[.088] Video

[timesbureaucrat]

Has anyone taken samples of the ash and analyzed it? It might be useful to know whether it originates from a standard wood fire or whether it's something else entirely, such as animal tissue. [i.e. "Are there people being immolated in some nearby dimension?" This is Narvin's cheerful way of saying hello, he's back, and feeling better after off-

Comments

[Private]

[timesbureaucrat]

I will if you also agree to share information and analyses with me. Even negative results can be useful.

[Private]

[timesbureaucrat]

Oh, wonderful. Just what the ship needs is more mayhem.

Here's the data I've collected so far on the various phenomena. [File attachment sent.]

Temporal readings are normal for the Barge. Which is to say, they're erratic, but not unusually so.

Private

[rass_bestie]

Feeling better?

Private

[timesbureaucrat]

Much.

It's wasn't a bad as a percussion bomb.

Private

[rass_bestie]

I'm glad to hear it.

[Private]

[shortsghtedlove]

I think the wardens who are actually willing to investigate this should work together. [You're a bureaucrat, Narvin. Organize this :|]

And perhaps the whispers should be analysed, too. If a transcription were possible, we might gain new information on this.

...I don't know how many have had the mind to record nay door incidents, but I have one, albeit accidental.

[Pause. So much pausing. But he really can't just talk about not!ghosts and ignore the reason why he had wanted to talk to Narvin in the first place even if it's very tempting.]

...Have you been on Gallifrey? How is it?

[Private]

[timesbureaucrat]

We're already exchanging information. [Wait. Why is he reporting to Rassilon? Dammit, but old instincts die hard. Just to be contrary, he considers not answering Rassilon's question. But...for all Rassilon's faults, he does care about Gallifrey.]

The time was 94039.189-39alpha59gamma1. Matthias is still President. The people known to be infected have been quarantined and the pigrats are greatly reduced. It has the Outsiders and environmentalists whining, but it's slowed down the spread of the disease. The sudden population decline so soon after the civil war has the economy still in ruins and resources are depleted. There's even been some talk of selling time technology to the other Temporal Powers, but the High Council would never allow it.

In short, it's limping along, but it's surviving.

[Private]

[shortsghtedlove]

They've no cure yet? There's some grumbling, then:] If I had a sample and a proper laboratory I'm sure I could find one. You've no intention to visit again any time soon, do you? With exact reports I could draw up some plans for the economy...

[Private]

[timesbureaucrat]

So sorry I inconveniently had my symbiotic nuclei ripped away. Otherwise I probably could have provided you with a sample. [He doesn't know for certain that he was ever infected, but after spending so much time creeping about in the lower levels, he thinks it likely.]

Matthias has his own plans for the economy. He doesn't need yours.

[Private]

[timesbureaucrat]

Damn. [He'd hoped, somehow, that the timelines had changed, that the war wasn't a fixed point. Or that the war was another parallel universe, another failed timeline.]

You knew quite a lot about the Axis, presumably spent time there before you dragged the rest of us in against our will...is our universe the Prime universe? Is there any way to tell? [It's been disturbing him for months, the idea that his whole existence might be the detritus of a bad temporal branch and he'd been as ignorant of the fact as all those other Narvins in the other universes. But at the same time, he almost hopes that somewhere there was a perfect Gallifrey placidly living out the perfect timeline, not cut down by greed, or ambition, or vampires, or savagery...or epidemics and war.]

[Private]

[timesbureaucrat]

For what I need to do? No. But I dislike ignorance. [Or at least he dislikes it when he's ignorant. When he knows something and other people are ignorant, that's just fine.]