Colts, Crinolines, and Conspiracies

12 June, year zero

Having navigated the vagaries of my new condition and completed my morning ablutions, I wandered out of the bathroom and into the kitchen side of the common area to retrieve my morning coffee. I had noticed how much my hair had grown out since my arrival in the current now, and made a note to myself to find a hairdresser amongst all the other tasks that I had yet to complete.

Talia glanced over at me in my current state of dishabille and gave me what I could only assume was her own simulacrum of a concerned look. She pulled out a chair, turned the seat towards me and gestured for me to sit down. I held up a finger, turned back to the counter and poured myself a second cup of coffee before taking a seat. I took a long drink of the first cup, and took no small degree of amusement that the coffee dispenser in my quarters always delivered the coffee at what I determined to be the perfect temperature, and the cup maintained it there for longer than I expected.

After finishing the first cup, I placed it on the counter and leaned back. Talia ran her fingers through my hair and began brushing it back with the precision and grace of a Parisian coiffeuse. She paused occasionally as she worked, and I noticed that she was humming bits of a tune I was unfamiliar with.

“Talia, are you humming?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Yes Jed, I am.” She replied as she continued brushing my hair. “That is a part of my engrammatic programming. It was intended to make me seem more human and to put you at ease. Do you wish me to stop?”

I leaned back a bit more and closed my eyes. “No, it was just curiosity on my part.”

Talia paused again, then deftly began braiding my hair. Once she was done, she stepped to my side and assumed her usual stance. “I anticipated that you would prefer a braid for your first day at the office. I do hope that is satisfactory.” 

I let out an involuntary chuckle and stood, touching her shoulder. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead, and you are much better at that than I am. I never managed to get it centered or even.” She smiled at me and slightly nodded.

The next matter at hand was getting dressed. Apparently Talia had laid out something for me to wear that was appropriate for my first day at the office, and as per her usual efficiency it appeared to be just my size. While I may have some question about the style of my current surroundings I had learned over the previous weeks my mechanical assistant knew what would fit. At this point I was still wavering on my feelings about my foundational garments lacking the structure I had become used to, but the freedom from boned corsetry as a mandate seemed oddly liberating. Of course the other side of the coin was there were so many more pieces to put on as compared to chemise, corset, and pantaloons.

The skirt was snug, ended above my knee and was made of a fabric that I didn’t initially recognize as it had a hand like a fine tweed but the feel of a much lighter silk, in a deep charcoal gray. I slipped on the jacket and was pleased to notice it was cut to fit my figure but was designed to retain a fuller range of motion than was expected. The last thing to complete my ensemble was a long strip of red fabric that I assumed was a sort of cravat, and of course that thought triggered a brief cascade of information related to neckwear. I simultaneously sighed and chuckled that I have a necktie. I turned to the mirror and looped the tie around my neck, my fingers manipulating the cloth with a well-practiced movement that I had previously been unaware of knowing. Giving it a final tug and nudge to center it, I looked in the mirror and regarded the image I saw. The face that stared back was a familiar stranger. I suppose that this is the shape of things now and that this is who I am, even if the trappings are different.

I smoothed my skirt and sat on the end of the bed, slipping on the calf height boots that finished the ensemble. Talia stepped over and gave me a once-over, her expression as implacable as usual. She handed me a pair of tinted glasses and held out her hand.

“Shall we go?”

11 June, year uncertain

With the arrival of a visitor, I stood up from the table and headed to the bathroom. I looked over my shoulder at Talia, and said “Try to keep them entertained while I sort out my clothes.” 

I walked into the bathroom and slid the door closed behind me as Talia opened the main door to usher in our guest. Then I was posed with the next question of what I had to wear. The linen cabinet revealed several choices that I had previously either overlooked or ignored, so I slipped on a charcoal colored skirt and a white button front shirt. I looked in the mirror briefly, and mused to myself that while the skirt was far shorter than I had been used to, and far closer fitting, it was apparently passable for ‘now’. It did give me another moment of pause considering that exposing your ankles was considered naughty, and bare calves were utter scandalous in New Victoria, and now here I am.

I gave the skirt a final smoothing and tug downwards before walking back into the room. As I exited the bathroom, Talia dutifully opened the door to our visitor. The caller stepped in and our eyes met, and I could tell that we both spent that initial moment getting each other’s measure. She was just slightly shorter than me, her deep brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing a dark colored suit, with a leather portfolio tucked neatly under her left arm, and a pair of half-rimmed glasses perched midway down her nose. I surmised that they were more to soften her appearance than for actual utility and to lend a more bookish edge to her serious demeanor.

