Season 1: Episode 1: Retro Nerd Girl and The Orisyn Cipher
It was January 22nd, 4822 as I sat in the silver rocket Starlite Seeker as it screamed through the magnetic storms of the Calyx Prime system. An alert on my communications feed revealed a message of my next mission from Doctor Vark.
“The gemstone I gave you is an Orisyn stone from a secret source. I was instructed to give it to you to solve. You are to recover the last VHS tape of this mystery movie and of course, bring it back to HQ to prove its authenticity. "Good luck, Agent RNG.”
I reached into my redline phase suit’s hidden pocket for the orange gold gemstone and placed it on a holoplate. A larger version of the stone hovered revealing a matrix for me to examine.
At the height of Human history there were hundreds of millions of movies, books and TV series.
As technology advanced, humans began to spend more time in virtual realities. Although those virtual fictional storylines were preserved to this day, humans lost track of nearly everything before the 22nd century. Entire vaults of film and physical media were lost. Many of the films of the 20th and 21st centuries were found in various forms by a movie fan called the Maestro. They were safe for a while until they were abused to the point of near extinction again in 4798.
My missions were the key to finding them and making sure that they are safe for all time moving forward. You see, it was my life’s mission to preserve the history of the art form of storytelling. If I cracked the code within this Orisyn stone, this mystery movie would be added to our very small collection of 128 feature films left in existence.
If you want a secret hidden in time, you hide it in an Orisyn stone. Orisyn gemstones have been known to be an excellent way to keep secrets throughout the galaxy. The stones have a lattice that holds data that cannot be identified by most people without specialized optics. I happened to be wearing such a pair.
Luckily most beings don’t even know about the stones, so they can often be hidden in jewelry right in plain sight.
This one was truly beautiful. Inside, the alien glyphs pulsed like a heartbeat on its facets.
It surprised me as my eyes narrowed. I squinted and I struggled to make out anything at all.
Then something moved into vision as I gasped, “What is that?”
I activated the Holo-lens Decryption built into my IntelliSpecs that I affectionately call Charlie after Charlie from the classic Charlie’s Angels television show.
“Charlie, what exactly am I looking at?”
Within the view of my frames, I saw the gem’s dazzling reflections fade, revealing a single word: “NOMOG.”
Charlie unscrambled the word for me, revealing three results. The first was OGNOM, which is a beautiful golden world of deserts and cities where all the water on the planet is stored. The second was GOMON, a beautiful world of white stone and utopian ideals. The last one was the word MONGO… I knew this one from my childhood and smiled as I saw the word. Mongo was the planet that Flash Gordon visits in his story.
Mongo was my clue to the Flash Gordon movie, but which one?
From my recollection, I knew there was Flash Gordon from 1936, a 13-chapter serial, also edited into a feature film, sometimes titled “Spaceship to the Unknown”. Then there was Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars in 1938, a 15-chapter serial, also edited into two feature films, The Deadly Ray from Mars and Mars Attacks the World in 1966. There was Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe in 1940, a 12-chapter serial that was later edited into TV movies The Purple Death from Outer Space and Perils from the Planet Mongo in 1966. Then there was Flash Gordon in 1980, a feature-length theatrical movie produced by the legendary Dino De Laurentiis.
Whichever one it was, I needed it in my hot little hands at that very moment. I smiled widely with excitement at the thought.
Of the two real planets, Ognom and Gomon, Ognom was the word “Mongo” flipped. On a hunch, I chose it.
By tracing the serial number etched in the gem’s inner lattice, I pinpointed the exact location of my prize, on Ognom itself. I just hoped no one else had beaten me to it as I tucked the stone away for safe keeping.
I gritted my teeth and locked the Starlite Seeker’s coordinates to the planet Ognom.
– To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 2: Retro Nerd Girl and The Vampirates of Old Earth
I arrived at the planet Ognom and cruised through the atmosphere. I passed the beautiful city of Mixtoja and passed the ruins of Zydia. As I approached the coordinates on the Orisyn crystal I into the desert of Virta, I noticed a very familiar black space cruiser with a giant human skull etched onto the front of its nose.
“Just my luck,” I hissed, slamming my hand on the edge of my control panel. It was the vampirates. They are as their name sounds. They are vampires from Earth and they are intergalactic pirates. They are the most feared beings in the known universe.
First I thought that perhaps they were coincidently there for other business. But as I looked at my landing view screen, I saw a group of four walk calmly toward my landing pad dressed from the neck down in black leather.
They were there to see me alright. I knew a few vampirates in my day, so I crossed my fingers it would be someone I could bargain with or maybe I could name drop.
It didn’t help that my uniform was red, the color of blood, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure that they saw the color. I did however, make sure that it was zipped up to cover my neck, and reached into my utility drawer for gloves and a chrono stinger, which is a type of gun. I didn’t want to risk it by cloaking it and fumble to grab it, so I just held it in my hand just in case things got dicey.
I made my way down the exit hatch and opened the door. My hand with the blaster was conspicuously behind me just to show I wasn’t going to be easy to push around.
The local Ognomians in this region were a race of short humanoids no taller than 4 feet, who evolved from lizards. There was a decent group of them sizing this meeting up as they were doing their daily business. A few were looking on with worry as I exited the Starlite Seeker. I confidently stepped toward the four vampirates. One of the guarding vampirates noticed I had something behind me. Then he watched my every move like a hawk with his glowing red beady eyes
I recognized the leader holding a sleek black box with glowing red glyphs in his hands and sighed with relief. I knew him. It was Puma, an old classmate of mine from my old cadet days when I was first brought into the Intergalactic Academy of Space Travel Academy. He was mischievous back then, but now he was just bitter with a bit of a temper if he didn’t get his way so I had to be careful with what next I had to say.
I broke the ice by saying, “You could have just called me if you wanted to see me.” I flattened the chrono sting and cloaked it right into my redline phase suit, realising I had nothing to fear. It vanished into my thigh. The whole time, his guards studied my motions unamused.
He laughed stroking the box like a pet, “Oh, I don’t just want to see you. I want to make a deal with you… and your boss.”
I had a perplexed look on my face. “So the stone was your doing?”
“I knew you would take the bait”, he said. “But don’t be mad. I wonder, will the Flash Gordon 1980 movie on VHS be enough to entice you?”
I responded with a playful smirk, “I’m listening.” Meanwhile, I was squealing with joy inside my thoughts. It was one of my favorite movies for high camp and pure fun.
“It’s yours, if you can agree to our terms.”
Puma told me that he wanted my services on a heist to infiltrate the biggest nest egg of Orisyn gemstones that would be big enough to fill up the museum with hundreds of new acquisitions. My eyes widened. This was my dream, to make such a big impact on human historical documentation. The movie Flash Gordon 1980 was just a sample of the vast treasure he spoke of.
The plan was to have the Human Museum of Fiction pay for the gems and set the vampirates up for a lifetime. Having me involved ensured the deal was official and they would have no problem with the law.
My lie detection monitor built into Charlie doesn’t always work on all creatures, but there were no physical tells that I could see, like shifty glances or nervous tics. Puma’s team was stoic and he seemed to be his normal self. It all led me to trust my old acquaintance at his word.
Without saying anything, I nodded in agreement and with both hands I took the box and peeked inside. There it was in all of its glory and underneath, a Flash Gordon comic book was peeking through. My eyes widened with astonishment.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It’s a little something extra to sweeten the deal” he winked. He was surely in a great mood today. Not the bitter man I last encountered. Perhaps this treasure had something to do with it.
“Wait here,” I said, taking the box into the ship and returning with a floating steel barrel.
Puma’s eyes lit up as he motioned to his guards, “Help her with it?”
He read the digital readout on the barrel which said, “three billion credits”. That was twice as much as it was worth, to show him my appreciation. He smiled, bowed with charm and left with his companions.
With my treasure in hand I set the Starlite Seeker’s coordinates to headquarters on the Earth’s Luna base.
- Stay tuned and find out what happens in the next episode of the Retro Nerd Girl Chronicles!
Season 1: Episode 3: Retro Nerd Girl and The Museum’s Newest Discovery
The Starlite Seeker touched down on the quiet pad on Earth’s moon that faces the grand atrium of the Human Museum of Fiction. My heart always steadies here.
The air is filled with the sounds of busy lifeforms, patrons talking and moving about the place. A memory I forgot I loved.
My mentor, Doctor Vark, beamed with pride as technicians worked in the Moving Picture wing. They eased the VHS tape into a clear cradle while a soft cleaning mist draped over it. Every motion was precise and gentle, and it made me smile, knowing that this copy was in the best hands in the galaxy.
They were going to clean it and restore any missing or damaged film of tape.
“We are truly lucky to finally get this VHS of Flash Gordon 1980, as one of our artifacts,” Doctor Vark said as he walked me past rows of labeled spines, duplicate copies for the archives. “Did you know this started as weekly serials in the 1930’s?”
I smiled, “Yes, I’ve seen all of them”..
“We will put it right next to the Blu-ray,” he said with a little pep in his step. “Perhaps we can get lucky and find other copies of this movie. A DVD? Maybe even a laserdisc. And then we’ll lay out the comic books there too after we’ve made sufficient copies of them… carefully of course.”
I nodded with a grin I could not hide. “If the vampirates are true to their word, if they know the way to find more of Earth’s movies, then they are only waiting for me to bring them home. Just say the word.”
Doctor Vark nodded. “I approve of this partnership with the vampirates. I remember Puma was a good student at the academy. He’s got a good heart and you two got along famously!”
Now, now,” I blushed.
“And most of all, he knows how much it means to humans to have this museum. His kind used to be humans after all.” Doctor Vark’s tone became more serious as he went on. “But I can’t authorize something like that without the higher ups.”
I dreaded the words I knew he would say next.
“You must meet with the museum council,” he said at last. “There is no way around it for something this big. We will need formal approval and legal terms for this agreement.”
Secretly, I knew that the council would have to get involved but I was hoping we could get around it.
Doctor Vark noticed the concern on my face and tried his best to comfort me. “Get some rest tonight,” he said. “And tomorrow we’ll get the final word.”
I looked back at the quiet tape as it rested in its cradle with a relieved heart.
It’s home.
To be continued…
No matter the movie, it belonged in our museum to preserve our history.
It was January 22nd, 4822 as I sat in the silver rocket Starlite Seeker as it screamed through the magnetic storms of the Calyx Prime system. An alert on my communications feed revealed a message of my next mission from Doctor Vark.
“The gemstone I gave you is an Orisyn stone from a secret source. I was instructed to give it to you to solve. You are to recover the last VHS tape of this mystery movie and of course, bring it back to HQ to prove its authenticity. "Good luck, Agent RNG.”
I reached into my redline phase suit’s hidden pocket for the orange gold gemstone and placed it on a holoplate. A larger version of the stone hovered revealing a matrix for me to examine.
At the height of Human history there were hundreds of millions of movies, books and TV series.
As technology advanced, humans began to spend more time in virtual realities. Although those virtual fictional storylines were preserved to this day, humans lost track of nearly everything before the 22nd century. Entire vaults of film and physical media were lost. Many of the films of the 20th and 21st centuries were found in various forms by a movie fan called the Maestro. They were safe for a while until they were abused to the point of near extinction again in 4798.
My missions were the key to finding them and making sure that they are safe for all time moving forward. You see, it was my life’s mission to preserve the history of the art form of storytelling. If I cracked the code within this Orisyn stone, this mystery movie would be added to our very small collection of 128 feature films left in existence.
