Timeslingers

Timeslingers

Jay Sherer

Nathan Scheck

Produced by the Reclamation Society

www.reclamationsociety.org

First Edition – April 2012

Second Edition – July 2019

Copyright © 2012–2019, Jay Sherer & Nathan Scheck

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-7338398-1-5

Dedicated to my mom, Karen Sherer.

I miss you, Mom.    – Jay

Table of Contents

Timeslingers

Introduction

Episode 0

Episode 0-1: Ancient History

Episode 0-2: Escalation

Episode 0-3: Sending a Message

Episode 0-4: Desperation

Episode 0-5: The Formula

Episode 0-6: Changing the World

Episode 0-7: The Hero

Episode 1

Episode 1-1: Dallas

Episode 1-2: Shots Fired

Episode 1-3: Bad Tidings

Episode 2

Episode 2-1: Florida

Episode 2-2: The Gambler

Episode 2-3: Next Steps

Episode 3

Episode 3-1: The FBI Agent

Episode 3-2: Hunted, Part 1

Episode 3-3: Hunted, Part 2

Episode 4

Episode 4-1: Digging Deeper

Episode 4-2: The Bounty Hunter

Episode 4-3: Dealing with the Devil

Episode 5

Episode 5-1: Sabotage

Episode 5-2: Lift-off

Episode 5-3: Progress

Episode 6

Episode 6-1: Reaction

Episode 6-2: Dealing Arms

Episode 6-3: The Exodus Project

Episode 7

Episode 7-1: Possible XLS Target Identified

Episode 7-2: The Getaway

Episode 7-3: Trapped

Episode 8

Episode 8-1: Dreams

Episode 8-2: Disaster

Episode 8-3: The Request

Episode 9

Episode 9-1: Roadblock

Episode 9-2: Mercs

Episode 9-3: Against Protocol

Episode 9-4: Transfer

Episode 10

Episode 10-1: The Cold War

Episode 10-2: Fra Mauro

Episode 10-3: Egorov’s Estate

Episode 11

Episode 11-1: The Cloaking Device

Episode 11-2: Russian Opulence

Episode 11-3: A Missing Piece

Episode 12

Episode 12-1: The Behemoth

Episode 12-2: Convergence

Episode 12-3: The Offer

Episode 13

Episode 13-1: New Management

Episode 13-2: Escape

Episode 13-3: Objectives

Episode 14

Episode 14-1: Fugitives

Episode 14-2: Condition Red

Episode 14-3: Tremors

Episode 15

Episode 15-1: The Confidence Game

Episode 15-2: Worth dying for?

Episode 15-3: 6.3

Episode 16

Episode 16-1: Snap!

Episode 16-2: Detour

Episode 16-3: A New Bounty

Episode 17

Episode 17-1: More Lies

Episode 17-2: Exit Strategy

Episode 17-3: Entry Point

Episode 18

Episode 18-1: Interrogation

Episode 18-2: Not Again…

Episode 18-3: Security Problems

Episode 19

Episode 19-1: The Truth Revealed

Episode 19-2: Barracks

Episode 19-3: Reviving the Dead

Episode 20

Episode 20-1: Five Minutes, Forty-Seven Seconds

Episode 20-2: The Lost Sister

Episode 20-3: …it’s too late.

Episode 21

Episode 21-1: Trust Issues

Episode 21-2: Subassembly

Episode 21-3: No Timeslinger Left Behind

Episode 22

Episode 22-1: One Last Obstacle

Episode 22-2: Restricted Access

Episode 22-3: A Bargaining Chip

Episode 23

Episode 23-1: Unexpected Teamwork

Episode 23-2: Homecoming

Episode 23-3: The Countdown Begins

Episode 23-4: Infestation

Episode 24

Episode 24-1: The Explosion

Episode 24-2: The Powers that Be

Episode 24-3: Decommissioning

Episode 24-4: The End of the Beginning

About the Creators

Author’s Appreciation

Introduction

First, I’d like to personally thank you for purchasing Timeslingers! On behalf of Nathan Scheck—my co-author and illustrator—and from me personally: we both appreciate you. There are so many stories out there, thank you for choosing ours. We hope you enjoy it!

You’re about to read the second edition of Timeslingers. Nathan and I conceptualized Timeslingers way back in 2005. We wanted to do a serial story—just like what we used to read as kids in weekly newspapers—but apply that style of storytelling to the digital age. In 2006, we launched timeslingers.net, and then began to release Timeslingers episode-by-episode.

Writing for a serial story, particularly for an online audience, required us to test new ideas and learn how to deliver our story in the most compelling way possible. We cut our posts from 800 words down to 350 words per installment. The writing grew tighter, the posts shorter, we added more illustrations, and we packed every episode with as much suspense as we could. And, taking a page from the TV show 24 and those old newspaper serials, we ended each episode with a cliffhanger.

In 2012, we complied all our online posts into a novel: Timeslingers. That’s what you’re about to read. We hope you love it, and if you do, please consider reviewing the novel on Amazon.com.

If you want to learn more about our upcoming projects, including our new steampunk novel, Death of a Bounty Hunter, head on over to reclamationsociety.org. I’m really excited about Death of a Bounty Hunter because the audiobook version is a full-cast read, meaning all the characters are brought to life by voice actors!

