A LEAP TO THE STARS
Part XXV - Back Where You Belong
The Project...
The elevator doors split and Al jogged back into the Control Room, the bathrobe he was wearing swishing about his ankles.
"Okay, everybody ready?"
"I'm ready," said Tina from behind the console, "and I just talked to Captain Archer and he's in position too!"
"Then we're all good to go." Al took a deep breath, at least, I hope we are...
The Admiral's bombshell of a girlfriend eyed what he was wearing, "Al, you better have a fermi-suit on under there."
"Nope! Decided to do my first official Leap in the buff." he waggled his eyebrows lecherously, "Care to join me in the Accelerator, babe? Bet the experience will blow your mind!"
"Among other things..." Tina giggled, then her heart-shaped face grew solemn, "Oh, Al, do you really think this is going to work?"
"It had better, 'cause other then this hair-brained idea we're ALL out of options."
"But again, what if it doesn't? You won't even have an Observer"
"I'm trying to remain positive here, Tina, so please stop bringin me down. Careful, you're starting to sound like Dr. Beeks." he looked around as he stubbed out what might be his last cigar, "Hey, where IS the Queen of Drag, anyway?"
"Sleeping off a hangover. Boy, Al, is she gonna be ticked when she finds out all she's missed!"
"Yeah, well, maybe she won't be."
Tina frowned, "I don't understand."
"Don't worry about it, babe. You got the temporal coordinates all plugged in?" the PCT nodded, "Good, so let's get this over with." and Al stuck his handlink back into the console then caught up the sports jacket he'd left behind, fished in it's pocket and produced his secret weapon.
Tina gawked in amazement as he up-ended the mostly empty syringe and injected himself in the neck with it, "Omigod, Al! What did you just do?"
"Call it a little insurance against swiss-cheesing." and then with one last guilty look at the now completely-empty vial of Amritha Kaur's neural peptide reinforcer he chucked it in the waste basket, then shucked his robe and headed for the portal.
"Al!" Tina's still-worried cry held him back for a second, "I-I...maybe you shouldn't-"
"I gotta go, babe. Hold down the fort 'til I get back, okay?"
"Okay..." she sighed, and then Rear Admiral Albert Calavicci stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator...and vanished...
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Enterprise...
Okay, I don't wanna be Captain anymore, Hoshi's terrified mind wailed within her throbbing skull, this just isn't any fun anymore! I liked it a whole lot better when the Klingons blew up far away and didn't try and take us with them!
That's what Sato said internally, but externally it was a whole other story, because she was a Starfleet Officer and that's just the way it had to be.
"Helm!" she shouted as the Enterprise spiraled deeper-and-deeper into the gravity well of Talitha's white sun, "TRAVIS! Do something! Pull us out of this!"
"I'm trying! But everything's dead!"
"What do you mean, everything's dead? Something has to work! Fix it! Or we're ALL going to be dead!"
"I'd love to, Captain, but I can barely hold onto my Station, let-alone work miracles on it!"
"Not good enough, Ensign!" Hoshi growled, "Not good enough, dammit! I'm making this a direct order, Travis! Come up with an idea and SAVE the ship!"
"Oh, well, if it's an order then-Um, NOPE! Still nothing I can do! Gosh, I feel just awful about it! Howsabout you Court Martial me? You know, right after the sun swallows us all up and we're down in HELL roasting alive!"
"Is that sarcasm? Are you being sarcastic to me, Ensign? Because that better not be sarcasm I'm hearing!"
As white light drenched the Bridge, Travis looked back over his shoulder across the badly-quaking deck at the acting badly acting-Captain, "You know what, Hoshi?"
"What?"
"You SUCK!"
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, Travis, well, you suck worse!"
"Oh, yeah?"
"YEAH!"
"Well, you know what, Hoshi?"
"WHAT!"
"Well, you suck the worsest!"
"That's not even a WORD!"
"It is now! Hey, you're a Linguist, make it into a new word! Oh, and while you're doing it, why not check on the spelling of SCREW-UP, 'cause that's what YOU...you...are...wait..." Travis trailed off and looked back to the viewscreen, then stared back across the Bridge again, this time at Security.
"What?" scowled Aduko, "You going to start in on me, too? Because I'm not as nice as Hoshi, Travis, I won't waste time with words, I'll just kick you in the face!"
"No! That's not it." Mayweather said as the bulkheads began to scream, "I...I..."
"He's got an idea!" grinned Hoshi, "See! I ordered you to come up with one and you did it! See! I'm the best acting-Captain EVER!"
