Doctor Time - Exit Strategy

Detective Time left the University. That was a bit more of a procedure than simply leaving a building. One had to exit through Temporal Seismics and the Vanilla Room, to provide a kind of clean exit to the timeline as a whole.

He walked with Jade to get the lay of the land. There was an iteration of her that seemed to hang around the building as a kind of tour guide. She insisted it wasn’t her job, but it was nice to see a friendly face.

She led the Detective to the Vanilla room and went through the basics, the equipment scanning his reaction to various videos of himself in other iterations. 

 

You had to account for, or at least trust the AIs to slot, any interactions with the outside world before leaving, and chose when in the non-University timeline that you wanted to fit in. Jade would do a trial loop with you in then and see how it played out.

The whole thing reeked of Zapps overwrought control and measurement of time. Nathan knew things could change very quickly once the pieces were actually in play. So far their experiments and experiences at the University were just mostly theoretical, or ‘Partially Integrated’. The language of the upgraded Chronometers was starting to catch on during this iteration.

Despite the University not having the technology or power to reset the whole outside world, the underlying nature of time had allowed for almost the same things with TimeQuakes. It wasn’t something they liked to rely on, but without successful resolution of events in play, they would repeat the thirty years surrounding the University’s appearance indefinitely.

Jade thought that maybe the distant future had some hand in play as well, but kept that theory to herself.

After the first 30 year reset, they had decided to trigger their own TimeQuakes every year to relieve the stresses on time and people. While Jade’s Major didn’t take Time Seismics past year 1, that building needed someone with Temporal Triggering and Crisis Management to run it.

Jade nodded, as if expecting time to shift again and all of that preamble to be for naught.

Detective Time just stood there, waiting for the other shoe to drop. When she didn’t volunteer any more information, he spoke up. “And that’s you I suppose?” It was more of statement than a question.

Jade focused herself and appeared slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t think you’d get that your first try.”

The detective smiled. “Believe me, I’ve seen weirder.”

Jade, now fully Integrated herself, leapfrogged the conversation to the end of the logical conclusion. “Right, Doctor Time, Professor Time, Double Paradox, Robots from Nowhen.”

Detective Time laughed. “Ya. I noticed that everywhere has robots that only appear when we hit the edge of the rails. I know that they’ve been in the Pending section of any reports, but it’s kind of hard to not notice they’re already there.”

Jade smiled. “A bit of my programming on the safeties. I know I’ve done the Temporal Triggering for them to exist and can pull up enough Vanilla Time footage from unconnected loops to show the actual construction. It hasn’t been slotted with Zapp’s layout of things yet, but I’m hoping he’ll have an epiphany so they can go beyond being emergency help.”

Detective Time pondered that for a while. “So, they’ve been created in loops so they can effectively exist anywhere and at any time?”

Jade is non-committal. “That’s not quite it. It’s like they’re more integrated with Time Travel than TimeShips. They don’t have the same hangups organics have about paradoxes and loops – present company notwithstanding. They try to avoid them, but more to minimize noise and damage to people.”

Nathan gets suspicious. “Are you asking me or telling me? Are you trying to influence my contribution to the robots?”

Jade isn’t used to living on the leading edge of events. “What did you say this version of you is called?”

“Detective Time” says Nathan. “I see,” says Jade “and this is in reference to?”

“The Double Paradox Trial.” says Nathan. “Sorry” says Jade. “Just have to check your memories for integration. We’re back seeding your conversations to yourself still in the University.” Nathan nods.

“What is your reason for writing?” asks Jade. Detective Time leans back into Doctor Time memories. There’s a break there, like he doesn’t know when they fit in, but they do. It’s like an old pair of shoes that don’t quite feel the same anymore. “It’s an outlet, and a plan. Unlike Zapp, I don’t think you can move around events without something more than just logic. There’s too many variables, too many options. You need to focus and reinforce certain events and interactions to make something bigger happen. You can’t just let people meet whenever and however and just see what shakes out.”

Jade shifts slightly. That’s been her strategy since her Fractal Integration self became Dean of the University. Always in the background, keeping an eye on things, keeping them manageable but mostly making a smorgasbord of options. That’s why the University has so many courses, taking so many varied approaches to time.

She kept her appearance hidden through safeties and relied on Zapp and his Null Pulses to smooth out any aberrations from reaching back and steering her past selves. Fractal Integration meant she could draw on alternate choices more easily, and still move between them. While all of Zapps copies of himself stayed at the same relative time and iteration, Jade slid between the past and future like a friendly spider.

iOi robots acted like her web, alerting her to events and snippets of conversation that were helpful to the larger puzzles.

A thought occurred to her – am I from the far future? Did I forget?

Detective Time has been watching Jade waiting for a response. “You look like you’re a million miles away – or a million years.”

“Yes,” says Jade. “What? I mean no.” She looks at Nathan. “Do you mind if I have access to your private files? Mostly just the stories I’m looking for.” “Of course,” says Detective Time, not quite realizing the reach and influence Jade has. “But credit them to Doctor Time”

Jade nods and makes the little three fingered wave that means – focus going elsewhere.

The Detective knows the drill, although not quite sure from when, and walks around the room, bringing up basic displays and asking simple questions.

Jade mechanically spells out the fundamental fallout of the timeline loops and various iterations that have been experimented with and significant events and aberrations. It honestly looks like a mess, but some elements are starting to sift out and individual strata are starting to resolve themselves. It takes nearly an hour to go through all the various findings.

“So Doctor Zapp is the focus of the TimeQuake? And he’s the relative measurement for strength?”

Jade winces “I’m afraid so. It’s been a lot of pressure on him, but...” “Pressure makes diamonds?” says Nathan helpfully.

“Something like that.” Jade wonders if they have been doing things too incrementally. She focuses again, asking Nathan to explain his interpretation of things.

Nathan looks around, but says that this isn’t really the place or time. “Can this be more like a crime board? Like I’ve had a few years as a dull Time Police Captain, gone back to University for extra training and Seismics and Time Police is merged.

Jade drops the curtain for a bit. “In the last iteration, you asked to go to Time Police HQ to explain things, but you felt it was too reactionary.”

“I know how Zapp likes to run things. Safety First, Null and Forget – never solve. I don’t mind him overseeing, but...”

Jade sighs. “Something is better than nothing, but yes. Time for a bigger rewrite.”