Icarus (Sci-fi/Time-travel|IC|Open)

[The African Emirates]

Ted Jackson

Holding down a screaming Scandinavian-looking man is tougher than you’d expect at the best of times, and is near impossible when you were just transported onto some sort of time ship right before dying.

Heins Alfsen
He was hunched forward, his right arm outstretched and pressed into the strange wall, and he was repeating, repeating his sister's name over and over again like it would make her appear. If he was dead, but he wasn't, then maybe she was here, too.

He couldn't stop screaming. He wanted to tear out his hair, slam his fists into the wall, return to a curled-up little ball and his home and his life and his death, where he belonged. Not here. Not here, where he was supposed to be dead but he could not find God or his sisters, or any of the other people he'd lost, and nobody was here--

"Who is Yrsa?"

He looked, up, panted, stared through strands of sweaty hair. How could he say anything? He didn't know what to say. His mouth didn't work--. "You're not her," he gasped. "You're not her, you're not her, you're not her."

Shaking, he stumbled forward a few steps, into this strange person. A woman, wearing the same clothes he was. She was in men's clothing, this was wrong, this was all wrong.

"YOU'RE NOT HER!" He pushed her away, the force of it sending his back into the wall. He thrashed, shouting wordlessly, not even needing to make any sense now. He felt someone trying to touch him; he pulled away, violently, seething and hissing and continuing to scream.

...

Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa--

Yrsa…likely the name of a loved one. Ted, although he couldn’t show it outwardly as he was engaged in restraining the man, empathized with his plight. Many had died during the Ragon invasion of Earth, his family included. He still felt numb after all these years, barely able to make acquaintances, let alone friends.

Maybe his new life on the Icarus was a blessing in more ways than escaping death and rejuvenating his body. While some of the passengers on the Icarus were, to put it lightly, total jackasses, most were very kind people regardless of where and when they originated. The woman he had talked to at lunch, Leona, seemed not to shy away from him, but didn’t know whether that was through necessity or that she doesn’t hate his guts.

Speaking of Leona, what’s taking her so long?

Ted continued to restrain the screaming man, who he was told was named Heins, with Charles and another man whose name he did not know, but found out later was named William. After hearing the name of the man he was helping to hold down, his mind started to stray towards those old 2D cartoons he watched from the early 21st century, specifically one whose main villain was Heinz Doofenschmirtz. However, before he could tell anyone about his thoughts, Leona finally arrived(along with others who Ted assumed were either curious or annoyed) and took out a syringe, filled with what was hopefully a sedative.

Leona Helstrom
...

Leona blushed a little as Lord William smiled at her as if she was a nurse. For one, the last person who gave her that kind of smile was Grisha, as the people in her former workplace were a little more... grumpy. Or, they were just creeps, for that matter. Ted doesn't count, as he was the one that got flustered at the sight of her.

...

"Alright, that's it..." Leona took out the syringe of sedative from underneath her coat, sighing at what she has to do for the nth time... or the first time since this was a second life that they have all been given. Or was it? Were they just clones...? Who knows, who cares. For all she knows, everyone in this ship was resurrected, and its best not to ask questions on why. The matter at hand was far more important than the question of how and why; the Dane of Screams was making everyone else nervous, or irritated, if the wincing of the Frenchman was of any indication.

"Hold him down, please." Leona approached with the syringe in hand. In his trashing state, she might as well just inject him in the buttocks, but that would be too embarrassing to do right here and now. What she needed was for Charles and William to keep the screaming Danish person still long enough for her to inject the sedative.

Surely enough, they held him down for the few moments that she needed to administer the sedative, and the screaming faded and the thrashing ceased. The Dane of Screams was no longer screaming.

“Hah..” Ted breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks Leona. I think I may have a mild case of tinnitus after that.“

"That was exhausting..." Leona put the plastic cover of the syringe back in place before stuffing it back into her pocket. "I, um, think that somebody should stay with him in the medbay while the whole mission in Ancient Greece goes down. Ted is going to be busy watching you folks from the ship, so I think I'll stay put... and maybe sedate any others that wake up screaming. Would be a shame if you came back here with the whole place trashed..."

“Yeah, I’d probably be better help here than down there. Leona and I will stick with the ship, and if anyone else wants to stay with us, they are welcome to.”

As the two other men carried the now silent Dane into the medbay, Ted took all the courage he had remaining after the Dane’s struggle, and gave Leona a bright smile, which hopefully made her dislike him a bit less.

“Have you explored the rest of the ship yet? I haven’t, if you want to come with me and poke around. Who knows, we might find something to help the others while they're having their nice summer vacation in Greece.”

[UniversalCommons]

Adam Richardson heard more screaming. The people on this ship were insane. He found some of the tool cabinets were locked. They had restricted signage on them. He jiggled some of the doors, but could not open them. He still had a hammer and some tools to protect himself with. He kept on looking around until he found a loose door which said maintenance. He opened the door and found some old fashioned spray bottles in there which said "Cleaning Bubbles". He read the labels and they said danger, caustic. He put them next to his titanium pipe. He also found a two foot round disk which said Mr. Sparkle on it. There was a switch on the front of the robot.

He pressed the on switch and a voice said, "I am Mr. Sparkle. Shall I clean for you?" A red light beeped on the Mr. Sparkle cleaning robot.

Adam Richardson said, "Clean the floors in the engineering area." The machine whirred softly moving side to side over the floor. It would stop at a spot, then a louder whir would come from the machine and the stain on the floor would disappear.

Adam watched the machine as it moved along the floor cleaning the dust and small stains which was left from the unoccupied ship.

[Dyelli Beybi]

Hannah Brown

Heins Alfsen
...

He looked, up, panted, stared through strands of sweaty hair. How could he say anything? He didn't know what to say. His mouth didn't work--. "You're not her," he gasped. "You're not her, you're not her, you're not her."

"Brilliant deduction, thank you for pointing that out," Hannah commented acerbicly, "I'm Hannah. Who is Yrsa?"

...

Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa, Yrsa--

Leona Helstrom

Surely enough, they held him down for the few moments that she needed to administer the sedative, and the screaming faded and the thrashing ceased. The Dane of Screams was no longer screaming.

"That was exhausting..." Leona put the plastic cover of the syringe back in place before stuffing it back into her pocket. "I, um, think that somebody should stay with him in the medbay while the whole mission in Ancient Greece goes down. Ted is going to be busy watching you folks from the ship, so I think I'll stay put... and maybe sedate any others that wake up screaming. Would be a shame if you came back here with the whole place trashed..."

Of course he didn't listen and just kept on banging on about the Yrsa person though at least Leona and William had had the sense to sedate the man and finally, he fell silent, which was a relief to Hannah's ears. She was concerned for him, though there wasn't a huge amount she could do to ease his suffering if he kept screaming someone's name over and over, "Not a bad plan," Hannah nodded, "This first stop is just to do a bit of light horse theft so there is no need for anyone who isn't going to be riding a horse to be off the ship."

"If the Computer has done what I asked we should be in Thessaly. I have asked to be put down near a horse farm, so we will get instructions from the computer and whoever needs a horse will set off to steal some," she continued, raising her voice, so that everyone could hear her, "It is midnight. If you cannot ride a horse, take some time to get your costume right and stay on the ship. If the alarm gets raised, if you can't ride bareback, you're going to be running along behind, slowing the group down and potentially getting captured or killed by angry locals. Don't go if you can't ride a horse." she said, repeating that last point to make sure it got into people's heads, "Also, don't get off the bloody ship at all if you aren't in period appropriate costume."

Hopefully that would seem sensible, but considering there were new people still asking what a time machine was or screaming 'Yrsa', Hannah wasn't sure that some of the things she saw as common sense would be all that common, "John!" she called, "Take Brunhilda, Huckleberry and anyone else who can ride bareback and go and steal some horses," she seemed to have quickly started dishing out nicknames though in Miriam/'Brunhilda's' case it was because Hannah hadn't caught her name to begin with, "I understand the ones in this period are quite small. Keep it as stealthy as you can and try not to alert anyone as to what you are doing. Try to avoid violence and absolutely don't kill anyone. We should be able to get them up into the cargo bay, then we'll take the ship South and put us down somewhere near Leuctra where we can get on with the rest of the mission first thing tomorrow. I can't ride so I'm going to stay here and talk to the newly awakened."

Emily Wilson
...
Hannah was going to disguise herself as some sort of prostitute. Emily wasn't sure about Hannah's background to know if that was a smart idea. She followed the woman to where Emily thought she went to confess something. "I uh..." she said meekly. "Might know something about what you're gonna do..." That didn't come out right, it implied she was a prostitute herself. "Er... adjacent to it at least... I mean I do-did some sex work... mostly for the internet but it's something I guess..."

She thought of a complication though.

"But what about..." she ran her hand over the tattoo on her left arm, and also felt the stud in her lip.

