Post by Catsmate on Jun 17, 2022 21:41:03 GMT
In my 'Cathal and the time machine thread' grinch and I were discussing how it started and I mentioned a prior attempt at character development for an NPC time traveller. However it is rather darker than Cathal and I was never satisfied with it so these notes are rather rough.
As with most of my characters and scenarios the universe is not in danger, the stakes are smaller and more personal.
Kelan and the Odd People.
Location.
Leasstown, a small rural place in the United States (or elsewhere) where nothing much happens. No claims to fame, none of it’s sons and daughters have ever achieved greatness. Population 5,120 at the moment.
In a couple of weeks it’ll be famous around the world, and population zero.
Except for reporters and investigators.
In the Beginning.
Kelan Roberson was a nice, rather quiet, normal person, at least most of the inhabitants of the small town of Leasstown thought so. He’d moved to the town about five years before The Day It Fell Apart and did ‘something with computers’. He owned a largish house on the outskirts of the town, on a plot of land backing into woodland, kept to himself but was polite, friendly and quite helpful, especially with computer problems.
Thea Holding was the first person in town to start wondering. A rather inquisitive (or just nosy) person she saw a few odd happenings and started wondering. Unfortunately for her she wasn’t very good at concealing her suspicions from Kelan, whose paranoia left him sensitive to such things.
Her death, in a tragic fall in her home, followed quickly.
That’s when his troubles began.
Kelan was annoyed by the necessity of killing the middle-aged woman; he’d moved to the small town with the intention of not killing anyone, at least not anyone from that town. He carefully chose his victims from fairly distant hunting grounds, all in different law enforcement jurisdictions, to avoid attention and all the ensuring problems.
He’d been killing quite successfully for eight years without being suspected once. Well not since that overly curious house-mate in college, but she’d had the misfortune to die in a tragic, and still unsolved, street robbery.
But now he’d been forced to kill someone who lived only a few hundred metres from his own property. A property he’d become very attached to; it was quiet, far more isolated than it looked, and thanks to the mistrust of its builder, back in the paranoid fifties, possessed an extensive and hidden bomb shelter that had been ideal for his proclivities.
It would also, however, be the prime evidence against him if he was seriously suspected. And it would be difficult to sanitise completely
He considered cleaning up, perhaps with a fire, and moving on. But he found Leasstown useful.
The Odd People.
After the second death1 in the town, the new odd event was the group of people who’d rented the Thornton property for the summer. While it had been rented before, much to the annoyance of some in the town who’d wanted it preserved and turned into a museum, these weren’t the same type of partying college kids as last time. They were a sober tour party from Scandinavia, mostly tall blondes with a generic kind of family resemblance, and their guides.
They were quiet, and a little bit odd, but then they were foreigners.
Some people in Leasstown noted the odd perfection and uniformity of their appearance, their slightly ‘off’ manners, their strange connoisseur's attitude to everything, and their secretiveness about their origin.
But they were foreigners....
The Setup.
Kelan was highly intelligent, sociopathic, mildly paranoid and very observant. He’d noticed the oddities of the visitors too, and became curious. They obviously weren’t police, or any official investigators, but they were odd. And his finely tuned instincts, unfettered by the social construct of what was and was not possible, put the details together and came to the logical, if utterly impossible, conclusion.
They were time travellers.
But why were they there? They didn’t seem to be historians, and they weren’t buying much beyond the odd souvenir. After considering, testing and rejecting several hypotheses Kelan came to accept that they were pretty much what they appeared to be; tourists.
But it niggled.
Why here and now? The town of Leasstown seemed to have no logical attraction for such people. It had little history and less importance in the world. Were they merely relaxing? But even that idea just seemed unlikely.
After further investigation, using parabolic microphones, as he was reluctant to burglarise the house to place bugs, he amassed several interesting conversations. Finally, a problem with one of their cars allowed him an opportunity to hack the computers of all three of their rented vehicles and use the systems to eavesdrop and monitor them while they felt safe. So he learned what drew them to somewhere utterly insignificant.
The town was doomed.
Within a couple of weeks it would be destroyed as part of a huge forest fire, rivalling the great Peshtigo fire, and they were here to watch. They were seemingly from a boring future age of peace, plenty and uniformity, and they craved stimulation. Interacting with the soon-to-be dead gave them the necessary emotional invigoration.
Not unlike the Dark tourists of the present day.
There was a Concern that operated the expensive tours and guided them. Three guides and six tourists (‘observers’) constituted this group.
Fascinating.
So he killed one of them, as an experiment.
He was careful of course; planning the death methodically (he'd had practice) and making it appear to have been a rockfall while the man was walking alone in the woods. He’d had a lot of experience at careful, methodical planning and implementation.
And killing.
He observed the actions of the guides covertly via camera and drone. He was reasonably sure that they would accept the accident; he’d deliberately chosen the least popular and most irritating member of the group and left no reason for suspicion.
