! Retriever - Working Draft
!! by Ingo Ruhnke <grumbel@gmx.de>

A little noice, some sparks, then suddenly a flash of light. Belvedere
was out cold, unconsciousness and he couldn't move. Took him hours to
regain concisousness, maybe days, he couldn't remember. He couldn't
remember anything to be precise, only his name. Looking at his clothes
he could see that he must have been throught a lot, shreds hanging
down from his body, skin below slightly burned, little was left
intact. From what was left from his cloths he could tell that it must
have been a white coat not to long ago, but it didn't give him much
further hint on what happened. His legs still didn't have much feel in
them, but it was time to get up, he has been down on the ground for
long enough. It was time to move and find out what exactly happened,
so he grabed all the strength that was left to pull himself up. But no
luck, his knees couldn't hold him and he stumbeled back to the
ground. Things seem to have been worse then expected, but there a
branch, a thick one looked strong enough that it might hold him. He
hadn't anything else to do, so he gave it a try. The branch gave him
the support he needed and so he stood up and looked around. 

What he saw confused him. He couldn't see much when he was on the
ground, but now he could clearly see, buildings, plenty of them, but
all rubish. It didn't look like they where damaged by the same force
that hit him. Sure they where crumbled, but no burns, no scattered
debri. It looked like those buildings have been brought down by the
forces of nature over the years. But how could that be, from the looks
of it he could tell that the buildings where rather new. People
haven't been buildings things like this a hundred years ago, but that
must have been how long it took nature to take them down, maybe more,
he couldn't tell. He wasn't a biologist, so much was sure, but
everything else was still a blur.

Stumbling around seem to help his legs, feeling slowly got back into
them. His stick would not be needed much longer. With his newly gained
mobility he was able to do some more exploring. From what he could
tell there where around 20 buildings, surrounded by a large wall. The
wall was though, while nature had eaten large parts away, it still did
its job, at least for Belvedere. He did a walk all around it, but he
couldn't find a area where it was damage enough to make it past it,
especially not with his legs, which still needed some time to get back
to normal. Trapped where he was he started with a deeper investigation
into the buildings, maybe they would tell him what happened.

The building in which he woke up was empty, he didn't notice it at
first, but thinking about it this turned out to be quite unusual. All
the other buildings contained something. Some just a few chairs and
tables or what was left of them after all those years. Others
contained selves and cabinets, those that he had searches so far were
either empty or just contained food. Rotten long ago.  That wouldn't
be of much use. But the building in which he wolke up was
empty. Whatever was in here must have been carried away long ago,
since there wasn't a trace left of it.

The whole place didn't look to promising, no food, no fresh water,
except a few muddy puddles. He could survive here a few days, maybe
some weeks, but he knew that he had to get out of here. Waiting for
help would have been an option, but given how deserted this place
looked he didn't have much hope for rescue. While the wall was
unpassable, every wall needs an opening and so did this one. A large
gate was there, big and heavy. Would the opening mechanism still work
after all those years? A try couldn't hurt, but without much suprise
it soon became all to clear that this gate couldn't be opened by
normal means, since that would require electronics. He could tell that
by looking at the wreaked console infront of the gate. While he might
be able to fix the broken circutry there wasn't a change to get power,
not here, not after all those years. Even if he would have found an
generator, fuel would be required, but every fuel container would have
long rusted away and gave its fuel away.

Disappointed by this discovery he continued his search through all the
other buildings, this time doing a more detailed sweap. Maybe there
was something that he didn't spot the first time around and there
where still a few cabinets left that he hadn't examined. 

His search didn't last long. A rain shower started and those buildings
with their roofs gone didn't provide much protection, neither did what
was left of his clothes. He found a building that provided enough
shalter, it wouldn't keep him warm, but at least it would keep him
dry. Getting wet here, without a pair of clothes available to change
wouldn't have been a good thing. 

