Two People Talking - Connor and Servalan

"Of course," the President and Supreme Commander said silkily, "in normal circumstances I could order you shot."

The very annoying boy simply stared at her with the round eyes of a wary and very bright jackelope.

She gave him the wide, glittering smile she kept for people who would die as soon as they were no longer... useful. Possibly useful. "You are fortunate, there would be, shall we say, drawbacks to the plan right now."

"Sorry," he spoke with utterly aggravating earnestness, "but do you mean like the fact that there's no one to order? And no gun for the no one to shoot with? And no -"

"Quite." The glittery smoothness frayed a little; she gritted her teeth and forced the raggedness back, along with the irritation from parching heat, gritty dirt, strange heavy air, and the reeking, ever-present, unpleasantly... natural nature of this place. And the sweat and evil-smelling swamp on her priceless gown and in her hair and skin from the place she'd just stumbled from. And the headache she was getting both from staring at the sparkling shards of light around them, and from listening to the boy's so-called explanation as to how very very far away she was from her power base and Empire.

"No one else to tell you when you are, then," he babbled on, "Your Supremeness."

"Where."

"No." If it were possible, the eyes went even rounder. "When."

And, worst of all, how very very long it would take to get back there.

"If I'm right," he was babbling now, unspeakably enthused, "give or take a few days or weeks - months - two hundred and fifty million years.

"We're in the Permian, you know, Your Supremeness" he babbled on, "or maybe you don't, I don't know when you came from or what you know about it, but that's where I think we are, late Permian. Not a nice time at all - well you can see that. All desert and drought and things dying. Dunno about you, but I can't think of many worse places myself.

"Well, except the one through that anomaly there -" He pointed at the sparkling... thing in front of them. "Mid Jurassic. Big big dinosaurs, lot of 'em with teeth and claws to match.

"And the one through there -" pointing behind it to the next sparkling thing, "Late Cretaceous. Dinosaurs, not as big, maybe, but with more and bigger teeth, and volcanoes. Well, not the dinosaurs having the volcanoes obviously, but I've been there and the air's really not nice.

"Oh, and that one there -" pointing to the left before she could speak, "- Not sure which Ice Age, but I'd guess it's early. Very very early. Maybe sometime in the early Paleozoic. And very very very - very cold." He didn't quite ogle her sleek, bare gown and stiletto-high heels, but her experience told her it was a near thing; it might have amused her, but she was burningly hot, thirsty and missing her Empire enough to be more murderous than amused.

"Oh, and there -" pointing to the right, "- Carboniferous, I think, 'cause I'm sure I've seen some of the nasties there before. Big, big insects, I mean spiders like -" he held his hands about a foot apart, "- that."

"I know," she spoke with lethal sweetness. "I saw them."

"And flies like -" His hands spread out to two feet.

"I know. I saw them as well.."

"Oh, and should I talk about the crawlies -?" The hands flapped out as far as he could reach, "- and way more."

"I know." She gave him that smile again, and he seemed satisfyingly flustered - but then he had from the beginning, so she couldn't be sure he was feeling threatened - or at least, not as threatened as he should be. Even she had to admit that, after the rather more graphic threat from the 'crawlies', a President with no better weapon that her spiky heels and imperious, venomous tongue might be less effective than usual.

"And poisonous, probably, at least the ones we saw - you know, you really shouldn't go eon-hopping in heels, our Jenny found that out fairly -"

"You should learn when to BE QUIET... young man." Young fool, more like, but she might need -

"Sorry, sorry. And that anomaly there? From a quick peek I'd say it was the future."

"Isn't that what we want?" She might need -

"Not that much future. I'm guessing at least a hundred million years forward from my own - and yours, which is pretty much the same, in a way - sorry, your Supremeness, anyway, it looks like a long way, a long long way, the longest way you can imagine in the future, and -"

"Enough." She couldn't need anyone this annoying that much, but she reminded herself that was the President and Supreme Commander, and she would bend him to her will. She could and she would...

If her head - and her feet - would stop aching.

"You will find a way for me to return to my own... place."

"Time."

"Both."

"Uhh... okay. Maybe." He blinked. "Not that I actually know how it all works but we can always try a bit of anomaly-hopping, just for..."

"If. We. Must." She gritted her teeth, strode forward - and felt her heel squelch into something soft. "What now?"

"Oh, you just stepped on a -" He bent and stared at her foot, while she fought the very satisfying if unpresidential urge to kill him with her bare hands. "I dunno, some little... not a mammal, no, too early, mammal-like reptile, probably nothing to fret about."

"Do you imagine that I - Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation -"

"And all that, yeah -"

"You are insolent."

"Me? Sorry, I just - well, maybe. But then I'm not the one who may - just may, knowing our luck - have just squashed our great-great-great-great-to-the-nth-degree granny." The boy gave a awkward grin. "Or not."

- the end-