Dreams of Jupiter

An Interesting Proposition

A/N: Fourth round entry, PiratePunk, setting in the Sunken Norwegian, a temporally displaced bar and beginning mid-conversation, Sir Francis Drake the historical figure included in the story.

Francis Drake pulled his eyes off the bizarre place that, according to his erstwhile host, was a temporally displaced bar called the Sunken Norwegian, and refocused on the dark figure sitting across the battered metal table from him.

"What did you just say?" he asked, pushing aside his astonishment to listen to the strange man who called himself Kaliban.

"I said that I didn't really want to do this, with temporal paradoxes and all, but you're giving me little choice." Kaliban leaned towards Drake slightly.

"That item my competition stole is a piece of ancient technology created by a highly advanced species millions of years ago. And while it was developed and built so very long ago, the science behind it is still several quantum leaps ahead of where we are now. As such there are plenty of people out there that would pay anything to have it, making it's possessor a very rich being. It's the reason my crew and I boarded the ship carrying it to a secret location for storage and study. And it's the reason my competitor took if from me."

"You boarded a ship to take hold of this artifact of great value?" Drake asked. Kaliban nodded in confirmation, prompting the Englishman to declare:

"So you're a pirate!"

"As are you," Kaliban defensively retorted.

"In that assertion, sir, you are mistaken," Drake said, his expression hardening as his tone grew frosty. "I am Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's privateer.  I discomfit the queen's enemies on the high seas whilst depriving them of their ill-gotten gains."

"Sounds like a difference in semantics," Kaliban dryly replied. "One man's pirate is another's privateer. I'm sure the Spanish think of you as the former, not the latter."  Abruptly he made a dismissive gesture.

"But that doesn't matter.  What matters is that I can help us both, captain," he said, drawing out a curious device. Activating it with a touch, he began working on it. As he did, he continued to talk.

"My spies told me that my competition hired a temporal mechanic to assemble a small time machine which he then used to illegally jump back in time to Old Earth, going back far enough that there were still some comforts available without the presence of technology that could detect who he was, and how he got there."

Kaliban paused to adjust something on his device.

"Of course I could use the same tech he did to jump directly back to where he went, but his machine can detect that. He'd see me coming even before I left." He looked up at Drake.

"That's where you come in."

"What do you mean?" Drake asked with a puzzled frown.

"Not only is he hiding in your time, but he's doing so as a Spanish naval officer,' Kaliban said.

Drake's eyes abruptly narrowed in thought. If this other pirate was indeed pretending to be a Spaniard, that changed everything!

Seeing he had Drake's interest, Kaliban went on.

"He's masquerading as San Juan de Anton, the  captain of one of their treasure ships, the Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, also known as the Cagafuego."

"I've heard of her," Drake said musingly.  "Her name was mentioned by some prisoners I took after the sack of Port El Callao, in Peru."

Kaliban nodded.