Repositioning, Part 3
Hamedan
Thea pulled herself up in her hospital bede. That only put pressure on her legs and caused pain to flare up there. “Ow!”
That prompted August to appear. “Thea, how many times do I have to tell you to not move?”
“I’m adjusting myself!” Thea said.
“You can’t fool me again. I know you’re pulling yourself up so you can write something.”
“Can you blame me? I need to work!”
“And as your doctor, I’m ordering you to get some rest,” August said, “Work’s not going to mean anything if you die.”
“Everybody’s busting their butts doing so much, though,” Thea said, “Börte’s planning that Baku operation, Izinchi’s organizing a new government, Julian’s doing something in Isfahan, Alexandra and Magnus are helping with technical stuff, even
Alex is helping out in his own way while he’s in prison. But here I am, stuck in a hospital bed, unable to even walk without someone’s help. I feel like I’m completely useless.”
“You’ll be completely useless if you die,” August said, “Think of it as an investment in your future. People are counting on you to get better so you can help them later. You don’t have to help right now. Don’t stress yourself.”
“I know, I know, but I can’t shake the feeling that I have to do
something,” Thea said, “Maybe I should read a book. Brush up on a few topics.”
“Good idea,” August said, “I’ll search the library for anything that might interest you.”
“Thanks, August,” Thea said, “I appreciate it.”
August left the room. Several minutes later, he unexpectedly returned with a package in his hands.
“August?” Thea said. “Why are you back so soon?”
“Funny story,” August said, “So I ran into this deliveryman just outside the infirmary who insisted he had a package for you.”
“I don’t remember ordering anything, though,” Thea said.
“Same here.”
“So why’d you bring the package to me?”
August walked closer and showed the shipping label to her. “Because it says it’s from Diana Frank.”
Surely enough, the sender’s name was printed as Diana Frank. Thea’s eyes widened. “Alex’s mom? But she’s been dead for nine years.”
“The deliveryman also handed me this letter.” August held up a letter. “I read it and…well, I think you should read it for yourself too.”
He put the letter into Thea’s hand and gently moved it closer to her face. Deciding she had nothing better to do, Thea started reading it. It was handwritten, a extra rarity in these times. Not many people still sent paper letters, and those who did rarely wrote them by hand too. But apparently Diana did. Thea hadn’t met Diana too many times before she died, but she had seen her handwriting before, and this was a perfect match.
Hello August.
This might come as a shock to you, receiving this letter from me out of the blue in a random town in Mesopotamia nine years after my death. No doubt you’re confused as to why that deliveryman handed you a package from the Kaiserliche Reichspost years after it became defunct. But I assure you, it will all be explained in due time. Or you’ll figure it out on your own. Now hand the letter over to Thea. Hello, Thea.
“What the hell?” Thea said.
“My thoughts exactly,” August said, “I thought it was a forgery at first, but…”
“Everything seems to add up?” Alex had told her that his mother, after solving one of her last X-Division cases, had begun seeing dreams of the future. They both had been skeptical at first, but then Thea saw for herself how Diana kept predicting minor events that were yet to happen in their lives.
So she could see the future? I wonder how someone like that still couldn’t prevent her own death.
“Yeah,” August said, “It’s…uncanny. Want me to take that off your hands?”
“No, I think I’ll continue reading,” Thea said, “Could I have some privacy?”
“Sure. Let me know if you need anything.” August left.
Now that August’s gone, we can get to business. I know you have many questions, Thea. How am I writing this letter? Why are you getting it now? What does it have to do with your current predicament? How could I possibly know all this? And how did I see all this but still couldn’t prevent my own death? Well, I think you already have an idea.
If she could see the future, then perhaps there were certain things about the future that couldn’t be changed. Maybe her death was one of those fixed points.
That’s right on the money, Thea. Alex sure picks them well. He must get it from his dad.
Thea felt her cheeks heating up.
Anyways, I shouldn’t waste pen and paper on stuff like that. No, I’m here to talk about a few things that might help you.
“Okay, might as well,” Thea said.
Good to know we’re on the same page. First, some background. You heard from Alex about my…foresight. You were thinking about that earlier. So yeah, that’s what’s going on right now. For me, the date is May 16, 2029. Last month was the terrorist attack at the Uberbowl. More importantly, it was in the last few weeks that I began seeing incredibly detailed dreams about the immediate future. You see, my visions work in a certain way. The clearer I see them, the more set in stone they become. Something incredibly hazy might as well not happen, so I can change it however I want, but it’s difficult to figure out what exactly the event is. Perhaps it’s because that event isn’t really one event, but rather multiple hypothetical outcomes of the same event overlaid on top of each other. As the vision becomes clearer, the number of hypotheticals approaches 1. I can still change things in favor of the future I want, but it becomes harder. When the future becomes crystal clear, as if I’m actually living it, then I know it’s useless. That’s what happened when I saw my death. It was a fixed point in time that I could not avoid, no matter how hard I tried. However…
“You could plan around it,” Thea realized.
Exactly. There was much about the next ten years that I similarly couldn’t prevent—the deaths of Anders, Angela, Olga, Theresa, Franz, Joseph, Lisa; the rise of Jerusalem; the entire war; everything that just went down in Persia, among other things. I looked further and further ahead, trying to find a moment where I could influence things for the better. But as the years passed, everything got darker and darker. More resistant to change. And then I saw you and Alex, trying to make your way through the hell that the world has become. I regretted not being able to help you at all. What kind of mother has the power to help her son but is unable to do anything about it?
