The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson
From Dr. Roger Blevins:
Just became aware of this thread and am skimming it.
Am I to understand that changes have occurred, recently, on the pages of a 250-year-old book in our library!?
From Dr. Stokes:
Yes. There are faint traces of GLAAMR around it, according to Erszebet.
From Dr. Blevins:
I see. That is troubling. Not the first time diachronic magic has been troubling.
From Dr. Stokes:
How so, Dr. Blevins? The entire point of DODO is to change the present by doing things in the past. History books and Wikipedia entries are naturally going to change accordingly.
From Dr. Blevins:
Dr. Stokes, I am taking this offline, as the expression goes. Please see me in my office.
From Dr. LeBrun:
Here for example is a translation of a letter in clerical Latin from a village priest in Normandy to his bishop, dated 1063:
The struggle against pagan beliefs and practices in this parish is never-ending, and tests my faith every hour of every day. Of late some of the village wives have been filling their children’s ears with a story that has spread like a grass fire from one household to the next. It is nothing more than an old saga of the Vikings, so far as I can discern. Its hero is one Tristan, a roaming Anglo-Saxon warrior of enormous strength and stature who comes to sojourn in a Norman village for a time. Peaceable by nature, he is roused to action when the village is raided by brigands, and makes an heroic stand on the shore, laying about him with a boat oar until all of the attackers have been slain. Then after accepting the gratitude of the villagers he wanders away to pursue other adventures. As you can see it is just the sort of lay that appeals to the simple minds of the common people and as such is nearly impossible to eradicate.
There is a response from the bishop in which he says that he has heard the same story from other villages in the area, but that in some versions Tristan is a Christian man who is defending the parish church from pagans who have come to defile it and steal its reliquary. He goes on to suggest that rather than trying to stamp out this popular story, the priest should instead co-opt it by re-telling it to his flock as a tale about Christian virtues.
Jumping forward a hundred years I found a fragment of an obscure chanson de geste. I’m dating it by its form, which fluctuates between the early style (ten-syllable assonant rhyme, in this case on short “i”) and the later one (twelve-syllable monorhyme, in this case long “i”). Here’s a few stanzas just to convey the flavor of it, although of course I’m translating for meaning not nuance. Stanzas are of variable length and most of them too water-damaged to make out. Can go back and do a more careful translation if required, including seeking possible encoded messages/references, not unheard of in this tradition:
By the banks of the peaceful Dives Tristan reclines,
Broad-shouldered with noble carriage and proud spirit,
Flaxen-haired knight of Tintagel, new-pledged to Charlemagne.
He’s come to serve our king, the servant of Jesus Christ . . .
(about six stanzas illegible)
Look! From the loins of his enchanting mistress at dawn he leaps
To the alarms of the invading baleful-eyed heathens
Who come to steal the village’s beloved relics of St. Septimus
To dishonor its Christian spirit, a woe much worse than sin . . .
(two dozen unreadable stanzas)
. . . And now does noble Tristan, Charlemagne’s new paladin,
Clap hand on oar and calling upon Our Lady’s virtues
Use the humble oar as staff, to smite the unsanctified chins
Of seven pagan warriors in buckram suits,
While their gleaming wicked swords no target hit
On Tristan’s manly, bold, courageous side . . .
There’s about another nine hundred verses, but most are too water-damaged, and at a glance, the rest seem to be about Tristan’s service at Charlemagne’s court and later his adventures against the Moors, which presumably would justify his canonization. Will now peruse that section and let you know if anything leaps out that might click for Magnus.
From Dr. Stephen Moore:
Sorry to be a johnny-come-lately to this thread, but the Bodleian Library was closed yesterday and so I’ve only just been able to visit the rare books room. I was able to find traces of the Tristan legend in a letter written in 1071 to William the Conqueror. The original is, of course, in Latin but I have supplied a hasty translation, copy/pasted below, with apologies for infelicities in language.
