipment was standard in Eddy’s time as they prided themselves with the incorporation of complicated symphonic qualities of music that every resident inherently learned before childbirth. Ascension was his favorite base-music feed, and he built layers of musical means upon the base-feed dependent on his mood. It was ever-changing music that never, couldn’t ever, repeat itself. He wondered if the music he listened to now was at least partially derived from the period he planned on touring. Musical development was one fascinating branch of history he studied and taught.

 

As a Senior Inter-Planetary Archaeastronomer, Eddy was recently approved to go off-chronological line for a remote study sabbatical. After a prolonged period of campaigning, the academia still hadn’t approved his offbeat request, but they promised it would be approved, eventually. Eddy decided to forego the long, drawn out traveling authorization procedures. What they didn’t know"

Anyway he understood, and it was widely known among his contemporaries, that during the unstable violent but high-growth period he was interested in, humans took unbelievable pride in their warring attributes, at least from his period occupants’ point of view. Eddy’s future-kind was many steps beyond those ancient Earth’s residents, but experiencing a living anthropological expedition was too much of a yearning to ignore for very long. Also well known was that the ancient earth information database was rather dated because of its hands-off limited-contact directive and of course, the intervening history erasing apocalypse. Early Earth had enough tribulations without time tourers causing more so they had to be careful. Two reasons to proceed, he could update the database and maybe assist those poor ancient people. He realized that he deluded himself on the latter reason. He decided to take whatever the encyclopedia module had to offer in preparation and provision for his journey.

The periodic information on the peoples of the Earth period rapidly rolled across the glowscreen that floated before him encapsulating the mid-period of the Great Year Pisces. He followed along and digested it all accurately in his highly retentive-trained mind. Unfortunately for Eddy in his effort to absorb the information hastily for future recall, without detection by the module librarian, he disregarded the written proviso in what amounted to small print on the side the screen.

 This information is thirteen-thousand years old Earth-time. It is incomplete and against university rules to update.

Oblivious to the obsolete relevancy, he scanned through the vaguely familiar data from his detailed graduate studies many years prior. He found Earth was undergoing a period in its civilization infancy where exploration began across its huge water surfaces on wooden watercraft powered by the natural, somewhat unpredictable at the time, air currents. A fascinating journey this will be, he thought. Dangerous to be sure. Exciting? Positively.

He remembered a past unfortunate expedition where the time touring anthropological data team was captured, incorporated, and enslaved into building huge stone tombs for the rulers of the ancient desert land of Egypt. Luckily, the team caught the attention of the pharaoh’s most trusted architect, and they explained the power of the pyramids to focus natural magnetic flow. This option was much better received by the pharaoh and undoubtedly an improvement over the local architects’ crude stone cube tombs. In their defense, the data team suggested that everyone understood that the Egyptians built the pyramids themselves without any guidance or assistance from time tourers. That event was from during the Great Year Aries many years, centuries before Eddy’s period of study. This event’s manipulation turned out another principal reason that touring history was frowned upon and usually disapproved.

Focusing on the primary political power base outlined in the obsolete data, the Kingdom of Spain, he mentally noted that Spain led the Earth on exploration outlays and colonization of what they called the New World, but later in time, before the Great Apocalypse, renamed West China. It seemed all-too archaic for Eddy, but he had toured history when humans were yet to rise evolutionary-wise from the primates. At least Earthlings no longer lived in trees and were already, to some extent, intelligent, while some people living back then actually acted civilized.

He request ‘living conditions for travelers’ option, and then pointed at the ‘suggested provisions required’ column. The glowscreen gave him an “Access Denied” warning, but he knew how to override the denial and proceed. At the requested societal standing attire, he pointed at ‘mid-society standing.’ It queried ‘knightdom, dukedom, craftsman?’ He pondered a moment and pointed at ‘dukedom’ because he thought he had remembered dukes were the lower, supposedly the common people’s friends and compatriots. It then illustrated clothing for the period including recommended accouterments he may require.

A note caught his eye, ‘suggested mode of common transportation.’ He acknowledged the note, advanced the view with a wave of fingers and given a view of an ancient, huge, four-legged hoofed creature. He pointed again to add further information. It showed a person on its back with maneuvering and seating apparatus attached. Eddy looked this over for a period stroking his pointed bearded chin. Transportation by horseback. This could quite entertaining and definitely an experience, but how could he attain one of these daunting horse creatures? That could be his greatest challenge never mind the warring earthlings. Eddy sighed while gazing at the horse creature’s required apparatus listing and food requirements. He smiled, believing he was up to the challenge and on to something exciting for a change from his boring academia existence.

