Time Tracker

[Veroe]

((Closed for Myself and DarkWarrioress))​

http://i674.photobucket.com/albums/vv103/giveusagirlboner/295wb54.jpg?t=1242144027

IC: Bennett Kraft

September 8, 2472: 1:02:38 PM

"People couldn't have worn all this back then," Bennett asserted looking down at the clothes with all the complicated seams and zippers and things called buttons but they turn on anything. Something called a watch, a jacket, bluejeans-the most uncomfortable..., socks and sneakers.

"They didn't have the smartclothes we do now, Officer," The historian told him.

The scientist nodded, "You'll need all of it. We're sending you to January 11 2004. According to the records it was a record cold turn in the weather then."

Another scientist handed him yet another strange article of clothing. The Historian put in, "Its called a baseball cap. It should be in the data I downloaded into your implant."

"Hex," Bennett asked.

In Bennett's head a flat emotionless voice answered, "Uploading." Images of some strange archaic sport with people using large wooden clubs to hit a ball around an enclosed roughly diamond shaped field filled his imagination. They were all wearing the ridiculous thing on their heads.

He slipped it on scowling at how uncomfortable it felt against his forehead.

The historian carefully held up a strange metal looking device. "You'll need these too."

Bennett reached for them but the historian shook his head. "Be careful their invaluable antiques kept in mint condition until now." He slid them over the bridge of his nose and over his ears. Looking through them he saw everybody through a dark tinting.

"They're called sunglasses." Hex showed him several images and data on the uncomfortable contraption. "It'll be 123 years before they fix the hole in the ozone layer they made. These will protect your eyes from the harmful Ultraviolet radiation leaking through it."

"Is that everything," He said hoping to head off anymore strange archaic things he'd have to wear.

"Just this," He handed Bennett a black cylindrical object about ten inches long with a glass lens at one end and a rubber button on top.

He held it and looked at them skeptically. "Where do you plan on having me wear this?"

"It's called a flashlight," The Historian laughed. Hex gave Bennett all the information it had on the devices.

"But its not really a flashlight," The first scientist said, "Its a stunner."

"It's three times the size of a stunner."

"So we managed to give it a cycling power cell, you'll never need to recharge it. Not to mention the greater punch it will have than the standard stunners." The scientist said, "We also gave it a DNA encoder so you'll be the only one who can fire it."

He nodded appreciative of their forethought.

"Alright everyone," A man said from the catwalk, "Clear the accelerator platform."

The three others stepped away from Bennett.

"Kraft," The man said.

"Sir," Bennett nodded to the man who was like a second father to him.

"This is not good bye. Find the fugitives, eliminate them as a threat to the past, secure or destroy any technology from our time they may have brought with them and when that's done come to the same coordinates you arrived at on the same day every year you're there. Our science team will still be working hard on finding a way to bring you back. But if they can't, find someplace quiet and stay out of the way of history."

He nodded. "It isn't good bye, sir."

The man turned and he was alone in the cavernous room. The generators whirred on. Blinding white light engulfed him and spiking pain peairced his skull.

--------------------------------X

June 28, 2011: 10:19:41 PM

There was a thunderstorm raging above the wooded road. Rain was falling in sheets, lightning flashed, and thunder boomed. The light and sound of the time displacement field was lost within the fury of the storm as Bennett took his first staggered steps into the 21st century. His head was still killing and he bent down cradling his head unaware of the headlights coming straight at him.

He rose up seeing the startled expression of a woman at the controls of the antique vehicle just before it collided right into him.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

http://darkwarrioress.bravehost.com/Samantha.jpg


Samantha Stone was on her way home from a 12 hour shift. She was not the youngest detective on the squad or the newest, thank god, but she hadn't been there long enough yet. She still felt she had something to prove. Sam was dog-ass tired, beyond that really. She had spent all day tracking down leads for two new murders that had cropped up and all without results. She was frustrated; her team was frustrated.

Her hazel eyes were starting to burn and all she wanted to do was get home, get naked and soak in her tub with a glass of wine. Sometimes she wished she hadn’t decided to live just outside of the city limits but she found that by doing so, she could truly disconnect from her job when she needed to.

Glancing into her rear view mirror, then to her right side one, took all of what? A second or two at the most? The next few minutes happened so fast and in a blur. Her eyes went back to the windscreen of her car and suddenly there was a man standing there, in the middle of the road, bent over holding his head and there was no way she was going to miss hitting him. Her eyes widened, her hands frantically spun the wheel. Luckily she wasn’t traveling that fast. The roads were slick with rain out here. She was always cautious. Instinct made her press down on the brakes. Hard. She felt the anti-skid feature of her car kick in. But still, she knew she was going to hit him. She managed, barely so, to just clip his left side. She had a sharp, sinking, ugly feeling in the pit of her stomach as she felt and heard him hit the car.

