Assassins -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
Reston-Farrell, the one Joe had already met, was tall and drawn of face
and with a chainsmoker's nervousness. The other was heavier and more at
ease. They were both, Joe estimated, somewhere in their middle fifties.
They both looked like docs. He wondered, all over again, if this was
some kind of pressure cooker.
But that didn't explain the view from the window.
Reston-Farrell said, "May I present my colleague, Citizen Warren
Brett-James? Warren, this is our guest from ... from yesteryear, Mr.
Joseph Salviati-Prantera."
Brett-James nodded to him, friendly, so far as Joe could see. He said
gently, "I think it would be Mr. Joseph Prantera, wouldn't it? The
maternal linage was almost universally ignored." His voice too gave the
impression he was speaking a language not usually on his tongue.
Joe took an empty chair, hardly bothering to note its alien qualities.
His body seemed to _fit_ into the piece of furniture, as though it had
been molded to his order.
Joe said, "I think maybe I'll take that there drink, Doc."
Reston-Farrell said, "Of course," and then something else Joe didn't
get. Whatever the something else was, a slot opened in the middle of the
table and a glass, so clear of texture as to be all but invisible, was
elevated. It contained possibly three ounces of golden fluid.
Joe didn't allow himself to think of its means of delivery. He took up
the drink and bolted it. He put the glass down and said carefully,
"What's it all about, huh?"
Warren Brett-James said soothingly, "Prepare yourself for somewhat of a
shock, Mr. Prantera. You are no longer in Los Angeles--"
"Ya think I'm stupid? I can see that."
"I was about to say, Los Angeles of 1960. Mr. Prantera, we welcome you
to Nuevo Los Angeles."
"Ta where?"
"To Nuevo Los Angeles and to the year--" Brett-James looked at his
companion. "What is the date, Old Calendar?"
"2133," Reston-Farrell said. "2133 A.D. they would say."
Joe Prantera looked from one of them to the other, scowling. "What are
you guys talking about?"
Warren Brett-James said softly, "Mr. Prantera, you are no longer in the
year 1960, you are now in the year 2133."
He said, uncomprehendingly, "You mean I been, like, unconscious for--"
He let the sentence fall away as he realized the impossibility.
Brett-James said gently, "Hardly for one hundred and seventy years, Mr.
Prantera."
Reston-Farrell said, "I am afraid we are confusing you. Briefly, we have
_transported_ you, I suppose one might say, from your own era to ours."
Joe Prantera had never been exposed to the concept of time travel. He
had simply never associated with anyone who had ever even remotely
considered such an idea. Now he said, "You mean, like, I been asleep all
that time?"
"Not exactly," Brett-James said, frowning.
Reston-Farrell said, "Suffice to say, you are now one hundred and
seventy-three years after the last memory you have."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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