He then moved a couple pages to scan the weaponry of the period, personal sword, knife, bow and arrow, and then to a larger scale, catapult and cannon. How archaic"how enchanting! His interest was peeked at this array of antiques though he eyed his small modern weapon case he had already assembled. The Tesla-Bolter energy pistol proved his favorite during hunting excursions; it would knock down any human or animal with its programmed mass scrutiny acumen. It could induce unconsciousness for differing periods of time or rapid, painless death if required depending on the wielder’s needs. He pondered his other requirements in equipment for other purposes such as examination, mapping, or any other possibilities on a known hostile world.

From a portal, meters behind his workstation, a furry Quadra Pet waddled in. It bared his sharp teeth and scrunched down ready to spring and pounce.

Eddy sensed his pet’s presence. Ah, Rover, he thought, awake from your mid-day rest?

Yes master, Rover silently answered in return. He raised up and began sash-shaying toward Eddy. Want, want ear rub, rub.              

Rover, I’m busy preparing for a long voyage. The furry blue pet skidded to a halt still a distance from Eddy.

Rover alone, alone, alone? Rover afraid-scared you gone, gone.

Ah, yes I’m sorry but this voyage will be dangerous. Come, I’ll give you the ear rub.

Rover yipped aloud. His rear claws slipped, and his front paws lifted off the hard surface flooring with sudden acceleration. He extended his tiny leathery wings and began flapping a mile a minute. He lifted off and zoomed toward Eddy. Ear rub, I come, come, come.

Eddy slipped his chair around and eyed his incoming flying pet for the first time. He patted his leg, and Rover landed hard onto Eddy’s lap. He began rubbing his pet’s head. Audible purring commenced as Eddy scratched between Rover’s long floppy ears. Ah, ear rub, ear rub, ear rub. In his ecstasy, he turned his back to get a different angle ear rub and faced the screen Eddy had been studying. “YELP!” He squawked aloud, sprang up and wrapped his sinuous body around behind Eddy’s neck, and draped himself over Eddy’s upper arm and shoulder. Eddy yelped as Rover’s pin-tipped claws sunk into his tender neck flesh.

Scary, scary, scary big creature eat Rover!  Rover said.  

“No,” Eddy said aloud, stroking Rover’s blue fur. He pointed. “That is called a horse, a large gentle animal used for conveyance in another place far away"where my voyage is to take place.”

Rover froze wide-eyed, staring at the picture, “Called a horse bite, bite, bite"eat Rovers!”

Eddy continued stroking Rover while trying to extract his claws from his shoulder one at a time. “Horses are vegetation eaters, not Rover eaters.”

Promise?

Eddy pulled Rover down to his lap and cupped his palm over the furry head patting him twice, “Yes I promise, I’m telling the truth.”

Good, good, good, Rover go with master. Help find, talk with called a horse.

“What do you mean talk with a horse?” Eddy asked, eyeing his pet, now perched in his lap with his paws on the desk, his black button nose close to the glowscreen studying the horse.

Like me, you, Rover glanced up at his master with huge yellow eyes. Talk now to master, I talk, talk, talk to called a horse for you.

“The animal is just a horse, not ‘called a horse.’” I could do the same thing as we do without words. At the horse’s home, humans ride them without words"or thoughts.”

No. Different. You need, need, need Rover, talk to just a horse.  

Eddy slapped a hand to his forehead, pushing his hair up on his creased forehead in mock frustration. “A horse, it is a horse, the animal is a horse.”

Rover know. A horse, a horse, called just a horse.

“Fine. Fine! Do you want to eat now?”

Yes, yes, eat, eat, eat. Rover spun around in place three times visibly excited"then stopped, still. What food, food we eat trip, trip?

Eddy picked up Rover and set him off to the floor. He stood and bent over the beast who now started dancing on its rear legs. You’re not going on the trip. He thought while pointing a scolding finger at Rover. All he sensed from Rover was eat, eat, eat, and he watched the furry blue creature turn, fold his wings neatly away and sash-shay out of the workroom heading toward his feeding tray. Eddy realized the simple, single-minded Rover was correct in his insistence about communicating with the horse.

