First Chapter: Timeless (Science Fiction, Dual Timeline)

[Nick Tussing]

Opening Chapter: (Future Timeline) Introduces the protagonist, setting, and hints at the primary conflict.

April 13th, 2129 – New York
Daniel sat in the small waiting room of the law offices of Perez & Collins.  He was exhausted and emotionally drained from his father's passing nearly a week ago.  While Oliver's death was not a surprise, it did not change how tough it was on Daniel to not have his father around.  He was very close with his father and his absence had created a void in his life that had seemingly been filled with various tasks necessitated by his passing.  On top of the normal paperwork, the setting up of his funeral, and the toll of processing that the closest person to him in the world was gone, Daniel would be taking over running his father's company, just like Oliver had when Daniel's grandparents died.  Today Daniel had expected to finally get a day of rest, but there was something urgent that his lawyer needed to talk to him about.
Daniel and Oliver had been planning for Oliver's death for months.  Oliver had known he was dying for years.  It was never a secret.  The day Oliver got his test results from his doctor, he shared them with Oliver and Daniel's mother.  Daniel's mother had left not long after and she had not been in either of their lives since.  At first, Daniel was angry with her for leaving.  Leaving was a selfish and cowardly act in his eyes, but Oliver didn’t hold any harsh feelings for his wife.  It isn’t fair to expect her to waste years of her life waiting for her workaholic husband to pass, Daniel remembered his fathering saying once.  I told her to pretend I was dead and to move on with her life.  Daniel couldn’t understand how his mother could do that to either of them.  But if that was her decision, then she was dead to him just like Father was to her.  
The door to Mr. Perez's office opened and a happy couple walked out.  They were both smiling from ear to ear as they walked from Mr. Perez's office to the elevator holding hands.  Daniel had never found a companion like that.  He was married to his work and didn't see anything wrong with that.  Usually, he didn’t mind being alone, but since his father's passing, he had felt lonely.  He wiped a tear from his eye and stood up as Mr. Perez stepped out of his office.  
“Thank you for coming in Daniel,” the old man said with a warm and sympathetic smile.  His smile created a myriad of wrinkles on his face that revealed his jovial nature.  Mr. Perez's curly hair was very thinned out at his age, and was more salt than pepper these days.  He had been the family lawyer for a long time.  Daniel had known him since he was a young boy.  “I am terribly sorry for your loss son.”
“Thank you.  His passing is your loss as well.  I know you and Father were close.”  Mr. Perez bowed his head as a thank you, and gestured for Daniel to come into his office.
Daniel sat down across from the old man, now fully curious as to why he was here.  Daniel had helped his father write his will, and he was the only recipient of it.  Mr. Perez, Daniel, and Oliver had been here less than a month ago to go over it one last time.  “So, what did we need to discuss that couldn’t be done over the phone?”  Daniel asked.
“I received a strange letter a couple of days ago,” he began, clearly uncomfortable with the news he had to deliver.  “It was from your father, asking me to change his will.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow, “when did he send this letter?”
“It is hard to tell.  It was delivered in person by a courier and the package was not dated.  Curious myself, I called the company that was employed to deliver the letter and inquired when it was received.”
“And?”  Daniel prompted.
“They told me that Oliver's bank had sent it that same morning, days after Oliver's death.  So, naturally I called the bank.  And they told me that the letter had been in a lock box that had been commissioned to be opened and delivered to me upon his death.  I had sent them a copy of his death certificate the day prior.”
Daniel accepted the explanation.  “You said the letter was strange?”
“Well, yes,” he started tentatively, “I have no doubt that it came from your father.  He mentions specific things in the letter as evidence of authenticity that only he would know.”
“But?”
“But the signature is clearly not right.”   He produced the last page of the document and pointed to the signature.  It looked like a bad forgery.  The general strokes were correct, but it was clearly wrong.  The slant was off a little, and the pen stroke has several start and stop points.  “It definitely would not hold up in court.”
Daniel waved the comment aside, “what were the changes he asked to be made to the will?”
Mr. Perez forced himself to swallow and took a deep breadth.  “He wants to add someone to the will,” he said meekly.  “And more … there he wants to add a condition to either of you receiving anything in his will.”
Daniel felt a slight impulse to fight back at the threat of receiving nothing, but pushed it down.  If this was his father's wish, he would honor it.  “Who is the recipient he want's to add?”
“One Carolynn Bates.”
“What is the condition?” He asked, his mind racing at what this meant.  Maybe their experiment had worked!  
“Along with the letter were two sealed envelopes with instructions to deliver one to you and one to Carolynn at the reading of the will.”
“Okay,” Daniel said absently.
“Okay?  So you don’t intent to contest this new will?”  Mr. Perez asked, clearly surprised and relieved.  
“No.  No, sir.  If this is what my father wanted, I won’t contest.”
“Great!  I will make arrangements with Mrs. Bates and send you the details for the reading of the will.  
“Thank you,” Daniel said as he got up and shook hands with Mr. Perez. 

