Clock-Work

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Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time
I look at the two young woman before me and have to shake my head, “So little they understand,” I mutter quietly to myself, but as I watched them I had to suppress a sigh. Of all the questions they could ask they had to choose those two.


“I am not a fortune teller, child,” I state simply not bothering to rise to Mondanda’s bating. Besides, she was a couple hundred years too young to even come close to finding the right words necessary to truly anger me. “I can only tell you what I know to be the future, but Time is a complicated thing, it may change and our memories and perceptions would change with it. The truth now may not remain the truth then, and neither of us would ever know that such truth had changed.

“I can only tell you that man will remain man, and regardless of what does or does not happen I would not tell you for it is your journey to take. It is your life, and you must be the one to live it.


“As for Henry,” Here I train my eyes on Xanthia, “While I do believe a good kicking would do him a great deal of good at this point, I cannot tell you how he managed to successfully create H.G. Wells’ time machine or why he would want to. Only that he has a brilliant mind and figured out the calculations. If you want more specifics than that you will have to ask him yourself what he was thinking when we apprehend him.”
 
Year: Irrelevant Location: Bubble outside of time

Xanthia nodded. "Okay.." she looked down, then back up suddenly. "How did you create this?" she questioned, crossing her arms loosely. She leaned back against the wall, still standing. She didn't want to sit. She never sat when speaking to someone. She crossed her left ankle over her right ankle.
 
Mondanda folded her arms, more annoyed by the news that men would still be around than by his roundabout way of deflecting her questions. Even if it wasn't true it would be typical of a man to say they would last forever. That led also to a more worrying thought, brought on by his avoidance of addressing her question about Zeds. Would they try and remove her kind to keep it a strictly man/woman society, with men still holding all the power? And as for Henry being brilliant - she openly scoffed at the very idea.

"How can someone be so smart and yet still be such an idiot?" she muttered in her native tongue. The girl's question interested her as well, since time travel was supposed to be impossible. "Yes, how did you make this?...Unless you stole it."
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time
I looked at the two of them and sighed. Of all the questions that could ask me they chose that. "I did not make this bubble, and I certainly did not make the S.T.A.N. I inherited them, for lack of a better word, from one of the best women I have ever had the privilege to meet. I was her apprentice for, well longer then either of you have been alive. As for how time travel works, which I have no doubt was the question the two of you really wanted answered, suffice it to say that is runs on the combines principle of quantum tunneling and quantum entanglement." I smile at both of them purpsly ingnoring the fact that Mondanda had called me a thief. "Now unless either of you have more questions related to finding and apprehending Henry, I really must ask that you make up your minds as to whether or not you are willing to lend me your aid. There are still people we will have to convince."
 
"I'm convinced." she said after watching the ground, thinking about how he said time travel worked. "Wait..one more question, though, however the answer is, I'll still help. Why choose us, and whoever else we need to convince?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "Or are we randomly chosen from the times he's visited?"
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time
I smiled. This was the easiest question to answer. "You were all chosen," I replied," because is some way, some fashion, you all played an instrumental role in Henry's life. Xanthia, you were his best friend for years. Mondanda, though not exactly a friend, was a steady presence in a time frame he knew absolutely nothing about. The others we will collect, one was a friendly rival during a time of war, and one will be as dear to him as his own grandchild. Of all the people throughout time, Henry is the most likely to listen to you."
 
Xanthia thought over these only for mere seconds. "Understandable...okay." she nodded. "I'm willing to help." She said. "And if you need anything else technical done, I'll help." she added with a smile.
 
Mondanda silently fumed. This wasn't truly to anything that Bode had said: his explanation for grabbing them made more sense than anything else she had been expected to believe so far. It was just the thought of seeing Henry again that annoyed her. Of course, the thought implied that her decision had been made.

"I will come," she said. As an after thought she added to herself, assuming this place actually goes anywhere. "So long as I get one hit at Henry. He owes me that."
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time
"Deal," I told Mondanda as I rose slowly from my chair and headed for the control room where I began working on the calculations. Yes, yes it would be easier to move the S.T.A.N. to 1941 and from there turn it into a vehicle of some sort and have it drive to the appropriate location. When the calculations were complete I set the shift. The S.T.A.N. whirred and after a moment the console indicated that the shift had occurred as well as the new visual parameters taken hold. The Gateway on the earth side would now look like a small British army supply truck. Fortunately it was night on the Earth side and the movements of the truck to the coordinates I had programmed into it should be well camouflaged, though they would take several hours to complete.

"Xanthia, if you would be kind enough to take Mondanda down to the guest quarters and help her get comfortable I shall prepare dinner while the gateway moves, and while we eat I shall tell you all about the next person I hope will help us. It is also a war zone outside so I want you all prepared whether you choose to leave this bubble or not. To go or not will of course be your choice, but I want you to know what you're getting into before you decide."


Year: 2489, Location: a classroom at Rockwood University in the city of New Dallas

Dr. Hillary Daestram flipped the lights out as she began running her slide show, peering over the heads of her students and insuring that all of them were taking notes.
"January 5 1941," She recited. "The Battle of Bardia in Libya ended with the Australian and British troops defeating the Italian force. This battle was fought as part of Operation Compass and was the fist military operation of the Western Desert Campaign. It was also the the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation took part.

