Clock-Work

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Year: Irrelevant​
Location: Bubble outside of Time​

Xanthia thought about it a moment, pondering over his favor. If she didn't, Henry might be in trouble...but how would this person know Henry? Why would they hate Henry? What was wrong with Henry?...so many questions went through her mind, but she didn't need to ask them yet. She nodded. "Okay, Bode. I'll help." she said, determined. "As long as she can help Henry."
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time

I Nodded reading her hesitation, but pleased that she would do this for me.
"I would not bring you here and ask you to talk to her if I did not believe she could help, and . . ." Here I hold up a hand to postpone any time consuming questions, "I promise that once she is with us I will answer any and all question related to Henry for which I know the answer."

Just then a little red light began flashing on a near by consul and I smiled. "I believe that means she has arrived. Thank you for your help, Xanthia. I know this is a bit overwhelming."
 
Mondanda paced in front of the door. Eventually, she took the knob in her hand, but it refused to budge. She twisted, pulled at the knob, even bashed herself against the door, but nothing. The door didn't even act like a door. It was like it was a part of the wall made to look like a door, which frustrated the Zed even more.

"Ey! Anyone there?" she yelled to the door in Amese. With no response she stepped back away from the door, hands at her hips, looking around at the foreign beauty of Nomad Sity with confused anger. Why have her come all this way and not even be there when they said to meet?

She went back to the door just in time for it to open. A young woman came out; by the looks of her she was a few years younger than Mondanda. Much too young to be sending her messages about leaving for the exo-planets. Maybe she was an intern. Her clothes were weird. They didn't seem to be made of etheral fabric, but something else, something less adaptive to the environment. Her hands - they had five fingers! The only other person she'd ever met who had five fingers was...she pushed thoughts of Henry out of her mind. Intern, student, whatever she was it wouldn't do to get mad in front of her.

"Excuse me. I'm Mondanda Maixing. I got this notice to come here. It sounded like an off-world offer. Is there anyone inside I can talk to?" she asked the girl in fluid Amese, not knowing that this made her impossible to understand.
 
Xanthia smiled a little at the woman, but was very, very confused. "Uhh...I don't speak that...language.." she said, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "Do you understand English?" she asked curiously, wondering why Bode sent her out here if she couldn't even speak to the woman. "I'm Xanthia...hi?"
 
Mondanda frowned in her own confusion. She spoke English, or as Mondanda knew it, ENG? No one spoke that in their system. Then she remembered that it was still a fairly common dialect on other worlds and her face brightened. She struggled to reply.

"Ey...I am Mondanda Maixing," she said. "I...speak Eng well, but not...fluently. I am sorry. It is...a very...old...language. But you seem fluent. I'll...try...to...keep up."

Each time she had to run through a new word in her memory her speech slowed, perhaps at a frustrating rate. She extended her hand, noting that Xanthia's shock in her four fingers was equal to her shock with her five.

"I...got a ping to...come here. Am I in the right place?...Can I come in?" she asked, hand still outstretched.
 
Xanthia paused a moment before taking her hand, shaking it. "I'll talk slower." She said slower, but not stupidly slow. She smiled a little. "Well..first, you have to know why you are here. Henry needs your help." She started, waiting for Mondanda to react to this before she would explain. She was a little surprised by two things: English was an old language, and this lady had four fingers! She wondered why English was considered an old language..and what language Mondanda had been speaking earlier. The four finger thing could be worried about later.
 
At the mention of Henry Mondanda frowned, her bright hopefulness quickly fading. She automatically slipped back into Amese and said, "I want nothing to do with that mofui. He's the one who led my life down a xit helu."

When she saw that the girl didn't understand, she took a deep breath and tried to be more civil in the archaic tongue. She would have to ask later why she didn't know Amese. "I do not know why I...should...help Henry. I knew him and he...ruined my...life. As you can see...I am a Zed."

She flashed the woman the "Z" patch on her jacket. "It is...because of him that the...backwards...people in Bama know that, and of...all the people on this...world, they are...perhaps the least...tolerant. For that, I hate him. If you...want help...find someone else. Maybe...another...throw-back from before the...ninth millenium."
 
