Jenny meets the Agents
Somewhere in South Dakota, North America, Earth. 9 August 2011, 16:23
Jenny was sitting in the backseat of a car. The backseats were a bit narrow compared to the shuttle's captain seat she had spend several days in, but it was also quite an interesting feeling to only move in two dimensions.
They were in the car for about three hours now and it was boring. Myka had given Jenny the newspaper they had found the artifact in, but after about 15 minutes Jenny had read the complete thing. After that she tried to guess some of the stuff she still didn't know about society in the twenty-first century on Earth by analyzing the newspaper articles and adverts and then asking the other three rather random questions.
Claudia was sitting next to her, for some time now constantly pressing on her cell phone. Jenny had asked what kind of information such a phone could provide, and Claudia just eyed here unbelieving for a moment, and then said something about 'just texting the boss he should make some cookies'.
Before they all got into the car, which was parked behind the jewelry, Myka had insisted that technically Jenny should be considered a prisoner of the Secret Service because she assaulted three agents. Pete however thought, Jenny seemed to be more of an artifact herself, being lost in South Dakota but also able to knock out a team of 'special agents' and all that. At that point Jenny just mentioned she was actually still standing next to them and asked if she couldn't just come with them until she had better plans to go looking for her dad, which, for the agents, sounded too much like 'looking for artifacts by myself'.
And they all seemed to agree that it would be better if Jenny was with them looking for artifacts than on her own. This way they would get her intel on what they were, and in the meantime could ensure that she wouldn't try to destroy the planet or go completely mental (they could all see that happen).
Jenny had already been sitting in the car, testing how the different seats felt. "Okay with me! So far I really like this adventure! Do I get some food where we're going? I'm starving! Haven't really eaten in… at least four days!" Then she added after a second of consideration, "I can still leave whenever I want though, right?"
— ❖ —
The car pulled up in front of a huge building, in the middle of nowhere. The Pete, Myka, Claudia and Jenny got out and went to a small door in the middle of the building. The door opened before they got there and man was standing in the shadow of the doorframe, so that only his face with a weird hairstyle and glasses was lit.
"So, why should I make cookies?", he called towards the four of them.
"Because I love your cookies!", Pete answered laughing. "Oh, and because of our guest here."
"Guest? Are you kidding me! Top secret warehouses do not have guests!", the man yelled stepping forward out in the open and continued, directed at Jenny, "Who the hell are you?"
"Oh, hi, I'm Jenny. I kinda met your 'agents' in the jewelry.", Jenny said smiling.
"Yeah, she kinda met us and when Pete wanted to tesla her she went all Neo on us and was only half a minute out after Myka Tesla-ed her… must've been quite epic watching it all, well, I don't really remember, she got me before I could escape!", Claudia explained enthusiastically despite describing how her team was 'captured'. "Oh, and when we woke up, she tried to make coffee."
"So, what! She assaulted you before you could snatch the artifact and you invite her to come along?"
"Oi, I gave the earrings back when I knew they were empty! And I never made coffee before, so how should I know how it's supposed to taste?", Jenny shot back.
"Empty? What do you mean, 'empty'?"
"Can we please take this inside? I'm really hungry."
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this!", Artie said eyeing Jenny nervously then stepping back inside, the other four following him.
— ❖ —
"Nice place…", Jenny said absently, running all through the control room looking at everything at picking half of it up to inspect in further, her hunger long forgotten. She was just about to open a Farnsworth and holding it close to her wrist while her other hand was about to touch the vortex manipulator to scan it, when Artie came up next to her.
"What the hell are you doing? Put my stuff down! Myka said you knew some pretty advanced stuff about the earrings? So: talk!"
Jenny looked at him like a child who was just told she couldn't have the chocolate, but then snapped out of it and putting the Farnsworth down. "Alright, alright, it's just quite fascinating what you've got here… never saw anything quite like this collection."
She then realized that outside the office there was a barely lit warehouse full of shelves and boxes. "Oh my god, is that stuff out there all stuff like what you got here? Wooooow!"
"Yep, all very interesting and fascinating, but… what do you know about the earrings?"
"Well, they look pretty nice… and they are made out of dilithium. That's all I got.", Jenny answered skipping the 'not being discovered until 60 years in the future'.
"Dilithium, what the hell would that be?"
"Erm, it's a material I guess? It can contain quite a lot of energy."
"How do you know this stuff anyway?–", Artie asked but was interrupted by Claudia. "Energy? What kind of energy? Why would someone store energy in earrings?"
"Why do you think I can answer all your questions?", Jenny answered annoyed. She didn't want to answer questions, she wanted to explore what stuff they got here. And maybe she wanted to finally find a power source and see what else the vortex manipulator was able to do. She continued mumbling, "Maybe the guy who made the earrings didn't know it was dilithium, 'cause it's not discovered on Earth yet?"
