The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Novel
Page 44
on “All Employees” ODIN channel
DAY 905
Everyone, Dr. Blevins is extremely busy just now but has asked me to reach out in this forum and shine a light on some of the confusion and resulting rumors that have surrounded the recent arrival of Rachel bat Avraham.
To clarify, Rachel’s arrival was a PLANNED event—NOT a security breach.
There was indeed some surprise and confusion around the exact timing, which is why some of you may have noticed startled expressions on the faces of LTC Lyons and Ms. Karpathy. Rachel was scheduled to be Sent forward to ODEC #3 on a different date in the near future as part of a planned program of activities for which Dr. Blevins has been laying the groundwork for some months now. Because of some understandable confusion around calendars (Julian vs. Gregorian), the Sending KCW in 1200 Constantinople did it on the wrong day and so Rachel showed up ahead of schedule.
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, Dr. Blevins has asked me to let everyone know that Rachel is just the first in a series of “Anachrons,” which is a term we will be applying to colleagues from earlier historical epochs who will be coming forward to present-day Boston and other DODO sites to collaborate with us. The exact policy is still being formulated, but we anticipate recruiting Anachrons in the following general categories:
– KCWs, such as Rachel, who can help Erszebet handle the anticipated uptick in demand for Sending personnel to various DTAPs.
– Subject matter authorities, such as people who know how to speak a particular dialect or fight in a particular martial arts system for which we don’t have modern-day expertise. These can serve as valuable adjuncts to the existing DORC staff.
– Evacuees who must be brought forward for tactical reasons, typically to avoid the possibility of Diachronic Shear. This might happen in the event of a security breach leading to a situation where someone knew too much about their future.
The above is not the definitive list—the full policy document is still being drawn up.
Soon Rachel will be cleared by our medical staff to mingle with the general population, and when that happens I know you’ll all join me in making her feel as welcome as possible in her new home and era.
EXCERPT FROM TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW
BETWEEN DR. MELISANDE STOKES (MS)
AND RACHEL BAT AVRAHAM (RBA)
DAY 904 (DAY 13 OF RBA’S MEDICAL QUARANTINE)
NOTE: Conversation took place in Hebrew, translated into English.
MS: You’re looking stronger today. Dr. Srinavasan told me you ate all of the chicken soup.
RBA: My shoulder [vaccine injection site] is no longer hurting and the chills have stopped. Yes, I feel better, but still weak.
MS: Would you like me to tell Dr. Srinavasan about your feeling of weakness? Perhaps he should know about it.
RBA: No, he cannot help.
MS: Why do you say that? Modern medicine can do things that would surprise you.
RBA: This I understand. I have seen it with my own eyes. But my feeling of weakness is not the kind of thing that a doctor would understand, or know how to fix. If you let me go into the ODEC, I would feel strong again.
MS: Because you could do magic there?
RBA: Yes, of course. You [non-magical persons] don’t understand. You think that witches do magic only at certain times, when we perform a spell, such as Sending. Actually we are doing it a little bit every moment, even when we are sleeping.
MS: I have heard similar things from Erszebet. Only when she is in the ODEC does she feel completely herself.
RBA: I can’t wait to learn better English so that I can talk more to Erszebet.
MS: The computer can help you learn some basic parts of the language, and when you get out of quarantine you’ll learn faster.
RBA: I have been reading the computer.
MS: That’s what Mortimer told me.
RBA: Who is Mortimer?
MS: You haven’t met him, he is one of the people who helps make the computers work.
RBA: How does he know that I have been reading the computer?
MS: Do you remember our conversation the other day about how the computers are linked together in a network?
RBA: Yes, of course. A little bit like the network of Strands.
MS: A little bit, yes. Well, because of this, it’s possible for someone like Mortimer, who is on a different computer in a different place, to see what you have been reading. And he tells me that you have been looking at Wikipedia in both Hebrew and Greek.
RBA: The Hebrew hasn’t changed as much. There are many new words, of course, but I can learn those. The Greek has changed more. I can read both of them, anyway.
MS: What have you been reading?
RBA: The future of Constantinople.
MS: You mean, the history?
RBA: (laughs) To you, yes. But to me it is the future. I was reading about the Fourth Crusade.
MS: To you, that would be only a few weeks in the future.
RBA: You know about it?
MS: Yes, as you know we have been quite interested in that DTAP and so I have read many historical accounts.
RBA: Then perhaps you can tell me what happens to the Jews of Pera, after the Crusaders cross the Bosporus and attack Galata Tower? We live right in the shadow of the tower!
MS: There is no written documentation about that directly, but related documents point to the Jewish community having dispersed without incident, probably in response to the Catholic presence.
RBA: (agitated) In the Levant, Catholics slaughtered legions of us! Are they going to slaughter my family? I must go back and warn them and tell them to leave before the trouble starts!