Xanthia shook her head a little. "Bode says he needs your help." she explained who Bode was and what S.T.A.N did. "He needs your help. Please..?" She said, hoping it was right. If not, she would need another approach. What did Bode tell me...? She thought, wondering.
 
Mondanda raised her brow as the girl explained. Someone was playing a trick on her. She should have known.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" she asked, her anger making her use of ENG go faster. "You are a throw-back, yes, with your odd finger count, but ripping space-time in large enough holes to travel through is impossible. That was determined in the 12th millenium. At least get common history straight before dwelling into the obscure past."

She thought about Henry, though. This situation left her with little choice but to. Until he had screwed her over by revealing what she was he had been her friend. She liked him, trusted him. It never went beyond that, and after he betrayed her she knew it never would. He needed her help now, unless that too was part of the prank.

"Prove that what you say is true, and I will go with you," Mondanda said after she'd thought it over.
 
Xanthia thought about it for quiet a while, then a bright idea hit her. "Where do you think I am from?" she asked, crossing her arms gently. "Because I have five fingers and speak fluent English, neither of which match with this time frame." She said, as if it completely proved her point correct.
 
English? That was what the ENG tongue used to be called, wasn't it? Mondanda didn't really consider that much proof. It supported Xanthia's wild claims, but didn't outright confirm them. She studied the girl again. Apart from her odd physical traits, she looked genuinely sincere, and not at all the type to pull jokes on people, which made her more believable. Mondanda sighed, hoping she wasn't walking in to a pie in the face or something.

"I will...humor you," she said. "But know you did not offer complete proof. There had...better be some...waiting inside."
 
Xanthia managed a small smile, sighing a little. "Thank you." she said, backing to the door. She twisted the door knob, entering. She looked around, it still looked as it did when she first entered, the sight still giving her a little chill. "Bode's here somewhere." she said, stepping aside to let Mondanda enter. She watched Mondanda. "By the way, what language where you speaking? I've never heard anything like it before."
 
Xanthia's question seemed to be supporting her story. How can she not have heard of the common language, used by every human in the universe?

"It is called Amese," Mondanda explained as she stepped inside. "It is the language everyone speaks."

She was taken by surpise upon entering. There was a strange attention to comfort, with the luxurious chair, and the couch she caught a glimpse of in another room. Steps, a lot of blue light traces going up the walls and across the floor. If this was a time machine, its owner clearly enjoyed the classics.

"Retra...It is very retra," she said after a while. She turned to Xanthia. "Where is...the...owner?"
 
"Oh..okay.." she said, thinking about the strange language a moment. Oh yeah...this is the future.. She sighed. She sat down in the floor by the door. "I'm not sure where he is...and his name is Bode." she said, looking up at her. "He might have gone downstairs or something.." she shrugged. "He was here a second ago." She really hope he didn't just leave her here..she felt a cold tingle on her spine and bit her lip.
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time

I had taken just a moment for myself to slip out onto my deck and check the view screen that deciphered the time stream. As always I found the sight somewhat calming and comforting. Aside from the events that currently transpired the flow was normal, events played out as they should, what was meant to happen would happen as it had already happened.

It was the sound of voices that brought me back to my current present. It seemed that Xanthia had succeed in convincing our newest companion to at least come in and listen to me. I searched for my cane finding it leaning against the wall and reentered my home, carefully closing and locking the door behind me before making my way into the main control room where the two young women awaited me.

"Welcome friend," I greeted her in Amese, her native tongue, "I appreciate your patience and willingness to listen. I need your help." Then switching to English I continued, "I hope you don't mind if we speak in English? it is a language spoken by all our company and I prefer everybody to know what is going on. Unfortunately my old bones will not allow me to stand for long periods of time, so if there is no objection I suggest we move into the next room where there is seating enough for all and there I will answer the questions I know are circling about in those young brains of yours."
 
