So let me introduce (and reintroduce) some of my characters: Protagonist: A time traveling woman in her 20s. Sidekick: Woman in her 40s. Accomplice of the time traveler Male + female serial killers: They kidnap people from time to time, take them to their bunker, and kill them. Female victim: Rescued by the protagonist and the sidekick. My protagonist does what she does for one reason only: She needs money, knowledge, and resources to build another time machine. She uses her knowledge of the future to use people who have (or might someday have) what she needs. Since she already made a move to weasel her way into a government research (that's decades behind her personal knowledge) I'm trying to think of a possible reason for her to deal with these serial killers (I could scratch that entire subplot, but I found that it's really becoming interesting). My ideas are as follows: She needed some work space to keep working on her project off the grid, and also to hide her sidekick. Maybe the female serial killer is a quantum physics genius like our protagonist. So instead of having her killing people and getting the chair, they just keep her in captivity. Maybe the female victim is the quantum physics genius, so instead of letting her be the random victim she was in another timeline, the two women keep her in captivity and force her to help them.
First, I like your premise, a time traveler stuck in time, trying to rebuild a time machine. That is the protagonist's outer goal. What are her inner goals? The rest depends on the story you want to tell. If you just have a protagonist doing things then she gets or doesn't get the goal, you won't be giving the reader anything except some scenes: action, sex, problem solving, whatever. When you say it's getting interesting, why? What is it about the plot idea that you are interested in? Story arcs are good, but they should tie in to the main story arc in some way.
Maybe it can be one of those paradoxes where she realises that one of the vicitms is the person who created (or led to the creation depending on how much time needs to pass) of the original time machine and if she doesn't save them time travel would never have been invented in the first place? (Clearly my sci-fi knowledge runs on a very basic Hollywoodised level!) Edit: I know this may be too cliche!
It sounds like the protagonist and sidekick may strain the reader's empathy a bit--I'm not clear on whether they're evil, or neutral, or just pragmatic, but they're clearly not hearts and flowers. And so the reader might be craving somebody that they can empathize with. The serial killer would not be that somebody. The female victim might. So of the choices that you mentioned, the female-victim-in-captivity is the one I'd choose.
Just to clarify two things, based on the first two comments: 1. The scientific reality in this case is that time travel means going into a parallel universe that experiences a different era. So no paradoxes. If you kill your grandfather it just means that in the world you visited you will never be born, but in the world that you just left your grandfather and father both lived a good life, and you disappeared the day you went time travel. 2. The time traveler and her sidekick have sort of a vision of a perfect world and they just want to change one or more of the infinite amounts of worlds experiencing past eras. And since you can only make all of this good by creating a new time machine (the old one is gone) they have the conflict of just how much they should use innocent people. I will say that they were, in one case, willing to murder an innocent man just to protect some creep. But in this case they have a deeper conflict, as they don't know for a fact that this woman victim will ruin their plans if released. They can't know what will happen if they let her out because she was supposed to die in captivity. I myself am conflicted on how the protagonist and sidekick should treat her. I know what I would do, but I don't have my protagonist's values.
I like the idea about parallel universes but I think you have to be careful because this brings up other issues in itself - are there infinite parallel universes where every possible outcome is explored? If so, surely in one universe the victim could help them and in another she could thwart them? How can she be 'supposed to die' if there are alternative realities, surely in some she does and some she doesn't? Sorry if I've misunderstood, just trying to get my head around it. Also what is their end game? I get they are trying to build a new time machine but to what end? Why are they trying to change past eras? What is this 'perfect world' they envision - is it perfect for just them or they going for a worldwide benign dictatorship? Are they preventing some huge catastrophe? That will make a difference to both their motivations and how the audience perceive them.
It's fine. I don't mean like a bunch of universes experiencing the same era. I mean one universe where it's 2018 and Trump is president, another universe where it's the 40s and FDR is president, and another universe where it's WWI and Wilson is president. And all of these universes have the same history books, all saying the same stuff, like how Lincoln was once president and got murdered (and in some other world Lincoln is enjoying a show in a theater right now). And all of these worlds will continue the same as if they did, unless some time traveler jumps in (like someone bringing FDR an ipad with history books as well as a submarine from 2021, which actually happens in a novel that has the same laws. Interestingly it was written by John Birmingham, the guy I named myself after. And anyway, if you encounter someone in 2018, or in 1918 after time travel and encounter someone else, you have no idea anyway if they help you. If you ask for my help right now, you have no idea if I'll say yes or no. Anyway, bottom line, no paradoxes and no parallel time lines. My travelers go decades back or centuries back.
Then how about once they figure out the kidnapped woman is a genius they plan to let her die and just steal her research, but for whatever reason (they can't understand it, she's encrypted it, a wrong password and it all gets deleted) they instead hold her research hostage when they free her to try to force her to help them? They need the info and she doesn't want to see her life's work destroyed.