Hannah looked a little surprised at Emily's revelation. She had always imagined people who were involved in the sex industry to be amazingly self-confident, while Emily had seemed frightened and reliant on her parents... it showed just how much Hannah actually knew about it, "I was a Health and Safety Officer for the Subway so I pretty much know nothing!" Hannah replied with a bright smile, lowering her voice again and taking a few steps away from the rest of the group so they weren't talking in front of everyone else, "Apparently hetaerae were supposed to be general sophisticated entertainment and sometimes would end up with a single client... which is how I'm planning to play it. I've got zero intention of sleeping with anyone while I'm on the mission... except in the most literal sense of the phrase. I will sleep next to whomever ends up as our leader to help keep up appearances."

She gave Emily an appraising look. She was actually surprised that her tattoo had remained after her rebirth on the Icarus though she didn't fully understand the way it worked, "Take the stud out, we can use makeup to hide the tattoo and dye your hair blonde or something. Then, once you have a costume on you'll fit right in," she said confidently, "And you don't need to play a courtesan. You could just be a camp follower of some description. Someone from my household or something like that? I'm just doing it so I can get into the male-only shindigs. I'm going to have a chat to some of the people here then want to come with me and make ourselves look Greek-pretty?" she suggested, "Also, I didn't get your name before?" she added, leaving time for a response before clearing her voice to address the new members of the group, mostly because Charles had just told them she was the one with answers.

Charles Louisson:

...

This white woman seemed to have ignored Albert's introduction... he was used to it. She seemed to address the entire body of people asking them to stay with the formerly screaming white man. Albert knew nothing of this kind of talk. A mission? Ancient Greece? What? Where was a ship? Were we in it? Who's Ted? They had woken up? People don't wake up in the afterlife, but Albert was dead.

Albert cleared his throat, but it didn't help his confusion. "I don't have med... illegal... don't know how to doctor people up, but I might... I don't know. Can anyone please tell me what is going on here?"

"Well, I don't know much, but here is what I do know-" Charles replied before he was cut off by another newcomer.

If this is hell, then I'm prepared to clear my way through. Gaffar raised his fist. He could charge if needed. "You Western Devils," he screamed, "what have you done to me? Where am I?"

"I- CALM DOWN! EVERYONE! PLEASE! LISTEN!" he took a breath before continuing, "You are onboard a time machine called the Icarus. Currently, we are in orbit over Ancient Greece. Our captain here-" Charles gestures to Hannah, "-Will inform you of the rest of what you need to know. Now, if you will excuse me, I will go and prepare for our mission as instructed." And with that, Charles stormed off towards the bridge. Before he could get out of earshot, he muttered "I swear this day gets even more confusing by the minute."

Teng Nuan
...

She stood, knowing she was leaving the yellow-haired man behind. She started to ask the man what a time machine was, but he had gone away, so she turned to the woman he had said was "captain" instead. That must be a designation for "leader" here.

"What is a time machine?" she inquired, hoping her voice still sounded calm.

Albert Daza

This white woman seemed to have ignored Albert's introduction... he was used to it. She seemed to address the entire body of people asking them to stay with the formerly screaming white man. Albert knew nothing of this kind of talk. A mission? Ancient Greece? What? Where was a ship? Were we in it? Who's Ted? They had woken up? People don't wake up in the afterlife, but Albert was dead.

Albert cleared his throat, but it didn't help his confusion. "I don't have med... illegal... don't know how to doctor people up, but I might... I don't know. Can anyone please tell me what is going on here?"

"Hi everyone... I know you're probably extremely confused right now. I was when I woke up. For most of us, the last thing we remember was dying, which was potentially a rather traumatic moment." she said, nodding in the direction of the sedated Danish man for proof of her statement, "You aren't dead now though. We have woken up on a ship called the Icarus which can fly us, nearly instantaneously between different continents and periods of history. My name is Hannah Brown and we are all travellers from different points in time. I don't understand exactly what brought us here or why, but we have been given the mission of protecting the timeline and existence itself. There were more qualified people to do that, but they are all dead and the only people who can take up the mantle are those of us who woke up from those boxes. We have been alerted to a situation in Classical Greece which we are going to try to fix. We are going to claim to be an embassy from Theodossia. If you can fight, get yourself a linothorax and a helmet and pretend to be a guard. If you can't, we'll dress you up as a civilian camp follower or something like that. If you can ride a horse bareback, follow John so we can get you one. For the purposes of this exercise, people from East Asia will claim to be Scythians," she nodded to Albert, "While you, Sir, can claim to be Nubian. I suspect that they may have met Nubians."

"Also," she added to Albert, "Did you say you were a doctor or something like that? If you don't mind me asking, when were you a Doctor? I suspect we'll need all the medical help we can get!" He'd said something but she'd been too distracted to really get what he was saying, "Have a chat to our existing pair," she motioned at William and Leona.

She let that hang in the air for a moment, before pivoting on her heels to face Emily again, "So... shall we find Cornelia and ask for some pointers on the Greek-pretty thing?"

[Voxija]

Cornelia Quinta

Hannah Brown
"If the Computer has done what I asked we should be in Thessaly. I have asked to be put down near a horse farm, so we will get instructions from the computer and whoever needs a horse will set off to steal some," she continued, raising her voice, so that everyone could hear her, "It is midnight. If you cannot ride a horse, take some time to get your costume right and stay on the ship. If the alarm gets raised, if you can't ride bareback, you're going to be running along behind, slowing the group down and potentially getting captured or killed by angry locals. Don't go if you can't ride a horse." she said, repeating that last point to make sure it got into people's heads, "Also, don't get off the bloody ship at all if you aren't in period appropriate costume."

Cornelia had moved, solely out of curiosity, next to the room where the screaming was and put her head against the door. These were good words. Of course, Cornelia had already put on her Greek clothes, but they were quite similar to Roman clothes and even without slaves to help her, Cornelia was a fast dresser.

She gave Emily an appraising look. She was actually surprised that her tattoo had remained after her rebirth on the Icarus though she didn't fully understand the way it worked, "Take the stud out, we can use makeup to hide the tattoo and dye your hair blonde or something. Then, once you have a costume on you'll fit right in," she said confidently, "And you don't need to play a courtesan. You could just be a camp follower of some description. Someone from my household or something like that? I'm just doing it so I can get into the male-only shindigs. I'm going to have a chat to some of the people here then want to come with me and make ourselves look Greek-pretty?" she suggested, "Also, I didn't get your name before?" she added, leaving time for a response before clearing her voice to address the new members of the group, mostly because Charles had just told them she was the one with answers.

Upon hearing this, Cornelia silently took off some of the jewelry she put on and did her hair in a less fancy style. Even when she thought she was going to play a prostitute, Cornelia had fancied she was going to play a high-status one. How silly of her. Cornelia was glad she'd found a compatriot that was also worried about playing a prostitute. Cornelia put the jewelry on a shelf next to her, just in case someone else might need it.

She let that hang in the air for a moment, before pivoting on her heels to face Emily again, "So... shall we find Cornelia and ask for some pointers on the Greek-pretty thing?"

Cornelia giggled. They didn't know she was in the other room. Cornelia opened the door a crack and said, "Hello. If you want to know about Greek women's fashion, come in here. Someone had taken all the tunics, but they didn't take all the chitons. I know quite a bit about beauty in ancient Greece."

Albert Daza

"Hi everyone... I know you're probably extremely confused right now. I was when I woke up. For most of us, the last thing we remember was dying, which was potentially a rather traumatic moment." she said, nodding in the direction of the sedated Danish man for proof of her statement, "You aren't dead now though. We have woken up on a ship called the Icarus which can fly us, nearly instantaneously between different continents and periods of history. My name is Hannah Brown and we are all travellers from different points in time...

That made sense to Albert Daza. That was what a time machine was. But... he wasn't dead? This wasn't hell, or any form of the afterlife? But Albert had died, after spending more than half of his life in prison. Why... why him? Albert was sure he had died. This ship was strange. Maybe he was plucked out of his prison cell and brought here. Albert was from the white South Africa. These people here might be from other time periods.

This... this wasn't apartheid. Even though most people here were white, the leader seemed to be a woman, and she treated everyone equally and respectfully, even the Asian woman and Albert himself. This was unprecedented. Even if the apartheid laws still applied on this ship, it wasn't a social attitude like in Albert's life. This was liberating. Albert felt his self-confidence go up sky-high.

...I don't understand exactly what brought us here or why, but we have been given the mission of protecting the timeline and existence itself. There were more qualified people to do that, but they are all dead and the only people who can take up the mantle are those of us who woke up from those boxes. We have been alerted to a situation in Classical Greece which we are going to try to fix. We are going to claim to be an embassy from Theodossia. If you can fight, get yourself a linothorax and a helmet and pretend to be a guard. If you can't, we'll dress you up as a civilian camp follower or something like that. If you can ride a horse bareback, follow John so we can get you one. For the purposes of this exercise, people from East Asia will claim to be Scythians," she nodded to Albert, "While you, Sir, can claim to be Nubian. I suspect that they may have met Nubians."

"Also," she added to Albert, "Did you say you were a doctor or something like that? If you don't mind me asking, when were you a Doctor? I suspect we'll need all the medical help we can get!" He'd said something but she'd been too distracted to really get what he was saying, "Have a chat to our existing pair," she motioned at William and Leona.

