Chrono Voyage

Chapter 15: Getting Drunk

     “Hello fellas,” Benjamin walked up to a group of well-dressed people, some had a turtleneck with a black scarf around their neck, some wore a shirt underneath a one-color sweater, khaki jeans, all of them sporting glasses, well mannered and the words coming out of their mouth a class above the average speaking; Archeologists, you can tell from afar, and you wouldn’t be wrong. “I’ve got a question for you,” they all looked at him with one hand inside their pockets and the other holding a glass of champagne. “Why wasn’t sunbathing an Olympic sport in ancient Greece?” They all looked at him stunned and then looked at each other murmuring sentences amongst each other.

     “What are you doing mate?” Elizabeth watched from afar waiting for the perfect moment to sneak up and steal the device, but now it would seem Benjamin has ruined the whole thing or has he.

     “Because the best you can get is bronze!!!” he spoke the answer, the archeologists looked at him stunned until they burst into laughter simultaneously, it was a joke all along. “Benjamin Riddle, everyone,” he presented himself as he shook hands with everybody, they handed him a glass of champagne as they gathered in a circle and chatted amongst each other, no one even bothering to keep an eye on the device.

     “Perfect!” Elizabeth snuck inside and crawled on all her four, hiding behind the desks, that held various artifacts on them, one desk even had various bugs all petrified behind plexiglass, Elizabeth wasn’t much of a bug fan, she hated them in fact she would always be grossed out when one crawled on her skin or when she touched one accidentally that is. She left the mini-museum and entered another room that was smaller, it was a storage room for the artifacts. The room was dark and cold in order to preserve some of the artifacts, some of them were covered with a sheet. A lot of things there were fascinating some even caught her eye at least those artifacts that she knew were worth, there were two shelves that defined the room, on the shelves where all kinds of artifacts from different time periods, between the shelves, stood a column that was covered with a sheet. Elizabeth removed the sheet and saw a marble substrate as high as her waist and on the substrate was a glass aquarium in the shape of a cube, the aquarium did not concern her as she came for what is inside. The translating device, although the glass aquarium was now becoming a problem, breaking the glass would activate an alarm and if she did manage to get past the glass there were lasers all around the device, and even if she managed to get past the lasers, the pressure plate would do its job and activate the alarm if the weight changed even in the slightest, this was becoming far more complicated than it was worth, she thought. It annoyed the hell out of her but she had a plan, a plan that she nor Benjamin is going to like. She sneaked again inside the museum and threw a peek at Benjamin and his new friends, they were still chatting it up, in fact, Benjamin was enjoying himself and why wouldn’t he? After all, these are the people of his status, people of the higher echelons of society, posh and classy.

     Elizabeth knocked on the door and opened it as if she was entering even though she was inside the whole time. “Um… Excuse me, Doctor Benjamin… The director would like to have a word with you,” she smiled at him. Benjamin looked at her and he snapped back to reality he almost forgot about her, he began to realize he does not belong here and Elizabeth always had a way of reminding him.

     “What happened? Did you get it?” he chased after her in the halls.

     “Glad to see you are enjoying yourself,” she looked at the champagne that he still had in his hand. “It’s more complicated than I thought, we are going to do a bit of an experiment.”

     “A bit of an experiment?” he looked at her confused.

     “We are going to have to jump back in time multiple times…” she told him.

     “What? Why?”

     “The pressure plate on the device, the glass, and the lasers I can get through, but the weight is a problem. I am going to have to replace the device with something else and that something else is going to need to be the same weight as the device.”

     “You need to measure the weight?” asked Benjamin.

     “That is correct…”

     “So what do you need me for?”

     “The same thing you just did, although…” she grabbed at his champagne and pulled it off his hand placing it on the marble fence that was in the hall. “Every time they are going to ask you for a glass of champagne and you are going to accept, but remember going back in time does not make you sobber, and I don’t want you to get drunk on the mission, so be careful with your drinking.”

     “I am not a kid Elizabeth… I can handle my drink.”

     “Please just be careful,” she warned again.

