#1 A small money problem.

904 37 11
                                    

A/N
This story is a follow up to question #31 from my other book, 'Ask Toothless'. For this to make more sense, I suggest you go read said question.
Anyways...
Warning to all readers. This is a work of science fiction. Meaning that all science, no matter how real sounding, is fake. I have put some real science words in there, but the scientific projects in there would never work in real life.
Any person, place, or thing, resembling real life in any way is purely coincidental.
You have been warned.
...
Have fun reading!!

Natalia's P.O.V
-------
Narrowed Vibrant green eyes.
Bat-like wings of ebony.
High-pitched screeching.
I jerked awake, my body tense with fear. I wasn't sure why, it wasn't even a frightening dream.
My body relaxed as I recognized the familiar walls of my bedroom, or as mom would call it, my lab. I'm not gonna lie, it did look like a lab, albeit an amateur one. I looked up as my mom slipped into my room as the automatic doors hissed open. Her eyes were a mix of excitement, sympathy, and weariness.
She sat on the edge of my black comforter, her hands behind her back.
"Hey mom," I said with a smile. "Hi honey," she said gently in her soft British accent. Not many people had accents anymore. Just me and my mom. "do you have another shift today?" I nodded.
Her eyes dimmed slightly as they grew a bit misty. "I should be able to pay for our life. This isn't fair to you." I shook my head. "Mom, it's fine. I enjoy my work. It's not really work to me." I replied. "Still.." she trailed off. I should probably explain. See, when I was about eleven, my dad disappeared. He was a scientist, working for the Research and Development system, a large organization that's in charge of the major cities of the world.
He had been working on a new project that would revolutionize the world. Unfortunately, the rivaling company to the R and D system, Humanity's future, had caught wind of this project.
There was no proof, but I knew they were behind my dad's disappearance. I was a prodigy of my father with an unusually high IQ. When I turned twelve, I graduated high school, and then enrolled in university and took advanced Animal genetics and speech patterns.
After receiving my P.H.D, I had to drop out to take a part time job as an assistant to an animal genetics splicer, someone who studied ways of harnessing some of the special abilities of animals, and passing it on to humans.
No one else wanted to take this job, something about the strange things you had to do, odd errands, bad hours, something like that. Because of this, it was quite a high paying job, and do to our predicament, it was the only choice I had.
My mom is a history writer, researching ancient Norse myths and stories. She was quite passionate about it, and do to that, I was quite fluent in old Norse, something my mother and I conversed with freely around the house.
Unfortunately, one of her new projects, involved something once, and still is, thought to be a myth. Dragons. She published her new book regardless of her professor's warning that they wouldn't be able to support her if she dropped a blow like this to her career.
She didn't listen. Pretty soon, she became a ridicule in the science world, the butt of today's joke. This technology and science driven world had no room for a history writer ranting on about Dragons. Which is why I had to get a job. Even at the young age of fourteen. Don't let that fool you. I have the maturity level of a five year old.
And now I should probably pay attention to my mom, who's been trying to catch my attention for the last five minutes.
"What?" I asked. She rolled her eyes with an impish grin. "Playing space cadet again are we?" she remarked. "And here I was, thinking you were into animal genetics research." I shook my head to clear it of excess thoughts and smiled back. "Nope, still into animals. You still into dragons?" She leaned forward with the sparkle in her eye that told me I was about to have another two hour lesson on the history of Dragons and Vikings.
Oops.
"They're real, Natalia. I have been translating those ancient journals we found on the small island in the archipelago. They tell the life story of a young Viking boy, that goes by the name of Hiccup Horren-" I cut her off by covering my hand on her mouth. "Yes mom, I get it. The boy who was best friends with dragons, was a Viking, and lived on the island of Berk, which was, and I quote, 'twelve days north of hopeless, and a few degrees south of freezing to death.' Who would actually say that?"
My mom shook her head. "He was being sarcastic."
"A Viking being sarcastic? Come on mom."
"According to these journals, the young Viking Hiccup had quite the sense of humor, along with a large streak of sarcasm. He was different than the others, and I get a bad feeling that he has something to do with why there aren't Dragons around anymore."
I nodded thoughtfully.
"Look mom," I said. "the only way we could prove this is if we were to go back in time, and everyone knows how hard it would be, if not impossible, to make a time mach-" I cut myself off as a string of thought pierced my brain.