This Hannah woman had gotten everything wrong. At least she called him "Sir", but he didn't want to go to this "Ancient Greece" place, and Albert was never a doctor! Albert didn't know if he could fight. Albert could've fought when he was 25, and he seemed to be 25 now, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd fought.

Albert rushed in and said to Hannah. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to go on your mission just yet. I'm... I'm new here, and I need a break." Albert didn't know what he needed a break from, but those words were the ones that he said. "I want to just relax for now. Find a room. Eat. Explore the ship."

"I'm also not a doctor, Hannah Brown. I don't know where you heard that from, but not from me. I have no medical skills at all. I... could've been a doctor. But I couldn't have." Albert felt like crying, but he couldn't cry, not in front of a bunch of strangers. Albert stemmed his tears and said, "I apologize to you, miss, if I've been disrespectful. In my society, if you said anything to a white woman, bad things would happen to you. I wanted to be free and this was a fair and equal ship where apartheid didn't apply."

[Lara Monia]

Emily Wilson
____________

Hannah looked like she wasn't expecting that sort of thing from Emily, which was fair; Emily hadn't really been herself lately without her pills to temper her anxiety. She had to figure out how to get some before they left.

Emily gently lifted a small section of her hair and looked at it. "Dye it blonde?" she said to herself. She liked it the way it was but she knew it wouldn't work out. "Yea, I guess that makes sense..." She could always change it back after, though she had the sinking feeling she'd have to keep changing it off of the pink she was fond off. "Alright... I'll go with you." she said. "My name's Emily." she replied.

[Western Fardelshufflestein]

Teng Nuan

Nuan watched them carry the yellow-haired man away, wondering what he knew that she didn't. Or what she knew that he didn't. She did not know whether the people surrounding her were gods, or if they were fellow dead spirits. She would ask them, if they let her approach them, but later. Not now, when everyone was so anxious.

She lowered her head, hands clasped in front of her. Being as confused as she was, and so newly dead, she thought it was wise to wait to see what the others would do so she could follow along. Follow along, like the silt in the river as it was carried to lands far beyond her village.

The Captain still had not answered her question yet. The one about what a "time machine" was. Nuan had other questions, too, like what a "ship" and an "icarus" were, and what a "greece" was. She hoped the Captain would know, but if not, who would?

The Captain, who was talking to a woman with light hair like flower petals, finally made her way to where Nuan and the dark-skinned man were. The latest newcomer who had screamed about Westerners was there, too. He seemed to be made of anger, no, rage--rage was much stronger than simple anger. Nuan wondered what he had seen, how he had been hurt, that had led him to be this way.

"Hi, everyone," the Captain began. Nuan realised she did not know the woman's name. And she had the same paleness she had seen on the yellow-haired man. "I know you're probably extremely confused right now. I was when I woke up. For most of us, the last thing we remember was dying, which was potentially a rather traumatic moment." Nuan nodded slightly. She gulped, suddenly fearful. Was there something going on beyond their being in the spirit world?

"You aren't dead now though. We have woken up on a ship called the Icarus which can fly us, nearly instantaneously between different continents and periods of history. My name is Hannah Brown and we are all travellers from different points in time."

Nuan froze. How could she not be dead? She remembered the sightlessness, the inability to breathe. She remembered struggling against the river and nothing making any difference. It was real, it had been real. She had not made it up.

"I don't understand exactly what brought us here or why, but we have been given the mission of protecting the timeline and existence itself. There were more qualified people to do that, but they are all dead and the only people who can take up the mantle are those of us who woke up from those boxes. We have been alerted to a situation in Classical Greece which we are going to try to fix."

That part surprised Nuan greatly. The Captain did not know what this was, either? The people who did were all actually dead? Or were they on another Icarus, waking up in a place far stranger than their own?

"We are going to claim to be an embassy from Theodossia. If you can fight, get yourself a linothorax and a helmet and pretend to be a guard. If you can't, we'll dress you up as a civilian camp follower or something like that." She was spouting words that Nuan did not understand. Were they of another, barbaric tongue? She did not know. But if they were of another tongue, how could she understand everything else?

She felt dizzy, like she had been taken by the river again. But she knew she wasn't drowning. She wrapped her arms around herself for comfort and took a deep breath, which was apparently real. She was really breathing. She was not dead; she had been saved.

How was such a thing possible?

"If you can ride a horse bareback, follow John so we can get you one. For the purposes of this exercise, people from East Asia will claim to be Scythians." For the last part, the Captain looked directly at Nuan. East Asia...was that what they called her part of the world? Did the Captain know where she was from? She wished she knew what the other woman was talking about.

But of course the woman whose name she had already forgotten was talking to someone else, and she, Nuan, was shut out. Did no one know she was here? She decided to stick close to the Captain either way, because she would have to noticed Nuan eventually...right?

She waited a few beats, listening to them talking about the death of the petal-haired girl's hair. She said her name was Emily. It was an odd name, and she repeated it over and over in her mind until she memorized it. These people all had such strange names and strange-colored hair; she could believe that they came from places Nuan did not know had existed.

Then, a pause in the conversation. "Captain?" she cut in, bowing to show her respect, "if I may ask, what do you mean when you said we are traveling through time?"

[Talchyon]

The corridors
Nawa Tatsuaki Ukita (13th century Japanese gainyo)

Tatsuaki always had had something of a natural sense of direction. He could tell which way was the sunrise, even in thick clouds or at night. That enabled him to get a sense of the layout of the ship as he was exploring.

The ladder he had found leading down didn't hurt his mental map, either.

The new level was quiet, and the voices he had heard from the larger room with the pods faded away into the background. The new floor had long corridors, with doors after about 100 paces each. They had signs next to the rooms, and thankfully due to the procedures he had been exposed to on this time ship (where he was not dead), he could make out the strange scrawls with some struggling.

They read, "Storage bay," followed by various letters. Letters! Somehow he knew what they meant, even though the alphabet was just as mysterious to him as the language it represented.

How to get the door open? He knocked on one, and to no surprise, it stayed closed. He tried to push it, slide it, and there wasn't any real way to pull it open. But still, nothing. Thinking back to what he had noticed elsewhere, particularly with the medicine woman Hahn-nah, Tatsuaki shrugged and simply spoke to the door.

"Open," he said. And to his mild astonishment, it did.

Storage Bay L was a spacious chamber with boxes of some kind of strange material he couldn't place. Tough, but light. Somewhat shiny, but not metallic. Puzzled, he didn't know whether to open them or not, but then something caught his eye. Another sign on the side of the one. Apparently, all the boxes in the storage bay had them. Concentrating again, Tatsuaki tried to puzzle out what it meant.

This one apparently had "assorted machine parts." Tatsuaki nodded, as if to himself. With a ship made of metal, of course it was one gigantic machine, the kind that a nation of inventors could only dream at. Having extra parts and pieces in storage could be helpful in case the ship wrecked and needed fixing. How they would do that, Tatsuaki could only guess. Perhaps there were other secrets on board this ship that he would find out.

Not seeing anything really of interest as he poked around the rest of the storage bay, Tatsuaki left back into the corridor. Speaking again to the door, he said, "Close." And again, the door listened to him. Nodding at having found out at least one secret of the ship, the 13th century Japanese gainyo headed down the corridor to see what else he might find.

[Europa Undivided]

Leona Helstrom

---

As the two other men carried the now silent Dane into the medbay, Ted took all the courage he had remaining after the Dane’s struggle, and gave Leona a bright smile, which hopefully made her dislike him a bit less.

“Have you explored the rest of the ship yet? I haven’t, if you want to come with me and poke around. Who knows, we might find something to help the others while they're having their nice summer vacation in Greece.”

You know what, Leona, he's actually nice. "Um, yes. I've gotten to the medbay, the pod room, the bridge, and the crew quarters in here." She still wanted to ask ted about a lot of things, like how was living in a world that had been overrun by the Ragons. If she wasn't mistaken, he was from the other timeline, the original in which the Empire invaded Earth through the wormhole and subjugated humanity towards animal husbandry. What was the fate of that timeline's version of her? Grisha? The kids? Were they simply devoured by their enemy, man, woman, and children shoved down their gullets as part of an endless feast?

"The armory is still locked, though." Leona continued, crossing both of her arms together, "It appears that only Hannah and... a few others have access. Probably because something happened earlier." She recalled the one eyed woman in the medbay; she could have slipped on the knives. Or the swords. How could someone slip in there, though? The floor wasn't even wet, at least until the blood from the lady's eye made it moist, though it's probably already dry by now. "And, yeah, I'll poke you around, and maybe we can talk about what happened in our times. There appears to be... uh, gaps between our knowledge."

Jean-Luc Lafayette

---

“Say, Jean”, said Jay to the Frenchman. “How do you reckon this Ancient Greek mission will go?”

“Ancient Greek mission?” Dương raised an eyebrow.

“We’ll be going to Ancient Greece soon... right?”

