by TheTimeTrust, Grimm and The Eurostar
In the Stormloader above La Perdita:
"You pilot this vessel very well, Velo," Chance said as he moved forward. "I had no idea you knew how to pilot a military hovercraft, let alone a modified one." He was still concerned about the unpredictability of the UFO's probability engine working in concert with this multibillion-dollar military-grade hovercraft, but things had managed to hold together so far. He wasn't worried about himself, for he'd fallen from a greater height than this and survived due to his miraculous luck finding a way to save him, but even his tremendous luck couldn't protect several falling bodies at once. The hovercraft still required much testing before they could be sure the transfer was successful, but for now it seemed to work.
Marv Velo looked at the Swede with one eyebrow raised. "You must be Kristofer Schanz, also known as Chance. Correct?"
"Right," said Chance, smiling and frowning as he began thinking about the familiar tone he'd used with Velo. "Of course, of course. You haven't met me yet."
Velo shot him another puzzled look.
"I'm sure Kit or Doc Quantos can fill you in more fully, but I originate from another timeline similar yet very different in many ways to this one. In my timeline, you and are are respected allies, if not exactly close friends. Sometimes I find it hard to separate my past reality from my present." Chance continued to explain the detailed circumstances of his coming to this timeline and became quiet as he finished.
Marv Velo was silent as he listened, but after a few moments he replied, "You really believe that, don't you? That part about being from another reality?"
"Hm?" Chance asked, now as puzzled as Velo seemed to have been.
"Well, I'm sure that story makes a lot of sense to you, which is why you so readily believe it. But it's completely implausible, all that bit about the Castle of Crossed Destinies and other dimensions crossing into and out of our own at random."
"I... I don't understand what you mean."
"Well, haven't you considered -- isn't it more likely that you're some kind of clone of the original Kristofer Schanz, 'of this timeline,' if you will? Programmed with as many memories of Schanz as could be programmed without the benefit having the real Schanz to verify each of them, though altered with a few slight but obvious differences in order to seemingly 'confirm' the theory that you're from a timeline which is slightly different than this one. And with a set of slightly different memories, it's easy to believe that this shows that you're a parallel version of Schanz rather than a clone with imperfect memories as you may actually be. Hasn't that possibility ever been considered by yourself or anyone yet? I mean, the part about your timeline somehow being less dark than this one? And your team being more heroic and working better together under your leadership than they've managed in this timeline? All sounds a bit fishy, doesn't it? It must make even you wonder."
Chance stared, his mouth agape at Marv Velo as he explained his theory. Finally he sighed and said, "Well, I'm not really surprised at your reaction, Velo, but I hope you'll be able to trust me in time as I trust you."
"We'll see," Velo said as he pulled the hovercraft toward a landing at the rented hangar at La Perdita, "we'll see..."
The Uffizi Museum, Pisa, Italy:
Tom walked around the museum wearing his slippers, bathing suit, and sunglasses. He was drawing strange looks again, though he didn't seem to notice this time. He walked over to where a storage crate had been opened, and a sarcophagus lay inside. The area around the crate had been roped off by the police. Tom stepped under the rope and looked inside the sarcophagus. He reached down inside and picked something up. It appeared to be a desiccated eyeball. Tom's concentration slipped for a moment. Something inside him seemed to be telling him something. He wasn't sure what, though.
He began walking toward the rest room. A couple of security guards following him. He walked inside, and the door closed behind him. The guards entered the rest room cautiously, only to find it was empty.
Edulcore Cicciotto:
It's dark outside the windows.
On the beach, the locals have set the usual fires and dance under the stars. They seem to put a lot of careful attention on preserving... and renewing... their traditions.
This side of the glass, the room is scarcely lit. There is not enough electrical power to feed the new computers AND the other needs, so we had to choose. But I must say that the old walls of the Fish Factory render a lot better with the scarce illumination.
And we need the computers, right now. The pictures of the painting have been scanned and now are under analysis.
Chance and Grissom are at work, and so is Dr. Henry Quantos from his remote base (read apartment) in Vancouver.
"Have you found anything, yet?" I ask, breaking the deep silence.
Grissom raises his head from the computer screen. "Anything? Too much, I fear."
"You mean..?"
"What do you know of history and art, Edulcore?"
"Not much, I'm afraid." School, for me, was just wasted time between training session on the tracks.
"Well, you see, paintings in the sixteenth century were like photos. They showed what the painters actually saw, not creations of his mind. In this case, what's depicted on the painting would be really amazing. You see? There is a dragon flying in the sky, a city carved into a mountain, a very strangely shaped fountain in the middle of a lake. Too strange to be possible... yet I had... and you with the MBL, too... met things even more wondrous in my life. So I can't dismiss them to be creations of Tanfo's fantasy.
"On the other hand, the rest of the painting... the landscape, I mean... seems rather representative of South America. The little animal in black and white seems a tapir, and the other a llama. The ducks in the lake are to be found in Brazil and Chile, too. So, what we are doing right now is to have the computer making comparison between the mountains in background with actual profiles of the Andes. It will take time. We have to reconstruct the profile from the aerial pictures..."
"Why you said too much? It seems to me that you have made bingo."
"Uh, it's not so easy. This is only one of the possible interpretations."
I wait for him to continue.
"The fact that Cuccubao was interested in the Liber Vitae means that he was looking for ultimate knowledge. He was, or would have been, an alchemist. The Liber Vitae has been mentioned in the works of many alchemists... Fulcanelli, Paracelsus, Flamel... they reported that what they were seeking... the Philosopher Stone... the key to immortality... the way to create it was clearly explained in the book. So, what is depicted behind the portrait of Cuccubao, could be just symbolic... each things representing things that only an initiated could understand. And that's not all: it could also be that some elements are symbolic, and others natural... or that the animals, which we know are from South America, were kept captives in the gardens of some aristocratic man in Europe. The possibilities are endless."
The words of Grissom are depressing. But seeing Chance at the computer makes me feel better. Whatever options the computer will present, he will choose the right one.