If you want a secret hidden in time, you hide it in an Orisyn stone. Orisyn gemstones have been known to be an excellent way to keep secrets throughout the galaxy. The stones have a lattice that holds data that cannot be identified by most people without specialized optics. I happened to be wearing such a pair.
Luckily most beings don’t even know about the stones, so they can often be hidden in jewelry right in plain sight.
This one was truly beautiful. Inside, the alien glyphs pulsed like a heartbeat on its facets.
It surprised me as my eyes narrowed. I squinted and I struggled to make out anything at all.
Then something moved into vision as I gasped, “What is that?”
I activated the Holo-lens Decryption built into my IntelliSpecs that I affectionately call Charlie after Charlie from the classic Charlie’s Angels television show.
“Charlie, what exactly am I looking at?”
Within the view of my frames, I saw the gem’s dazzling reflections fade, revealing a single word: “NOMOG.”
Charlie unscrambled the word for me, revealing three results. The first was OGNOM, which is a beautiful golden world of deserts and cities where all the water on the planet is stored. The second was GOMON, a beautiful world of white stone and utopian ideals. The last one was the word MONGO… I knew this one from my childhood and smiled as I saw the word. Mongo was the planet that Flash Gordon visits in his story.
Mongo was my clue to the Flash Gordon movie, but which one?
From my recollection, I knew there was Flash Gordon from 1936, a 13-chapter serial, also edited into a feature film, sometimes titled “Spaceship to the Unknown”. Then there was Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars in 1938, a 15-chapter serial, also edited into two feature films, The Deadly Ray from Mars and Mars Attacks the World in 1966. There was Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe in 1940, a 12-chapter serial that was later edited into TV movies The Purple Death from Outer Space and Perils from the Planet Mongo in 1966. Then there was Flash Gordon in 1980, a feature-length theatrical movie produced by the legendary Dino De Laurentiis.
Whichever one it was, I needed it in my hot little hands at that very moment. I smiled widely with excitement at the thought.
Of the two real planets, Ognom and Gomon, Ognom was the word “Mongo” flipped. On a hunch, I chose it.
By tracing the serial number etched in the gem’s inner lattice, I pinpointed the exact location of my prize, on Ognom itself. I just hoped no one else had beaten me to it as I tucked the stone away for safe keeping.
I gritted my teeth and locked the Starlite Seeker’s coordinates to the planet Ognom.
– To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 2: Retro Nerd Girl and The Vampirates of Old Earth
I arrived at the planet Ognom and cruised through the atmosphere. I passed the beautiful city of Mixtoja and passed the ruins of Zydia. As I approached the coordinates on the Orisyn crystal I into the desert of Virta, I noticed a very familiar black space cruiser with a giant human skull etched onto the front of its nose.
“Just my luck,” I hissed, slamming my hand on the edge of my control panel. It was the vampirates. They are as their name sounds. They are vampires from Earth and they are intergalactic pirates. They are the most feared beings in the known universe.
First I thought that perhaps they were coincidently there for other business. But as I looked at my landing view screen, I saw a group of four walk calmly toward my landing pad dressed from the neck down in black leather.
They were there to see me alright. I knew a few vampirates in my day, so I crossed my fingers it would be someone I could bargain with or maybe I could name drop.
It didn’t help that my uniform was red, the color of blood, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure that they saw the color. I did however, make sure that it was zipped up to cover my neck, and reached into my utility drawer for gloves and a chrono stinger, which is a type of gun. I didn’t want to risk it by cloaking it and fumble to grab it, so I just held it in my hand just in case things got dicey.
I made my way down the exit hatch and opened the door. My hand with the blaster was conspicuously behind me just to show I wasn’t going to be easy to push around.
The local Ognomians in this region were a race of short humanoids no taller than 4 feet, who evolved from lizards. There was a decent group of them sizing this meeting up as they were doing their daily business. A few were looking on with worry as I exited the Starlite Seeker. I confidently stepped toward the four vampirates. One of the guarding vampirates noticed I had something behind me. Then he watched my every move like a hawk with his glowing red beady eyes
I recognized the leader holding a sleek black box with glowing red glyphs in his hands and sighed with relief. I knew him. It was Puma, an old classmate of mine from my old cadet days when I was first brought into the Intergalactic Academy of Space Travel Academy. He was mischievous back then, but now he was just bitter with a bit of a temper if he didn’t get his way so I had to be careful with what next I had to say.
I broke the ice by saying, “You could have just called me if you wanted to see me.” I flattened the chrono sting and cloaked it right into my redline phase suit, realising I had nothing to fear. It vanished into my thigh. The whole time, his guards studied my motions unamused.
He laughed stroking the box like a pet, “Oh, I don’t just want to see you. I want to make a deal with you… and your boss.”
I had a perplexed look on my face. “So the stone was your doing?”
“I knew you would take the bait”, he said. “But don’t be mad. I wonder, will the Flash Gordon 1980 movie on VHS be enough to entice you?”
I responded with a playful smirk, “I’m listening.” Meanwhile, I was squealing with joy inside my thoughts. It was one of my favorite movies for high camp and pure fun.
“It’s yours, if you can agree to our terms.”
Puma told me that he wanted my services on a heist to infiltrate the biggest nest egg of Orisyn gemstones that would be big enough to fill up the museum with hundreds of new acquisitions. My eyes widened. This was my dream, to make such a big impact on human historical documentation. The movie Flash Gordon 1980 was just a sample of the vast treasure he spoke of.
The plan was to have the Human Museum of Fiction pay for the gems and set the vampirates up for a lifetime. Having me involved ensured the deal was official and they would have no problem with the law.
My lie detection monitor built into Charlie doesn’t always work on all creatures, but there were no physical tells that I could see, like shifty glances or nervous tics. Puma’s team was stoic and he seemed to be his normal self. It all led me to trust my old acquaintance at his word.
Without saying anything, I nodded in agreement and with both hands I took the box and peeked inside. There it was in all of its glory and underneath, a Flash Gordon comic book was peeking through. My eyes widened with astonishment.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It’s a little something extra to sweeten the deal” he winked. He was surely in a great mood today. Not the bitter man I last encountered. Perhaps this treasure had something to do with it.
“Wait here,” I said, taking the box into the ship and returning with a floating steel barrel.
Puma’s eyes lit up as he motioned to his guards, “Help her with it?”
He read the digital readout on the barrel which said, “three billion credits”. That was twice as much as it was worth, to show him my appreciation. He smiled, bowed with charm and left with his companions.
With my treasure in hand I set the Starlite Seeker’s coordinates to headquarters on the Earth’s Luna base.
- Stay tuned and find out what happens in the next episode of the Retro Nerd Girl Chronicles!
Season 1: Episode 3: Retro Nerd Girl and The Museum’s Newest Discovery
The Starlite Seeker touched down on the quiet pad on Earth’s moon that faces the grand atrium of the Human Museum of Fiction. My heart always steadies here.
The air is filled with the sounds of busy lifeforms, patrons talking and moving about the place. A memory I forgot I loved.
My mentor, Doctor Vark, beamed with pride as technicians worked in the Moving Picture wing. They eased the VHS tape into a clear cradle while a soft cleaning mist draped over it. Every motion was precise and gentle, and it made me smile, knowing that this copy was in the best hands in the galaxy.
They were going to clean it and restore any missing or damaged film of tape.
“We are truly lucky to finally get this VHS of Flash Gordon 1980, as one of our artifacts,” Doctor Vark said as he walked me past rows of labeled spines, duplicate copies for the archives. “Did you know this started as weekly serials in the 1930’s?”
I smiled, “Yes, I’ve seen all of them”..
“We will put it right next to the Blu-ray,” he said with a little pep in his step. “Perhaps we can get lucky and find other copies of this movie. A DVD? Maybe even a laserdisc. And then we’ll lay out the comic books there too after we’ve made sufficient copies of them… carefully of course.”
I nodded with a grin I could not hide. “If the vampirates are true to their word, if they know the way to find more of Earth’s movies, then they are only waiting for me to bring them home. Just say the word.”
Doctor Vark nodded. “I approve of this partnership with the vampirates. I remember Puma was a good student at the academy. He’s got a good heart and you two got along famously!”
Now, now,” I blushed.
“And most of all, he knows how much it means to humans to have this museum. His kind used to be humans after all.” Doctor Vark’s tone became more serious as he went on. “But I can’t authorize something like that without the higher ups.”
I dreaded the words I knew he would say next.
“You must meet with the museum council,” he said at last. “There is no way around it for something this big. We will need formal approval and legal terms for this agreement.”
Secretly, I knew that the council would have to get involved but I was hoping we could get around it.
Doctor Vark noticed the concern on my face and tried his best to comfort me. “Get some rest tonight,” he said. “And tomorrow we’ll get the final word.”
I looked back at the quiet tape as it rested in its cradle with a relieved heart.
It’s home.
To be continued…
No matter the movie, it belonged in our museum to preserve our history.
Season 1: Episode 4: Retro Nerd Girl and The Human Museum of Fiction
I thought Doctor Vark and I would see the museum’s council the next morning, just as he said, but ultimately it took three days. Many of the council members had to be flown in from all over the galaxy for this emergency meeting.
For me, it was three days of nervous waiting, but I managed to sneak in some much needed rest at my tiny apartment at the International Science Fiction Space Station’s headquarters. I spent the time writing in my journal and watching old movies.
When the day finally came, the ground traffic on the Moon was too jam-packed to hail a taxi. Luckily, Doctor Vark picked me up in his hover car. I could see shuttles littering the air space filled with ferried curators from every arm of the network to be on hand to advise the council if needed.
As we walked through the atrium at the museum, we could hear our names being called over the loudspeaker.
Nearly every employee gave us a concerned glare as we passed by. The rumor mill was clearly churning unfavorable stories. Our nods and gentle smiles were all we could offer as comfort to our friends as we made our way to the council’s conference room.
The room was fashioned like an old courtroom with pews for the advisors. Thirteen council members were positioned in a semicircle around a center point.
As we walked in, the room was bustling with conversation, which hushed to silence by the time we reached the center point. Advisors and council members all had their holo-tablets floating as they away furiously.
From right to left were Councilors Jones, Hicks, Rez, Kobayashi, Nicolai, Novex, Harrattan, Bisco, Gaff, Graves, Ludex, Bassor, Yang. The council leader was Harrattan who had a very pleasant disposition, welcoming us.
We stood in the center point recounting the deal proposed by the vampirates to the council and within the group there were many supportive smiles. This was going much better than expected.
But there were two sour faces amongst them, Hicks and Graves.
Hicks had never been pleasant on face value. He just looked mean all of the time, but I never heard any complaints about him from the staff or crew.
Graves had a pleasant disposition in most interactions with me. This time, from across the ring, Graves fixed me with a look that would kill if it could.
His anger erupted. “We are NOT partnering with raiders,” he snarled. “They will turn all of us into monsters. Believe me, I know first hand what these creatures can do!”
Harrattan brought the gavel down. “Councilor Graves.”
It was Hicks who spoke next. “I’m curious. How many artifacts can you recover?”
His look of anger was actually a look of curiosity, I noted. “Realistically, a good twenty.” I said making a very conservative estimate. I couldn’t know for certain until I helped the vampirates. There could be hundreds, or there could be none.
“Twenty artifacts?” Hicks shook his head in disapproval. “We can’t make a deal like that with the vampirates over twenty artifacts.”
“Well, there could be hundreds,” I blurted out. “We don’t know yet.”
Graves was still shooting daggers at me with his eyes.
What was up with this guy?