“Good morning Ms. Dagger, I hope that you have a moment to speak with me. My name is Yelena Voss, and I am here on behalf of the Templar Institute.” Her voice was precise, measured, and carried hints of multiple accents I couldn’t directly put my finger on. I gestured to a chair at the table and she sat as Talia moved back away from her. I joined her at the table as she opened the portfolio which held two display panels on each side.

“I hope that you have adjusted to your accommodations, and I see they assigned a C-series to you.” Yelena said, and this statement seemed to elicit what would be seen as a moment of shyness in a human. Talia lowered her gaze and moved over to the sofa, where she took a seat, tucking her legs underneath her. This surprised me, as normally she would just stand somewhere close to me with her hands folded. Seeing her seated like that reminded me of my first girlfriend, and also that this was something I had not mentioned in conversation previously.

“You are currently onboard the Rift transit station. Without getting into a very deep explanation of what the Rift is, suffice it to say it is a phenomena that many different locations and times together. Your party’s arrival here was unplanned and by all accounts accidental, so it did cause a bit of a stir, thus all the …precautions you have experienced.” Yelena looked directly up from her portfolio and we locked eyes for an instant. “So now we were presented with the group, a school marm, a bartender, a madame, a doppelganger, and you. I have to admit that you presented quite the challenge for the screeners. I know by now you have been rather curious as to why you are still here…”

I looked at her and returned the emotionless stare. “Yes, not sure whether I was in detention or under observation like a laboratory specimen.” This caused her to waver imperceptibly before she continued.

“The others,” she continued “have been processed and given a place within the local society. Today we’ll see about what we’ll be doing with you.” Yelena flicked her finger across one of the displays on her portfolio and began reading off the list.

“Your background was quite a bit longer and more intriguing than the others. You can understand why we were given a bit of pause since all your comrades simply said that you were just the assistant headmistress of the school and taught cryptography classes, and our records told us there was quite a bit more about you than just your administrative background.” Yelena paused for a moment before reciting what she had listed on what I assumed was my dossier.

“Born in Virginia, your father was an Army officer assigned to the consular staff as a military liaison, your mother died just prior to your 1st birthday, by which time your father had been reassigned to the Indian station. Raised by your grandfather and your aunt Prudence until you were 6, at which time your father took you to his duty station. You lived there until the age of 14 when you were sent to London and attended a boarding school and subsequently enrolled in university. Your father had remarried by that time, a local by all accounts, and produced 2 siblings.” Yelena paused and looked up at me, her eyes skimming over the tops of her glasses with an expression that told me she was gauging my reaction to what she had just said. 

“My stepmother was cordial enough, but Father frequently said I was just like Mother, which bothered Suri to no end.” I paused for a moment, feeling that old hitch in my chest when I recalled those times before I was shipped off to school. She continued without skipping a beat.

“You took a position in the Foreign Ministry office after graduation as a ‘reading clerk’…”

I interjected “Yes, I was amongst the clerks who read all the newspapers and periodicals from various countries of interest and compiled information and made projections based on what we were able to gather. Crop yields, industrial trends, things like that, so that information could be used to make better informed policy decisions.”

She nodded and then continued. “You were recruited by your father’s old schoolmate to become a Field Officer. Apparently this was quite the controversy at the time…”

I cut her off again, this time perhaps a bit more sharply than before. “Sir Henry felt that female operatives should have the same skills as their male counterparts. Prior to this the majority of the females were either doxies or domestics, given the notion that their only utility as agents were either on their backs or serving sandwiches at afternoon tea.” She raised her hand and looked back at me with a comforting expression on her face, waiting until I had settled back in my chair before continuing.

“You graduated 3rd in your class, and by our analysis of the data this was not correct. By academics you should have easily graduated first.” Yelena looked back up at me to see my reaction, and this time I was back to my usual state to answer.

“Sir Henry knew the higher-ups were not pleased with his decision to ‘force petticoats into men’s work’, so he quietly added a requirement that I could not possibly meet. Not enough to fail, not enough to discredit everything else I had done, but something that would be a bone for the baying hounds that wanted me to quit. They added a deadlift to the physical requirements. So this gave the thicknecks one thing they could beat me in.”

She looked up at me again, and somehow I could sense just a faint movement at the corner of her mouth as we locked eyes again.