"How is it gonna go?" Jean-Luc looked up at Jay as he tied a pair of ancient leather sandals to his feet, grinning as he thought about the possible directions that this mission could go. If those time travel shows from the 21st century were any indication, the usual result was disaster and trying to remedy one mistake after another. And maybe messing up history for the better. "I can't really tell. Time is a fickle thing. Who knows what it will take to stop one man from killing another right before the battle of Leuctra. We don't even know if Blackmore is using a timeship like us to travel through time, or is using a time watch..." Jean-Luc stood up, putting both hands on Jay's shoulders. "Or a flying police box with a dimensional space inside of it. There are a lot of things that could go wrong in the past while trying to fix one thing."

Glancing towards... Durong, Jean-Luc continued. "But right now, those who know how to ride horses are gonna be out there in a few moments, just stealing horses for our fake retinue to use. The rest of us," Jean took out a tunic and a cloak and handed it to Jay, "... will be preparing by putting these on. They're pretty flowy and not hot to wear, so I think they should be comfortable enough."

[Dyelli Beybi]

Albert Daza

...
This Hannah woman had gotten everything wrong. At least she called him "Sir", but he didn't want to go to this "Ancient Greece" place, and Albert was never a doctor! Albert didn't know if he could fight. Albert could've fought when he was 25, and he seemed to be 25 now, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd fought.

Albert rushed in and said to Hannah. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to go on your mission just yet. I'm... I'm new here, and I need a break." Albert didn't know what he needed a break from, but those words were the ones that he said. "I want to just relax for now. Find a room. Eat. Explore the ship."

"I'm also not a doctor, Hannah Brown. I don't know where you heard that from, but not from me. I have no medical skills at all. I... could've been a doctor. But I couldn't have." Albert felt like crying, but he couldn't cry, not in front of a bunch of strangers. Albert stemmed his tears and said, "I apologize to you, miss, if I've been disrespectful. In my society, if you said anything to a white woman, bad things would happen to you. I wanted to be free and this was a fair and equal ship where apartheid didn't apply."

"Okay," Hannah nodded, "But getting off the ship is the only way you will become accustomed to this new reality we are in," she told him. She couldn't imagine not wanting to get off the ship herself, but she supposed everyone processed things differently. His last comment rang a bell and while he hadn't said when he was from, 'Apartheid' narrowed it down an awful lot, "Apartheid? Apartness... South Africa... I take it in the last part of your life that that Nelson Mandela hadn't been elected president?" she didn't wait for a reply, "You're right about this not being a segregated ship, so disrespect away! Well, I guess I should say I'd rather you be respectful, but hopefully you'll decide you want to be because of my competence and my charming personality rather than my complexion."

"Oh," she added, with a quick thought to how Clarence might treat this new member of the crew, "And if anyone says differently feel free to tell them to 'sit and swivel'."

Teng Nuan
...
But of course the woman whose name she had already forgotten was talking to someone else, and she, Nuan, was shut out. Did no one know she was here? She decided to stick close to the Captain either way, because she would have to noticed Nuan eventually...right?

She waited a few beats, listening to them talking about the death of the petal-haired girl's hair. She said her name was Emily. It was an odd name, and she repeated it over and over in her mind until she memorized it. These people all had such strange names and strange-colored hair; she could believe that they came from places Nuan did not know had existed.

Then, a pause in the conversation. "Captain?" she cut in, bowing to show her respect, "if I may ask, what do you mean when you said we are traveling through time?"

Hannah had been about to follow Cornelia across into the other room when the newcomer addressed her, "Hello!" she greeted her cheerfully, "Sorry, I don't think I got your name before. I'm Hannah. Hannah Brown."

She left long enough for Nuan to make an introduction before motioning for her to follow, "We're getting ready for getting off the ship so we will need to look like the local people. Come with me, we can get you some more appropriate clothes and I'll explain what is going on as we do."

Where to start? She considered it for a moment as she moved into the next room, "If you think of time as walking down a road with each step being a day. You can never go back, only forwards... well this machine we are on can instantly take you to any point on that long road. In an hour's time we could be 5,000 years in the future or 2,000 in the past. I know that will seem like nonsense, but do you understand the idea?" she queried before turning to Cornelia.

"All right," she spread her arms wide, doing a twirl in the middle of the storage bay, "Cornelia, our resident expert, what can you do with me? I'm not asking for you to get me launching 1,000 ships... but I think with the right clothes and accessories I should be able to at least launch a couple!" she declared with a bright smile, "Also, do you all know what your cover stories are going to be yet?"

[Mountainus]

Charles Louisson:
Charles was in his quarters, preparing himself for the 'time excursion' as he had taken to calling it. He made sure his tunic was on right, ensured his hidden bronze-age dagger that he had borrowed from the armory was concealed properly (he had gotten the idea from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar), and began to practice using the little device in his head. Charles began to concentrate, focus on speaking in Greek and said something in near perfect Greek. He surprised himself when he said those words, not knowing the language at all but he understood that he had said "Does this thing even work?" in Greek. It had worked perfectly and he was ready for the mission. Charles then headed out to find a place to wait, so he headed back to the bridge to stargaze once more.

[Voxija]

Albert Daza

"Okay," Hannah nodded, "But getting off the ship is the only way you will become accustomed to this new reality we are in," she told him. She couldn't imagine not wanting to get off the ship herself, but she supposed everyone processed things differently. His last comment rang a bell and while he hadn't said when he was from, 'Apartheid' narrowed it down an awful lot, "Apartheid? Apartness... South Africa... I take it in the last part of your life that that Nelson Mandela hadn't been elected president?" she didn't wait for a reply, "You're right about this not being a segregated ship, so disrespect away! Well, I guess I should say I'd rather you be respectful, but hopefully you'll decide you want to be because of my competence and my charming personality rather than my complexion."

"Oh," she added, with a quick thought to how Clarence might treat this new member of the crew, "And if anyone says differently feel free to tell them to 'sit and swivel'."

Albert wondered what it meant, getting accustomed to the new reality. And why would going outside do so. Well, outside seemed to be this "Greece" place, and Albert decided he'd rather see something else than dingy walls. Hannah muttered something about apartheid. Good, she knew the troubles she had gone through. Nelson? Nelson Mandela? Hannah... Apparently, Albert Daza had died before Mandela had become president. That meant... apartheid will finally disappear. Albert smiled widely. The last time he'd smiled that widely had been before Robben Island. Albert didn't do anything to deserve that prison, but either the authorities had mistaken him for Nelson Mandela, or they had mistaken him for someone else. Ah, life under a corrupt justice system.

Albert Daza already knew that this was an integrated ship, and that Hannah should be respected for personality and leadership skills, not because of mere complexion. Albert didn't know what that last comment about "sit and swivel" was, but with Hannah's tone, Albert felt like he could tell any racists on this ship to "consider" kissing his butt. Albert smiled even harder.

"Sorry, Captain Brown." Albert Daza wanted to strike a balance between the obsequious respect the apartheid South Africa had thought due to a white person and the brushy dismissal yelling at Hannah that had marked his first question to her. The happy medium was the military, or perhaps the ANC, although Hannah seemed more military than political. Although it was strange for a woman to be his military superior, Albert would still call her captain.

"I would be useless in this mission, since I can't ride horses. However, now that you think of it, I am curious what this Ancient Greece place... and time... looks like."

Cornelia Quinta

"All right," she spread her arms wide, doing a twirl in the middle of the storage bay, "Cornelia, our resident expert, what can you do with me? I'm not asking for you to get me launching 1,000 ships... but I think with the right clothes and accessories I should be able to at least launch a couple!" she declared with a bright smile, "Also, do you all know what your cover stories are going to be yet?"

Oh, what flattery! Cornelia wasn't an expert! However, she knew something of Greece, because that was the best culture, especially in art and fashion.

"You're in luck, relatively. You're posing as a hetaera, correct?" Cornelia didn't pause for Hannah to answer the question. "They were very well-dressed women. You should wear many pieces of jewelry, and a brightly-colored peplos or chiton with many patterns. A hetaera would wear a lot of makeup. Hopefully, in this ship there's less lethal makeup than the arsenic and lead of my time."

For a cover story... *sigh* prostitute. "I think that I could pretend to be your personal assistant, or a secondary hetaera. Now that I think about it, I want to help you the most, so your personal assistant." Cornelia had a feeling there was no slavery when Hannah came from, and a hetaera's personal assistant would be a slave. Cornelia didn't want to hurt Hannah's feelings. "My alias will be Peregune, after... my best Greek friend." Again, feelings.

"I'm gonna get the things." Cornelia ran as quickly as possible towards the same room she got the chiton she was wearing from. She grabbed a blue peplos with wave patterns on the hem, a green chiton with a square-spiral geometric pattern, and several himations. Cornelia also grabbed some jewelry. Clearly, this female crew member was a fashion plate.

Cornelia rushed into the storage room, carrying everything and panting. "Hope I wasn't too slow." Cornelia laid out all the clothes and the jewelry. Beautiful diadems, silver rings, bracelets in the shapes of snakes and branches. Lots of gold, since Theodosia was in the East, right?

"Put on a dress and choose some jewelry. I'll do your hair." Cornelia surprised herself by offering to do someone's hair like a common slave. Eh, this was Hannah, and some of those hairstyles were too complex to do yourself. Even Cornelia had to settle for something simpler than what she wanted.

