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[Is it possibly for a mental voice to sound giddy? Because there's a distinct giddy tinge to By's thoughts, for all that his words come out with his normal, lazy, lightly Russian-accented drawl.]

Byerly Vorrutyer here. We're on Earth, pre-spaceflight, although someone who isn't me will need to get a better read on the actual date and location. Linguistically, it's a hodgepodge. I can hear archaic Russian, a whole host of Asiatic and Romance languages, and something else I can't quite place.

If you can "hear" this, check in. We need to know who we've got to work with.

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Of course, I'll share what I know.

[Where to begin, where to begin.]

This does seem to be Earth, but not an Earth I'm familiar with, perhaps another version. At a glance, I would call them early industrial, certainly before the development of true computers or nuclear power, but what they've accomplished with that alone is nothing short of astonishing. A sort of enhanced early industrial, if you will, with a number of empires fighting for control. We are in the flying market of Nova Venezia, above Venice.

What empires? Someone earlier--I think Helena Wells--said that the politics are different than the ones from her world and time.

I am... I seem to be from the Chakravartin Raj, an empire spanning India and southeast Asia. There are also the Golden Khanate, which spans central Asia and southeasten Europe; the Prussia-Zaporizhian Empire, which is composed of northern Europe and Asia; the Ummah Caliphate, which is mostly northern Africa and western Europe; the Zulu Paramountcy of southwestern Africa; the Kingdom of Monomotapa, southeastern Africa and in opposition to Zulu rule; the Kingdom of Joseon, which is most of the easternmost coast of Asia; and the Kingdom of Uchinaa, mostly islands off the coast of Joseon. Vatican City, here, is... independent. Those are the principle powers, I should say.

[It's a lot of words. He's sorry.]

There are alliances and rivalries among the various empires, of course. It is... complex.

Of course it is. Whenever you have governments smaller than a planet it usually is. [Whenever you have governments the same size as a planet it usually is.]

That's a good starting point, however.

I admit it is rather strange to suddenly remember this in this fashion.

Useful, though. I, ah, may be sending some of the people who're a bit at sea to you for advice in blending in.

I'll be glad to help them in any way I can.

Good.

[He hesitates a moment before adding,]

I was wondering... it's not exactly related to the jaunt, but I've gotten the impression that it's possible to... well, I suppose the best word for it is to look back on these conversations. As if they're on record, somehow, in our minds. Is that true?

[Because if he could figure out how to do that, it would help quite a lot for what he's trying to do here .]

Certainly it's possible, or at least it's possible for many here. I can do it myself.

How do you do it? I can't help but think it would make everything a good deal easier if I could do the same.

[There's a pause, while he tries to think of how to put it into words.]

It's easiest to think of it as a way of remembering. I think of what I wish to remember, and I can call it up and experience it again. My memory is perhaps different in quality from a human's, but the basic nature of it remains the same.

Ah. What are you, if I may ask? [He's tempted to add 'if it's not too rude' but the truth is he'd still be asking whether or not it was rude.]

That... might work for me, though. I've, ah, got a very good memory. Eidetic, I think the term is. [It hadn't been quite as good originally, but that was one of the things you picked up at ImpSec training camps.]

I am a robot, in fact. To be honest, if you possess an eidetic memory, your memorization skills may be considerably closer to mine than is typical. I can't say if this is the technique that all use, but it is how I find it easiest.

It's one I'll at least try. I don't bother to claim my brain is quite as sophisticated as your chips [what would it be like to be an actual robot, he wonders] but I've trained it as well as I can.

I don't think it's a question of "sophistication." A positronic brain is different from a human brain, but not better.

So your brain is wholly mechanical? You don't have, ah, a fleshy brain hooked up to control everything?

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... What can you tell us about the Raj?

[He sounds... very startled.]

They are one of the more diplomatic of nations, and home to some of the most sophisticated machines and clockwork in this world. I seem to have a surprisingly advanced clockwork prothesis, in fact. My profession, in this world, is mainly in the rental of Proxies, radio-controlled lifelike 'robots.' The Raj is quite well known for such works.

Proxies.

I remember those.

Do you?

How is this? How can you remember this?

Deja vu.

The phenomenon in which one believes one has experienced things before. That is, I understand, usually an illusion.

Unless you already know you have amnesia, mon ami.

I stand corrected, then.

You missed it by just a few Jaunts, I think. If I remember that part correct.

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