16. New York Interlude
“Nina to Baffin, I'm returning to the TARDIS.”
“Acknowledged,” Aialah said.
Alpha turned to the ENH. “Set course back behind the Moon.”
“Course laid in,” the ENH reported a few moments later.
“Engage.”
Baffin warped out of orbit and was back behind the Moon just over a minute later. “There is no indication that the American Government is aware of us,” Aialah reported.
Nina entered the TARDIS. She checked on the download. Another 4 hours until completion. “But I can find out more about Spider-Man anyway,” she said. She accessed the information already downloaded and searched for information on that arachnid themed vigilante.
She quickly found a lot of information in the form of the online archive of a newspaper named the Daily Bugle. She quickly grew annoyed. 'This J. Jonah Jameson certainly has an axe to grind!' she thought. Despite the anti-Spider-Man bias she did get a sense of the information. Spider-Man had only been around a little over two years. “TARDIS, determine the earliest mention of Spider-Man,” Nina said.
The TARDIS soon found the information. 7 June 2002. 'Figures,' she thought. She brought up the earliest issue of the Daily Bugle to mention the web slinging vigilante, on the 8th of June. It was clear that Jameson's bias was present from outset. She looked over the Bugle's photos of Spider-Man again and noticed that most of them were taken by one person, Peter Parker. “I guess I'll have to find him.” She had the TARDIS transfer the location of the Bugle's offices to a PADD and then went on her way.
Alpha looked over the internet traffic Baffin's probes were intercepting. There was still no indication that anyone had seen the ship stop above New York City, although it was still less than half an hour after Octavius' experiment had gone awry. The experiment had been mentioned on online news, on various radio news programs in and around the Big Apple and on CNN. 'But that's just one aspect of this particular Earth!' she thought.
Even so, she wanted to limit any cultural contamination caused by the appearance of Baffin in orbit if she could.
Half an hour later, Nina approached the Daily Bugle building.She had used the PADD to check for possible job vacancies on the way over.
Betty Brant looked at the young lady as she came towards her. “Welcome to the Daily Bugle. How may I help you?”
“Yes, there is an archivist position available?” the young blonde asked.
“Yes,” Brant said as she handed an information sheet over.
Nina read it over. It was certainly something she could do, scan the older archives so they could be put online. She signed her name.
“Good!” Brant said. “I'll give this to Mr. Jameson, then I will be back.”
Nina nodded.
Betty Brant entered Jameson's office.
“Not now!” Jameson said as he hung up the phone.
“Sir, here's an applicant for the archivist position,” she said.
“Bring her in,” Jameson said.
“Nina Lumber?” Jameson asked after he had read over the name on the application.
“Yes.”
“Sounds unfamiliar,” Jameson said. He looked over the rest of the CV. It all checked out. “You're hired!” he said. “You start tomorrow at 9:00.”
“Thanks, Mr. Jameson.”
“You can thank me by doing a good job!”
“Crewman Nina to Baffin,” Nina said after she had left the Bugle office.
“Report,” Alpha said.
“I got the job.”
“That was unexpected. But do you think that Parker person would really tell you anything about Spider-Man?”
“I can only try.”
“That's certainly true.”
“Returning to the TARDIS now.”
Aialah noticed something in the communications data she was looking at.”Something...” she murmured.
“What is it?” Alpha asked.
“It's certainly something,” Aialah said. “...Within the upper levels of the American Government. The President is in the Situation Room, but there is nothing happening in the far flung regions of interest to the USA. They're mostly peaceful.”
“So you think they might have seen us?” Alpha asked.
“It's a possibility.”
“Keep an eye on it. But you're going to need help,” Alpha decided. “Computer activate Emergency Engineering Hologram Eta on the Bridge.”
Eta appeared. “Please state the emergency, Alpha,” she said.
“I'd like you to help Crewman Aialah,” Alpha said.
Aialah explained to Eta what she was doing.
“Right. I'm on it,” Eta said and leapt to it.
In the TARDIS, Nina was looking through history to see if there were people similar to Spider-Man in the past. There were no such records from 20th Century North America or Europe. 'Maybe in the 19th Century?'
Eta scanned through the communications data. There was definitely something happening in the White House. Whether it had something to do with Octavius' experiment, the Baffin's appearance or something else. She told Alpha and Aialah so.
“Keep an eye on it,” Alpha ordered uncertainly.
Eta nodded.
August 16, 2004
After a short sleep, Nina entered the Console Room to find that the TARDIS had brought up a news bulletin.
Octavius escapes from Hospital leaving surgeons dead.
'That's not good,' Nina thought. Without an inhibitor chip, there was no telling what he would do. “TARDIS to Baffin.”
“Alpha here.”
“Octavius is on the lose. It seems he escaped from the hospital when they tried to the remove the device from him.”
“You want to find and help him?” Alpha asked.
“Yes.”
“I'm not sure that would be a good idea.”
“But I don't know where he would go.”
“And scouring the city for him probably wouldn't be a good idea.”
“Well, I did manage to scan the actuators with the tricorder...”
“But you would have to get close to scan for him.”
“That's true.”
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