Sam veered off to her right, stopping the car as soon as she could. The driver's door to her red sporty G5 Pontiac came flying open, not good for the door, but she didn’t care at that moment. She slid out from the car and ran back to where the man lay in the middle of the road. She approached him cautiously, looking right and left, trying to ascertain if this was some sort of con or what. Not seeing anyone else, she knelt at his side, a hand on his shoulder, as she gently pushed him to his back.

“Mister, what the hell is wrong with you and why were you standing in the middle of the road for crying out loud?"

It was getting darker and she couldn’t see his features. The headlights of her car were pointed off in another direction. She needed a flashlight. Getting to her feet, she started back to her car, when her foot kicked something. She bent down to retrieve it. A flashlight. It must be his. The moment her fingers wrapped around it…

“DNA encoding complete.”

What the hell? Where did that come from? She looked at the flashlight strangely before she flicked it on and went back to the man, shining the beam of light on his face.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

There was pain. There was a lot of pain.

Bennett landed on the asphalt rolling on the ground as the vehicle ground to a halt. He rolled over laying his palm flat on the surface of the road and struggled rising up. He groaned out. Teeth grit. There was definitely pain.

The vehicle's door opened up and a woman climbed out running over to him.

“Mister, what the hell is wrong with you," She said, "And why were you standing in the middle of the road for crying out loud?"

"A road," He groaned finally getting his knees under him, "It was supposed to be an open field."

The woman turned back for her vehicle but stopped when her foot kicked something on the road. She bent down to pick it up and then Bennett heard.

“DNA encoding complete.”

His eyes widened as he recognized the voice he turned just as the woman did. "No don't..." The beam of light washed over him. He jerked up right convulsing as energy caused havok with his nervous system. So much chaos he didn't feel the hard asphalt as he collapsed bonelessly ontop of it.

Then there was darkness. There was alot of darkness. Then there was nothing. There was alot of nothing.

Bennett came to in a clean white room with strange, bulky beeping machines. The clothes the historian had given him was gone. He was wearing a strange sort of shirt that tied together in the back. He got up peeking out the door.

He saw men and women in white coats. He heard one say the word "doctor". Down the hall was the woman that had run him over. In her hands was the stunner.

But in the corner of the sitting space she sat in was a box showing images of a current events newsfeed. In the image was a well dressed man standing on a podium. He left his room limping over to face the image box. On the screen it said Congressman Joseph Henney presidential candidate. Henney hadn't even bothered to change his name.

He turned to look at the woman gaping at him. He pointed at the image of Henney. "This man, tell me about him."

 

[DarkWarrioress]

“What? Should you even be out of bed?”

She stared at him in confusion just before her eyes slipped over his shoulder and locked on a few people behind him who were staring at his backside, his very exposed backside. She opened her mouth and started to say something but his demand of her to tell him what she knew about the Congressman, irked her to no end. She mentally shrugged, her hazel eyes targeting back on his.

Forgotten, for the moment, was the fact that he was here, in the hospital because of her. There was that moment when she turned the flashlight on him and she vaguely remembered him saying, “No, don’t…” before his body started to spasm as if she hit him with a taser. She called for an ambulance right away. Yeah, she felt bad enough but damn it, it's not like she intentionally tried to run him over or anything.

“Why the interest in Congressman Henney?”

She felt prickles along the back of her neck. That wasn’t good. Was he some sort of stalker? Was he, heaven forbid, looking to kill the Congressman? She couldn’t help being suspicious, it was part of her nature, it’s what helped to make her a good detective. Crap. Didn’t she have enough on her plate as it was?

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"This man, tell me about him."

He noticed some of the people staring at the part of the short clothes he wore in the back, but didn't pay those people ogling his ass any mind. In the 24th century peoples' sense of modesty was lot less than it was in the ancient 21st century.

“What," She said looking up at him, "Should you even be out of bed?”

"I heal quickly," He told her simply. Or at least he should be healing. The nannomeds in his blood should've already repaired the damage of the simple collision he had suffered.

“Why the interest in Congressman Henney?”

"Never mind," He said turning from her giving her a glimpse of his uncovered backside. "Hex," He said softly looking up to the recorded speech of Congressman Joe Henney the murderer and rapist, "Access the primitive datanet. Get me all the information on Congressma-"

He screamed as a spike of pain stabbed into the back of his head and into his brain. He staggered backwards putting too much weight on his still injured leg. It buckled underneath him. There he fell back and into the woman his head burying into her lap.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

She was about ready to forget that she was responsible for putting him in the hospital and just haul off and punch him. He was irritating as hell. It didn’t help that she had had a long day, had only wanted to get home to a long soak in a bubble bath with some candles and a glass of wine. No, she had to find him, from out of nowhere, in front of her car and she had run him over. He then demanded she tell him about the Congressman and then tell her to never mind? Her brows arched. He was in no position to demand a damn thing. She was just about to open her mouth and rip into him when she heard him scream.

One minute she was standing, staring at his naked ass, her mouth hanging open at the view she caught before she hastily closed it.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

The next thing she knew his weight had slammed into her, pushing her back into one of the chairs in the small sitting area she was in, his head buried in her lap. She stared at him for a moment.

