DAY 903
Blev, I’m moving this over to the secure messaging system for efficiency’s sake. I got your letter. To put it bluntly, exploitation of the Sending type of magic has ballooned into an enormously expensive and cumbersome operation. All worth it, I’m sure—not suggesting that the taxpayers’ money is in any way misspent on ODECs and so on. But now that we have all of that apparatus up and running we need to look for other opportunities to make the most of it.
It didn’t escape my notice that you mentioned the possibility of manipulating others’ mental states as something witches could do. Let’s drill down on that.
Reply from Dr. Blevins:
In a sense it’s almost common knowledge, Okie. Historically, witches were feared and mistrusted for just such abilities; where do you think the term “bewitched” originated from?
We haven’t put much effort into this because it only works in an ODEC, and it’s hard to imagine a practical application of such techniques, which depend on getting the subject into a cryogenically isolated telephone booth in a basement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also, we only have one witch.
From LTG Frink:
Now we have two, and we pretty much own Rachel bat Avraham; we can’t very well just let her wander around free. If she came forward, it means others can do likewise. Let’s get more witches, and let’s put ’em to work.
I take your point about the ODEC. Why can’t we make these things smaller? More portable? That would make their use for psy-ops far more feasible.
From Dr. Blevins:
As to your first point, we’ve been contemplating such a program for a long time—which is why we built so many ODECs. I’ll put my foot on the gas, and I’ll spread the word to the department heads.
As to your second, my understanding is that they are impossibly cumbersome because of the cryogenics. But Dr. Oda is now surplus personnel, since he finished the Chronotron. I’ll try to draw him out on the topic, without tipping our hand.
Follow-up from Dr. Blevins, a day later:
Okie, I had coffee with Dr. Oda, framed as a conversation about his future at DODO. We had contemplated moving him to “emeritus” status to get him out of the way without sending his troublesome wife into a rage. In that capacity he would have the freedom to explore independent research projects as long as they were relevant to DODO’s mission. Without any prompting from me, he mentioned that he had ideas on building an ODEC capable of working at non-cryogenic temperatures. The technical details are over my head but apparently it has to do with room-temperature superconductors and certain advances in computer processing power that he has been tracking. Sounds like this could possibly lead to a portable ODEC—and if so we could redirect resources from diachronic travel to psy-ops.
Unless you say otherwise before COB today, I’ll slide him over to the new role and encourage him to pursue the idea.
Blev
Post by Macy Stoll
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.