Chapter Title: Out of the Woods
Written: Sept 18th, 2011
Captain Thomas Princeton skillfully piloted his rocketship past the planet Pluto. Once he cleared the solar system, he would engage the FTL engine.
An alarm suddenly rang in the cockpit.
"We're receiving an Emergency Action Message," reported Kincaid.
The message was audio only.
"Discovery, you are being recalled to Vesta science station. Under no circumstances are you to engage the FTL engines. Please acknowledge."
Princeton acknowledged the order and turned the Discovery almost 180 degrees. It was now heading back to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Megan Delaney sat in a small dining room with her twin sister, Jenny Delaney. The two of them were allowed time to interact with each other, but only for one and a half hours each day. Although the prison rules kept "level A" prisoners segregated from each other as default, Captain Thomas Princeton was able to convince the warden to make a slight exception so that the sisters could have some respite from solitary confinement.
"I wonder if Tom has made it to another galaxy yet," said Megan.
"Why would Tom be in another galaxy?" asked Jenny. "Isn't he sworn to protect *this* one?"
"His special operations team had been disbanded a while back. Serious criminals had been captured, so the division for interplanetary criminal containment was cut in half. But after capturing Doctor Chaotica again, the President of Earth re-instated Tom as a captain in the Space Navy. This time, he was designated as an exploration aviator. His rocketship blasted off a week ago."
"Ha," laughed Jenny. "It would take him decades to reach the nearest star."
"The naval special operations division found new tech when they secured Chaotica's fortress. They found a prototype ship with a faster-than-light engine. They put the ship under Tom's command."
"That's curious," said Jenny. "Chaotica wouldn't have been experimenting with faster-than-light engines. He wanted to conquer Earth, not flee from the solar system."
Lieutenant Buster Kincaid sat in his temporary assigned quarters in the Earth Space Navy science station on the asteroid Vesta. Most of the station was designed for scientific research. There were a dozen labs. Kincaid had thought he left the life of a labrat behind him when he was promoted to field officer. Now, here he was again amongst a sea of scientists in white lab coats.
He and Captain Princeton walked to the briefing room and sat down, waiting for the Space Navy's finest scientists to explain what was wrong with the Discovery's FTL engines.
Soon, Professor Michael Barnes and his team led a 20 minute long presentation about their new understanding of the Discovery's FTL engine. They had discovered that the engine was not designed to propel the rocketship to faster-than-light speeds. Instead, the rocketship was one of Chaotica's testing vehicles and the letters "FTL" stood for "Fluid Time Laboratory." It was one of Chaotica's first experimental devices for time travel. At first, the scientists had thought that the engine harnessed wormholes in order to travel far distances. They recently learned that the purpose of using those wormholes was to travel through time.
For now, the Captain Proton mission was scrubbed.
Barnes was startled by an alarm while he was resting in his quarters. One of his lead scientists ran into his room, frantic.
"The FTL was accidentally triggered!" the scientist exclaimed.
Barnes rushed out of his quarters and ran toward the hangar where the Discovery had been parked. He was immediately updated by the team in the hangar. While studying the device, two different scientists had independently activated separate parts of the engine. Together, the two parts started a cascade initiation of the device. There was a timer, and the countdown showed roughly a little less than 9 minutes left until the device engaged.
Tom Princeton soon entered into the hangar to see what was going on.
"We've got to evacuate the base," said Barnes. He prepared to order the base personnel to their escape pods.
"The engines on our lifeboats don't generate enough speed!" said base engineer Samantha Archibald. "We have a couple of mining shuttles and a couple of defense craft that might make it safely out of the radius. That's it. Most base personnel would be affected."
"Affected by what?" asked Princeton.
"The FTL engine doesn't only take the Discovery to another timeline. There's a radius surrounding the ship that will be taken with it. This is one of the side effects that Chaotica was trying to correct before he abandoned the device on the ship and started working on his fourth time travel device. That one apparently worked in a better way, but we haven't been able to locate it. The FTL on the Discovery is not a completed project."
Princeton knew what he had to do. There were almost 200 people on the base. He would pilot the ship far enough from Vesta base so that the science and mining personnel wouldn't be affected.
"You'd be sent to another timeline," said Barnes.
"There's not enough time to debate this," said Princeton. The countdown was now 8 minutes. The rockets on the Discovery were significantly more powerful than the ones outfitted in the Vestan lifeboats. Princeton hoped there was enough time. He ran into the Discovery's cockpit.
Barnes ran in there with him.
"What are you doing, Barnes?"