As he’d expected, the guides soon accepted the death as accidental, and hid it from the town, allowing the tour to continue. These things happened in the Bad Old Days seemed to be their philosophy. Some of the tourists seemed excited, energised, by their personal brush with death.
Kelan formulated a plan; the potential gain was immense. Also he was, apparently, doomed to die anyway.
By eavesdropping on several conversations he’d amassed an understanding of the procedures of the group.
A scout travelled to a suitable location, and planned the tour, arranging suitable accommodation, paperwork, et cetera and planned the itinerary. A portal was established and the tourists and their guides were brought to the past through the portal, along with the necessary supplies.
While the portal connected to the Concern’s facility in the future, in case of need, it was useless to him; a direct attack on such a facility was unlikely to succeed, even if he recruited a force in the present, and infiltration seemed equally unlikely to succeed.
The portals required apparatus at each end, though they could connect to any unrestricted portal.
So there must be another type of time machine, to bring the portal equipment.
The scout’s pod, on the other hand, offered interesting possibilities. It was capable of autonomous operations, travelling under it’s own power to new locations.
And, unusually, this group’s scout had remained, partially as a holiday and partially as a replacement for a guide unable to make the trip.
More importantly so had her pod and equipment, secreted at a base she’d established nearby.
Kelan contemplated several approaches. He could simply grab her and extract the information; he was extremely skilled at inflicting pain, and keeping people alive during the process, but that seemed unlikely to work. She could well have training and equipment that would allow her to resist, escape or call for help. He'd only get one chance.
And, unlike the tourists, the scout (who used the name Cristina Wilcox) was far from clueless and would be (he assumed) skilled, experienced and equipped for operations in the Bad Old Days. Interestingly she’d shown no concerns about him, suggesting that either she was a superb dissembler, or knowledge of his activities hadn’t been part of her briefing.
From the conversations he’d eavesdropped on, there were serious gaps in the knowledge of the time travellers due to catastrophes in the future, including ‘The First Invasion’ in about a hundred and thirty years. Something that one of the tourists had wanted to see but a location the Concern avoided2.
So he decided to play to his other strong suite, his interpersonal skills.
Kelan could be very charming, it was one way to put his victims off guard, and he’d spoken to ‘Cristina’ several times in one of the local cafes. She seemed to have a taste for coffee and chocolate and took an almost rapturous pleasure in them.
He planned carefully; he’d need to ensure that she didn’t simply zap his brain, as he figured happened to a couple of people in town. But from their conversations she seemed slightly bored.
One morning he dropped in to the coffee shop and engaged her in idle conversation about the book she was reading. They he dropped his bomb: “So, when exactly are you from?”
After she’d cleared her nostrils of choco-latte, he enumerated the faults in the group’s disguise. This had to be handled carefully, he’s only get one chance with her. So, before she could attempt anything he warned he that he’d placed caches of information on the internet, just in case. Then he smiled.
After some surprisingly unconvincing denials (presumably she wasn’t prepared for this) she admitted the truth. Kelan simulated smug satisfaction at having his hypothesis confirmed and assured her that he would maintain her secret, quoting Jefferson; "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg".
He fed her a story he’d devised, that he believed that the tourists were simple observers, that he was unaware of the disaster and death to come.
Her guilt at knowing about his probable, preordained, death should help her to believe his lies. He intended to play on that quilt.
The Plan.
Kelan’s plan was basically simple, and just in case he had a backup.
He intended to steal the Scout Capsule and learn how to operate it, preferably after disabling any security, tracking or recall devices. He needed Cristina for this, at least for a while. With the capsule he could escape to the past and build a new life.
So many people, such poor law enforcement…
Secondary to this objective was any other useful equipment the tourist group had.
Tertiary was the elimination of the tourists and their guides, using the fire as cover. This could explain the loss of the capsule.
As a last-resort alternative he could use the destruction of the fire to cover his escape and hunt for other time travellers.
He would cultivate a friendship with Cristina, using a seemingly natural curiosity to explain his questions.
People3.
Robert Gustafsson Tourist male
Kenneth Hansen Tourist male deceased
Hugo Lawson Guide male
Kristine Nilsson Tourist female
Eric Olofsson Tourist male
Magdalena Pettersson Tourist female
Dagmar Simon Tourist female
Nisha West Senior Guide female
Cristina Wilcox Scout female
Gear.
Nominally only the three guides are armed, with pen-sized stun weapons (‘cerebral disrupters’) that dislocate the brain functions of humans and animals, causing unconsciousness or a inducing a hypnagogic state of suggestibility. The weapon is silent and invisible in operation, but has a range of only about ten metres at most.
There was a securely locked briefcase sized box in the room of the senior guide, Nisha West, in the Thornton house. This contains six cerebral disrupters, three more powerful stun wands and a single pulser, plus additional power packs.
Cristina has a similar box in her base, though that one contains fewer weapons and disassembled stun and pulse rifles along with a few stun and gas grenades for emergencies.
