TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.3 - Of Her Impact

PART 16b: AND LOGICAL MIND 2

"I can't integrate new circuits into a device I don't understand in the first place,” Frank objected. “I might blow the whole thing up.”

"Possible," Luci conceded. "But I don't think that will happen if we take precautions. After all, most good programmers have some sort of error handling in their applications, so that when a particularly stupid, or at least ignorant user tries to use their system in the wrong way, the entire program doesn't become corrupted."

“That’s a software thing. This is more of a hardware thing," Frank observed.

Luci shrugged. "I don't see why the situation can't be a parallel. Plus making our own circuits will prove less risky in the long run, as more control will allow you to avoid startling people by appearing out of nowhere.” She drew in a deep breath. “Also, no offence intended, but if you execute a program twenty times without understanding it, why do you think you’re any more likely to understand on the twenty-first execution?"

"I guess there's that.” Frank smiled. “Sound logic. But, do you really think it's possible to integrate a map into the device?"

"I won't know that until I see it up close,” Luci pointed out. "Besides, a clock would be safer to attempt at first."

"Oh? How do you figure?"

“Think about it. We're already dealing with time, so it shouldn't be too hard to pin down more specific co-ordinates. Whereas spatially, our Earth is spinning. It's also rotating around the sun. Our galaxy rotates, taking our solar system along with it. The galaxy moves through the universe. Where we were at 8am last month probably isn't even remotely close to where we are now. Hence if the device is somehow targeting our town, we don’t want to mess with that.”

Frank opened and closed his mouth. "Good lord," he finally remarked. "Of course, you're absolutely right... it never occurred to me." He peered more closely at her. "Luci, you've been giving this serious thought, haven't you."

"Well, yes," Luci admitted. She could hardly deny that at this point. "I mean, I'd hate for something bad to happen to you while you're fooling around with this thing."

Frank continued to stare at her, surprise and admiration on his face, and Luci realized her cheeks were becoming warm. The anxiety she'd felt approaching Frank's house was back.

"Look, uh, the time machine then?" she requested quickly, tugging idly on the end of one of her twin ponytails.

Frank looked upstairs, then over to a sheet in the corner of the room. "Oh, sure, why not," he relented. "You seem to have earned as much."

He walked over to the sheet, pulling it away to reveal what had to be the time device. "As long as you don’t let this interfere with your school studies. You know, I’ve always thought that if you were to apply yourself a little more, you could significantly improve your grades. Even get them as high as mine.”

Again with the grades. Luci opened her mouth to indicate that she didn't want to improve her marks, that she didn’t want to be seen as smart any more, that she was tired of not fitting in anywhere... and it was only with effort that she curbed her natural desire to be blunt. She took in a deep breath instead. "I'll keep that in mind," she heard herself say feebly.

Frank set the black box time machine out on his lab table, then glanced over at the clock on the wall. "We've probably got enough time for me to cover the basics. You can always come back tomorrow."

"Right," Luci acknowledged, tearing her gaze away from Frank and over to the table. She worked at reestablishing her sense of inner calm. "What have you learned so far?"

***

Julie ran her hands back through her hair before leaning her forehead in against a filing cabinet.

To this point, she had figured on there being two reasonable ways of dealing with a time machine. The first being to somehow get it away from Frank and Carrie, and hence remove their advantage from them. Julie had effectively rejected that plan.

After all, even assuming that she could get her hands on their device - which seemed unlikely given how any intelligent owner should have the ability to see that coming - would she be able to understand it? Her grades were good, but not that good.

And before she could destroy the thing, some Frank or Carrie in another time period would likely try to reclaim it. Worse, they would have to do so by targeting her directly, rather than indirectly, as seemed to be the current situation. She didn’t need those sorts of complications.

Which brought Julie to the second way of dealing with this information, namely using its existence to her own advantage, instead of allowing the advantage to be theirs.

“That’s feasible,” she murmured, trying to reassure herself. “It’s easier to predict reactions, over actions. Particularly for Carrie.”

Julie pushed her way back off the filing cabinet, reflecting briefly upon her selection of Frank as the first "sacrifice" of the year. The choice had been arbitrary; if she'd decided to go after someone else, would all of this have happened?

Then again, had Frank been setting her up all along, by annoying Carrie? Was she even now playing into his hands??

‘Stop,’ Julie thought. ‘Second guessing to THAT extent is the direction of madness.’ She turned and looked back down at the rough revisions she’d made. Her one year timeline, now compressed down into one month.

It would work. With Carrie’s allegiances in doubt, Corry Veniti would be the key. By involving him and his twin sister in just the right way, the guy would almost certainly set out on some all out attack against her.

Julie grimaced. On the one hand, she hated going that far. There would probably also need to be an ultimatum, something she had really hoped to avoid. But desperate times called for desperate measures. These last two years, they couldn’t have been for nothing!

Julie left her play room and went back upstairs - she could deal with the finer details of her plan later. Neither Jeeves nor Mimi seemed to be about; the silence in the big house was almost oppressive.

She made her way to the kitchen and pulled Mimi's meatloaf out of the fridge, where she'd asked the household maid/cook to leave it a few hours ago. Popping the dish into the microwave, Julie sank down into a stool at the kitchen counter and finally allowed herself to relax somewhat.

‘What if you fail?’

That annoying thought took the opportunity to fully assert itself. After all, failure was always a possibility where Corry was concerned.

Interestingly, at that point, Julie realized that she might as well try to obtain the time machine. By any means necessary. Because while mucking about in one's own history sounded rather reckless and foolhardy, it would surely beat the present.

Besides, Frank and Carrie were messing with history now, and they didn’t seem to be experiencing any side effects. Not that they’d ever go as far as she would...

‘Okay,’ Julie reasoned. ‘I should expend some effort in an attempt to learn more about the time travel device. Should that be possible, without stretching myself too thin.’

Julie abruptly realized that the microwave had been beeping at her for the last several minutes and she hurried to rescue her dinner.

***

Luci walked home, lost in thought. She could see now why Frank had been a little reluctant to poke around inside the time machine. It WAS a rather complex piece of machinery.

The more complete back-story he had given her worried her to some extent too. Were there mysterious people from the future observing them? Or could secret government agents be keeping tabs on things?

Setting that aside for the moment, Luci was reasonably certain that - with Frank’s help - she could incorporate more reliable circuitry into the device. That would solve a lot of the existing problems. Meaning, as long as nothing terribly unexpected happened in the next little while...

"Luci!" came a voice from ahead. The young girl looked up as she approached her house. Another teenager stood there, wearing many colourful bows in her pink hair, along with a multi-coloured dress to match. What didn’t match was the worried expression upon her face.

"Chartreuse?" Luci countered, more than a bit surprised. Aside from being in the same homeroom, the two of them never spent any time together. For good reason. Their personalities were hardly compatible.

Chartreuse took a step forwards, absently fingering the little meditation crystal hanging around her neck.

"Luci," she repeated a bit nervously, a tinge of fear evident in her voice. "I’ve sensed that there is a war coming.” She paused dramatically. "And I think we'll, like, need your help to deal with it!”