"Don't worry, I'm not crazy enough to join you. But I want to show you the activation sequence for the device."
Barnes showed Princeton how he could re-activate the FTL device if Princeton wanted to try to backtrack and retrace the ship's steps. Hopefully, he can return to his proper timeline somehow. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any way to control what time period the ship would travel to. It would be random.
"The FTL engine needs at least 48 hours to re-power."
"Will it ever run out of fuel?" asked Princeton.
"Not for a long time," said Barnes. "The uranium chamber has enough fuel to power the nuclear reactor for at least 25 years."
Princeton hadn't noticed, but Kincaid had also rushed into the cockpit along with Barnes. Kincaid strapped himself to the co-pilot's seat, next to Princeton.
"Kincaid, get the hell out of here!"
"You'll need me to get back," insisted Kincaid.
"I said get out, that's an order."
"Do you know how to maintain a nuclear reactor?" asked Kincaid.
Princeton didn't answer.
"I didn't think so."
Although Kincaid had always been proud of his scientific background, this would be the first time it would prove essential outside of home base. If it were up to Kincaid, it would only be him in the rocketship and Princeton would be the one to leave the cockpit. Unfortunately, Kincaid only had one flight lesson thus far and he knew that Princeton would be better at piloting the ship away from Vesta base.
"I wish this didn't happen," said Barnes, apologetic.
"Accidents happen, professor," said Princeton.
"We left two weapons in the equipment room, a laser rifle and a laser pistol. I hope that suffices," said Barnes.
"Why would we need weapons?" asked Kincaid.
"For all I know, you guys will be transported back to the age of dinosaurs. Be careful!"
There was now only seven minutes left. Barnes ran out of the cockpit. As he ran off the ship, he bumped into Colonel Anastasia Komananov.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"Princeton's going to take off soon. He needs to move the Discovery far enough from the station so that the FTL engines don't affect the base when it engages."
Anastasia did not know what the professor was talking about, but ran into the ship.
"No! You have to stay here. It's safer here," insisted Barnes.
"I promised the President that I would protect Princeton from any aggressive alien encounters," said Anastasia.
"They're not going to another galaxy," said Barnes.
"Doesn't matter, I'm going to protect the captain."
She ran into the rocketship and Barnes sighed before closing the hatch behind her and moving the boarding stairway away from Discovery. Once he left the hangar and entered the control room, he immediately started the sequence to open the hangar's outer doors. The timer on his console indicated that there were now only 6 and a half minutes left. He keyed up his microphone.
"Discovery, you are cleared to launch."
"Copy," came Princeton's voice from the speaker.
"Navigation," said Princeton.
"Check," said Kincaid.
"Hatches."
"Secured."
"Runway."
"Clear."
"Turbine."
"Check."
"Right booster."
"Check."
"Left booster."
"Check."
"Cabin pressure stable. Cockpit safe."
"Copy, I show same."
As Princeton and Kincaid hurriedly ran through their pre-flight checklist, Anastasia quickly joined them in the flight deck. She saw that both chairs were occupied, so went back to strap into one of the mission specialist chairs at mid-deck.
"What is this, a passenger liner?" asked Princeton as he now had yet another passenger.
"Hurry up!" said Kincaid. "We need to launch!"
The two continued with the pre-flight checklist.
"Radio, Radar, Sensors."
"All green across the board."
The two of them waited for about five seconds.
"Discovery, you are cleared to launch," came Professor Barnes' voice through the radio channel.
"Copy," said Princeton. "Go flight. Okay for start."
"Copy, okay to start," said Kincaid.
"Right throttle, 50 percent. Go for two."
"Copy, go for two."
Both the right and left rocket boosters fired up.
"Climbing 73%. Good to go."
"Good to go."
With a little over six minutes to go, Discovery shot out of the hangar and away from Vesta asteroid science base.
Professor Barnes stood in Vesta base's observation deck and watched the Discovery rocket away. With only one minute left, he could barely make out the ship.
"Think they'll make it far enough?" asked Archibald.
"Let's hope so. Under my calculations, they've already exceeded the barrier.
"Think they'll make it back?"
"I hope they do."
In the cockpit, Barnes had left a small communication device. It was an experimental communicator which used quantum technology. The device had never worked, but he hoped it would prove successful. After all, this would be the first time the device would be in a different time period. It was his hope that if the communicator worked, he would be able to at least remotely study the FTL device and perhaps help Princeton and his crew figure out how to set it so they could return.
Carlos and Durango had joined some of the scientists on the observation deck. They were disoriented when the alarms first rang. Before they knew what was happening, the Discovery was already barreling down the runway and lifting off. They hoped Princeton would be okay.