"What did you just say?", Myka asked now standing on Jenny's other side.
"Uhm, I just said, that maybe the maker didn't know what material it was?"
"No, the other thing. Not being discovered yet. What's that supposed to mean!"
Jenny looked around. She saw four people looking at her, who were used to finding stuff they couldn't explain. She guessed they wouldn't settle for anything less than the complete truth. 'Ok, the truth it is then', she thought, now grinning again.
"So, do you guys believe in aliens?"
— ❖ —
"Aliens? What the hell? What's that to do with everything?", Pete asked.
"Oh, oh no. No!", Artie replied facing Jenny, "Don't tell me some conspiracy theory stuff. I've heard them all!"
Jenny looked at him in wonder. "Conspiracy? No, it was just a question. So, do you?", she asked looking around.
Artie answered first. "No way. I've had thirty years of artifacts and alien theories, but the only thing that proved to be right were the artifacts. I'd say behind every alien sight is at least one artifact."
Myka added, "Erm, no, I guess I don't. I mean a few years back there were some events and people said they saw aliens, but I don't know. I've never seen an alien. Just yesterday we had a case where some boy thought he found aliens but in fact it was just an old rocket from Earth… Why do you want to know?"
"Oh, ok, well… ok. It's actually quite bad then." Jenny looked down on her wrist where her jacket's sleeve was pushed back a bit to reveal the wristband of the vortex manipulator. She began to babble, "Ok, then. Let me try to explain… because, you see, I… erm, how should I even start to tell you something like that? I have no idea… oh, dad would know what to say… he stopped a war with words!"
Myka, who still stood next to her, put a hand on her right shoulder. "Jenny, just start from the beginning. What do you want to say? Have you seen an alien or what?"
Suddenly, Claudia moved around and looked at Jenny like she just told her she was a cannibal. She slowly went to the back of the office behind a desk.
"Claud, what's going on?", Pete asked.
Jenny carefully moved towards Claudia having a hurt look on her face. "Did I… did I say something wrong?"
Claudia moved another step back, yelling, "Don't come near me! I know what you are!"
"Huh?", Jenny asked confused. Okay, she had given them quite a bit of clues that she wanted to talk about aliens…
"A time traveller! And I know you are here to change history! Don't you dare use the Warehouse for that!", Claudia yelled, having picked up a fork and holding it towards Jenny, who was looking at her, clearly shocked.
Everyone went silent for a moment.
"Claudia, did you drink too much of that 'coffee' earlier?", Pete asked laughing awkwardly.
There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments.
"No, wait.", Artie interrupted. "Jenny, are you a time traveller?"
Jenny considered her options for a second. She was quite astonished that Claudia had such a hard prejudice against traveling in time. But she was clearly confused why she thought of her as a time traveller and not an alien. They were talking about aliens. What was wrong with those people?
Quietly, she said, "I don't wanna change history or anything. I'm just looking for my dad and Donna."
"Hah! I knew it!", Claudia said. "You didn't know what coffee was or that 15,000 bucks is expensive! But you knew what the earrings were! Hah!"
"Jenny, are you a time traveller?", Artie asked again.
She answered him honestly. "Yes."
"Wow.", Myka uttered but was interrupted by Pete.
"Seriously? That's awesome! I knew there was more to you than just being a good looking teenager who can kick our butts! So, what's the future like? Tell me, how can there not be any coffee in the future? Or… are you from the past?"
"Erm, I don't really know. I was only about a day on that planet and there was a war most of the time…"
"What planet?", Artie inquired. "So, you're not from Earth?"
"No, it's a colony called Messaline. But there's not much there, only a few people and just one building…"
"Which year are you–?", Myka began.
"Why are you looking for your dad in the past? Did he die in the future?" Claudia was still standing behind the desk in a quite defensive position.
"No, no. Last time I saw him he was very much alive… it's just, he visits this time a lot. Donna's from the twenty-first century as far as I know–"
Claudia interrupted her. "Are you an alien?"
Everyone turned to face Claudia.
"What?", she asked. "She's from the future, from some planet. Might as well only disguise as human!"
Jenny looked at her even more confused than she did as she told her she was a time traveller. 'Where did Claudia get her ideas from?'
"Erm, I don't disguise as anything. I really look like this."
They seemed to relax at that. Claudia actually sighed a bit.
"But I'm not human. If that's what you mean."
— ❖ —
"So. You're an alien from the future?" Pete just summarized the last 10 minutes. Myka stood next to Jenny and had just felt her two hearts with a stethoscope.
"I guess so…", Jenny began, but than reacted quickly to their surprised faces and exclaimed, "But I don't wanna hurt you or anything! I don't know what you think of me but I really don't wanna do anything bad!" She lowered her head and looked suddenly quite upset.
