Orpheus and the Dark Aether – Chapter 2

Monday

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Orpheus stepped out of the Tardis and headed down the hall to the time station’s library. He proceeded to search through the stacks looking for anything he could find on New Babbage – journals, newspaper clippings, biographies, whatever he could find. After grabbing many promising journals he sat down to read. After many hours, he was more depressed by what

he found, or more accurately, what he didn’t find. All historical accounts showed a long and prosperous history for New Babbage. Not one account of its destruction could be seen. A few journals that had been well preserved mentioned the incident at City Hall, but no entries past the first couple days existed. Also, a grainy film of the crash had been saved. Orpheus pondered the two different accounts of history. It seemed as if he were witness to a history

that was slowly being rewritten.

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Orpheus returned to the Tardis and set it for New Babbage. As it materialized at his usual spot outside the city walls, systems began shutting down. “What now?” he thought. It appeared as if the Council was imposing some kind of temporal lock-down, and a temporal quarantine was now in place. There would be no more trips to the future for Mr. Angkarn.

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He made his way to City Hall to examine the Scribe again, and ran into a much younger Doctor Sonnerstein. Apparently he was going through some side effects of Victor’s cure. The two men talked about what they had found since Saturday. Orpheus explained that all historical accounts showed no sign of New Babbage’s destruction, but that history could sometimes be rewritten. As such, nothing he brought back with him was of any use to stop the

events described.

Sonnerstein told Orpheus how he had feared Moriarty’s involvement, and went to the lab where Jason had been reborn last year. The last time anyone had been down there, the machine was practically destroyed in an explosion. Now however, it looked as if someone or something had been secretly repairing it.

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He brought Mr. Angkarn across the street to wear the secret lab had been hidden to show him what he meant. After a little while, the young doctor left while Mr. Angkarn continued to investigate the room.