Chapter 9
You came into my heart (baby baby)
So tenderly (where did our love go)
With a burning love (baby baby)
That stings like a bee (baby baby)
(ooh baby baby)
– Diana Ross and the Supremes (Where Did Our Love Go?)
=/\=
Bryce Unger was a whirling dervish. "Shields up! Arm phaser banks! What's our status?!" he barked orders at everyone on the Bridge. For so long, this had been a cushy detail. But no longer.
They had arrived.
=/\=
"We'd better get our people outta here," Kevin said to Carmen, as they watched from Dan's office, "we got time to restore, and most of our folks aren't soldiers."
"Our only real fighter is in the damned mirror," Carmen said. She sighed. "We will all go somewhere or another. Mister Daniels, you'll go to the mirror and back up Tom. Take, uh, take Deirdre, Otra and Polly with you."
"All right," he said, "you, uh, mind riding with me?"
"I'll do it," Polly said, "even though we don't know you. I just wanna be anywhere but here." Deirdre nodded her assent.
"I'll go, too," Otra said, "What I sense of you is that you are from another time line. Whether that's good or bad remains to be seen."
"Sheilagh, HD, you'll restore 1994," Carmen said, "And, uh, you'll take Kevin with you. Take the Simon Morley."
"Right-o," HD said.
"Crystal, you'll get everyone ready as usual and then come with me and Levi and we'll handle 1964. We'll take the Audrey II. We'll leave the Audrey Niffenegger in case Bryce or anyone else needs it. Now, everyone, when you are finished, do not come back here. I want you to go to 1964. We will come back together."
"So we're abandoning ship?" Kevin asked her quietly.
"Kind of, I suppose. But I don't see any other way out of it, do you?" She engaged her implanted Communicator, but Bryce wasn't answering. "A message for Bryce Unger," she said, "the Human Unit is going on missions. The Audrey Niffenegger is available as needed. But right now my people need to be safe. Calavicci out, hopefully not for the last time. Godspeed, Bryce."
Forgotten by all, the colony alien – an entity, as it were – was listening in. It had to admit – they had to admit – that hanging around and waiting for the Varg-i-yeh was not such a hot idea. It decided to leave as well.
Having spent the most time with Kevin, it decided to go on that mission, on the Simon Morley.
=/\=
While waiting to go, Kevin had little to do. The time ships were ready to go and he was not going to go to the Earth's surface. He could be dressed up to pass as a full-blooded human, but that was hardly necessary. They all knew that the mission was diversionary in nature. Sheilagh and HD would not need him. He engaged his implanted Communicator. "Yilta, you busy?"
She was the Calafan Unit's engineer. "Oh, the usual, just gettin' ready for an invasion." Her accent lilted, sounding very much like an Irish brogue. Her voice was low and husky – whiskey-soaked.
"Understood," he smiled a little, "I just, uh, I wanna come over. Can I?"
"Sure."
He hustled over there, fast. "We're leaving," he said to her, "going to the past. It's for missions but, really, I dunno what's going to happen here. There's something big happening in the 2192 mirror."
"I see," she said, looking down, "hand me the magnetic wrench, please." They were in the Calafan Unit's service bay and she was working on one of their ships, the Light of Lo.
"Sure thing, uh, Yilta, if I could take you with me, you know I would."
She stopped what she was doing for a second. "I, I suppose I know that. It's an awful business, eh? And then there are the three deaths on your end o' things. A horrendous day all around, and it's not over yet."
He came close, and kissed her. "I dunno how I feel," he said honestly, "but I don't want us to be apart."
"Me neither," she said, "I guess that's enough hearts 'n flowers for both o' us. And if ya can't figure out what it all means, what we mean, together, come closer and I'll knock it into your head, I swear. Now go, and don't come back 'til it's all fixed. We're engineers. We fix things. And maybe by then we'll be sure o' how we feel."