While Doctor Vark took the floor, I tapped the miniature button at the edge of the frame of my glasses to activate its intel capabilities. I needed Councilor Graves’s background and any connection he had to the vampirates. It was then that I learned his tragic story.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 5: Retro Nerd Girl and The Final Verdict
Doctor Vark launched into one of his long, elegant speeches, revisiting every point we covered a few days ago. His voice flowed like a lullaby, precise, soothing, yet relentless. His dedication to the cause was unmatched.
Around us, the council chamber glowed with cool light as the ceiling arced like a shiny wooden shell. Advisors were affixed to their holo-tablets as the blue screens hovered above their laps.
Meanwhile, I nudged my red frames up my nose and summoned the public file on Councilor Graves. The lens painted a translucent dossier at the edge of my vision while listing a long science military career. With a little more probing scanners began selecting key words. “Born on Earth.” “2050.” “New York City.” Later, “New Jersey.” A newspaper headline flashed, dated 2057. “Vampire Outbreak Attack on New Jersey Town.” “Seven year old Indigo Graves, only survivor in a twelve block radius, rescued by police.”
His family was likely still on Earth, but they are all vampires now. He never came to terms with what happened. The vampires in those days are not the same as the ones today. He never faced them again to find out. From his point of view, the vampires took away his childhood. End of story.
“We may not ever get another opportunity like this”, Doctor Vark said, voice softening as he concluded. I tapped my glasses again to remove the screen on it.
I took a deep breath, choosing my words carefully because his opinion was so very important to the council.
“Councilor Graves, I began. “If I can report to you every minute detail of acquiring Orysin gemstones with the vampirates. You’ll know every step we ...”
“We can’t trust you,” he cut in, sharply. “You’re already compromised. You’re clearly under their control!”
Harrattan huffed, visibly tired of the back and forth. “Then we’ll set up a temporary agreement,” she said, folding her hands with deliberate calm. “Go with her, Graves and make sure this isn’t the elaborate trap you suspect. If it meets your approval, we move forward.”
He wants a stronger debate/conflict when the councilor is ordered to work with Vampirates, not simple obedience.
The look on Graves’ face was one of complete horror. I had no idea that Harrattan was going to suggest he go with us but she had always been a supporter of anything Doctor Vark wanted, and most of the time, so were all of the councilors. But Harrattan in particular had power none of the other councilors had, I discovered that day because her words were not a suggestion. It was a command and this meant that Graves had to go, without contest or face judgement from his peers.
The speed and tone of her solution felt cold. It was possible she didn’t know about his past. In fact everyone seemed oblivious, but me. The secret of his past might have been just where he wanted to keep it, but now he'd be dealing with them face to face.
The councilors spoke among themselves and punched in their votes as Graves stared at the table, jaw set, hands folded so tightly his knuckles blanched.
The tabulation glittered on Harrattan’s holo tablet screen.
Harrattan said with a warm smile to the doctor and I, “You have your mission. You are dismissed.”
The room roared into conversation as me and Doctor Vark gathered ourselves for a bittersweet victory.
I met Graves’ eyes as sympathy flooded me. This turn of events was not easy on him, visibly showing signs of dread on his countenance instead of his usual stoicism.
“Let’s go,” Doctor Vark nudged. “We have a lot to do before this mission. Including getting the vampirates up to speed about what’s going on.”
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 6: Retro Nerd Girl Recruits Agent LRC
I walked along the industrial halls of the International Science Fiction Space Station (ISFSS) as the deck hummed under my boots.
I turned into the science wing and stepped into Agent LRC’s lab. The room buzzed like a hive. Technicians moved between benches with holo-tablets in hand, while attending to their projects.
On the far wall, a curtain of screens wrapped Agent LRC in a soft glow. Flight paths traced gentle arcs. She sat in her command chair, headset snug, fingers flying across the screen in a blur.
“Congrats on the new mission.” She removed her headset and rose to meet me with a hug and a big smile.
“Thank you!” I said beaming.
“Let’s take a look at you, my dear”. Before I knew it she slipped my glasses from my face with the care of a jeweler. She inspected them briefly and tagged them for diagnostics with a pen device.
“These have seen better days,” she said. “You need the upgrade.”
A technician close by quickly took them and hurried away to his work.
She opened a velvet tray and revealed a shiny new pair of cherry red framed glasses. I squealed like a 6 year old opening a Barbie for Christmas. My eyes gleamed as I noticed the tiny speckles of glitter lacquered on the sheen.
“These ran hot in the sim,” she said with pride as positioned them correctly on my face. “Spectral filters. A clean X ray channel. An onboard intelligence for field notes. A lie detector. A universal translator. A micro beacon. Shrink and reverse ray. Holo-carrier. A pocket scout drone to do a little spying for you. Fetch boomerang compatible with your biometrics so you’ll never lose them. And a comfort polish, so you forget you are even wearing them.”
“Um! Comfy,” I nodded with a smile.
Her team ran a side test near us. A slim collar locked and released with a quiet click. A technician showed me smart fingernails that stored a single shot charge for emergency defense. Talk about a dangerous manicure.
On a podium were a pair of silver field boots sparkling with glitter. My eyes expanded as bright as moons. I slipped a hand against a microbutton near the heel. The soles of the boots shot out claws that bit the table like a cat on a ledge!
LRC laughed. “Boots with a Kung fu grip!” We both yelped with glee.
“Fashion and utility!” I said, shaking my head in amazement.
“They are anti-slip on any surface. Click the heels three times and it sends a location beacon to the ISFSS so E.T. can phone home.”
We both laughed at the 1982 movie reference. In this case, E.T. meant Extraction Target. It was something we picked up during cadet training together. It felt like old times again for a moment.
.”Retro, We can deliver the set to your ship in the morning. What do you say?”
“Oh my goodness. Yes! I want them all.” I felt like a kid in a candy store.
“Let’s do this,” she said, while twirling her finger in the air pointing to her team. “Load them up, people.”
“By the way,” She smiled, “That was some fancy work, on deciphering the Orisyn gemstone in your last mission, but I can do it much faster. Send them to me and I can relay the results to Agent DabMan to take some of the work off your shoulders.”
It was as if she could read my mind. I nodded in thanks.
“Go get em tiger,” she said, touching my sleeve proudly as I left.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 7: Retro Nerd Girl Recruits The Dab Man
I drifted from my tasks to grab some lunch in sector 2. Flower power strawberry ale and Xarlixian sliders. Yum!
I found Agent DabMan in the cultural wing, virtually lecturing to three curious aliens about the Byzantine Empire in his office. I waited in the doorway until he signaled to me with an exuberant wave. He motioned for me to come inside and take a seat near his desk. I did so, happy to listen to the last few minutes of his lecture..
While I listened, I noticed that his office looked like a comet had passed through. Books skewed with pages ripped, wrinkled and scattered. And the weirdness thing of all, VHS tapes with bite marks on them on the floor!
This was highly unusual for the DabMan. I’d always known him to keep his office spotless, until now.
When he finished, we hugged. Sorry for the mess,” he said, a little embarrassed. “I swear I had it tidy this morning.”
“Oh no,” I tried to play it off as if I didn’t notice.
“It must be gremlins,” he joked. We howled in laughter. LRC, DabMan and I were all inducted into the same school at the same time so we couldn’t help cracking pop culture jokes from 1980 nearly constantly between us. It’s one of our favorite era’s for fiction.
“Heard you got some cool gadgets from LRC this morning.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I said with a huge smile beaming as I motioned to my new glasses. “Look at these babies.”
“Wow!” he admired with astonishment. “Biometrics too. That will come in handy with your new mission. Congratulations by the way.”
“Thanks, that is why I’m here,” I said, adjusting my glasses to my nose. “I am shipping the Orisyn gemstones to LRC once I get my hands on them. She can crack the outer shell and get me coordinates. I need your help on the second part of the process of decoding puzzles to find out which movies I am searching for.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” He was in before I finished the pitch, nodding all along.
“Special Agent RNG,” the comm sang. “You are needed in the year 2025. Repeat, you are needed in the year 2025.”
“Do you need my help this time,” he asked.
“Oh no, I think I will be ok.”
“Which film?” he asked.
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
“Ah, that’s a good one!”
“I will be back,” I said in my worst Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.
We both chuckled as I left the room.
He saluted, eyes bright. “Good luck Retro.”
Season 1: Episode 8: Retro Nerd Girl Explains The Matter of Time
This might come as a shock, but I was born in 1970. These chronicles began in 4822, and I was not two thousand years old then. How was it possible, you asked yourself as you read this. It was possible by traveling through time and dimension.
In my own time, I was known as Retro Nerd Girl, a movie review YouTube creator on the internet encouraging people to remember old films.
A decade ago, Time Lords came to 2015 to recruit about twenty of us to become agents who would preserve human history across time, since the planet Earth was sick and dying. I was selected to attend the Intergalactic Academy of Space Travel for basic training, and then the International Science Fiction Space Station and the Museum of Fiction for specialized work.
As a special agent, it was my mission to protect and preserve whatever relics we could find from movies, series, and other works of fiction, and add them to the museum. The dimension I was born in and the future dimension were very similar when it came to Earth’s history, which made me perfect for the job.
You were probably asking, since I had access to time travel, why I did not just take items from my time and bring them to the future.
There were laws I could not break about time and dimension travel. For one thing, I would have been stealing from one dimension to give to another. I could go to prison for a long time for that crime.
I was also not allowed to go to this dimension’s past, only my own. I could not go back to a time before I existed in this body. I could not, for instance, go back to when I was a kid. Strangely enough, I could visit any time before I was born.
Time Lords moved Retro from her original dimension into a similar Earth
Stealing from one dimension to another is a crime
She can only visit her own past
She cannot go back to any time where she already exists in that body
She can go to times before she was born
not just “because Time Lords said so.The Time Lords were not just being moral about it. If you strip too many artifacts out of a dimension, you strip out the memories tied to them. Whole cultures forget what they fought for, who they loved, why they changed. There are worlds that turned to dust inside their own minds because some idiot thought time travel was a shopping trip.when you move an object from one dimension to another, you are not just stealing plastic, you are stealing a storyline that other reality is built on. Too much of that, and people there literally lose parts of their history, their identities, their cause and effect. My dimensional twin is doing the same on my dimension.
“Somewhere out there, my dimensional twin is doing the same job I am, chasing ghosts of old stories through a different sky. We can never visit each other’s worlds. The physics would tear us apart. But there are neutral waystations outside of time where the Time Lords sometimes bring their favorite troublemakers together. I have heard whispers of halls full of other me’s. Different hair, different scars, same stubborn heart.”
Time travel to your own dimension is not possible. No one has ever returned or appeared from their own past dimension
Time lord jail is a minimum of 1,000 years in a void.
In “normal” science, time travel does not work.
If people try to time travel in their own timeline, they disintegrate.
Retro is special and can go back because of what the Time Lords did to her.
That totally works, we just have to nail the logic.
Clean rule set that fits what you said
Use this as your canon:
Rule 1: Native time travel kills you.
Any attempt to travel in time inside the dimension you are “born” to causes disintegration.
That is why, in regular history, no time travelers ever showed up. The ones who tried never survived the jump.
Rule 2: The Time Lords found a loophole.
They discovered you can only move safely in time if you are not anchored to that dimension anymore.
So they pull certain people out of their home dimension completely and “re-home” them in a parallel one.
Rule 3: Once you are re-homed, you can mission into your old timeline.
Retro was taken out of her original dimension A.
She now lives in dimension B.
Because she is no longer anchored to A, the Time Lords can send her on controlled missions into the past of A as an external observer.
She always returns to B. She can never stay and live in A again. It is visits only.
Rule 4: Nobody can travel in time inside their current home dimension.
