It was a cold and wet morning when I got into the hansom with my trunk. I felt no little bit of deja vu about this whole thing. I mean it had only been a couple seasons since my journey back home after becoming surplus to requirements. My luck may have turned since then, but my situation only looks stable from afar. I'm not as low as I was last time, so now I'm facing a bit of a different experience.
As the train pulled out of the station, the engine chuffing clouds of smoke and steam into the frosty air, my mind wandered to all the things that may come. I've got some top cover from being fully funded, but that's also likely to draw significant attention to my position, if not from interest in the work, which may be lacking, then from interest in the funding or obtaining the position for themselves. As the endowment funds moved mountains to get me the post, then there will be those who desire their own mountains moved out of the way. I may be one of the mountains, or more reasonably mole hills, they'd like removed. I'd heard in my original world that academia had all sorts of politicking and no little vicious competition. I could only hope that reputation was overblown. As Wilhena had warned me, I could not plan or count on that being the case, but I could hope. I just could not let that hope cloud my judgement.
In many ways my fall had not been the catastrophe I let it become in my mind. I had been extraordinarily fortunate. It was almost supernatural. As though the system had plans to alter the path for this world, and I was the tool. Only I wasn't performing to specification, so the only way to kick my self-centered butt into moving along had been to disrupt the status quo I had accepted by default. Maybe that's more credit than the system deserves. Maybe it was just fate, maybe was just a cosmic coincidence. Or maybe I am here to do something more. Maybe. But I'm going to believe that I can make a difference. Perhaps that's hubris, perhaps it's folly, but what I've found can literally change the world for the better. Perhaps it might be abused, but I can't figure out a way to make being healthy abusable. I can see all sorts of issues with security with regard to telekinesis, but as far as I can tell, if I can't do it with my hands, I can't really do it with telekinesis. Sure, I could hold hot items without getting burned, but I can't pick locks with my mind. I don't have the dexterity to do it with my hands and that seems to carry over. Perhaps if someone else comes up with the visualization tricks, and has the skills to break and enter that it might become simpler for them. Latches aren't really considered secure anyway.
As the train pulled into the station, I stopped my woolgathering and prepared to disembark. I had places to go, lodging to visit, and tomorrow, I'd have people to see. I could wait for those meetings. I'm sure that many will be unsure how to treat me, and others will be certain that I'm just a jumped up analyst with delusions and a rich backer. To be fair, that's not a large step from the truth anyway. I've been lucky. I'm not sure how much longer I can depend on being lucky, but depending on luck wasn't exactly the best bet I could think of right now. I had skills already, I just needed to develop a test protocol to demonstrate those skills and then put enough math around the results to bore all but the most dedicated from reading the results. Both of those things should be fairly simple. The difficulty is in my unknowns. I know there are many things outside my scope of vision. I can't plan for those in any detail. The world I come from call them black swan events. You know that they happen, but you can predict when or where or how. You can only prepare in general and hope that you recognize one when you see it. Some military man put it into a pithy phrase. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." In this case, I didn't even know who or what my enemy might be. So. I could be as prepared as I could be, and then I'd need to get to work. For now, I was going to go on full time Leatherman mode. I don't know what's out there, but worst case, it's good practice at channelling and energy handling.
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The cab ride to the Omni was uneventful, and a reasonable tip got me assistance with the trunk up to my 4th floor lodgings. Today, I miss elevators. This world has dumb waiters, but nothing of the size to handle trunks, so the assistance is very good. At the top of the stairs, I decided to double the tip, that trunk got really heavy, really fast. After tipping the cabbie, I got out my key, which had been provided to my by Wilhena. I unlocked the door and dragged my trunk into my new abode. It was reasonably warm, using a building boiler and radiator system to provide heat for the building. There were a couple of windows and even a small balcony area that let in the natural light. Frankly, it was much nicer than the place I'd lived in as an analyst, even discounting the stairs. Without a trunk, those shouldn't be a big problem.
I unpacked my trunk and hung up my nicer clothes in the armoire, stuffing the folded items into the assorted drawers of the provided dresser. The bed and mattress seemed clean, the small kitchenette with the pot-belly stove was also furnished with some of the basics, providing both a secondary source for heating and the ability to cook if needed. I didn't want to think of hauling up the wood, but perhaps there's some wood or coal delivery service, or I can use the cafeteria for my meals. The place was almost universally beige and brown, with the stove situated on a bunch of orangey brown terracotta tiles for some amount of fire safety. It needed a bit more life, but it was winter, so I wouldn't be starting any herb gardens today. Once the place was a bit explored and mostly unpacked, I did a few rounds of max weight telekinesis with the empty trunk, straining to lift it, but only managing to get one end off the ground. Still, that's almost a stone. Exhausted and excited, I did my best to get some sleep as the light had faded and night was here. Tomorrow was the start of another adventure.