“So you spent the next eight years as a field officer, and by all the accounts we accessed were quite good at your job. Then you retired, moved to the colonies where you were employed as a mercenary naval officer, a private investigator, a local militia officer, and apparently formed a shell corporation that owned two competing steamship companies.  The last piece of information we have was your arrival in New Victoria and the position at the school.” She stopped, folded her hands and waited.

I leaned forward and took in a breath. “My questions now are quite simple. How did you come to know all this, and does what you found out have a bearing on why I’m being kept like this?”

Yelena interlocked her fingers, first propping her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands.

“The Templar Institute is dedicated to the gathering and processing of information. Our organization is the guardian of the Delphian, an allocution rendition engine of great power and nearly unlimited scope. It holds a vast pool of information, gathered from trillions of pages of documents and other sources of data. When we received the request to background the party you arrived with, all the others had very brief profiles, but yours? Well, let’s just say that the station administration and my superiors were intrigued.  Our initial recommendation was to wait and see how you reacted. Now that you seem to have adjusted to your new circumstances, the Institute wants to offer you an opportunity.”

I took a moment to let everything she said settle in before speaking. “Somehow the station leadership felt that I would pose some sort of a problem?”

Yelena didn’t move but finally let that small wry smile creep out to the corner of her mouth. “There are many entities that might wish to disrupt the current way we handle the Rift. Your arrival armed as you were, despite the age of your arms, was viewed as a potential hazard. I can say your seeming compliance at the time was to your benefit.”

I smiled and nodded “So where does that leave me now?”

She stood and offered me a hand. “If you are willing, I think we can offer you a position more fitting to your experience and aptitudes.”

I rose, took her hand and shook.

“Welcome to the Institute.” Yelena smiled and then paused for a moment. She dug in her jacket pocket for a moment and handed me a small silver bar. “Slip that under your pillow tonight, and I’ll be in touch later this week to make your moving arrangements.” With that, she gathered her portfolio and walked out the door.

I looked at the object she gave me. It was about the size of a gum eraser, not exceptionally heavy but seemingly made from a single piece of metal with a string of characters embossed on the narrow edge. I tossed it onto my pillow and moved onto preparing myself another cup of coffee.

The day moved on through my now normal routine of reading and light conversations with Talia, today seemingly focused on my particular dislikes for meals. I had begun to understand that part of her job was to discern my tastes, since our rather lengthy discussions about clothes had resulted in an unexpected swap of hangers in the closet.

I felt tired after supper and decided to turn in early for the evening. I plopped onto the bed and rolled under the sheet, as was my usual form, adjusting the pillow and settling in before Talia dutifully clipped off the lights. I found the small bar and paused, holding it in my hand before slipping off to sleep.

That night I dreamed of a sinuous girl, clad in a diaphanous toga that floated around her as she danced slowly in front of me. Her long white-blonde hair swirled in an unfelt breeze, as she reached out and touched my forehead with a slim finger. She looked long into my eyes, her crystalline gaze meeting mine with a soft smile before she evaporated in a vaporous cloud.

I woke up, and slowly inhaled. I exhaled at the same pace, keeping still as my mind suddenly raced at a newfound realization. I knew. At this moment, I now knew.

1 June, year uncertain

Time passes with a newfound monotony of my daily life. The struggle to maintain a semblance of sanity is beginning to wear on me, since I have my self-enforced routine as the only anchor to hold onto as time passes in my new ‘home’. I have found that as time has passed that my opinion of my flatmate have begun to change and perhaps even soften somewhat from when she was first assigned to me. She has become a bit more conversational to me, and arguably she is the most patient and agreeable companion I have ever lived with. 

The two primary struggles I continue to deal with daily are both entirely personal. I have not had a strong drink or a smoke since my arrival, and I have found through reading on the subject that it was determined at some point between my then and my now that tobacco has an addictive quality. This would explain the edginess that I had been feeling and my…temperamental outbursts. Talia duly informed me that she could not get me any tobacco because it was a restricted item here in ‘transitional housing’, but that she could get me something to, as she said, ‘take the edge off’. She left, and returned a bit later with a brightly colored box that contained assorted colored lozenges. I took one, and it was a pleasant cherry flavor, and to my surprise it was quite soothing. She explained it contained a set amount of nicotine and that as time passed I would be able to get more with a lower amount until I no longer needed them. I nodded, and for the time being I was happy to no longer have that feeling from before.

