Braton & Kate

There was a flash of light, and the two of them, along with everything within three and a half meters from them, were no longer miles beneath the crust of the planet, but instead in a valley on the surface.

After a moment of understandable confusion, she grabbed the scanner out of the toolbox and got some readings.

“Oh my… This is a temporal event!”

He sighed, as he put down the laser drill.

“And that means what?”

“It means we’ve gone… Back in time, a long way, I can’t be sure how long just yet… But the temporal protocols say we have to destroy all this equipment.”

“Temporal protocols? The hell?”

She glared at him.

“You didn’t read the guidelines when you took the job?”

“Hey, anything beyond how to work the drill and what to mine out, I don’t need to know, I couldn’t care less about whatever crap you keyboard jockeys come up with, I’m…”

He trailed off as he noticed she was staring at his namebadge.

“What?”

“Your… Your name is Braton?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So, didn’t you take the tour through the museum?”

“Again, drill, mine, nothing else.”

“You… The natives’ myths revolved around a couple, Braton and Wotee, who were emissaries from the Gods, and they brought with them energy and tools and everything!”

“So, we’re gods?”

“I guess, I mean, if this is a stable time loop then the protocols have to be ignored… My name’s not Wotee though, so maybe-“

She was cut off as an arrow slammed into the side of her head. Her companion managed to get his hand on the drill when a spear plunged through his chest.

Braton and Wotee emerged from the bushes, curious as to who these outsiders they had just killed were, and what they had.