Myka reached for Jenny's shoulder and said, "Hey, it's okay. I don't really know if I can really believe what you just told us, but you don't seem to like to hurt people and that's a good thing."
"I just don't want you to hate me… I don't know anybody here!"
"Oh, don't worry. We don't hate you. I'm actually pretty sure you're the nicest person who has ever intervened with one of our missions!"
Jenny smiled a bit. "It's really not what I expected I'd be doing all day. I really planned on saving worlds and rescuing people and stuff… But I'm can't even get myself somewhere to stay or something to eat. I just have no idea what to do… my dad's gonna be so disappointed…"
Myka looked over to Artie, "Do you think she could stay at Leena's with us?"
"Why not. She has you living there, I'm sure she'll be glad to have someone over there who really is an alien and not just acts like one, for a change. Let me just tell her to have a room ready.", Artie replied and went to a phone on his desk.
"Jenny, can I just say", Pete started, "that I'm really relieved? I always thought, if I would ever meet an alien it would want to eat or assimilate me or something, to take over the world and all that. But you… you're just so nice! The movies got it all wrong!"
Jenny smiled at him. "Thanks… And don't worry, I don't want to overtake the planet or something… A nice place to stay would be quite enough. So all you know about aliens is from movies?" And then she added with a small twinkle in her eyes, "Oh! Can we watch some movies?"
Claudia grinned widely. "You're right, Pete. We just had an alien encounter all day and didn't even know. Jenny, I don't judge you because you apparently are an alien. In fact, you are way cooler than those movie aliens!" Then she looked at Pete, "Movie night! Let's get over to Leena's and then we can watch some alien movies!"
"Oh, where are the cookies by the way?"
— ❖ —
Leena had already prepared a room for Jenny, but since Jenny didn't have anything with her, she just threw her jacket onto the bed and went down into a larger room where Pete was already sitting with a bowl of cookies. Claudia, Myka and Leena were outside the house.
"Want some?", he asked with a full mouth and handed her the bowl. Jenny took a cookie from it, bit into it and began to chew.
"Oh, this is fantastic! What's that sweet dark stuff in it?"
"Chocolate."
"I love chocolate!"
"Every girl does!", Claudia announced running up to Jenny, taking two cookies from the bowl and let herself fall on the couch next to Pete.
"Hey guys, did you know that Fargo is trying to build a FTL drive?"
"English, Claudia", Pete replied. "Who's trying to build what?"
"Okay, okay. Douglas Fargo, head of Global Dynamics from Eureka – that's the town with the most awesome technology developed on this planet, Jenny – is building a propulsion system for space ships that allows them to travel faster then light."
"Wow! Now, that's what I'm talking about!", Pete said jumping up from the couch, and pointed with his hand towards the TV. "Warp two, Lieutenant Donovan." He smirked at Jenny and added, "Engage!"
"Yeah, like that! By the way, can I text him that he can stop looking for aliens 'cause I've met a new friend who happens to be one? Oh, I think he would go mad just reading it, even if he didn't believe it!"
Jenny giggled at that. "Well, why not? Could you just write it so that he won't come and dissect me? I'd hate to punch another one of your friends!"
They all laughed at that and Pete added, "Oh man, one of your punches would put Fargo down for at least a month!"
— ❖ —
"Hey, what's that thing?", Claudia asked pointing at the vortex manipulator; she could now finally see it, because Jenny's wrist wasn't covered by her jacket's sleeve anymore.
"Oh, a vortex manipulator. It's pretty cool, but it only worked one time and now it got no more power…", Jenny explained.
"But it's just a leather wristband? What does it do? Oh, you were looking for the earrings because they could be a power source for it, right?", Pete deducted.
"Yeah, if they had been charged, it could have used them, I guess."
"But what does it do?", Claudia inquired.
"Lots of stuff. It's how I came here in the first place, it can travel in time and space. Oh, and it can show maps and scan for alien technology and stuff like that!"
"Oh god, this is so cool! But this? This thing is your time machine! Awesome! – How does it work?"
"I don't really know… It says some stuff about manipulating the 'time vortex', but how that actually works, I have no idea. But I guess if I could find my dad, he would know."
"Global Dynamics is so building toys compared to this! Can I have a look?", Claudia asked leaning towards Jenny, who had just sit down in a chair next to her. Jenny nodded, pulled the vortex manipulator from her wrist and gave it to Claudia.
Claudia opened it carefully and the screen began to light up. She tapped a few times in wonder and looked fascinated on the device. She tapped once more and it began to beep.
"Uh, what's that? I tapped on 'alien technology' and it began to beep and show a map and we're in the middle of it and there is a point blinking right next to us!"