When I was 7.
Walking home from elementary school, I got home a little earlier than I was expected, do to the half day. My mom was still ordering groceries in the transport room, so I walked to my dad's study.
To my complete 7 year old shock, my father was conversing with, my father. That's, that's a bit strange, am I right?
Pretty sure you'll agree with me on that one. Now, I'm normally not an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not to when you're father is talking to himself about yourself.
Confused yet?
So am I my friend, so am I. From what my 7 year old brain could figure out, either my father had a clone, or his future self had succeeded in creating a working time machine. Do to the slightly larger wrinkles and gray hair around one of my dad's eyes, I was guessing it was the latter.
Now I was even more confused. Wouldn't my dad know not to travel back a timeline where one of his past selves was occupying it? According to my book of Timelines, wormholes, and fifth dimensions, to go see your past self could alter the events that lead up to creating the time machine. If the time machine was never created, all future versions of my dad on different timelines who created the time machine, would be pushed back to the one timeline where now, the time machine had never been created. Creating a time machine was difficult work. It had to be perfectly timed. If my dad in this time were to try to make the time machine to send his multiple future selves back, he would no longer be able to create it. Because he had passed the time in history where he had normally made the time machine.
If you change history to the time when someone made something, and they passed the time when they made it, before they could make it, their minds would be wiped cleaned of their ideas, and they would be forced to start from scratch.
I bet you're really confused aren't you? Don't worry, even I don't know what I'm talking about. My mom shook me from my reverie.
"I see that look in your eyes," she said warily. "I don't want another time traveler in the hous-" This time, she clamped a hand over her own mouth, but it was too late. The damage had been done.
"So dad actually did it!" I exclaimed excitedly. "I mean, I had my suspicions, but you know, so difficult to make something like it! It defies laws 1 through 16 in the theological-"
"Natalia!" mom said. "Please, not another lecture on science. I'm a history writer, not a scientist like you or your dad."
I grinned sheepishly. "Oops. Sorry mom." I apologized.
"It's fine," she waved it off. "The actual reason I came in here, is because I wanted to give you this." She pulled out a rectangular box from behind her back. My eyes widened as I instantly recognized it as my dad's private idea box.
"Mom, I can't take this," I protested. "Yes you can," she replied instantly. "your dad would have wanted you to have it, not let all his ideas go to waste."
I hugged my mom tightly. "Thanks mom, I really appreciate this."
"Speaking of science," my mom said. "how's your project coming along?"
"It's great!" I exclaimed. "I've only got a few more animals to code in."
The project my mom spoke of, was a bracelet, coded with the language of all the living creatures of the world. It also had a complex translator chip, that was wired straight into the central processing core of my brain. It translated what the animals were saying, and when I wanted to reply, all I had to do was speak.
The bracelet detects which animal I had last heard, then sends a rhythm pulse into my Broca, which is the speech area of my brain, and allows me to reply in the animal's native tongue. Even though I may be speaking in English, it comes out as whichever animal language I'm currently hearing. I glanced at my watch.
"I've got to get ready for work." I stated. My mom stood up. "I'll get out of your way then. Besides, I've got work to do as well. The professors at the university are breathing down my neck because they're trying to pressure me into giving up this new books series. Even though it's still history, those muttonheads are calling me crazy. Why, the nerve of those white-haired nerdy nutters! You see some of those mad scientist things they do?!" she scoffed. "Calling me crazy, I'll show you who's actually crazy!!"
"Mom, it'll be fine. You're Cressida Cowell, the most respected history writer in over a hundred years. If you want to write about dragons, then they will eventually except it."
Mom smiled at me and sighed, then frowned. "And just how did you know all that about Hiccup and his home?" she asked suddenly. I blinked at the change of topic. "You've been into my journals haven't you?" I looked at her sheepishly. "I knew you would find it interesting eventually!!" she shouted. I laughed at her childish actions. "I do find it interesting," I admitted. "but what is most interesting to me, is Dragonese. I mean, if Dragons never existed, then why would someone make up an entire language, back then even, and write it into a journal even though it's about a fictional creature?"
"I thought that also," my mom said. Her voice had changed.