“Mister?” She shook his shoulder, “Hey, Mister, you okay?” She shook his shoulder harder and then looked up sharply raising her voice.

“HEY, I NEED A NURSE OVER HERE, RIGHT NOW. A NURSR OR A DOCTOR, RIGHT NOW. I HAVE AN INJURED MAN IN MY LAP, DAMNIT.”

Idly she noted he was rather handsome looking in that rugged sort of way that always made her heart pound. It was too bad he had the manners of a bulldozer.

Get a grip, Sam. You know nothing about this guy. He could be one of the bad ones for all you know. Besides, there was something about him that bothered her. She had mentioned the road and he said something about it suppose to being an open field. What the hell?

“NURSE! I NEED A DOCTOR! HELLO! SOMEONE. ANYONE.”

Finally, a nurse and a white coat came bustling around a corner toward her. They asked her what had happened.

“I don’t know. We were talking then he screamed. The next thing I know his head is in my lap.”

She was resigned that her night was going to be anything but relaxing. Well, there was always tomorrow. It was her day off. Thank goodness. She planned on sleeping in.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

Bennett awoke with a dull ache in his head. He looked around. There was a plastic pouch containing some sort of clear liquid on a pole on the side of his bed. There was a tube snaking down from it to his arm. He lifted it up and was stunned to see a needle stuck in his wrist.

"Needles," He thought pulling the IV out, "What's next, leeches...radiation doses....

While it was clear something was wrong with Hex Bennett was not about to let these primitive witch doctors here in this time keep him in this den of barbarism. They'd probably want to cut open his head and poke Hex with a stick like cavemen.

Outside the window it was bright and sunny. He rose up from the bed and limped over to the door. He'd need his clothes, and to find the woman who had his stunner. She could do serious damage to the timeline if she opened it up and saw the advanced technology it was made from. The power cell alone was not supposed to be even hypothetically possible for another hundred years.

He reached for the doorknob but paused as he heard voices on the other side.

"Detective stone," A man's voice said, "Thank you for waiting here for me. I have some questions to ask of you."

He cracked open the door and looked through it. There off to one side he could see the redheaded woman that had run him over and a man with a doctor's coat. The redhead still had his stunner in her hands.

"Do you have any idea of the identity of this man," The doctor asked, "Well after he collapsed we thought there might have been some brain damage of some kind. Take a look at these MRI images."

They stuck him inside a giant electromagnet. No wonder Hex was down. Not to mention what it would do to his nannomeds.

"There's a foreign object nestled against his Medula oblongata here," The doctor said pointing to one of the pictures, "Not to mention the strange way his blood seemed to be magnetized within the MRI unit. We're still waiting on the analysis of his blood. From your description of the accident we suspected drug use." He closed the folder, "He had no ID of any kind and we ran his fingerprints, and no results on any database at all."

Bennett slipped out trying to look casual as he limped down the hallway. There was a stairwell just down the hall.

"I'm afraid this John Doe is a complete mystery to us," The doctor said, "Is there anything at all you can tell us to shed some light on this?" He turned and noticed Bennett. "Hey, sir, you shouldn't be up out of bed-"

Bennett began to hobble for the door as fast as he could manage.

"Hey stop him."

Someone reached for him and Bennett had to shove him out of the way.

Someone was running after him. It was the redheaded woman. When she caught him he lost his balance and fell on his face on the floor.

"Let me go," He said trying to push her off.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Sam’s head was swimming. Hell, all she wanted to do was make sure the guy was going to be okay and go home. Was her day never going to end? She moved closer to the doctor and looked at the MRI images.

“Doctor, I have no idea who this guy is. I accidentally clipped him with my car because he was in the middle of the road late at night. I didn’t see him there. There’s really not much to tell but for some strange reason when I pointed this---”

Her head swiveled as the doctor yelled out. Inwardly she groaned. Damn it. He was trying to get away and he really wasn’t healthy yet. She didn’t care what he said about healing fast. He was in no condition to leave the hospital. She started running after him. Sam swore softly and under her breath. She didn’t care what you saw on TV but running in heels was no picnic. She had just managed to get her hands on the backside of his hospital gown when he lost his balance and did a face dive into the linoleum. She went down with him, sprawling on top of him this time. Her hair fell across his shoulder as her lips found his ear.

“I’ll let you go once you stop being a stubborn jackass.”

She was tired and cranky. Her voice was probably a lot more harsh and forceful than she would have otherwise been. His flashlight had hit the floor with a small clatter, ejected from her hand by the impact of her falling on top of him. It rolled just a few feet away from where they were.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"Let me go," He said trying to push her off.


The redheaded woman had landed atop him so her hair fell in his face. “I’ll let you go once you stop being a stubborn jackass.”

The stunner hit the floor beside them.

The doctor's and nurses were closing in now.

He reached and grabbed the stunner. Rolling so the woman was under him. Bennett pointed the stunner at the doctor and nurses.

"Stand back," He told them. He grabbed the redheaded woman's hand, "I don't want to have to use this on you, but I will."

