Ramsey Bones: Temporal Agent
Ramsey Bones: Temporal Agent
2015
ONE
He woke huddled in a cramped cave to the sound of HQ’s voice, heavy with the static of the intervening millenia: “HQ to agent Bones. HQ to agent Bones. Come in, B.”
He closed his eyes and held his hands to his head, discombobulated. Garbled voices, images, and places rang like reflections off a broken mirror in his mind. He felt he should recognise them.
“HQ to agent Bones, you there, Bruiser?
He gargled ..."Coming."
He pulled himself to his haunches with a grunt, took a step, fell, and snatched the radio off a ledge before reacquanting with the floor. “Bones,” he croaked.
“Bruiser!” said HQ: “Glad to hear you’re still with us, buddy.”
“What’n the heck’s goin’ on, HQ?” he grimaced. “Where am I?”
“Relax, Bones, you’re in the right place: Melbourne, Australia, year 3142.”
Bruiser located his pack and gataxe at the cave’s entrance. “The future,” he said. “Cool.”
“The past, actually. Over two millennia into the past. The present is 5487. A bit of memory loss is normal after a temporal jump ...don’t worry, it’ll restore itself within about an hour.”
“’Kay,” he said, using the wall for support and clambering to his feet. “So what am I doin’ here?”
“Your current location is a very important one,” said HQ. “’One of many centralised locations woven into the threads of intra dimensional spacetime, allowing for the structural unanimity of the multiverse, and preventing individual universes from spiralling uselessly away into unmanifested infinity’ ...or so the scientists say, but I’ll tell you this for sure, B: a lot of weird stuff’s happening around there ...and here, too, for that matter. Everywhere, really. ‘Convulsions in the fabric of reality’ ...more science jargon.”
“Hectic,” said Bruiser, cracking his back.
“Indeed it is,” said HQ. “Now listen up, Bones: Information’s come our way that somewhere where you are is an elixir, or a formula used to make an elixir, or something like that ...”
“Nice intel.”
“ ...put there by an unidentified species from approximately the year eleven thousand, CE. We don’t know their origin, or their motivation, but what they left behind is being called the ‘elixir of life', and it’s our second top priority right now, and you know what else, Bones?”
“You gonna tell me the top priority?” asked Bruiser, cracking his neck.
“You’re the one who’s supposed to be on it.”
“Hmphh,” said Bruiser. ”Where are the guys?”
“Jimmy’s in the CBD, investigating the phenomenon detected at Flinders’ street station ...some kind of portal that opens to alternate timelines, so far as I can glean. Even the scientists are clueless on that one. And Zac’s in North Melbourne, tracking a couple’ slugs who’re upto something. We’re going to see where they lead us.”
“Where’s Di?”
“We lost contact with her about half an hour ago in South Melbourne. You know her, B; always in and out of sight; a rabbit on her feet.”
“That’s what concerns me,” he grumbled.
“Quit whingeing, Bones, and get your tardy arse out there and find us that elixir before the slugs do.”
“Oka ...,” The radio cut out.
TWO
Bruiser stepped out of the cave and onto a plateau overlooking Melbourne. An immense dome filled the sky, slanting down to meet the earth somewhere over the horizon. The city was desolate.
He slung himself over the precipice and climbed down the rock face, coming to ground in a dry riverbed. Heading south, he pulled a GPS from his pack and keyed in some digits to ascertain his current location: roughly 7km north of the CBD. Flinders’ street clocks were marked with an X. Next to this was a dot, marked Jimmy. Halfway between himself and Jimmy was a second dot, marked zac. He looked for another dot; there was none. Bruiser tucked the
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 12.04.2019
ISBN: 978-3-7487-0159-0
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