Actionette - A normal day at the office

(OOC- Note: no character is in this post but it is of epic importance to the ongoing plot. Honest.)
 
Who: AnnieWhere: The Universe next door, but one.When: That doesn't really matter, does it?There was an odd huddle in causal scanner nexus five. They happened occasionally, whenever the boys discovered something interesting, violent or erotic to watch. The multi-dimensional display was vibrant, awash with clashing colours that shimmered around the heads of the other agents.'What is it this time?' Annie asked as she went past. The guys were guffawing, pointing and making "wooo" noises. Occasionally a yellow flare would shoot upwards from the display and dissipate above their heads to a chorus of "ooh" and "aah".'Oh hello, Annie,' one of the "lads" said over his shoulder, 'look at the mess someone's making of this Universe.'Annie recognised him as Snori Thurgsson, a viking from Universe J-441 where the Danes had managed to conquer the entire globe.'Can't be that bad can it? Smegging hell,' she breathed as she looked at the sheer violence of the continuum trauma playing out in front of them. 'What happened?''Well, first of all,' Snori said, winding the display back in time a bit, 'it looks like someone destabilised their singularity FTL drive, causing a chroniton field inversion. Next thing, the entire population of this space-vehicle has travelled back into their own timestream. That's the bright red flare, just there,' he pointed. 'Then something else happened, right here. That's a cross-dimension warp-fold, look at the expansion pattern: someone really lost their lunch on that one. It comes in from a neighbouring dimension and look, it brings with it an almost identical copy of the space-vehicle. Look what happens.''Good grief, is that a populated planet?' Annie watched as the similarly coloured conceptual streams representing the spacecraft collided with the timestream that represented the path of the planet.'Yeah, look at the mess it's made. The causal damage is expanding at an amazing rate,' Snori sighed, running a hand through his blonde hair. 'I'd hate to be the one who has to clean that up.''Which Universe is it?' Annie asked.'Uh, L-388,' he told her.'Oh, right,' she considered the paperwork in her arms. 'I've got stuff to do. Let me know how it goes?'Snori nodded and turned back to watch the expanding globe of chaos as the Universe continued to spin into disaster. He then became aware of a rapid tap-tap noise rushing up to him, he turned just in time to be knocked flying by Annie.'WHAT UNIVERSE?' She screamed, elbowing her way back up to the display.'L-388?' the bewildered Snori answered from the floor.'Smeg! Smegging, smeggy, smeg! What's the name of the space-vehicle?' She asked, then started to whisper a mantra: 'please don't let it be them, not them, please not them.''Uh? Blue Dwarf?''Gah!' Annie examined the display, worked out the coordinates of the epicentre of the chaos, then threw herself down the corridor to a door marked "departures". Just as Snori Thurgson called out: "no wait!" she flung open the door and jumped through.With a terrific bang, Annie found herself slammed against the office wall where she dropped senseless to the floor.'You alright?' Snori asked, helping her up.'What was that?''You can't go running into the middle of that,' he said cheerfully, 'far to many cross-streams and anti-flows. You'll be torn to pieces if you're not careful. There's no such thing as cause and effect at the heart of that paradox, your head might end up there ok, but not with the rest of you!''How quickly is it collapsing?' She asked, allowing the other Agent to help her to her feet.'Well you know, relative time is meaningless in these situations...''How bloody long, Thurgson?''Uh, two-hundred years, give or take. Total collapse both sides, followed by implosion around the centre of the paradox. There's a pool going on about what kind of Universe will replace it.''Ah crap,' Annie said, pacing back and forth with one hand to her head. 'Think, need to think.''It's just a Universe, Annie, there's loads like it. Look, there's even one nearby where they didn't travel back in time.''Yes,' she said through clenched teeth, grabbing his lapels, 'but it needs to be THIS one!''What's so special about it?' He looked blankly at her.'It's just... It's... argh!' She let him go and threw up her arms in despair.'Best to let it go, Annie, there are others...''How far has the paradox-chaos spread so far?''Uh, the sphere of Yau-Calibi theoretical quantum-foam currently occupies a radius of about six hundred years.''So we can still get to the time-stream either side of six-hundred years from the point of collapse?''Yeah, I guess.''Think, think... ah hah! I've got it!''What?''One thing you can always depend upon in humans, especially humans from L-388,' Annie said, as she made some frantic notes, preparing herself: 'if they do something for a year it starts becoming habit. Do it for a few centuries and it becomes tradition. Then there's very little in any Universe that can shake the force of habit vs. tradition. Take care Snori, if I don't make it back... well take care anyway.''Sure,' Snori watched Annie as she ran for the departures door again, disappearing smoothly through this time. Thurgson turned back to the display. 'I think this is going to get interesting. It'll be nice not knowing what's going to happen for once,' he said out loud to general murmured agreement. 'Shall we order pizza or chinese? Someone get a sofa or two. This is going to be a good night in.'<So begins Annie's plan.>Get the New Internet Explore 8 Optimised for MSN. Download Now