Time Trek, Chapter 12

After explaining to Finney what had happened to her, Spock and Keenan went back to Keenan's quarters to retrieve the thought device. He watched with interest as she reached under her bed and withdrew it, holding it carefully in her hands. Suddenly, the red alert alarm went off. She started and dropped it. It broke into three pieces. Uhura's voice could be heard over the intercom, apologizing. She inadvertently pushed the wrong button at her station.

"I'm such a butter fingers, Mr. Spock. I'm sorry."

"Do not be, Miss Keenan. The Stone of Goll in this condition will not function. Besides, it was meant to be. In the brig cell, you said that Captain Picard would some day be finding it scattered among many different star systems."

"You got that right. Mr. Spock, I know that this thing is of great cultural and historical significance to your people, but we can't take it back with us."

"I am well aware of that, Miss Keenan. We would be altering history. Do you have any ideas as to its disposition?"

Keenan looked happy to be asked, and nodded in the affirmative.

"Let's have Sulu and Chekov pick out the star systems and deposit each piece in a different location. I can't recall the system names right off hand, but if I had a star map, they will come back to me."

"An elegant solution, Miss Keenan. You, Dr. McCoy and I have one more errand, and then I will escort you to the bridge."

"One more errand, sir?"

"Yes. We have the pleasant task of telling the captain that Miss Finney is alive."

McCoy, Spock and Keenan stopped at the entrance to Kirk's quarters. Scotty had already reported with relief in his voice that all of the Romulans were indeed beamed off the ship, and the engineering crew was all busy making repairs and adjustments that could not have been done during the takeover. They were also preparing themselves for possible time travel, should the captain find out that that was the only way to get home. For a while, their concern was how the di-lithium crystals would hold out over five thousand years of stress. Then, to everyone's astonishment, more crystals were found lying on the floors in the brig cells. Spock came to the conclusion that these were the stones that bore the family names of all of the Romulan prisoners. The criminals had left them there to signify complete separation from the life they once knew on Vulcan.

Chapel and M'Benga were recovering in sick bay; also Uhura had dropped in after she accidentally hit the wrong button with her injured appendage, which was still in a makeshift splint. McCoy did a proper repair of both her injury and Chapel's. Jame was being detained in sick bay for a complete physical, and Rand had been released and was placed on light duty. She had made a request for a transfer to a less stressful position on Earth, should they get back to their own time safely. Kirk reluctantly granted it. She was the best personal yeoman he ever had, and he hated to see her leave the Enterprise, but realized it was for the best.

The ship was now on course for the mysterious Guardian planet. Kirk, greatly saddened at the loss of his friend's daughter, stared at her personnel file picture on his tri-screen. He was just about to mark it 'deceased' when his door buzzer sounded.

"Come in." He ordered softly, not turning to greet whoever was calling.

"Are we disturbing you, Captain?" Spock asked formally.

"No." Kirk sighed unhappily. "I dropped the charges against Jame. I didn't want her service record to end this way."

Keenan and McCoy grinned at each other.

"She'll probably be happy to hear that, Jim." The doctor said cheerfully.

Kirk turned to face him in bewilderment.

"That's not very damn funny."

Keenan giggled.

"She's not dead, sir." McCoy said with a smile.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's not putting you on, sir." Keenan said. "Miss Finney was a victim of a Vulcan form of temporary simulated death, commonly known among us humans as a 'death grip'."

"Spock, why didn't you tell me?!"

"I was not certain. I am not an expert on human physiology."

"Bones…" Kirk said, now smiling a little, "Why is it every time you say there's nothing you can do, there's something you can do?"

***

The bridge looked different for some reason as Astrid was escorted there. Yes, the dead had been removed, but it was more than that. The tension she had felt on her first visit had eased considerably. Kirk smiled at Keenan as he seated himself in his command chair, and then looked to the helm and navigation. Spock quietly went to the science station. McCoy excused himself, and rather needlessly explained that he was needed in sick bay.

"Mr. Sulu, Mr. Chekov, I need you to assist Miss Keenan in choosing star systems for the thought device pieces."