Cristina is a long-service professional and also carries a compact period pistol (against Concern guidelines), more as a threat or deterrent than a weapon, as futuristic weapons do not appear threatening to the locals.
One of the other guides, Nisha, also carries one. In fact Nisha is a collector and has amassed a cache of period firearms that she plans to smuggle home.
All the tourists and guides carry ‘comms’ advanced replica smartphones (with secure communications, navigation and tracking software; these are independent of local cellular networks and effectively impossible to intercept, jam or even detect with C21 technology) that include camera functions; money (cash and electronic), high quality fake identity documents (which will show as genuine on all but the most secure computer databases) and small chemical sprays for self-defense (from their perspective the past is full of barbarians and killers
Each of the guides has a hideout radio (a small, short-range, encrypted radio that fits in a small earpiece, with optional thin antenna wires for improved range (30+km) and a pen-sized drug injector, loaded with a memory erasing sedative.
Guides also have, but may not necessarily carry, an Almanac, a roll-up, scroll-like, slate computer containing a massive amount of relevant data, including maps, biographies, details of historical events and information about local customs. An Almanac does not have an inbuilt cross-temporal data link but it can be linked to one of the temporal communications devices and carry out a differential analysis showing alterations to history.
The model carried by a Scout has far more data, several zettabyes worth, covering a vast swathe of history including languages, customs, locations of past visits and unofficial notes made by other guides and scouts.
Time travel technology
There are two forms of time machine used by the Concern.
Time Capsule.
The Scout Capsule is, externally, a cylinder with tapered ends, about one and a half metres in diameter and two and a quarter high. It rather resembles a soft-drink can scaled up about twenty five times.
Such pods are used by first-in scouts and to otherwise move temports and establish links; they are generally not left ‘in the field’ except during scout missions. It does possess camouflage and security systems
Internally the capsule is intended for a single occupant, with a single chair that rotates to face the controls (which are actually fairly minimal, the pod is highly automated).
Corridor.
In the basement of the Thornton house is the temport4 (which disassembles into a case of around 300 litres, about the volume of a coffee table). It’s self-contained, powered by temporal flux, and can connect to any other temport whose signature code and security key is known.
There is a second, inactive, temport in Cristina’s base that will be linked to the one in the Thornton house for the evacuation.
The ‘temport’ is a form of self-contained time corridor generator; it established a two-way passage between two such devices (provided their signature codes and security keys are known). Two such devices are in Craydon; one in the basement cellar of the Thornton house (this one is set up and operational, but inactive) and the other (set up but not activated) in Cristina’s base. The unit fits into a box approximately 1 metre x 60cm x 50cm (three hundred litres, about the volume of a coffee table) and weighs about a quarter-tonne.
Such temports are the Concern’s usual method of moving tour groups, with one brought to the target location by a scout.
Communicator.
The Concern have access to a crude form of cross-temporal communications link, a briefcase sized device that can transmit code messages between units. The data-rate is low (a few hundred characters per minute at best) and the device is somewhat unreliable and prone to interference. Its signals are quite detectable by more advanced equipment, and susceptible to interference from oddities in the Vortex or disturbances in local space-time.
Time-shuttle.
Rarely deployed are the larger Concern time-craft, usually only employed setting up larger bases or responding to emergencies.
The classic ‘shuttle’ model is a boxy craft with a rounded, tapering front section of about 60 cumet volume; 6.25m long, 4 metres wide and 2.4m high. The control centre (cockpit) usually houses the pilot/operator and mission commander but there are two additional stations, while up to eight passengers or twenty cubic metres of cargo can be carried in the back. Such craft are typically used for rescue missions, in the event of a temport failure for example. The shuttle can be armed, typically with heavy stun weapons or grenade launchers.
The Base in the Woods.
As part of her scouting mission Cristina established a small, well concealed, base in the woodland some distance from the town (in an area out of the path of the fire) when she arrived.
The ‘base’ consists of a five metre hemispherical dome with her Scout Capsule inside along with the equipment and supplies for her original mission. It is well camouflaged with both advanced and period methods.
There’s an inactive, backup, time-passage generator (‘temport’) there along with survival/camping, surveillance and other supplies.
Normally she’d have disassembled the base and returned uptime, but being drafted to replace an unavailable guide prevented this. In addition the secondary base provides an emergency bolthole.
Her equipment cache includes: shimmers, clothing fabber, disguise kit, camosuit, surveillance gear, drones, camping/survival supplies (including small fusion generator, food synthesiser, a portable auto-doc and ration packs), money (currency, gold, simple jewellery), bio-cleanser spray and other drugs.
Her cache includes a few additional weapons (comparable to the weapons case but including compact stun and pulse rifles and a few miniature gas and stun grenades), a couple of shimmers along with a disguise kit, a clothing fabber, a food synthesiser, a suitcase sized auto-doc (immobile medical robot)
To allow for viewing the oncoming tragedy an additional base has been established to accommodate the tourist group in safety and allow them to witness events from a safe vantage.
The Day It Fell Apart5.