Greetings to my beloved monarch and cherished brother William, by the grace of God King of the English and Duke of the Normans.
As I circuit the many manors you have seen fit to bestow upon me for my assistance at Hastings, I remain profoundly grateful for your beneficence and generosity. All are bountiful with crops and livestock, the serfs healthy and none excessively aggrieved. In all, I receive it as a tremendous boon.
However I am sorrowful to inform you that my search for the hero-colony of Dintagel has come to naught. Dintagel, from which sprang that most renowned and admired knight Tristan, who is featured so valiantly in the Song of Collinet in its defense of the holy reliquary of the martyr St. Septimus of Pontchardon against the incursions of the heretics of Lisieux that enthralled us in our youth, has proven to be nothing but a spit of land with a ruined Roman fortress. In the nearby village of Bossiney (Boskyny), my men have asked after the fellowship of knights from which Tristan sprang, and are met universally with stupid looks from the villagers.
There is however an abundance of sheep, which may be exploited to the profit of your majesty and the greater glory of God.
Yours in great love and all homage,
Robert, Count of Mortain and Earl of Cornwall
Post by Dr. Roger Blevins to LTG Octavian K. Frink on private ODIN channel
DAY 1805 (JULY, YEAR 5)
Okie, this is just to give you a heads-up on a possible situation that is developing. You’ll recall a bit of unpleasantness two and a half years ago when Lieutenant Colonel Lyons went off half-cocked during a DEDE in 1045 Normandy and got into a brawl with the locals. I said at the time, and I still maintain, that this was a serious error in judgment that called his qualifications for the job into question. Well, now it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. LTC Lyons has gone back to 1203 Constantinople to finish out the big DEDE we have been working for the last three years. That’s fine as far as it goes. Unfortunately his actions in Normandy, 160 years earlier, have had incalculable reverberations, with the result that he is now revered as some combination of a romantic folk hero and Christian saint by people all over the Nordic and Christian worlds. One of the Varangian Guards at the Constantinople DTAP seems dangerously close to putting two and two together.
No action needed or requested at this time, but I wanted to put this up on your radar just in case it blows up in our faces in a few days or weeks.
I just finished a rather unpleasant meeting with Dr. Stokes who is reflexively defensive of LTC Lyons and doesn’t seem to appreciate the magnitude of the problem.
Reply from LTG Frink:
Blev, I’ve read this a couple of times and don’t see why you are so excited. I’ve spent my career running operations in places like Fallujah and Jalalabad and I’ve never seen anything go off without glitches. But you have a better grasp of these diachronic operations than I do and so I’ll take it under advisement.
Are you doing anything to mitigate the problem?
From Dr. Blevins:
We have a young MUON here who I am sure you will remember since she is the one who crashed the ribbon-cutting party by materializing in the ODEC. Rachel is her name. She is now one of our most experienced witches, and is obviously an expert on 1203 Constantinople since it’s where she was born and raised. I have a meeting scheduled with her in which I will explore some options for cleaning up the mess that LTC Lyons has left in his
From LTG Frink:
How’s it going with the portable ODEC and so on? Knowing how your mind works, Blev, I can see where all of this is leading: a de-emphasis on diachronic operations per se, in favor of C/COD psy-ops centered on witches in mobile units.
From Dr. Blevins:
You know me well, Okie. Yes. The ATTO, as we call the portable ODEC, is shaping up quite well. To develop the psy-ops wing of the organization, we are getting ready to bring forward Gráinne, who is, after all is said and done, still the most powerful witch we have ever encountered.
From LTG Frink:
The Irish super-witch?
From Dr. Blevins:
That terminology is deprecated. We have been calling them Wenders for their superior ability to navigate between Strands while maintaining an unbroken thread of consciousness. In the entire history of DODO we have only encountered three of them. Gráinne has been by far the most loyal and it’s time we rewarded her with a promotion.
LETTER FROM
GRÁINNE to GRACE O’MALLEY
A Tuesday of High Summer, 1602
Auspiciousness and prosperity to you, milady!