Retro cannot travel in time in B at all, because that is now her “living” reality.
If she tried to time travel inside B, she would disintegrate like everyone else.
Rule 5: No one can go into their own past body.
Even in A, she cannot visit any year where she already exists.
Before she is born is allowed.
Any overlap with her own lifespan causes catastrophic feedback.
So:
Ordinary people: cannot time travel anywhere, they die if they try.
Retro: can visit the past of her original dimension on missions, because she has been “detached” and lives in another one now.
She cannot time travel inside the dimension she currently lives in.
That keeps your line “no proof time travel works in our history” and your idea that no one has ever returned from their own past dimension in a natural way. Only Time Lord agents, under strict rules, can do the workaround Retro does.
How Retro can explain it simply in the story
Here is a short paragraph you can bend into your voice:
In my home dimension, people tried to crack time travel for centuries. Every experiment ended the same way. The traveler never arrived. The lab readings said the body hit the timestream and came apart. That is why there are no legends about meeting your future self. Anyone who tried to jump inside their own world just died.
The Time Lords found a loophole. If they pull you all the way out of your original universe and drop you into a parallel one, you stop belonging to the old timeline. From here, this borrowed Earth, they can thread me back into my home history as a visitor. I can walk around before I was born, touch the dust of the past, and then they yank me back out. If I ever tried to travel inside this new timeline, though, I would disintegrate just like the early test pilots.
Dimensional twin rule:
Every time the Time Lords remove someone from their original universe, a version of them continues in that original timeline. They are not clones, they are forks. Each one is a full person with their own history from that split onward.
Neither twin can ever enter the other’s home universe. Their presence would collide with the timeline anchor and destroy them.
The only safe place for twins to meet is in neutral dimensions constructed by the Time Lords outside any single reality.
On occasion, I had to return to Earth in my time to complete the recorded history of my life’s work. Today, I needed to revisit my world for a watch party of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, released in 1961 and starring the great Audrey Hepburn.
I carried the weight of the present future with me on every trip home. One of the most important rules was not to talk about what was to come until the motion was already set. It was one of the most difficult things to do. However, the very reason you are reading this now is because the future was being set in this present moment, my friend. Only time would reveal why.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 9: Retro Nerd Girl Goes Back to 2025
I walked through the familiar corridors of the ISFSS until I reached the Time Flux Room. The chamber never looked the same twice. The tech walls shifted like panels of living metal, and every entry presented a different space, as if it were trying to express its feelings to me. Today it was a black void with a blue frame around the portal. The air was cool and damp. I could feel the hum of energy as the room charged up.
I waved my hand over the gate sensor. White characters floated over the frame. 2:30 p.m., Stealth Moon Base, September 13, 2025.
“Here we go,” I said as I stepped through the barrier, from cold and quiet to warm and busy. The 2025 team was ready for me.
“You’re late,” said the team leader, Agent JAX, as he ushered me to the shuttle bay.
It smelled of ozone and engine oil, a mix that churned my stomach but always filled me with excitement for the ride. My white single occupancy shuttle, nicknamed The Enterprise, was waiting for me on the far side of the bay.
I ran over to it with joy and kissed the side door.
“I missed you!” I whispered, hoping no one could hear me as I opened the door and slipped inside. I sat for a minute settling into a good position and started up the engine. I hit the accelerator and zipped The Enterprise down to Earth in stealth mode. I parked it on the roof of my apartment building where it could remain unseen.
I headed straight to my mailbox without delay. I picked up packages from my viewers, more like friends now. Small and medium boxes of books, and flat envelopes taped neatly, filled with comics, DVDs, and Blu-rays. I held them tight against my chest and felt a quick rush of my old life.
I missed it sometimes. But the adventure of being an agent was gratifying if I could help a dimension’s human historical record, even if it was not my own.
Then I rode The Enterprise back to HQ on the moon for my Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) watch party.
The watch party went extremely well. The room was bright, the chat was funny, and Audrey was luminous. It was a fantastic stream that night. When it ended, I packed the boxes, logged the timestamps, and exhaled.
“All done,” I said, clapping my hands on my lap. I was exhausted from a busy day and wanted nothing more than to go to bed and enjoy a day off before the mission began.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 10: Retro Nerd Girl’s Enemies At The Gate
I returned to the Time Flux Room and set the coordinate wheel back to the future.
I stepped through the blue frame. The ground shook beneath me. I bounced. The station rocked to the right, a sharp tilt that threw my weight into the wall. For a second I told myself the stabilizers would settle and we would feel milder turbulence. They did not. The rumble deepened. Panels rattled. A red alarm light flashed and sirens cut the air.
I ran out of the room into a hallway of flashing red strips. Crew members sprinted past me as voices overlapped. We were under attack.
I slammed into the door to stop my momentum to a halt as I waited for the holo-identifier to grant me clearance. I raced to the bridge where I could do the most good. I was a pretty good gunner. I had been told as much by the best Starspace commanders.
My lungs burned as I ran through corridors that felt twice as long.
I burst onto the deck. The commander spun toward me, jaw tight, eyes hot. “There you are. They are looking for you.”
“Me?” I said, barely catching my breath.
A junior officer, Daniels, who liked to give me grief on occasion, jibed, “Friends of yours?”
I gave him a playful sneer. It was not the time for silliness, but it helped me get on track and stop the panic inside.
I narrowed my eyes and looked at the attack. Five vessels slid across the screens like blades. I knew that silhouette at once. It was Hawk’s team of bandits. Hawk was a henchman for a mobster named Krahs. No doubt he had been sent to do his worst.
“Protect her,” the commander said to Daniels.
“Yes, sir.” Daniels snapped to attention.
“Do not worry. We are not turning you over to them,” the commander said. “Stand by. Shields at seventy. Forward batteries on mark.”
“What?” I asked, realizing the situation was escalating and the commander was doubling down on his stance. “No, hail them. I am surrendering.” My voice was sure and steady, which surprised even me. My heart pounded so hard in my chest I thought it might climb into my throat.
The bridge went silent. I felt every eye glued to me as shock rolled across the room like a wave. A tech’s hand froze above a console as he waited for the command to fire.
Daniels’ mouth hung open. His eyes glared at me as if my words were a death sentence.
I lifted my chin and looked at the enemy ships as they swung around for another pass.
The commander’s stare narrowed. “Are you sure?”
I kept my voice level. “Ask for Hawk. He is their leader.”
“Channel open,” Comms said.
I drew a breath, tasted metal in the air, and stepped forward. “Hawk,” I said, clear and firm, “this is Retro Nerd Girl. If you want me, I am here.”
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 11: Retro Nerd Girl’s Enemies and Deals (Part 2)
I was escorted aboard Hawk’s vessel with a little roughhousing from his goons.
“Hey, watch it,” I scoffed.
“We have to be careful with the little princess,” one of them joked in an attempt at saying it in falsetto. They snickered and snorted as they brought me to the bridge.
A shove between my shoulder blades kept me moving forward.
They brought me to the center of it where Hawk could have me displayed. The crew was a rough bunch decorated in scars and dirty gear. On deck there was no banter. Everyone kept their heads down at their tasks.
I felt the cold chill of Hawk's gaze before my eyes met his with defiance.
Hawk stood by the front screen, then sauntered over to me, grinning with too many teeth. His skin was a cool purple that caught the screen glow adorned in yellow and purple armor. Square goggles sat on his brow, lenses white with an internal light. With his eyes hidden, it made it so hard to know exactly what he was thinking at all times, but this time, I had a good idea.
He was half machine and half man, a Cyberon. His people had traded body parts for technology. Many of them went out colonizing planets that already had intelligent civilizations. They enslaved so many. They were overthrown eventually. Some reformed. Most were peaceful now, but still fierce warriors. If you wanted to win a war, you hired Cyberon mercenaries.
Hawk’s past was rougher than most. He was captured and enslaved as a child by the former ruler of Tradetopia.
That man had never known kindness.
When the old ruler died, he worked his way into the new ruler’s trust and became second in command.
“My boss is looking for you,” he said.
I met his eyes without blinking. “Why would he be looking for me?”
I was snooping for more intel, by playing dumb.
He enjoyed the question. “There is a rumor you and the vampirates have a deal.”
“Oh really,” I said, tilting my head to the side. I thought of the Ognomians . They were the only others witness to my meeting with the vampirates on Noclar. My stomach went tight. I kept my face calm.
“There was news about possible artifacts,” Hawk said. “Movies and TV shows. I don’t care if you find news reports from the 1960's, my boss wants in.”
“Why didn’t you ask the vampirates?” I said, taunting him a bit for my trouble. I knew that the vampirates were too powerful for him to approach. I was his only option to negotiate with.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He wagged a finger, slow and smug. “Not a chance, princess.” He was showing off that he had extraordinary hearing.
He cut his eyes on one of his goons. “Watch her.”
An acknowledging grunt from behind me whipped past my ear. A whiff of his horrendous breath followed.
I stared back at Hawk and let my anger burn. If looks could kill, he was ready for burial.
He said nothing else during the trip and neither did I.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 12: Retro Nerd Girl’s Enemies and Deals (Part 3)
The trip was short after a portal jump to Tradetopia’s sector. There it was, atop of an asteroid floating in the abyss of space.
Tradetopia was a rough colony on an asteroid. Gravity clamps kept the docks steady. Cargo skiffs drifted in and out like slow insects from my view on the bridge. A transparent dome sealed in the air as silver peaks denoted the city buildings. An onyx tower rose over it all like a spike.
Once we hit the landing pad behind Krahs’, I was escorted quietly through the back entrance. We went up elevators, passed through checkpoints, and finally into a nearly empty room. At the far end was a robot head with a stern face, welded into the bulkhead like an oversized mounted trophy. Two bald attendants in floor-length black robes stood at its sides.
This robot head was the avatar of Tradetopia’s mob boss leader, Krahs.
He had been a human scientist once. He was a brilliant mind, but he was also mad. After experimenting on himself one too many times, he eventually became a disembodied brain.
There was no doubt that this behemoth countenance before me was his mask today, as his brain was somewhere behind the monstrosity in a jar hooked up to wires and cables.
Now he did everything he could to remind himself of the human he used to be. Human history stored in any visual medium gave him sharp joy, but his consumption methods were too intense. He played them at ten times the speed, and within a few days they were destroyed.
He caused this scavenger hunt with his insatiable appetite.
We stepped further into the chamber of bare metal walls as the attendants watched me with cold eyes.
“Hawk, you are on all the news reports tonight,” Krahs said with a humorous edge. His voice had a synthetic hum, but a touch of smooth elegance. “Do you ever do anything subtle?”
Hawk was speechless.
“Did you think of just asking her for a meeting?” Krahs asked.
Hawk, fully embarrassed, bowed. “Please accept my humble apology.” He shot me a quick sneer as he unlocked my shackles. The sound of metal on metal clashed in the air as they fell off my wrists.
“I would have accepted," I said nodding, clearly enjoying Hawk’s predicament. He promptly left the room grumbling.
“Unfortunately, his blunder is gonna cost you,” I said while playing hardball.
Krahs’ two attendants looked at each other with concern, then at me, as if I was pushing my luck playing with fire. Maybe I was, but I knew Krahs desperately needed to negotiate with me.
He wanted copies of whatever we could find, and I agreed we could ship copies to him that he’d have to pay for. Krahs also agreed to foot the bill for the payout to the vampirates and the damage to the ISFSS Hawk caused.
The robot head laughed at the end of our conversation. The whole room trembled.
“But they have to be a certain quality,” Krahs said, more careful now. “No bootlegs.”