He smiled at her and left, feeling a lump in his throat. He had to pass by the Ferengi Unit and the door to their leader's office was ajar. They were having some sort of an argument. He could not help eavesdropping, and heard their supervisor, Glyph, ask the others, "And how can we profit from the coming invasion?! Our ships will surely be grounded. We need to think of something, and fast!"
Of course, Kevin thought to himself. Everyone else is using or is in the process of converting over to a newer form of temporal transportation – the dark matter drive. But the Ferengi are still using temporal displacement, which is what the Varg-i-yeh are using. Despite his better nature, he stopped and listened in a little.
And then what he heard next surprised him. "I have another means of traveling through time," said a familiar voice. It was Von, the Ferengi engineer.
"How very interesting," said Glyph, "how does it work?"
"The subject swallows a substance called trichronium. Then a few keys are hit on this temporal cuff here – see, here, here and here, and the subject goes to the time, date and coordinates as desired."
"Can it go to the mirror universe?" asked another Ferengi. Kevin wasn't sure which one that was.
"No," Von replied, "for that, you need a time ship."
Kevin heard a Communications trill in his left ear. "Coming, Carmen! And I gotta tell you something."
"No time," she replied, "tell me when you return, all right? In the meantime, your team is ready and you have got to get out of here for your own safety. See you in 1964."
=/\=
Before departing, Deirdre Katzman tapped her left ear twice, in order to engage her implanted Communicator. "Bruce Ishikawa."
The flat, metallic operator's voice answered, "Location or other specifier?"
"Uh, I dunno."
"Checking." There was a pause. "There is only one record. Putting you through now."
"Hey, baby, how're ya feeling?" he asked as soon as he realized it was her.
"I, uh, um, I have to go soon."
"What's a matter?"
"I, um, please forgive me," she said, "and I wish I could say this better."
"Are you ending it?" he asked, voice choked with the beginnings of a sob.
"No! Uh, the problem is, er, you know I work on timelines, right?"
"Yeah?"
"So this one is really messed up. It, it messed me up," she admitted.
"How so, baby?"
"I, I wish I hadn't, but, um, I've forgotten you," she said softly, "I'm so sorry." Now she was crying, and she scarcely knew why. He seemed like a decent person. And she had just truly, horribly hurt him, and had not meant to.
There was a pause. "Bay – uh, Deirdre," Bruce finally said, "I guess I make you feel uncomfortable."
"I know you don't mean it," she said, "and you seem like a really sweet guy. I don't even, dammit; I don't even know what you look like. I'm all mixed up."
"Hang on a sec," he found a photograph on his PADD, and passed it over to hers. "Check your PADD."
She clicked it on. It was a photo of a happy couple, on a boardwalk on a beach somewhere. She recognized her own moon-shaped face. The guy was a complete and utter stranger. "You're, um, you're cute."
He chuckled a little at that. "I guess that's something. Look, you said you were going. Can you tell me anything about what that's all about?"
"It's, um, it's something in 2192."
"When you get back," he said, "it'll all be fixed, right?"
"What if it's not?"
"Well, if it's not, can I take you to dinner? You're not, uh, somehow married, are you?"
"No, I'm still single," she said.
"Then maybe I have a shot. I won't, um; I won't confuse or upset you by going on about how I feel. You will know what is in my heart. I'm confident in that."
"I, uh, I think dinner would be nice. Real nice. I gotta go. Uh, Katzman out."
Her Communicator trilled. It was Carmen. "You're about to go off with our mystery fellow. Keep a sharp eye out. I suspect he's all right but, well, you know I have my reasons for being a bit paranoid. Best of luck to you. See you in '64."
=/\=
Now that I surrender (baby baby)
So helplessly (where did our love go)
You now wanna leave (baby baby)
Ooh, you wanna leave me (baby baby)
Ooh (ooh baby baby)
– Diana Ross and the Supremes (Where Did Our Love Go?)
