Time Rider Ch. 07

After about fifteen minutes of walking, with minimal complaints from Nanu about her shoes, they finally arrived at the entrance to the subway station. Set on the edge of the residential area, it was simply some stairs down into the station below. Nanu paused at the top of the stairs, looking confused and wary. It occurred to Becky that it was entirely possible that Nanu had never been underground before.

"I promise it is safe, darling," she said in a soothing tone, squeezing Nanu's hand. "The chariot we are going to use runs underground from one place to another, so that it is not noisy up here. I use it all the time."

Nanu swallowed. "Okay. I trust you, Mistress."

Side by side, they walked down into the subway station, Nanu wrinkling her nose as the gusts of stale air hit her. There were people coming and going, wearing different types of clothing, and Nanu was fascinated. She watched her Mistress pay the fare to enter, then nearly got knocked on the back of her head when she paused halfway through the turnstile. Becky took her hand again and led her down some more stairs.

Nanu was frowning, because the noises were getting louder and beginning to echo.

Then they were on a platform, one that held people before dropping off down into some dark path that entered tunnels on either side of this long room they were in. Nanu held herself close to Becky, getting nervous. The noises made no sense to her, and it wasn't as if Rome had been quiet.

Becky looked down at her now. "Here comes our chariot, Nanu. Don't be frightened."

Nanu clutched Becky harder as she felt wind pressing against her, and heard a noise that grew louder until it was an almost deafening roar. She saw strange lights in one side of the tunnel, growing closer. Finally, a giant metal... thing... rolled toward them swiftly, making all the noise. Nanu let go of Becky and clapped her hands over her ears, her eyes squeezed shut. She willed herself to not scream.

And then it was quieter. There was still noise, but not nearly as loud. Nanu opened her eyes and saw the long, metal contraption in front of them, with strange doors that opened to the sides, by themselves. People walked out of the interior of the beast, seemingly unscathed.

Becky looked down at her and smiled. "This is us, let's go."

Trusting her Mistress, Nanu took Becky's hand again and allowed herself to be led into the thing called a 'subway train'. She looked around, wide-eyed as they found some seats and sat down. There were miniature suns everywhere overhead. An endless line of seats on either side of the narrow metal tube stretched far in each direction. People were sitting or standing, seemingly unconcerned and paying no attention.

Nanu started as some awful sound chimed, and then the magic doors slid closed again, locking them inside this foul beast. There was a lurch and then it began moving forward, slowly picking up speed. Nanu looked at Becky in panic.

"We're fine," Becky said, squeezing her hand again. "It's taking us where we want to go."

"How does it know?" Nanu asked, forgetting her fear for a moment. She hadn't seen Re-be-kah tell the monster anything. Did it speak En-gush?

She continued watching all around in fascination as the beast charged down a long, dark tunnel, eventually entering another place, different from the one they had started out. A loud woman's voice blared through the tube, no doubt in En-gush. It was a loud and unpleasant voice to Nanu, but she hadn't expected the beast to sound like that. She'd expected a horrifying roar.

The process repeated several times, with Becky and Nanu ending up in a different place each time. People got on and off, but nobody got eaten. Maybe the beast didn't eat people?

The unpleasant woman's voice blared over head, and Nanu scowled at the ceiling, wishing the beast would just shut the fuck up.

"Here we go, darling," Becky said, standing up. "This is our stop."

They waited until the beast stopped and the magic doors opened for them. People standing on the platform respectfully waited for those within to escape before entering. Becky walked with Nanu along the increasingly crowded platform until they reached some strange stairs. She helped Nanu get onto them and the smaller girl's eyes widened in shock.

The metal stairs were moving! They were taking her up! What sorcery was this?!

Becky made sure Nanu didn't trip at the top of the escalator, and also didn't make a nuisance of herself by turning and gaping at the magic stairs while people were trying to get off it. She pulled her along through the growing crowds. At least those didn't bother Nanu. Rome had apparently had a population of around a million when Nanu had lived there. Throngs of people were nothing new to the former slave-girl.