“Don’t insult me,” I said. “Clean scans. Stable transfers. Full crystal clear audio. You kno, museum quality.”
It was a huge win for him, and it was a huge win for the museum.
The attendants bowed, signaling I should leave the room.
The door opened with a stiff hiss. Hawk was there to greet me with his scowl. I kept my chin up and walked out of the tower with dignity.
Krahs sent me home in a private shuttle piloted by one of his personal guards. The shuttle door sealed with a hard click and the engines wound up into steady purr. I took in a deep breath watching the asteroid fall away from the viewport.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 13: Retro Nerd Girl and The Temple of The Sun-God (Part 1)
I rested for a few days before the mission. Dr. Vark saw me off to meet Graves, who wore a sour face.
“Morning,” he grumbled.
“Have you had breakfast yet?” I asked.
“This is not my first expedition,” he said, with an attitude.
“I am sorry, was that a yes?” I teased. It was out of line for my rank, but I didn’t care. He was being rude!
He shook his head no and looked a little embarrassed.
I showed him the tiny food closet and the brewing table by an access panel. “I’ve got galaxy coffee, but it’s my special blend.”
He rolled his eyes, but he stayed. “What is in it?”
“Ground astro beans from Phileas. Blackberry notes and a touch of power flower,” I said as the steam began to rise. He took a double take when I said Phileas, then pretended he did not care. But that divine aroma gets them every time. A raised eyebrow told me he was interested.
“It sounds decent,” he muttered.
I set a mug in his hand and led him to the cockpit chairs to sit.
I sat down in my chair noticing the Orisyn gemstone that led me to the Heavy Metal VHS tape. I grabbed it and tucked it in my pocket for good luck. I then opened a comm to send a message to the vampirates. “Rendezvous point confirmed. Six minutes.”
Puma’s reply came fast, “See you in a bit.”
I glanced at Graves. His chest tightened when he heard the voice over the comm. I thought for a moment, “Is he going to be okay?” He went still, then set the mug down without a sip.
I reached out. He pulled away. He was right. I should not have tried to comfort him by touching him. He was being so brave just being there.
The portal jump clipped our time in half. In three minutes we touched down on Ognom, the same desert world where I met the vampirates before. Heat rippled across a flat horizon.
Puma met us alone and hurried us off to a ridge where we could see the expanse of the desert. He pointed to the holo-pad map in his hand.
“We are here and the tomb is here,” he said, tapping two distant points.
“Why did we meet so far away from the site?” I asked.
“Booby traps. Here, here, and here,”
“Traps by the Maestro,” Graves interrupted, feeling a little proud to remember. “He did it to protect them.”
Puma led the way, “My team will come down after we disable them. Collect the treasure.”
Graves had a purpose now. He knew about the Maestro and spun the tale for our greedy ears. On the journey, he told us that the Maestro was a musical genius and archivist who turned rogue when Krahs started raiding museums to satisfy his appetite. The Maestro bought up all of the media left in the known universe. He bought film reels and books from Krahs’s network, then hid their whereabouts in Orisyn gemstones. There were tales of a big stash somewhere, but no one could ever find it. He planned to share his secret but he died under suspicious conditions.
We reached a tall dune and climbed over it. There it was, a beautiful golden stone temple in the basin built from stacked sandstone blocks
Inside, the passage was narrow. We moved carefully as Puma led the way, listening with his impeccable hearing. I tapped my frames and traced the seams on the walls. Wires and pressure plates waited under fine dust. Puma pointed. I nodded. Then he went fast at work disabling lines with careful snips, while I continued to study the site.
“The landscape traps are clear.” Puma announced.
Graves took notes, precise and quiet. He looked comfortable but I didn’t think he was starting to slightly warm up to Puma. He still kept a careful eye on the vampirate.
At an inner door, symbols were carved into stone. A shallow recess held a grid of a small socket that looked like the imprint of a missing Orisyn gemstone. I pulled out the original stone that led us here from my pocket and looked at it.
“Good luck,” I said softly as I slid it into place. The grid lit up and a latch could be heard moving. The door suddenly groaned open.
We stepped into a chamber that smelled like a smokey musk and dry air. My lamplight cut across stacked reels of film, books in cloth jackets, and DVDs in clear sleeves. The walls held metal shelves with numbered tags. In a side bay sat crates of thousands upon thousands of Orisyn gemstones, like a sea of rainbow glitter.
For a minute, nobody spoke. Then the three of us cheered like kids.
Maestro’s trove was real.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 14: Retro Nerd Girl and The Temple of The Sun-God (Part 2)
We stumbled out into daylight with the first load, waiting for the vampirate ship to pick us up. We were still high on the find when a line of Ognomians in sun scarves and painted masks rose from a cloak of sand and ambushed us.
They weren’t interested in our treasure because they left it right where they found us.
Their pointy spears nudged us away from the temple and up a dune wall. At the crest, another temple came into view along with an entire village of tribal Ognomians . Low mud-brick homes encircled a square altar. .
The treasure temple was a trap.
Was this part of The Maestro’s plan?
Our captors spoke among themselves and paraded us through their tiny square. Children stopped playing with reed hoops to stare in fear. The eyes of the villagers followed as they all began to chant, “Cha-na, Cha-na, Cha-na!”
“Oh great,” Puma sneered. “They think that they are going to sacrifice us to their Sun-God.”
They dragged us toward a central altar with a slab warmed by the sun. Drums thumped as the chant rose, steady and harsh.
“What?” Graves panicked and a villager gently poked him with his spear for his outburst. “We can explain,” he said, but the chant did not pause.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this.” Puma smiled with confidence. I knew what that meant. Puma could wipe out this entire village. I had to step in.
Before I spoke, Graves said, “No, not by your methods!”
Puma’s jaw tightened. His eyes went dark, then bright red. “Yes, by my methods to save your life.”
The crowd of Ognomians hushed. Some of them motioned to Puma's eyes and stepped back cautiously.
I glanced at Graves. His mouth had fallen open and he was nodding yes. Puma’s charm abilities were putting him in a trance.
“Stop,” I said, stepping between Puma and Graves. “Release him!”
The vampirate turned his eyes upon me, glowing. For a breath, it felt like a test. I held his gaze. The glow faded a notch.
Graves blinked furiously, not believing what just happened.
“You must be insane,” Puma said. “Or just stubborn.”
“Both,” I said, reasserting my stance. “Use your methods… But just to show off a little. No loss of life please.”
“Well since you said please!” Puma said with a bow and a twisted smile. Crimson light ran along the rim of his irises. He lifted his hand and every Noclorian flinched as if their blood ran cold through their veins. The ones closer to him fainted as the rest of them began swaying like puppets.
He twitched two fingers and they all went flying backward.
Overhead, a vampirate ship broke through the clouds revealing the nose art shaped like a massive grinning skull. A shadow fell across the temple. The Ognomians snapped out of their trance and scattered in a panic. Some ran for shelter in the temple. Others ran into their huts.
Cables dropped and Puma’s team rappelled in, precise and quick ready to do their worst.
“Puma,” I said firmly, and gave him a look to remind him about my demand.
He held the look, then nodded once. “Understood.” He tapped his comm. “Team, move to the first site. Secure the trove. No casualties… this time.”
The team shifted direction without a word, heading to the treasure temple to begin their work. We were moving before my heart slowed down. We were clear of danger and the treasure was ours.
I took a look behind me to check on Graves. He was doing well as he kept glancing at me, but this time it was not with contempt, but the look a father gives a child they are proud of.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 15: Retro Nerd Girl and The Temple of The Sun-God (Part 3)
At the ridge, Puma raised his hand to guide his ship and it drifted with us as we walked. We reached the treasure temple and found our crates where we left them. Puma’s team formed a chain, filing into the building.
The ship’s engine hum dropped as it settled onto the sand. The belly hatch unlocked and yawned open. An additional squad of vampirates pushed levitating cargo carriers down the ramp.
We loaded the hold with reels, books, gemstones, and DVDs in neat stacks.Puma went straight to work, calling placements, counting rows, and lining up crates by size. He routed every piece of treasure off the floor.
Graves and I were not as strong, but we worked at a rhythm. He took one end of a carrier, I took the other, and we handled small batches together.
He kept stealing glances at me while we worked.
“I have never seen anyone resist their charm,” he whispered to me. “You are immune to them.”
“I know,” Puma interrupted as he was passing by, “Isn’t she amazing?”
I shook my head as he whizzed past, running up the ramp into the ship with a load. He gave a grin that tried to be casual.
Graves gasped and then laughed.
I looked at Graves with curiosity. “What?”
“He has a crush on you,” he whispered.
I shrugged. “No way. We are old friends.”
“On your end,” he said. “He clearly has something for you.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said, blowing off the idea. Maybe I did not want to face any of it. I had only ever seen Puma as a friend, and I didn’t want to change that, especially now that we were working together.
Graves smiled wide. He adjusted his glasses with one finger and nodded toward the cargo. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “Great show today, Agent RNG. You have my full support moving forward. And by the way, you make one heck of a galaxy coffee.”
That got me in the feels. The corners of my mouth would not stay down after that. I smiled for the rest of the day.
We sealed the last container with a hard click and rolled the lifts into their brackets. The hold lights shifted from amber to green.
Puma gave a quick thumbs up at the flight deck and waved us toward the passenger bay.
Inside, the vampirate ship was tight and practical. Fold down seats along the wall had thick straps to keep us safe during the flight. We took our seats and buckled in.
Graves had trouble with his buckle. It wouldn't snap in and he began to panic. I calmly tapped the strap by his shoulder and loosened one notch. The metal snapped. He nodded thanks and took a deep breath.
The engines wound up to a steady hum. The ship lifted with a hard pull that rocked us forward. I braced my boots against the deck. The temple shrank behind us to the size of a pebble. The desert faded to a pale map of shapes. Clouds filled the view, then faded into the globe. The marble of the reddish brown planet Ognom filled the window, then slid away as the nose pitched for the black void of space.
I looked across at Graves. He was calmer now. His shoulders dropped. He watched the window like a kid on his first flight.
Mission done, no loss of life, and I think I made a new friend.
To be continued…
Previously.
The First Episode.
Buy Retro Nerd Girl a galaxy coffee
I thought Doctor Vark and I would see the museum’s council the next morning, just as he said, but ultimately it took three days. Many of the council members had to be flown in from all over the galaxy for this emergency meeting.
For me, it was three days of nervous waiting, but I managed to sneak in some much needed rest at my tiny apartment at the International Science Fiction Space Station’s headquarters. I spent the time writing in my journal and watching old movies.
When the day finally came, the ground traffic on the Moon was too jam-packed to hail a taxi. Luckily, Doctor Vark picked me up in his hover car. I could see shuttles littering the air space filled with ferried curators from every arm of the network to be on hand to advise the council if needed.
As we walked through the atrium at the museum, we could hear our names being called over the loudspeaker.
Nearly every employee gave us a concerned glare as we passed by. The rumor mill was clearly churning unfavorable stories. Our nods and gentle smiles were all we could offer as comfort to our friends as we made our way to the council’s conference room.
The room was fashioned like an old courtroom with pews for the advisors. Thirteen council members were positioned in a semicircle around a center point.
As we walked in, the room was bustling with conversation, which hushed to silence by the time we reached the center point. Advisors and council members all had their holo-tablets floating as they away furiously.
From right to left were Councilors Jones, Hicks, Rez, Kobayashi, Nicolai, Novex, Harrattan, Bisco, Gaff, Graves, Ludex, Bassor, Yang. The council leader was Harrattan who had a very pleasant disposition, welcoming us.
