You find yourself standing on a wide plain. No one seems to be around. But to be sure, you do a 360O of your surroundings.
“Now,” the AI whispers in your ear, “this looks like it might be Stygia.” He sounds much too satisfied. When you get a chance you’re going to have to change his settings. He might not want to be called Siri, but there isn’t any reason he couldn’t sound like Siri. Then you check yourself—talking about the AI as though it’s a he.
You take a quick look at your Chronosensor. Greece, 399 BCE. It doesn’t give you a specific location. Shouldn’t it? You shake it.
“Hey!” the AI says.
“Sorry.”
“Just kidding. Can’t feel a thing.”
The humor setting is obviously way too high.
The Chrononsensor beeps. You realize that the Chronosensor and the AI may be in the same device, but that doesn’t mean they are identical.
You open a text; no signature: “I don’t know who this is. There seems to be something amiss with the chronosensor TGPS identification code. Howsoever, the readings indicate that whoever you are you are within walking distance of Athens in 399 BCE. Yours is the only Chronosensor we can detect in that chronoscape. I pray that you are an experienced intern, and that you can be trusted. Please proceed to Athens at once. When you reach the city take the following actions precisely as they are laid out for you. Not deviation will be tolerated. First, you should . . .”
Static, and then silence. The screen flickers and goes blue, then black. You shake it. Strike it against your palm. The screen flickers, then comes to life.
“Please proceed to Athens at once. When you reach the city take the following actions precisely as they are laid out. First, you should . . .”
“Please proceed to Athens at once. When you reach the city take the following actions precisely as they are laid out. First, you . . .”
“Please proceed to Athens at once. When you reach the city take the following actions precisely as they are laid out. First . . .”
You shake the Chronosensor.
“Go ahead, bang it on a rock, why don’t you?” The AI asks.
“What do I do?” You reply.
“We’ll, if you got a message directly from Dr. N, it’s something important. It’s really too bad you’re not the experienced intern he was hoping for.”
“How do you know this message was form Dr. N?” You didn’t add, “Who is Dr. N?” You are having enough problems with this AI.
“What do I do?”
“You asked that. However, I do have a suggestion.”
“Well?”
“I detect two Chronosensors at bearing 12.4 NE. No, there are four. Now, three. It appears that there may be several other interns whose Chronosensors are partially or wholly damaged. There may be, among them someone with the experience and skills you need. Perhaps you could recruit from their midst.”
“What good will that do me if I don’t know what we’re supposed to do in Athens?”
“You can but hope you will be able to reconnect and receive instructions. In the meantime, recruiting a team seems to be the first step. If I’m reading the fluctuating signals, there are five, possibly six interns. Too many to take into the city, not in 399. Tensions are rather high at this date. I’d suggest recruiting the two most reliable team members.”
“How do I do that?”
“I am keeping a list of the things you do not think you are capable. Fortunately, my storage capacity is quite large. I’d suggest you look up Ethos in the Chronosensor database, study the information carefully, and proceed north. You have a few miles to trek, so you’ll have time to study."
“Ethos?”
“In brief, Ethos has to do with being credible. It has to do with your character as well as your credentials. Remember this, someone with positive Ethos has three important characteristics: Good Character, Good Sense, and Good Will. On the other hand, someone with negative Ethos cannot be trusted. And believe me, there are a few interns who shouldn’t be trusted.
“Let’s think about it in terms of your current situation. You are going to be a foreigner in a foreign place. The first thing you have to do if you are going to get anywhere is to get people to trust you. This is one reason I advised you select team members—that and your obvious inexperience. In this chronoscape, a foreigner who asks too many questions is immediately suspect. The best way of spying on a neighboring city is to go there as a merchant. So, all merchants are suspect. Go there without any visible reason and you’re even more suspect. A team will allow you to switch off questioning so that no single one of you appears too curious.
“That way, you should be able to find out about Socrates’s trial without too much difficulty.”
“Socrates’s trial?”
“Oh, I let that slip, didn’t I? Even more surprising: you caught it. I was going to let you figure it out on your own. But yes, I can only surmise that whatever your mission, it has to do with Socrates’s trial.
"1) Critical mission in Athens 399 BCE
2) What happened of import in Athens in 399 BCE?
3) The trial of Socrates; ergo, your mission has to do with the trial.
“That’s the most I can come up with from the scant information we have. But, a little syllogistic reasoning goes a long way, doesn’t it? You might want to look up syllogism when you have a moment. In the meantime. You have several miles to hike. And I believe it will be night before you get there.”
