[Video]

[una_persson]

[On screen: a handsome woman with chestnut-brown hair and grey eyes, wearing a tailored tweed blazer over a plain blouse. She smiles, offers a little wave in greeting; when she speaks, she has a crisp, cut-glass British accent.]

Hello. My name's Una Persson. I'm a new arrival—just accepted a post as a Travel Agent.

[A beat; her gaze flickers down for a moment.]

I've been here before, but you'll have to forgive me; my memories of that time are hazy at best. Something to do with the trans-temporal travel. [She says, as if this is somehow strange or a surprise to her, which it so very much isn't. People don't need to know everything about her.] So for all intents and purposes, you may consider me a complete newcomer.

Comments

[una_persson]

Not a bit of it, believe me. [She grins.] Digging is easier than battlefields.

[archeologue]

Were you a nurse in a war?

[Even knowing that this is an alien planet and the people are from many times and places, and that the battlefields she is talking about may not be the battlefields of the First World War, his first assumption is that a woman on a battlefield is probably a nurse.]

[una_persson]

[She shakes her head, more amused than offended by his suggestion.]

While I have nothing but admiration for the women of that sisterhood, I've never been one of them.

[archeologue]

[Her answer forces him to stretch beyond his expectations. Familiar with battlefields, but not a nurse. He knows that in other times and other cultures sometimes women fought, but it still seems rather miraculous to him.]

You were a soldier?

[Asked as if he can't quite believe the conclusion he's come to.]

[una_persson]

[Oh, you delightfully old-fashioned man. Delightful, at least, until he says something grating. But for now it's funny.]

You seem surprised. You've never heard of the First Petrograd Women's Battalion, have you? Or the Night Witches?

[Not that she was involved with the latter, but she did admire them.]

[archeologue]

I have heard of Petrograd...

[He offers in answer.]

But I don't travel to Russia much since the Revolution, and before the Revolution I was very busy in France and Belgium. It would not overly surprise me, however, if some of the men at Ypres were actually women. It seems there is hardly a major war throughout history that does not have at least a few women joining in, whether the men in charge have officially permitted them or not.

[una_persson]

And even when we're "allowed" [some heavy, arch irony there] we tend to get left out of the recorded histories. But in any event—I've worn rather a lot of hats in my lifetime. Actress, soldier, revolutionary, activist... [She grins.] This place? Is a holiday.

and now with the proper account...

[archeologue]

["Actress" is very easy for him to believe. She has a classic beauty that would suit stage or cinema very well.]

A revolutionary too? You've had a very eventful career. There is nothing we French love more than a good revolution. What cause did you fight for?

that was oddly hilarious coming from the other

[una_persson]

[She waves her hand, a sort of casually dismissive, "what, this old thing?" gesture.]

Oh, now that's a long story; I couldn't possibly bore you with it. Particularly not standing around here, pleasant as this is.