We stood in the center point recounting the deal proposed by the vampirates to the council and within the group there were many supportive smiles. This was going much better than expected.
But there were two sour faces amongst them, Hicks and Graves.
Hicks had never been pleasant on face value. He just looked mean all of the time, but I never heard any complaints about him from the staff or crew.
Graves had a pleasant disposition in most interactions with me. This time, from across the ring, Graves fixed me with a look that would kill if it could.
His anger erupted. “We are NOT partnering with raiders,” he snarled. “They will turn all of us into monsters. Believe me, I know first hand what these creatures can do!”
Harrattan brought the gavel down. “Councilor Graves.”
It was Hicks who spoke next. “I’m curious. How many artifacts can you recover?”
His look of anger was actually a look of curiosity, I noted. “Realistically, a good twenty.” I said making a very conservative estimate. I couldn’t know for certain until I helped the vampirates. There could be hundreds, or there could be none.
“Twenty artifacts?” Hicks shook his head in disapproval. “We can’t make a deal like that with the vampirates over twenty artifacts.”
“Well, there could be hundreds,” I blurted out. “We don’t know yet.”
Graves was still shooting daggers at me with his eyes.
What was up with this guy?
While Doctor Vark took the floor, I tapped the miniature button at the edge of the frame of my glasses to activate its intel capabilities. I needed Councilor Graves’s background and any connection he had to the vampirates. It was then that I learned his tragic story.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 5: Retro Nerd Girl and The Final Verdict
Doctor Vark launched into one of his long, elegant speeches, revisiting every point we covered a few days ago. His voice flowed like a lullaby, precise, soothing, yet relentless. His dedication to the cause was unmatched.
Around us, the council chamber glowed with cool light as the ceiling arced like a shiny wooden shell. Advisors were affixed to their holo-tablets as the blue screens hovered above their laps.
Meanwhile, I nudged my red frames up my nose and summoned the public file on Councilor Graves. The lens painted a translucent dossier at the edge of my vision while listing a long science military career. With a little more probing scanners began selecting key words. “Born on Earth.” “2050.” “New York City.” Later, “New Jersey.” A newspaper headline flashed, dated 2057. “Vampire Outbreak Attack on New Jersey Town.” “Seven year old Indigo Graves, only survivor in a twelve block radius, rescued by police.”
His family was likely still on Earth, but they are all vampires now. He never came to terms with what happened. The vampires in those days are not the same as the ones today. He never faced them again to find out. From his point of view, the vampires took away his childhood. End of story.
“We may not ever get another opportunity like this”, Doctor Vark said, voice softening as he concluded. I tapped my glasses again to remove the screen on it.
I took a deep breath, choosing my words carefully because his opinion was so very important to the council.
“Councilor Graves, I began. “If I can report to you every minute detail of acquiring Orysin gemstones with the vampirates. You’ll know every step we ...”
“We can’t trust you,” he cut in, sharply. “You’re already compromised. You’re clearly under their control!”
Harrattan huffed, visibly tired of the back and forth. “Then we’ll set up a temporary agreement,” she said, folding her hands with deliberate calm. “Go with her, Graves and make sure this isn’t the elaborate trap you suspect. If it meets your approval, we move forward.”
He wants a stronger debate/conflict when the councilor is ordered to work with Vampirates, not simple obedience.
The look on Graves’ face was one of complete horror. I had no idea that Harrattan was going to suggest he go with us but she had always been a supporter of anything Doctor Vark wanted, and most of the time, so were all of the councilors. But Harrattan in particular had power none of the other councilors had, I discovered that day because her words were not a suggestion. It was a command and this meant that Graves had to go, without contest or face judgement from his peers.
The speed and tone of her solution felt cold. It was possible she didn’t know about his past. In fact everyone seemed oblivious, but me. The secret of his past might have been just where he wanted to keep it, but now he'd be dealing with them face to face.
The councilors spoke among themselves and punched in their votes as Graves stared at the table, jaw set, hands folded so tightly his knuckles blanched.
The tabulation glittered on Harrattan’s holo tablet screen.
Harrattan said with a warm smile to the doctor and I, “You have your mission. You are dismissed.”
The room roared into conversation as me and Doctor Vark gathered ourselves for a bittersweet victory.
I met Graves’ eyes as sympathy flooded me. This turn of events was not easy on him, visibly showing signs of dread on his countenance instead of his usual stoicism.
“Let’s go,” Doctor Vark nudged. “We have a lot to do before this mission. Including getting the vampirates up to speed about what’s going on.”
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 6: Retro Nerd Girl Recruits Agent LRC
I walked along the industrial halls of the International Science Fiction Space Station (ISFSS) as the deck hummed under my boots.
I turned into the science wing and stepped into Agent LRC’s lab. The room buzzed like a hive. Technicians moved between benches with holo-tablets in hand, while attending to their projects.
On the far wall, a curtain of screens wrapped Agent LRC in a soft glow. Flight paths traced gentle arcs. She sat in her command chair, headset snug, fingers flying across the screen in a blur.
“Congrats on the new mission.” She removed her headset and rose to meet me with a hug and a big smile.
“Thank you!” I said beaming.
“Let’s take a look at you, my dear”. Before I knew it she slipped my glasses from my face with the care of a jeweler. She inspected them briefly and tagged them for diagnostics with a pen device.
“These have seen better days,” she said. “You need the upgrade.”
A technician close by quickly took them and hurried away to his work.
She opened a velvet tray and revealed a shiny new pair of cherry red framed glasses. I squealed like a 6 year old opening a Barbie for Christmas. My eyes gleamed as I noticed the tiny speckles of glitter lacquered on the sheen.
“These ran hot in the sim,” she said with pride as positioned them correctly on my face. “Spectral filters. A clean X ray channel. An onboard intelligence for field notes. A lie detector. A universal translator. A micro beacon. Shrink and reverse ray. Holo-carrier. A pocket scout drone to do a little spying for you. Fetch boomerang compatible with your biometrics so you’ll never lose them. And a comfort polish, so you forget you are even wearing them.”
“Um! Comfy,” I nodded with a smile.
Her team ran a side test near us. A slim collar locked and released with a quiet click. A technician showed me smart fingernails that stored a single shot charge for emergency defense. Talk about a dangerous manicure.
On a podium were a pair of silver field boots sparkling with glitter. My eyes expanded as bright as moons. I slipped a hand against a microbutton near the heel. The soles of the boots shot out claws that bit the table like a cat on a ledge!
LRC laughed. “Boots with a Kung fu grip!” We both yelped with glee.
“Fashion and utility!” I said, shaking my head in amazement.
“They are anti-slip on any surface. Click the heels three times and it sends a location beacon to the ISFSS so E.T. can phone home.”
We both laughed at the 1982 movie reference. In this case, E.T. meant Extraction Target. It was something we picked up during cadet training together. It felt like old times again for a moment.
.”Retro, We can deliver the set to your ship in the morning. What do you say?”
“Oh my goodness. Yes! I want them all.” I felt like a kid in a candy store.
“Let’s do this,” she said, while twirling her finger in the air pointing to her team. “Load them up, people.”
“By the way,” She smiled, “That was some fancy work, on deciphering the Orisyn gemstone in your last mission, but I can do it much faster. Send them to me and I can relay the results to Agent DabMan to take some of the work off your shoulders.”
It was as if she could read my mind. I nodded in thanks.
“Go get em tiger,” she said, touching my sleeve proudly as I left.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 7: Retro Nerd Girl Recruits The Dab Man
I drifted from my tasks to grab some lunch in sector 2. Flower power strawberry ale and Xarlixian sliders. Yum!
I found Agent DabMan in the cultural wing, virtually lecturing to three curious aliens about the Byzantine Empire in his office. I waited in the doorway until he signaled to me with an exuberant wave. He motioned for me to come inside and take a seat near his desk. I did so, happy to listen to the last few minutes of his lecture..
While I listened, I noticed that his office looked like a comet had passed through. Books skewed with pages ripped, wrinkled and scattered. And the weirdness thing of all, VHS tapes with bite marks on them on the floor!
This was highly unusual for the DabMan. I’d always known him to keep his office spotless, until now.
When he finished, we hugged. Sorry for the mess,” he said, a little embarrassed. “I swear I had it tidy this morning.”
“Oh no,” I tried to play it off as if I didn’t notice.
“It must be gremlins,” he joked. We howled in laughter. LRC, DabMan and I were all inducted into the same school at the same time so we couldn’t help cracking pop culture jokes from 1980 nearly constantly between us. It’s one of our favorite era’s for fiction.
“Heard you got some cool gadgets from LRC this morning.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I said with a huge smile beaming as I motioned to my new glasses. “Look at these babies.”
“Wow!” he admired with astonishment. “Biometrics too. That will come in handy with your new mission. Congratulations by the way.”
“Thanks, that is why I’m here,” I said, adjusting my glasses to my nose. “I am shipping the Orisyn gemstones to LRC once I get my hands on them. She can crack the outer shell and get me coordinates. I need your help on the second part of the process of decoding puzzles to find out which movies I am searching for.”
“Yes, yes, of course.” He was in before I finished the pitch, nodding all along.
“Special Agent RNG,” the comm sang. “You are needed in the year 2025. Repeat, you are needed in the year 2025.”
“Do you need my help this time,” he asked.
“Oh no, I think I will be ok.”
“Which film?” he asked.
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
“Ah, that’s a good one!”
“I will be back,” I said in my worst Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.
We both chuckled as I left the room.
He saluted, eyes bright. “Good luck Retro.”
Season 1: Episode 8: Retro Nerd Girl Explains The Matter of Time
This might come as a shock, but I was born in 1970. These chronicles began in 4822, and I was not two thousand years old then. How was it possible, you asked yourself as you read this. It was possible by traveling through time and dimension.
In my own time, I was known as Retro Nerd Girl, a movie review YouTube creator on the internet encouraging people to remember old films.
A decade ago, Time Lords came to 2015 to recruit about twenty of us to become agents who would preserve human history across time, since the planet Earth was sick and dying. I was selected to attend the Intergalactic Academy of Space Travel for basic training, and then the International Science Fiction Space Station and the Museum of Fiction for specialized work.
As a special agent, it was my mission to protect and preserve whatever relics we could find from movies, series, and other works of fiction, and add them to the museum. The dimension I was born in and the future dimension were very similar when it came to Earth’s history, which made me perfect for the job.
You were probably asking, since I had access to time travel, why I did not just take items from my time and bring them to the future.
There were laws I could not break about time and dimension travel. For one thing, I would have been stealing from one dimension to give to another. I could go to prison for a long time for that crime.
I was also not allowed to go to this dimension’s past, only my own. I could not go back to a time before I existed in this body. I could not, for instance, go back to when I was a kid. Strangely enough, I could visit any time before I was born.
Time Lords moved Retro from her original dimension into a similar Earth
Stealing from one dimension to another is a crime
She can only visit her own past
She cannot go back to any time where she already exists in that body
She can go to times before she was born
not just “because Time Lords said so.The Time Lords were not just being moral about it. If you strip too many artifacts out of a dimension, you strip out the memories tied to them. Whole cultures forget what they fought for, who they loved, why they changed. There are worlds that turned to dust inside their own minds because some idiot thought time travel was a shopping trip.when you move an object from one dimension to another, you are not just stealing plastic, you are stealing a storyline that other reality is built on. Too much of that, and people there literally lose parts of their history, their identities, their cause and effect. My dimensional twin is doing the same on my dimension.