The rain shower lasted for hours. Night was approaching and without a
light source he wouldn't be able to see much. His search was over for
today. He decided to sleep a fit. 

The morning sun dazzled him. It was morning after all. He felt
good. His legs where back to normal, the stick no longer needed. What
a good day in this lonely place. His luck didn't last for long
however. Looking outside he could see that the ground had turned into
a mudded puddle. That wouldn't be fun to walk in, but he didn't really
have much choice. And luckily his boots where one of the few pieces of
clothing that still did their job decently.

He decided to do another walk around the village. The muddy ground
made the walking hard and tiring, but with his legs back at full
strength he didn't mind that much. To his supprise the rain seemed to
have its good side, back at the gate he could see that the rain has
washed away some dirt that had collected on the walls. He could see a
plate. His memory was still faint, close to non-existant, but he
seemed to remember that this was an override for the opening
mechanism, used for maintenance. That should help him to get out of
here. But what would have been a easy task back in civilisation,
turned out to be a problematic one back here. The panel was secured by
four screws and his fingernails didn't do much good against dozens of
years of rust. So he was back to square one. 

Further way into the buildings showed him a few cabinets that he
couldn't open, they where locked. This time the rust that troubled him
at the gate would come in handy. With a metalic leg, from what must
have been a chair he had a lever at hand that should turn out
useful. It wouldn't help him at the gate, since smashing it against
the plate would only have mate matters worse, but it would help him
with the cabinets. A few smashes against a rusty part of the cabine
gave him an opening into which he could insert his lever. Now all he
needed was to use all his strength to break the lock. Rust again did
help him plenty and the cabinet spreng open. 

A screwdriver wasn't anywhere to find, but in all the junk he found
what looked like a coin, an old an rusty coin, just like everything
else, but with a little lack it would help him at the gate.

Money can't solve all problems, but this one it did. The coin made a
good fit into the screws, not a perfect one and he needed quite a few
tries to get it right, but after half an hour of twidling he managed
to loose three screws. The fourth one turned out to be more tricky,
rust had melted away its slot. But he didn't care, levers are always
useful and so they where here. With three screws loose he was able to
insert his lever between he plate and the gate. His workforce couldn't
open it, but his weight did. He balanced himself on the level and
started to wiggle up and down. A minute later the screw had its last
day, a crack and it was broken into two and the plate was gone. 

The maintaince opening gave him what he expected, a manual override.
A wheel in there could be turned to open the door. It took plenty of
force and another lever use to pull it loose, but after that all it
needed was time. The gate was huge and heavy, so he needed more then a
handful of surroundings to get it move. It clearly was build with a
electrical screwer in mind, but with that missing manual labor would
do the job. Milimeter by milimeter the gate become to move, hardly
visible at all, but it did move. Ten minutes later he had opened it
enough so that he could see through. He spotted a road, or what might
have been one long ago. The jungle around it at clearly taken it back.
On the left side he could see another building, as everything else it
was mostly rubble, but it gave him enough motivation to turning that
little weel.

It look him a good hour, but finally he had opened the gate enough
that he could slip through, just barely, but a little squeezing later
he was free. Out of the village and into the jungle. He expected it,
but it still dampened his will quite a bit to see it in full. It was
time to give the building a closer inspection. From the look of it he
figured it must have been a guard post, after all anything else
wouldn't make much sense to have outside. Would he be able to find a
weapon in there after all those years? He didn't have any hope, since
rust would have made it unusable for sure. But to his suprise he was
wrong. There was no gun to find, but a knife was left in a drawer. And
it was still sharp, how could that be? It really wasn't a mystery
after all. This was a keramik knife, not a metal one. So rust didn't
have a chance. It was a little dirty, but still sharp enough to cut
through wood. Down here in the jungle that should be useful.

