Saturday, July 19th, 2042CE

JFK Airport, New York, NY

Dr. Janet Frazier MD-PhD grumbled at the word DELAYED on her phone. It was right next to her flight. 'What in the nine hells could possibly cause a delay? 'Uggh. What a shit start to this vacation.' She thought, placing the device back into her pocket. It collapsed in on itself as she did. 'I don't even want this vacation! "You've not had a decent vacation in years." Ha! Of course I haven't. If I go on vacation who's gonna fill in for me? Bloody no body, even in the illustrious "Doctor's without Borders" organization hardly anyone wants to volunteer in war-torn Brazil. If it hadn't been that threat of suspension lasting even longer than this vacation...' Her thoughts trail off when she gets a ping on her phone, hopefully it was an update on her flight. She reached into her jean pocket and pulled it out, slapping it onto her ear. The device extended on it's own to cover an eye, luckily it was mostly transparent plastic so she didn't look like a pirate. Not that she gave a damn about how she looked. The Google Patch, as it was called, didn't have a traditional two dimensional screen that so many had not even two decades ago. Augmented reality was the way of things now. Janet placed her flight schedule floating underneath the television, both of which now floated directly in front of her on a wall between two massive windows looking out onto the tarmac. She smiled at both the fact that her flight, while still technically delayed, wasn't going to be for much longer.

JFK - FLORENCE 18:15

Only an hour late. The other thing she smiled at was the progress report on the TYT 24 Hour News Channel of the Mars terraformation being conducted by a joint operation of Space-X and the Swedish Government. NASA having been shut down long ago. In twenty years Mars could be ready for human habitation. In a century it would look like Earth. If she had her way she would retire on Mars. Near the equator of course, it's a cooler planet than Earth temperature wise and she was never a fan of snow. Turning up the volume to get more information on the story she was disappointed to find she had merely caught the tail end of it.

In other news, we have more details on the lurid scandal that the struggling Abstergo Industries is currently embroiled in. As you know the hacker group "Anonymous Brotherhood" broke into their servers and exposed nearly ten terabytes of confidential data, posting it to several websites. Every attempt by Abstergo since then to remove the information has been met with failure as the amount of copies propagating the net has only exponentially increased. And as more eyes turn to the conglomerate the faster the data spreads. Abstergo Industries subsidiary Abstergo Entertainment CEO Adam Garneau had this to say: This 'Leak' is naught but slander. Likely conceived by the same group that killed my father outside of Chicago thirty years ago and has since been pulling out all the stops to dismantle this great company. I mean, right here it says Hitler and Stalin were puppets of Abstergo! If ever there were a more ridiculous claim-"

Janet felt she had to agree. As a woman of science she was a skeptic in all things. Conspiracy theories like that were far too ridiculous to be true. However she thoroughly believed the reports that claimed Abstergo was amoral in their business dealings. At a certain point it seemed nearly every big business gained snakes for heads. It was too fanciful, really, to believe they did everything in an honest way. But she didn't really care. Abstergo hadn't been a major player in decades and one more scandal sinking another corporate ship was just more background noise to her.

Just as she was about to once again put her phone away, she got a call from her mother. She replaced her TV with Skype and the plane schedule with a slow sideshow of adorable kittens. It helped her to smile so it would be one less thing her mother would fuss over for. She loved her mother, but she really wished she wouldn't nag so much.

"Hey Mom, how are you?"

"Oh, fine fine. How are you? How's Cheyenne Mountain treating you? Deep Space Telemetry was it?"

"Oh, hardy har har, Mom. That joke was old when I was ten."

"And yet you still became a doctor!"

"That's your fault! And Dad's! How could I not when I grew up with the biggest geeks known to man?"

"You could have been an astro phsycist. You know you love space. And you graduated so early, Out of college at 15! You could have gone back-"

"I did go back, Mom. Nobody wanted a girl- what was it you called me again?"

"Doogie Howser, Sweetie. A Girl Doogie Howser"

"Right, that. So I went back. Got a few more degrees in various fields..." A though occurred to Janet "But you already know that. Allright spill, who am I helping you brag to?"

"What? Me? I don't know-"

"Honey, does he believe you yet?" Janet's father interrupted from somewhere off screen. Janet just stared at the little camera above her right eye, knowing how it would look to her mother, and gave her the most dead pan look.

"Honestly Mother, you're as subtle as meteor impact. Hello, stranger and friend of my mom. How are you?"

"Flabbergasted" is the word that sounds from elsewhere off screen. But closer than her father."

"So, is that all you wanted to talk about, Mom? A spot of humblebragging?"

"No, actually. I heard you were going on vacation! I am so happy. I was quite worried you were working yourself to death down there in Argentina."

