There were no more ships in the sky of Metric.
Everyone had gotten to where they thought they wanted to be, and a storm was approaching. The warning had gone out. At least to those that had the mind and the means to travel. So much so that Nathan thought nobody would travel for a long time. Then he discovered with his own eyes that the people of the village of Elin had had enough time to make the journey. Or, at least the one to his future. And it had turned out to be a very strange and interesting journey all on its own.
Time, as most people learned very early in their time, was not a fixed dimension. It did not flow in a consistent way from one point to another.
That much was in the description to Metric. Here it flowed like Jehovah's dewdrops, going to where it was needed and in the right amount. It didn't taste like flat cakes and honey, but that might have been because of his choice in company. Too many people around him dripped a smell like week old coffee. Nobody went hungry in Metric, because the work ethic ensured that you would find something to eat whether you wanted to or not, but most people didn't go hungry either. They didn't need to worry about it.
He had learned all of that very quickly on the job. He was only there for a week before he understood everything.
Everything, as usual meant ' as much as I need to to get by'. By no means was he an expert, because the rules and laws were always changing. Being a detective was all about being able to adapt to new situations and solve problems, but he had only been at it a little while. People still asked him to help them with crimes he had barely solved himself; or didn't solve at all. It was more a case of people thinking he was a good guess as to who might have done it, than anything else. That didn't bother Nathan, he got the unappealing jobs so people wouldn't know him anyway.
His friend Adi the Adipose had been with him a while now. Needling him into more exotic cases and tougher challenges. Something to break the status quo. Nathan didn't feel like doing that anymore. He felt like he had made his mark by doing what he believed in.
He walked towards the central market of Sampler District with his hands in his pockets as he tried to look casual. The woman he walked past was dressed like a common housewife, but her eyes narrowed as she watched him leave. He wondered what she was thinking, why she was watching him like that.
He was a detective and she could just as likely be his next case, so he struck up a conversation. That looks suspiciously unsuspicious he said waiting carefully to see how the woman would react.
"Was your wife a very important person?" she asked before he had a chance.
Nathan was a little thrown off by her abruptness, he immediately responded with, "Why? What makes you ask?"
"Nothing! I'm just making conversation." She replied, "I could have been asking you about your wife's favourite colour or a commonality between our names."
"Don't take it personally, but I don't think you've ever talked to me before."
Metric always flowed away memories unless you really held onto them. Nathan took a quick nip of his CC Memory sharpener sample pack. "It's true. I'm just an average guy." He says trying to make his status known.
"You look like that may be your job." She comments on his clothing.
Unlucky for him he thought as he looked at the grey and black suit he had somehow procured. It was fairly high quality, but he had traded so many favour to acquire it. "Yeah, I do my best work in a well fitted suit." He says modestly.
That will get you noticed for the wrong reasons in Metric she said, we're all a little more casual here. People in suits tend to be taking the taxes she laughed.
"That's so funny. My father was the same way." She adds.
Then a new wrinkle in time came. "What I mean is we all dress in suits so that we can get through the world safely and easily. The higher ups don't understand why, but people still do. It keeps them attention on themselves instead of us."
Now Nathan had no clue what she was talking about. Time had stopped and made a complete loop.
She gestured in the direction of Earth which in this instance meant weaving her fingers together and pointing over her shoulder. A few blocks that way he said, "there you go. Not that I'm an expert or anything."
He didn't really care what she thought of him, especially since she didn't do anything about it. He knew it was childish to care, but he didn't feel like being childish today.
When Nathan reached the store in which he worked, he felt utterly perplexed. The sign over the door read "Elite Detective Agency".
He saw that someone has left a small potion from the Sampler's District with his face on it. DRINK ME it said in a font which could only be described as belonging half in Alice in Wonderland and half in a typical magazine. The liquid was pink and bubbled with the same gasses as his own favourite bubble gum.
Nathan bought a 100x roll of film for his camera and thought that maybe taking a break and going back to the office was a good idea. He felt that he had a better shot of being able to sleep tonight if he investigated the case further. He hadn't gotten a chance to fully do so since he had arrived.
The case involved an Agent Salt, who had a time travelling Hologram trying to force a card game upon the world. The only way to beat these creatures was to outsmart them rather than fight them. This left Agent Salt with a very strange quirk – when faced with something he could not beat, he would disappear and when his body was found, the thing he had been unable to win against would be found as well. This had been happening for some time and now some odd shadowy black spectre had appeared and was now stalking Nathan and the Elin people.
Nathan thought about what kind of cards he would like and drew up a quick list. No need to have them force cards on me he thought, I'll volunteer, that was I can get a bead on him. The latest info shows the card man at 125 After Event.
It took Nathan a few days to get there. When he arrived he found a large mob of people gathered outside of 125 After Event. People were yelling and screaming about a "freak show" that had started.