Rovers were often used as special telepathic conduits in thought transfer that humans used to converse silently with others. Having a Rover was helpful in many situations where a silent conversation is vital. Even though useful at many times, it has caused personal tribulations with couples who had improper fleeting thoughts transmitted unwittingly to their partners.

Eddy had many provisions to obtain besides the horse and extensive plans to make. Over the next three days, he made plans and collected the required junk as his associate called it. With his academic clearances and teaching associate taking his classes for the short jaunt, Eddy made his way into museums and borrowed pieces he’d need for his journey. If he couldn’t find it, he found it relatively easy to locate reproduction pieces on V-Bay such as the armor and period weapons used in virtual play-acting arenas.

On the day of his journey, he tried to say good-bye to Rover, but it was in the middle of the night, and the blue pet snored loudly curled up his warm bed. Eddy smiled and turned to walk out the door. Rover’s right eye opened a slit when Eddy left the room.

 

Eddy pressed the elevator button for level minus 5, and a message flashed. Authorization please. Eddy had his academic identity chip in his pocket at the ready and slipped it in the port. “Authorized Professor Eddy.”  The elevator accelerated down and Eddy felt nearly weightless for a few seconds. His pallet of gear floated up to shoulder high until the anti-grav unit compensated for the change. In a matter of a few more seconds, the elevator slowed. The pallet touched lightly down, and then floated back up to its correct height three inches off the floor.

After the door opened, he stepped into a small foyer with a single door that had a screen built in the center. He spread his palm on it. “Authorized” and the door slid open to a hallway of doors all with palm readers except for the final heavy door at the end of the hall, Eddy’s destination. He walked briskly towing his pallet with a light strap and approached the door. No screen adorned this solid metal door only a peephole. He put his eye to the hole, and a red flickering light crossed his eye. The door clicked and slid sideways into the wall. A massive Vinfoscreen crossed the passage in front of him with a long list of advisements. Top of the list was the time travel oath of non-revelation/non-interference in history. Followed this was the list of unauthorized articles to take. Eddy knew his Tesla-Bolter was buried in his armor, so it could not be scanned and detected.

A young female sat at the reception desk. Eddy thought she was too young, definitely too attractive for this job, and a redhead to boot. I thought redheads were extinct"except perhaps… Eddy shook out an intruding memory, and then thought this young woman looked rather familiar. He tried not to stare at her alluring profile; he smiled big and announced his appointment.

“I’m here to transport at 0300. And you are?”

“The name’s Betsy.”  Betsy looked up at him with sleepy bloodshot eyes and gave him a crooked smile. Eddy took this in and wondered where in this day and age she would get bloodshot eyes. All the hallucinary drugs and beverages in the world didn’t produce that side effect any more.  Ah, ha! he thought, misuse of the university’s equipment! This would be easier than he imagined.

Betsy asked. “A little early aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am. Eager I guess.” Eddy looked down to the screen she worked on. He pointed down. “Ah, you got it there. Scheduled for a month voyage to the First Platonic Age"studying the voyages to the New World in wooden sailing vessels...”

She held up her hand, “Stop. Too much information. I don’t need to know all that"DOCTOR.” She said adamantly.  “Your request is here.”

She looked over the desk’s edge. “Is that all you are taking?”

“Should I take more?” He asked looking at his pallet.

“Matters none to me.” She said curtly with shrug. “Put it on the platform and remove the hover drives. Can’t send those.”

“Sure thing, I know the drill about the unauthorized articles of clothing, technology, computers...” She held up her hand.

 “I know,” he said. “Too much information.”

“Ready then?” She didn’t wait for an answer as he opened his mouth. Betsy recited slowly while rolling her red eyes. “Step on the platform. When the red light comes on, take a deep breath, when the yellow comes on, breathe out, hold it and relax until the green light comes on. Wait for the wild ride"have you had your medical upgrade for the DOT, date of travel?” She asked unsmiling.

He turned around and hesitated, “yeah, sure, I have had the usual vaccines, and the bugs, parasites, and viruses implanted for the time period.” Eddy stepped up on the raised platform that now began to glow. “I seem to remember the travel program on a float screen when I went before.”

“Oh, ya. I turned it off.” She said. “There you go.”

The inputted information scrolled down from ceiling to floor, mostly programming gibberish that Eddy didn’t understand.

