They weren’t allowed to return to the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A little
side punishment for their insolence was that they would lose all modern
convenience privileges. They were going to live in the past, as the past
people lived. It was unclear what Anatol and Zeferino were going to do with
their ship, but if even one access panel was out of place when they finally
got back to it, Leona was going to flip out. Since it was necessary either
way to blend in with the natives, they had to find new clothes to wear. They
took a quick detour to sometime in the future at The Hub on Tribulation
Island. There, Téa was able to provide them with the appropriate attire and
accessories for life in the 17th century. They gave her a friendly greeting,
and she greeted them back, but they didn’t talk about anything. They didn’t
know which timeline this was, or how simpatico they were. It was best just
to acknowledge that they knew each other, remain pleasant, and move on.
Once they were fitted, they went back to the past, but not as far as they
were before. It was now 1693. It would seem as though they were no longer on
any sort of predictable pattern. It was still possible—maybe the jump would
always be 85 years—but the most likely explanation was that the time of
patterns was over, and they would just go whenever and wherever they were
needed. The antagonists would probably still send them ever forwards so they
didn’t accidentally interfere with their own past work in the future. At
this rate, they would be back to their general time period in only about a
week. But again, they didn’t really know anything.
They spent one night here in realtime, so when they woke up, it was April
23, and about time for their next mission. Their breakfast wasn’t very good,
but they weren’t allowed the status of noblemen here, so they took what they
could get. They were only entitled to eat some bread and cornmeal. Mateo
added it to his mental list of the things he hated about the past. Who would
live like this? It just felt so strange to him, even though he knew that
most people hadn’t heard of time travel, and they certainly didn’t have
access to it. He hoped that Leona’s weeklong estimate was right, and they
would be done with this before too long. He did not vocalize his feelings,
and he figured everyone else was deliberately keeping their complaints to
themselves too. If the antagonists realized quite how annoyed they were with
this whole thing, they might make it worse. They assumed Angela would be the
most comfortable here. It wasn’t her time period, but they were closer to it
in terms of technology. She was actually the most uncomfortable, though.
Because she already lived through it, and she knew how much it sucked. Mateo
kept clocking her reaching for her handheld device in her back pocket. Not
only was the device not there, but nor was a pocket. It was presumably
illegal for a woman to have pockets, because that would make her life too
easy.
They walked down the stone street to get to the other side of the city. It
wasn’t that bad, except for the excrement all over that people just threw
out their windows. They were worried that, even in these garments, the
locals would be suspicious of them. They might not have been holding
themselves up correctly, and not everyone on the team had the right skin
color. Seven strangers walking together must have looked weird too. For the
most part, however, people just left them alone, and focused on their own
lives. Their minds were most likely preoccupied with how much they hated
living like this as well, and wishing there was a faster way to get across
town. Leona was frustrated for similar reasons. So much could go wrong here.
It would be far safer if they just lived in The Parallel, and pulled people
through like normal. Before he disappeared, Anatol hinted that they weren’t
going to use transition windows in the same way that Jupiter and Nerakali
had. He was still going to include that power as part of the program, but
the rescues were too far back in the timeline to be able to handle such a
thing. They were going to have to get creative.
Leona looked around to make sure no one was watching. Then she pulled her
sleeve back, and checked her Cassidy cuff. It was still technically
operational, but its functionality was severely limited. The screen only
showed them where they were, and where they were supposed to go. No maps, no
messages, no features. It didn’t even have a clock in the corner. “This is
it,” she said, stopping in front of a door.
“It looks like it’s in that direction,” Jeremy pointed out as he was
consulting his own cuff.
“It doesn’t show how far away our target is,” Leona began to explain, “but
I’ve been keeping an eye on our pace. I’m guessing the person we’re looking
for is up against the wall of this apartment. We need this door.”
Jeremy nodded in understanding, still looking at his cuff. “Target is on the
move.”
“How do we handle this?” Mateo questioned. “What do we do?”
Not bothering to wait for a discussion, Olimpia pounded on the door.
The little target dot stopped, and started moving in the opposite direction,
towards them. An oldish man opened the door. “Can I help you?”
They didn’t discuss what they were going to say to him, so it was awkward
for a moment. Olimpia seemed sick of waiting for other people to make the
decisions. “You need to come with us right now.”