"What's going on?" Nathan asked a man close by who was trying to calm the crowd.
"There's a show starting soon at 125 After Event" was the answer.
Nathan didn't wait and went around the back of the building.
The card man had been busy, putting everyone's cards into the movie creator and getting plots to happen at the drop of a hat. It was a bit chunky, but the idea of it being personalized smoothed over the crude edges fairly well. Nathan could see the "man behind the curtain" if you will. He thought to himself
This show won't last long or they'll get fed up with this nonsense, I'll need something more substantial later.
He sat through the main course the card man put out there for him and had to say that it was passable. He gave the card man a large tip to improve the quality of the movie should he wish to see the next instalment in the series.
The card man asked Nathan what his favourite scripture and Moses stick would be. Nathan thought for a moment and replied "What is a scripture?"
The card man was taken aback by such a question and glanced around to see how Nathan was supposed to know what a scripture was. He decided to explain it anyway. A scripture was what a person needed to survive in this world. To get ahead in society, you needed money, to find money, you needed a job. You needed a spouse, to get a spouse you needed a bit of luck.
A scripture is usually written in a holy book, but 'love laugh live' could be the same thing if it kept you going. Nathan did not like the idea of a "scripture" in the sense that the man was using it, but it was too late to back out now.
Before Nathan had a chance to object further, his smartphone started ringing. He excused himself and went into an alley where he said his prayers and took the call.
"Hello?"
"Hello Nathan, it's me." The caller's voice sounded familiar, but Nathan did not place it immediately.
"Adam?"
You say "Yes. Your wife is asking you about the fruit again. you know it's not supposed to be eaten but she's being a bit of a Delilah this time. It's getting aggravating.
"
Nathan winced at the thought of Adam having to put up with Janine. Janine worked at the local Olive Garden and drove a franchise of the Crumb Bunny, a muffuletta sandwich shop. Nathan had worked in the local Crumb Bunny for a week and made the mistake of asking Janine out – which ended up costing him his job and his place to live.
You say "She's insisting someone has to eat it, but we're all trying to be perfect here, so it's causing a bit of a fight. "
The two of them argued quite vocally and Janine managed to get Nathan's new place of employment, Crumb Bunny, to fire him for dating her husband.
Nathan was now looking for work when he received an interview request from a management consultant firm in New York City.
Nathan was very happy to work for them. You never knew what kind of challenge or what you'd be working on next.
A large family run business called White's Castle was looking to shake up upper management on the eve of a new project that seemed to be stalled. Nathan was tasked with being an outside eye that might have some new ideas. It seemed like a good opportunity in a nice location.
Nathan took the offered car and drove to the address. He took a left at the fork and headed down a winding country road past a large house labeled 'Grave's Funeral Chapel'. Nathan slowed the car to just a crawl as he stared at the impressive sign. For a moment he wondered if Janine had anything to do with the sign's design.
Janine was the artist in the family, she had 7 years to work on painting virtually alone while things were being settled. She jumped from that to the cafe and kept changing the name of it to meet new people. But she always got back to painting eventually. Janine kept herself busy with art, but Nathan did not think she did a satisfactory job of it. Janine could not bring herself to sell out her husband's work and decided to take on her husband's persona instead. Nathan thought Janine could have gone either way.
Nathan parked on the dirt shoulder and stepped out of the car. He could feel the humidity and knew that he might have been in for a hot time. The manager or owner or whatever called out
You say "Time is running out!"
Nathan was not sure if they had been after a specific time or just had run out of things to say to him, but as he started to leave he felt that he had been there a very long time.
"I can give you another 5,000 – 10,000 for the rights to film this." It was a man that had walked up to Nathan's car window.
He looked a lot like Tom Holland on a rough day and a few more years in film school instead of Hollywood Star. The man went on to explain to Nathan that he could have a much larger budget if Nathan wanted, or all the rights, or none of the rights, or a combination.
The manager/owner looked like a weasel at least 150 years old – it was only by his appearance that he could have been anything remotely close to a manager/owner. His jowls were shaking and he was sweating non-stop.
The grooves the manager/owner was making in the carpet were almost comical. A few feet over and the carpet was fine and blue, but he insisted on walking the white lines to the point the track was almost threadbare. His shoes made these dusty tracks.
This man was not going to blink first and Nathan could tell from his face that he would only give him one of the four choices. Nathan remembered a book he read once, a bit of trivia, that contained several techniques to use when trying to get an unscheduled meeting like this turned into a more beneficial, or less painful one.
He grabbed a magazine from the stack as he came in called "How to Invest your Time Wisely" Awake Feb 2014, it might work. It discussed things like appreciating life and appreciating others, setting priorities, breaking them down and creating structures to help you achieve, not just any structures, but the ones that matter. For instance, if you really wanted to become rich, but not in a materialistic way, it would suggest ways in which you could achieve that balance. Nathan had read it twice and had applied many of the tips – some worked, but most did not.