"Son," The doctor said taking another step towards them, "That's just a flashlight."

He pulled the woman's hand to press against the button on the stunner. A beam of light hit the doctor in the chest and he fell to the floor convulsing from the energy overload to his nervous system. Two of the nurses stooped to help him the others took a step back. In the distance he saw someone pull something that looked like a communicator from their pocket and up to his ear.

"Stay back," He said pulling the woman towards the stairwell door adding a heartfelt, "Please."

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Lying on his back, her fingers scrambled to reach the flashlight. She wasn’t sure what the thing was, but she had a hunch it was something important. His beat hers to it and before she could get it in her grasp and he rolled her over, until she was under him. Damn it. She struggled to get away and to take the round metal cylinder resembling a flashlight from him when his words stopped her cold. Her eyes flashed from him to the approaching doctor and nurse.

“No, don’t come any---” her words broke off as the doctor spoke, then the man on top of her.

What happened in the next few seconds was unbelievable. First off, confirmation. Whatever that thing in his was, it wasn’t a flashlight. Who the bloody hell was this guy anyway? After the doctor hit the floor, convulsing, she struggled to get the upper hand. He merely struggled to his feet and drug her toward an exit that led to a stairwell.

In the impending chaos, her mind swirled. That thing had done to the doctor what she had done to him. They were in a hospital so she wasn’t overly worried about the doctor. A quick glance at the stranger in the hospital gown and she made a snap decision. She'd help him get out of the hospital before he hurt anyone else with that thing. He wasn’t getting away from her, however. She reached for the door’s handle, giving it a quick downward push and held it open with one hand.

“Move it. Now.”

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

The redhead that had run him over reached for the door’s handle, giving it a quick downward push and held it open with one hand. She looked back at him giving a quick terse, “Move it. Now.”

He was taken aback at her sudden cooperation, but he didn't question it. There was no time Undoubtedly the peacekeepers of this period had been already alerted to the scene he had made with the doctor. They would be coming with questions he could, would not, answer. If he told anyone who and what he was and why he was here in this barbaric age the damage to the timeline could very well be incalculable. He needed to get out of this building, get Hex online by himself-though he had no idea how without nannomed surgery-he'd never trust the butchers of the so called medical sciences of this ignorant and unenlightened era.

So he walked through the doorway into the stairwell. Before he went down the stairs Bennett looked over his shoulder at her. "Thank you for your help, but you should stay here. Go back to your life and forget about me."

He took a step down but it was on his injured leg and it gave out on him. He grabbed at the bannister snapping it in half as he fell and tumbled down the stairs. Landing in a painful heap on the first landing down.

He raised himself on to his knees, gritting his teeth and favoring his hurt leg. throwing the broken peice of the bannister to one side.

He looked up to see the Redhead at the top of the stairs looking down on him, and two steps down from her lying on the edge of a step was the stunner only she could fire.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Her brow elevated slightly as he looked over his shoulder and spoke. Did he seriously think she was letting him simply walk out of this hospital without her?

“You know, you must have hit your face pretty damn hard into that hospital linoleum and bruised your brain if you think for one minute, you’re getting out of here without me in tow. I don’t know who you are or what you are to be exact, but there are two things you need to realize. One, you’re injured and no matter what you may think you can do? You aren’t healing fast enough to do what you want to do.”

She had just opened her mouth to question him about the flashlight, correction, the instrument that looked like a flashlight and obviously wasn’t, but before she could, he went down. Again. This time he took a part of the banister with him instead of face planting into the stairs before he tumbled to the bottom of the first flight of steps. Her eyes looked incredulous. She wouldn’t have believed this if she hadn’t seen it for herself. He was either one of the most clumsiest men she had the misfortune of running into, figuratively speaking, or one of the most unluckiest.

She stared at him. Then her eyes moved at the same moment his did. Realization hit them both at the same time as well. She scrambled down the two stairs, leaning over, ready to swoop up the wannabe flashlight.

“Look, mister. We need to get out of here because those doctors back in there?” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

“They’re going to call security and have you under guard if they catch you. What you did to that doctor back there, well, they aren’t going to look too kindly on that, no matter what your thinking was, is. So what’s it going to be? You going to let me help you out of here or are you going to the looney bin lockup for observation?” Her hand hovered over the instrument as her eyes looked down into his.

Damn. He really was good-looking. Not worth losing a cut in her pay over or worse, not worth losing her job over, but she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the guy and besides, there was something more to him than met the eye. She’d bet one of her grandmother’s apple pies on it.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

She stepped down the two steps to just over the step the stunner lay upon. “Look, mister. We need to get out of here because those doctors back in there?” she jerked a thumb to the door behind her. “They’re going to call security and have you under guard if they catch you. What you did to that doctor back there, well, they aren’t going to look too kindly on that, no matter what your thinking was, is. So what’s it going to be? You going to let me help you out of here or are you going to the looney bin lockup for observation?” She reached down for the stunner.