"If only we had proof of this." I replied. "I'll admit, the thought of dragons is exciting, and if we could somehow bring them back.." I trailed off as I saw my mom grinning at me like a child on Christmas.
"What?" I asked slowly.
"You know Dragonese! We were just speaking it, and you just switched over like it was Norse."
I face-palmed. Now I would never get my mom to stop bringing me into her world of Vikings and dragons. I shrugged in exceptance. "I picked it up," I said weakly.
"Aaahhh!" My mom screamed in excitement.
I face-palmed again. "Oh great Odin's ghost mom. Don't wake up the neighbors! It's still only 7."
"And now you're picking up their sayings! This is so great!"
She walked, more like pranced out of my room, singing a Norse ditty as she left.
I shook my head with a smile, then went to get ready for work. Ten minutes later, I was done. I sat on the bed and opened my dad's idea box. It had many algorithms and architectural drafts. Some of the ideas were incredible. At the bottom, there were a few pictures of mom, dad and me, as a whole family. I tacked those up on my collage of pictures on the side of my room. No one had pictures anymore. It was ancient technology. They all had picture frames that chose a picture at random from your uploaded gallery and changed automatically. To take a picture, you blinked three times fast and the mandatory contact lenses you wore would snap a shot and immediately upload it to your library. The last thing in the box was a silver watch. The strange thing about it was the swirling Mercury coloured orb in it's centre. I shrugged and put it on my right wrist. An unnatural shiver shot up my spine just as something sharp pricked my wrist just under the face of the watch. I looked on in horror as the silver orb slowly emptied, no doubt into my arm. Shaking out of my shock, I ripped off the watch, just after the last bit emptied into my skin. The small hole in my wrist was already closing up, curtesy of the healing agents that had been grafted into my skin as a baby. It was another mandatory procedure. There were a lot of those. Shaking off my feelings of worry, I grabbed my bag, gave a hug to my mom, then raced off to work.
When I got there, my employer, Dr. Callaway, was holding a neon pink and silver dress with silver pants to match.
I recoiled in horror. If there's something I hate more than dresses, it's pink dresses. "You'll be wearing this," Dr. Callaway stated. To my absolute and utter horror.
"What?!" I cried out.
"We'll be visiting the Research and Development system today. This is the mandatory outfit for women."
"Oh that's just bloody Brilliant now isn't it!?" I groaned.
She frowned. "I'll not have swearing coming from you young lady," She threw the outfit at me. "go get dressed. We're leaving in ten minutes."
Dragging my feet, I put the stupid dress on and wished I had called in sick.
With a lot of hustling and pushing, we finally made it out the door and to the R and D systems main building. No help from me. I was still embarrassed to be outside in this dress. My employer grabbed a name tag for both of us and walked straight to one of the back rooms.
There, about five men in suits were standing there. They looked like they had been waiting for us. The men's eyes lightened up with something like greed when they saw us. I shivered. They looked like the type to bring in fresh young minds here, then when the young people came up with a great idea that could potentially make a lot of money, the people disappeared, and the R and D system took credit for their ideas.
Not the type of people I wanted to hang around with.
The men introduced themselves.
Mr. Hedlee,
Mr. Charkof,
Dr. Hedman,
Dr. Greer,
and Dr. Fencer.
Mr. Hedlee
and Mr. Charkof were the funders for R and D system, having billions of dollars each. Dr. Fencer was the only one there that seemed to be in it for just the science. My Employer stepped forward. "Hello, I'm Dr. Callaway, the world's leading expert in animal genetics splicing. This is my assistant, Natalia Cowell. She has a P.H.D in animals genetics and speech. Along with countless other topics she minors in."
Mr. Charkof and Mr. Hedlee looked at each other.
"You are Desmond Cowell's daughter, no?" Mr. Charkof asked.
"I am." I stated, my eyes narrowing. I thought my employer had business here, and I was just coming along.
Mr. Hedlee spoke up then. "We told your boss, Dr. Callaway, if she brought you in, we would put it a good word to the institute she wishes to work at."
My eyes narrowed even more. "What do you want of me?"
Mr. Charkof chuckled. "Oh look at her accent. It's so, quaint. No miss Cowell, not what we want of you, what we want of your father. See, before his disappearance, he had been working on a project that could have changed a great many things, when he disappeared, so did the rest of his work." "You speak of the time machine." I said. They leaned forward, their eyes glinting. "So he did speak with you of it." "Not exactly." I said.
They seemed to come to a decision. "We'd like to show you something, then you tell us what you think of it." Mr. Hedlee said. I shrugged. "Okay." I followed them for the longest time, until we came to a huge room with a large oval in the middle of it. Or, a sort of dome thing.