The road out of the villiage lay clear ahead of him. But since the
jungle had taken it back it look him quite a while to make it through
walk on it, but with the knife in his hand cutting through the
branches was doable. A kilometer down the road his luck however
ended. The road went over a large river and all that was left of the
bridge were its pillars. The rest much have fallen into the river ages
ago and there was no way he could make it past that river right now,
the tide would have washed him away and left him drowing down the
river. He didn't want to risk that, at least not right know, there was
still to much hope left, but hope for what?

He had a small village and a road, but nothing else. The whole place
was abbandoned for decades, maybe centuries. How could he even have
ended up in this place? His clothing meant that he wasn't an
archelogist and there wasn't equiment around for an expedition
either. So what did he do out here in nomansland?

With the road being not much use for escape, he walked back to the
village. Not empty handed, since he managed to cut a rope from one of
the pillars. It wasn't long enough to make it over the river and
without a way to fix it at the other end that wouldn't have helped
anyway, but it might turn out useful, after all he didn't really have
much utilities awailable, so anything that looked useful was worth a
grab.

The way back wasn't much easier then the way to the bridge, but after
an hour he made it. Back at home it was time for another round of
closer inspection. The buildings didn't have much useful in them, that
much he new. But maybe they had something useful on them. On the
outside of the wall he found a place where he could attach his
rope. The wall was worn down enough to give him footing. He climed up
and was now standing on the wall which gave him a good overview over
the village. The wall was the highest part of the village after all.

On one building he could spot what might have been antennas or a
satelite dish, but there was really not much left of it. However what
was left of it, should be enough to hold a rope. Belvedere decided to
explore this further. Standing right next to the building he couldn't
see much of the rubble, so he had to throw his rope blindly. A few
tries later it seemed to have found hold in the rubble. He really
wasn't an experinced climber, but the buildings were just as the outer
wall worn out pretty badly, the small cracks give him footing and he
made its way up.

The satelite dish was indeed completly destroyed, there wasn't much
left of it. But under the muddy ground that had collected on the roof
he saw a little sparkling. He rubbed the mut asside and what he saw
filled him with joy. Solar pannels, the layer of dirt did a good job
of conversing them, they weren't good as new, but he could tell that
they looked good enough to be still usable. He seemed to know his way
around tech. He broke one of the panels modules free, that should be
enough to give him a few volt. 

This new power source brought him back into the buildings. There has
been equipment that he ignored before. A few tablet PCs where laying
around, but none of them had any power left nor was there a way to
recharge them. That is where his newly optained solar panel would come
into place. Would one of the tablets still work? He couldn't tell, but
he knew that they were rather robust, all the fragile hardware sealed
in a robust green plastic body, watertight and prooven against
dropping. That might have been enough to make it survive all those
years. Only a try would give a final answer.

His keramik knife did a good job at cutting a few wires that he then
could use to plug into the tablets. It wasn't the most durable hack,
but it might be a working one. Now all he needed was light, plenty of
it. So he walked into the middle of the village. The power indicator
LED on the tablet sprang on, it gave a faint light. The power was
there, but not yet enough to boot the small device. He needed more
light. But where to take that from when the only source he had was
natural? It took him a minute, but he already walked by the answer a
while before.

One of the builings must have been a bathroom or something along the
lines. It had big mirrors on the wall. He took one of them down. It
was, like all the other onces, cracked, but he wasn't interested in a
perfect reflection, just enough light to make his panel work. So he
justified the mirror in a way that it reflected more light onto the
panel. It worked, the power LED lit fully green and the tablet booted
up. A few seconds later he could see the things happening on the
screen. All those years had its price. Lines where missing and errors
where all over the screen, but it still was readable, at least in
parts. He saw a logo, a name:

    Division 12
- All Good Things... - 

That didn't tell him much, but the subtitle sounded familiar, but he
couldn't frame it just yet. His memory was still to faint.