It’s a brief but timely warning I’m writing you with, Your Grace, and no action does it require on your part, but only alertness. Sir Francis Bacon, the gentleman whose demeanor does command this fleet of thinkers and doers of the age, including Monsieur Cardigan my benefactor . . . he urges the nobles of the court to redouble their efforts in Ireland. He would have the crown take over our entire island as a means to “honor.” Therefore if any courtier from England do come courting you, it’s wise to be testing the waters of their acquaintanceship with Sir Francis. If they are even indirectly under his sway or in his circles, then surely it’s disingenuous they’re being.
And meanwhile merely to keep you apprised of my circumstances, they continue apace with some fascinating developments (more fascinating to myself than to you, I warrant). It’s Norwich we’re spending the summer in, and here I’ve come to know three witches, something older than myself, and sisters to each other . . . all of them half-nieces of Sir Francis Bacon himself! For isn’t their father Nathaniel his half-brother. But this isn’t the only peculiar thing about them, there being three other facts of note:
First, being that they know of Tristan’s guild and likewise work to abet them on occasion (not so oft as I do). Of course I knew that there are many other witches working for them (their term for us, collective, is KCW), but I had not realized I had contemporaries.
A second and stranger fact of note being that they were never recruited, but rather raised in a tradition of service to Tristan’s crew, for sure their mother Anne and before that her mother Winnifred worked with Tristan’s people, although there is nothing in the family history of working with Tristan himself. ’Twas Winnifred was won over to the work by an agent named Esme, forty years ago. Here again, a minor detail Tristan’s not telling me about how his guild be doing their business.
But here’s the final and most interesting note, and might even be of direct interest to Your Grace: besides their connection to Sir Francis, these weird sisters are the granddaughters of none other than Sir Thomas Gresham, who as you know was an associate of the Fugger banking family . . . who, despite their unholy religion, have long financed your resistance on occasion, for the sheer joy of causing headaches to Queen Bess. I’m thinking it must be no coincidence that all of these particular lineages and associations twine together through time in some way that Tristan sees more clearly than I do, and surely it’s use he’s getting out of it in ways that I’m not seeing yet. But I will. Oh yes, Your Grace, it’s soon enough I’ll see as clear as he does.
Whether I be near or far, may I hear only good things of you, My Lady Gráinne! Your Gráinne now of Norwich
TRANSCRIPT (EXCERPT)
INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY DR. ROGER BLEVINS (RB)
WITH MUON RACHEL BAT AVRAHAM (RA)
11:00, DAY 1807 (10 JULY, YEAR 5)
NOTES: Video recording was made automatically by a motion-activated security camera system in Conference Room #2 at DODO HQ, Cambridge, MA. In the wake of subsequent events, the file was salvaged from a secure server by DODO personnel and transferred to the ad hoc GRIMNIR backup system, where it was later transcribed. Excerpt below begins at approximately 11:15 local time.
RB: In preparing for this meeting, I took the routine step of reviewing your file. I see you have once again started asking the DOers you Send back to your native DTAP to get word to your family that you’re safe.
RA: Yes, I am sure they are worried about me. It has been nearly three years. I want to reassure them.
RB: You signed a nondisclosure agreement. That means nothing can be disclosed. To anyone.
RA: Except God, you mean. You cannot tell me to keep anything from God.
RB: Ask God to tell your family how you’re doing.
RA: I do, of course. But I am a good daughter, and so I must make the effort as well.
RB: No, you mustn’t. In fact, you signed a paper swearing you would not.
RA: The commandments come before any pledge I make to a worldly regime, and the commandments say honor your father and—
RB: You ran off. You abandoned them.
RA: No, my mother is the one who Sent me! [weeping] I had her blessing! She said she would make it all right with my father. I am the fastest Sender of all the witches, and the most precise. I am a benefit to you because my mother sent me here. It is okay that I send reassurances to her.