The second issue was of an even more personal nature. There was a point in my isolation that I missed physical human contact of any sort. I might argue that it was brought on by the previous issue, but it was weighing on me to the point of distraction. Finally, at some point before lunch, I found myself glancing at my companion more than I usually did.

“Talia, how do you feel?” I said, without taking the connotations of the statement in mind.  She cocked her head slightly to the left, which was a physical trait she displayed whenever she was seeking to come up with an answer to a question of mine that was not simply a Yes or No.

“I am well. While my personality matrix has been designed to accommodate most variances of human emotion, I do not currently experience emotional changes in the same way a biologic does, if that is what you mean Ms. Dagger” She looked at me and I must say that despite her artificial eyes she did appear to be mimicking the proper expression of concern. I audibly sighed and fought the urge to press my face into my palm momentarily. 

“Come over here for a moment.”

She stepped over to where I was seated, and I took her forearm in my hand, gripping it gently as my fingers wrapped around just below her elbow. To my surprise it was soft, and slightly cool to the touch. Somehow I had expected it to be hard, yet it was pliant under my hand much like a muscled limb would feel. I looked at her face again and I could almost, almost see a slight softening of her usual expression.

“Talia, your skin is cold. Is that normal for you? I mean I rather expected it to be since you are…” My voice trailed off a bit as I thought about what to say next.

“Not ‘real’? It is a normal thought for a biologic that has not been accustomed to dealing with synthetics. To answer your question, I am able to have a more human skin temperature if that is something you desire.” She looked at me again and now I could see another very slight shift in her expression, almost as if this was making her happy. “My series of production have the ability to adjust our external temperature to match the ambient temperature of our environment, or to match what is considered to be human normal.”

I nodded, and without saying or thinking much more guided her behind me. I put both her arms over my shoulders and tucked them around my neck as her breasts compressed against my back. She felt warm against me, and I closed my eyes and relaxed into her arms.

“Had you requested it, I am aware of both what a hug is and how to give one Ms. Dagger.”

I sighed audibly and let my head rock forward. “You certainly know how to take all the magic out of the moment Talia.” I leaned my head onto her arm, and said quietly “Jed. You can call me Jed.”

10 May, year unknown

Since I have found myself with nothing else to do, I have opted to catch up on the circumstances that have found me here in this place. I was focused to the point of of ignoring many other things in my life due to the matters at hand in New Victoria, namely taking what measure of revenge that I could for the killing of Miss Frost and the plot to take over the city government by her brother, with the assistance of the Governor and the complicity of his minions. There at our last day in town I found myself on the roof of the Governor’s Palace, my Henry rifle in hand, awaiting the explosion of our carefully placed surprise in the dining room of the Dysart Hotel.

Percival and his men arrived and went inside, and a quick peek through the window ensured that all of them had taken seats around the table to enjoy their celebratory meal before heading to the city offices. Vivianne and the ladies on the ground had completed their task of setting the timer as I watched them retreat back down the street. A few moments later and the first explosion was followed by a huge plume of fire, no doubt aided by the severed gas line in the basement I had arranged before climbing to the roof. What came next was more of a shock to me, when the entirety of the town was enveloped in a swirl of what I assumed to be aetherial energy and a white flash. Reflexively I threw myself flat on the roof, my body being enveloped in what I can only describe as an intense electrical shock.

I opened my eyes and found that I was no longer on the roof, and a quick check of my extremities showed that I was not injured. What I saw when I looked around was more of a shock. I was on a platform surrounded by buildings that were made of some sort of burnished metal. The ladies were there as well, all looking as bewildered as I was. Several individuals in what appeared to be a uniform approached us and led us into one of the buildings. Once inside we were separated and taken into a small room that had very spare furnishings consisting of 4 chairs and a table. The door closed behind me, and my guide gestured to one of the chairs. I took a seat and she sat across from me.

She said she was sure I was confused and had questions as to what had just happened, but that all my questions would be answered after a few matters were attended to. A second officer walked in carrying a large box and a neatly folded bundle of clothing. At that point I was asked to place everything on my person into the box. I warily complied, placing my rifle and my sidearm into the box, then turning out my pockets and placing the contents into the box as well. A recessed door in the back of the room opened and revealed what I assumed was a bathroom. I was told to take the clothing inside and change once I had taken a shower. Despite my reservations at this point, I took the bundle and walked into the bathroom. I undressed, and stepped into the bath. I felt a degree of unease and had the feeling that I was being watched as I turned on the water. Admittedly I did feel a bit better once I had bathed and dried off. I found that I had been given a set of either the most effeminate male undergarments or the most manly female undergarments I had seen. I then slipped into the dark blue coveralls I had been given and pulled on the matching boots. I then gathered up my clothing and walked back into the main room. I folded my dress and the rest of what I had been wearing and placed them in the box along with my other effects. The lid was closed on what I had brought in with me and I was ushered out and taken to another room down the hall.