On the 27th of July events came to head. It was a complicated and busy day for many people.
The hot dry summer had left the woodland tinder-like. And that night, as the police finally attempted to trap Kelan, the fire began.
The day began sunny and warm with many people complaining of headaches and predicting thunder. Though the weather forecast disagreed with them, nine people knew that not just thunder, but an epic lightning storm was going to happen that evening.
The tourists and their guides discretely left the Thornton house via the temport link for the base in the wood, a vantage point from which to observe the destruction of the town. The guides moved most of the equipment, including camping supplies, via the temport, to the woodlands base and sprayed the house with bio-cleanser. They also left an incendiary charge behind. The disassembled temport would be brought by car to a point near the camp and carried the rest of the way.
As cover they had informed people that the group would be away for a few days.
Kelan had made his own preparations, including establishing his own base in the woods; a cave stocked with camping supplies, weapons and other gear. He’d branched out from his usual recreational crimes of kidnapping, torture and murder, and acquired a compact arsenal of weapons, supplies of antique documentation and money and has downloaded as much potentially useful data as possible.
Kelan’s relationship with Cristina had blossomed; he was very good at manipulating people, and as the fire neared he could see the signs that she was concerned about him. He expected her to warn him about the fire in time for him to escape.
He’d spent much of the preceding weeks gently pumping her for information. While she was a capable field scout, Cristina came from a peaceful, ordered society and her rebellious nature was really quite mild. Likewise the Concern were ridiculously lax about basic security. If he’d been organising these tours security would have been far tighter.
The police had their own plans. Kelan’s attempts to cover his tracks had mostly succeeded, but left enough threads for a skilled and intuitive investigator to weave a tapestry from. He was aware of their suspicions, and that there was a dichotomy between most of the local county police (who were unsure or dubious) and the state and Federal agents, who were convinced of his guilt. This didn’t worry him. His plans were prepared, and tested as well as possible. The storm and fire would provide cover, and there were other surprises waiting, just in case. Including explosives and jammers.
The time travellers still hadn’t detected the bugging software he’d loaded onto their cars’ computer systems, nor the parabolic microphone pointed at the house. This enabled him to record their schedule for the day, and the vital fact
And that's it folks. I never developed the idea further.
Alternatives.
Alternative One – Participant in Death.
The first alternative possibility is that one of the tourists is not just interest in passive observation of death and destruction but becomes an active participant. She may simply engage in some light, recreational, murder or may establish a hideaway of her own for more prolonged torture of her victims. Such a person is likely to have smuggled future-tech weapons and equipment back with her (perhaps hidden in the supply boxes by a suborned Concern staffer).
Of course she might not be familiar enough with local procedures to avoid notice for long, but she won’t be around for long.
Alternative Two – Unnatural Death.
The second alternative is the fire which the tourists have travelled to observe may not have been a natural occurrence after all, but deliberately caused by one of the tourists. The Concern probably isn’t aware of this, so the guides will be unprepared and may interfere.
The arsonist may come equipped with advanced weapons, a grenade launcher with pyro-gel rounds, a drone with cluster-incendiary payload or a bag of plasma bombs, for example. And perhaps other weapons and devices (such as an overpowered stunner, able to kill discreetly, to deal with witnesses).
Alternative Three – Opportunistic Theft.
A third possibility is an attempt to steal a time machine by one of the tourists. Assuming that time travel is strictly regulated, the prolonged presence of a Scout Capsule in past may cause one of the tourists to attempt to steal it. Such a person might be familiar with the security technology and techniques.
Alternative Four – Someone Else’s Masterplan.
A variation on alternative three is that it’s all been planned. The incident that caused Cristina to be drafted as a replacement guide was manufactured to allow for the theft of her capsule by someone other than Kelan.
Such a thief, either one of the tourists or someone from the Concern who planned to manufacture an excuse to return, would be better prepared and equipped than in an opportunistic attempt, with weapons, counter-security devices and more.
Alternative Five – All of the Above.
The tourist group includes some or all of the above options. A recreational killer, an arsonist and two people planning to steal the time capsule. Plus whatever ‘routine’ crimes are being attempted by the tourists and guides, e.g. Nisha’s smuggling.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
NOTES
1. Yes, I haven't detailed this. It was part of the unravelling of Kelans life.
2. I think we can also figure out why....
3. Created using name-generator.org.uk/
4. Why yes, I did play TimeRiders,
5. With apologies to Leslie Fish
As with most of my characters and scenarios the universe is not in danger, the stakes are smaller and more personal.
Kelan and the Odd People.
Location.
Leasstown, a small rural place in the United States (or elsewhere) where nothing much happens. No claims to fame, none of it’s sons and daughters have ever achieved greatness. Population 5,120 at the moment.
In a couple of weeks it’ll be famous around the world, and population zero.
Except for reporters and investigators.
In the Beginning.