"With pleasure, Captain." Sulu responded, both he and Chekov smiling at their guest. They already had the star maps out. At first, Keenan stared at Pavel for a moment, thinking that he shouldn't be on the ship yet, but she was awfully glad to meet him. He was her favorite original character. The young navigator blushed, and turned back to his readouts. Keenan chuckled and peered at the star maps. The locations came back to her in no time. The pieces were, of course, deposited in the Barada system, the Calder system and the Hiralan sector.

After the pieces of the thought projector were safely deposited, Sarnel was dropped off on Mintaka III. Before he beamed off the ship, he gave them fair warning that some time in the distant future, the Romulans would probably avenge the death of Rihan. Kirk didn't tell him that this prediction had already come true.

***

Astrid's mind raced as she stepped towards the nearest turbo lift. She was going to ask Kirk about what he was planning to do once they reached the mysterious Guardian planet. She, of course, knew of his predilection for making sure outsiders like her returned from wherever they came from. Astrid never really knew why. It could be that her presence might slightly disrupt some timeline somewhere, but she doubted it. Her disappearance from late twenty-first century Earth meant nothing, as far as she could see. She was single, unattached. Her parents would probably miss her, but, they told her that if she ever found a way to escape the tyranny of the one-world dictatorship, she should take it and not look back. Besides, judging from the way her poor old car looked, they probably thought she was dead. That brought on another subject: one that she had shoved to the back of her mind. Was she dead? She didn't think so. She didn't believe in an afterlife. In fact, she didn't believe in anything at all, until recently. There was another possibility. Maybe she was in a coma like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and this was all a dream. She was greatly amused at that, and smiled. That would be just her luck.

She could just hear Kirk's 'reasons' for not letting her stay in this universe. The words 'useless' and 'archaic' came to mind, and left her a little steamed. She may be archaic, but she certainly wasn't useless. Also, with time, she would adjust and adapt, and, she certainly wasn't stupid. She could learn about their technology and way of life. It certainly would be a much better life than the one she left behind. Even if Kirk decided to send her back in the past, perhaps she could pick a time period that was easier to deal with. The nineteen sixties would be great, she mused. She paused, another thought occurring to her. There was something about the Guardian that she almost forgot. It called itself the 'Guardian of Forever'. That implied that it knew about the future as well as the past. Was it able to bring people into the future as well? Neither her past nor the Enterprise crew's past had occurred yet. If the Guardian could only transport people into the past, then there were only a few alternatives left. What if it could transport them into the recent past, before it decided to do itself in? No. Astrid was getting a little bit confused. The Guardian decided to do itself in in the twenty-third century, not the twenty-first or this point in time. All right. What if Kirk somehow persuaded the Guardian not to destroy itself? If the captain managed to do that, then maybe McCoy's dream about going back to the nineteen-thirties would once again become the Enterprise crew's reality, and she would find herself back home, probably with no memory of her adventures on the star ship. Astrid sighed. Captain Janeway was right when she said that temporal mechanics was confusing. She figured that the Enterprise crew was better off using the slingshot effect or the controlled implosion.

She approached her guest quarters, still lost in thought. She jumped a little when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw Charlene Masters. The black woman engineer smiled at her.

"Hi, Astrid. I thought I'd better apologize to you for putting your life in danger by hiding the thought projector under your bed. I'm glad you're all right. Where are you heading?"

"Oh, hi Charlene. I was heading for my guest quarters. Don't worry about what occurred with the thought device. Besides, I think Jame Finney is owed the apology. From what I know about the so-called Vulcan 'death grip', it's not very pleasant. Later on, I'm going to talk with the captain, because I have knowledge about the Guardian of Forever time portal that he should know."

"I agree. I already apologized to her. She seemed more than willing to forgive me for placing her life in danger, considering her tampering with the ship's computer. Do you mind if I tag along?"

"Not at all. It will be good to have someone with me. I've never talked to a genuine Starfleet captain before, much less one that looks and acts like William Shatner."

"Who?"