"Yeah, you're the best..." sneered Travis as he planted feet against the front of the Helm and kicked-off. He landed on the deck a meter back and set off across the floor on his hands-and-knees, scrambling with all his strength against the shuddering plates, dark face intent on making it to the back of the Bridge.
Hoshi gaped at him as he past her center-mounted chair, "Wha-Where are you going? Get back to your Station!"
"No!"
"Are you making for the escape pods? You are! That's your idea? You DO suck the worsest!"
"Hoshi, would you just shut-up!" and catching hold of the railing Travis levered himself up and caught hold of the back of Security.
"Hey!" snapped Aduko, "This is my Station! Go find one of your own!"
"Not now, Aduko, just punch up the photonics! Three torpedoes!"
"Aw, but I wanna play too! How come just you and Hoshi get to argue like morons? I feel left out."
"You won't in another second if you don't quit playing around!"
"Yay! I'm part of it now!"
"Deserie! Just load the DAMN torpedoes!"
"Spoilsport."
"Are you three children just about finished?" asked a fourth voice, and all eyes slipped to the pried-open turboshaft, where a frown-eyed Commander T'Pol had just finished climbing free. "Now...let's hear this plan of yours, Ensign."
And Travis grinned...
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C Deck...
"NO!"
Thrusting the Armory Officer off of him, Dr. Beckett sprang to his feet and dashed back to the transporter's controls, but he was too late, Commander Charles Tucker III was only a faded after-image, he was gone.
He's gone...he-he Leaped...
"Charles! Where did he go? Where!" Reed scrambled up and stared fitfully at the hauntingly-vacant transporter pad. "Oh bollocks..."
"Good word choice." Sam said darkly.
"Bring him back!"
"I-I can't..."
Reed grabbed Beckett by the arm and hauled him around, glared into his eyes, "What do you MEAN, you can't? You're the bloody genius who invented a blasted time-machine, you can do anything! So do it! Bring Tucker back! Do it NOW!"
Sam broke Reed's grip and pushed him back, "Get control of yourself! And I mean it, I can't bring him back! Not right now. I don't even know where he went!"
"Where he went? He went back to 1999! To your Project! Like YOU were supposed to do!"
"No! He didn't!"
"He didn't?" Reed didn't understand.
"NO! I haven't imputed the temporal coordinates yet! He Leaped randomly, just like...just like..."
Just like I did, Sam swallowed, the first time...the first time I Leaped...
But Reed wasn't giving up that easily, "Then find him! Use that Imaging Chamber and find him! DO it!"
Sam shook his head, "I don't have the right equipment to do a search through time, I'd need my parallel hybrid computer and maybe a week in the Imaging Chamber, and even then-" his blue eyes saucered, "Oh my god, the Imaging Chamber!"
Reed scowled, "What about it?"
"Well, we don't have a Waiting Room here on Enterprise, so-"
"What the bleeding hell is a Waiting Room!"
"The place the Leapee is shunted to, instead of appearing in the Quantum Accelerator."
"The Leapee? What, you mean the person Charles has swapped places with in history?" Malcolm licked his dry lips, Charles has swapped places with somebody...somebody in history...and they're...and they're aboard this ship RIGHT NOW!
"Where then?" Reed demanded, "Where would they be, if we don't have one of these Waiting Rooms?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you! They'd be in the Imaging Chamber!"
Reed took off at a run, "I'll contact you when I know something! You get down to Engineering!"
Sam frowned, "Engineering? Why would I go-" an alarm sounded on his left and his eyes swiveled in their sockets to bear on the transport's control podium as it's indicators lit-up bright scarlet.
Oh my god, the nacelles...they're going to overload. Tucker was right...
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Stallions Gate, New Mexico, December 23rd, 1999...
Blue lightning flared for an endless moment, then
"-and if this hybrid computer's report turns out to be actually true, if a man from the future has indeed materialized at the Project, then we will need to act fast to contain any...any...Amri? Amri, why have you stopped writing?"
Al blinked hard and fought to focus, looked down at his hands and saw that he was holding a ruled legal pad and a silver ballpoint pen. Wha-did it work? Did I Leap? I-I don't remember...wait, yes I do! I DO! I remember everything!
"Miss Carr!" snapped Senator Keller as the Military humvee bounced up the side of a sand-dune with a hum of electro-magnetic power, "I need you to pay attention. This matter is highly volatile!"
"Volatile? Heh, Todd, you don't know the half of it, pal." muttered Al as he peered down past his skirt-covered thighs at the metallic briefcase sitting between his feet. I made it, I'm back in time before Kaur could reach the complex, and now...now I gotta make sure that never happens, which means doing whatever it takes!
