Well, today was possibly the worst day of my life by far.
To start things off, it is Monday. Not exactly a Monday type of guy. Also, last week, I was asked to come in the next Monday, otherwise known as today. What could possibly be so important to start off the work week? And it was raining ever since I woke up.
OK, maybe things are going a bit too fast. Let me start over.
Hi, my name is Trist and I'm currently 30 years old, coming up on 31. No real last name due to being an orphan for as long as I've lived. I mean, I basically grew up going from foster home to foster home, but that's not because I was a bad kid. I just have terrible luck is all. Every foster home I would join would close in less than 2 years. Enough time to get comfortable, but not enough to set roots.
Eventually, at age 18, I decided to make my life as best as I could. Ended up getting into physics and dabbling in a bit of engineering, and now I'm lead engineer in my little town.
Speaking of, when I decided to make it, I ended up living in a small rural town. Goes by Province, and my job, or former job, was at Boomcorp. Now, contrary to popular belief, we don't create explosive devices and weapons, at least not anymore. Recently, in the last 30 years, we began to focus more on products designed for space travel. Humanity may not have any urgency to reach past the inner planets, but that doesn't mean we should wait for them.
Recently, my team and I were assigned the lead on an experimental warp drive. My main focus was figuring out how to allow for the fastest speed of travel without putting the crew at risk of instantaneous death or impact with random debris. Currently dubbed the "Star Chariot", not exactly the most inspiring name, the warp drive we developed and are testing is the most advanced of technology I've witnessed.
So, there I am, doing some adjustments to the device, when I get called in to explain our reports and findings to the higher ups. As you can imagine, that didn't end up going so well.
"Can you explain the reports that were sent last month?" asked an older, rather large man. I was currently sitting in front of 10 older and 3 younger men, all wearing suits and ties. 13 of my boss' bosses. All potentially wondering the same thing.
"Of course," I responded. I already knew what he was specifically asking for. "By our estimates and readings, the Star Chariot MkII can only reach about 1000 astronomical units per year. At that rate, it would take approximately 270 years to reach Alpha Centauri without interruptions or issues, more or less."
"I can see that," he responded, "What I want to know is why isn't it faster or more efficient?"
I gave an internal sigh. It was a waste to even hope they would truly understand. All they care about were results after all.
"The current estimates border on safe and completely unacceptable. We simply don't have the technology to push the drive further without bringing unnecessary risk to passengers. My suggestion, as seen in the reports, is that we work to reduce the risks and dangers of the device and begin to research possible cryotechnology or life-expectancy expansion."
The men all began to look at one another, and the man addressing me said, "thank you for your input. Please step outside while we go over what you've said." He looked at the door and I knew it was my cue to leave.
After waiting outside for maybe 5 min, though I honestly expected it to take longer, I was asked to come in once again. Walking in, I already had some inkling of what I was going to be told.
The large man looked at me and said, with the most monotone voice possible, "Because of your work and recent additions to the project, you will be allowed today to make sure everything is in order. However, after tomorrow, you will no longer have a place in the project and will be moved over to something much smaller. Please make sure to have all your notes and records organized and ready for transfer to the next project head."
I couldn't have been more disappointed if I wanted to. It was expected, but just because you are certain it will happen doesn't mean you can't hope. "I understand," I said, "I will have it ready by tonight. Please send me the details as soon as possible."
I then went over to shake hands. Overall, it could've been worse.
I could've been jobless tomorrow.
I left the conference room and quickly reached the lab where the drive was located. Soon after putting in the code and entering the lab, I was greeted by one of my most professional and diligent engineers. She was sitting in a chair, looking over some documents.
"Heya boss, how'd the meeting go? Did ya get sacked or are we getting paid extra for our hard work?" she joked, smiling at me from over her shoulder. Truly the epitome of workplace professionalism.
"You joke, but by this time tomorrow you'll be calling someone else boss," I responded, looking over the notes I had scattered around.
Her smile fell, and she quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry about that. I really didn't think they'd do that!"
I looked at her, and put aside my feelings for the moment. "Well, they did. Now they're asking for all the research notes and any documents we have so the next guy can be somewhat prepared. Mind helping me gather everything?"
She quickly jumped up from her seat and looked me in the eyes, concern evident. "Boss, lemme get everything for ya. I know how to organize better than you. Besides, the drive's acting up again."
I looked over, the beautiful piece of machinery sitting across the glass windows, just waiting to be activated and tested at a moment's notice. Quickly, I looked back at her.
"Give me what you have on it right now. I'd rather have it at peak efficiency when I leave." I put out my hands and she handed me the reports she was just reading. "Now go gather what you can. Anything you miss, I'll find. Got it?" I gave a small smile.
She gave me a mock salute and said, "Sir! You can count on me, Sir!" and quickly started on her task.
I quickly read over the report. The most disturbing thing was that the drive was leaking the radiation again, which it usually did after testing it all day. However, there had been no testing today, since it could only be tested under my supervision. This had me worried, and so I went and put on the appropriate suit and equipment.
I entered the sealed containment chamber and started to inspect the device. It didn't seem to be running at the moment, so perhaps it may have been a leak from the fuel cells rather than byproduct. I was going to start pulling some parts back when the building shook and a deafening boom was heard outside. The lights started to freak out, and that's when I heard it.
The hum of an engine slowly coming to life.