"I... I don't know where the makeup is. Eh, you don't need makeup to order a bunch of people to steal horses."

[The African Emirates]

Ted Jackson

Leona Helstrom

---

...

You know what, Leona, he's actually nice. "Um, yes. I've gotten to the medbay, the pod room, the bridge, and the crew quarters in here." She still wanted to ask ted about a lot of things, like how was living in a world that had been overrun by the Ragons. If she wasn't mistaken, he was from the other timeline, the original in which the Empire invaded Earth through the wormhole and subjugated humanity towards animal husbandry. What was the fate of that timeline's version of her? Grisha? The kids? Were they simply devoured by their enemy, man, woman, and children shoved down their gullets as part of an endless feast?

"The armory is still locked, though." Leona continued, crossing both of her arms together, "It appears that only Hannah and... a few others have access. Probably because something happened earlier." She recalled the one eyed woman in the medbay; she could have slipped on the knives. Or the swords. How could someone slip in there, though? The floor wasn't even wet, at least until the blood from the lady's eye made it moist, though it's probably already dry by now.

“Alright, lets see if there are any other areas we haven't found on this ship.”

Ted approached a black square on the wall, which he correctly guessed was a terminal. Pulling up a map, he saw the layout of the 2nd floor of the ship, the one he and Leona were on. An additional skim of the map yielded another room further down the hall, labeled “Recreational Center”. After restraining and sedating a screaming Scandinavian, Ted thought that he and Leona definitely deserved a bit of down time.

“There’s a rec center down the hall, and correct me if I’m wrong but I think a rest is in order after the experience we just had, and it’d probably help us later on if we’re needed by the others.”

"And, yeah, I'll poke you around, and maybe we can talk about what happened in our times. There appears to be... uh, gaps between our knowledge."

“Yeah, you could say that.”

As hard as Ted tried to not think about Leona’s small verbal slip-up, he couldn’t help but visualize himself being repeatedly prodded with a stick by Leona as they strolled laps around the ship.

"By ‘poking around’, I meant to just look for stuff, but that’s secondary to fun right now,” he added, holding in a small laugh.

As the pair walked towards the rec room, Ted thought about how he wanted to hear a bit more about this woman before he took her to play ping pong or whatever was in the ship’s rec room.

“Well, I’ve already told you a bit of my story, can I hear about yours?”

[Ameriganastan]

"I... I don't know where the makeup is. Eh, you don't need makeup to order a bunch of people to steal horses."

"You ain't ordering nothing. If it's horses what need rustling, I'm taking point."

Clarence had finally reemerged from wherever he had vanished to. And he was not happy. Mostly because he was not a fan of the fashion of the time period they'd landed in.

"They call this thing a toga apparently. I call it a dress. Pappy would give me a black eye if ever saw me dressing like this. Anyway, if we're stealing horses, y'all best fall in line behind me. I've been riding since as long as I could walk. And I've got experience in this precise situation. We snagged some Yankee horses from a fort during the war. Dumb bastards had no idea what to do when we came charging at them the next day on their own horses. Oh, fun day. Anyway, you best defer to my experience on the matter."

[Nagakawa]

Kang Jae-hyun • Trần Đình Dương

"How is it gonna go?" Jean-Luc looked up at Jay as he tied a pair of ancient leather sandals to his feet, grinning as he thought about the possible directions that this mission could go. If those time travel shows from the 21st century were any indication, the usual result was disaster and trying to remedy one mistake after another. And maybe messing up history for the better. "I can't really tell. Time is a fickle thing. Who knows what it will take to stop one man from killing another right before the battle of Leuctra. We don't even know if Blackmore is using a timeship like us to travel through time, or is using a time watch..." Jean-Luc stood up, putting both hands on Jay's shoulders. "Or a flying police box with a dimensional space inside of it. There are a lot of things that could go wrong in the past while trying to fix one thing."

Glancing towards... Durong, Jean-Luc continued. "But right now, those who know how to ride horses are gonna be out there in a few moments, just stealing horses for our fake retinue to use. The rest of us," Jean took out a tunic and a cloak and handed it to Jay, "... will be preparing by putting these on. They're pretty flowy and not hot to wear, so I think they should be comfortable enough."

"Hmm." Jay quickly changed out of his casual wear into the Ancient Greek clothes, his lips pursed in bemusement. "I'm not exactly used to clothes like these, but I guess it's kinda like cosplay, so... that's cool, right?" He turned to Jean and flashed him a silly grin.

Dương chuckled.

"I'll pass on the dress-up", he said, bringing a hand to his chin and scratching at the stubble thoughtfully. "But if you guys need any help from me, let me know."

"Need a smoke?" Jay asked cheekily.

"Hell yes, I do", Dương replied, before quietly disappearing down the corridor. With the screaming man inside the adjacent room sedated, it fell quiet outside, and an awkward silence descended between Jay and Jean as the two of them stood there, dressed in period clothing and awaiting further orders from higher leadership.

"So, uh... I guess we'll just be hanging around here, then? Wanna get a drink first?"

...

Having meandered round the ship's sterile corridors, Dương made his way through the dining hall, past the entrance to the kitchen, and into a storage room located just behind the mess facilities. The door had been left conspicuously open, as if somebody had been waiting for him to arrive. It was a small room, barely two or three times larger than a janitor's mop cabinet. The shelves were stacked with alcoholic drinks of a very wide variety, almost all of which Dương had never seen before.

And on a lower shelf, he found a carton of cigarette boxes. A brand he'd never seen before, but it would have to do.

"Ohhh, fuck me, yes."

Dương ripped the packaging open, took out a box, and smacked it repeatedly to concentrate the tobacco flakes farther down the cigarettes, before then bringing the box out to the kitchen that he'd walked past later. The smell of food lingered in the air- it seemed somebody had been cooking in there just a short while ago. He stood over the stove, ignited one of the gas rings, and then lit a cigarette, bringing it quickly to his mouth and sucking in the smoke.

"Ahhhh."

With that, Dương slowly walked out of the kitchen, the smoldering cigarette dangling precociously from his lips, and took a seat in one of the chairs with an almost orgasmic look stretched over his face.

"Nam vô tửu như kỳ vô phong."

[Europa Undivided]

Leona Helstrom

"By ‘poking around’, I meant to just look for stuff, but that’s secondary to fun right now,” he added, holding in a small laugh.

“Well, I’ve already told you a bit of my story, can I hear about yours?”

Leona thought about the cold moon of Triton and the domed settlements that she had been used to for almost her entire life in there, two worlds in one. She had heard Ted's story, at least the parts that he was comfortable sharing to someone who he had just met less than an hour ago in a timeship of all places.

Now that she thought of it, maybe someone she knew was currently entombed in one of the stasis pods, sleeping until some kind of happenstance causes them to awake. For some reason, some were still not open; maybe they were to awaken right when they're needed.

"I'm from a colony in the Neptunian moon of Triton." Leona replied to Ted as the two started walking towards the recreation room. She looked up at him; Ted had nearly a foot on her. At this rate, she was going to get a stiff neck soon. "It was called Kall Fästning... I lived in a domed settlement, with artificial gravity and atmosphere making sure everyone in there grew normally, lest they abnormally tall or have weaker physiques than people from Earth. Anyway..."

She started fishing her pockets in search for her locket... but she realized that she didn't have it. No one got anything from their old lives, after all. At least, that was as far as she could tell.

"Um, anyway, I was found to be quite gifted academically, so a foundation got me a scholarship and sent me to study in a university on Earth. I'd also get my Master's on that blue and green ball, and... well, I went back to Triton, spending pretty much the rest of my years as a researcher in the Triton Institute of Sciences. I did meet this boy though, who eventually became my husband and the father of my two children."

Leona chuckled. He had died only a year before she did, and the heartbreak of his passing was still coursing through her veins. Though that was not too apparent right now. "His name was Grisha, though I called him Greg, because Grisha is just short for Gregory."

She continued walking, silently at first, and then stopped and looked up at Ted yet again. "We're from different universes, Ted. In my reality... the Ragons never invaded Earth. And in yours, they did... what was it like-, no, I'm sorry, I shouldn't..."

Jean-Luc Lafayette

"Hmm." Jay quickly changed out of his casual wear into the Ancient Greek clothes, his lips pursed in bemusement. "I'm not exactly used to clothes like these, but I guess it's kinda like cosplay, so... that's cool, right?" He turned to Jean and flashed him a silly grin.

"Last time I wore something like this, we were having a school play on the Odyssey." Jean-Luc rubbed his beard, apparently feeling if it was still the same as the moment he was devoured by a dozen lizard monsters. "They had me play as Jason. I didn't want to, as I wanted to be the king that tries to kill the Argonauts, but they wouldn't let me... haha. Brings back good memories."

"I'll pass on the dress-up", he said, bringing a hand to his chin and scratching at the stubble thoughtfully. "But if you guys need any help from me, let me know."

