Time Travelers, strictly Cash

Posted on Tue Jun 12th, 2012 @ 3:41am by Jake Stonebender
Edited on on Tue Jun 12th, 2012 @ 1:30pm

609 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: [Typhon] Through a Window Darkly
Location: Jake's Place, Promenade
Timeline: Present

ON
Jake Stonebender shook the stardust off his sandals and looked at the empty storefront in a less-used corner of the Promenade. The future home of Jake’s place looked empty and forlorn, as if longing for someone to make it happy by using it. The El-Aurian was a curious looking fellow, tall and lean to the point of stringbeany-ness. Anyone seeing him naked would think a snake had swallowed a dog. He had a beard and shoulder-length grey hair, and looked to be about fifty-ish. His true age couldn't even be guessed at. He sighed, and pulled a glowing ten centimeter cube out of his duffel bag. He smiled. This would be the perfect spot. He went inside and closed the door, verbally instructing the computer to opacify the windows and transfer ownership of the space to him, according to his subspace agreement with the Commodore. Nice lady, he thought, just don’t piss her off.

Placing the cube in the center of the floor space, he tapped a few commands into a holo-interface which appeared as he reached towards it. The entire room began to shimmer and sparkle. Within seconds, Jake’s Place was ready. Decked out to remind patrons of a quaint 20th century bar, the walls resembled fine grained wood paneling. Antique posters advertising products from eras past adorned them, and a huge open fireplace occupied almost the entirety of the wall to the right of the bar itself. It looked like a giant parabolic reflector. A chalk line appeared on the floor about two and a half meters away from the fireplace. Soon, glass would be shattering there, laughter would fill the air, and Jake’s Place would be merry. Brass fixtures gleamed the entire length of the bar, which had a genuine granite counter top, and there were several taps spread along its length. No mirror marred the view of a magnificent painting behind the bar. The nude depicted there was magnificent, and looked as if the classic masters had all gotten together from across time and space to cooperatively bring her to eternal two-dimensional life. Her name was Mary. Shelves full of all manner of bottles adorned the wall underneath the painting, shining merrily in the bright light.

Ceiling fans scattered themselves across the ceiling at regular intervals, and bright cheerful incandescent lights shone from each one. An old honky tonk piano sat in a corner, and Jake smiled again, knowing that Fast Eddie would show up. He really missed his jam sessions with the runty piano player. He knew the other regulars would find their way here from across time and space, just as they had so many centuries ago in upstate New York. Curiosity and anticipation surged through him. What new regulars would he collect here, in space, in time?

His reverie was interrupted. The comm badge on his corduroy vest chirped at him. That was going to get old really fast, but it was a condition of his getting the space on this station. “Mister Stonebender, please come to the conference room for a business meeting,” the computer requested politely.
“Well, if I have to,” he said to nobody in particular.
There might have been a hint of imagined humor in the computer’s immediate response. “You have to.”

He patted the surface of the now darkened cube, picked it up, placed it back in the duffel, and stashed it behind the bar next to Lady MacBeth, his guitar. “Thanks, Mike,” he said as he left Jake’s Place and turned off the lights with an old-fashioned light switch.

OFF

Jake Stonebender
Owner and sole proprietor,
Jake's Place bar

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