"So now we just go up that flight of stairs over there, and we'll be downtown, in the middle of the city," Becky said, pleased with how well Nanu had handled the subway. "Soon enough, we'll have everything you need."

At least the hard part was over.

***

Becky had been wrong.

Becky had brought Nanu up the stairs and out onto the street, and Nanu had immediately collapsed to her knees, holding herself and shaking in fright as she stared at the ground, refusing to look up. People parted around them while Becky tried to figure out what was wrong. Nanu was almost pale, her eyes wide, and wet with tears.

And then she understood. Nanu was absolutely terrified because of the skyscrapers surrounding them. Nothing like these could possibly have existed in her imagination. Some buildings in Rome might have seen tall to her, like the Colosseum, or maybe some of the other edifices, but nothing like this, where a structure soared hundreds of meters into the sky.

And they were everywhere, surrounding them. There were so many that the sun wasn't even touching them.

"Nanu," Becky said, kneeling down and stroking the younger girl's back. "I'm sorry, I didn't think to tell you about how tall buildings could get. I promise, you're fine."

"Is she okay?" someone asked as they paused to see what was happening. "Do you need help?"

"We're fine, thank you, though," Becky said, giving the person an assuring smile. "She's from a remote region in Africa and she's never seen skyscrapers before, she just got spooked."

The person shrugged and wandered off.

"Nanu, honey," Becky said gently, still holding her. "I know you're frightened and that you feel like you can't move, but we can't stay right here, blocking everyone. We're going to stand up and walk just out of the way, and then you can talk all the time you need, okay?"

Nanu somehow nodded and Becky held her close as she helped her stand and then shuffled her out of the way of the churning crowds of the business district, standing in a clear space beneath an overhang. Nanu didn't seem to notice they were beneath one of the skyscrapers, because she was still looking at the concrete beneath her.

"They'll fall," she whispered. "They'll fall on us and crush us."

Becky smiled. "I promise you, my love, they won't fall on us. I have been in these buildings many, many times, since I was a little girl. They don't fall, they were erected by master builders. In my day and age, we were just able to build taller things than people in your day were. Just as you built taller things than your ancestors, right?"

Nanu squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her teeth. Becky realized that all the honking of horns, the screech of hydraulic brakes, and various other sounds of modern technology were getting to Nanu. She'd never heard anything remotely like them, of course.

"Nanu," Becky cooed, taking the lovely Egyptian girl's face in her hands and smiling at her. "Remember how I said that Rome stunk like shit and I'd never get used to it?"

Nanu nodded slowly. Her eyes were still wide and haunted.

"And do you remember laughing and telling me that I would get used to it if I made up my mind about it?"

Another nod.

"Sometimes my world is loud, Nanu," she continued. "In ways you cannot anticipate. Far, far louder than you can imagine. And lots of things will seem impossibly big to you. But if I can get used to the stink of Rome, I promise you that you can stop being afraid of all this stuff in my world, okay?"

At that very moment, of course, a huge cement truck blared its horn, and Nanu shrieked in fright and threw herself against Becky, shaking like a leaf. Becky held her close, whispering to her and reassuring her. Nanu had never heard anything remotely that loud, even in this time.

This was going to be a slow process, clearly. Nanu just had to trust Becky, and Becky had to be infinitely patient.

"Mistress," Nanu said in a tiny voice, her face still pressed into Becky's shoulder. "We might need to find one of your washrooms, I think I pissed myself."

Becky sighed and nodded. There was a food court in the building just behind them, and washrooms no doubt would be at hand. She only wished she'd thought of bringing spare clothes in case this happened.

Was looking after someone from the distant past really supposed to be this hard?

***

A small, out-of-the-way bookshop just off Yonge Street...

The more Becky thought about it, the more she realized that this forgotten nook away from all the crowds was the perfect place for the chroniques dealer to have his business. After all, he wasn't looking for revenue from the people of the 21^st century, was he? Becky and Mark were notable exceptions to that rule. Being off the beaten path made it easier for his time-travelling customers to find him and go about their business without interference. Still downtown and accessible, but a few doors down from the country's busiest avenue, on an obscure side street. Perfect for this sort of enterprise.