Kelan Roberson was a nice, rather quiet, normal person, at least most of the inhabitants of the small town of Leasstown thought so. He’d moved to the town about five years before The Day It Fell Apart and did ‘something with computers’. He owned a largish house on the outskirts of the town, on a plot of land backing into woodland, kept to himself but was polite, friendly and quite helpful, especially with computer problems.
- Which left him with a lot of backdoors into computer systems, including that of the local police.
Thea Holding was the first person in town to start wondering. A rather inquisitive (or just nosy) person she saw a few odd happenings and started wondering. Unfortunately for her she wasn’t very good at concealing her suspicions from Kelan, whose paranoia left him sensitive to such things.
Her death, in a tragic fall in her home, followed quickly.
That’s when his troubles began.
Kelan was annoyed by the necessity of killing the middle-aged woman; he’d moved to the small town with the intention of not killing anyone, at least not anyone from that town. He carefully chose his victims from fairly distant hunting grounds, all in different law enforcement jurisdictions, to avoid attention and all the ensuring problems.
He’d been killing quite successfully for eight years without being suspected once. Well not since that overly curious house-mate in college, but she’d had the misfortune to die in a tragic, and still unsolved, street robbery.
But now he’d been forced to kill someone who lived only a few hundred metres from his own property. A property he’d become very attached to; it was quiet, far more isolated than it looked, and thanks to the mistrust of its builder, back in the paranoid fifties, possessed an extensive and hidden bomb shelter that had been ideal for his proclivities.
It would also, however, be the prime evidence against him if he was seriously suspected. And it would be difficult to sanitise completely
He considered cleaning up, perhaps with a fire, and moving on. But he found Leasstown useful.
The Odd People.
After the second death1 in the town, the new odd event was the group of people who’d rented the Thornton property for the summer. While it had been rented before, much to the annoyance of some in the town who’d wanted it preserved and turned into a museum, these weren’t the same type of partying college kids as last time. They were a sober tour party from Scandinavia, mostly tall blondes with a generic kind of family resemblance, and their guides.
They were quiet, and a little bit odd, but then they were foreigners.
Some people in Leasstown noted the odd perfection and uniformity of their appearance, their slightly ‘off’ manners, their strange connoisseur's attitude to everything, and their secretiveness about their origin.
But they were foreigners....
The Setup.
Kelan was highly intelligent, sociopathic, mildly paranoid and very observant. He’d noticed the oddities of the visitors too, and became curious. They obviously weren’t police, or any official investigators, but they were odd. And his finely tuned instincts, unfettered by the social construct of what was and was not possible, put the details together and came to the logical, if utterly impossible, conclusion.
They were time travellers.
But why were they there? They didn’t seem to be historians, and they weren’t buying much beyond the odd souvenir. After considering, testing and rejecting several hypotheses Kelan came to accept that they were pretty much what they appeared to be; tourists.
But it niggled.
Why here and now? The town of Leasstown seemed to have no logical attraction for such people. It had little history and less importance in the world. Were they merely relaxing? But even that idea just seemed unlikely.
After further investigation, using parabolic microphones, as he was reluctant to burglarise the house to place bugs, he amassed several interesting conversations. Finally, a problem with one of their cars allowed him an opportunity to hack the computers of all three of their rented vehicles and use the systems to eavesdrop and monitor them while they felt safe. So he learned what drew them to somewhere utterly insignificant.
The town was doomed.
Within a couple of weeks it would be destroyed as part of a huge forest fire, rivalling the great Peshtigo fire, and they were here to watch. They were seemingly from a boring future age of peace, plenty and uniformity, and they craved stimulation. Interacting with the soon-to-be dead gave them the necessary emotional invigoration.
Not unlike the Dark tourists of the present day.
There was a Concern that operated the expensive tours and guided them. Three guides and six tourists (‘observers’) constituted this group.
Fascinating.
So he killed one of them, as an experiment.
He was careful of course; planning the death methodically (he'd had practice) and making it appear to have been a rockfall while the man was walking alone in the woods. He’d had a lot of experience at careful, methodical planning and implementation.
And killing.
He observed the actions of the guides covertly via camera and drone. He was reasonably sure that they would accept the accident; he’d deliberately chosen the least popular and most irritating member of the group and left no reason for suspicion.
As he’d expected, the guides soon accepted the death as accidental, and hid it from the town, allowing the tour to continue. These things happened in the Bad Old Days seemed to be their philosophy. Some of the tourists seemed excited, energised, by their personal brush with death.
Kelan formulated a plan; the potential gain was immense. Also he was, apparently, doomed to die anyway.
By eavesdropping on several conversations he’d amassed an understanding of the procedures of the group.
A scout travelled to a suitable location, and planned the tour, arranging suitable accommodation, paperwork, et cetera and planned the itinerary. A portal was established and the tourists and their guides were brought to the past through the portal, along with the necessary supplies.
While the portal connected to the Concern’s facility in the future, in case of need, it was useless to him; a direct attack on such a facility was unlikely to succeed, even if he recruited a force in the present, and infiltration seemed equally unlikely to succeed.