Seconds after the logo the rest of the operating system sprang to
life. Navigating it wasn't easy, many of the buttons did no longer
work and the touchscreen also had its problems, making many areas of
the screen inaccissble. Last not least the flash drive also had given
up, so most of the documents had more then a few bit flips. Some where
barely readable, other not at all. However what Belvedere could read
helped his mind to remember, the details where still blurry, but so
much was clear. His problem wasn't where we was, but when. 

Belvedere was a scientist involved in a time travel experiment, one
that obviously had gone wrong quite a bit. He was standing in what he
thought were the remainings of his divisions outpost, far away from
civilisation to keep it secret. That of course wasn't helpful at all
in his situation.

He continued to browse around on the tablet. The building in which he
had waken up was indeed the place where the time machine had been
placed, but it obviously was no longer there, even the marks it made
onto the ground had been washed away over the years. That kind of
diminished his chances to get back a lot. He was lost and he knew it.

Belvedere didn't gave up, the situation was bad, but surviable, at
least for a while. The maps of the outpost proved useful, with his
memory still having more holes then swiss cheese he could need all the
help he could get and the maps pointed to a few cellar entrances that
had been cover up by dirt. So deep in fact that it would have been
pretty much impossible to find them without it.

The cellars had been socked with water just as the rest, but some of
the tools he found where still usable. After all not everything was
build out of degrading materials. With his new tools he was able to
construct a few primitive traps and weapons. He was surrounded with
jungle and that jungle contained wildlife, plenty of it, now he only
needed to catch it.

The lighters that he found where all empty, the gas had evaporated
long ago, but the fire stones they contained where still usable and
that was all he needed to make a fire, it would be tricky, but he did
have some mandatory survivial training in the military, even the
scientist didn't get spared from that joy and for him that should turn
out useful.

The comming weeks he spend learning to hunt and to build better
traps. Training is one thing, but being stuck in the middle of a
jungle is another. A month and a long beard later he had mastered the
basic skills. His meals where rare and far appart, but it was enough
to keep him alive. For how long he couldn't tell, but he still hoped
that he wouldn't need to find that out. The militar had a leave no man
behind policy and with a little luck they would need to stay true to
it.

The days and weeks passed, he stayed alive, but the jungle kept him
trapped. The sky didn't show any condensation trails so no hope to
signal planes of his demise. This place really did get selected well,
far outside of even plane routes. Screw that he thought.

Than one evening, 63 days after he arrived something happened. He saw
flashes and lighting in the distance. Then nothing, 10 minutes later a
large explosion shock the jungle. The event was far away, but close
enough that he should be able to reach it by foot. He collected what
food he could catch and started his journey. He didn't even know if he
could pinpoint the spot where his observation occured, but with all
the flashes and lighting going on he hoped that it would have left a
large enough mark in the jungle and indeed it did. 

On his sixth day of travel he found it. 'It' however wasn't what he
expected, not his rescue, not a sign of human life. But just a big
crater in the ground. All the jungle had been devasted by a 100 meter
large radius, burned to the ground. What had happened here? He
couldn't tell and the crater wasn't of any use to him, so he traveled
back to the outpost.

Three days went by without anything of interest happening on his way
back to the outpost. On the fourth day however something did
happen. The flash and lighting occured again, it nearly blinded him so
close was it, too close for his taste. A second later he realized what
had happened, he saw it. A Mark III Plasma bomb had appeared right
before his eyes, he could tell from the writing on its side. It wasn't
dropped by a plane, it just appeared in a flash of lighting and stand
there not a hundred meter away from him. He stumbled to it, still
blended from the flash of its appearence. Has he got closer he
realized what saw something. Redish letters on the bomb, a clock he
thought. One ticking down. That second he realized what was happening,
but he didn't have time to think about it. He had to get moving
quickly. He run as fast as he could make it through the jungle, in his
mind counting down the seconds he had seen on the clock.