“Ready Doctor?”

“Sure, let’s go. Give me the countdown.”

“Here goes,” she said as she splayed out her fingers across the screen that engaged the portal. The lights in the room dimmed shortly, and the red light came on. He read it as it scrolled out of sight into the floor: Destination: mid-fifth Platonic Age. The machine was glowing brighter, and his chest began to ache with tightness.

He choked out a shout, “Wait! That"that’s wrong!”

“I know, doctor.” She said precisely, much more clearer and evenly than before.

“Buuuutttt, whyyy.” His words stretched out as the transport effect stretched his consciousness and motions.

“Remember my mother, Aphrodite? You ignored me and dated her while I was taking your class, Historical Music"you dick, my mother came from that era! Then, you gave me a C on my final thesis. Well, see you next year, Doctor Dickhead. Have a nice time with your pet on the Nuclear Plains for a year.”

Eddy wasn’t following the countdown. He tried to speak but couldn’t with his throat, lungs and tongue all feeling tight and sluggish. The yellow light flashed on and off, his ears filled with static, and his eyes burned.
          “Pet"? You-are-Aph-ro-di-te’s-Chi-i-i-ld?” He managed out despite his compressed body.

            Her image and voice was growing faint.

            “Yeah, and yours too, apparently"unfortunately…”

What did she say? The yellow light stayed on, but he sure wasn’t ready. A yelp came from his pallet just as Aphrodite’s Child, Betsy, faded away along with the TTC. The light and noise overcame his senses. His consciousness would float for a few moments, he recalled a split second later. Did he hold his breath? No! His lungs burned, and his mind-self seemed disconnected from his physical-self, but he could still reason quite well. What the hell happened? A touring technician with a vendetta against him? His child? Aphrodite’s child? He shouldn’t have departed after hours. He deserved what he got.

Aphrodite? Historical Music era? She suddenly dawned on him. What a hell of a woman she was! That explains Aphrodite’s eroticism and authentic red hair"his mind instantly recalled that all her hair was vivid red! Of course, she was an Early-Earthling! She had never let on, and he had enjoyed her playful, masterful skills so much he never suspected.

Pet? What pet?

A thought-voice intruded, Master, it is me, me, me. Rover.

Damn it, Rover how’d you come along? I have enough problems.  

You no see, see. With blaster, blaster.  Evil woman, she, she hurting us. Killing us, you, I afraid, afraid.

I am afraid too. Not dying"wait.  Rover, we aren’t going to right place. Hurting will end soon. No talk now. Must think alone.

Eddy recalled the Fifth Platonic Age. It wasn’t his chosen area of study. In fact, it was no ones’ chosen area of study because of the danger and disgrace of the period. He racked his memory in preparation. The earth back before this period was already in a manmade environmental catastrophe, but then a worldwide calamitous war ripped the Earth apart and displaced it, rotating the magnetic poles 190 degrees with forbidden anti-matter weapons. They destroyed the moon over its resources. Four major Moon pieces, huge chards, remained in orbit. Third world combatants used nuclear weapons, repeatedly that poisoned some areas for centuries. Some areas he recalled, never recovered like Australia’s desert, the European and American Midwest Deserts"the Nuclear Plains. Normal survivors either hid for their lives or were mutants that openly walked the earth under the control of the mad King Crimson. No music"all music was banned except the King’s"all previous stored music had been obliterated in digital storage by worldwide Electromagnetic Pulses, EMPs.

Eddy required much more information but didn’t have a single data chip to fill the holes in his memory on this time-period. Everything he brought along was wrong especially his genetically altered house pet.

As a rocky horizon fuzzily formed before his straining eyes, he remembered what Betsy had said, a year. He couldn’t survive a year here, he’s just a professor from the future of this horrible historical period with no practical experience or skill for a perilous place and epoch like this wrecked, inhospitable place called Old Earth.     

  Oh, Rover. I’m sorry, we are doomed to die in this place.

No, no, no master. Find called a horse, horse, horse will protect us, us.
 

 

Author's Note

This was a later draft of what would become my first book in my Quintessence Trilogy, now published in eBook and paperback.

Reviews

[wondering]

this is me Smiling :) Is that the story of watch what you wish for, Because that is what it seems like, being honest gets you what you want but being a deceitful gets you what you deserve? Good story, well thought out and researched or do you just know all this stuff???