Several seconds later, Barnes and a handful of his scientists watched the Discovery flash and disappear from the darkness of space. Barnes looked at his computer tablet to get a zoomed in playback of the ship's disappearance.
Princeton looked out of the cockpit windshield. One second, in front of him was black space and hundreds of stars. Now, he was staring dozens, maybe hundreds, or green leaves. He looked at the rocketship's speed indicators, and the ship had come to a halt. The FTL engine had started to wind down and soon powered down.
Barnes had mentioned to him that the ship would probably return to somewhere on Earth. It was programmed that way by Chaotica's scientists.
Princeton unbuckled his seat restraints and walked toward the side hatch.
"What are you doing?" asked a frantic Kincaid.
"What? I'm going out to see where we are," replied Princeton.
"Um… hello… dinosaurs!"
"Yea, I don't think there are any dinosaurs."
"How do you know? How do you know?"
Kincaid usually kept a very level head, but this was the first time he had ever traveled to a possibly dinosaur populated location.
"Buster," said Princeton in as calm a voice as possible. "You were promoted from labtech to field officer. You need to have a better sense of adventure."
Kincaid was often surprised at how optimistic and risk-taking his friend Tom was.
"For all we know, we just traveled back in time like 2 months and we're on Earth right now and we'll be fine."
Although Kincaid was now calmer, he knew he could refute Princeton's hypothetical.
"There's no radio chatter, Tom," Kincaid said. "If we were anywhere near the present, we would be picking up radio signals. That means we traveled back to a time prior to the radio being invented."
"Or…" countered Princeton relatively quickly. "We could be in the future where they don't even use radios anymore. We have to go out to see."
Princeton walked back to the cockpit and flipped through the ship's six cameras: front, rear, starboard, port, ventral, and dorsal. He thought that might reassure Kincaid. The views showed that the Discovery was indeed in the middle of a forest, and there are seemingly no large animals in sight.
Kincaid reluctantly followed Princeton down to mid-deck and to side hatch.
"Should we take the weapons?" asked Kincaid.
Princeton decided against it. He didn't want to introduce new technology into the past if they were indeed in the past. When they left the Discovery, Princeton made sure the hatch was sealed tight so that nobody could enter until they returned.
"Sire," said one of the knights in Nottingham Castle. "We have news that he may be receiving reinforcements from the continent."
"Normans?"
"Unclear. Perhaps."
The nobleman stood up from his throne and tugged downward on his shirt.
"Very well. Continue the search."
"Yes, milord. We're combing through the forest."
Princeton walked through the forest with Kincaid and Anastasia. They found a trail which about ten feet wide and decided to follow it.
"Halt!"
All of a sudden, Princeton was surrounded by dozens of archers. Each had their bows drawn with arrows pointing at Princeton's group. He wondered whether these archers had ever heard of the concept of friendly fire. As the archers were in a circle, it would not be too far fetched for some of them to hit their colleagues. Perhaps the archers were too confident that they could hit their targets.
"Identify yourselves," demanded the leader of the archers. He was noticeably taller than the others, and sported a neatly trimmed beard.
"My name is Thomas; I am the captain of the exploration ship Discovery."
"We are in the middle of a forest, sir," said the disbelieving soldier.
"Yes. We seem to be a little bit… lost," responded Princeton.
Three soldiers approached Princeton with their swords drawn. The lead soldier identified himself.
"My name is John, a lieutenant of the lord's guards. I'm afraid you've been caught trespassing in the royal woods. I must bring you to my lord at Nottingham Castle."
The dozen or so guards escorted Princeton and his crew down the dirt road through the forest. Tom Princeton and John were silent on their trek.
"Interesting garments you wear," said the nobleman. He was bald, with a light mustache and a light trimmed goatee.
Princeton nodded.
"You must be from France. The French and their unique fashions."
"I'm from… Paris," lied Princeton. He wanted to just go along with whatever the nobleman thought.
"Paris. What I need to know is whether you were sent here to aid Vaisey."
"Vaisey?"
"The former High Sheriff of Nottingham."
"Right. Vaisey. And you must be Sir Robin of Locksley."
"I guess my reputation precedes me," said the nobleman. "Robin, Earl of Huntingdon, Lord of Locksley Manor."
The nobleman seemed a little bit more arrogant than Princeton would have predicted. But then again, most noblemen would probably have been that way.
"I have no quarrel with you and do not intend to interfere in your fight with the sheriff," said Princeton.
"I see. I have your word as a gentleman?" asked Robin.