They had walked north from the business district with its endless skyscrapers, Nanu steadfastly refusing to look back at them. There were still tall buildings, like the Eaton Centre towers, or the Aura Tower, but they were more spaced out, not completely surrounding them on all sides. Most of the buildings were of a height Nanu seemed to be able to handle, even if the street traffic was still scaring her with its noise.

She would stop occasionally to look in store windows, seemingly fascinated by whatever they were selling. At one point, Becky laughed and had to pull Nanu's face off a window, because she was gawking at the people just inside, trying to eat their food. Nanu didn't know what a restaurant was.

They reached their destination and the store was blissfully quiet as they slipped inside, with Eighties music playing over the tinny old speakers.

"Get off the car

Kick his chain

Kick his pride

Get him soaked hit run

Lift up your toes

In my mouth

And we can make love

And we can go

And we can go

And we can go

We're covered by the sacred fire

When you come to me

You come to me broke..."

"Miss Fischer, it's good to see you again," the old man behind the desk said, smiling at her from beneath a face full of grey whiskers that any Who in Whoville would envy. He looked at her companion. "And this must be Nanu."

"Oh, uh, yes," Becky said, caught off-guard that he seemed to know. "This is Nanu. Pardon me for asking, Walter, but why did you know that?"

His smile was kindly. "The Agency came by, was advising dealers that a rare event had occurred, an Egyptian girl from the distant past coming forward, a distinctive girl named Nanu. She only speaks Latin and Coptic, right?"

Becky nodded while Nanu just looked on, knowing they were talking about her. She trusted her Mistress, however. "I was actually coming by for that reason. If she's going to stay, not only will she need some foolproof documentation of various sorts, but I was hoping we could speed up her English by chipping her, you know? Like we did with Mark for Latin and Greek."

"No harm in trying, right?" the old man named Walter reasoned. "After all, it didn't harm Mark."

"Who can tell with that boy sometimes," Becky sighed, shaking her head. "In any event, Mark and that Holmes Field Device aren't available to us for the next three months, since I am trying to catch up with him, so we're sort of on our own. I'm not looking for any temporal thingies, just ways to make Nanu's life manageable, since she's stuck here with me."

"We should be able to do this one mostly gratis," Walter said. "The news of your girl is already around the timestream, and it's giving me business, since people know I helped her out."

Becky thought about that. "Meaning you know you already helped her out."

"You're getting the hang of it," Walter said. "When you're predestined to do something because you have found out it's supposed to happen, we in the community call it 'fating'. Whatever it is you've found out you're supposed to do, it happens, even if you try to make it not happen."

"So you couldn't refuse to help us right now?" Becky asked, a wry expression on her face. "Literally, what's stopping you from refusing to help us?"

Walter chuckled. "Could be anything. It might turn out that there's a clone of me somewhere that helps you when my back is turned. Or maybe the clone refused to help, and I did. All I can tell you is that today, Nanu gets helped by me, no matter what anyone wants, myself included."

"That sounds inconvenient."

"Nobody likes feeling helpless," Walter reasoned. "It's why we try to avoid knowing things and being fated. If I could prove to you tomorrow that you'd be swept away by a white knight and taken off to a fairy tale wedding and happily ever after, nothing whatsoever you do would stop it. You're stuck having your happy ending and you had no choice in the matter."

Becky nodded. "The less I know about the future, especially my own, the better off I am, because my choices are, in theory, still my own."

"Excellent," Walter said, pleased. "Now, let's get this girl some ID, shall we?"

***

A small, isolated room, an hour later...

Nanu yawned and rubbed her temple, feeling a slight headache. Had she fallen asleep? She blinked her eyes and saw Re-be-kah smiling at her, sitting in a chair beside.

"Mistress?" she said rather groggily, yawning again.

"You're fine, darling," Becky said gently, squeezing her hand. "We tried to do something to help you, but we don't think it worked. I'm going to try speaking in my language and then see if you understand me, okay?"

Nanu nodded.

"Can you understand me?" Becky asked in concise English.

Nanu blinked at her and then shook her head.