MS: I’m sure they don’t slaughter your family, Rachel. Something else happened. Your family, and everyone else, they must have just chosen to leave—without incident, or it would be recorded somewhere, right? With the Jews, everything bad is always recorded.
RBA: So is everything good.
MS: No, just the miracles. So there are no miracles, but there’s no slaughter.
RBA: I should warn them.
MS: You chose to leave them, Rachel. You cannot leap back and forth between DTAPs.
RBA: Why not? From how you have described DODO that is the whole point, leaping back and forth.
MS: We follow instructions on what to do and not to do, and never for personal reasons. It is always in the interest of the work. Otherwise things get complicated. When we started speaking, two weeks ago, you had to agree to stay in this DTAP before I could tell you anything. You remember that, don’t you?
RBA: Oh, of course, and I’m very happy to be here, it is so much better even than the most exciting magic my grandmothers ever did. It is amazing. And all of you seem to take it in stride! Even Erszebet! It is all so wonderful, and everyone is kind to me, and it’s such fun to see how everyone is clothed and I cannot wait until I can try all the food, and this medicine is better than magic, if I were this sick at home I would never be so recovered in three days! All these, what are they called, innocuvations—
MS: Inoculations, and vaccinations. And that bag up there that’s attached to the tube that goes into your arm, that has some medicine that’s making you better faster.
RBA: Yes! Easier than magic! I do not like the hum of the electricity but Erszebet says I will get used to it, and so I cannot imagine even Heaven would be so wondrous as this.
MS: Then I hope you are at peace with staying here. And helping us. Please trust that your family will be safe without your assistance.
RBA: Very well. How can I help? Once I have adjusted to being here?
MS: The role of witches, here and now, is to Send agents back in time to different DTAPs.
RBa: I remember. I had no idea the world was so enormous!
MS: Yes, even for us, with all our knowledge, it is a remarkable thing to contemplate. So you Send us back in time, and we do things, very subtle little things, to prevent undesirable situations from happening. You don’t need to
worry about what those are. That’s somebody else’s responsibility. You just need to perform the magic of Sending them back in time.
RBA: Very well, that’s easy enough. What else?
MS: That’s all.
RBA: That’s all?
MS: Yes.
RBA: You mean that’s all Erszebet does every day? She just Sends people? Why don’t you use her other magic?
MS: We have not found other useful applications for magic in today’s world.
RBA: What?! How is that possible? It’s magic! Magic is always useful! That is like saying you have no useful application for the sun because you found this electricity thing.
MS: You yourself noted how remarkable life is now, that in many ways it is even better than magic.
RBA: It’s better in a different way, it’s not better than not having magic at all.
MS: Because magic stopped in 1851, we became accustomed to living without it.
RBA: So Erszebet, all she ever does is Send people?
MS: Yes.
RBA: No wonder she’s so grumpy. That must be very, very dull after a while.
MS: It’s her work.
RBA: I have never heard of a single witch in the history of the world who just had to do the exact same thing over and over and over again. That sounds terrible. The Lord would never subject anyone to such treatment. Even when we were slaves in Egypt we had more variety to our tasks than that.
MS: Are you saying you do not wish to have the work?
RBA: I want to have something else to do as well. I am an excellent witch but I am also skilled at many other things. I can bake bread, and I am a superb seamstress. Perhaps I can spend some time Sending people and some time baking challah.
MS: I will talk to Dr. Blevins about your suggestion. I like it. Perhaps it would help Erszebet if she also had a pastime.
RBA: No, not a pastime, something real, something useful. I have met many people in this fortress now but not a single baker.
MS: We don’t have enough observant Jews on staff to require that we keep challah on hand.
RBA: Forget challah, then, I wish to learn how to make those delicious sweet round things that Tristan has brought into the fortress, with the brightly colored bits on them. If I could spend some time baking those, then I would not mind if my magic work consists only of Sending.
MS: I’ll talk to Dr. Blevins.
Post by Dr. Roger Blevins
on “Announcements” ODIN channel
DAY 915 (LATE JANUARY, YEAR 3)
Effective immediately, Dr. Frank Oda has been promoted to Scientist Emeritus. In this new role, Dr. Oda will be unburdened from the day-to-day responsibilities of running DODO’s R&D department, and will enjoy the freedom to pursue advanced research projects that have been back-burnered until now during his months of hard work on the Chronotron. Please congratulate him if you should encounter him around the facility.
Macy Stoll has already tasked HR with recruiting or promoting a replacement for Dr. Oda as head of the R&D department. In the interim, Dr. Oda will remain in place as acting head and assign department staff to various tasks as appropriate.
Journal Entry of
Rebecca East-Oda
JANUARY 30
Temperature 29F, damp, slight NE breeze. Barometer steady.
More firewood delivered and stacked (using area of garden that was dug up for Bay Psalm Book—eighteen months later soil has still not recovered). Expecting snowdrops soon.