When his mind said zero he jumped to the ground. Nothing happened. He
was already on his way up when a blinding flash and the force of a
shockwave pushed him back down to the ground. Counting down seconds
had never been his strong point, but managed to get far enough away to
survive the blast. Once the dust settled he got up and made it back to
the outpost.

The last month was a cloudy one. Leaving not enough light to power his
solar panels, so he was locked out of the tablets that might provide
him valuable information for most of the time. This week however was a
good one. The sun came through again and the tablet booted
up. Entering Mark III Plasma he could find a few documents that he has
missed before. 

{{{
Remote Time Location Detection
Ionized Radiation Propagation Through Time
}}}

That sounded promising and indeed it was. The bombs that have been
detonating the last few weeks at regular intervals weren't meant as an
attack, but as a location beacon. Somebody was trying to find him and
they did that by detonating plasma bombs, which ripple the time stream
enough to detect it in the past and thus locate the clear location and
time they detonated. 

He counted twelve bombs going of over a month, from what he could tell
from the tablet PC that should have been enough to pinpoint a time and
place. And that his assumption was correct was confirmed on the next
day, right in the middle of the outpost a box appeared. Was it his
ticket on the train back to the past?

Opening it up he could see that the package contained plenty of things
that should make his survival a little easier. For one thing a pair of
fresh clothes. He hadn't seen something like that for months. Clothes
asside the package also contained plenty of food, energy bars to be
precise. Not very tasty, but they contained enough nutrition to keep
you alive for a good while and he had a whole box full of them. The
standard military tent would keep him warm and dry on the rainy
days. And the tools would help him get around. A satelite phone was
however missing, it would have allowed an easy rescue, not back to the
past, but back into civilisation. They didn't seem to want that,
likely military secrecy, when you have a time machine you don't want
your enemy to know it. It is too valueable, even if you are stuck 200
years into the future. 200 years, that he could tell from the stars,
the box contained a good amount of astronomical equiment. Along the
tools was also a radio scanner, allowing him to listen to radio waves,
but not broadcasting them. However that scanner didn't turn up to be
useful, only static was what he could hear and that confused him,
either the scanner was broken or people stopped using radio waves,
even out here he should have been able to catch something.

After playing around with all his new toys he remembered standard
military practice, he still hasn't read the letter with the new
orders. But he could blame him, he stranded in nomansland and got a
box with tinker toys. So play came befor work.

The letter with the order was short, to short for Belvedere's taste,
somebody in the past obviously hasn't figured out yet that his memory
still hasn't fully returned yet. It read:

{{{
We located you in 2331-02-07 and send you this package, it should
contain everything you need for a month of survival.

Time travel had some unexpected consequences here. Need you to setup a
beam spot to track you and return you.

Count down 20 days till retriever program gets initialized. Counting
on you.
}}}

That was all. 'Beam spot'? He couldn't remember what that was, but the
stuff came with a manual on how to set it up, so he didn't care. 

Sticking the pieces together was easy, that just took him a day, but
calibrating it took him quite a few days and charging up the
capacitors also took its time. So the 20 day countdown was a needed
one.

On the 20's day he had the machine setup and fully calibrated back in
the same spot as he first appeared, he was ready to go. With a push of
a button he activated the machine and waited for it to come into
effect. The buzzing sound of the machine told him that it was working
and the lights where on green. The countdown was down to 00:05:00,
five minutes to go. He sad down in the middle of it. The buzzing got
stronger. The machine started to do its job. Flashes of lightning
started to appear around him. 00:00:30 to go, he could barely read the
timer, the lightnings got stronger and stronger. 00:00:10 to go. The
lightnings now started to form a wall around time, the wall turned
into shape, now was a sphere around him, 00:00:03 to go. He closed his
eyes, the lightning now was a solid bright white sphere. 00:00:01, he
couldn't read it, but that is what the clock must have read. The
sphere collabsed in a blindling flash and he was gone.

A few second later a Mark V Plasma Bomb appeared and evaporated the
outpost and everything a mile away.

! EOF