Daniel left and made his way to the family company where he worked.  He walked by Oliver's office, which had yet to be cleaned out and to his own.  
“Good morning!”  A woman materialized before him and greeted Daniel.  “How was your meeting with Mr. Perez?”  The holographic woman asked.  Hailey appeared to Daniel in the form of an AI generated woman that perfectly captured his ideal vision of a perfect woman.  She was a few inches shorter than himself, which made her slightly taller than average.  She wore long hair that faded from a medium brown to a lighter, almost blonde shade by the tips.  Her eyes were a very pale blue that was almost grey and full of the curiosity which he had set as one of her highest character traits.  She appeared as fit, but not too thin.  She wore the same lab uniform that the other staff wore.  A long white coat on top of medical scrubs.  Today, hers were an emerald green.
He shook his head at her, “that green is not your color.”  
The scrubs transitioned to teal color.  “Is this more to your liking?”  
“Yes, it is.”
The scrubs transitioned back to green.  “I will keep that mind,” she responded with a snarky smile.  
Daniel smiled and chuckled to himself.  “The meeting was interesting.  Can you look up a woman named Carolynn Bates for me?”  Daniel walked over to the closet and exchanged his blazer for a lab coat.  He looked at himself in the mirror, unconsciously checking himself for the signs of the genetic disorder which led to his father having a shortened life.  Despite being reassured by multiple DNA scans that he did not have the condition, he couldn’t help from checking almost every time he looked in the mirror.  
“I have identified three possible matches to the name provided,” Hailey said.  
Daniel had a stockier than average build.  He was pretty average looking in his mind.  He had short wavy hair that had grown out a little longer than he usually kept it.  He had shaved this morning in preparation for the meeting with the lawyer, which was a first for the week.  He shrugged at himself, satisfied that he couldn’t see any unnatural muscle loss and responded to Hailey, “Oliver added her to the will.  Tell me about the one who is most likely to have known him.”  
“Carolynn Bates who lives in New Jersey is the most likely.  She is ninety nine years of age and has lived outside of Trenton for nearly sixty years.  She is married to Martin Bates and has no children.  She worked as a book editor until she retired a few years ago.”
“Why is she the most likely match?”  Daniel walked towards the lab with Hailey walking along side of him.  
“Proximity.  One of the other two Carolynn’s lives outside Los Angeles and the other in Bathe in the UK.”
“I know where Bathe is,” Daniel responded playfully.  
“You should think about taking one then.”  
“Hey, not bad.  That one was almost funny.”
“Thank you.  I will keep trying to meet your humor standards,” she retorted with an eye roll.  “Do you think that this change to his will has to do with the experiment?”
“I sure hope so!” Daniel said, reserving the slightest worry that he father had been hiding something from him.  “It is the only thing that makes sense.”

Daniel spent a couple hours checking in with the staff in the lab, distracting himself from thinking about it further.  Late that afternoon Mr. Perez called him and asked on Carolynn's behalf if they could go to her house to read the will.  He explained that she didn’t want to be too far away from her husband, Martin.  He was a patient at a long term care facility near where Carolynn lived.  Daniel agreed to go to meet Carolynn at her house and Hailey arranged for a vehicle to take them the next day.
After leaving the office for the evening, Daniel took a long route home to get some fresh air and try to clear his head.  If his father's experiment really had worked, he would need to figure out what to do next.  He pushed the thought from his mind, trying not to get ahead of himself.  He walked the clean an beautiful streets of the city.  Cars zipped past on the roads silently.  His detour took him through Central Park.  He found is easier to clear his mind there than anywhere else in the city.  He stopped and sat upon a rock, with his feet dangling below, watching families walk by, and children playing.  After an hour, he left the park and made his way to the sleep modern high rise where he lived.
As he entered his apartment Hailey greeted him.  “Welcome home, I trust you had a pleasant walk?”
“Yes, it was thank you,” Daniel responded with a smile.  After he hung his jacket, she turned and led him into the kitchen.  She wore light jeans and a navy blue blouse with an open back except for a tie just above her waste line, revealing her tattoo that ran vertically along her spine in Japanese characters which said perfectly flawless.  “You look lovely tonight,” he said.
“I will remember that you approve of this outfit,” she responded as she looked back at him over her shoulder and winked at him.  He rolled his eyes at her for playfully ignoring his request for her to simply respond to his complements with thank you.  In the kitchen a robot was preparing dinner for Daniel.  
“I am going to go change out of my work clothes,” Daniel announced to Hailey.  She stayed in the kitchen as he walked into his room and got changed.  Although Daniel knew that the holographic AI that he interacted with more than any human, now that his father had passed, would not judge him or think anything whatsoever of him changing his clothes, he still felt weird about her being visibly there anytime that it would be weird for a friend or colleague to be watching.  He felt this was a healthy thing.  He had read about many people who had developed feelings for their AI assistants and even some where they lived with them like husband and wife.  
While he ate, Daniel asked Hailey to fill him in on the news headlines from the day and asked her questions where he wanted more detail.  Then he spent the evening listening to a podcast on handling grief that Hailey had recommended to him.  She sat faithfully across from his comfy chair where he preferred to sit while listening to books or podcasts.  Hailey took notes, paused, and replayed sections when he would ask her to.  When Daniel drifted off to sleep, Hailey raised the temperature in the room to the temperature that would provide him the best sleep, turned off the lights and the podcast, then disappeared.  

In the morning Hailey woke up Daniel.  “Excuse me sir, it is time for you to wake up,” she said starting in a very low volume, and repeating in a progressively louder volume until he woke.  Daniel sat up and yawned then grinned as he checked out Hailey’s sleepwear.  We wore a pair of bright pink boy shorts and a spaghetti strap camisole that was partially translucent.  
“Thank you Hailey.  What is on my agenda for the day?”  He asked as he stood up and ran his hands through his wavy brown hair trying to make his currently matted look more presentable.  
“A car is scheduled to pick you up in an hour to take you and Mr. Perez to meet with Carolynn Bates.  Then you have a meeting with your research assistants this afternoon.”
“Is the car picking Mr. Perez up first?”
“Yes sir.”  
“Great.  I will be out for breakfast in a bit.”  He stated as he looked Hailey over one more time before he walked into the bathroom to shower.  Hailey turned and went into the kitchen, changing her outfit to a yellow sundress with small purple flowers on it.  She grinned to herself, knowing that Daniel hates yellow.