He let out a sigh, "You're right. I'm a little out of my depth at the moment." He took a careful step forward, "I can't stay here, and I can't be taken by this time's security forces. I have something very important I need to do." He reached out his hand, "So I am asking you, Miss, please help me now by handing me that flashstick," He stopped as he tried to remember what the doctor and the historian had just called it, "Lightrod..." Looking at her face he guessed that was wrong too.

"Look it doesn't matter what its called, miss, I have three things I'm going to ask of you. First hand me that device. Second if you're willing show me a way out of here, and third please don't ask me to explain anything?"

He stood there his hand out waiting for her to make her decision.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

“Mister, this thing,” she swooped down on the flashlight and held it up in front of his eyes, “is called a flashlight. Flash. Light. Why do you want it back when apparently you need me to wield it?”

She tucked the thing into the waistband of her slacks and held out a hand to him.

“Here’s how this is going to work. No argument and you’re still in no condition to fight with me. I’ve had a rough, long day. I just want to go home and you want out of here so, you’re coming home with me. Got it? If you think for one moment, I'm letting you out of my sight, then you're definitely crazier than I am.”

She grabbed his hand and started tugging him after her down another flight of stairs. Her patience was starting to wear thin. She sincerely hoped he wasn't going to resist, because if he did, she might just have to use force.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"Look it doesn't matter what its called, miss, I have three things I'm going to ask of you. First hand me that device. Second if you're willing show me a way out of here, and third please don't ask me to explain anything?"

She raised up the stunner in front of his face. Bennett reached for it but she kept it from him sayng, “Mister, this thing is called a flashlight. Flash. Light. Why do you want it back when apparently you need me to wield it?”

He couldn't explain it. It would damage the timeline, not to mention Bennett was not certain she'd understand. He did flinch back a bit as in her motions she pointed it at him. "Careful with that," He told her like he'd tell a child, "It's dangerous." She tucked it into her pants making Bennett's skin crawl. As long as it was touching her skin any stray movement against the activator button would fire the stunner. There were very very rare cases where a high energy output shot from a stunner caused genetic damage. He had intended to use is sparingly on this mission, he didn't want to think about possible birth defects that doctor would pass on to his children and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren because of Bennett shooting him just now, especially with the primitive medicines available in this era. The damage to the timeline could already be disastrous because of his presence. "You really don't want to put it in your...."

“Here’s how this is going to work. No argument and you’re still in no condition to fight with me." The redheaded woman said taking him by the hand. "I’ve had a rough, long day. I just want to go home and you want out of here so, you’re coming home with me. Got it?"

"You want to come with me," He asked, "Are you crazy?"

"If you think for one moment, I'm letting you out of my sight, then you're definitely crazier than I am.”

The followed the stairs down to the hospital parking garage and found her vehicle its front surface dented from its collision into him the night before. He climbed inside the passenger seat. "I need to access a data terminal. You can drop me off at the nearest one."

"And thank you for not thinking I'm completely insane, Ms....?"

 

[DarkWarrioress]

She clamored into the driver’s seat, tossed him the flashlight before slamming the car door closed behind her and reached for her seat belt. She gave him a look that clearly said she thought otherwise.

“Stone. Samantha Stone. Buckle up.”

She didn’t wait to see if he complied. She merely turned on the ignition and backed out of the parking spot. A data terminal. She was going to hazard a guess and say he wanted a computer.

“And you are? And where in sam hell do you come from?"

She hit the road again and headed for home. Drop him off? Was he crazy? First off, he couldn’t seem to be able to stay on his feet. Second? He had done something to that doctor back in the hospital and he was going to explain a few things to her. Not tonight. Tomorrow over breakfast and she knew exactly how she was going to insure he stayed put until she could question him further.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"And thank you for not thinking I'm completely insane, Ms....?" Bennett sat in the passenger compartment of the vehicle.

The redheaded woman slid behind the controls to the vehicle. He watched as she had to pull a metal object from her jacket pocket and slip into the control column and activate the loud combustion engine. Bennett shook his head. The historian had told him that though this was the waning days of fossil fuel usage the smelly polluting stuff wouldn't be completely a relic of humanity's barbaric past for several more decades yet.

She regarded him for a moment then answering, “Stone. Samantha Stone. Buckle up.”

He blinked repeating, "Buckle up?" What on earth could she mean by that? He watched her reach for some sort of restraining device hanging to her side. Looking to his side he found one just like it. He continued watching it as she manually pulled and inserting it into a mechanical clasp on the other side. He followed suit fumbling with it but eventually getting it inside and holding him into his seat.

He realized there was no auto-drive, no computerized traffic control systems. These people did it all manually. There must be hundreds of crashes every year.

Samantha Stone had pulled out of the vehicle parking area and was now heading for the road.

"“And you are?"

He considered not telling her wondering if the knowledge of his name would influence history, but then he doubted him telling her that would hurt too much of the timeline. Besides she had shown a great deal of trust in him just now, and he wanted to reward that. "My name is Bennett Kraft?"

"And where in sam hell do you come from?"