[[Challenge One: The Meeting on the Plains]]
You can smell the fire before you see it, the smell of wet soot, hanging in the night air. At first the fire appears small, less powerful than the stars that had already started to come out. As you come closer you can make out forms around the fire, shadow puppets, almost.
“I have a few suggestions before we get there.” The words startle you. The AI hadn’t spoken since you’d started walking, and the night had become still.
“You always have suggestions,” you tell it.
“Ah, you’re developing a sense of humor. Capital. They obviously are not in contact with the Institute. When they find out you are, some may try to take control. Even those who’d be willing to follow you, all will want to come along. I would keep your contact with the Institute secret as long as you are able.”
“What is one of them is better qualified to take over?”
“Show some backbone. . . . if you’ve studied ethos carefully enough, you should be able to recognize and measure their strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, you should be able to do the same with your own. Ah, they’ve noticed you. Best not to let them know you’re speaking with me.”
“Hello?” Someone calls from the fire.
You step out of the darkness into the faint light from the fire.
“Who is it?” Someone asks. You’re about to answer, when you realize they’re not speaking to you.
“It’s another stranded intern. This one looks like a newbie.”
A girl dressed in a leather jerkin with some sort of turban on, greets you. “Hey, welcome to the fire. Does your Chronsensor work? Do you know what time we’re in?”
“Nobody’s Chronosensor works, Britney, at least not on a regular basis.” This from a guy dressed in some Asian outfit.
“Someone’s might, John.”
John frowns and turns back to the fire and pokes it with a stick that catches fire on its already blackened tip.
“The three over there are Edia, Ricardo, and Gage.”
One of them waves at you. You’re not sure if its Eldia, Ricardo, or Gage. You think Eldia is a girl’s name, but you’re not sure about that either. They’re all dressed in mismatched costumes as well.
“You look relatively healthy, and not too dirty,” one of the three says. “How long have you been stranded?”
Only then do you notice that all of them look a little ragged.
“I only left the Institute a couple of hours ago.”
For the first time all of them show interest in you. They all ask questions at once. “Do you have any idea what happened?” “Any word from the Institute about when they’re going to come get us?” “Rescue attempts?” “Are they looking for us?” “When are they going to come?”
You have no answers for them. But over the next couple of hours they tell you their stories. All of them were in the field in various times and places. Without warning, each found him or herself suddenly displaced to this time and place, their Chronosensor no longer working, or working sporadically. They have been completely out of contact with the Institute since.
“Why are you all hiding out here?” you ask.
“Protocol, when out of contact, hunker down and wait,” Britney tells you. "But I’ve been here three days, and Gage has been here a week. Besides, without a Chronsensor, we can’t speak the language, and won’t be able to communicate. Where could we go? That’s why everyone is so anxious to find someone with a working Chronosensor. At least then we could go into a town or city.”
“I could use a meal that isn’t cooked over a campfire,” John adds.
“Thank goodness John was working with Native Americans and knows how to make snares.”
“I didn’t realize how demoralized they all would be,” the AI says after they had all gone to sleep. “I think you’re going to have to tell them you have a mission. That’s the only way you’re going to get anyone to come with you.”
“I’m not going to tell them everything,” you reply.
“And why this sudden reticence?”
“They were all somewhere else, and ended up here. Right here? Why?"
“I assure you, I don’t know.”
“Neither do I. But it sounds way to convenient, that they all ended up here. Almost as if it was planned.”
“You are a suspicious soul, aren’t you? A final suggestion: interview them all. Take careful notes. You might even want to construct a chart.”
“Too much like school.”
“You will have to choose carefully. If you are right, and there’s more than meets the eye going on here, then choosing the wrong person to accompany you, might not simply jeopardize this mission, but your safety as well, perhaps even the very nature of time itself.”
“No look who’s being melodramatic.”
The next morning you tell them that you know where and when they all are, and that you have a mission to complete. As the AI suspected, they are all anxious to join you. You interview each, one on one.
[[Britney|Britney Coy]]
[[Eldia|Eldia Stiles]]
[[John|John Wilderness]]
[[Ricardo|Ricardo Normandy]]
[[Gage|Gage Packard]]
"I’m so excited. This would be my third mission. The first two didn’t go so well, but that wasn’t my fault. The members of the team I was on didn’t get along very well together. Again, not my fault. I get along with everyone here. But in the field, I work better independently. You could say I’m a free spirit. I have high hopes for this mission, though.