"You do."
Robin gestured to his men to free Princeton, Kincaid, and Anastasia.
"You may consider yourselves guests for the night."
"We thank you for your hospitality," said Princeton.
Robin then turned to John.
"How is the search going?" asked Robin.
"We've met several townsfolk who say they've seen Vaisey and his men hid in Sherwood Forest. Our own friends in the forests are also trying to find him. It's a big forest."
Robin nodded.
"Will Scarlett and the minstrel are due to return soon. Perhaps they will have found something."
Ever since Vaisey fled Nottingham Castle, Robin had trouble deciding how to deal with the former Sheriff. While there was no love lost between the two, Robin felt he was wasting his resources hunting down a man who no longer posed a threat to the people of England. There were rumors that Vaisey intended to take back Nottingham, but most of the nobles agreed that Vaisey no longer had a base of power. Although the former sheriff had a number of diehard and loyal followers, he was simply outmatched without the backing of his former patron, Prince John. The prince found himself with significantly less power after his elder brother, King Richard the Lionheart, returned to England from his crusade.
"Perhaps you can send me as your emissary to deliver an offer of truce to Vaisey," said man with extremely pale skin in a brown robe. He was Tuck, a warrior monk who had been expelled from his order due to lack of respect for authority and served Robin as chaplain.
Robin said that he would consider option overnight.
Princeton, Kincaid, and Anastasia were treated to a wonderful meal in the castle's great hall. Many of Robin's soldiers ate along with them. Some of them recalled the days when they were Robin's merry men in Sherwood Forest. Others had been common villagers or townsfolk who were happy to see the sheriff and his cousin, Sir Guy of Gisbourne, flee when their forces were overwhelmed.
At dinner, Princeton heard some ballads played by Robin's minstrel. He didn't get a chance the meet the guy, but his ballads sounded entertaining in the background.
After dinner, a drunk Robin approached Princeton and his crew. Robin was a happy and smiling drunk. He introduced his wife.
"Paris!" he called. "Paris, come over here."
It took a second for Princeton to realize that the drunk Robin was calling him Paris, most likely because Robin had forgotten his name, but remembered where he was supposedly from. Or, perhaps he remembered the name, but still called him Paris. Either way, Princeton went with the flow and walked over to Robin.
"Paris, may I introduce you to my wife, the Lady Marian."
Robin's wife curtsied and extended her hand. Paris bowed and kissed it.
"Robin has told me of you. You are the captain of a sailing vessel, correct?"
"Yes, milady."
"You must have sailed to many exotic places. Your sailor there has an appearance I have never set eyes upon before."
Marian was referring to Kincaid, who had East Asian ancestry. Very few Europeans in the middle ages had met an East Asian.
"He is from somewhere far, far away," said Princeton.
"Is he a Saracen?" asked Marian. "I do not suppose he is Christian."
"He is neither," said Princeton.
"I see." Marian did not wish to insult a guest by calling him a pagan, and thus dropped the subject.
"Paris," said Robin. "Tell me, how long have you been on your odyssey?"
"Not that long. It truly feels as if it were only yesterday."
Suddenly, the tall man named John Little ran into the Great Hall.
"Sire, Vaisey has arrived at the castle walls. He and a band of his men had been escorted here by Friar Tuck."
"That Friar Tuck," said a slightly annoyed Robin. He hadn't yet given permission for Tuck to do such a thing. But then again, he should've known the rebellious monk would do whatever he wanted.
The former Sheriff of Nottingham had not been allowed to pass, but waited patiently to negotiate with Lord Robin.
Although Robin was a little tipsy, he still possessed most of his faculties and decided to meet with Vaisey.
"Paris, please excuse my departure. I have business to attend to," said Robin.
"I completely understand," said Princeton. "Please see to your responsibilities."
Robin walked away with "Little" John and about a dozen of his soldiers.
Anastasia watched Robin and his men walk away from Princeton as she sat quietly with Buster Kincaid. She did not speak often, as she was afraid that her unique Russian accent would scare some of the Englishmen. She was very amused when Princeton faked an English accent after first hearing one when asked to identify himself back in Sherwood Forest. Though, it should make no sense as he now pretended to be French.
Kincaid was in the middle of eating a piece of bread, when a device in his pocket beeped. It was a small device about the size of a hand. It was a handheld status monitor for the Discovery's captain in case there was an emergency he needed to be notified about.
Kincaid secretively pulled out the device so that none of the others in the Great Hall could see it. He scanned the small screen and immediately got up and walked toward Princeton.