“Okay, let me retrieve my bag,” the man said. He wasn’t expecting them, but
he acted like this sort of thing happened all the time. He left the door
open, and walked back down the hallway.
“We have a new target now,” Jeremy announced. “That’s probably where we’re
supposed to take him.”
“How did you know we would take him anywhere?” Angela asked.
“Apartment’s not on fire,” Olimpia replied. “He’s just hanging out, enjoying
the day. I’m sure he’s not in any immediate danger. The mission is somewhere
else.”
“Do you require the leeches?” the man shouted from the back.
“He’s a doctor,” Mateo guessed, remembering that people used to use leeches
to get poisoned blood out of the body.
“Yes, bring the leeches!” Olimpia shouted back.
“Doctor,” Leona said just for the group, using airquotes. “Anyway,
they’re called physicians. You call him a doctor, he might be confused. His
title is
mister.”
The physician came back with what he needed for a medical emergency that
didn’t exist. Or maybe it did exist. They didn’t know what the mission was,
or what its purpose was. Maybe Anatol needed someone else’s life to
be saved, and this was his way of accomplishing that without the aid of the
two known time traveling doctors. The physicians followed them without
question. He didn’t even ask people their names, and they didn’t ask for
his. Jeremy took up the rear so he could keep an eye on the cuff screen
without getting caught. It was only telling them whether they were heading
in the right direction, or not. It couldn’t plot a course for them through
the streets, so they had to be real careful with it. Finally, they were past
the city limits, and into the edges of the countryside. Still, the physician
didn’t seem perturbed. He patiently walked with them, down the dirt road, up
the trail, and into the clearing.
“Uhh, we’re here,” Jeremy said.
They spread out a little to look for clues, but all they saw were plants,
trees, and grass. “How are we on time?” Dalton asked.
“It doesn’t have a time,” Jeremy answered.
“Well, how long do we wait?” Dalton furthered.
“What are we waiting for?” the physician asked.
“We don’t know,” Leona said vaguely.
“It’s changed,” Jeremy said. “We have to go this way now.”
“What are you looking at?” The physician wasn’t freaking out, but he was
growing concerned.
“That’s the direction we came from,” Siria noted. “Are they messing with
us?”
“I don’t know,” Mateo said. “It doesn’t matter. They’re holding all the
cards. Let’s just keep following it until we end up where we’re meant to
be.”
And so the group got back on the trail. They took it all the way to the dirt
road, which took them to the stone streets, which took them back through the
city, and then right back to the physician’s apartment. It appeared to be
some kind of exercise in futility.
“Morning, Mister Stroud,” said a young woman as they were standing at the
door, confused. “Who are your friends?”
“Not friends of mine,” the physician said. “Friends of a patient.”
“Oh. Is that where you’ve been for the last week?”
“How do you mean?” Stroud asked.
“You have been gone for a week,” she contended. “We assumed you had business
in Chaslow again.”
“I saw you just at dawn,” Stroud argued.
The woman shook her head. “That was very much a week ago, sir. You look
tired. You should get some rest. Good day to you all.”
Many returned with things like “good day,” and “good day to you.”
“What did you do to me?” Stroud was upset now.
Leona stepped forward like she was going to give him an explanation. She
stood there for a moment before saying, “run.”
Most of the team ran off, including the newbies. They all trusted her
judgment. Only she and Mateo remained. “We’re sorry to have wasted your
time,” he said.
The confounded physician stared back at the two of them. He didn’t have an
explanation for his missing time, and he already understood that they
weren’t going to give one to him. The three of them turned to watch the rest
of the team disappear around the corner, then the Matics casually left the
apartment, and followed them at a comfortable walking pace.
Jeremy managed to get them a single message through the cuff. It was nothing
more than a question mark. Leona replied with a simple GO. Stroud
wasn’t going to call the coppers on them, or something, but it was still
best if the majority of them just quickly returned to the safehouse. Leona
and Mateo, meanwhile, were just going to hold hands, and enjoy some time
alone for a bit. Once they were back, they explained to the group that
everything was fine. The theory was that Stroud was destined to die sometime
in the past week, and that it was their job to help him skip over that
death. They probably crossed in and out of a transition window in the woods
without realizing it. Most importantly, he didn’t realize it. He
would never be able to explain, but he wouldn’t want to lose his station, so
he would keep quiet about it, and just move on with his life. Hopefully he
was now destined to save more lives with medicine.
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