“Somewhere out there, my dimensional twin is doing the same job I am, chasing ghosts of old stories through a different sky. We can never visit each other’s worlds. The physics would tear us apart. But there are neutral waystations outside of time where the Time Lords sometimes bring their favorite troublemakers together. I have heard whispers of halls full of other me’s. Different hair, different scars, same stubborn heart.”
Time travel to your own dimension is not possible. No one has ever returned or appeared from their own past dimension
Time lord jail is a minimum of 1,000 years in a void.
In “normal” science, time travel does not work.
If people try to time travel in their own timeline, they disintegrate.
Retro is special and can go back because of what the Time Lords did to her.
That totally works, we just have to nail the logic.
Clean rule set that fits what you said
Use this as your canon:
Rule 1: Native time travel kills you.
Any attempt to travel in time inside the dimension you are “born” to causes disintegration.
That is why, in regular history, no time travelers ever showed up. The ones who tried never survived the jump.
Rule 2: The Time Lords found a loophole.
They discovered you can only move safely in time if you are not anchored to that dimension anymore.
So they pull certain people out of their home dimension completely and “re-home” them in a parallel one.
Rule 3: Once you are re-homed, you can mission into your old timeline.
Retro was taken out of her original dimension A.
She now lives in dimension B.
Because she is no longer anchored to A, the Time Lords can send her on controlled missions into the past of A as an external observer.
She always returns to B. She can never stay and live in A again. It is visits only.
Rule 4: Nobody can travel in time inside their current home dimension.
Retro cannot travel in time in B at all, because that is now her “living” reality.
If she tried to time travel inside B, she would disintegrate like everyone else.
Rule 5: No one can go into their own past body.
Even in A, she cannot visit any year where she already exists.
Before she is born is allowed.
Any overlap with her own lifespan causes catastrophic feedback.
So:
Ordinary people: cannot time travel anywhere, they die if they try.
Retro: can visit the past of her original dimension on missions, because she has been “detached” and lives in another one now.
She cannot time travel inside the dimension she currently lives in.
That keeps your line “no proof time travel works in our history” and your idea that no one has ever returned from their own past dimension in a natural way. Only Time Lord agents, under strict rules, can do the workaround Retro does.
How Retro can explain it simply in the story
Here is a short paragraph you can bend into your voice:
In my home dimension, people tried to crack time travel for centuries. Every experiment ended the same way. The traveler never arrived. The lab readings said the body hit the timestream and came apart. That is why there are no legends about meeting your future self. Anyone who tried to jump inside their own world just died.
The Time Lords found a loophole. If they pull you all the way out of your original universe and drop you into a parallel one, you stop belonging to the old timeline. From here, this borrowed Earth, they can thread me back into my home history as a visitor. I can walk around before I was born, touch the dust of the past, and then they yank me back out. If I ever tried to travel inside this new timeline, though, I would disintegrate just like the early test pilots.
Dimensional twin rule:
Every time the Time Lords remove someone from their original universe, a version of them continues in that original timeline. They are not clones, they are forks. Each one is a full person with their own history from that split onward.
Neither twin can ever enter the other’s home universe. Their presence would collide with the timeline anchor and destroy them.
The only safe place for twins to meet is in neutral dimensions constructed by the Time Lords outside any single reality.
On occasion, I had to return to Earth in my time to complete the recorded history of my life’s work. Today, I needed to revisit my world for a watch party of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, released in 1961 and starring the great Audrey Hepburn.
I carried the weight of the present future with me on every trip home. One of the most important rules was not to talk about what was to come until the motion was already set. It was one of the most difficult things to do. However, the very reason you are reading this now is because the future was being set in this present moment, my friend. Only time would reveal why.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 9: Retro Nerd Girl Goes Back to 2025
I walked through the familiar corridors of the ISFSS until I reached the Time Flux Room. The chamber never looked the same twice. The tech walls shifted like panels of living metal, and every entry presented a different space, as if it were trying to express its feelings to me. Today it was a black void with a blue frame around the portal. The air was cool and damp. I could feel the hum of energy as the room charged up.
I waved my hand over the gate sensor. White characters floated over the frame. 2:30 p.m., Stealth Moon Base, September 13, 2025.
“Here we go,” I said as I stepped through the barrier, from cold and quiet to warm and busy. The 2025 team was ready for me.
“You’re late,” said the team leader, Agent JAX, as he ushered me to the shuttle bay.
It smelled of ozone and engine oil, a mix that churned my stomach but always filled me with excitement for the ride. My white single occupancy shuttle, nicknamed The Enterprise, was waiting for me on the far side of the bay.
I ran over to it with joy and kissed the side door.
“I missed you!” I whispered, hoping no one could hear me as I opened the door and slipped inside. I sat for a minute settling into a good position and started up the engine. I hit the accelerator and zipped The Enterprise down to Earth in stealth mode. I parked it on the roof of my apartment building where it could remain unseen.
I headed straight to my mailbox without delay. I picked up packages from my viewers, more like friends now. Small and medium boxes of books, and flat envelopes taped neatly, filled with comics, DVDs, and Blu-rays. I held them tight against my chest and felt a quick rush of my old life.
I missed it sometimes. But the adventure of being an agent was gratifying if I could help a dimension’s human historical record, even if it was not my own.
Then I rode The Enterprise back to HQ on the moon for my Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961) watch party.
The watch party went extremely well. The room was bright, the chat was funny, and Audrey was luminous. It was a fantastic stream that night. When it ended, I packed the boxes, logged the timestamps, and exhaled.
“All done,” I said, clapping my hands on my lap. I was exhausted from a busy day and wanted nothing more than to go to bed and enjoy a day off before the mission began.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 10: Retro Nerd Girl’s Enemies At The Gate
I returned to the Time Flux Room and set the coordinate wheel back to the future.
I stepped through the blue frame. The ground shook beneath me. I bounced. The station rocked to the right, a sharp tilt that threw my weight into the wall. For a second I told myself the stabilizers would settle and we would feel milder turbulence. They did not. The rumble deepened. Panels rattled. A red alarm light flashed and sirens cut the air.
I ran out of the room into a hallway of flashing red strips. Crew members sprinted past me as voices overlapped. We were under attack.
I slammed into the door to stop my momentum to a halt as I waited for the holo-identifier to grant me clearance. I raced to the bridge where I could do the most good. I was a pretty good gunner. I had been told as much by the best Starspace commanders.
My lungs burned as I ran through corridors that felt twice as long.
I burst onto the deck. The commander spun toward me, jaw tight, eyes hot. “There you are. They are looking for you.”
“Me?” I said, barely catching my breath.
A junior officer, Daniels, who liked to give me grief on occasion, jibed, “Friends of yours?”
I gave him a playful sneer. It was not the time for silliness, but it helped me get on track and stop the panic inside.
I narrowed my eyes and looked at the attack. Five vessels slid across the screens like blades. I knew that silhouette at once. It was Hawk’s team of bandits. Hawk was a henchman for a mobster named Krahs. No doubt he had been sent to do his worst.
“Protect her,” the commander said to Daniels.
“Yes, sir.” Daniels snapped to attention.
“Do not worry. We are not turning you over to them,” the commander said. “Stand by. Shields at seventy. Forward batteries on mark.”
“What?” I asked, realizing the situation was escalating and the commander was doubling down on his stance. “No, hail them. I am surrendering.” My voice was sure and steady, which surprised even me. My heart pounded so hard in my chest I thought it might climb into my throat.
The bridge went silent. I felt every eye glued to me as shock rolled across the room like a wave. A tech’s hand froze above a console as he waited for the command to fire.
Daniels’ mouth hung open. His eyes glared at me as if my words were a death sentence.
I lifted my chin and looked at the enemy ships as they swung around for another pass.
The commander’s stare narrowed. “Are you sure?”
I kept my voice level. “Ask for Hawk. He is their leader.”
“Channel open,” Comms said.
I drew a breath, tasted metal in the air, and stepped forward. “Hawk,” I said, clear and firm, “this is Retro Nerd Girl. If you want me, I am here.”
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 11: Retro Nerd Girl’s Enemies and Deals (Part 2)
I was escorted aboard Hawk’s vessel with a little roughhousing from his goons.
“Hey, watch it,” I scoffed.
“We have to be careful with the little princess,” one of them joked in an attempt at saying it in falsetto. They snickered and snorted as they brought me to the bridge.
A shove between my shoulder blades kept me moving forward.
They brought me to the center of it where Hawk could have me displayed. The crew was a rough bunch decorated in scars and dirty gear. On deck there was no banter. Everyone kept their heads down at their tasks.
I felt the cold chill of Hawk's gaze before my eyes met his with defiance.
Hawk stood by the front screen, then sauntered over to me, grinning with too many teeth. His skin was a cool purple that caught the screen glow adorned in yellow and purple armor. Square goggles sat on his brow, lenses white with an internal light. With his eyes hidden, it made it so hard to know exactly what he was thinking at all times, but this time, I had a good idea.
He was half machine and half man, a Cyberon. His people had traded body parts for technology. Many of them went out colonizing planets that already had intelligent civilizations. They enslaved so many. They were overthrown eventually. Some reformed. Most were peaceful now, but still fierce warriors. If you wanted to win a war, you hired Cyberon mercenaries.
Hawk’s past was rougher than most. He was captured and enslaved as a child by the former ruler of Tradetopia.
That man had never known kindness.
When the old ruler died, he worked his way into the new ruler’s trust and became second in command.
“My boss is looking for you,” he said.
I met his eyes without blinking. “Why would he be looking for me?”
I was snooping for more intel, by playing dumb.
He enjoyed the question. “There is a rumor you and the vampirates have a deal.”
“Oh really,” I said, tilting my head to the side. I thought of the Ognomians . They were the only others witness to my meeting with the vampirates on Noclar. My stomach went tight. I kept my face calm.
“There was news about possible artifacts,” Hawk said. “Movies and TV shows. I don’t care if you find news reports from the 1960's, my boss wants in.”
“Why didn’t you ask the vampirates?” I said, taunting him a bit for my trouble. I knew that the vampirates were too powerful for him to approach. I was his only option to negotiate with.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” He wagged a finger, slow and smug. “Not a chance, princess.” He was showing off that he had extraordinary hearing.
He cut his eyes on one of his goons. “Watch her.”
An acknowledging grunt from behind me whipped past my ear. A whiff of his horrendous breath followed.
I stared back at Hawk and let my anger burn. If looks could kill, he was ready for burial.
He said nothing else during the trip and neither did I.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 12: Retro Nerd Girl’s Enemies and Deals (Part 3)
The trip was short after a portal jump to Tradetopia’s sector. There it was, atop of an asteroid floating in the abyss of space.
Tradetopia was a rough colony on an asteroid. Gravity clamps kept the docks steady. Cargo skiffs drifted in and out like slow insects from my view on the bridge. A transparent dome sealed in the air as silver peaks denoted the city buildings. An onyx tower rose over it all like a spike.
Once we hit the landing pad behind Krahs’, I was escorted quietly through the back entrance. We went up elevators, passed through checkpoints, and finally into a nearly empty room. At the far end was a robot head with a stern face, welded into the bulkhead like an oversized mounted trophy. Two bald attendants in floor-length black robes stood at its sides.
This robot head was the avatar of Tradetopia’s mob boss leader, Krahs.
He had been a human scientist once. He was a brilliant mind, but he was also mad. After experimenting on himself one too many times, he eventually became a disembodied brain.
There was no doubt that this behemoth countenance before me was his mask today, as his brain was somewhere behind the monstrosity in a jar hooked up to wires and cables.
Now he did everything he could to remind himself of the human he used to be. Human history stored in any visual medium gave him sharp joy, but his consumption methods were too intense. He played them at ten times the speed, and within a few days they were destroyed.