Jean was still a little nervous around the former VietCong fighter, if only because of the animosity between Vietnam and its former colonizer. However, judging by how chill and nice Durong... Duwong... Young had been for the last few moments, he figured that there was probably nothing to be afraid of. "Aaahh, yes, we'll let you know if you're, ah, particular skill set is needed. Have a good smoke, I guess..."

"So, uh... I guess we'll just be hanging around here, then? Wanna get a drink first?"

"I think we should be sober if we're going to save someone from being assassinated by a Time traveler..." Jean remembered how he got drunk during academy, resulting in being disciplined by the guidance office for unruly behaviour and obscenity. Those were fun days indeed. "But, I'm done for something like... tea, or hot chocolate. Or coffee! Oh, and I don't remember... have you told me your life story? I already pretty much said mine back at the mess hall during lunch. Plus Hannah was already adding to mine as well. Or not, if you had a, um, traumatic life."

[Grenartia]

Phoenix

Hannah Brown

"Fascinating." Phe spoke in Latin, as everyone else was also trying on their newfound ability. She didn't remember the Andromedan translator microbes doing anything like this. The name Theodosia sounded familiar. Like one of the Byzantine emperors or something. Soon, though, a different concern reared its head. "Something just occurred to me. If Theodosia is so far away that they can't check our credentials, doesn't that also mean that the locals will wonder why we're even bothering to offer its help? Its not like any major reinforcements we could provide would be able to get there before the battle, and if there were, they'd surely be close enough that the locals could definitely confirm that. As for horse riding, they never taught me that in the military.

"Because the Spartas and their disaffected subjects have been at each other's throats for 25 years and, historically, they'll keep fighting for another 10 or so. Greece is an ever-shifting patchwork of changing alliances. We might not be able to offer much at Leuctra, but if the Thebans have their heads screwed on, they will realise the Theodosians have the potential to be useful allies in the years to come, especially since they have remained aloof from the troubles on the mainland to this point."

Phe nodded in acknowledgment. There wasn't really much to say, what Hannah said made sense.

There was a lurch and the windows around the ship flicked from showing the void of space to an undefinable luminous whiteness that, after a few moments began to fade away, one pinprick of light at a time, fading back into a view of the planet. It would be easy to think nothing had changed. If you did, you would be wrong.

"Hmm," Hannah commented, her eyebrows raised, "I'd expected more drama."

She had also expected more drama, but it reminded her a bit of hyperspace travel on the Defiance. Soon, the meeting dispersed, and Phe went to change into period-appropriate attire. Specifically, masculine clothing. As much as she hated the thought, she knew she'd be of most use on this mission if she wasn't perceived as a woman, and until she had a chance to redo her transition, she also knew she'd have little hope of being seen as anything other than a man anyways. As she was changing, a man rudely spoke up and interrupted another conversation.

"I... I don't know where the makeup is. Eh, you don't need makeup to order a bunch of people to steal horses."

"You ain't ordering nothing. If it's horses what need rustling, I'm taking point."

Clarence had finally reemerged from wherever he had vanished to. And he was not happy. Mostly because he was not a fan of the fashion of the time period they'd landed in.

"They call this thing a toga apparently. I call it a dress. Pappy would give me a black eye if ever saw me dressing like this. Anyway, if we're stealing horses, y'all best fall in line behind me. I've been riding since as long as I could walk. And I've got experience in this precise situation. We snagged some Yankee horses from a fort during the war. Dumb bastards had no idea what to do when we came charging at them the next day on their own horses. Oh, fun day. Anyway, you best defer to my experience on the matter."

"Oh, how delightful. An actual Confederate. He's just as liable to cause an unnecessary fight as he is to prevent one." Phoenix thought to herself. "Speaking of leadership, have you decided on who's going to be the figurehead on this op, Hannah?" she asked.

---

Elizabeth and Athena

After the dazzling, albeit brief sequence of time travel, Elizabeth left the meeting, and began searching the ship for some place where the history archives would be stored. Finding none, she followed the sound of voices to where the group was preparing for the mission. "Pardon my intrusion, but does anyone here happen to know where this ship's library is?"

[UniversalCommons]

Adam Richardson looked around some more. He found a maintenance closet in the engineering section. In it was a round cleaning two feet disk robot. He turned it on. He sat quietly watching it as it cleaned the floor. It would make a whirring sound then a spot would disappear. Then it crawled up the wall and began cleaning the walls. He blinked. Was it supposed to do that. He watched as it finally crawled along the ceiling making whirring sounds. He drifted off to sleep on the folding cot for almost an hour, then woke up again. The room was very clean. The robot had returned to the cleaning closet when he looked for it. It was recharging. He had on his costume from Ancient Greece. He was feeling a little bored. He turned on the datapad and poked around some more until he found an icon called Final Encyclopedia.

[Western Fardelshufflestein]

Teng Nuan

"Sorry, I don't think I got your name before. I'm Hannah. Hannah Brown." The paleish woman smiled brightly at Nuan. Nuan found the gesture strange, foreign, almost, on this woman's face. But she was from another time. Of course she was strange to Nuan.

"I am Teng Nuan," she replied, bowing respectfully. "I come from the fields on the Yellow River. My ancestors were farmers, as I was during my life." She paused and took a breath to steady herself. "I have a husband, Huo Lin. He was not far from me when I was swept away, but there was no way for him to save me." Nuan closed her eyes so she could remember the moment she lost her footing. His look of surprise and fear would linger with her forever, she knew. He had been graceful, respectable, and kind, and she would never see him again.

After some moments, Hannah spoke again. "We're getting ready for getting off the ship, so we will need to look like the local people. Come with me, we can get you some more appropriate clothes and I'll explain what is going on as we do."

"But...where are we going? And are we still in...still in my time?"

Hannah started walking, and Nuan followed. She had already decided she was to accompany Hannah on this journey, although she could make no sense of it. Going abroad with strange people who could travel through time sounded...well, it sounded like something she never would have done. But she was here for a reason. The gods needed her here, and she needed to honor them wherever she was. When...ever she was.

If you think of time as walking down a road with each step being a day. You can never go back, only forwards... well this machine we are on can instantly take you to any point on that long road. In an hour's time we could be 5,000 years in the future or 2,000 in the past. I know that will seem like nonsense, but do you understand the idea?"

Nuan thought that through for a moment. "Yes...I understand." She was lying.

She stood off to the side as Hannah and another woman with an odd name talked about clothing. It was very odd, flowy clothing, the likes of which Nuan had never seen before. It must be from the time, or the point on the road, where their journey was first taking them.

"I think..." she started, then stopped herself. She was idle; she needed to do something.

When the man entered, Nuan hid her surprise. Whoever he was, neither of the two women seemed to like him. He must have done something very cruel to warrant such outright disrespect from the female sex. He was wearing...a long tunic, that Nuan would have thought belonged to a woman. Men did not wear long tunics such as that.

"They call this thing a toga apparently. I call it a dress. Pappy would give me a black eye if ever saw me dressing like this. Anyway, if we're stealing horses, y'all best fall in line behind me. I've been riding since as long as I could walk. And I've got experience in this precise situation. We snagged some Yankee horses from a fort during the war. Dumb bastards had no idea what to do when we came charging at them the next day on their own horses. Oh, fun day. Anyway, you best defer to my experience on the matter."

To Nuan, he was talking nonsense. But maybe the other women understood what he meant.

She gave him a bow of greeting and approached the tunics and ornaments that were laid out before her. She picked up something, a thing made of metal. Was it meant to be worn, or was it a charm? Jewelry, she realized. It was called jewelry. And it was so beautiful that it must belong to someone of noble status, or even a member of the imperial court.

She raised her other hand and felt the object's surface. It was smooth, but its edges were sharp, though not enough to cut. And there were colorful, shiny things...the word jewels appeared in her head. Maybe being put on this ship was giving her wisdom.

"Which of these...tunics shall I wear?" she asked Hannah, not putting the imperial object down.

[Dyelli Beybi]

Phoenix
"[i]Oh, how delightful. An actual Confederate. He's just as liable to cause an unnecessary fight as he is to prevent one." Phoenix thought to herself. "Speaking of leadership, have you decided on who's going to be the figurehead on this op, Hannah?" she asked.

Hannah shook her head, "No... I know what we need, but I'm not sure who. They must be a man to fit in with the conventions of the time. They must be a team player who isn't going to derail this mission. They should have a reasonable knowledge of Classical Greece. Honestly, I haven't had an opportunity to talk to people yet, but if anyone wants to stick their hand up, I'm open to suggestions."

Albert Daza
...

"Sorry, Captain Brown." Albert Daza wanted to strike a balance between the obsequious respect the apartheid South Africa had thought due to a white person and the brushy dismissal yelling at Hannah that had marked his first question to her. The happy medium was the military, or perhaps the ANC, although Hannah seemed more military than political. Although it was strange for a woman to be his military superior, Albert would still call her captain.

"I would be useless in this mission, since I can't ride horses. However, now that you think of it, I am curious what this Ancient Greece place... and time... looks like."

"Excellent! Remember, if anyone asks you're from 'Nubia'," Hannah declared, "Oh... and just call me Hannah."

Cornelia Quinta

...

