She's got it,
Yeah, baby, she's got it.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
-- Shocking Blue (Venus)
=/\=
Rick wasn't a part of any of that, so he instead went to see the department's engineers. Kevin O'Connor and Deirdre Katzman were banging away at one of the time ships, the Jack Finney.
"Now, hold that wrench in place," Deirdre was saying, "Just, just hang there for like a minute."
"Entertain me," Kevin said, holding the wrench, "Uh, please. Tell me who Jack Finney was again."
"He wrote Time and Again. This man, Simon Morley, engages in a secret government plot to get Grover Cleveland to buy Cuba so that the United States never has to deal with Castro. Time travel is achieved through a kind of a trancelike state, plus ole Si falls in love with the landlord's daughter, Julia."
"Sounds silly."
"It was very romantic," she said, "Okay, you can let go now," she looked up, "Oh, hiya, Rick. Something we can do for you?"
"Nothing in particular. Is the HG Wells in working order?" he asked.
"Ask Levi. We've been on the Jack for a while. Is, uh, anything the matter with it?" she asked.
"I don't think so. Just want it to be good. I gotta train the new girl, don't want anything going kerflooey during that."
"Better safe 'n sorry. Okay, Deirdre, let's see if the injector's workin' now. Gotta go – time ships wait for no man."
=/\=
Rick found Levi in his office.
Levi didn't look up – he was engrossed in something on his PADD.
"Uh, Levi?"
"Oh, yeah, uh, come in, I guess."
"What are you doing?" asked Rick.
"Decrypting. You remember, we got a note, a, a manifesto from whoever stole the Audrey Niffenegger?"
Ah, yes, Rick remembered – the older time ship. Someone had grabbed it about a month previously, and had messed with 1959, just before he had taken some time off. He had had to fix that, "Yeah, I remember."
"We got the title – it's not very imaginative. It's just called Manifesto. And we deciphered the first sentence, which I guess is the premise: There is much wrong with history. There are another four paragraphs that are longer, and we haven't been able to crack those yet. It's very annoying."
"I'm sure. Uh, is the Wells in good working order?"
"It should be," Levi said, "What, you break something on it when you went to Clear Lake?"
"Uh, no. The 1959 Iowa trip went off without a hitch."
"So don't worry; it's fine."
"I just want things to go smoothly. I'm gonna take it to train the new girl."
"Oh? Going anywhere interesting?" It was Otra.
"1970, I figure. There's a shooting at Kent State."
YOU ARE READING
Ohio
FanfictionThis time, they had no one to blame but themselves. Time was again messed up, but no one else was at fault. Still, someone was watching, and taking notes. And they had their own dilemma to deal with - how do you decide who lives, and who dies? Who's...