"We’re in Greece? Who would have thought. I took Classical Greek Culture last semester. So, I got a “C.” The professor and I didn’t see eye to eye. He didn’t like the way I challenged him in class, and he didn’t like my paper. But I really, really, loved the course. I remember reading Aristotle’s Rhetoric, or was it Politics? No, I remember now, it was Poetics. It was super interesting.
"I really like being an intern. I hope they renew my contract for another semester. Assuming we get back. But you learn so much! Did you say we'd be on a team? I already told you I would better independently; but I’m up for the challenge. Let me know what you decide.
[[Interesting...|Choosing a Team]]
"Hi. My name's Eldia. I remember my first few missions. They were challenging. I admit, I’ve never been to Hellenic Greece during this period or another. But I did spend some time recovering documents at the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period. I know that several hundred years later than this. But it was excellent experience—and I worked with a team. We got along well.
"I hope you are enjoying your missions so far. It’s hard to get a handle on it the first time, especially with everything that’s happened.
"I've been through quite a few already. I’d love to share what I’ve learned. If you want me to go with you to Athens, you’ll get someone that doesn’t have a vast wealth of experience, but someone with a lot of the right type of experience. If my Chronosensor was working I should show you several references from the professors back at the institute, as well as performance reviews, and even a couple of texts from former team mates who would vouch for me.
"Oh, I just love this job! I give it my all. What do you say, you want me to tag along?"
[[Interesting...|Choosing a Team]]
"I’ll admit, I haven’t completed a full mission yet. I was on my first mission when I got displaced here. I’d really like to go back and finish it. I was following Cicero around in Rome. It was just before the assassination of Julius Caesar. I was supposed to observe and record Cicero’s death and see if the events match the historical record. Now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish it.
"They picked me for that mission because of my Ranger training. Yeah, I came back to school. I'm one of those "non-traditional" students." This internship was the best thing that ever happened to me. Teamwork? Yeah, if you’re a Ranger you’re all about teamwork. So, I’d say that even though I don’t have specific experience. Never even been to Athens back in the present. I have experience that might be useful to you. I can work with a team, take orders, but think for myself.
"I think I can contribute to your mission, no matter what it entails. That said, I'll respect your decision.
[[Interesting...|Choosing a Team]]
"Nice to meet you. This journey is arduous and you need a guy who's experienced. I have over one hundred successful missions. That’s right. I didn't stutter. That’s triple digits. I know my way across these things. Athens? Pft. I'm a pro with Athens. Been here five times already. Trust me, I'm your guy. If you want to be a success, you got to learn how to do it yourself. If you choose me, don’t expect any handouts. I’m going to push you, kid. We’ll see if you can last. I have a spotless reputation and nothing in my missions ever goes wrong. Picking me to go shows me that you want to do well. Not picking me...hmm...well, let’s see how far you get without me. Look, I know you’ll pick me, so a quick lesson before we go: Everything in life has a cost. I guarantee success on this mission. You can’t afford not to take me."
[[Interesting...|Choosing a Team]]
"Look, let’s cut to the chase. I’m your best option here. I mean Brittney Coy? Please, she self-sabotaged herself on her last mission. They had to yank her out; temporal displacement . Knowing Ancient Greece never got her that far. Ricardo Normandy is all about the money. Now, Eldia Stiles barely knows how to think for herself. Finally, John Wilderness walks like a living rule book, because he hasn't been on many missions. He doesn’t know what it takes to succeed. You can’t survive out there by following the rules that exactly. That ain’t even good sense. Pay attention now, so I can give you the best advice. Out here, all that matters is number one, you. The egg heads back at the institute? They don’t care about you, and you already know it. You know what they call that guy Dr. N? Because he always says “No.” Never gives you any real help in the field.
"They almost left me out to die one time when they couldn’t locate me. My Chronosensor was glitchy. They didn’t care. They were fine with it. However, I survived, and I know what to do to survive. I hope that you know what to do to survive as well."
[[Interesting...|Choosing a Team]]
It’s time for you to choose your team based on the Ethos they’ve revealed in the interviews. You can choose two people for your team, no more.
Out of five individual interns, there are ten possible pairs—but only one pair will make an effective team.
Three combinations in which both team members are the wrong choice.
Six combinations in which one of the team members is the wrong choice.
One combination in which both team members are the right choice.
If you get the pair with the best Ethos on your first choice, receive 15 experience points.
For each wrong pair you choose in which both team members have negative ethos, subtract 5 points from that number.
For each wrong pair you choose in which one of the team members has negative ethos, subtract 1 point from that number.
Your instructor or assistant will tell you how well you’ve done as you choose pairs. Don’t let another team overhear you. Remember, you’re playing against them.