The point was that the structure was not dependant on outside reinforcement but internal structure. Something the old man with the worn carpet didn't seem to understand.
Nathan started to look for a topic change to get the man's mind off his shoes. "Is White's Castle open today?"
The man looked at him as though he were an idiot child and shook his head in disgust. "Of course it's not, moron, it's a funeral home. You think I run this awful city, I own White's Castle." He continued,
Nathan asked if there was a special for "early risers" since he figured he could not remain unseen for long in this crowd. The old man smiled a toothy smile and said "Of course there is, and don't you just want to jump in that waterfall!" The man laughed loudly at his own joke, took out a card with the address of a nearby bank and said "Here's a 100 hundred dollar bill, maybe I can do better than that, get out of here."
Nathan went to the bank and deposited the money in a fund for Friends of N*L. He put another hundred dollars in for the boxes marked William Hartnell and Alex Trebeck as well as Una Stubbs. Nathan had quite a bit of pocket change, but that was all he had on him since moving to Metric. But Nathan knew he could come back and get more, and if, after a few months, the owners were still alive and the bank still in business, Nathan could possibly get his money back with interest.
Nathan went back to the coffee shop and sat down at one of the tables out of the main flow of traffic – in case the owner ever decided to change his mind and decide to kick him out. It had been a while since Nathan had even really looked at Janine.
It felt like about 12 years, though he kept more than a few pictures of her handy in his display. She didn't like just anyone having her picture or taking it, which would be a bit ironic if she became famous.
Nathan waited for Janine to come to him to watch the big screen and he saw "Love Laughs at Marriage" Janine approach. Nathan got up and made a pretense of looking at a magazine. Janine came up to the table and without saying anything, sat down. Nathan did not turn around until Janine started tapping the table. Nathan immediately looked up.
You know the Archangel Network Code? He said referencing Doctor who again. Janine nodded with her usual aplomb then quickly asked,
Janine – what are you doing here? Nathan – what do you mean? Janine – I just came to watch the big screen, Janine – why are you here? Janine – where is the car, Nathan – can we just forget this ever happened, Janine – just go home to Karen.
Karen Gillian was the one that kept Janine sane. She had trips in the blue car and kept her head about her. Janine had been very close to giving up when Nathan stepped in and took her place as a sort of pseudo-father figure. Janine knew Nathan very well and always had liked him. Janine was a bit intimidated by Nathan. Janine's feelings on Nathan didn't stop Janine being happy to share a car with Janine. Janine would give and receive rides whenever they went to and from Nathan's house.
And everyone devolved into 8 year olds again thought Ianto. He called the team back for some more time card resistance training. The exercise was a little strange since they were not using a time, they just had to complete each exercise individually as fast as possible. Afterwards everyone was tested on their knowledge of the rules and their speed.
It was not a very fair assessment since Nathan was the one that wanted to have rules, but they also seemed to make things a bit more interesting for everyone. Not that Nathan was getting a lot of enjoyment out of this.
He said time travel was fluid, but unless you put structure to it, you ended up being useless and disoriented for a while afterwards and that wasn't helpful when seconds counted. "It's like anything" Nathan said "You have to train it. Like Jazz. Or Football. The most famous examples of this being used in human history are probably the ancient Greeks and the Romans." Nathan paused, "You might want to make sure you have a future date for your trip" he said "Even if you decide not to go back "Crazy" and stuff"
Ianto had a few cards that might help. 1) Quantum Leap / Shared mind 2) Invisible TARDIS 3) Telepathic Field. 4) Ride the Song into the Future 5) Precognition 6) Dreaming 7) Time-trot. 8) Time-stride. 9) Eternity
Ianto thought for a while "This is tough. I don't think there is a training method that will work here. He asked the group, "Have any of you ever heard of a person born in the 1900's that has had a brain injury and ended up being more psychic?" He thought for a bit and said, "I guess this guy might have a remote possibility. I have a feeling he might be a time sensitive, but I don't really think we'll be able to train him to be psychic – even if we tried for a limited time, it still might not work. Dreaming is even more remote I guess
Ianto did the first thing you never do. Assume everyone's experience is the same as your own and disillusion people and make them unwilling to share their own experiences. Nathan gave Ianto a good tongue lashing.
"You prick!" Nathan said, "This is Janine, she is my girlfriend, and she just happen to have been born in the 1900's." Nathan then started rambling about Janine's parents, which he could not stop even though Janine's parents did not seem to think that Nathan knew Janine at all. Janine, who did not seem to be intimidated by Nathan, just took it all in the usual Janine matter-of-fact way.
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