First Contact
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Black Queen Rust opening this meeting.

Black Queen Delta reporting in.

Black Queen Yetta here. Sister Crosscut's busy tying up loose ends right now.

She can catch up when she gets here.

Just to be clear, this isn't a record of something we found, right? This is just a little meeting to discuss what happened.

Every new recruit needs an introduction. Crosscut's new, so we just need to go over how Yetta got her here.

Did you fill out the logs I asked for, Yetta?

Yep. Got the transcripts all ready.

Then could you please load the first log?

Gimme a minute. Here.

Is this—okay, good. Mission log, Black Queen Yetta, entering new timeline 152-Juliet-Sigma, day zero. I’m only really doing this because Delta wanted me to make a log as I went along, so she could record it for future sisters or something like that—

We established all this already. Can we please move on to the new information?

Hey, be happy I actually did these logs. Most of our sisters wouldn’t have even bothered, so if you have a problem with them, just live with it.

Sisters, calm down. We haven't even been here five minutes. Yetta, could you load the next log?

Coming right up.

Mission log, Black Queen Yetta, day two. Opening and getting through the Way went okay, especially since I had a soul to lock on to. Ended up in some mining town in West Virginia. Yesterday was spent scouting the town out and eating some stuff I brought with me, and what she said about gangs running this town was right. I'm gonna check more of what Delta gave me, see who here could be who we want. Next entry’s gonna be whenever I figure out who I’m after.

Delta, you didn’t tell Yetta who she was looking for?

My analysis of the soul I detected was unable to establish who it may have belonged to. Yetta’s objective was to find them.

So you asked me to go in without any knowledge of who I was actually supposed to be finding? How did you know that they weren’t part of the Foundation or something?

I would have thought my not telling you any names would have been sufficient to illustrate that point.

I thought you were just in a bit of a rush, and the name was buried in the stuff you gave me.

Delta, you cannot ask your sisters to find something when you yourself don’t even know what you’re looking for.

I supplied Yetta with all the information I had. If she had read through it all, she would have realized that it was her job to find the owner of the soul. Judging by the last log, she clearly did.

I wasn’t able to get through all the info because I was in a rush to find and bring back the soul’s owner!

Sisters, please, we can work all of this out later. Yetta, be assured I will talk with Delta about this. Now, could we please confine and load the next log?

Sure. Just a heads up, the recorder got a little banged up around the time I made this log, so I think some of the log may be cut out.

Mission log, Black Queen Yetta, day three. Turns out that the person Delta wanted me to find might be one of our sisters. Now I don’t actually know yet, I haven’t actually seen them, and there aren’t any of the usual signs of magic around here. But according to some of the water cooler chat I overheard there’s a negotiator in town who goes by the name of the Black Queen, apparently [static] crown. I do actually have to see her to confirm this, even though it’s pretty cut and dry looking to me. Next log will probably be after I see her and confirm if it is a sister.

Hold on, let you me get the next one. It’s like an hour later.

Mission log, Black Queen Yetta, day three log two. My hunch was right, turns out. Alison Chao, known as the Black Queen, or her other nickname of Crosscut, is hiding in an empty office two buildings down the road. [static] get eyes on her and leave, then try and figure out her schedule so I could talk to her, and maybe convince her to come to the Library. It didn’t quite work out like that [static] work, dammit. Anyway, everybody had guns out in each other’s faces, and the fence [static] I fell right through, directly into the deal. Next thing I know, somebody was holding a gun to my head. It was a solid standoff for like ten seconds, which was enough time for [static] burnt his hand almost down to bone, and I took off, running the exact opposite direction of the Alison of this timeline. The recorder got grazed by a shot in the middle of the fight, though, so there’s some static. I’m gonna wait for a bit and then sneak over to the building the other Alison’s in, who I’ll just call Crosscut, and try to talk to her. If the dead man’s switch kicks in and this is the last log anybody hears, well, it’s part of the job.

Now you see the issue with not telling me recovery wasn’t an issue? I got into a shootout trying to get to Crosscut.

Black Queen Crosscut, ready. Just got caught up, where are we in the timeline?

Just getting to you in fact. Anyway, shootout got a ton of attention. Bunch of cops showed up, and I think I saw an FBI car right before we left. Surprisingly fast response time.

Assuming this Foundation has agents in them, they’ll certainly come across Crosscut’s name.

We have a decent relationship in that timeline. I’ll ask sister Phoenix if she can address that in her next meeting.

Phoenix is our envoy there, correct? We should introduce her and Crosscut here, see if she can teach Crosscut anything.

Excellent idea, sister. I’ll talk to her about that as well. Now, shall we get back on track for this meeting?

I like that idea. There was only one other person in the building, and I knocked them out quick. I could hear Crosscut running around, but, well, we all used the same escape plan the first time.

Very clever of you, Yetta. How exactly did you get out of that timeline though?

That was my bad. When shit went down, I called a couple people I knew to come pick me up. By the time they got there, Yetta had done all the explaining she could. I tried to call them off, but they pretty much chased us to the Way and damn near blew my head off right as we got through. I took care of those loose ends.

I see. Before we adjourn, I believe Delta has something to say?

Yes. I would like to apologize to Yetta for sending her into a situation without properly preparing. It was entirely my fault for not further researching what the specific markers on that soul meant, and my mistake resulted in your shootout. As such, I deeply apologize for my mistakes.

Delta, I’m famous now. It’s okay. Anyway, I’m gonna head out now, catch up on the history of that timeline with Crosscut. I don’t think we know which type that is yet.

Very well. You two do that. I’ll check back in with both of you separately later.

They left. Is there anything you wanted to say to me privately?

Actually, yes. That was a completely ridiculous stunt you just pulled, sending Yetta in without any knowledge and not telling her. I know I tried to hammer this point in already, but that is just not something you can do. I’m going to ask you to stay under Gamma’s project for a while, just helping her, until me and the others agree that you get it.

I get it, Rust. Until next time.

Next time, sister. Next time.

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