"Brazil."

"Whatever. South America. Point is I just wanted to wish you well. I'm so jealous, Italy. Right? And here I was expecting you to visit the Large Hadron Collider or something else sciency."

"If you must know, Mother, I'm visiting various museums and locations throughout Europe. The birthplaces of such names as Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Nikola Tesla, and Einstein to name a few."

"Only you could make a vacation boring, sweetie. You may may say we are the biggest geeks known to man, but I assure you, you're the biggest nerd."

"Love you too Mom."

"I wouldn't doubt it for a second. Speaking of love-"

"No Mom, I'm not going to find a man-"

"Okay, what about-"

"Nor a woman, Mother. I'm sorry that the line ends with me, truly. But I can't handle people at large, definitely can't handle one person intimately. And I'm far too busy for children."

"You hate social interaction, but you choose to be a doctor. Honestly, you should get yourself a cane and call yourself House."

"I don't... what? That makes no sense. How does my dislike of people translate to a cane and a domicile?"

"Kids these days."

"I'm twenty nine!"

"You'll always be my little girl, sweetheart. Have fun doing boring things in Italy."

"I will Mom. Love you, call you guys when I land."

"Okay, sweetie. Talk to you then. Bye bye. Love you lots!" And with that the image of her mother faded to gradient sky blue screen that darkened towards the edges. A three dimensional series of white bubbles boiled in front and center of the screen. An S occasionally visible in the center of it. With the movements of her eyes alone she minimized Skype, brought up the TV again. A little mindless TV while she made yet another back up of the 30 most trafficked websites on the internet. Not counting the major search engines and social networks. It ate a lot of data but sometimes the power would go out in Brazil and she got into the habit of making the back ups so she'd have something to do when not working. Which, wasn't often, but she hated boredom with a passion and would go to great lengths to avoid it. Usually putting in some research on quantum physics, astrobiology, psychology or other light reading. Of course that's not to say she avoided television or video games. Like anyone else she she enjoyed those too. Especially when she wanted to wind down before bed. Not that you'd know that if you asked her peers.

An hour later and it was time for her to board. She was glad that her UN/WHO Medical ID allowed her bring her stuff on the plane, even if it had to go with the luggage. She would feel naked without her emergency medical supplies and tools. Even if she would be touring developed peaceful nations. They had become like a security blanket for her. No matter where she went she had enough various surgical implements to make her look like a serial killer. The various medicines, chemicals, and syringes probably made her look like a drug dealer. The Automatic External Defibrillator and bandages were likely the only thing that couldn't be confused for anything not medical in nature. She was prepared for any medical emergency that may occur while away from a hospital.

Nine hours and a phone call to her mother later, and Janet and her three huge suitcases, two of which were her aforementioned "security blanket", were checking in to a Florentine four star hotel. She was getting really into her unwanted vacation already, much to her chagrin, because tomorrow she'd be as close to Da Vinci himself as one could get when separated by a few centuries. She bet that man would understand her if they met. A genius in his own time with an I.Q. of 220 to 230! Higher than even herself at 200. No way that man could stand people. He must been like the main character in that remake of Idiocracy. Thought everybody around him was an utter fool. And he'd have been right.

But that was tomorrow. Now was the time for sleep. Placing her thumb on the scanner on her rooms door handle, she waited for the tell tale beep that said she was recognized as the renter of the room. She opened the door and the lights switched on automatically. TYT streaming on the window at a sedate volume, Italian subtitles at the bottom of the screen translating in real time. Janet set her luggage beside the bed, she stretched and gave a little yawn.

"English." A dual tone beep signified the room's computer heard her, and the subtitles on the screen disappeared. "Close curtains." The window lost all transparency, looking like the other three walls around the bed. "Television off." Sighing, she stripped and headed to the bathroom to shower and take care of her nightly hygiene. She intended to take a long shower tonight, a luxury she can't often afford in Brazil.

An hour later she was in a nightgown, looking forward to a deep sleep. But Italy had one more surprise for her. "Oh. That's a nice touch. The sheets look like the Shroud of Turin. You'd think that would upset some people." Her luggage pinned her bedding to the bed itself, making her feel trapped. She was far too tired to move the luggage so she ripped the sheets from their positions and allowed them to fall on her luggage. "Hmm, blankets for my blanket" she thought tiredly, she wore a small smile on her face as she drifted off. If she had been awake and left the TV on, she might have seen the BREAKING NEWS headline: "Prominent Religious Relic Stolen From John The Baptist Church in Turin, Italy. Police And Interpol Baffled"

Friday, July 20th, 1488CE

Florence, Italy

She woke up feeling refreshed, ready to start the day. Without opening her eyes to better acclimate to the oncoming light, she spoke. "Open curtains." Nothing happened, she frowned. Wasn't Italian tech supposed to be better than this? "I said, Open Curtains!" And yet, still nothing. Bloody hell. She opened her eyes, grumbling, preparing to do it manually like a damned serf, when she got the shock of her life, "I've been kidnapped!"

