[IC] Lost in Dreams (Chandra)

[ericthered]

Gopper sheepishly agrees that the statement is probably true. "But they'd never allow it."

Smith: "Yes, we'll need to check to make sure. Just remember... You're not twins. You're alternates from very close parallels. Stranger things than matching finger-prints happen in these cases".

There are plenty of nooks for Chandra to study in. She is able to start in on a wealth of basic information about infinity, its wealth, its history, and what is expected of an icop in training. Its an awful lot to take in at once: rules and regulations for the academy that have gradually been relaxed: a list of subjects all cadets are required to know: wilderness survival, parachronic theory, a certain number of societies (language, culture, skill within them), combat skills, regualtions that must be memorized... The list goes on and on.

One of the books is labeled 'The cross-time community'. It is something of a guidebook on how to recognize fellow world-travellers, where they are likely to be found, and appropriate responses: mostly negotiation, capture, or subterfuge. The largest portions of the book are devoted to people from homeline and another world known as 'centrum'. These people travel using primarily conveyors. A small section is devoted to people (or things) who can travel by themselves. This seems to be one of the primary methods of travel for a nasty world known as 'Reich-5', but also for a number of Maori who flit from world to world, a breed of rabbit, some of what seem to be honest to goodness elves, and a handful of people who can just plain do it. None of the description remotely match Chandra, and none of them describe any method of jumping that sounds possible while sleeping. It does describe how to identify that a person is a world-jumper, and some fairly ruthless procedures for ensuring they either don't figure out who you are or how to capture them if they do.