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     Cmdr. J. Darek Smith |
Heartbeat. White light. The Emissary. A Chosen One. "What has happened to them, Emissary?" A beat. Time stops. "I do not know. And the Prophets will not tell me. But I fear that a Reckoning may once again be at hand." The Chosen Child looks to the Emissary in question. She is uncertain and afraid. The Emissary laughs and flips a white sphere. He catches it. "There are always Reckonings. Always comings and goings, struggles against one thing or another. Time is meaningless here, and so there are always victories, always defeats. Your purpose has not yet been served, Brie. Not entirely. I could not see my own destiny with the Prophets, and you shall not know yours until your Reckoning has come." A frown. An infinity of heartbeats. Disapproval. "Emissary, they are my friends! I can't just - " An instant. A flash of anger. Recovery. A sound. But sound does not exist here. But it is a laugh, nevertheless. "Brie, you can and you will. Your time is close at hand. One shall make way for you. You shall make way for them. Time has no meaning here. Haven't you learned yet?" --------- June 2375 He felt the blast seer into his flesh, rip at him for a tiny instant. But before that instant of pain could seize him, he was consumed in a sparkle of light. Several hours later he was complaining of little more than the way the tones of the synthetic skin failed to blend properly with his own natural skin. Little to be concerned about, he was sure, but still annoying. That bitch had actually tried to kill his best - hell, probably only remaining - friend, and if it had not been for the efforts of a few loyal crewmen aboard the starship Archimedes and a perfectly timed transport, his attempts to stop the trecherous female would have resulted in his own death. As it was, it had been a damn good illusion for all involved. Major Dev Wallace stepped into the massive monitoring station, checking on various agents around the Quadrant. He tapped into one particular, little known sector's reports and called up the temporal monitoring programs. Wallace hated temporal mechanics, but this was going to be the only way to put everything right. God, how he hated time travel. That damned Jaunt Drive had nearly cost them everything! Now, as the major looked around the nearly deserted command center, Wallace shook his head in exasperation. She might have tried to kill him, but he still needed her help. The Danav Temporal Jaunt Facility was unguarded at the moment, but it was the most closely guarded of their secrets. In fact, she was the only other living person who knew about it - or at least, she would be after he had visited Danav. A young ensign - Smith or Jones or some other equally anonymous name; Wallace was fairly certain of it, but he didn't have the time to concern himself over such things. "Sir, we have figured that the actual damage to the current space-time continuum was more than twenty percent. And with the passing of the Temporal Prime Directive, there have been some - unforeseen consequences. Also, Lieutenant Toria was taken into custody and began to talk to authorities." Wallace nodded and frowned. He knew that things would have to be - fixed. "Tell me about these 'unforeseen consequences', Ensign." The ensign went down the list: Coronado's Jaunt Drive had been removed and scrapped. All research into improving the Jaunt had been halted. All known facilities where "research" was being conducted for Jaunt transporters had been seized and declared illegal operations. Captain Aldur had been arrested, tried, and convicted of tampering with the timeline. Coronado's command crew had been tried and convicted on similar charges of temporal tampering. And Lieutenant Toria had told the authorities about nearly every single instance of Section 31 involvement in "temporal tampering", bringing the wrath of the Federation Council against the Section. Wallace shook his head. He could tell that they had their work cut out for them. "Begin scanning the timeline for possible focal points, Ensign. We've got work to do." The ensign nodded curtly and left the command center, leaving Wallace alone with his thoughts. Temporal mechanics certainly gave him headaches. ---------------- "There! Rewind to time index - um, uh - zero-two-four-seven mark three-one." Wallace and the ensign sat watching the Deep Space Nine security logs from Toria's arrest three weeks before. The ensign rewound so that Wallace could watch again as Dryden Tollory injected the Section 31 operative with a hypospray. Less than a minute later, Deep Space Nine's primary physician - Bashir, he thought it was - came into the security area and injected her with a second hypospray, saving her life. "There - Toria has to die. That way, she can't talk, Aldur and his crew won't be convicted, and the Jaunt sites won't be seized by Starfleet Security. Besides, I haven't much cared for her lately, anyway." The ensign turned back to Wallace. "Sir, you realize that if we do that, then we won't be able to access her files and records from - " "I understand. Activate the Jaunt transporter and lock onto her at these temporal co-ordinates." Wallace handed the ensign a padd with the needed information. "Oh, and have a crew prepare the other pads for two more incursions. One shortly after that time there and one about a day before she tried to kill me." The ensign raised an eyebrow as he listened to Wallace, still reading over the padd. "Sir, you realize the level of damage to the timeli - " Wallace raised a hand, halting the young man. "Trust me ensign. We have to do what we can to prevent the Federation's downfall. From what we can tell, Captain Aldur and his crew just may be a part of the key to doing that. Therefore, we have to protect them as well." ---------------- He stood before the massive monitors. The damage was worse than they had imagined. And he still wasn't entirely certain that the special Jaunt equipment here at Danav was capable of tracking everything. Still, they had no choice. Time was already starting to flux in ways completely unintended. He was just glad those fools from DTI hadn't heard about Danav. They'd have a fit. "All ready, Ensign?" The acting Director of Section 31 asked calmly, though he was anything but calm at this moment. History depended on the things they did in the next few minutes, and that kind of pressure really grated on his nerves. The younger man nodded as he worked a few controls. "Ready for incursion, sir. We'll - " A beep interrupted him. "Hold on, this is strange. I've got a massive distortion. Two - repeat, two massive new temporal distortions. One centered in April 2376. Another in late 2378. And -" He stopped short, his breath leaving him. "Dammit!" "What is it, Ensign?" Major Wallace was quickly losing his patience. Ironic, he would have thought had he been of a mind to, to lose one's patience in a room dedicated to time travel. "Sir, I've got two more major distortions. One in either late 2400 or early 2401. And one more in - looks like late 2302, October, November, maybe." Wallace's face set into a grim mask. "It's going way too fast. We've got start." He grabbed a small equipment bag and hurried up to the platform. "Set for automatic retrieval, and then get yourself out of here." Silence hung heavy in the air as the two young men stared at each other, each knowing that they stood on the cusp of a great adventure into the unknown. "Energize." With a blinding swirl of light and an explosion of sound, Wallace blinked into eternity. ======================== Christian D. Clem, aka "Aggie" Cmdr. J. Darek Smith, XO, USS Coronado Lt. Ungtae Brie, M.D. (deceased) RAdm. J.D. "Dev" Wallace, CO, TG 5.3 OOC Note: This log takes place primarily within hte events surrounding the episode "Traitors and Thieves". If you wish to know more about it, we ran it back in the 1998-99 season, so you can read all about it in the archives. It was a personal favorite because it featured so many threads and so many possibilities. This is just one of them as it might relate to our current plotline. |