He pursed his lips considering not telling her anything, but given the circumstances there wouldn't be an end to her questions one way or the other. "I'm from out of town, Ms. Stone. I'm a public peacekeeper and I am looking for escaped fugitives." He looked over to her. "Beyond that I can not answer any further questions."

 

[DarkWarrioress]

A public peacekeeper?

Now that was a strange turn of words. Looking both ways from the exit of the parking lot, she flipped on her turn signal and gently eased out into the street. Sam flicked a quick glance at his profile. There was something about him that bothered her. From out of town? A peacekeeper? She looked forward again.

“And why not? Why can’t you answer my questions? You don’t realize just how much trouble you could be in, can you, Mr. Kraft?”

She stopped at a traffic light and spared him another glance.

“It doesn’t seem to be apparent to you that I am the only one who can help you. I don’t know where you come from, obviously, but it’s not anywhere from these parts of the woods. For the next few days, you’re going to need my help, Bennett Kraft, whether you like it or not.”

The light changed and her foot pressed on the gas, shooting her car through the intersection a lot faster than she meant it to. The trip from the hospital to her house wasn’t a long one, but by the time she pulled up into the driveway, she was more than ready to dump him on her sofa and curl up in her tub. With bubbles, maybe a few candles, some soft music and a glass of chilled wine.

She parked the car in the driveway and got out, pocketing her keys as she came around the car to his side, her hand reaching for the handle. He wasn’t an invalid by any means, but after watching him tonight, she didn’t want him to fall out of her car and harming himself further.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"Beyond that I can not answer any further questions."

Bennett sat in a passenger seat of the vehicle as the woman, Ms. Samantha Stone operated the manual controls guiding her vehicle with a certain amount of deft skill out of the parking structure and onto a busy thorough fare. This woman seemed to have a pragmatic and professional air that appealed to Bennett's own sensibilities. He wished he could be more forthright with her.

She made a quick glance towards him. “And why not? Why can’t you answer my questions?"

"It's complicated," He told her but the truth was he wanted to know as well, the scientists that had built the machine had told him of quantum mechanics and paradoxes and alternate realities, but it all just made his head hurt if he thought too long on the why's and how's of it all. "I Just can't. Leave it at that, please."

"You don’t realize just how much trouble you could be in, can you, Mr. Kraft?”

He was pretty sure he was stuck here where violent crime was the norm rather than the exception, so too were wars, disease, famine, pollution, the paranoia of the peacekeepers of this era. Also Bennett would have to face all of these on his own. He'd never be able to tell another soul the truth.

She pulled to a stop before an antiquated light signal based traffic routing system. Ms. Stone turned her head to look at him, “It doesn’t seem to be apparent to you that I am the only one who can help you. I don’t know where you come from, obviously, but it’s not anywhere from these parts of the woods. For the next few days, you’re going to need my help, Bennett Kraft, whether you like it or not.”

He shook his head at that, "I can't impose on you any more than I already have."

The light change and Ms. Stone being the sensible sort brought the vehicle back up to speed and took it down a few more turns Bennett looked out the viewport seeing the busy people walking down the pedestrian walkway, eating food at dispensaries, laughing and going on with their lives. He would never have that again. His friends, family, casual acquaintances...he'd more than likely never see them again. He had taken this mission because it had to be done. He had volunteered for it, but right now with the reality of it settling ontop of him Bennett felt so very alone.

The vehicle pulled in and stopped at a residential building. Ms. Stone got out and opened the door for Bennett He pulled himself out of the vehicle and limped after her up a flight of stairs and into what Bennett assumed was her residence quarters.

"You have a datanet access computer here," He asked her.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

He had gotten out of the car without her assistance, other than allowing her to open the door for him. She threw her hands up in the air slightly. Fine. He could be that way. She had opened the door to her house and walked inside. She didn’t even bother to turn around to check on him. He was really starting to get on her nerves. Or the night was. She wasn’t sure yet. Tossing the keys on the kitchen counter that set it apart from the main living area, she entered the kitchen and opened a cupboard, taking down a wineglass. Moving to the refrigerator, she opened it, staring into it a moment, her eyes searching, before she withdrew a bottle of wine. His words made her eye him.

“You mean a computer? Over there.”

The hand holding the bottle waved toward a corner of the living room where she had a corner desk set up, complete with a computer. Returning her attention to her glass, she poured the wine in it, nearly to the brim. Screw protocol. Screw how society stated how much wine should be in a glass. Raising the full glass to her lips, she took a sip as her eyes watched him.

A shrug. Moving leisurely around the kitchen counter, glass in hand, Sam disappeared into a hallway and returned a few minutes later, with a pillow, a blanket and a sheet in her arms.

“These are for you.”

She pointed to the couch.

“You can bunk down there. It’s not bad. I’ve slept on it a few times.”

Setting the pile on one end of the couch, she moved toward a small box on the wall and punched a few buttons. Turning, she disappeared down the hall again. One door opened, then a few moments later, closed. A few seconds and it happened again. The sound of water could be heard running.

