We arrived at a small shack, the orange glow I spotted in the distance being the glow from a crackling fire.
Eli didn’t bother knocking, instead he just pushed the crappy wooden door open as if he had just arrived home. It was cold despite the fire and surprisingly inviting though no one was inside.
There were no rooms, rather different ‘areas’ which were only discernible by furniture placed across the small hut. Only a living area combined with a bedroom and a tiny slither of what you might call a kitchen. If you count a rudimentary bench with some buckets as a kitchen.
“We’ve got some more preparation to do before morning,” said Eli.
He waved me across the shack where he pushed one of the small stones. A loud click pulled my attention over to the floor where some false planks lifted up. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“What?” Said Eli.
“It’s not like anyone in this time period is going to expect false floors and a trigger stone in this crap shack.”
He too laughed as he struggled to bend over to lift the false patch of floor. Bright white lights illuminated up revealing metal staircase lined by white walls leading downward.
“Close the floor behind you please.”
Down below it felt like I was back on the station or even Salvation rather than a subsurface hidey hole that was in fact a research lab.
At the end of the entry hall was a massive reinforced door with keypad entry.
“Is this bomb proof? I wouldn’t expect anyone to breach this. Seems kinda…overkill.”
He scoffed as he put in a code and the door released.
“Think ahead Alex. In a couple hundred years, give or take, nuclear fission will be discovered.”
“Uh wha—.”
“Dr Wilson. We weren’t expecting you so soon,” Interrupted a woman.
“Yes, well I had to bring it forward. Can you get the team to retrieve the pod.”
“Already on it sir.”
Eli gave her a nod but she lingered for a moment with an ahem. I raised an eyebrow at the awkward exchange but Eli remained silent and motioned me to follow, forcing the woman to step out of the way. She was fishing for an introduction and for some reason Eli was reluctant to give it up.
We walked deeper into the labs until finally arriving at a large room with screens that lined the walls.
There were charts, diagrams, and information of planets. All of them with comparisons against Earth as well as civilisation timelines marked.
“What is this?”
“The planets that humans have reached. Ones that we are aware of at least. Soon Biterra will be added thanks to the logs we got off you and your craft.”
“Might be a bit outdated now.” I said.
“It’s a start,” sighed Eli.
He looked across all the screens with pride before turning back to me.
“We’ll come back to that. Let’s get dressed and I’ll show you around the local town.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He pulled out some clothes from the container and threw them at me. It was medieval alright. Did I ever in my wildest imagination think that I’d be getting thrown around the universe to parade around and partake in roleplay? nope!
***
”To our North is the town of Gart, to our east and south is the ocean, to our west is.. actually don’t worry you’ll never go there.”
The sun was starting to rise and we had been carefully weaving through the forest for over an hour. To be honest it was a nice change of pace, and reminded me of the English countryside on Earth, before it decided to die.
“Keep on your toes Alex. There have been increasing raids on these towns from the ocean in past years.”
Great.
***
The wooded path had finally started to open up as we came across two flags hanging on stakes either side of it. We were entering the town's limits.
There were small plots of farm land that led up to a large fortified wall. The roofs of buildings became visible as they scaled up to high ground behind the wall where a castle sat on top, looking over the town and the valleys that surrounded it.
Eli was a familiar face to the townsfolk, with many stopping to welcome him back after his travels. I guess he had told them he travelled the lands to explain his long absences from the town, meanwhile he was actually up in a space station.
This is fucking crazy.
It was literally stepping back in time. But it wasn’t. I was a tourist. A fucking alien tourist. Well we were the same but I wasn’t from this planet. Textbook alien.
It wasn’t long before we stopped by a workshop. Loud bangs and clangs of metal on metal got louder as we approached the large open doors.
Inside was a heavily built man smashing a hammer against a sword he was working on. He glanced up and didn’t look like someone you’d want to interrupt, until he saw Eli.
“Ah Eli, my old friend. Come. Come,” he said.
He waved him in for a hug before Eli got straight to the point.
“I’ve got somewhere to be but I have a new idea for you to explore.”
Eli handed the blacksmith some drawings. They looked like sketches of weaponry. Not swords but more like crude guns.
“Thanks. I’m — uh — sure I’ll figure it out.”
The blacksmith looked a little confused but Eli reassured him that it would eventually make sense and that he’d figure it out before we continued up along the narrow streets.
The streets hardly seemed to have any kind of logic behind them. They curved and zig-zagged all over the place, but Eli knew his way around.
We eventually turned down more of a corridor rather than a street, it barely fit one person. My shoulders grazed against the seeping stones as I followed Eli down the darkened path before we arrived at a door.
He gently knocked and the door swung open to a quirky looking man that had thick circle glasses that were held on by thick leather straps. I could barely get a good look at him as the alley was too narrow and Eli didn’t enter. He did however hand him a scroll of parchment which the man delightfully took in his blackened sooty hand.
I started to guess that the man could have been an alchemist. An early scientist I guess you could say where he had to hide away in some dingy alleyway.
But what was Eli handing him?
“What was that?” I asked.
“You know. Sometimes they need a little push in the right direction.”
“Sounds like you guys are breaking your own rules.”
He was purposely vague. He didn’t want to directly tell me what he was up to but it was easy to take a guess. Eli was handing out future inventions, I was sure of it.
As we shuffled out of the tight alleyway, bells were tolling.
“Must be something happening over at the church,” Eli said.
Sure enough, once we got back to one of the towns main thoroughfares, people were making their way up to a church built into the edge of the large hill that the castle sat atop of.
The streets were chatty as people moved along until shrieks and screams sent the streets into disarray.
“They’re coming. They’re here. They’re going to destroy us all!” Yelled an unknown voice.
A man ran into the narrow street in front of us and grabbed a woman by her shoulders, shaking her to listen to him.
“Please listen to me. This timeline isn’t safe for us.”
He started to clutch the side of his head and started stumbling forward crashing into a street stall before leaning against one of the cold stone walls that lined the narrow street.
“They’re up there watching us. No. I’m not supposed to be here!”
His ramblings had the whole street at a standstill while he was pointing up to the sky.
I was floored, as was Eli. He turned to look at me with fear in his eyes. It was something that he wasn’t expecting down here on the surface.
A woman came rushing up behind him to grab him. He started to flail his arms to resist before giving in.
“Shut up. You’re going to get us fucking killed,” she yelled.
The couple started to move briskly down the street in the opposite direction of the flow of people. Ahead there were some guards talking to a group of people investigating the disturbance.
“We need to get to them before they do,” said Eli.
We started to trail behind them to either follow them to their home or to get them out of the town.
“What the fuck is going on down here Eli? They’re not from this planet are they?”
“No and I have no idea how they made it to the surface undetected.”