Finally, if you love science fiction, fantasy, and comic books as much as we do… check out The Story Geeks podcast. I’m a host on that show, and I’d love for you to check it out. Find out more at thestorygeeks.com.

Thanks again for reading, and welcome aboard, timeslinger.

Sincerely,

Timeslingers author, Jay Sherer

For more stories produced by the Reclamation Society, visit:

www.reclamationsociety.org

To join The Story Geeks community, visit:

www.thestorygeeks.com

Episode 0

Episode 0-1: Ancient History

JULY 14, 2008

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORIES (LANL) – WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT BUILDING – NEW MEXICO, USA

Marcus Kline

Marcus Kline leapt up the stairs. Two at a time. Black tie fluttering over his shoulder. He reached the sixth floor. Slowed to a quick stride. Stopped at the third door on the left. He pushed it open. Inside the small office, Eric Randolph hovered over a computer terminal. He threw up his hands.

This is pointless. This stuff’s ancient. We need a different strategy.

So far, they had managed to circumvent all of LANL’s advanced security systems while avoiding detection. The vacant office on the sixth floor of the Weapons Development Building had served as their temporary headquarters, giving them direct access to LANL’s network, but it wasn’t getting them what they needed.

Kline nodded. And we’ve got company. Union agents are close. Let’s go.

Eric shut the terminal down and jumped up. They exited the office. Thunderous classical music pumped through the building’s speaker system. Too loud for pleasure, the booming music proved perfect for security, keeping covert conversations protected from prying ears and sophisticated listening devices alike.

LANL: Los Alamos National Laboratories. Birthplace of the Manhattan Project. Now, a defense and sciences mecca. Hundreds of the smartest people on earth. Scientists on the bleeding edge. Nut cases in any other setting, but heroes here. Kline and Eric were searching for information from one such scientist—Rahul Banerjee, a physicist tasked with conceptualizing secret weapons for the United States.

They had traveled back through time to 2008. Their objective: steal all of Rahul Banerjee’s files and formulas associated with cloaking technology. After searching LANL’s network for three days they had come up empty. The clandestine approach wasn’t working.

Time for plan B.

As Kline neared the stairwell that would lead them down to the ground floor, Eric grabbed his arm. He grinned. A rectangular piece of clay with wires protruding from the top rested in his palm.

Kline shoved the rudimentary explosive back at him, What’s that?

Plan B. Forget Banerjee. Let’s send them a message!

We’re not here to make a statement. We’re here for information. Put that away! We’re going to the source.

Kline hustled down the staircase to the ground floor lobby and rushed to the front door. No sooner had he pulled it open–

eeeeiiiiiiiiieeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaahhhHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The alarm meant lockdown. Within a few minutes LANL’s Special Response Team would swarm the building, but they would be too late. Kline and Eric slipped outside.

Eric stuffed his hands into his pockets. They’re trying to flush us out into the open.

Kline squinted. And so they have. Now let’s see if they can catch up.

Episode 0-2: Escalation

JULY 14, 2008

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORIES (LANL) – NEW MEXICO, USA

Hector Salazar and Jack Harrington

Heavily armored Special Response Team units roared past the nondescript sports utility vehicle parked at the side of the road. Inside the SUV, Hector Salazar, Union Subdivision’s timeslinger team lead, frowned.

If setting off the alarm doesn’t force them out into the open, the SRT should.

Nothing yet, said Jack Harrington. His eyes monitored the stream of information flowing through his datapad. Wait–

The Subdivision team held their breath. Xi’an Liberation Society timeslingers had been evading them for days, but this time the Subdivision agents were closing in, and not a moment too soon. The XLS wanted classified information dating back to 2008—almost two centuries ago. Union Subdivision’s best guess was that the XLS was after research gathered by a scientist named Rahul Banerjee, an Indian immigrant who had conceptualized the formula for advanced stealth technology, or cloaking.

Introduced to the scientific community at Los Alamos in 2008, cloaking technology would become a reality about eighty years later in 2091. But ever since its inception, cloaking technology had always faced severe limitations related to the mass and size of the cloaked object. In the present time, 2147—a century and a half after the theory had been published—no one had been able to cloak anything larger than a human being.

In July of 2008, cloaking’s pioneer, Banerjee, had claimed that his approach could cloak an entire city. However, before Banerjee had completed his theory, he had died from a drug overdose. His undocumented formulas were lost to history, and no one since had ever overcome cloaking technology’s limitations.

XLS timeslingers had traveled back to 2008 to contact Banerjee before his impending death. Hector and his team had to stop them.

Their network connection terminated just before the alarm went off, said Jack. They’re moving.

Hector engaged his datapad’s communicator. Keep your eyes open, guys.

Nothing here, Jessica Prentice reported.

Got ‘em! said Sam. I’ve got eyes on two XLS timeslingers heading toward the Theoretical Sciences Building!

That’s Banerjee’s current location, said Jack. You think they’re just gonna go ask him?

Hector gunned the engine. The SUV lurched forward. Let’s go find out.

The Theoretical Sciences Building had beige wood siding with green trim—a perfect blend of sophisticated design styles that only scientists and government officials could pull off. It looked like something out of a 1950’s sci-fi flick.

Sam darted out from a side road and met their SUV at the front of the building.

They just ducked into the second door. One of them pulled a gun.

Episode 0-3: Sending a Message