Princeton was now speaking with the Lady Marian, but Kincaid interrupted them.
"I apologize, captain. May I have a word with you?"
"Please, excuse me," said Princeton.
Princeton and Kincaid walked over to a corner and Kincaid started to explain.
"The proximity sensors on the Discovery picked up several men within 300 feet of the ship," said Kincaid. "Not sure if they've noticed the ship yet. We were in the midst of some pretty thick trees. None of the security cameras show anyone approaching. But still, we should probably get back."
Princeton agreed. He walked back to Lady Marian to let her know that he and his party would be leaving.
"Please excuse my leaving," said Princeton. "It appears that my squire may have gotten sick and requires some medicines from our ship. We must leave now. Please thank Lord Robin for me for his gracious hospitality."
"Have a safe journey," said Lady Marian. "And you can thank Lord Robin yourself. There is only one exit from this castle, and you will most likely bump into him on your way out."
Princeton kissed Marian's hand and walked back to where Kincaid and Anastasia were sitting. The two of them got up and followed Princeton out of the Great Hall.
"My men are to be pardoned for any crimes they are alleged to have committed," insisted Vaisey.
"Any crimes short of mass murder or crimes against maidens of a lecherous nature."
Vaisey was generally content with those parameters. Although he himself had been accused of murder on several occasions, he knew that the conditions only applied to his men and not to himself.
After several minutes of discussing the conditions with three of his top lieutenants, they agreed that the deal sounded fair and would be the best chance to return to a normal life.
Vaisey indicated that he agreed, and Robin and Vaisey shook hands as gentlemen.
As the two released from their handshake, Tom Princeton and his crew passed by.
"Paris, you've come just in time to witness the truce!" said an excited Robin. About a hundred of Robin's men who had heard the news were celebrating inside the castle walls, while a few dozen or so of Vaisey's men felt a little defeated but were relieved that the fighting would be over.
Unexpectedly, three of Vaisey's top soldiers unsheathed their swords and lunged toward Robin. Vaisey himself stopped one of them. Princeton was in also in position to knock a second attacker off his feet before he could reach Robin. Although Robin was a little drunk, he easily dispatched the third attacker.
Several of Robin's men then drew their swords and many archers pulled their bowstrings back. A few of Vaisey's men drew their swords as well. However, both Robin and Vaisey held their hands up to signal to their men that they were to stand down. Eventually, both parties were once again comfortable with the uneasy truce. It would probably be necessary to separate the two parties for a while longer, but Robin and Vaisey were determined to make the peace last.
Robin thanked Princeton for his assistance, but Princeton explained that he had to be getting back to his ship to help Kincaid with various herbal medicines.
Tom Princeton went ahead to scout the area and then returned to meet his associates.
"The coast is clear, there's nobody around the ship."
The three then made their way to the ship and entered through the hatch.
"What should we do now?" asked Kincaid.
"I'll fly the ship to a more remote location. Somewhere in Siberia, perhaps. That should keep us away from any local populations. Then we'll just wait for the FTL to charge up again and make another jump."
"Are you sure we wouldn't be better off staying here?" asked Anastasia. "At least we know we could survive here. What if we travel to a time with harsher conditions? Like an Ice Age?"
"Then we'll just wait 48 hours and transport again. We can continue doing this for at least a year, right?" Princeton asked Kincaid.
"Right, but for all we know, we'll transport to a vastly unfriendly environment. In the midst of a fight between dinosaurs. On the bottom of ocean floors. I dunno."
"I willing to take the chance. I want to get back home."
For Anastasia, she would never truly get back to her own home. But she was willing to follow Tom Princeton to wherever, or whenever, he wanted to go. They had enough food in the galley to survive for years. The food wasn't that great compared to the feast they just had at Nottingham Castle, but it would sustain them.
"In the meantime, Buster, while I'm taking us to a more remote location, see if you can learn more about the FTL machine and maybe figure out how to control what time frame we transport to."
"Got it, captain," said Kincaid.
In the darkness of night, the Discovery took off as quietly as possible from Sherwood Forest. Some of people living in the forest thought they heard a low rumble. They didn't see the rocketship streak across the sky.
Star Trek Characters and their storyline aliases:
Tom Paris as Thomas "Captain Proton" Princeton
Harry Kim as Buster Kincaid
Kira Nerys as Anastasia Komananov
Jean-Luc Picard as Sir Robin of Locksley
William T. Riker as "Little" John
Vash as Lady Marian
Data as Friar Tuck
Q as Vaisey, High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and the Royal Forests
Megan Delaney as Demonica
Jenny Delaney as Malicia