"January 11 the British royal navy's light cruiser the HMS Southampton was sunk off Malta . . ." And so it went on. The slide show was really just a basic timeline of events in that year of the Second World War, but over the next few weeks she would require her students to learn about every single one of them before she would allow any of them to progress onto the year of 1942. This was the class listed as an "Extended Study of the World Wars" after all. She was confidant they could handle it.
 
Xanthia nodded, standing from the wall. "Okay..Come on Mondanda." she smiled a little. She was getting used to this place already..was it how technical it was? She didn't know. She led the way to the door, letting Mondanda follow at her own pace as she started down the stairs.
 
Mondanda followed silently for the first few steps, giving everything a distrustful look-over. The retra decor seemed to continue as they went down.

"So you and Henry are from the same time?" Mondanda tried to sound casual, but it was difficult with a language she struggled to say fluidly. "The Second Millenium. It must be quite frightening there."

Mondanda was referring to her more up-to-date view on the Second Millenium, which in her time was called the Age of Uncertainty. People were just starting to get a firm grasp on the nature of the universe around them, and there were so many things they didn't know. There were also so many great wars, and that was one of the most uncertain times for the future of humanity. Mondanda had gotten the impression (and an incorrect one) that everyone back then was terrified of a universe they didn't understand, one that they could be wiped off of at any moment.
 
Xanthia nodded. "Yeah, we do...frightening?" she questioned, glancing back at Mondana.
"Why would it be frightening? I think it's cool and interesting...so much not to know, and to find out how the universe works or why electrons move the way they do.."
she smiled.
"So much to learn and to find out that's never been discovered. The unknown gives a sense of feeling, that always makes you wonder, always forces progress. There's never a stopping point..why would it be frightening?" she looked forwards, smiling.
 
Her head cocked to one side and her eyebrow shot up quizically. They actually liked all that uncertainty?

"Yes, but you do not even know how the universe works," she said. "You are only just starting to understand the nature of nature itself. Your technology made dangerous changes at that time, and the whole future of the planet was in doubt during the 2nd Millenium. Does it not frighten you that you lived in an era that threatened human extinction more than any other?"

She thought too about other factors, that gave the 2nd Millenium it's other name, the Waste Age. Surely that must have frightened her, too. Then Mondanda suddenly realized that she'd been referring to this mad claim of time travel as if it were real, and felt suddenly very foolish to take this girl's words so seriously.
 
Xanthia shrugged. "Some people are afraid, but we are finding more and more ways to survive the longer we try to explore. Yes, we did doubt our future, but everything has doubt. Without doubt, there is no curiosity. Without curiosity, there is no interest. No interest leads to no research, no research means no progress. Right?"
 
Mondanda could only nod. "Yes. Perhaps..."

Xanthia's words had been intelligent, insightful, and just the sort of thing she hadn't been expecting from a 2nd Millenium throw-back. She seemed to understand the nature of knowledge and truth very well. So well in fact that Mondanda wondered if the 2nd Millenium may have been a greater age to live in. In the 25th Millenium nearly all of humanity's questions had been answered, and her time was one of relaxation and ease. But could it also be a time of stunted knowledge? Could there be more to learn that people, in their arrogance, were simply not taking the effort to explore? The thought troubled her and she lapsed into silence as they came to the bedrooms.
 
Xanthia nodded. She paused, glancing at the doors. "You can choose whichever you want I think." she leaned against the door to her room. "This one is mine."
 
She looked at the doors, opening them and inspecting the rooms. They were all more or less the same to her. Mondanda started pointing from one room to another, saying an ancient chant from an old decision-making came.

"Eeny Meeny Miney Moe..."

She didn't remember all of it, and eventually just tossed her bag and the Rider that had been on her back into a random room.

"Let us get back upstairs," she said to Xanthia. "I do not want to miss this supposed time travel."
 
Xanthia nodded, straightening up her back. "Got it. Come on." She said, leading the way back up the stairs. She went to the corner, faced the room, and sat criss-cross. Why? Who knew. It was just something she did. She pulled out her phone, looking through some of her files.
 
Year: Irrelevant, Location: A Bubble Outside Time

Setting a warning bell so I would know instantly when the truck was at its programmed location I then set about fixing a meal for myself and my guests. Considering the variations in time frames and the different cultural tastes I purposely determined to go with an old earth classic, something that had managed to survive the eons of growth and change, beef patties and potato fries with sides of whatever my guests might choose to eat with them. It occurred to me that by the time the S.T.A.N. reached the desired location the man we had now set out to find might just be finishing his own meal. I smiled slightly at the thought.

Over the meal I explained about Avery, what I knew of his history in relation to Henry, how the time period we had just landed in was part of the WWII era, and what I expected would happen once I, and any who came with me stepped outside. Halfway through the meal my alarm beeped and I took a moment to reset the visual parameters of the S.T.A.N. to resemble an old deserted woodshed hidden in a large clump of trees. When I returned I studied both girls.
“If you wish to come with me there should be era appropriate clothing in the closets.” I told them, “It is of course your choice, but anybody not at the front gate in fifteen minutes gets left behind."

With that I left them to their own devices and disappeared into my own quarters locking the door behind me. When it came to era appropriate clothing I too needed to find something suitable, or at least something that wouldn't get me shot.
 
Xanthia decided to stay, this time. She didn't want to leave at the moment..she sighed and finished her meal, but did not move. She stayed where she was, watching Mondana curiously.
 
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