BMA115: drawing, comic, character bios and story outline, 1 July

I wrote this up weeks? months? ago, but I wasn't ready to publish.  I've come back to refine the story and block it out for 8 pages, so it's time to put it up.

 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Tempus Agent Mary Marie Macintosh.  Birth date January 1, 1899, Death date (first time) January 1, 2001.  She is part of an elite cadre of agents, mostly female, to have been “touched by time” by having set foot in three centuries.  In this agent’s case, the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries.  Limited duration of exposure to the century is no impediment to service.  While long-lived, she did not travel much and spent the duration of her life within the north-western arctic quadrant of the western landmass colloquially known as North America.  She chooses to set her appearance program to 37 years old and auburn for unknown reasons.  It is suspected that those reasons are quite personal as this agent is suspected, and has been censured on multiple time-lines, for her “pet project” of seeding unsuspecting populations with the recessive Human MC1R Gene (red hair).  Her lack of travel not-withstanding, she has studied history extensively and is fluent in a variety of 20^th century regional languages.  With no known relatives or acknowledged biological next of kin, her extraction from the geriatric detention facility “Hopeful Creek Pioneers’ Home” caused some paperwork but very little lasting disturbance to her epoch of terminus.   

Peregrineer F. Scott McMurdo.  Birth date autumn 2067, Death date (classified).   His parents were third-generation climate refugees, and McMurdo’s life has been no less geographically unsettled.  Fleeing from climate disruptions and ecological catastrophes, McMurdo’s parents paid smugglers to get them aboard a decommissioned research vessel heading for the Antarctic Land Grab.  McMurdo’s parents were lost in the Flood of 2071 and he and the other survivors were forced to roam through Africa and Asia Minor in multiple attempts to gain entry to the Federated United Scandi-Euro Zone (FUSEZ in a rebranding campaign in 2078).  His partnership with Agent Macintosh may be temporary as McMurdo’s acceptance by The Agency is unconfirmed pending his completion of latitudinal and longitudinal apprenticeships.

Section Chief William S. Pierce  Birth date 1564, Death date (first time) April 23-26, 1616.  Also known as the “Bard of Avon” and “World’s Greatest Dad”, 8 years running.  Where Macintosh’s agent status comes from her three-century life span and McMurdo’s from his “geo-ambulation”,  S.C. Pierce’s status is due to his worldwide literary notoriety.  His fellow section chiefs, C. Septimus Philopator, Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Blanco, Elvis Presley and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi manage the day to day running of The Agency’s chrono-hubs.  Too famous for field work, the desk job gives S.C. Pierce plenty of time to covertly work on his play “Love’s Labour’s Won” and is famous for muttering “to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow… I’ll drop it off, you know, whenever.  Plenty of time, plenty of time.”

Story Outline

Tempus Agent M. M. Macintosh has pushed herself to the edge of her 21^st century time limit in a self-indulgent attempt to watch the sun rise on a fourth century.  The Time Window that allowed her to enter 2099 has shut and the automaton systems that have extended her life will go into torpor unless she makes it to the Window that will be opening over the North Pole.    While debating how to get overland in time, her Geo-chronometer registers readings that indicate the presence of someone who has an unusually high number of latitudinal and longitudinal incursion markers in their bloodstream.   Her readings lead her to the freshly dead body that is the source of the irregular incursion energy signatures.  She uses the last of the power in her short term time jump circuits to circle back 20 minutes.  The now live body belongs to F. Scott McMurdo, who is attempting to illegally enter the Federated Scandi-EuroZone for the 5^th time.  While negotiating with McMurdo, the two are intercepted by the Robotic Border Security Patrol that did, and still might, execute him.  When challenged, she gives blood for identification purposes and the automaton systems in her blood disable the Security Robots.  Tempus Agent convinces McMurdo to come with her by proving that the FUSEZ is actually empty- the people have been killed off by a variety of automated systems and starvation.  Refugees like McMurdo keep coming because the “Join us in FUSEZ” ad/propaganda campaign is also automated. McMurdo could help prevent this tragedy, if he comes and works with her for The Agency, a shadowy organization tasked with subtly influencing world events with careful “asset placement” (DNA and babies) through Epochs and Empires.  Macintosh can travel through the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st centuries but she can’t travel outside of where she’s physically been without a Geo-Ambulator, somebody who’s crossed all latitude and longitudinal lines.    She takes McMurdo to the Chrono Hub for his time-travel shots (bio-automaton systems and Vitamin D), then treks with him through her homeland towards the North Pole.  They’re racing against time, though, because a rival agent is attempting to warp the time line for their own ends.