He caused this scavenger hunt with his insatiable appetite.
We stepped further into the chamber of bare metal walls as the attendants watched me with cold eyes.
“Hawk, you are on all the news reports tonight,” Krahs said with a humorous edge. His voice had a synthetic hum, but a touch of smooth elegance. “Do you ever do anything subtle?”
Hawk was speechless.
“Did you think of just asking her for a meeting?” Krahs asked.
Hawk, fully embarrassed, bowed. “Please accept my humble apology.” He shot me a quick sneer as he unlocked my shackles. The sound of metal on metal clashed in the air as they fell off my wrists.
“I would have accepted," I said nodding, clearly enjoying Hawk’s predicament. He promptly left the room grumbling.
“Unfortunately, his blunder is gonna cost you,” I said while playing hardball.
Krahs’ two attendants looked at each other with concern, then at me, as if I was pushing my luck playing with fire. Maybe I was, but I knew Krahs desperately needed to negotiate with me.
He wanted copies of whatever we could find, and I agreed we could ship copies to him that he’d have to pay for. Krahs also agreed to foot the bill for the payout to the vampirates and the damage to the ISFSS Hawk caused.
The robot head laughed at the end of our conversation. The whole room trembled.
“But they have to be a certain quality,” Krahs said, more careful now. “No bootlegs.”
“Don’t insult me,” I said. “Clean scans. Stable transfers. Full crystal clear audio. You kno, museum quality.”
It was a huge win for him, and it was a huge win for the museum.
The attendants bowed, signaling I should leave the room.
The door opened with a stiff hiss. Hawk was there to greet me with his scowl. I kept my chin up and walked out of the tower with dignity.
Krahs sent me home in a private shuttle piloted by one of his personal guards. The shuttle door sealed with a hard click and the engines wound up into steady purr. I took in a deep breath watching the asteroid fall away from the viewport.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 13: Retro Nerd Girl and The Temple of The Sun-God (Part 1)
I rested for a few days before the mission. Dr. Vark saw me off to meet Graves, who wore a sour face.
“Morning,” he grumbled.
“Have you had breakfast yet?” I asked.
“This is not my first expedition,” he said, with an attitude.
“I am sorry, was that a yes?” I teased. It was out of line for my rank, but I didn’t care. He was being rude!
He shook his head no and looked a little embarrassed.
I showed him the tiny food closet and the brewing table by an access panel. “I’ve got galaxy coffee, but it’s my special blend.”
He rolled his eyes, but he stayed. “What is in it?”
“Ground astro beans from Phileas. Blackberry notes and a touch of power flower,” I said as the steam began to rise. He took a double take when I said Phileas, then pretended he did not care. But that divine aroma gets them every time. A raised eyebrow told me he was interested.
“It sounds decent,” he muttered.
I set a mug in his hand and led him to the cockpit chairs to sit.
I sat down in my chair noticing the Orisyn gemstone that led me to the Heavy Metal VHS tape. I grabbed it and tucked it in my pocket for good luck. I then opened a comm to send a message to the vampirates. “Rendezvous point confirmed. Six minutes.”
Puma’s reply came fast, “See you in a bit.”
I glanced at Graves. His chest tightened when he heard the voice over the comm. I thought for a moment, “Is he going to be okay?” He went still, then set the mug down without a sip.
I reached out. He pulled away. He was right. I should not have tried to comfort him by touching him. He was being so brave just being there.
The portal jump clipped our time in half. In three minutes we touched down on Ognom, the same desert world where I met the vampirates before. Heat rippled across a flat horizon.
Puma met us alone and hurried us off to a ridge where we could see the expanse of the desert. He pointed to the holo-pad map in his hand.
“We are here and the tomb is here,” he said, tapping two distant points.
“Why did we meet so far away from the site?” I asked.
“Booby traps. Here, here, and here,”
“Traps by the Maestro,” Graves interrupted, feeling a little proud to remember. “He did it to protect them.”
Puma led the way, “My team will come down after we disable them. Collect the treasure.”
Graves had a purpose now. He knew about the Maestro and spun the tale for our greedy ears. On the journey, he told us that the Maestro was a musical genius and archivist who turned rogue when Krahs started raiding museums to satisfy his appetite. The Maestro bought up all of the media left in the known universe. He bought film reels and books from Krahs’s network, then hid their whereabouts in Orisyn gemstones. There were tales of a big stash somewhere, but no one could ever find it. He planned to share his secret but he died under suspicious conditions.
We reached a tall dune and climbed over it. There it was, a beautiful golden stone temple in the basin built from stacked sandstone blocks
Inside, the passage was narrow. We moved carefully as Puma led the way, listening with his impeccable hearing. I tapped my frames and traced the seams on the walls. Wires and pressure plates waited under fine dust. Puma pointed. I nodded. Then he went fast at work disabling lines with careful snips, while I continued to study the site.
“The landscape traps are clear.” Puma announced.
Graves took notes, precise and quiet. He looked comfortable but I didn’t think he was starting to slightly warm up to Puma. He still kept a careful eye on the vampirate.
At an inner door, symbols were carved into stone. A shallow recess held a grid of a small socket that looked like the imprint of a missing Orisyn gemstone. I pulled out the original stone that led us here from my pocket and looked at it.
“Good luck,” I said softly as I slid it into place. The grid lit up and a latch could be heard moving. The door suddenly groaned open.
We stepped into a chamber that smelled like a smokey musk and dry air. My lamplight cut across stacked reels of film, books in cloth jackets, and DVDs in clear sleeves. The walls held metal shelves with numbered tags. In a side bay sat crates of thousands upon thousands of Orisyn gemstones, like a sea of rainbow glitter.
For a minute, nobody spoke. Then the three of us cheered like kids.
Maestro’s trove was real.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 14: Retro Nerd Girl and The Temple of The Sun-God (Part 2)
We stumbled out into daylight with the first load, waiting for the vampirate ship to pick us up. We were still high on the find when a line of Ognomians in sun scarves and painted masks rose from a cloak of sand and ambushed us.
They weren’t interested in our treasure because they left it right where they found us.
Their pointy spears nudged us away from the temple and up a dune wall. At the crest, another temple came into view along with an entire village of tribal Ognomians . Low mud-brick homes encircled a square altar. .
The treasure temple was a trap.
Was this part of The Maestro’s plan?
Our captors spoke among themselves and paraded us through their tiny square. Children stopped playing with reed hoops to stare in fear. The eyes of the villagers followed as they all began to chant, “Cha-na, Cha-na, Cha-na!”
“Oh great,” Puma sneered. “They think that they are going to sacrifice us to their Sun-God.”
They dragged us toward a central altar with a slab warmed by the sun. Drums thumped as the chant rose, steady and harsh.
“What?” Graves panicked and a villager gently poked him with his spear for his outburst. “We can explain,” he said, but the chant did not pause.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this.” Puma smiled with confidence. I knew what that meant. Puma could wipe out this entire village. I had to step in.
Before I spoke, Graves said, “No, not by your methods!”
Puma’s jaw tightened. His eyes went dark, then bright red. “Yes, by my methods to save your life.”
The crowd of Ognomians hushed. Some of them motioned to Puma's eyes and stepped back cautiously.
I glanced at Graves. His mouth had fallen open and he was nodding yes. Puma’s charm abilities were putting him in a trance.
“Stop,” I said, stepping between Puma and Graves. “Release him!”
The vampirate turned his eyes upon me, glowing. For a breath, it felt like a test. I held his gaze. The glow faded a notch.
Graves blinked furiously, not believing what just happened.
“You must be insane,” Puma said. “Or just stubborn.”
“Both,” I said, reasserting my stance. “Use your methods… But just to show off a little. No loss of life please.”
“Well since you said please!” Puma said with a bow and a twisted smile. Crimson light ran along the rim of his irises. He lifted his hand and every Noclorian flinched as if their blood ran cold through their veins. The ones closer to him fainted as the rest of them began swaying like puppets.
He twitched two fingers and they all went flying backward.
Overhead, a vampirate ship broke through the clouds revealing the nose art shaped like a massive grinning skull. A shadow fell across the temple. The Ognomians snapped out of their trance and scattered in a panic. Some ran for shelter in the temple. Others ran into their huts.
Cables dropped and Puma’s team rappelled in, precise and quick ready to do their worst.
“Puma,” I said firmly, and gave him a look to remind him about my demand.
He held the look, then nodded once. “Understood.” He tapped his comm. “Team, move to the first site. Secure the trove. No casualties… this time.”
The team shifted direction without a word, heading to the treasure temple to begin their work. We were moving before my heart slowed down. We were clear of danger and the treasure was ours.
I took a look behind me to check on Graves. He was doing well as he kept glancing at me, but this time it was not with contempt, but the look a father gives a child they are proud of.
To be continued…
Season 1: Episode 15: Retro Nerd Girl and The Temple of The Sun-God (Part 3)
At the ridge, Puma raised his hand to guide his ship and it drifted with us as we walked. We reached the treasure temple and found our crates where we left them. Puma’s team formed a chain, filing into the building.
The ship’s engine hum dropped as it settled onto the sand. The belly hatch unlocked and yawned open. An additional squad of vampirates pushed levitating cargo carriers down the ramp.
We loaded the hold with reels, books, gemstones, and DVDs in neat stacks.Puma went straight to work, calling placements, counting rows, and lining up crates by size. He routed every piece of treasure off the floor.
Graves and I were not as strong, but we worked at a rhythm. He took one end of a carrier, I took the other, and we handled small batches together.
He kept stealing glances at me while we worked.
“I have never seen anyone resist their charm,” he whispered to me. “You are immune to them.”
“I know,” Puma interrupted as he was passing by, “Isn’t she amazing?”
I shook my head as he whizzed past, running up the ramp into the ship with a load. He gave a grin that tried to be casual.
Graves gasped and then laughed.
I looked at Graves with curiosity. “What?”
“He has a crush on you,” he whispered.
I shrugged. “No way. We are old friends.”
“On your end,” he said. “He clearly has something for you.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said, blowing off the idea. Maybe I did not want to face any of it. I had only ever seen Puma as a friend, and I didn’t want to change that, especially now that we were working together.
Graves smiled wide. He adjusted his glasses with one finger and nodded toward the cargo. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “Great show today, Agent RNG. You have my full support moving forward. And by the way, you make one heck of a galaxy coffee.”
That got me in the feels. The corners of my mouth would not stay down after that. I smiled for the rest of the day.
We sealed the last container with a hard click and rolled the lifts into their brackets. The hold lights shifted from amber to green.
Puma gave a quick thumbs up at the flight deck and waved us toward the passenger bay.
Inside, the vampirate ship was tight and practical. Fold down seats along the wall had thick straps to keep us safe during the flight. We took our seats and buckled in.
Graves had trouble with his buckle. It wouldn't snap in and he began to panic. I calmly tapped the strap by his shoulder and loosened one notch. The metal snapped. He nodded thanks and took a deep breath.
The engines wound up to a steady hum. The ship lifted with a hard pull that rocked us forward. I braced my boots against the deck. The temple shrank behind us to the size of a pebble. The desert faded to a pale map of shapes. Clouds filled the view, then faded into the globe. The marble of the reddish brown planet Ognom filled the window, then slid away as the nose pitched for the black void of space.
I looked across at Graves. He was calmer now. His shoulders dropped. He watched the window like a kid on his first flight.
Mission done, no loss of life, and I think I made a new friend.
To be continued…
Previously.
The First Episode.
Buy Retro Nerd Girl a galaxy coffee
No comments:
Post a Comment