And with a blur of movement Al thrust his hand under the jacket of the confused bodyguard sitting beside him and yanked the man's Glock automatic free of it's shoulder holster.
"Stop the car! Stop it now!"
Keller gawked at him, "Have you gone MAD-"
"Yep!" Al dragged back the slide and waved the pistol dangerously, "I'm crazier then a lobster in a Nova Scotian stew-pot, and I'll plug anybody who doesn't do EXACTLY as I say!" and for emphasis he fired off a round, punching a hole through the transport's low ceiling!
The humvee instantly buzzed to a halt and keeping the gun leveled at the bodyguards, Al reached behind himself and fumbled open the door, "Now, nobody do anything stupid, alright? Let's all just remain calm here." Now out, he grabbed up the briefcase and slammed the door shut, then shot the Senator a look, "You really should research your employee's a little better before you hire them, Keller."
"Why are you doing this!"
"Why?" asked Al, and for a moment he looked thoughtful. Why indeed...
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Four hours in the future and fifty-two miles to the south...
"Let me OUT of here!" the newly-reinstalled Waiting Room door shook mightily, "Open this door NOW!"
And to the woman's shock the door did slide open, revealing
"Not so fast! Stay where you are!" and the white-clad woman halted in mid-charge as her eyes locked on the barrel of the M-16 pointed directly at the center of her chest.
"Who...who are you?"
"Captain Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise, and you're Amritha Noonien Kaur, daughter of Khan Noonien Singh."
Amri stared back at him, her almond-shaped eyes now very wide, "But-But how do you know that? Wait, starship?"
"That's right. But don't worry about that, it's no concern of yours, because you're dead."
"I am?"
"Yes...you are..." and Archer pulled the trigger and emptied half the clip into her upper body.
As Kaur fell to the floor, awash in her own blood, Jonathan hit the door controls and stepped inside. The portal sealed back up and he tossed aside the rifle, sat on the edge of the dias and watched Amritha slowly bleed to death. He sighed and hunched his shoulders, waited for it all to be over.
Calavicci better be right about this, Jonathan mulled sullenly as the woman he'd just executed exhaled for the very last time, because if ever there was a night I didn't want to remember, it would be this one...
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Four hours in the past and fifty-two miles to the north...
"Why are you doing this!" demanded the Senator.
"Why?" asked Al, and for a moment he looked thoughtful.
"Because I'm an Augment, that's why." he said at last, and Keller gaped in shock.
"You are?"
The Admiral nodded, "Yep, it's true. My name's really Amritha Noonien Kaur and my father was Khan Noonien Singh himself. How's THAT for a shocker! And guess what I've got in this here briefcase? Times up, Keller, it's a nuclear bomb!"
All faces shifted to the slim chromed container and Al patted it's side, "In about ten minutes I'm going to be setting it off, so you'd better start running."
The Senator swallowed hard, "You-You're letting us go?" Al nodded, "But why? I mean, this doesn't-"
"-make any sense? Yeah, for you, pal, I don't think it ever will. Now go!"
And the humvee took off in a spray of sand and throttled away across the cold desert at high speed. Al watched them go until they were just a dot, then turned away and set the case down on a waist-high boulder, popped it's latches. He opened the lid and stared down at the three separated components, each nestled in protective grey foam.
"You don't look that scary at all," he muttered as he entered a command into the timing mechanism, "Because if you're not plugged together, then all that's left is the plastique triggering device, and that's barely got the power of five or six sticks of dynamite. But, you'll do the job."
And as the green numbers began to count back from ten, Al stepped back and looked up at the twinkling midnight stars.
"Good luck, Sam. Here's hoping that I'm still around in the future to lend you a helping hand."
Then the counter reached zero and
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and Rear Admiral Calavicci turned the corner and ground to a sudden stop at the sight of the unexpected woman standing before the Waiting Room door, peering through it's rectangular observation window.
He quickly stubbed out his cigar, "Donna? Um, heh, what are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be, uh, up at the party?"
"Ziggy asked me to come down here." Dr. Elesee said in an oddly-disquieting tone.
"He did?" Al scowled, "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with her, Ziggy shouldn't have done-" he broke off as a shimmer of light flared through the window and painted Donna's face blue for a long moment, then it vanished.
Al gaped in surprise, "Wha-he's gone? The guy already Leaped?"
"Yes," said Donna, "I guess he has..."
