itsjusttheendoftheworld:

“That’ll do it. Not anything major, y’see? Mostly just needed a good smack or two; it’s workin’ just fine now.” The woman across the counter beamed in undisguised delight, and Abigail felt a bristle of pride. Repairing a machine was like bringing someone back to life. The whirl and hum of the little contraption was her preferred heartbeat, the flashing lights of a console were the expressions she read best, the chirping alarms were the language of her soul. Or, you know, something a little more grounded and not quite as ridiculously poetic, because maker, she wasn’t going that soft, was she? 

All the same, she smiled at the woman as she hurried out of the store, though the smile became significantly more frozen as a hood obscured the woman’s face. It was the little things, she thought, that bothered her most about the changes that had come around in the past years. A society filled with fear and bordering on intense paranoia, skulking in the shadows of a life that deprived them of so much. Abigail wrinkled her nose in distaste, turning from her more drab thoughts when the coffee pot dinged. 

Minutes later, settled back in front of the sweeping monitor to the right of her desk, she gazed readily at the screen as she sipped at her beverage. How likely would it be that she had any more customers today? Fairly unlikely, she admitted to herself, but something had to buy equipment. No sense in closing up yet; she’d wait just a while longer, and hope for a last minute arrival.

In another time stream, a different sort of woman was working on a machine. It was a daft idea; such a very daft idea, but all the more brilliant. Ever since Einstein’s theories, and indeed before, humans had been dreaming of time travel. There had been many attempts; there had been just as many failures. But Toshiko wasn’t a normal human. To start, she was Scottish-Japanese; quite an odd thing in itself, but that wasn’t what made her extraordinary. No, it was something much grander than breeding: she was what one would call a technopath. She could speak to machines and, more importantly, build ones that tested the boundaries of particle physics, theoretical physics, and any other theory.

Toshiko McLeod was building a time machine. It was much more than that, at least she was trying to make it much more, but one could only build so much out of salvaged parts. She mopped her brow and licked her lips, inspecting her work at this stage. It wasn’t that far off from completion! The fact that it looked like nothing more than a metal cupboard on the outside was, however, regrettable. If only it were bigger on the inside. But it would take weeks to homebrew the technology require for transcendental properties, so that would have to wait.

The woman climbed into the machine and plugged in the last component. The entire thing hummed to life, and she patted it fondly.

“Welcome to the world, lass. May it treat you well.”

The machine cooed it’s reply, “My maker~! You are much shorter than I expected you to be.” Fantastic, another appliance with a sense of humour.

“We’ll discuss the modification of your behavioural pattern later. For now, let’s just see what you can do, okay?” Toshiko wiped her greasy hands with her equally greasy scarf. In fact, there wasn’t much of her that didn’t have a layer of machine oil.

“Oh, I can feel it. I now understand why humans would be fascinated by time…”

The doors suddenly slam shut and lock of their own accord. Giving a machine a mind was the worst idea.

“Wait, I didn’t mean now!”

Her eyes widened as various monitors in the small space flickered to life, displaying various data on their current location, as well as their current destination. The Scotswoman was ill-prepared in all senses of the word.

“No. Machine, obey! YOU UNLOCK THOSE DOORS THIS INSTANT!”

“I have a name, you know. Call me…Idris. Idris is a lovely name, don’t you think?”

She pounded the doors with both fists, but it was no use. It was composed of the strongest alloy known to this part of the galaxy.

“IDRIIIIIIIIIIS!”

It was too late, they were already headed to a distant future…