Timeskip I

[WP] "As you slowly awaken from your cryogenic sleep, you realize nothing is like how the scientists said it would be. Instead, a savage warlord and his retainers stand before you, and in broken english he offers you a simple choice: Teach him the magics of your people, or die now."

*****

"This is as risky as it gets, Darron..."

I stared at my partner, Lars, who looked at me with skeptical, fear-filled eyes.

"...too many variables, unknowns and obvious dangers. This whole project has been marked as extremely dangerous. It's strictly prohibited...nah, banned. We would be in serious..."

I sighed. "Don't you think I know all this already, Lars? Don't you think I thought all this through before deciding to proceed?"

"Apparently you didn't think it throught long enough, Darron. Ten more minutes of thought and you'd know that this idea is crazy. Did you hear the projections of those scientists? I mean, these were Leading scientists from all fields and they all said..."

"They all said what they thought they knew, or maybe actually what they were paid to say. Probably a ruse by the government to make sure no one was..."

"Doing things that could potentially kill them?"

I was getting slightly pissed at this point, but then again we'd played this game maybe a hundred times for the past two months. Two months since I went completely off the grid and devoted my time and energy into this project.

The Timeskip.

It had been an idea toyed with in most Sci-Fi movies from a long time ago. Cryogenics. Or at least a special branch of it. A branch that was involved with the freezing of a human to preserve them until a later time.

Usually, it had been adopted when a person died, especially one of importance of at least enough affluence. As 'modern' medicine, more like what was available at the time, was unable to resuscitate the person, perhaps in the future, scientific advancements would make this a possibility.

Right now, the project was put on a halt because the scientists predicted that the futuristic levels of development in the somewhat distant future would make waking up in that time something of a serious handicap. The many projects to commercialise space travel and living - which were moving at a fast pace - would mean that if someone woke up anything north of 60 years in the future, very few people would be left, and it'd be a poverty stricken zone, filled with war, famine and the worst humanity had to offer.

*****

Lars sighed. The project was just about two days away from completion. He continued coming here to help Darron because he knew he had to. He was the only trusted colleague. And even if he had no intention to involve himself in the Cryogenics Project, or The Timeskip, he understood Darron's reasons perfectly.

The pandemic hit harder, but the aftershocks - the ones that epidemiologists hinted at but never really expected to happen- they did happen, and they were brutal.

Economies crashed, and microconflicts had snow alled into wars. America wasn't fully involved in any war at the moment, but by taking sides and then financing or facilitating one side's war efforts, they were slowly pitting themselves in the radar.

"This lab cannot be detected. Off the grid. Built right into a 1987 Nuclear Bunker. It's the perfect setup, Lars."

They both knew all this, but Lars prayed he would dissuade me before that time came.

****

But two days later, I was ready. We both were. Lars was content to see that I was shaking. At least he was nervous, even if it was a bit. It was only logical that he should be nervous.

"So you're doing this?"

I was in the Chamber already. It already felt a bit cool, and the machine hadn't even been turned on.

"Yeah, I am."

This was it. The machine would thaw me out automatically in 60 years, if it had not been manually activated by the door lock. The security measure was that after Lars left the room, he would lock it from the outside. If anyone got past the door, they would trigger an emergency thawing of the ice and I'd be free in ten minutes, protected my several layers of lasers. He'd then be able to escape from a back door.

Lars wasn't going to come back. Ever. By the time I woke up, if everything went well, Lars would either be dead or a ninety-something year old geezer. This was ideally the last time we would be seeing each other.

"Thanks for the help, Lars." I

"Anytime," he said ruefully as they both sobbed. "Anytime."

Switching the machine on, he took one last look at me before walking out of the room.

The sleep inducing gas was pumped into the chamber, and all went dark soon.

*****

The noises woke me.

It wasn't cold. The thawing had worked perfectly, but what day was it? Had the machine worked any? I left a contingency for this just in case.

"BZZT. It's 2:49 PM, January 12, 2076."

55 years. Not quite 60, but still a long time.

My brain unclouded slowly, and then I finally realized that if I was woken before time, then someone and found and entered here.

Looking up, I saw past the laser grids to three men, dressed in strange, medievel garb. His men managed to tamper with something on the control box and the lasers were deactivated.

My chamber was also opened.

I still had some energy to get up and leave, bitbthey were faster. As they approached, I finally realized that they were... Vikings.

What the hell?

"You. Intruder?" The one in the center spoke up. He seemed to be the leader, or even a king, judging by thelarge helmet he wore, embellished with gold nuggets and two curved horns.

"You're kinda in my space, so I guess you are?"

"You...tell me what you do. Ice. Ice go away. Red light. Burn..." He raised his half melted sword to my face. The lasers were quite effective.

"Should have been you instead of your sword."

"You wizard? Warlock?"

"Nope. Scientist."

He seemed not to understand a word of what I was saying, because his next statement was bone chilling.

"You tell me what magic you do. Or you lose your head."

*****

Two part series, anyone?

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