The portals required apparatus at each end, though they could connect to any unrestricted portal.
So there must be another type of time machine, to bring the portal equipment.
The scout’s pod, on the other hand, offered interesting possibilities. It was capable of autonomous operations, travelling under it’s own power to new locations.
And, unusually, this group’s scout had remained, partially as a holiday and partially as a replacement for a guide unable to make the trip.
More importantly so had her pod and equipment, secreted at a base she’d established nearby.
Kelan contemplated several approaches. He could simply grab her and extract the information; he was extremely skilled at inflicting pain, and keeping people alive during the process, but that seemed unlikely to work. She could well have training and equipment that would allow her to resist, escape or call for help. He'd only get one chance.
And, unlike the tourists, the scout (who used the name Cristina Wilcox) was far from clueless and would be (he assumed) skilled, experienced and equipped for operations in the Bad Old Days. Interestingly she’d shown no concerns about him, suggesting that either she was a superb dissembler, or knowledge of his activities hadn’t been part of her briefing.
From the conversations he’d eavesdropped on, there were serious gaps in the knowledge of the time travellers due to catastrophes in the future, including ‘The First Invasion’ in about a hundred and thirty years. Something that one of the tourists had wanted to see but a location the Concern avoided2.
So he decided to play to his other strong suite, his interpersonal skills.
Kelan could be very charming, it was one way to put his victims off guard, and he’d spoken to ‘Cristina’ several times in one of the local cafes. She seemed to have a taste for coffee and chocolate and took an almost rapturous pleasure in them.
He planned carefully; he’d need to ensure that she didn’t simply zap his brain, as he figured happened to a couple of people in town. But from their conversations she seemed slightly bored.
- Fire as the climax of a six week tour, travelling around to see the country.
One morning he dropped in to the coffee shop and engaged her in idle conversation about the book she was reading. They he dropped his bomb: “So, when exactly are you from?”
After she’d cleared her nostrils of choco-latte, he enumerated the faults in the group’s disguise. This had to be handled carefully, he’s only get one chance with her. So, before she could attempt anything he warned he that he’d placed caches of information on the internet, just in case. Then he smiled.
After some surprisingly unconvincing denials (presumably she wasn’t prepared for this) she admitted the truth. Kelan simulated smug satisfaction at having his hypothesis confirmed and assured her that he would maintain her secret, quoting Jefferson; "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg".
He fed her a story he’d devised, that he believed that the tourists were simple observers, that he was unaware of the disaster and death to come.
Her guilt at knowing about his probable, preordained, death should help her to believe his lies. He intended to play on that quilt.
The Plan.
Kelan’s plan was basically simple, and just in case he had a backup.
He intended to steal the Scout Capsule and learn how to operate it, preferably after disabling any security, tracking or recall devices. He needed Cristina for this, at least for a while. With the capsule he could escape to the past and build a new life.
So many people, such poor law enforcement…
- He speculated about time travel, were there other independents? A community he could tap into? So much to learn.
Secondary to this objective was any other useful equipment the tourist group had.
Tertiary was the elimination of the tourists and their guides, using the fire as cover. This could explain the loss of the capsule.
As a last-resort alternative he could use the destruction of the fire to cover his escape and hunt for other time travellers.
He would cultivate a friendship with Cristina, using a seemingly natural curiosity to explain his questions.
People3.
Robert Gustafsson Tourist male
Kenneth Hansen Tourist male deceased
Hugo Lawson Guide male
Kristine Nilsson Tourist female
Eric Olofsson Tourist male
Magdalena Pettersson Tourist female
Dagmar Simon Tourist female
Nisha West Senior Guide female
Cristina Wilcox Scout female
Gear.
Nominally only the three guides are armed, with pen-sized stun weapons (‘cerebral disrupters’) that dislocate the brain functions of humans and animals, causing unconsciousness or a inducing a hypnagogic state of suggestibility. The weapon is silent and invisible in operation, but has a range of only about ten metres at most.
There was a securely locked briefcase sized box in the room of the senior guide, Nisha West, in the Thornton house. This contains six cerebral disrupters, three more powerful stun wands and a single pulser, plus additional power packs.
Cristina has a similar box in her base, though that one contains fewer weapons and disassembled stun and pulse rifles along with a few stun and gas grenades for emergencies.
Cristina is a long-service professional and also carries a compact period pistol (against Concern guidelines), more as a threat or deterrent than a weapon, as futuristic weapons do not appear threatening to the locals.
One of the other guides, Nisha, also carries one. In fact Nisha is a collector and has amassed a cache of period firearms that she plans to smuggle home.
- Among the weapons she’s amassed are: Glock 17, 20 and 26 pistols, Browning HP35, CZ-75, , three .357 revolvers, one M27 .44 revolver, two .22 Walthers, an Armalite AR-7, one 9mm Beretta 92R, two SIG P228s and a .32 Beretta M83. Plus magazines and ammunition. She prefers to carry a Walther PPS.