I looked at the warp drive, and saw that it was activated. But, that should've been impossible. I quickly turned towards the cables that delivered the device's energy input and saw that they were still plugged into the wall and sending power. How did I miss that?
The humming started to get louder, and the radiation started getting stronger. If the radiation didn't stop soon, the suit may as well have been made with cotton. I waited for the automatic shutdown sequence to activate, and waited, and waited. It should've started already, but the humming just kept getting louder and louder. The machine started to shake in place, all of which hadn't happened in previous tests.
At that point, I knew there was no getting away from whatever would happen.
Maybe my matter would simply be scattered across the system, if I didn't die from radiation poisoning or burn soon.
What I didn't expect was to be waiting, in a lab, for the drive to become my executioner, and then find myself in the middle of the city, with the epitome of science falling onto the ground like a piece of junk.
The day just kept getting worse.
I finished telling my story to the officers, one of which was eyeing me skeptically. I mean, it's a hard thing to believe, but they could just clear my story with Boomcorp's testimony.
I leaned back and started to think things over again. After just appearing in the city, albeit an unfamiliar one, I got detained by the local police, who in turn started to ask me questions. Though, the thing that really confused me was how they immediately pulled out their weapons when they spotted me.
I mean, the suit is pretty scary if you've never seen one in person, but I didn't think it was that bad.
My wardens, a bald guy and a rather decent looking lady, decided that I had nothing more to say, and left me alone in the room. I wasn't too worried. After this, and potentially getting reprimanded by the company and losing my job, thankfully I was still alive. That's something to celebrate after getting pushed through time and space.
Speaking of, I wondered where I was. The ground and skies certainly reminded me of the cities on Earth, but that didn't mean that I wasn't currently in a sealed space on Venus or Mercury. Mars tended to keep the cities as open as possible after terraforming so there was no way I was there.
The detective duo came back, with what seemed to be some ire in their eyes.
"We checked the company that you described, and the address that you gave us, but neither check out." The bald cop said.
I looked at them, confused. "What do you mean? If the company doesn't want to take responsibility for the drive, then let me talk to the-" I started, but got cut off by the other guy.
"Quit playing stupid. We know that the company and the address don't even exist so just come clean already. Just say that you were using some fancy powers and we'll let you go with a warning. We got better things to investigate than some dumb kid messing around, like Gouketsu's death." he practically shouted into my face.
"Kid? How old do you think I am?" I questioned. These officers couldn't be that much older than me.
"Unfortunately, without a proper identification, we can't really answer that. In my opinion, however, you don't look a day over 20," his female counterpart answered.
20? I'm 30. How did she mess that up so badly?
A quick glance to the one-way mirror that I had avoided looking at so far revealed what I had been least expecting.
Looking back, albeit for only a split second, was a young man of asian and english ancestry with black, messy hair and a small scar under my left cheek. I'd seen that face, 7 years ago, in the mirror.
What. The. Fuck.
"Look, we got to go back to important matters, so just tell us which city you live in and we'll drop ya off there," said the baldy, too angry over wasting time. I looked over, one question in my mind.
"City?" I asked, which wasn't what they wanted to hear, if their expressions said anything.
"Yeah, ya know? City A, B, C?" the officer facepalmed at my question.
Cities and letters? Where did I end up? When? And the way he casually mentioned powers, like they were real.
"Um, I'm sorry about wasting your time like that," I said, hoping that getting out of here would allow me to gather some information. "I'll try to be more truthful in the future. Could I get dropped off in city Z?" I asked, hoping that that was an actual city.
The officers looked at one another and shrugged. "It's on the other side of the continent but we can send you off on a train."
Continent? How large were cities? How large was the continent itself? How many? Too many questions, not enough information gathered.
"Lead the way," I motioned. Time was of the essence, in a way.
As my escorts took me out of the station, I quickly went over some mental notes.
OK, the drive not only took me to an unknown location, it's also possible that it took me back in time and reversed my aging. If I could isolate the aging alone, I could practically make everyone immortal, but that's not the priority.
Priority 1: Gather information of the location, time, and try to isolate where and when the drive took me.
Priority 2: Find shelter, food, water, and a source of income. Currently, all my cybernetic assets are worth nothing if they're across the galaxy and in the future.
Priority 3: Try to find a way back ho-
My musings were interrupted by a very startling event. It may have been one that I recognized, sort of, as I played many videogames when I was younger, but it certainly wasn't something I expected in life.
A blue window suddenly appeared in my vision, slightly transparent, with the following text in white, bold letters.
"Welcome! For crossing the fabric of time and space, a difficult feat for space itself, you have received the title of "Traveler" Along with this title, you have received access to the System! Any further inquiries must be taken up with the local admin."
How could this possibly get any worse?
How are ya liking it so far? I'm sure those that read this far have many questions. Feel free to PM me and I'll answer to the best I can.
For the most part, Trist is not from our Earth. His Earth is far more developed technologically and doesn't know about OPM or the OPM universe, which is why I wanted to write about his discovery of it in the first place. Also, the story will start off 7 years prior to the events of OPM, but we will get there soon enough. These parts will be mainly to establish the OC's abilities and powers, and to help establish the System.
The System WILL be important as it will allow the OC to develop as a hero. I'm currently in the process of developing abilities, but if anyone wants to bounce ideas without caring about spoilers, then once again feel free to PM.3
I will usually leave a AN at the bottom of chapters to address the chapters questions both preemptively and after posting the chapter.
-S