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