The transport station was expensive, but Andrea had spent all her time working and saving since she had become an Intern. She wore clothes on the cusp of being considered costume. Her skirt and jean jacket were a throwback from another age, ironic fashion. She hurried through the station to get to a free booth, three days of freedom until the interrogation would begin.
"Take me to New San Francisco," She spoke to the hologram that greeted her. The booth doors snapped closed. Her vision flared to white like a slow motion camera flash. She stepped out of the booth in her home city, half a world away.
But it was not the same city she had grown up in. The old part of the city, the industrial jungle of concrete and steel, held little resemblance to the place she left at fourteen. It was not her choice to leave; to start again in a strange new place. She just got lost one day. It was the day after her birthday.
She had once been Andrea Turner, but that name meant nothing hundreds of years in the future. Her birthday had been a grand affair. The small apartment she lived in with her mother in West Portal was crowded with guests. She slept soundly that Sunday, happier than she had ever been. She had forgotten all about the tarnished gift she had received from her uncle. Amidst the much more exciting gifts, like her new cell phone and music gift cards, the old necklace was set aside.
But the next day, on her walk to school, she looked upon the face of the Mistress for the first time. It was then she made her life-changing mistake. Andrea Turner held the chain in one hand and flicked the dangling coin into a spin. The time device activated, pulling her away from everything she had known.
You have activated this travel device. Where in time or space would you like to go?
Andrea Turner had always been a bright girl. She skipped a grade in school. Teachers told her she should start thinking about going to college early. But at that age, she was too young to realize that intelligence was not the same as maturity. And so, when confronted with the strange environment of the time coin, all that Andrea heard was, where in time do you want to go?
"Take me back to the present!" She blurted out, scared and confused.
Andrea dropped the coin upon appearing hundreds of years in the future. Her body went slack at the sight of her neighborhood, now an industrial complex. The time travel device slipped from her fingers, dropping down a grate, out of reach of the lost girl, stranding her in a present that was not her own.
She was found and brought to the authorities. Upon seeing the bright and clean future outside of the abandoned, old city, it was easy to start a new and exciting life. She was placed in an orphanage, having no papers or identification. The new twist on the English language was easy to pick up and she was soon identified as having above average intelligence. She was placed in the proper programs for education, all the while gravitating toward the University for the Study of Time. All of this was a subconscious attempt to understand what had happened to her and how she had come to be the future.
Two years later, while on break from her studies at the University, Andrea returned home. She rented an Autocar, and rode into the old city. The dark ride across bridges and through the raised industrial platforms frightened her. This was no longer the city she had grown up in. The car dropped her off on the west side of the southern peninsula, in what was once known as West Portal. Now, the whole area was an industrial complex built over the sunken earth. Walking around the deserted raised roads was eerie and haunting.
She crossed the old, familiar wooden bridge that linked two factory platforms. Looking down at the ancient wooden boards, a strong wave of memories came flooding back. She remembered the feeling of being stranded, out of her time without a way home. And it was all because of the necklace her uncle had given her for her birthday. The coin, and her panicked response to that heavy question. She shook her head at the thought. She had no idea at fourteen what, 'take me back to the present,' actually meant. She started from her namesake; her faded memories forced to reconcile with the reality before her. Andrea studied the structure upon which she was found so long ago, then retraced her footsteps. There was no correlation between the streets she'd once known or the concrete that surrounded her. She searched for the place where she had first arrived in the present until she was about to give up, but as she tuned onto another street, she knew she had finally found it. Two years had past and the chained coin still lay in the muck beneath a grate. This time, properly motivated, she tore the grate free and retrieved her birthday gift.
Taking the train from the transfer station, Andrea Woodbridge rested her head on the glass. She watched the scenery of the new city go by. As the sparkling city on the north side of the bay flashed past her eyes, she held an internal dialogue with herself.
"At fourteen I had no idea what I had on this chain. At sixteen, I thought I knew. But now I truly know what it is that I have had this whole time. I can't believe I was so young and foolish. At least I wasn't foolish enough to get caught. Yet, anyway..."
The train dropped her at a familiar block. Andrea's hands shook as she opened her locker of personal property stored at the orphanage. She had hidden the coin, not daring to bring it back to the University, for fear it would be detected. It was heaver than she remembered. She ran her thumb over the face of the old coin and the woman adorning the front. Hours before, she had seen the Mistress in person, feeling the magnetism she extruded. Her training and spoken loyalty told her she should activate the coin and return it to the university that very moment. She would be a hero! She would forever known as the Intern who returned the third lost coin! She might even get an early appointment to Supervisor...
But the image of the young blond boy, sitting in the interrogation chair, leapt in front of her eyes. Andrea knew that returning this coin was not an option, for reasons she had not yet fully unpacked. She put the coin around her neck, tucking it under her top. She left the orphanage, saying goodbye to the staff and walked into the street. She stood and pondered her next move.
What should be done with the coin? If she left suddenly, went back to 2011 for good, they would come for her. And in truth, she liked her life in the future. She had achieved so much; a sought after degree and a job with the Keepers! If they found she had the coin, she would be interrogated and the entire web spun by the stolen time coins would come unraveled. If they prevented her from accidentally coming to the present, would she remember any of it? No, she knew this from studying temporal principals. She, the person she had become, would become a paradox, and Keepers did not allow paradoxes to exist.
In less than three days, the Mistress would wake the brothers and use them against each other. Andrea didn't want to know what they would do to make the prisoners talk. Recovering the stolen coins was obviously important to the Mistress. And when the boys eventually spilled their secrets, her coin would be prevented from ever coming into her young hands.
Was there anything she could do? Three days to jump back in time to try to further erase the trail? It seemed impossible to escape the iron grasp her fellow Time Keepers had on the arrow of time. The Mistress was right; it was only a matter of time until they recovered all the stolen coins. But, if the thief was able to do it, there had to be a way. And if there was one person she could ask, it was her old professor, Osorio. He was once a Manager in her department and knew far more than she did.
Professor Osorio seemed pretty jaded the last time we spoke, Andrea thought. If anyone has an opinion I can trust, it will be him. If I remember correctly, he said he was retiring in London around the turn of the 20th century...
Andrea made up her mind. She scanned the area for a spot where she would be unobserved using the coin, but could find none on the street. In the present, it seemed as if all the city streets were monitored. Nowhere was truly private. Remembering back to field training techniques taught in the tourism class from school, restrooms were frequently used for transit points. Andrea returned to the building she had come from. She slipped into the lobby restroom without being seen and
went into one of the stalls.
Andrea Woodbridge pulled the coin from under her shirt and held the chain on one finger. The coin spun lazily on the end of the pendant.
Mistress, then hourglass.
It would be the first time using the coin since she stumbled into the present. Instead of flicking the coin as she had the first time, she offset her thumb and forefinger and made a snapping motion. The coin jumped up to activation speed and Andrea was pulled out of the Arrow of Time.
CHAPTER 25