The Time Traveler's words shocked me. "How did all this happen?", I eventually managed to get out.
Dante took a seat on the bench again.
The following is the story how Dante told it to me. I might not have all the details exactly as he told it to me, but here is how I remember Dante telling it;
"This all started one Saturday afternoon. It was June 21st 3039, Amelio's birthday and me and the guys were just goofing around, having beers and playing some games. Amelio didn't want a big thing for his birthday because he had just broken up with Cassandra and was scared she might log an Androbot* to spy on him. She had always been a crazy bitch.
We had the TV on in the background because we were waiting for the Real Madrid game. At the time there was a documentary on channel 15, something about suicide jumps from the world's highest buildings throughout history, but only Raúl was connected** to it and watching.
A little while earlier we were having a Cythonic*** duel with Amelio, but after a few games Raúl go tired of losing.
I have just upgraded to the next level and I was sneaking up behind Amelio's avatar when suddenly my transmission got interrupted. I logged out of the Cython and Amelio immediately followed.
Raúl had terminated the feed and was standing with the crystal-feeder**** in his hand.
"Hey man, what did you do that for?", Amelio and I asked in unison while we were wiping the extra charge° from our SNS.
"Compadres, I have a a crazy idea!", Raúl said after taking another sip of his beer. Of the three of us, he was the smallest but he was also the most impulsive and definitely the most reckless. Raúl had been incarcerated more than I cared to remember and he was definitely not hesitant to take even more crazy risks when the opportunity presented itself.
I looked at Raúl standing in front of us with a cheeky grin on his face. He had that familiar look in his eyes and I knew that it meant trouble was brewing.
Amelio was more gullible and also more prone to going along with Raúl's stupid ideas than I was.
"Spit it out compadre!", Amelio said, "What have you got for me?"
"Have any of you losers you ever seen a dead body?", Raúl asked.
"I saw my grandfather at his funeral when I was sixteen", I said.
"No, no, no. I meant have you ever seen a fresh one? Right after the soul has left the body?", Raúl said dramatizing every word.
We both shook our heads.
"So what you saying Raúl?“, Amelio asked, "You saying we should kill somebody?“
"Man, do I look like a fool to you? I'm not saying that we should kill a man. I'm just saying that it would be fun to go somewhere and... Uh, see someone just after they done something stupid, you know.", Raúl grinned and gestured to the TV.
"I'm sorry, but have you suddenly become psychic?", I responded, "How will you know when someone is going to die?“
Raúl smiled even wider and took a step closer to us."We don't have to know when someone is going to die, but we do know when people have already died... we can project."
"You are crazy Raúl!", Amelio snapped.
"Who is going to give us authorization to project?", I asked.
"Ah papi, we don't need permission." Raúl said, reaching into his back pocket and producing a small black disk.
"Oh my God, where did you get a bridge°° from?", I asked, frantically looking around for a spying Androbot to appear unexpectedly. "Did you steal this Raúl?"
"Man I did not steal nothing. I borrowed it. From my uncle Pedro.", Raúl replied.
Pedro Rodríguez was a research scientist at a European Biotechnology company and the only relative Raúl had. Uncle Pedro was a kind and generous man, but that didn't stop Raúl from helping himself to Pedro's personal belongings.
"So are you two chicken-shits coming?", Raúl asked, "We are going to check some gringo chica take a swan-dive off the Empire state!“, he said pushing the bridge disk against Amelio's forehead.
"How far back are we protecting?“, Amelio asked.
Raúl pointed at the TV and gestured°°°, switching it to overhead display. On the paused display a two dimensional black and white image of the Empire State was showing.
The writing across the screen read, "May 1st, 1947 —The death of Elaine McHugh."
Next Post - The death of Elaine.
* Logging a Anabot will be used in the future to accompany to accompany someone, to any location they don't feel completely safe. It will be used to record everything in the location the person finds themselves in and will in case of an emergency disrupt the SNS of an attacker, or stimulate the SNS of the victim while alerting the appropriate authorities.
** TVs functions in a very different way to the televisions we are have today. One can either send a realistic hologram to an overhead display or connect directly to the TV using your SNS and receiving the picture on your digital cortex. (More on that later)
*** Cythonic technology is the future of virtual reality and includes a hundred percent realistic experience including all five senses.
**** A Crystal feeder is a small device that networks all household devices and allows a direct connection of SNSes to connect with this network.
° Extra charge gets retained by the SNS after disconnecting from any system. "Wiping the charge" feeds it back into the power system of each individual house. (The national power grid gets abolished during the middle of this century)
°° A Bridge is a small device that looks like a small fridge magnet. Time Traveling or protecting as it will be referred to in the future requires authorization. A bridge is used by researchers who needs to project constantly for reasons relating to their research.
°°° Remote controls will become obsolete and all electronics function via voice and gesture
Just a little bit on SNS (Synthetic Nano Skin). Although I am not sure how exactly it operates, it is a micro-thin, invisible layer covering the entire body. It protects against various injuries and illnesses and also allow the wearer to interact with the technology around him. All humans are fitted with SNS shortly after birth and it continues to grow with the individual.
(Please follow this blog if you would like me to continue telling this story)
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