RB: You can’t. If you insist on attempting it, we will assign you to other DEDEs and you will never Send anyone back to Constantinople.
RA: Will you lame yourselves out of spite? I am the best witch for Constantinople.
RB: Security is our first priority. If you will not cooperate with us, then we cannot cooperate with you. I will have to reassign you to the Antwerp and London DTAPs. We will need additional help there when we bring Gráinne forward.
RA: But I am Tristan’s preferred Sender for Constantinople.
RB: Lieutenant Colonel Lyons is subordinate to me and all of his decisions are subject to my review.
RA: I understand.
RB: In any case, his habit of disappearing into remote DTAPs for weeks at a time leaves an operational void, obliging colleagues to fill in for him.
RA: Constantinople is not remote, it is the most cosmopolitan city in the world!
RB: Not for long.
RA: What does that mean?
RB: After what happens next, everything looks so different that it doesn’t matter how well you know the city, it’ll be completely rebuilt.
RA: What do you mean by these words, “what happens next”?
RB: I have reason to believe that by going back to 1203 Constantinople, Tristan has blundered into a trap of his own devising. Unwittingly, of course. But he is still culpable, because of his arrogance, his lack of accountability.
RA: What sort of trap?
RB: The details are complicated. There’s not time to explain them here. The point is that he needs to be evacuated. If he were a commando on some kind of raid, we’d be sending in the helicopters right now, the SEAL team, to extract him from the mess he has made. But since he’s a DOer and he’s been deployed to a DTAP, instead we need to Send someone who knows the territory and who can get to him and Home him with extreme prejudice, as the saying goes.
RA: You want me to Send another DOer to rescue him?
RB: You’re not listening, Rachel. The person we Send back on this rescue mission can’t just be any ordinary DOer. It must be a MUON, a witch who has the capability of Homing him as soon as he is found. One who is intimately familiar with every byway of the city, every nuance of its languages.
RA: You’re asking . . . me to be Sent back?
RB: ODEC #4 has been made ready for action. One of our other MUONs is there waiting for you. I have provided her with cover—with plausible deniability. You can be back home in ten minutes, if that i
URGENT BULLETIN
MISSING: RACHEL BAT AVRAHAM
MISSING SINCE: TODAY, 11:25, July 10
MISSING FROM: Conference Room #2, top floor
DETAILS: During interview with Dr. Blevins, became combative, removed pepper spray device from purse, discharged it toward Dr. Blevins, fled the room; when he had finished washing the residue from his eyes, she was gone. Security reports she has not exited the building, however, her whereabouts are unknown.
APPEARANCE: Long dark hair, pale skin, dark eyes. Dressed in gray sweater-dress and jodhpur boots, lots of eye makeup and bangles. Late teens. Speaks heavily accented English.
Security is currently searching the building, which is in lockdown. Rachel lives in the MUON residence. We have contacted or left word with the off-shift MUONs there. Also sending word to local precincts and hospitals. Likeliest that she is hiding in the building somewhere waiting for somebody else to leave so that she can sneak out.
Journal Entry of
Rebecca East-Oda
JULY 10
Temperature 79F, dry, still. Barometer steady.
Faring well: cucumber, squash, chard. Starting to harvest basil leaves. Re-seeding salad greens.
Frank called from the DODO offices to say he will not be home for dinner: the building is in lockdown because the witch Rachel assaulted Blevins (how very satisfying that must have been) and disappeared. Surprised it took this long for somebody to snap.
Exchange of posts between
Dr. Melisande Stokes and Mortimer Shore
on private ODIN channel
DAY 1807
Mel: Where’s Rachel?
Mortimer: idk. Checking her calendar . . .
Mel: NVM. Calling her. 1 sec.
Mortimer: looks like she had an 11:00 with Blev.
Mel: Went to vm.
Mortimer: Conf rm 2
Mel: I know but something crazy happened, Blev called security—medics are there. No Rachel.