Sam was drawing a bath. The bathroom swirled with steam as the faucet poured the heated water into the tub. She tipped some bubble bath into the water and soon the air was scented. Drawing her hair up, she pinned it to the top of her head before she began stripping off her clothes. She hummed softly as she reached for her wineglass and sunk into the bubbles with a soft sigh of contentment.

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"You have a datanet access computer here," He asked her.

“You mean a computer? Over there.” Ms. stone replied with a hint of annoyance to her tone. Bennett chose not to comment on it. Instead he followed the direction she pointed to find in the corner a severely dissapointing fossil of a computing machine. He sat down at it and waited the interminable seconds it took for the fossil to activate. It took him several more minutes to figure out how this data terminal worked. It was fairly rudimentary, schoolchildren from his time would have no problem operating this antique, but it was agonizingly slow in its ability to process his commands to it, and it had no verbal interface. So he sat there pressing the lettered buttons one at a time to spell out what he wanted it to do for him.

Ms. Stone returned soon with a pillow, a blanket, and a sheet for him. "These are for you," she said pointing to the sofa across the entertaining room, “You can bunk down there. It’s not bad. I’ve slept on it a few times.”

"I should thank you for your assistance Peacekeeper Stone, but I don't intend to impose on you any further today." He gestured to the framed image of her and her father at the police academy graduation. He had wondered why she was being so helpful until then. "Once I've found as much information on Congressman Henney as this antique data terminal can acquire I'll leave you..."

He stopped staring at the small drinking table or rather the current events news bulletin laying open atop it. He got up and raised it up reading the article in it that had caught his attention. It was about the discovery of a young woman's body in the river that had been raped and mutilated. It had a good deal of the details or her mutilation-details he had seen before.

His teeth clenched and the paper the news bulletin was made of crinkled as his fingers closed into fists. It made perfect sense. Henney wouldn't have access to 24th century medicine here now, and wouldn't be able to entirely curtail the more violent urges of his condition without them. So Henney was doing it again. Bennett felt a sudden pang of guilt. He had been the one to arrest Henney. Though it was not really rational he blamed himself for this poor woman's brutal treatment and murder. If he had only let Henney kill himself back in the 24th century....If Bennett hadn't stopped him...If he had just done nothing...this woman would still be alive, and her children and grandchildren wouldn't be wiped clean from the history of his future. All the lives they were to touch upon and influence....gone....who knew how important this one woman's life was meant to be to the timeline...

He looked at Ms. Stone severely tempted to tell her everything just to have someone to help bear the sudden overwhelming sense of guilt. But she was not looking at him. Instead she was keying in a sequence of buttons on a box set in the wall.

After that she left him for the-what did the historian tell him it was called in this era-the showering closet, the toilet room, or whatever.

So alone now he sat back at the data terminal, and resumed his work. It took a while and alot of searching but he found out that the good Congressman was having a campaign fundraiser tomorrow at the Raddison hotel within this city.

That was all he would need. He rose back up and retrieved the stunner she had left on the counter. Then he walked back to the door out of her residence. It was time to go, leave Ms. Stone. Bennett wanted some way to say thank you to her, but the only thing he could come up with was to just leave her to her fate. She would be better off without being embroiled any more than she had been within his mission.

He turned the lock and pulled the door open. A screeching alarm began to sound making him wince. That box she had been pushing buttons on must've been some sort of security system.

Hurriedly he left Ms. Stone's residence hobbling down the steps as fast as he dared to with his injured leg.

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Startled out of her cosy space, her eyes flying open, she sat upright in her bathtub, bubbles clinging to her body and cussing.

That was the alarm system. Damn it to hell! Was she ever going to catch a break tonight?

Scrambling out of the tub, she frantically reached for a towel and wrapped it arround her wet body before her hand found the door knob to the bathroom door. The alarm meant one thing, Bennett Kraft had just exited her house.

Wet footprints and a wake of bubbles left a telling trail. She flung open the front door and spotted him limping down the driveway. Without giving one iota of thought to her state of undress, Sam dashed out the door after him and took a flying leap.

"Where the sam hell do you think--- "

Oof!

She slammed into his back, her words cut off as her mouth smashed into his spine. She knew a moment's panic as she felt the towel slipping from her body. The choice wasn't a simple one. Her modesty or him. Which one did she let get away?

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

Bennett hurried as fast as his injured leg could manage out of her apartment. The security system he had set off was shreikingly loud. Despite the din he heard Peacekeeper Stone open the door to the restroom and storm after her. Glancing back over his shoulder he saw her covered in soapy suds red hair wild and unruly and hastily pulling a towel around her as she came after him.

He closed the door and began hobbling down the stairs to the building's main floor as fast as he could. He didn't get three steps when the door slammed open, and Mrs. Stone barreled out after him.

"Please," He asked back at her, "Let me go. I..."

"Where the sam hell do you think--- Oof!" she barreled into him and tipping him off balance.