"I'm gonna get the things." Cornelia ran as quickly as possible towards the same room she got the chiton she was wearing from. She grabbed a blue peplos with wave patterns on the hem, a green chiton with a square-spiral geometric pattern, and several himations. Cornelia also grabbed some jewelry. Clearly, this female crew member was a fashion plate.

Cornelia rushed into the storage room, carrying everything and panting. "Hope I wasn't too slow." Cornelia laid out all the clothes and the jewelry. Beautiful diadems, silver rings, bracelets in the shapes of snakes and branches. Lots of gold, since Theodosia was in the East, right?

"Put on a dress and choose some jewellery. I'll do your hair." Cornelia surprised herself by offering to do someone's hair like a common slave. Eh, this was Hannah, and some of those hairstyles were too complex to do yourself. Even Cornelia had to settle for something simpler than what she wanted.

"I... I don't know where the makeup is. Eh, you don't need makeup to order a bunch of people to steal horses."

"I like the colours... give me one short moment," Hannah scooped up the bundle of clothing and jewellery, ducking behind a pile of crates to change. She undoubtedly was a little shyer about nudity than Cornelia was, never having attended public baths or anything of the like, "By the way," she called from where she was hiding, "I think the 'personal assistant' works quite well as I'm imagining it will keep us all together in the same tent where we can discuss things. Also, we need one of the men to pretend to be our Ambassador. Nobody stuck their hand up so I'm going to nominate someone. Do you have any thoughts?" she asked.

There was a sound of shuffling, hopping, which presumably was her pulling her boots off, then a few moments later, "So how do you keep this on?" a brief pause then, "Oh... I think I've got it. The buttons are for the shoulders. I'm nearly there!"

...

"They call this thing a toga apparently. I call it a dress. Pappy would give me a black eye if ever saw me dressing like this. Anyway, if we're stealing horses, y'all best fall in line behind me. I've been riding since as long as I could walk. And I've got experience in this precise situation. We snagged some Yankee horses from a fort during the war. Dumb bastards had no idea what to do when we came charging at them the next day on their own horses. Oh, fun day. Anyway, you best defer to my experience on the matter."

[/quote]

Clarence's voice carrying from the other room was enough to have Hannah pop up from behind the crates. She had gone with the green chiton though she hadn't done the buttons at the shoulders up yet and held the garment fabric across her chest, "Hey Huckleberry!" she called, loud enough for her voice to reach the next room, "Ditch the toga and just wear a tunic. You can't wear one of those on a horse and besides, I'm pretty sure those are Roman," she said, looking at Cornelia for confirmation.

"Anyway," she said, switching her attention back to the women in the room with her, "just give me a couple of moments and I'll be ready for inspection!"

She emerged shortly thereafter, her ship clothes, and weapon balled up into a bundle, giving a twirl for the other women's inspection. She had gone with the green chiton with the red himation draped over the top and had done a reasonably good job at securing everything. She'd also put on a number of rings and bracelets. Not too many, but enough to show she had some money... or at least that was the effect she was going for. Her hair was still pinned up in a scruffy, utilitarian ponytail and she didn't have any footwear yet, but she was beginning to look the part. "You know what else is great about Classical Greece? I won't look short!" she remarked with a bright smile, "Though I'll probably need to learn to keep my mouth shut more than I usually do."

"Shall we go back to my room for the hair and makeup bit?" she suggested, "We'll let Brunhilda and the lads sort out these horses. I'm sure they're capable of doing that without me sticking my head in every few moments."

It would also mean Hannah wasn't being distracted by what was going on in the next room. Before she led the way back to her quarters though, Hannah made a small detour through storage to get a lute. She had noticed instruments in the storage bay during her first foray into the area though until she'd come up with her cover story she'd never imagined she might need one. They had been a curiosity more than anything else.

The cabin she had marked out as her own. It wasn't any larger than the others though it did have an en suite shower room, rather than needing to share facilities. There were some perks to waking up first. "Emily, Teng, if you need to change, there's a room back there," she said, motioning at it, "Oh and the water pressure is fantastic if you haven't showered yet!"

[Mountainus]

Charles Louisson:
It was quiet on the bridge. Just as he had expected, but it seemed too quiet, and he did not know what to do. He was ready for the mission, yet everyone else was still getting ready. Charles sighed and decided to find Hannah so that he could do something useful and productive. "Captain? Sorry to bother you, but, uh, as you can see, I am all ready for the mission. Are there any tasks or things I should be doing? Also, would I be wearing this right? It feels somewhat uncomfortable." he gestures to his tunic which had accidently been put on backwards.

[Western Fardelshufflestein]

Teng Nuan

Nuan suddenly remembered that, yes, the woman with petal hair was in this room, too. As Hannah left, addressing Nuan by her family name and the petal-haired girl as "Emily," Nuan realized just how absurd her situation was. Here she was, dead-but-not-dead, about to put on unfamiliar clothing to go to a time and place that were not her own. She did not even know what to choose from the pile, but she knew she needed something, so she snagged what looked like a tunic and some pants, then hurried elsewhere to changed.

The tunic she had chosen was a light tan, close to her skin color, and had a flowiness to it; there were no sleeves, and there was a sort of rope belt that had been placed on top of the tunic that she assumed went with it. She had also selected some loose pants that looked about her size, and they were of a darker brown. The edges of each strip of material had triangular patterns on them. She ran her fingers over the triangles and found that they were slightly raised. The stitching was unfamiliar, like different tools had been used, and maybe they had; anything was possible here, really.

Now, should she remove her current clothing before putting on the new garments? She decided that, yes, she should. Hannah had taken off her gray clothes--they were lying in a pile--and this point in the road might be before the time when people started to wear these.

Nuan was hidden from the others, so she comfortably removed her outfit, only to discover--she had on more clothing? Undergarments! She examined the padded strip that was over her chest area, finding it very soft, and her...underwear. Was that what they were called here? She decided to keep them on, even though they were going to the past.

The pants, as it turned out, were too long and loose on her, but not so much that she could not wear them. The real problem was putting on the tunic. It was so flowy that, when she put it over her head, she quickly got stuck in it. She couldn't undo her actions to remove it or finish putting it on. In every direction there was more material, like this thing was a trap, and maybe it was.

She did not know in had become wrapped around her legs until she tried to take a step forward--and fell. With a screech, she flopped to the ground, still wrapped in the accursed tunic. "Gaaaaah!"

[Voxija]

Cornelia Quinta

"I like the colours... give me one short moment," Hannah scooped up the bundle of clothing and jewellery, ducking behind a pile of crates to change. She undoubtedly was a little shyer about nudity than Cornelia was, never having attended public baths or anything of the like, "By the way," she called from where she was hiding, "I think the 'personal assistant' works quite well as I'm imagining it will keep us all together in the same tent where we can discuss things. Also, we need one of the men to pretend to be our Ambassador. Nobody stuck their hand up so I'm going to nominate someone. Do you have any thoughts?" she asked.

Cornelia wondered for a moment why Hannah had to go out of sight to change, and remembered that any man could just walk in here. Although there was only Cornelia in here now. Maybe it was because people in the future didn't have slaves always helping them undress.

It seemed Hannah had the same mode of thinking as Cornelia about the personal assistant thing. It would be undignified staying in a tent, but anything for the timeline. Cornelia did not know who should play the Ambassador. She didn't know anyone well enough to figure who would be best.

There was a sound of shuffling, hopping, which presumably was her pulling her boots off, then a few moments later, "So how do you keep this on?" a brief pause then, "Oh... I think I've got it. The buttons are for the shoulders. I'm nearly there!"

...

Clarence's voice carrying from the other room was enough to have Hannah pop up from behind the crates. She had gone with the green chiton though she hadn't done the buttons at the shoulders up yet and held the garment fabric across her chest, "Hey Huckleberry!" she called, loud enough for her voice to reach the next room, "Ditch the toga and just wear a tunic. You can't wear one of those on a horse and besides, I'm pretty sure those are Roman," she said, looking at Cornelia for confirmation.

Cornelia didn't know what a huckleberry was either, but she was used to Hannah giving people nicknames. "Yeah, they're Roman." Cornelia snickered at the thought of a Greek wearing a toga. Cornelia didn't even know why men wore togas. Togas, at least the ones in Cornelia's time, were hard to put on and quite fiddly. She'd prefer a stola any day.

"Anyway," she said, switching her attention back to the women in the room with her, "just give me a couple of moments and I'll be ready for inspection!"

She emerged shortly thereafter, her ship clothes, and weapon balled up into a bundle, giving a twirl for the other women's inspection. She had gone with the green chiton with the red himation draped over the top and had done a reasonably good job at securing everything. She'd also put on a number of rings and bracelets. Not too many, but enough to show she had some money... or at least that was the effect she was going for. Her hair was still pinned up in a scruffy, utilitarian ponytail and she didn't have any footwear yet, but she was beginning to look the part. "You know what else is great about Classical Greece? I won't look short!" she remarked with a bright smile, "Though I'll probably need to learn to keep my mouth shut more than I usually do."