All the tourists and guides carry ‘comms’ advanced replica smartphones (with secure communications, navigation and tracking software; these are independent of local cellular networks and effectively impossible to intercept, jam or even detect with C21 technology) that include camera functions; money (cash and electronic), high quality fake identity documents (which will show as genuine on all but the most secure computer databases) and small chemical sprays for self-defense (from their perspective the past is full of barbarians and killers
Each of the guides has a hideout radio (a small, short-range, encrypted radio that fits in a small earpiece, with optional thin antenna wires for improved range (30+km) and a pen-sized drug injector, loaded with a memory erasing sedative.
Guides also have, but may not necessarily carry, an Almanac, a roll-up, scroll-like, slate computer containing a massive amount of relevant data, including maps, biographies, details of historical events and information about local customs. An Almanac does not have an inbuilt cross-temporal data link but it can be linked to one of the temporal communications devices and carry out a differential analysis showing alterations to history.
The model carried by a Scout has far more data, several zettabyes worth, covering a vast swathe of history including languages, customs, locations of past visits and unofficial notes made by other guides and scouts.
Time travel technology
There are two forms of time machine used by the Concern.
Time Capsule.
The Scout Capsule is, externally, a cylinder with tapered ends, about one and a half metres in diameter and two and a quarter high. It rather resembles a soft-drink can scaled up about twenty five times.
Such pods are used by first-in scouts and to otherwise move temports and establish links; they are generally not left ‘in the field’ except during scout missions. It does possess camouflage and security systems
Internally the capsule is intended for a single occupant, with a single chair that rotates to face the controls (which are actually fairly minimal, the pod is highly automated).
Corridor.
In the basement of the Thornton house is the temport4 (which disassembles into a case of around 300 litres, about the volume of a coffee table). It’s self-contained, powered by temporal flux, and can connect to any other temport whose signature code and security key is known.
- If the temport is in ‘quiet mode’ it does not transmit a signature code or respond to broadcast attempts; in this case the location of the temport is required as well.
There is a second, inactive, temport in Cristina’s base that will be linked to the one in the Thornton house for the evacuation.
The ‘temport’ is a form of self-contained time corridor generator; it established a two-way passage between two such devices (provided their signature codes and security keys are known). Two such devices are in Craydon; one in the basement cellar of the Thornton house (this one is set up and operational, but inactive) and the other (set up but not activated) in Cristina’s base. The unit fits into a box approximately 1 metre x 60cm x 50cm (three hundred litres, about the volume of a coffee table) and weighs about a quarter-tonne.
- The units are self-powered, drawing energy from Vortex fluctuations. In fact they can be used as a power source, though this causes detectable ‘ripples’ if much power is supplied.
Such temports are the Concern’s usual method of moving tour groups, with one brought to the target location by a scout.
Communicator.
The Concern have access to a crude form of cross-temporal communications link, a briefcase sized device that can transmit code messages between units. The data-rate is low (a few hundred characters per minute at best) and the device is somewhat unreliable and prone to interference. Its signals are quite detectable by more advanced equipment, and susceptible to interference from oddities in the Vortex or disturbances in local space-time.
Time-shuttle.
Rarely deployed are the larger Concern time-craft, usually only employed setting up larger bases or responding to emergencies.
The classic ‘shuttle’ model is a boxy craft with a rounded, tapering front section of about 60 cumet volume; 6.25m long, 4 metres wide and 2.4m high. The control centre (cockpit) usually houses the pilot/operator and mission commander but there are two additional stations, while up to eight passengers or twenty cubic metres of cargo can be carried in the back. Such craft are typically used for rescue missions, in the event of a temport failure for example. The shuttle can be armed, typically with heavy stun weapons or grenade launchers.
The Base in the Woods.
As part of her scouting mission Cristina established a small, well concealed, base in the woodland some distance from the town (in an area out of the path of the fire) when she arrived.
The ‘base’ consists of a five metre hemispherical dome with her Scout Capsule inside along with the equipment and supplies for her original mission. It is well camouflaged with both advanced and period methods.
There’s an inactive, backup, time-passage generator (‘temport’) there along with survival/camping, surveillance and other supplies.
Normally she’d have disassembled the base and returned uptime, but being drafted to replace an unavailable guide prevented this. In addition the secondary base provides an emergency bolthole.
Her equipment cache includes: shimmers, clothing fabber, disguise kit, camosuit, surveillance gear, drones, camping/survival supplies (including small fusion generator, food synthesiser, a portable auto-doc and ration packs), money (currency, gold, simple jewellery), bio-cleanser spray and other drugs.
Her cache includes a few additional weapons (comparable to the weapons case but including compact stun and pulse rifles and a few miniature gas and stun grenades), a couple of shimmers along with a disguise kit, a clothing fabber, a food synthesiser, a suitcase sized auto-doc (immobile medical robot)
To allow for viewing the oncoming tragedy an additional base has been established to accommodate the tourist group in safety and allow them to witness events from a safe vantage.
The Day It Fell Apart5.