     Both of them raced across the hall and came outside on the courtyard, Elizabeth remembered that they came here by taxi, a rather big waste of time and money. Next time she is going to park the machine much closer to the institute, she was going to risk it. They took a cab and instantly hopped on the machine, she turned the clock back half an hour whilst Benjamin looked outside of the window as everything went backward, the cars, the humans walked backward, the birds flew backward… everything went backward half an hour, and the cherry on top that Elizabeth really like is that nobody is going to notice nor remember anything that they lived that half an hour and then went back. So if you finally gathered the courage to ask the girl you like on a date, and then some asshole like Elizabeth turned back the time you would have to do it again and you would have no recollection whatsoever of the first time as if it never happened.

     They came out of the machine and the institute was now much closer within walking distance. They walked inside and hurried towards the museum.

     “Elizabeth!!!” a man called out to her. “Is that you!?” he asked.

     “Adam!!!” she pretended to be surprised.

     “But what are you doing here? You never bothered to call?” he walked towards her. “And now? We were just going to pass each other,” he hugged her.

     “Sorry about that, I am on an urgent business,” she smiled nervously.

     “Urgent business? But what business could you have here?”

     “The institute is conducting an experiment and they asked my expertise on it.”

     “An experiment? But I haven’t been notified on any new experiment, I thought that this month's funding would go to the biologists.”

     “They must have changed their mind, you know how the biologists don’t do anything worthwhile.”

     “Hah… That is true…”

     “Anyhow… Have to hurry, lots to do, but I think we will be seeing each other more now,”

     “Alright take care,” Adam nodded and they parted ways.

     “Before you ask, I did not sleep with him, not once, although I do think he has a big crush on me.”

     “Elizabeth who you share the bed with and have c****s with is not of my concern,” he looked straight ahead.

     “c****s?” she looked at Benjamin. “Where do you find these words? You haven’t read the dictionary have you?”

     “The dictionary? Ah yes, very useful thing…” 

     “Why am I even surprised? You even know the different breeds of dinosaurs.”

     “Knowledge is power,” he smiled at her and pushed the door of the museum. “Hello fellas, Why wasn’t sunbathing an Olympic sport in ancient Greece?” Elizabeth waited for her cue after the laughter came, then the cork of the champagne bottle, and in she was sneaking under the tables again. She went inside the storage room and pulled out the glass cutting device, carefully placing it on the glass, she cut a hole big enough for her palm, but before she could reach for it she sprayed inside with nothing but a fragrance to reveal the lasers, you’d wonder what kind of spray did the professional criminals use to reveal the lasers and you wouldn’t find out, but all it took for Elizabeth was a bit of fragrance besides it smelled nice though. Now carefully she reached inside the glass aquarium as the alarm sounded across the institute, but what happened? She didn’t even pick up the device, what could have caused the alarm to activate itself?

     “Unidentified vehicle located, all personnel to remain inside, possible hazardous devices alert!” but of course, every vehicle from the institute had its own personal ID, which is something that the machine does not have.

     “Bloody hell!!!” she ran outside of the storage room and grabbed Benjamin by the hand dragging him outside, she didn’t even care if she got spotted everything is blown now and they would have to do it again. They ran outside and saw as a group of guards had the machine encircled, Elizabeth pressed a button on a small remote that she held and the machine hissed creating a giant smoke quickly swallowing the machine out of sight, by the time the smoke had settled the machine was gone, the guards could not believe what they were seeing, and they’ve seen some weird stuff that the scientists do on the institute, but this was new. Elizabeth knew exactly where the machine relocated itself and ran behind the institute.

     “That was awesome!” said Benjamin.

     “Yeah well, you don’t want to know the story that made me do that feature.”

     “Why what happened?”

     “Let’s just say it was a lot of trial and error,” she turned the clock back again for half an hour and the world started moving backward again.

     They ran in the corridor again this time waiting for Adam to pass and made their run inside the museum. “Hello fellas, Why wasn’t sunbathing an Olympic sport in ancient Greece?” the laughter, the champagne cork, and Elizabeth under the tables again, this time she moved quickly, the guards would scan the institute again but this time they would take longer since the machine was somewhat hidden and not in plain sight like last time. The glass cutter, the fragrance, the device, as soon as she removed sure as hell the alarm blared, she took the device and ran into the other room, the archeologists were stunned.