It was actually more of a orb.
And it was glowing. A bright pulsing yellow.
"This, is what your father was working on." one of the scientists said. I can't remember his name. "We just don't understand it, and we were hoping you could take a look at it, and tell us why it won't work."
I frowned, my brain already going into hyperdrive as I circled the large orb.
"Titanium alloy support beams...hyper electrical user interface...is that, a re programmable seismic tension outlet?.." I pondered to myself as I examined it. I turned to the scientists who were standing there. "Do you have the original drafts for this?" I asked.
They nodded and one man ran off for it.
"You seem like you know about this stuff." Mr. Hedlee said. I nodded. "Oh yes, these things are quite familiar. My dad used to work on things like these at home. I watched him."
I turned to the man who had come back with the drafts. I studied the drafts for about ten minutes, until it hit me. "Yes!" I shouted, startling the others with me. "That's what's missing! It's been staring me me in the face this whole time! All I need is a Cranial spacer to redistribute waves of Nikoline thresseyaloid to the central nervous system! To do so would be reenacting the process that sets our internal clock, which would then-" I was cut off by Mr. Charkof. "You seem like you know what to do. Is there any way you could apply this to the machine?"
I frowned at him. "Therein lies the problem Mr. Charkof. Nikoline Thresseyaloid is a metal unknown to man because it was literally created by my dad. It's a new element, and almost impossible to recreate. I would not know how to come by the materials needed to make this." "What does it look like?" Mr. Charkof asked. "Nikoline Thresseyaloid is a metallic colour, but it's liquid, actually looks like Mercury..." I trailed off in horror as my wrist started itching horribly, right where the strange grey liquid had gone in. Which was no longer strange. I now recognized it as Nikoline Thresseyaloid. A frowned creased my forehead. If it was in me, it would never come out again, that was the nature of this element. But that wasn't the issue. I wondered, if I were to go and touch the time machine, would it activate? I glanced up at the other people in the room. "Could I work alone for a while?" I asked. They all looked at me distrustfully. Mr. Charkof nodded. "You may," he said distainfully. "but if I find you've damaged my machine-" "Actually it's my machine," I said, cutting him off. "It was my father's, and as such, it will soon be mine if I get it working." Mr. Charkof snarled at me. "Now you listen here girl," he said advancing on me. "This machine will be worth billions of dollars, and if you think I'm letting this opportunity slip away-" Mr. Hedlee interrupted this time. "Enough Charkof," he said, then turned to me. "You're up against billionaires and companies that can make people disappear very quickly. tread lightly miss Cowell." He gave me a cold smile, and with that, they left, along with a bunch of nervous scientists. I scoffed and turned to the Time Machine. I slowly approached it. A small beeping sound alerted me to look to the left of me. A small panel had opened for my left hand. Shrugging, I put my hand on it. Out of nowhere, a band wrapped around my wrist and pressed it to the machine. I panicked and tried to get my wrist out, but it was too firm. I felt a familiar prick, and suddenly, my left hand started glowing just like the large time orb. The small pain stopped, and my hand was unwrapped. I jerked it away.
Just like before, there was a small prick hole that was quickly healing over. Suddenly, the orb dimmed. It kept going dimmer, until it was black. With a sinking feeling, I realized the chemical that had been making the orb glow, was now in my body, along with the Nikoline Thresseyaloid. A warm feeling rushed through my hands, and I got the urge to clap my hands together, as if to rid my hands of dust. When I did, a bright light flashed in my eyes. Thinking back on it, it might not have been the smartest thing to do, you know, clapping two chemical infested hands together.
Anyways, I'll just say, I wasn't having any fun. The warm feeling turned to cold, and I blacked out.

⏳⌛️⏳⌛️⏳⌛️⏳⏳⌛️⏳⌛️⏳

I was startled awake by a loud sound. Irritated, I brushed the leaves out of my eyes that kept falling from the overhead trees.
Wait.
Wait just one gosh darned minute here.
Trees?!
I scrambled to my feet in shock as a bunch of...lizards? ran past me. I watched in fascination and a bit of fear as these, lizards, seemed to be wrestling over a piece of chicken.
One of them wasn't having any luck and angrily, it spewed fire out of it's mouth at the others.
What?!?!
My mind went into overdrive.
Lizards,
Mom,
Norse myths,
History
Reptiles,
Fire,
...
...
Dragons.

I'll admit, I did something I'm not proud of.
I fainted.
Again.

To be continued...

A/N
So there's the first chapter everybody!!!
I hope you enjoy it!!

Time Trek (A Httyd FanFiction) (Completed)Where stories live. Discover now