"Ancient Rome. I've always wanted to see it. I remember reading about Romans when I was in middle school and being enthralled with the history. The republic, the empire, all of it. "
"Ancient Rome? Really?" Tess asks, unimpressed. "Wasn't that a pretty... violent place?"
"Well" you say. "It could be. But I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve. I don't think we'll have to worry about fighting in any arenas or marching with any legions today."
"Well, don't I get a say?"
"Tess. You know how when you drive somebody in your car, the driver gets to pick the music? I'm driving the time machine, so I get to pick the time and place. You're too small to drive, so you don't get to pick!" you say, shaking her playfully. Her little arms and legs flail like a ragdoll as you jostle her around. "And don't complain, or else I'll call my niece and let her babysit you while I go alone."
Tess sighs, rolling her eyes. "Fine. Let's go see Caesar, then."
"Oh! That reminds me. Let me see... where did I put it?" you ask, patting your pockets. You stick your right hand into your coat pocket and retrieve what appears to be a gold locket, no larger than a quarter. You string it around your neck.
"It's a universal translator. I bought them a while back in anticipation for this. I have another one in my pocket, but it's too big for you. Let me just..." you say. You set her down for a second and retrieve an identical locket. You set it down on the table next to Tess, and unholster your shrink ray. "Stand back!" you say, before blasting it. In seconds, it's doll-sized. Or, rather, it's Tess-sized.
You grab Tess in one hand and the miniature locket in the other, and slip it over her head. She swings her arms, trying to fight off your hands, but you're pretty easily able to pin her arms to her sides to put the locket on her.
"You really couldn't have let me do that myself?" she asks, irritated.
"No. And you'd do it to me if our sizes were reversed." you say, smugly. "Anyway, it's a simple device. You just... speak, and it automatically translates it into whatever language the listener speaks. And whatever is said to the wearer is translate to their language. So you'll ear English, and whoever you talk to will hear Latin. If that's their native language."
You smile as you bring Tess towards your lab coat and deposit her feet-first into the pocket. You then turn towards your time machine and march in.
You shut the door behind you. The machine is tiny - about the size of a phone booth. Actually, now that you think about it, it looks a lot like a phone booth. That wasn't intentional, you promise. It's cramped, but there's enough room for you to move and turn around in it.
You flip some switches and hear the sound of the engine firing up. It's loud - almost deafeningly. You hear Tess squeak something from your lab coat, but it's difficult to hear.
You toggle a few switches, confirming your desired time/place. Ancient Rome, approximately the first century AD. Sometime around the early Empire... yeah, that sounds good to you. You'd like to avoid the whole bloody civil war if you can...
The windows tint themselves darkly and become screens. You see a projection of ancient Rome on the screen in front of you come in to view.
CONFIRM DESTINATION? the screen asks you in a shrill voice.
You hit a red button in front of you. DESTINATION CONFIRMED.
The screen darkens and begins making loud whirring, beeping, and clicking sounds. The machine shakes, and feels like it's being lifted up off the ground. You grab on to the handlebars installed on the sides provided for your stability. "Next time, I should include seats! And seatbelts!" you say aloud as the machine begins shaking hard. You try to keep as still as possible so that Tess doesn't get shaken around too much. And you'd hate to hit the side of the machine and squash her.
You hang on for dear life as the machine begins to fly through time and space. You can't see through the windows, which, instead, have converted into television screens and are displaying a little bit of information about your destination. There isn't much - you probably should have had the foresight to program a historical database in the machine. Alas, that will have to be developed at a later date.
You continue holding on for dear life as the machine shakes and spins until suddenly... it seems to stop. You glance up at the screen in front of you, only to realize you're looking at blue sky. You peek down and see your time machine is currently hovering a few hundred feet above the ground - and is descending quite fast.
ENGAGING MANUAL LANDING GEAR. the machine screeches at you. Two joysticks emerge from the dash.
You're prepared for this, at least. You programed the machine so that if you couldn't automatically transport yourself to flat ground, you could maneuver it and find a safe landing spot. Plus, this will let you hide the machine or land somewhere inconspicuous. Don't want to alter history too much or interfere too directly.
You look around. Looks like you're... right in the middle of Rome. Not exactly inconspicuous. In fact, it looks like you're landing not far from the Coloseeum, which doesn't bode well for you! But you ignore it and hope you can just land safely without drawing too much attention to yourself. You steer the machine so that it lands in the courtyard of a small villa nearby.
The time machine touches down, rumbling softly as the base sets itself down on the paved courtyard. A few scared servants run away, into the villa.
JOURNEY COMPLETE the machine says to you. You hear the doors hiss and unlock, and then open.
You stop to compose yourself, and then remember your tiny passenger. You pull Tess out of your pocket and lift her up to your face. She looks quite shaken up and frazzled - her hair is a mess!
"What was that?? I thought we were going to die!" she exclaims. "And your pocket is pretty tight. I got my leg bent and twisted at one point. It kind of feels stiff now."
"Sorry. I'll let you down to stretch once I know we're safe"
"Safe? Do you think we were seen? We probably shouldn't interfere too much. No telling how what we do impacts history. And I'd hate to wipe ourselves out from the historical record on accident." she says. "Please tell me we're not about to be skewered by some gladiators or by Caesar himself..."
"I think we might be ok..." you say as emerge from the time machine.
"Here. Let me make sure everything is safe" you say, tucking her back into your pocket.
You step out of the machine shakily and turn towards the machine. You don't really want to leave it out. You unholster your size ray and zap it, reducing it to just a few inches tall - even smaller than Tess! Picking it up, you hesitate. You don't want to toss it in your pocket with Tess, or put it in a back pocket. In fact, you'd like it to be nice and secure.
You turn it around in your fingers, examining the machine's tiny, intricate details. It looks like something you'd put on a charm bracelet, you think to yourself. Wait a second...
There's a little loop at the top - which you originally intended to be a lightning rod, useful for acting as an emergency power source. But you figured out alternatives in the last phase of testing, rendering it obsolete. But...
You take off your translator necklace and undo the latch, slipping one end of the thread through the hold. You gently lower the time machine down, until it rests next to the translator medallion. Perfect. You can carry it on you with little stress or burden, and you can unshrink it discreetly if you need to. You slip the necklace with your time machine back over neck.
Now that that's settled, you take a look around the courtyard. It's absolutely beautiful. To your surprise, the marble surrounding you isn't entirely white. In fact, all of the statues are painted. You never knew!
You stop and gaze at a mural on the wall of the courtyard. It appears to depict several members of a family posing together. They must be the inhabitants of the house. There's quite a number of them. And, you think, there's servants, too.
You gaze at a few of the statues and other gorgeous decorations in the courtyard. I better remember to take some of these with me when I go. They'll make wonderful decorations you think to yourself.
You wonder what to do next. You're not dressed like a Roman, which might arouse the suspicion of the guards and get you into trouble. The Romans had lots of ways of punishing people, and you read about them enough to know you wouldn't enjoy any of them. Perhaps you should approach the family in the house and ask them for assistance? Or, you could try sneaking in - perhaps with your shrink ray or invisibility cloak - to take what you need and sneak off, undetected. Or you could just leave the courtyard and explore. Maybe you should finally unshrink Tess. She probably is sick of being stuffed in your pocket, anyhow.
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