On the 27th of July events came to head. It was a complicated and busy day for many people.
The hot dry summer had left the woodland tinder-like. And that night, as the police finally attempted to trap Kelan, the fire began.
The day began sunny and warm with many people complaining of headaches and predicting thunder. Though the weather forecast disagreed with them, nine people knew that not just thunder, but an epic lightning storm was going to happen that evening.
The tourists and their guides discretely left the Thornton house via the temport link for the base in the wood, a vantage point from which to observe the destruction of the town. The guides moved most of the equipment, including camping supplies, via the temport, to the woodlands base and sprayed the house with bio-cleanser. They also left an incendiary charge behind. The disassembled temport would be brought by car to a point near the camp and carried the rest of the way.
As cover they had informed people that the group would be away for a few days.
Kelan had made his own preparations, including establishing his own base in the woods; a cave stocked with camping supplies, weapons and other gear. He’d branched out from his usual recreational crimes of kidnapping, torture and murder, and acquired a compact arsenal of weapons, supplies of antique documentation and money and has downloaded as much potentially useful data as possible.
Kelan’s relationship with Cristina had blossomed; he was very good at manipulating people, and as the fire neared he could see the signs that she was concerned about him. He expected her to warn him about the fire in time for him to escape.
He’d spent much of the preceding weeks gently pumping her for information. While she was a capable field scout, Cristina came from a peaceful, ordered society and her rebellious nature was really quite mild. Likewise the Concern were ridiculously lax about basic security. If he’d been organising these tours security would have been far tighter.
The police had their own plans. Kelan’s attempts to cover his tracks had mostly succeeded, but left enough threads for a skilled and intuitive investigator to weave a tapestry from. He was aware of their suspicions, and that there was a dichotomy between most of the local county police (who were unsure or dubious) and the state and Federal agents, who were convinced of his guilt. This didn’t worry him. His plans were prepared, and tested as well as possible. The storm and fire would provide cover, and there were other surprises waiting, just in case. Including explosives and jammers.
The time travellers still hadn’t detected the bugging software he’d loaded onto their cars’ computer systems, nor the parabolic microphone pointed at the house. This enabled him to record their schedule for the day, and the vital fact
And that's it folks. I never developed the idea further.
Alternatives.
Alternative One – Participant in Death.
The first alternative possibility is that one of the tourists is not just interest in passive observation of death and destruction but becomes an active participant. She may simply engage in some light, recreational, murder or may establish a hideaway of her own for more prolonged torture of her victims. Such a person is likely to have smuggled future-tech weapons and equipment back with her (perhaps hidden in the supply boxes by a suborned Concern staffer).
Of course she might not be familiar enough with local procedures to avoid notice for long, but she won’t be around for long.
- A few light weapons (stunner or cerebral disrupter), disguise (shimmer) and personal transmat.
Alternative Two – Unnatural Death.
The second alternative is the fire which the tourists have travelled to observe may not have been a natural occurrence after all, but deliberately caused by one of the tourists. The Concern probably isn’t aware of this, so the guides will be unprepared and may interfere.
- Or maybe they are aware and need to preserve history. Might there be a second team in place?
The arsonist may come equipped with advanced weapons, a grenade launcher with pyro-gel rounds, a drone with cluster-incendiary payload or a bag of plasma bombs, for example. And perhaps other weapons and devices (such as an overpowered stunner, able to kill discreetly, to deal with witnesses).
Alternative Three – Opportunistic Theft.
A third possibility is an attempt to steal a time machine by one of the tourists. Assuming that time travel is strictly regulated, the prolonged presence of a Scout Capsule in past may cause one of the tourists to attempt to steal it. Such a person might be familiar with the security technology and techniques.
- The thief might have a few minor bits of advanced technology, such as a slate loaded with a suite of intrusion software and perhaps a couple of concealable tools. In addition they may be able to circumvent security on the time capsule and temport, disable the defenses on Cristina’s base and open the weapons box.
Alternative Four – Someone Else’s Masterplan.
A variation on alternative three is that it’s all been planned. The incident that caused Cristina to be drafted as a replacement guide was manufactured to allow for the theft of her capsule by someone other than Kelan.
Such a thief, either one of the tourists or someone from the Concern who planned to manufacture an excuse to return, would be better prepared and equipped than in an opportunistic attempt, with weapons, counter-security devices and more.
- Such a planner would be prepared and well equipped, with weapons to overcome the tourists and guides and counter-security gear to make their escape.
Alternative Five – All of the Above.
The tourist group includes some or all of the above options. A recreational killer, an arsonist and two people planning to steal the time capsule. Plus whatever ‘routine’ crimes are being attempted by the tourists and guides, e.g. Nisha’s smuggling.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
NOTES
1. Yes, I haven't detailed this. It was part of the unravelling of Kelans life.
2. I think we can also figure out why....
3. Created using name-generator.org.uk/
4. Why yes, I did play TimeRiders,
5. With apologies to Leslie Fish