"Really?" Nome said. "So now you're just sticking an egg beater into the space-time continuum and scrambling it?" "No!" Arkady flipped her long blond hair back and pulled on her goggles. "No, no, no, kind of, yeah, probably." She moved next to the elevator-sized metal artichoke that tied loops in the fourth dimension. "More like I'm... broadening certain historical figures' life experiences. Making them more worldly. That can't be bad, right?" The artichoke began to hum.

"Why?" Nome hurried into her goggles. With her short brown hair, it took much less effort. "Give me some mathematical reason why that can't be bad."

"Shrug."

"Did you just say 'shrug?'"

The machine flashed, then flashed again. Arkady had disappeared between flashes, and she reappeared with a large, Scandinavian man. "Sorry, I had to pick up Leif Eriksson from 900 AD Egypt." The man handed her a bag, then she fiddled with the artichoke and he disappeared. "Huh, citrus." She blinked, then picked up a knife from her workbench and started fiddling with the fruit.

"You're done, right? This is it? The last... are you even listening?"

"Are you still lecturing?"

"Yeah."

"Then no." Arkady kept on with the knife.

"What are you doing?" Nome looked over Arkady's shoulder, her frustration tempered by curiosity.

"Taa-daa!" Arkady held up a yellow face carved into a rough likeness of Abraham Lincoln. "Look! It even has a little stovepipe!" She plonked a yellow hat on top.

Nome followed her over to the machine. "What are you doing?"

"Sending it to the 1860 White House." Flash, and it was gone.

"But why?"

Arkady looked at Nome like she was dull. "When Leif gives you lemons, make Lemon Abe."

It was all Nome could do not to punch her.

For more Nome and Arkady, read "Perfectly Justified Response" at Daily Science Fiction!