THEATER: C/COD
OPERATION: Ribbon-cutting ceremony
DTAP: Cambridge, MA, present day
FILED: Day 896 (early January, Year 3)
Summary: At 11:21:16 of Day 891, the subject, Rachel bat Avraham, a KCW from the circa-1200 Constantinople DTAP, was Sent from there to ODEC #3 and materialized in normal physical condition. She was issued clothing and placed under observation in the medical isolation facility adjoining ODEC Row. She was debriefed in Hebrew and in Greek by Dr. Stokes (head of DORC) and Dr. Lingas (in-house Byzantine Greek HOSMA) respectively. Initial briefing focused on two topics of immediate concern, namely (1) whether any more surprise visitors from 1200 Constantinople were to be expected, and (2) the importance of immediate medical procedures needed to protect subject from our diseases and vice versa. As precautions in the meantime, Dr. Oda had shut down all four operational ODECs, and ODEC Row had been placed under bio-containment lockdown.
Upon receipt of verbal consent from subject, medical staff began administration of inoculations required to protect subject from modern diseases to which she is not likely to have immunity, and collected samples (swabs, blood, urine, feces) for analysis of possible historical disease agents. Upon examination, subject had fully healed scars indicative of a past encounter with smallpox, suggesting that no active, virus-shedding infection was in progress. Subsequent laboratory analysis detected low levels of intestinal parasites and gut flora of a potentially contagious nature; these were eradicated through orally administered medications and the subject given a clean bill of health following four days of analysis and treatment. The inoculation protocols are scheduled to continue for another two weeks, whereupon subject will be cleared to emerge from bio-containment and mingle with the general population. Psychologically, subject appears normal, other than some natural disorientation.
Results of debriefing: Subject is a seventeen-year-old resident of Pera, the Jewish neighborhood lying across the Golden Horn from Constantinople proper. She is one of a small network of KCWs recruited by DODO and used extensively for DEDEs conducted during the last two years while laying the groundwork for full-scale diachronic operations slated to commence immediately. She is well known to our DOers, who from the very beginning have commented on her marked curiosity about our time and place and her frequently voiced desire to travel into the future and join us. She was able to reach ODEC #3 through the assistance of her mother, another KCW in Constantinople who agreed to carry out the Sending.
Until this incident occurred, we had not envisioned that a security breach of this nature was a realistic threat.
1. Sending by a historical witch into her own future was considered extremely difficult.
2. There was no place in the present day where magic worked, save in the confines of an “up and running” ODEC. Since we didn’t leave the ODECs up and running, the Sending witch had no fixed target to “aim at.”
Obviously, these two assumptions are no longer valid.
1. Our KCWs in 1200 Constantinople have had so much practice Homing our DOers that they seem to have developed a feel for how to access the modern Boston DTAP.
2. The policy just inaugurated of leaving the ODECs running 24/7 has given the Sending witch a much broader and more stable target to “aim at.”
During her debriefing, subject admitted that she had become aware of the new ODECs and the “always on” policy slated to go into force at the beginning of the new year. This leakage of information was not the result of one specific disclosure by one specific DOer, but rather a pattern of information that she had assembled through numerous conversations with various DOers. In addition, it appears that subject, along with many other witches, has the ability to extract information from nearby persons through non-verbal techniques. That combined with subject’s intense curiosity and drive to escape what she sees as the stifling confines of a traditional medieval Jewish household led to her devising the plan that led to her materializing in ODEC #3.
General remarks: Subject is beginning to learn modern English and is rapidly becoming familiar and comfortable with modern technology, conveniences, etc. It will be some time before she can move about freely in modern society without supervision, however, nothing in principle stands in the way of her doing so. It should go without saying that she carries in her head classified secrets that can never be divulged to the modern world at large. Likewise, if she were to return to her place of origin and divulge information about the future, or attempt to alter the reality of that DTAP in a heavy-handed manner, Diachronic Shear would likely result.
For her own protection, she will remain in biological isolation for another two weeks, but after that, top-level direction will be needed in order to determine her fate.
FROM LIEUTENANT GENERAL OCTAVIAN K. FRINK
TO DR. ROGER BLEVINS
DAY 900 (MID-JANUARY, YEAR 3)
Blev,
I was perusing Mrs. East-Oda’s report on the recent incident and came across something toward the end of it that, to put it mildly, startled me: Ms. bat Avraham “has the ability to extract information from nearby persons through non-verbal techniques.”
Am I to understand that she is a mind reader? And that other witches have the same ability? If so, then this document is an extraordinary example of what is referred to, in the journalism business, as “burying the lede.”
Yours in consternation and amusement,
Okie
FROM DR. ROGER BLEVINS
TO LIEUTENANT GENERAL OCTAVIAN K. FRINK
DAY 902
Okie,
I too noticed the passage you referred to in your letter, and was doing some investigation before reporting further. I would recommend against use of any such pulp-novel terminology as “mind reading” but, in short, it does appear that many witches have enhanced skills around sensing others’ mental states, and manipulating same. Of course, like any other magical technique, it can only be used in an ODEC, or in a pre-1851 DTAP.
In a larger sense, this is not a surprise. For reasons I needn’t belabor to you, DODO has focused on one, and only one, form of magic: Sending people to other DTAPs. But magic has many other possible uses. Making an analogy to electricity, it’s as if Thomas Edison devoted his entire career to the development of washing machines but never put any effort into light bulbs, elevators, or the myriad other applications that surround us today. We know perfectly well that witches could perform other kinds of magic; we just haven’t put any resources into it yet.
Blev
Post by LTG Octavian K. Frink to Dr. Roger Blevins on private ODIN channel