Information Gathering

Stepping out of the alleyway Cain took a proper look at his surroundings and realized just how much he stood out. Blood red hair flecked with various shades of auburn and blond, standing at 6'6 with muscles rippling underneath his jumpsuit was more then enough to draw attention to him, not to mention his handsome face that could have put the greatest supermodel to shame. Because of his height and build he was always mistaken to be older then he was and while he looked anything between sixteen to twenty plus, he was actually younger. No it wasn't just his physical features that made him stand out although that was part of it as a lot of ladies present were looking at him, the real problem was the jumpsuit he was wearing. A metallic drab grey colour stood in stark contract to the other people around him. Fortunately it was late at night so there wasn't as many people around as in the daytime but he was receiving a lot of attention.

"So much for blending in." Cain muttered to himself. That would have to be fixed as soon as possible with new apparel, just as soon as he worked out the currency. Back from Cain's time there was no need for currency. Everything was provided by the government as money was outlawed centuries ago to try and get rid of human greed and the need to posses wealth. The thought was if there is nothing valuable to fight over or had no meaning then humanity could unite. It eventually worked after the fifth world war and second inter-system war. Everything was allocated by quota which was regulate by an AI.

Spotting a young boy hawking a newspaper called the New York Evening Bulletin Cain made for him. After checking to see if they could have a discrete conversation with nobody overhearing them Cain spoke to him.

"How much for one of them information sheets?"

"Information sheets? I sell newspapers for only two cents, mister."

Cain thought for a second then after putting on an embarrassed look upon his face spoke to the boy again.

"Sorry but I had an accident the other day and after a head injury I am having trouble remembering things. Would you be so kind as to run me through on the currency numbers please?"

"Okay mister, it's one cent as the smallest denomination then five cents in a nickel, ten cents in a dime and twenty five is a quarter. There are one hundred cents to a dollar."

"Thank you very much. Here is two cents for the paper and a dollar for your help. Can you answer one last question for me please. Can you direct me to your nearest information terminal or data archive?"

"Not sure what either of them are but the library is two blocks down the street and on the left. You can't miss it but open hours are long over so you will have to go in tomorrow."

"Thank you very much. Have a pleasant evening."

Cain turned around and walked over to library was and sat outside to read the paper. The first thing he saw was the date 3rd March 1933. After having a quick read through he got to know about some of the local goings on including a recent spate of violence in New York and some killings which looked to be mob related.

"After sifting through the available everything the only real information gained was the date. The time is so far removed from my own that I can't correlate anything. I can see that I have gone back in time but am I still on the same Earth or a parallel universe... I will have to check more in the library to make a more certain hypothesis."

After weighing the pros and cons about breaking into the library or waiting until tomorrow when it reopened Cain turned around and walked away.

"In the history that was known in my time the 1930s was known to have a lot of turmoil with the Italian crime families. The quickest way to make money has always been to take it from someone else. Maybe I could fish in troubled waters and take advantage of the chaos to line my pockets. A dead man won't miss his money. The only downside is while I could get rid of the bodies and thus the evidence so many people missing would cause another host of problems. That and if I robbed their money and they weren't at war they soon would be and a lot of innocent people would be involved. Of course that is providing that this is my world and the situation is anything like that. The problem with ancient history is that a lot of things get buried or erased while interpretations and facts can change or be distorted over time."

Walking around the streets for a while Cain came across a seedy boarding house that provided room and board and paid to stay the week. After securing the door and window so nobody could sneak in while he slept Cain crashed for the night.

Upon waking up after readying himself and having breakfast Cain went to the library. Grabbing books on scientific progress, military histories and culture as well as various others, Cain sat down for what would be a long few hours of reading.

"Hmm some of the various military battles never happened while others took place at different dates. They also haven't split the atom yet so it is very troublesome. A lot of the knowledge I have for more advanced technology requires great power to run so most of the technology is currently useless and unable to be produced yet. I can produce it on my own but I will have to keep it away from everyone else as it would raise too many questions. Also some of the mythologies have gods I have never heard of like En Sabah Nur. With all that combined I can now say that I haven't only gone back in time but also shifted to another dimension."

Pondering on the recent events with no way to currently test anything, Cain could only assume that the evolved DNA had evolved to the point of having a superpower like his father had worked for, or when the unknown cosmic radiation hit the warship his genes including the evolved DNA had been supercharged thus developing abilities. The superpower was when he teleported/traveled through time and space. He always healed faster and was more damage resistant then others even if they had the same enhancements so he didn't really quantify that as a superpower nor the unreliable heightened sixth sense that he infrequently got flashes of foreboding from just before the faecal matter hit the rotating blades.

"If as I think I got a time and space ability then I will have to train it with extreme caution. If I can teleport around freely then that would be very useful sneaking in somewhere or travelling around and it will be very useful in combat. I don't want to accidentally travel to another dimension or teleport inside a star just yet."

Putting the mountain of books back Cain left the library and went to a tailors to get some clothes. Walking out some time later in a black three piece suit, fedora and shoes shined to a mirror polish Cain finally had some clothes for the time.

"Next is to set up a postal address and get some identification. If I claim to be an immigrant it couldn't easily be checked. I need to chose a county like Ireland or Germany that has been through a war and suffered a lot of devastation so records could be conveniently 'lost'."

"After that I need to plan what to do as a career going forward. I need a vast amount of money quickly but don't want the inconvenience of drawing attention for missing people or stolen money. The best way would be to get money that nobody knows is missing. If I recall there is a place called Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas. I can use the sensors in my armour to identify valuable metals and gems and the nanobots can be reprogrammed to cut through the rock and dirty easily enough. It will look like a load of rubble or I can make it look like a cave in or something and nobody will ever know. There are also other precious metals and gem sites that have been closed for years but might still have resources to exploit that have been missed."

"I will also write to Science News and send a few thesis of different subjects to get my name known in the science community. Once done I could get funding from the government or other private investors and develop more technologies and amass more wealth. I have the formula for the spores we used to terraform other planets like Mars so as soon as I have enough money I can continue to strengthen myself, experiment for new abilities, build my own organisation and colonize the stars and explore this realm."

Cain turned around and started to put his plan into motion.