1. Through the Hole

"It will not fit in."

"Have a little faith..."

"This has nothing to do with God, Father. In fact, I do not think He would approve."

"Tres, shut up and hold on."

"At least be careful or it will rip."

"Nonsense! Haven't you heard Professor? He said that it should be fine as long as we do it slowly. And see, I am going as slowly as I can."

"Not slowly enough, Father Nightlord. Please slow down."

"You're not doing it right..."

"I am doing it just as Professor taught me, Father."

"Hehe, you're so cute when you're pouting, Tres."

"I am not pouting, Father."

"Yes, you are. Hahaha."

"Father! The hole is closing! Hurry."

"Hold on!"

…

"Tres? Are you alright?"

"Yes, Father Nightlord, I am But you are bleeding."

"Eeeh? What? Where?"

"On your head. You must have hit it during the landing. It is not very serious. I will clean it for you once I find the first aid kit."

"Thanks. Uh, where are we?"

"I do not know."

"Can you see anything from the windows?"

"Trees."

"That is not very informative, Tres."

"There are pines, spruces and few larches…"

"Okay, okay, I get it, we landed in a forest."

"Crashed, Father."

"You always have to be right, huh?"

"You are muttering, Father. You remember what Lady Sforza said about muttering, do you not?"

"And you surely remember what I said to that."

"I cannot repeat that."

"Hahaha. Of course you cannot. Alright, can you estimate the damage to the ship?"

"Just a moment… We have lost one of the motors, the other one is functioning on 15%. Hull has been breached on multiple places. We have lost…

"Tres…? Just tell me, will we be able to repair it by ourselves?"

"No."

"What do you mean by that?"

"No, we cannot repair the ship by ourselves. We will need new motor at least."

"Ah, I see."

"What do you see, Father?"

"… That's just a figure of speech, Tres. And stop calling me Father. Haven't I told you already?"

"Yes, Father."

"… You do it on purpose."

"We should gather what is left from our provisions and things. We have to find out where we are."

"Can't it wait?"

"We are under orders. The time is-"

"The time is irrelevant right now, Tres. Once we got through that hole, it closed behind us. We can be anywhere, any when."

"You did agree to the mission, Father."

"Stop calling me Father, Tres, please."

"As you with, Mr. Nightlord."

"…"

"You seem tired."

"I am exasperated, Tres. Why can't you just call me Abel?"

"That would be disrespectful, sir. You are my superior and senior."

"What?! Senior?! How can you say that? I'm still very young!"

"You are nine hundred eighty six years old."

"That's not the point! I am still young. I feel young. And I feel hungry… Do we have anything to eat?"

"No."

"… What?"

"No."

"Tres, that's not funny. I need to eat. I am staaaaarving!"

"You ate three hours ago."

"But since we travelled through the time, it could be hundred years ago already!"

"Or it can be in few hours, which means you will eat soon."

"It doesn't work like that... Come on, there must be something here that we could eat."

"You have that look again."

"Huh? What look?"

"What you called "exasperation"."

"You are enjoying seeing me in pain, don't you, Tres? I knew it! You're an evil person!"

"I am not a person. I am a cyborg. And I am neither evil, nor good. I just am."

"Nope, I'm not gonna believe that. You are evil. You are starving me now. And I am still bleeding!"

…

"You have awoken."

"Have I fallen asleep?"

"You fainted."

"Oh my! Why did I do that?"

"You do not remember?"

"Oh, right! I am staaaaarving!"

"Here."

"What is it?"

"It is-"

"You know what? Don't tell me."

"But just now you…"

"I changed my mind. Just give it to me. Hmmm, not too bad…"

"Your wound has healed. We have been here for five hours and twenty-eight minutes. Somebody might have seen us crash. We have to cover up the ship and leave at once. Our mission-"

"Can wait. Tres, we can be anywhere in the Universe, at any given time! Does that not intrigue you at least a little bit?"

"No."

"Ah, Tres, you are missing so much! Come on, let's have a look around!"

"That is what I have been trying to tell you, Fath-… Mr. Night- … Why are you giving me those looks?"

"CALL ME ABEL!"

"There is no need to shout, I have a very good hearing."

"But a poor memory…"

"You are muttering again. And no, my memory is in perfect condition. Professor ran tests before we left… You are smiling. You were making fun of me."

"Yes, my dear Tres, I was."

"…"

"Come on, Tres, it was funny."

"…"

"Let's go then."

…

"Is there no end to this forest? We've been walking for hours!"

"It has been fifty-three minutes and twenty seconds, sir."

"… It feels like hours."

"It feels like fifty-three minutes and twenty seconds."

"You are no fun, Tres."

"Being fun is not in my programming."

"Can I have a look? Maybe I could adjust it."

"No. Last time you tried to adjust something, I ended up barking like a dog for a week."

"Hahahahaha. Oh, that's right! I completely forgot that!"

"I did not."

"But you got better after that."

"Professor repaired the adjustments you made."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say I hear resentment, my dear Tres. Is it possible that you are sulking?"

"Please do not poke me, sir, there is no point in it. And no, I am not sulking."

"You look like you are."

"I am not."

"You definitely do."

"I definitely do not."

"Lights!"

"That is the moon rising up behind the trees."

"That means that there is the end of the forest, right? Maybe there is a town! Oh, I can already smell the hot tea and hot bath…"

…

"Whyyyyyy?"

"You were right, sir, there is a town."

"But it's so far!"

"I do not agree. It is only fifteen miles away. Based on our current speed and the terrain before us, we should reach it in 5 hours."

"…"

"Father?"

"Abel."

"Excuse me?"

"Abel."

"Yes, that is your name, sir. But I don't under- Ah, I get it…"

"…"

"The longer we stay here, the longer it will take for us to reach the town… Where are you looking?"

"There's something off about that town…"

"It seems like an ordinary town, sir. And based on the animals and trees we have encountered, I am 89% sure that we are still on Earth."

"Yes. But the town looks strange…"

…

"It's 1623, good ser."

"Thank you. Is there a place where we could get some metal plates?"

"What are those?"

"Tres, I don't think they have them yet…"

"But…"

"Come here, Tres. Oh, sir, thank you for your help. That will be all."

"…"

"Tres, I think we are very far in the past. 1623? Dear Lord!"

"Do you think The Lord has something to do with it?"

"… Tres, one day, you're going to drive me insane."

"But you just said His name."

"Forget it. We have to think. It will take few centuries before they invent a motor that we could use for our ship. Is there something that we could use instead?"

"Instead of a motor? No."

"You're not very helpful."

"You ask impossible things."

"Then I guess we are stuck here…"

And here you have the first chapter! It's not the style that I am used to, but I hope you will like this and enjoy it as much as I have while writing it. Please comment and leave reviews. Any suggestions are welcome and will be taken under consideration. :-)