"Well, damn," Becky sighed. "Can you try to say anything in my language, Nanu?"

Nanu thought for a moment. "Fffffffuck... purrrrick in cunat."

Becky giggled. "You could already say those things, you little tramp!"

Nanu smiled and blushed.

"We tried to help you speak my language by putting a little thing inside your head, but it didn't work."

Nanu pressed her fingers to her temple, where the localized discomfort was. "Did I do something wrong, Mistress, to make it not work?"

Becky shook her head. "No, it has nothing to do with you, really. One day, it might work, so we'll keep it where it is, I guess. No harm in waiting it out."

She dug around in her purse she was carrying. "Meanwhile..."

The blonde was smiling brightly as she presented Nanu with a handful of items. "We managed to create an identity for you in this world. It's a good start."

Nanu examined the things curiously. She opened a small, greenish shell with a stylized bird on it, her eyes widening when she saw her own image looking back at her. Her own lovely face. There was some flowing script she did not recognize at all along with it.

"It is called a 'passport'," Becky explained. "It tells officials who you are and where you are from. This says you are from Egypt."

"Well, I am," the Egyptian girl reasoned with a small shrug. "Just not your Egypt."

"Correct, but they won't know that, and that's safer for you," Becky agreed. "Your name is now Nanu Tehemet."

The girl's eyes went wide. "My name is Queen Nanu?"

Becky laughed. "Nobody anywhere will know what Tehemet means, sweetie, it's just your surname now for convenience. Also, we made some medical records for you, including your blood type. And I still need to put in a call and have a doctor lined up who will look after you."

Becky knew that part might be tricky, since any doctor from her own era would be confused by Nanu's physiology, genetic code, and dental records. She was completely unique that way. Could any modern doctor be trusted? Did she need to find a doctor who was a member of the temporal community to look after Nanu?

Questions, always more questions.

"A doctor?" Nanu almost groused, wrinkling her nose. "Roman doctors were smelly and evil. I hope your doctors are better."

"I like to think so," Becky agreed, nodding. "But with all this information I just gave you, you'll be safer than without it. Remember how if a slave was freed in Rome, they made sure he had documents of manumission? These documents, like my own, record you as a sovereign citizen and a visitor here in Canada."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to just claim I was from Ka-na-da?" Nanu reasoned.

Becky smiled and caressed Nanu's cheek. "No one would believe you are from Canada, my love, you don't speak any of our languages. One day, I promise, we'll get you made a citizen. For now, this is just to ensure your safety."

As always, Nanu took Becky's word for it and just nodded.

"Now then," Becky said, taking the items back and then standing up, smiling brightly. "Let's go eat and get you some clothes, shall we?"

Half an hour later...

They were sitting in the food court of the Eaton Centre, and Nanu was devouring everything Becky had put in front of her. Becky dreaded the effects this might have on her lover's intestinal tract later, but for now, Nanu was happy. There was no food she wasn't sampling and putting away- pizza, falafel, burgers, fries, poutine, spaghetti, Chinese food...

My poor bank account, she despaired slightly as she watched the tiny girl wolf down all the food with a frightening eagerness. She really likes salty things, I'll bet living on a slave's diet means she has an iodine deficiency. I'll have to see to that...

Becky thought Nanu might bite her hand off when she tried to reach for one of the siu mai dumplings. Eventually, though, the Egyptian girl relented and let her Mistress have one. Becky also made the mistake of letting Nanu try some pop, and soon the girl was wired. She'd have to explain the dangers of sugar and rotting the teeth out of your head.

Nanu annihilated the Timbits she had for dessert. Her little belly was swollen when she stood up from the table. She almost looked pregnant, but she was beaming with delight. Suddenly, she burped so long and loudly that everyone in the food court paused and looked at the pair.

"Sorry," Becky said apologetically to the nearby tables. "It's her first day with North American fast food."

"Mistress, that was all so good!" Nanu gushed, oblivious of her faux pas. "I loved it all, even the stupid cow meat!"

"I think you tried just about everything except the Jamaican food," Becky said, gathering up the debris at their table to put at the disposal station.