Pete and Jenny leaned over to look at the vortex manipulator and then looked around the room. Pete took the device from Claudia and moved it next to Myka's purse. The beeping intensified. Jenny and Claudia had moved next to Pete and began to pull stuff out of the bag holding it next to the vortex manipulator. One of the last items Claudia retrieved was small golden ring with three tiny diamonds in different colors on it.
The vortex manipulator beeped one last time and began to show an image of the ring and some information next to it.
Level 2 bio damper. Origin: Fragrance, time period: 67G56 (local time)
"Oh, nice. A bio damper! Where did Myka get that from?"
"Bio damper? Is it dangerous?", Claudia asked.
"Nah, it just hides your biometrical signature, as far as I can tell. And that's pretty much useless in 2011.", Jenny answered, put the vortex manipulator back on her wrist and took another cookie. "So, what's with the movies? And do you people eat anything more than cookies?"
Pete grinned, "Well, I don't, but other people choose to eat regular, healthy food from time to time. I'm pretty sure Leena and Myka will have something ready later, it's their turn today." And he added, "Yeah, what movie should we start with, Claudia?"
"Erm, I don't know, but I got 'em all right here!" Claudia said pointing at the bunch of external hard drives connected with various cables to the TV. "Oh, Jenny, what species are you anyway? So that we don't watch a movie and they make fun of you or something."
"Erm, I'm a time lord. Or, time lady, actually."
Pete laughed, "Time lady, alright. That sure is one proud title, dame Jenny!"
Jenny laughed as she for the first time considered that her own species had indeed quite a fancy title. She thought back at what her father had said to her in the cell on Messaline, how she was just an echo and being time lords was so much more. But she didn't want to think about a culture she could not have and instead chose to joke, "Hey, what can I do about that? It just so happens to be that my dad's a time lord! At least I've got two hearts and you don't!"
"Oh, about that. What do you do with the second one?", Claudia considered, "Is that the only difference between time lords and humans?"
"Oh, I don't know. I haven't been around much humans or time lords for that matter. But I think you also have a higher body temperature. When I was dragging you around that jewelry shop I was quite worried you were ill or something but then I figured you must always be that warm.", Jenny answered. "So, have you got any movies about time lords?"
"Uh, not that I know of. Would have been quite a coincidence anyway, a fictional species actually existing in the future…", Claudia turned on the TV with the remote and leaned back in the couch. "But I've got some about time travel! Want to have a laugh at how we think it's done? Pete, how about some Back to the Future action?"
"What? No Alien versus Predator like usually?", Pete whined.
"I don't wanna give her the wrong ideas…", Claudia replied and winked at Jenny.
The movie started and Pete and Claudia watched in awe how captivated Jenny was by the movie. It was really rather amusing to see a person from 4000 years in the future watch a 'sci-fi' movie from nowadays. Jenny snorted at some of the technical descriptions but seemed to really like the story, once she got over the 'messing with your own timeline thing', which for some reason really seemed to concern her.
They had just finished watching the first Back to the Future, when Myka entered the room. Jenny lay across her chair and looked up at her.
"Hey guys, dinner's ready! Jenny, do you like pizza?"
"Uh, no idea… that's the round bread with stuff on it, right?"
"Jup, that's pizza. Hey, wait, what have you done to my purse!", Myka shrieked running towards the table where all her belongings lay.
Pete put one hand behind his head and said, "Yeah… sorry about that. But why do have a bio damper with you anyway?" He held up the ring for Myka to see what he meant.
"Bio damper? Seriously? That's a ring my mom gave me as a present last christmas… I always guessed she didn't pay much for it… but what the hell is a bio damper?"
Claudia began to explain, "It seems to make it impossible for aliens to scan you or something… not dangerous."
"So what, I've been running around with an artifact for seven months and nobody noticed until Jenny did what exactly to find it?", Myka said, then looked around and saw only Pete and Claudia. Jenny had already left the room.
— ❖ —
Jenny wandered around the house for a bit and finally found what she thought must be the kitchen. She entered and saw a woman taking plates out of a shelf.
"Oh hi, you must be Leena. I'm Jenny."
Leena turned around and smiled at Jenny, "Hi." Then she shifted her body a bit and tilted her head. She seemed to look at Jenny quite thoroughly. "Oh god. You don't have an aura!"
Jenny's smile faded and she asked confused, "I don't have what?"
Leena seemed to be taken quite aback from her discovery. "Everyone has an aura. It's like I can sense their presence or feelings or something. But you… I don't feel anything from you. It's like you're not really here!"
"Oh, ok. But I am here. And I would really like to know about these pizzas!" Jenny kneeled down in front of the oven and looked inside, loudly sniffling. "Wow, that's smells really good. I've literally never had a real proper dinner, this is going to be so brilliant!"
She stood back up, looked for a moment at Leena, who was still staring at her, then remembered some stuff, took the plates out of Leena's hands, grabbed a bunch of silverware and stormed out of the room.