My guide walked me down a long hallway deeper in the interior of the building and paused at a translucent door with a stylized caduceus on it. I was escorted inside and the door closed behind me. The room had several beds and the walls were lined with various sorts of what appeared to be technical equipment and glowing panels that displayed various sorts of information. There were two men wearing white jackets stand beside what appeared to be an upright glass booth. The shorter of the two men started speaking to the other man, annoyingly speaking about me in the third person. 

“So now we have our next subject. We will have to scan her thoroughly as well, since we have no idea what her physical state is currently.”
The other man nodded, looked at me and gestured towards the cabinet. I decided that compliance at this stage would not be unwarranted, I walked up and stepped into the device. The glass walls began to glow and I noticed a large panel on the wall that began to display various images of what I assumed were the internal parts of my body. The shorter man began to recite a litany of what I assumed was my overall physical condition.

“Subject is a 36 year old Caucasian female, 176 centimeters tall, 76 kilograms in weight. Body shows indications of involvement in combatives. There are multiple healed wounds from both edged weapons and kinetic projectiles. Subject has environmental damage corresponding to timezone of origin, a degree of alveolar scarring in the lungs from smoke ingestion, and signs of intestinal parasites in the upper colon. Finally subject has three ovarian cysts and a stage one mass in the left breast. The medical conditions will be remediated prior to transfer to Stage II housing.”

I stood there in the cabinet trying to fully take in everything the man had said, since he continued to speak at me about my conditions without actually speaking to me. He unceremoniously took a seat at a desk which was festooned with many colored buttons and had an additional large glowing panel above it.

The tall quiet man walked to where I was still standing and offered me a hand. I took it and he guided me to an elevated bed in the back corner of the room. He gestured to the bed, so I climbed up on it and laid down. He applied a flexible strip of some rubber-like material to my forehead and pulled a translucent shell over the bed. He shot me a slight smile and turned to walk away. Before much longer I fell into a deep dreamless sleep that I was unable to stave off.

At some point I woke up. I fell back into old habits and decided to take a quick look around before sitting up, cracking one eye open at a time and looking around as much as I could while keeping still. I was lying on a bed in a small suite that reminded me of a ship’s stateroom. It was the same smooth finish as the other rooms, well lit from panels in the ceiling, and appeared to have a small kitchen and sitting area as well as the bed I was on. I also noticed that I was no longer dressed under the light sheet that covered me. I carefully ran my hands over my torso and found I had several small adhesive plasters stuck to my skin, two down towards my hips, one above my navel and one nearly at my sternum, two just below my ribs and on the under-curve of each breast. Before I could think about this much more, I was greeted by a voice that came from just behind me in the one spot I was unable to see while remaining still.

“Good afternoon Ms. Dagger. Don’t be alarmed. I am hoping you rested well after your arrival from Medical…”

I rolled over and rested my chin on the back of my hands. The speaker stood just behind me, and I took that moment to look at who was in the room with me. It was a slender female wearing a close fitting sleeveless dress, and I made the immediate assumption she was an automata. While her features were attractive and her proportions perfect, it was obvious to me she was not flesh and bone. Before I could say anything, she gave me a slight smile and folded her hands in front of her waist.

“I am the administrative unit assigned to you. I will assist you in your transition to your new surroundings, answer any questions you may have and accompany you once you are allowed the freedom of the city.”

I hung onto those words and considered what the automata had said. As I had thought before, I was no longer in New Victoria, and no longer in the world I had been before. I felt myself slipping out a grin from one corner of my mouth, because I suppose the average person finding themselves in a totally different time and place from where they had been would be experiencing a large degree of, let’s say disquiet. For me, having dealt with the strange preternatural things I’d seen before, this was at least seemingly comfortable. 

“So what do I call you? Do you have a name?’ I asked.

She inclined her head to the side ever so slightly, and said “My programming allows this unit to respond to a name of the assignee’s choice.” 
I thought for a moment, and finally spoke. “I am going to call you Talia.”

She nodded, and said “My name is now Talia. How may I be of service Ms. Dagger?”