     “But how did she get in here?” asked one of them, but little did it matter as she grabbed Benjamin and they ran towards the machine. A guard got suspicious well why wouldn’t he? Seeing as two people ran across the corridor soon after the alarm started everyone would be suspicious.

     “Stop! Put your hands in the air!” he warned pulling the taser out from the belt and charging it. Benjamin was ready for him and did what he did best in these situations, he punched him… and quite the punch it was since Benjamin had gathered momentum whilst running, he instantly knocked out the guard.

     They entered inside the machine and the first thing Elizabeth did was measure the weight of the device.

     “Elizabeth! They are getting close!” Benjamin warned as the guards were surrounding the machine.

     “Bloody hell!” she wasn’t going to waste any time and turned the clock back, here we go again. They came out of the machine as she grabbed a stone from the ground, there is no way that that particular stone weighed as much as the device thought Benjamin, but it didn’t have to as Elizabeth shoved it inside a compartment in the machine, waited for a moment and out came the same replica of the device, but made out of stone of course.

     “I guess I shouldn’t even ask about that one?” said Benjamin.

     “That one you can ask about, it’s useful when you need to forge concert tickets on the run, especially when you are late to the Queen’s performance at Live Aid,” of course Benjamin had no idea what she was saying, he had no idea what a ticket was nor what a concert is but he will catch up soon nor did he had any idea who Queen was.

     Again running in the hall, waiting for Adam to pass, inside the museum.

     “Hello fellas, Why wasn’t sunbathing an Olympic sport in ancient Greece?” the laughter, the cork, the tables, the glass cutter, the perfume, the device. This time Elizabeth did it perfectly she replaced the device with the fake one instantaneously before the alarm activated itself, would have been really annoying if they had to do it again, she sneaked out of the storage room opening the door of the museum. “Um excuse me, Doctor Benjamin, the director would like to have a word with you…” she smiled as Benjamin came out following her.

     “Well talk to me about déjà vu,” said Benjamin since everything kept repeating.

     “I got the device,” she whispered to him.

     “It’s a déjà vu, I like being stuck in,” he kept going.

     “What?”

     “Have you done something to your hair?” he asked staggering around barely holding the glass of champagne in his hand. “I like this new style of yours, and Elizabeth…” he stopped dead.

     “It might be too late to say this, but I fancy you!”

     “What?” she could not believe what she was hearing.

     “Yes it’s true, or wait…” he looked at the wall. “Could have been some other Elizabeth, could be the queen, can’t be she is dead has been for two hundred years” he starred at her. “Imagine you a queen… Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth,” as soon as Elizabeth walked close to him it was clear what was happening to him.

     “Bloody… What happened mate? I thought you could hold your drink?”

     “Nonsense!!! I had but a little to drink!”

     “Can you not yell, please!? I warned you this would happen,” she carried him to the machine and placed him on the chair. “Stay here!” she closed and locked the door so he wouldn’t go anywhere. Five minutes later and she was back holding a paper cup with a black liquid inside. “Drink this,” she handed the cup to Benjamin, he took a sip before he spat it out again. “COFFE!?” he hated coffee and this one was really bitter, it was really strong, enough to make him gag.

     “Oh no you don’t!” he grabbed him by the hand and pulled him outside. “You are not going to puke inside the machine,” she warned.  

     “Barf? I am not going to…” he didn’t even finish as everything he had consumed from yesterday came bursting through his mouth, out all of the alcohol that he had consumed, it was like waterfall Elizabeth hated seeing someone puke, she started hating that she had to put up with him, but nevertheless, Benjamin was his old self again a bit shocked maybe. Benjamin sprang up it was like he was reborn, everything felt nice and easy. “Do drunk people feel like this every time?” he asked. Elizabeth was relieved, he was his old self once again, she handed him a bottle of water as he drank it all to the bottom, he knew he had to rehydrate after that. Elizabeth entered the machine and took a deep sigh. Just like that they finished the perfect half an hour heist without raising a single alarm, well maybe a couple half an hours but if you don’ tell people they wouldn’t know. It was time for the device to serve its purpose. Elizabeth fired up the machine and off to the new adventure they jumped.