Yesterday afternoon Tristan, Melisande, and Erszebet drove to the house with the new witch, Rachel, who will be lodging with us until appropriate quarters can be determined for her. A tiny, wide-eyed thing, looking like a rag doll in a dress that Erszebet picked out for her during a raid on Newbury Street. Predictably, there was disagreement about logistics. Tristan wanted Erszebet to return to the office to continue to Send people—they have quite the schedule there now, and are working her almost to exhaustion. He argued that Melisande is the only one who speaks medieval Hebrew and therefore Mel should stay with Rachel.
“We will both stay with her,” said Erszebet. “I was ‘on hold’ (with air quotes) for more than a century, you can be ‘on hold’ for overnight.”
“Erszebet, you can’t even talk to her, what’s the good of your staying?”
“I will talk to her through Melisande,” Erszebet said in her so-there tone. “Do you know how long it has been since I have had another witch to talk to?” Erszebet made a mock-surprise face. “Why, of course you do. You know exactly how long it has been. So you will give me this. If you refuse, I will understandably go on strike, which I would have done months ago if I were not so exceptionally generous and patient. I am giving you an opportunity not to force me to go on strike.” (Have been coaching her on her communication skills. Clearly mixed results.)
Tristan nodded. “Fine,” he said. “You’ll return at 1300 hours tomorrow.”
She rolled her eyes. “This is not an army barracks. I will return at one o’clock in the afternoon.”
“Major Sloane has vectored a couple of DOSECOPS to the house, to keep an eye on things,” said Tristan, to me now. “They’re on their way here.”
“Absolutely not,” I said. “She’s not a criminal or a fugitive.”
“It’s about security,” said Tristan.
“Felix,” Mel suggested quickly. “Rachel knows Felix from her native DTAP. He’s between DEDEs. He’s not technically a guard, but he’s qualified—in fact he’s overqualified. Surely you can arm him and have him bunk in the dining room.” A glance at me. “Would that be all right?”
“Only because Rachel knows him,” I said. “Being a den-mother to wayward witches is not in my job description, and I will not play along if it requires armed men in my living room.”
Tristan’s jaw worked silently for a few moments. I knew what he was thinking: It’s not your living room anymore—it belongs to the East House Trust. But he had the good grace not to say this out loud. He called off the two guards, placed a call to Felix, and left.
I confess I was surprised and touched by Erszebet’s cosseting young Rachel. Speaking to her through Melisande, she insisted Rachel spend the time giving vent to how very different and disorienting it is here. Melisande translating, most of the English-to-Hebrew being some form of “I know, isn’t it awful? I don’t know what’s worse, to have it happen all at once as with you, or to have it happen with gradual inevitability as with me.”
Diachronicle
DAY 1800 (SUMMER, YEAR 5)
In which the zenith becomes our new normal
I HAVE BUT EIGHTEEN DAYS left before the solar eclipse and there is far too much to cover in what time is left to me. I am more desperate than ever not to be stuck here for fucking ever. Therefore I shall resort to a compendious depiction of the next phase of DODO’s existence.
Two and a half years passed. Every day I rose and went to work. Many times I was Sent back to various DTAPs to perform missions. A lot happened, in other words. And yet those two and a half years flew by so quickly that when it was over it felt as if some witch had Sent me into the future.
The value of the Chronotron exceeded all expectations. With it at our disposal, we were close to gods in our omniscience. Over the course of those dazzling years, DODO expanded beyond anything even Tristan could have imagined that afternoon when he took me to coffee. We expanded both in our own DTAP and also throughout history. In the twenty-first century, we built training and research centers all over the globe, with ODEC-equipped facilities in Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. To guarantee the most authentic training, we lured experts in certain fields of importance to us forward through time. Our Fighters scrimmaged in top-secret dojos with Roman legionaries, Viking berserkers, and samurai. Their training gear was wrought by armorers of ages past, brought forward to toil in air-conditioned smithies. Per Tristan’s early joke to me years earlier, I did indeed have a chance, once, to practice my conversational Sumerian—with an actual Sumerian.
Most of the early Anachrons were witches. Erszebet, to our surprise, did not fly the coop once she had been made redundant. She rather adopted the air of Cleopatra, and made it clear—to them and to us—that she was now the Alpha Witch. None of the other witches could ever possibly know as much as she did, about the twenty-first century or about DODO’s real missions; likewise, none of us could possibly know how to behave appropriately with the new witches. She maintained all of her charismatic narcissistic bitchiness prepossessing fierceness, but she became, in effect, the Den Mother of Weird Sisters. Frank and Rebecca’s home couldn’t hold them all, so DODO purchased a big old house elsewhere in Cambridge, rigged it up with all kinds of security hardware, and turned it into a kind of sorority for Erszebet and her brood. Vans with blacked-out windows shuttled back and forth between it and DODO headquarters, ferrying witches. They had come from all times and places, but they mostly followed Erszebet’s lead when it came to fashion choices.