YEAR: Irrelevant LOCATION: A Bubble Outside of Time

Xanthia looked up as Bode spoke in that weird language..what was it again? Amese.. She remembered. She stood silently, looking at Mondana a second, leaning back against the wall. She was fine with moving to the next room, but she was not leaving Mondana's side until the woman agreed with everything, understanding. Xanthia's gaze momentarily flickered to the lights, the blue color making her feel slightly less strange. She loved blue. She looked down, hiding a faint smile.
 
At the sound of a cane tapping against the floor Mondanda turned, and immediately gritted her teeth inside her skull. So a man was leading this little trip of insanity. Whether it was real time travel or not, she should've figured it would someone male who would damage something as supposedly delicate as the time stream. They almost destroyed the earth, afterall, and had come close to doing the same with every world they landed on. The fluid transition to her native tongue was welcome, but not his assumption that she was a friend.

"I do not object to having a seat, and I do not object to using this ancient language. And I object even less to having answers," she said in the best ENG dialect she could muster. She was a tad proud of herself that there were no long pauses this time. She switched however to Amese and added, "I do, however object to being insinuated as a friend to you, who tricked me, Henry, who betrayed me, or any man, all of whom have ostricized me. I am still waiting on proof of this naive throw-back's claim, and all I've seen so far is that you have a taste for very retra decor, albeit comfortable retra decor."

Mondanda then walked into the sitting room and selected a place to sit. She would get up and move immediately if the man tried sitting next to her.
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time

"if you do not wish to be called friend that is fine," I murmured in Amese sitting down in my favorite chair which was located slightly to the right of the couch if still facing it. "However I must point out that I did not trick you, nothing I said was strictly a lie. Henry did not betray you, betrayal implies a certain amount of premeditation and I assure you he had no idea what the consequences of his actions would be. You can not have met all of the men in your timeline or even on your planet so they cannot all have ostracized you. As for calling Xanthia a throwback, She is a very lovely and helpful young woman and I might point out that without her generation yours would never have existed."

Switching to English I continued. "I do, however, thank you for the complement on my home. Personally I have always felt that the sourceless light your generation seems to favor resembles something out of a cheep mid-twentieth century scifi flick. Now, you have said you want proof of our claims. I can of course take you to a different time line, that would suffice I suppose, but if I do that I might as well just continue the mission which would effectively be kidnapping you. I prefer not to take that rout.

"Our mission, however, is to save Henry Marsdale or rather to save him from himself. With what he knows, on his current chosen course, he could do great irreparable damage. I might point out that Henry did get your timeline on his own, and while there he did consider you a friend. if Xanthia and yourself will consent, and the others as well, we stand a great chance of being able to appeal to his better nature and come to a peaceful resolution. Your topography and geology skills will be of great help, and I'm sure that you will agree that whatever happens here will be far more interesting than sitting in a classroom.

"Now," I leaned back in my chair this long speech having winded me slightly, "what questions can I answer that may help you make up your mind?"
 
LOCATION: A bubble outside of time YEAR: Irrelevant

Xanthia listened silently, but did not sit down. She didn't feel like sitting on furniture, and settled herself on the floor, leaning gently on the wall. "Well..how..how did he learn to skip between eyes?" she asked, unable to come up with any other questions.
 
Semantics meant little to Mondanda and she scoffed at Bode's excuses. "It was not a bold-faced lie, but was still a deception. You knew what that message would lead me to believe. And if you expect me to believe that Henry did not know what would become of exposing me for a Zed, then you also expect me to believe that he is even more of an idiot than I thought. And you do not get to tell me my dislikes are unfounded. If you come from another time, you have no idea what this one is like."

Of course, Mondanda couldn't be sure of that, but she believed it extremely unlikely that he really had a good concept of Earth in the 25th millennium. She spoke her next sentence in Amese, so as not to upset the woman who thought she was Henry's friend.

"If I agree to help you find Henry, I make no promise to be peaceful. In fact, I intent to kick him so hard in his y-chrome balls they slip out his ears," she told him. "Beyond that I intend no harm."

Switching back to English she said, "As to how you can convince me...For you to be able to travel in time you must know the future as well as the past. Tell me: will Zed Chromats ever be an accepted gender? And what will ultimately become of the men who are dying out?"
 
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