She appeared to be in some shoddily built shack, sunlight piercing through where boards were not as flush as they should have been. She tried to remember how to escape handcuffs when she realized she couldn't feel any cold steel on her wrists, or ankles. In a moment of horror she thought that perhaps they were fuzzy, but no, to her relief she did not feel that either. Looking around her she found she still wore her nightgown. Beside her was all three of her bags, "Please tell me that idiot didn't check those." and the Shroud of Turin like sheet still covered her. Though the other bedstuff was missing. Frantically, she searched her bags to find none of it disturbed, except for her electronics which somehow had a full charge. She knew the AED at least should've drained at least three percent by now. "I was kidnapped to perform some medical procedure, that must be it. I don't care if it's a sick, easily curable toddler that needs my help. You don't fucking kidnap me. Your kid's gonna die, you're going to jail, and Darwin shall reward you. Idiot."

Janet rolled up the sheet, intending on returning it the hotel, and stuffed it in with her clothes. She quickly changed into some decent clothing, she didn't want her captor to have any easier access than he already did. She zipped up her clothing bag and opened her medical bag with the blades. She grabbed her largest scalpel from her collection of blades, which really wasn't all that big, scalpels are small by nature. Dreadfully sharp, however, and Janet knew a thing or two about anatomy. Zipping the medical bag closed she grabbed the handle of the blade in one hand and her three suitcases in the other. Her fingers were spread apart painfully but she'd be damned if she was gonna leave any of this behind so some Italian hick could smell her underwear. She knew if she had to leave anything behind it would be her clothes. Those would be the cheapest and easiest to replace. Slowly making her way to the door she tread as quietly as possible. Not wanting to alert her captors if she could help it. Opening the door easily she scoffed. "Doesn't cuff me, check my bags, or lock the door. How did he even get me here? Guy can't have been smart enough to drug me. And just where the hay is here?"

"Ei, tu Signora! What are you doing in my storage shed?"

"Storage shed?" she looked back at the ramshackle shed and scoffed, "Fuck if I know, buddy. Pretty sure some body was storing me. I think I was kidnapped. Do you know where I am?" it was then she noticed the man's odd manner of dress. But dismissed it for greater concerns.

"You do not know where you are? Veramente?"

"No...? Last I checked I was in Florence."

"Ah! Sì! Firenze! That is where you are."

"Must be the shit part of town then, do you know where I can find the Hotel L'Orologio?"

"Che cosa? No. Never heard of it."

"I get that you don't know where it is, but how could you have never heard of it? There aren't a lot of major hotels in this area and it's a major tourist spot. Fine whatever. Oh, right duh. Of course. I'll look it up on my phone."

"Fah-ne? What is fah-ne?" Janet slipped her scalpel from her right hand to her left, still keeping on eye on the man who seemed to notice the blade, and to her distress, seemed unperturbed to it. Those familiar with weapons are familiar with violence. And the way she was holding the scalpel there was no mistaking her intent. Using her now free right hand she fished into he pocket and produced her Google phone. To her surprise the middle aged, funnily dressed man seemed startled when the phone expanded to cover her right eye.

"Access GPS."

"What is Gee Pee Ess?"

"Shh. Not talking to you. And my Italian is rubbish so I don't know how to translate that. Why won't this bloody map work?!"

"Signora, you are not holding a map."

"Would you-, ugh. This" Janet points to the Patch, "is my phone. It has a map on it. It should anyway. Might have to go 2D, 'cause it looks like I'm not getting any signal."

"If what you say is true, perhaps it would be better to, remove from face, Sì? Maybe... not be too blurry? No?"

"What are you, special? That's not how AR works. Pendejo. That's italian, right?"

"Uh, no, signora. It is not."

"Oh, well, suffice it to say I called you a moron."

"That is... very rude, I think. I believe I shall take my leave of you now. If you are in my shed again, I shall call the guards. Have a pleasant day, miserabili pezzi di merda."

"Ah here we go. Maps working. Oh, the funny man left. Excellent." The map hovered in front of her and to the right, pressing itself onto nearby surfaces as if projected from her phone. Putting her scalpel back into her medical bag, she grabbed the rest of her luggage and began searching for some street signs. "Must have been tossed in the middle of a ren-fair or something. Damn these people are committed. That smell is certainly medieval. Damn."