CHAPTER 4
She's got it,
Yeah, baby, she's got it.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
- Shocking Blue (Venus)
=/\=
Rick wasn't a part of any of that, so he instead went to see the department's engineers. Kevin O'Connor and Deirdre Katzman were banging away at one of the time ships, the Jack Finney.
"Now, hold that wrench in place," Deirdre was saying, "Just, just hang there for like a minute."
"Entertain me," Kevin said, holding the wrench, "Uh, please. Tell me who Jack Finney was again."
"He wrote Time and Again. This man, Simon Morley, engages in a secret government plot to get Grover Cleveland to buy Cuba so that the United States never has to deal with Castro. Time travel is achieved through a kind of a trancelike state, plus ole Si falls in love with the landlord's daughter, Julia."
"Sounds silly."
"It was very romantic," she said, "Okay, you can let go now," she looked up, "Oh, hiya, Rick. Something we can do for you?"
"Nothing in particular. Is the HG Wells in working order?" he asked.
"Ask Levi. We've been on the Jack for a while. Is, uh, anything the matter with it?" she asked.
"I don't think so. Just want it to be good. I gotta train the new girl, don't want anything going kerflooey during that."
"Better safe 'n sorry. Okay, Deirdre, let's see if the injector's workin' now. Gotta go – time ships wait for no man."
=/\=
Rick found Levi in his office.
Levi didn't look up – he was engrossed in something on his PADD.
"Uh, Levi?"
"Oh, yeah, uh, come in, I guess."
"What are you doing?" asked Rick.
"Decrypting. You remember, we got a note, a, a manifesto from whoever stole the Audrey Niffenegger?"
Ah, yes, Rick remembered – the older time ship. Someone had grabbed it about a month previously, and had messed with 1959, just before he had taken some time off. He had had to fix that, "Yeah, I remember."
"We got the title – it's not very imaginative. It's just called Manifesto. And we deciphered the first sentence, which I guess is the premise: There is much wrong with history. There are another four paragraphs that are longer, and we haven't been able to crack those yet. It's very annoying."
"I'm sure. Uh, is the Wells in good working order?"
"It should be," Levi said, "What, you break something on it when you went to Clear Lake?"
"Uh, no. The 1959 Iowa trip went off without a hitch."
"So don't worry; it's fine."
"I just want things to go smoothly. I'm gonna take it to train the new girl."
"Oh? Going anywhere interesting?" it was Otra.
"1970, I figure. There's a shooting at Kent State."
"Why would you wanna train the new girl on something like that?" asked Levi, "Uh, hi, Otra."
"Baptism by fire, right?" she asked. She had flower-like appendages in lieu of hair, called chavecoi, and they waved and swayed, completely independently of the rest of her. It was a little unnerving to watch, if you weren't used to it.
"A bit," Rick said, "Plus it should be an education, to see the Pre-Warp Era. I know she's never been there – people who head to Pre-Warp for the first time are always shocked that anyone got anything done, what with the slow transportation, the constant striving for money and the lousy, bureaucratic medical care."
"I wish I could go with you," Otra said, "I don't imagine I'll ever be able to visit my father's past."
"Ah, your human side," Rick said, "Have you ever gone to your Witannen past?"
"Once, to the 2150s, when there was first contact with a lot of Alpha Quadrant species – humans included. The encounter was a less than positive one. A number of species were rounded up, to play war games on Andromeda for the Zetal."
There wasn't a lot of trade or communications between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies yet, but the ties were getting closer all the time. After such an inauspicious beginning, the Zetal, a non-humanoid species, as well as the Witannen themselves were warming up to humans and others. The Witannen had even, recently, joined the Federation.
"Strange how such things were important to our ancestors, eh?" asked Rick.
"Uh, is there a reason why you're in my office?" Levi asked.
"The Wells?" Rick prompted.
"What about – oh, yes," Levi said, "It's probably fine, unless you banged it up like you did with Audrey," The Audrey Niffenegger, the oldest of the time ships, had been positively manhandled by Rick during the previous eight-plus years.
"Like I said, I just want to make sure it's all right," Rick insisted.
"I don't think –" Levi said.
"Levi, why don't you do a Level One diagnostic?" Otra suggested.
"Um, yeah, okay," he said, "Maybe that's a good idea."
=/\=
Mrs. Marci Cavendish's baby boy Levi was such a pain in the posterior that his father walked out when Levi was but three years old. Zach Cavendish had been a military commander, and had been looking forward to a child to follow in his footsteps, a leader, an athlete and a hero in the making.
Instead, he was stuck with Levi.
Zach felt trapped, bogged down by a whiny, sickly child who, while a genius, was petulant, uncoordinated and rude to all comers. Levi was picked on by every other child he ever met. Such a professional victim was never going to be the manly heir that Zach craved. Zach almost thought the kid wasn't even his. And so, after only three years, Zach had walked.
With the abolishment of money, there was no need for financial child support. Instead, both parents, if living and competent – and not dangerous criminals – were expected to provide emotional child support and sustenance. This was even true of an absentee parent such as Zach. Marci had taken him to court, and had won. And so Zach was obligated, until Levi turned thirty – a date that Zach had already booked as a holiday for himself, May twelfth, 3114 – to keep up with his son and even visit a few times per year. This Zach did begrudgingly, only performing the barest minimum of his requirements. Otherwise, he was never around, and could not be reached.
As for Levi's part, he didn't give a damn. So his father was gone – so what?! It wasn't like they'd had anything in common, ever.
His main influence, growing up, had been Marci, and she'd found religion and gone fundamentalist by the time he'd turned seven. It didn't even matter which religion – she was a fundie for any and all of them, handling snakes one week, practicing Methodist temperance another, wearing a hijab during a third, then performing Wiccan rituals and then back again, and then branching out into some other direction. She'd dabbled in Orthodox Judaism, Zen Buddhism, and New Age mysticism and even threw the I Ching when it suited her.
Amidst all of this unsettled strife, Levi hadn't had a prayer of growing up normally. But even if his family life had been picture perfect – or at least this side of usual – he still would have failed the normalcy test miserably. He had multiple issues, including adult ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome.
He was hyper-focused on one issue at a time, which was why he was obsessed with the encrypted PADD message, even though encryption most certainly was not his job. He was also somewhat obsessed with Otra, and she knew she was usually the only one who could make his attention jump tracks and change course.
=/\=
She's got it,
Yeah, baby, she's got it.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
Well, I'm your Venus,
I'm your fire at your desire.
- Shocking Blue (Venus)
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