Hannah looked wonderful! The colors clashed a bit, but then Greek clothing actually was quite colorful. Cornelia feared even Hannah's large amounts of jewelry were too little for the role, but then Theodosia would be a poor polis. The outfit was still unfinished, but Cornelia had some sandals that she brought into the storage room and the Roman remembered some hairstyles that her slave Peregune had begged for her to try out.

Cornelia had to snicker at the short thing, although Hannah didn't seem short to Cornelia... but then, a lot of people on the ship were taller than Hannah, so she could make the joke.

Cornelia though a bit about the last line that Hannah said about keeping her mouth shut. Cornelia's earlier pondering about women staying in a separate room came to mind, but hetaerae weren't like that. "Well, hetaerae were expected to attend men's parties, and they knew more poems and such than than most women. But I guess as a personal hetaera, in official functions and meetings with leaders you would just stand there and look pretty... But I wouldn't know." Cornelia felt very sad all of a sudden. She had just realized the principle that universally pervades social interactions: forbidden things are fun.

"Shall we go back to my room for the hair and makeup bit?" she suggested, "We'll let Brunhilda and the lads sort out these horses. I'm sure they're capable of doing that without me sticking my head in every few moments."

"Certainly," replied Cornelia. That was in response to going back to Hannah's cabin. She wondered what it looked like. It was not in response to letting the others handle horse stealing. Cornelia figured "Brunhilda" was the German woman who cut her own eye out. Yeah.

"You know, Hannah, I think I picked out a men's room by mistake. I think after I do your hair, I'm going to change rooms and settle in the cabin where I got the Greek clothes."

It would also mean Hannah wasn't being distracted by what was going on in the next room. Before she led the way back to her quarters though, Hannah made a small detour through storage to get a lute. She had noticed instruments in the storage bay during her first foray into the area though until she'd come up with her cover story she'd never imagined she might need one. They had been a curiosity more than anything else.

When Cornelia was following Hannah back to her quarters, Hannah spotted a strange musical instrument. "What is that? Is that a cithara?" Lutes did not exist in ancient times. "If you need a musical instrument, get a lyre or a double flute. They'd look strangely at you if you played that."

The cabin she had marked out as her own. It wasn't any larger than the others though it did have an en suite shower room, rather than needing to share facilities. There were some perks to waking up first. "Emily, Teng, if you need to change, there's a room back there," she said, motioning at it, "Oh and the water pressure is fantastic if you haven't showered yet!"

Hannah's cabin looked exactly like the others. That was disappointing. As a Roman, Cornelia expected someone's superiors to have better living conditions than them, but Cornelia found a lot of her values dashed on the ground.

What was a shower? Cornelia imagined a rain shower, which meant pouring water on the back of your head. Cornelia wouldn't like that—probably would destroy her carefully dyed blonde hair that had somehow stuck with her on the ship—and she preferred the baths any day. Although this ship seemed like it didn't have enough room for baths.

Cornelia sat Hannah in front of a mirror, ready to do her hair. Cornelia did Hannah's hair in this style. As for makeup, Cornelia set out some blush, eyeliner, and concealer that was maybe too light for Hannah's skin tone. "Do what you like," said Cornelia. "White skin means you don't work outside, anyway. And only prostitutes wear makeup." Cornelia grabbed the pair of sandals she snatched earlier from under her himation. "There you go. You're all set for Greece."

[Alcona and Hubris]

Lord William

"Mr. Computer...can this door be locked?"

[Yes...]

William looked around and then sighed. "Can you lock it please?"

[No...Not without proper authorization...]

William sighed and shook his head. Dealing with the Ritter...why did she want to be called a Ritter and not a Ritterin? William just shook his head and looked down at his now sleeping charge. Hopefully he would not wake up screaming again. But if he was seriously, mentally unstable he wouldn't be somewhere with a good amount of material to harm himself or others. He just hoped the screaming Dane woke up a bit more sane in the comfort of this room.

The room he had found for him was apparently even spare earlier with no crew materials to be found inside. It did have a sink and looked somewhat like a small private second class cabin on a steam ship. Though it was obviously an interior room with no window, and a fairly cheap second class ticket with the essentially the narrow bed, about three feet of deck before the sink and cabinet on the far side.

"Mr. Computer please inform Miss...Miss Leona of what cabin the patient is in....I need to go get ready to steal some horses..."

---

William found himself dressed in all black materials rather than attempting to put on a more appropriate costume. He had slung a couple of ropes with lasso's tied on the ends around his left shoulder and a couple of age appropriate tools lashed together with a leather thong. He had covered his face in burn cork, like one of his actress acquintences had informed him was in common use to color the face black to work back stage at the Paris Opera. Or was it burnt cork? He had been looking for 'dark make-up' and Mr. Computer had led him to it.

The other odd item he had was a small hooded candle with a red lens that he had found looking through the materials with the make up. It appeared that a former crew member may have had a notorious life before his job on the ship. Which did leave an interesting question of what skills the current 'crew' had. Apparently, the closest to a horse their they had was a Duke's son...which make William chuckle to himself.

He turned to look at the others and smiled slightly at the others and stated, "Well...I think my father would die from shock if he knew I had turned horse thief..."

He turned back to the opening and was in the front of the group as the ship's side opened to show the dimly lit country side. In the distance the faint light of the farmstead and its soon to be purloined occupants could just be made out.

[Ameriganastan]

"What do you mean this isn't Greek? This is what the fancy voice from nowhere told me about when I asked about Greece. G-R-E-A-S-E."

The one word he could spell, and he somehow still whiffed it.

"I asked this here fancy...uh...what's that word...com-pew-ter? Yeah, I asked this thing called a com-pew-ter to tell me about Greece. Spelled it and everything. It showed me a bunch of odd fellows dancing about and singing, but that didn't sound right. So I went a searching through this here uh...date-a-base I think it said. And I went looking for something related to that. And I found this here funny moving picture called Animal House. And they was wearing these here toga things and they was part of something Greek. So if I got this wrong, it's the com-pew-ter's fault."

A few moments of silenced passed.

"Say, do you know these fancy moving pictures from the future have nekkid ladies in it? Used to be the only way to see a nekkid lady on the ranch was to make one of the more good looking slave girls work nekkid for the day. I mean, good looking for a darkie anyway. I still wouldn't touch them. Pappy though...I never said nothing cause he'd have broke my neck if I did, but there was a few light skinned slave kids on the ranch that looked a little like him..."

[Voxija]

Albert Daza

"Excellent! Remember, if anyone asks you're from 'Nubia'," Hannah declared, "Oh... and just call me Hannah."

Hannah? Just Hannah? Not Captain? Not even Mrs. or Ms.? Even among his brothers in the ANC Albert had to show respect... this really was an integrated ship. Albert didn't know what a "Nubia" was, but probably somewhere in Africa that traded with Ancient Greece or something. At least he had a cover story when he was exploring.

William found himself dressed in all black materials rather than attempting to put on a more appropriate costume. He had slung a couple of ropes with lasso's tied on the ends around his left shoulder and a couple of age appropriate tools lashed together with a leather thong. He had covered his face in burn cork, like one of his actress acquintences had informed him was in common use to color the face black to work back stage at the Paris Opera. Or was it burnt cork? He had been looking for 'dark make-up' and Mr. Computer had led him to it.

The other odd item he had was a small hooded candle with a red lens that he had found looking through the materials with the make up. It appeared that a former crew member may have had a notorious life before his job on the ship. Which did leave an interesting question of what skills the current 'crew' had. Apparently, the closest to a horse their they had was a Duke's son...which make William chuckle to himself.

He turned to look at the others and smiled slightly at the others and stated, "Well...I think my father would die from shock if he knew I had turned horse thief..."

He turned back to the opening and was in the front of the group as the ship's side opened to show the dimly lit country side. In the distance the faint light of the farmstead and its soon to be purloined occupants could just be made out.

A man was going to lead them all to steal horses. Well, the rest were going to steal horses. Albert Daza was going to walk around and see what this Ancient Greece place looked like. Hannah had said that that was the best way for Albert to get his bearings and Hannah seemed sensible. Horse stealing seemed suspicious, but Albert would go along until... Albert didn't know when.

Albert got a better look at the man who was—what the Hell? Blackface?! Blackface was insulting, it was. Albert knew that the man's dark makeup was to help camouflage him while horse stealing, but still... Albert grumbled a bit.

When the... entire wall of the ship opened, Albert was gobsmacked. He had expected just a door to open, not the whole wall! But what was outside filled Albert with emotions too great to describe. Although it was the black of night, and Albert's eyes weren't used to the dark, what was amazing was what it represented. Freedom.

Albert Daza rushed outside, making sure to keep quiet. However, staying next to the ship was not on Albert's priorities. The cool night air felt wonderful on Albert's face, and the sounds and smells of nature reminded Albert of what he missed. He hadn't been outside of any walls for thirty years, and Albert couldn't remember why he had wanted to stay on the ship.

Albert almost cried. Calm down, Spamandla, he reminded himself. But he couldn't calm down. He needed this escape, to return to the outside. Even the unfamiliar landscape of Ancient Greece, even the darkest midnight was still outside. Albert leaned on a tree, crying like a baby and feeling utter joy.