“Well, I suppose we figured it out ourselves,” Thea said, “We learned it all on our own without needing to rely on you.”
That’s true. However, I believe I have found a way to help out.
“Really?”
Yes. That is why you’re receiving this message today. The events leading up to today may have been set in stone, but there is some leeway in what happens afterward. There I can start helping out.
“How, Diana?”
So you’re heading to the Astrakhan region, right? A decent choice. Or rather, the least bad one. Compared to the surrounding regions, that place has only been razed and depopulated. The farmland is still intact, and so is the ecosystem. The people might have been scattered to the outer towns after Bielke destroyed the city proper on his way out, but they’re there. Problem is, you’ll have the same issues as with Hamedan and Isfahan.
“Right. It would be Persia all over again. So how do we avoid that?”
First, you make sure you survive to see your destination. You’re worried about food? Well, I think I may have something to address that issue. Open the package.
Thea was about to say she could not open a package with only one good arm, but to her surprise, the tape was arranged in such a way that there was a tag she could easily pull on to open it. The flaps popped up, revealing a book, several DVDs, and a portable DVD player. The book was titled
Those Who Came Before: New Revelations on the Early History of Humanity. The author was someone named Amina Ngebe, a professor of anthropology at the University of Mali in Timbuktu. Thea noticed the date of publication: November 1, 2038.
Talk about bad luck, Thea thought.
I met Amina thirty years ago on an X-Division case with Angie. We were in Westafrika investigating some crazy archaeologist who claimed he had evidence of the ancient astronauts conspiracy theory—the one where aliens guided our early evolution and cultural development. Obviously, we didn’t find anything proving that, but we did find something…out of place that recontextualized humanity’s early history. She spent the next thirty years traveling the world to gather more evidence like what we found in Westafrika, but such evidence was extremely rare owing to the timeframes we’re dealing with here—150,000 years for the good stuff. If you’re wondering about the original find in Westafrika…well, it fell into the ocean soon after our case concluded, and Amina didn’t have the equipment to search the area for a while. Also, underneath the book…
Thea looked underneath the book and saw an old notebook.
Those are Angie’s notes on the matter. She’s been compiling them for years and regularly sending them to Amina to help with her research. They were instrumental in helping us understand what language those guys spoke. Well, at least one or two of their major ones. They weren’t a monolith, same as us.
“Okay, you have been quite vague, but who exactly are ‘those guys’?” Thea asked.
Oh, right, I forgot to mention. I think the book does a better job of explaining it, but have a summary anyways. Human civilization is older than we currently think it is. Over a hundred thousand years ago, they built a civilization that reached out for the stars, but it all came crashing down. I’ll fill you in on the details when they become relevant, or you can read the book on your own time. Amina is looking for evidence of their existence, and after thirty years she’s found enough to fill up a book. But not everything they left behind is just a museum piece.
“You don’t mean…”
Yes. Some of their stuff might still work. Have you heard of the Finnish legend of the Sampo?
Several minutes later
Alexandra, Magnus, Gulichi, and Leyla gathered in the infirmary, listening to Thea’s explanation of Diana’s message.
“…and that’s when she told me to stop reading and explain it all to you,” Thea concluded.
“Let me get this straight,” Gulichi said, “A woman who died ten years ago now wants us to go all the way back to Takomaan on the off-chance we can find some mythological item that conveniently solves all of our problems?”
“Basically, yes.”
“I can’t say for sure that this is a hoax,” Alexandra said, “There’s no way Aunt Diana could’ve known Gulichi.”
“And mentioning the Sampo…” Gulichi said. “The myth itself is common knowledge, but how would she know our village’s specific variation of it? She even mentioned the island in the lake.”
“I think it would be best if we take someone out to investigate it,” Thea said, “It’s worth a shot.”
“Thea, as weird as this all is, I have to be reasonable,” Leyla said, “We can’t afford to send that many people out to the middle of nowhere for some object that might not even exist. Even if this letter is scarily accurate for something ten years old, the fact is we’re at our limits right now.”
“It doesn’t have to be that much,” Thea said, “Maybe just a single helicopter. I did the math. A fully fueled utility helicopter like the ones Operation Huma has will have enough range to reach Takomaan within a day at top speed. Once we reach the nearest suitable base, we’ll need another day to travel on foot to the village. We don’t need to take too many people with us. Maybe even just us and the pilot. Save space and weight for whatever we’re bringing back.”
If only Tania came with us.
“She has a point,” Magnus said.
“But we need everything we’ve got to take Baku,” Leyla said.
“We should be back within four or five days, at the maximum,” Thea said, “Should be in time for the Baku operation.”
“I say we go,” Magnus said, “It can’t hurt to investigate.”
“I’d also like to check up on how my home’s doing,” Gulichi said, “Wanted to do it for a while but never got the chance.”
“I’ll be your eyes and ears there, Thea,” Alexandra said, “Least I can do.”
“What about you, Leyla?” Thea said.
Leyla sighed. “Well, if Gulichi’s going, someone’s got to keep an eye out for him and the others. Sure.”
“Thanks, everyone,” Thea said, “I know this is a really strange request to make, but I really appreciate it.”
“I sure hope this trip’s worth it,” Leyla said.
“I hope so to, Leyla.”
---
I’m renaming the Imperial Postal Service (or whatever I called it in the past) to the historical
Kaiserliche Reichspost.
