chapter 1

Prologue

It took three months just to figure out the correct date in the past where he had lost it. His drunken bender had taken him through dozens of places and times that it was embarrassing to just search through the logs of his travels.

"Dad, I think I found it! 2012, August 27th. That has to be where I lost it." Herman Jr. shouted.

The head of the family slouched to the data center and looked at the charts quickly.

"Mm, yes looks right. Now get your lazy, spoiled ass back in that time and find the damn thing! The prototype is the only one in existence and you better get it back or you won't be inheriting a dime from me." Herman senior grumbled and left the room.

Junior stroked his spiky blue hair and sighed. Now that he had been sober for the past months, he had no idea what had made him steal the mysterious gadget from the labs in his drunken haze. He had only faint recollections what places he had visited in 2012 and those he couldn't see from the logs. He'd have to travel back and try to find it there.

Herman senior had briefed him about the device so he could find it more easily. As the device operated by transferring objects through space instantly, whoever might have found it and would (hopefully) be using it, would leave tales of mysterious disappearances of small objects. The device, his father had told him, could teleport objects of any kind up to 4 pounds in mass, but no bigger. Most of the development had gone into the device's capability to analyse the target where the result of the teleport would be placed and determine if it could be moved there and in what form. And the device was also able to learn very much of its user and the surrounding environment. In other words it was possible to teach it.

He had been lucky to lose the gadget in 2012 when all information was networked. Now he could at least utilize his personal data agent to scan the ancient network for the data he wanted. He should be able to find the place where the device was being used easily enough. If it was used. If it wasn't in use, he'd be screwed. But this he didn't tell his father. If he couldn't find it, he'd have to stay in 2012 and try to hide.