Bennett shot his arm out for the railing to catch himself but it was too late. He fell tumbling down the steps and into the wall of the next floor down. His head getting a good deal of the impact of it. Bennett's vision swam and he shook his head trying to rise back up.

"You don't understand..." He told her. What had happened to the towel she was wearing. For a second he froze looking up at her naked body. He forced his eyes down to give her some modesty as she retrieved the towel from her feet. "You don't understand. I have to go, and I can't-I shouldn't involve you anymore than I have." He ran his hand through his hair as he shakily rose back up to his feet. "I have to stop Henney before he hurts another girl."

He looked into her eyes. "I'm asking you as one Peacekeeper to another. Let me go and forget about me. Just get on with your life, Mrs. Stone."

 

[DarkWarrioress]

Oh crap. Now she was the cause of him banging his head. If he wasn't brain damaged by now, considering the number of times he had hit his head since he's been around her and not gotten a concussion, he must truly have a really hard head.

"And damn if he isn't stubborn enough," she grumbled under her breath.

Her towel hit the ground at her feet. Crap! Let go of him or snatch the towel? Modesty won out. Her hand swooped down and gathered up the towel, spreading it around her body, covering it up. She tied the front ends of the towel into a knot at her breasts. All she had to do now was keep the towel closed to preserve her modesty. Brushing back her hair from her face she glared at Bennett Kraft.

"Listen up Peacekeeper Kraft. "

Her emphasis was on Peacekeeper. It seemed odd for him to refer to her as that, but she was just too damn tired to dwell on it. It had been a grueling week and he wasn't helping.

"As a Peacekeeper, you should already be aware that asking that of me is out of the question, especially if that thing of yours hurt that doctor back at the hospital. Now, please, will you come back inside before I catch something like a severe case of pneumonia and die?"

That might be an exaggeration but given her luck lately, hey, it could happen.

"Besides, in case you forgot, you're not exactly dressed for public," She pointed to his hospital gown.

"I don't know where you come from Mr. Kraft, but around here? They're either going to take you to jail and lock you up as a druggie and a drunk or take you back to the hospital and lock you up in a padded cell with no windows. Look," she sighed and brushed back some hair that had fallen across her face.

"I want to know what you meant by stopping Congressman Henny and I want to hear who he hurt. So, as one Peacekeeper to another, will you please come back inside? We can talk in the morning and you really could use someone on your side, you know. I don't think I've ever met anyone so accident prone in my life. Besides, I really can't just let you go your own way. I'm already involved. But for the sake of my modesty and my skin getting cold, could you make up your mind for me. Am I going to have to drag you back inside or will you just come willingly? Personally, I rather just be peaceful about all this, but I'm not letting you out of my sight yet, Kraft. At least, give me until tomorrow when I can check on that doctor. Besides, Congressman Henny isn't going anywhere. He's an influential man and he rather likes it."

 

[Veroe]

IC: Bennett Kraft

"Listen up Peacekeeper Kraft," She said haughtily, "As a Peacekeeper, you should already be aware that asking that of me is out of the question, especially if that thing of yours hurt that doctor back at the hospital. Now, please, will you come back inside before I catch something like a severe case of pneumonia and die?"

Bennett looked up at her then back down the stairwell. He wanted, needed to tell someone, and this woman was the only ally he had made, but the truth was a burden he couldn't lay upon her shoulders easily. If he did the course of her life may be irrevocably altered, besides it wasn't her responsibility to apprehend the fugitives, and from the sense Bennett had gotten of her if she was told Samantha Stone would make it her mission to find and apprehend them.

"Besides, in case you forgot, you're not exactly dressed for public," She added pointing to what he had awakened in at the hospital. "I don't know where you come from Mr. Kraft, but around here? They're either going to take you to jail and lock you up as a druggie and a drunk or take you back to the hospital and lock you up in a padded cell with no windows. Look," She flipped her startlingly brilliant red hair back from in her face, "I want to know what you meant by stopping Congressman Henny and I want to hear who he hurt. So, as one Peacekeeper to another, will you please come back inside?"

Sighing he nodded to her. "Let's get inside." He began making his way up to her, "I need to consider this."

"We can talk in the morning," She told him, "And you really could use someone on your side, you know. I don't think I've ever met anyone so accident prone in my life."

"I'm not that clumsy normally," He said with weak smile. The truth was he had not ever had to walk before with an injury. It was a skill he was still getting used to.

"Besides, I really can't just let you go your own way. I'm already involved. But for the sake of my modesty and my skin getting cold, could you make up your mind for me. Am I going to have to drag you back inside or will you just come willingly? Personally, I rather just be peaceful about all this, but I'm not letting you out of my sight yet, Kraft. At least, give me until tomorrow when I can check on that doctor. Besides, Congressman Henny isn't going anywhere. He's an influential man and he rather likes it."

He went back through the door and inside her living quarters. He sat down on her couch removing the printed news bulletin with the picture of Henney's victim on it. He looked up at her wondering just how much he could tell. "Henney isn't what he appears. He's a dangerous criminal, Ms. Stone."