"But-But that's impossible! This new guy just got here! And Sam just got there! And-And Ziggy hasn't even located Sam, or even told me what he was there to do in the past! Hell, I haven't even gone into the Imaging Chamber yet!"
"Al...what's done is done..." Dr. Elesee said and she closed the observation window and headed off, back down the corridor.
The Admiral watched her go, still very lost, "But-But the guy! The one Sam Leaped into! Did you see him? Who was he?"
Donna didn't slow, in fact she actually increased her pace a bit, "You know, Al, I don't think it really matters anymore."
Then she was gone, and all of a sudden Admiral Calavicci's quantumly-accelerated mind started to remember. To remember everything.
"Sam...Archer...Enterprise-Khan!"
Holy...
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The far future...
"So, I take it you three have come up with a plan to get us out of this?" T'Pol eyed the pulsating white rectangle that was the soon-to-be overloading forward viewscreen.
"Possibly, Commander." replied Travis, and he moved round to stand beside Ensign Aduko behind Security, "A Klingon torpedo hit knocked us into the gravity well, and I'm betting a barrage of our own photonics might knock us back out, if timed and aimed correctly."
"Might?"
"Will." he corrected, "They will."
"Well then," said T'Pol as she took the center seat from a very grateful Hoshi, "make it so."
And he did.
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The photonic detonation was massive, it flared outwards for nearly a thousand kilometers, kicking-off a solar flare that could be seen for light-years, and just ahead of it's wake the starship Enterprise came spinning free, then fired her now working thrusters and jumped to high Warp, leaving the Talitha Star System far behind.
Down in Main Engineering, Lt. Mendez looked up from the central console and breathed a sigh of relief. "It worked! I don't know how you did it, sir, but you did it! Seriously, I don't think Commander Tucker could have done any better!"
And behind the aura of his great-grandfather, Sam Beckett smiled sadly, "It was the least I could do, considering it was my modifications that nearly triggered the overload. At least we put the power to good use." and he stared into the intermix flux swirling behind the Warp Core's grating.
I'm not going to remember any of this, am I? He turned away from the group of Engineers and shrugged his shoulders. Maybe that's a good thing, because I think it would hurt too much knowing I can never come back here to this ship, to these people. It's been a rare gift getting this look into what could be, and I wonder if I'll ever travel into the future again? Are there others among my bloodline who need my help? Or, is Jonathan Archer the last? I guess only time will tell...
He really wished he could stay though, if only to help the Enterprise crew bring back Commander Tucker, but Dr. Samuel Beckett could already feel the quantum energies building within him, taking hold and spreading across his body and soul, and then
then he was gone...
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Above...
The C Deck door slid back and Reed shot across the threshold, jerked to a halt and exhaled in relief, because there was Trip, lying on his back in the middle of the makeshift Imaging Chamber floor, uniform steaming and torn, but otherwise fine except for a very confused look upon his round face.
"Wha...what h-happened?"
Malcolm crouched beside Tucker and helped him into a sitting position, "There was a transporter accident but it's okay now, Commander-you're all right! Dr. Beckett must have messed the connection up, you were just transported to this room, not hurtled back through time and space."
"T-Time and...space?"
Reed peered into Trip's eyes, suddenly concerned about neural damage, "You are okay, aren't you, Commander?"
"Wh-Why...why..."
"...Why? Why what?"
"...why do you keep calling me Commander?" asked the other man, without any trace whatsoever of Trip's trademark accent, "I'm not a Commander. I'm...I'm...wait, why can't I remember my own name?"
And Malcolm's gut went ice cold.
It's not Tucker. It's...it's somebody else...
"Oh, bugger..."
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Elsewhen...
The senior members of Project Quantum Leap stood on the top deck of the complex, their solemn faces raised to the heavens as night slowly faded.
"...Al?" Tina managed to ask at last.
"Yeah, honey?" the Admiral puffed slowly on the tail-end of a stogie and decided for the thousandth time that this cigar would be his last, while knowing deep-down that there would be a thousand more to come before they finally claimed his lungs and sent him onward to his final reward. "What is it?"
"Did all that...did it really happen?"
"Yep. It really happened..." As per protocol he had filled his people in on what had-or now hadn't-transpired. To say they had been shocked would be an understatement, which is why the Admiral had brought them all outside into the cool night air to do it.
Sammy-Jo shuffled her feet and tugged the sweater tighter around her shoulders, "But it all sounds sorta, you know, crazy! The Project was invaded, a man from the future, people died..." her eyes flicked to Donna, then back, "...b-but now they're alive, it's all just...just insane! You know what I mean, sir?"
"Yeah, honey, I know..." Al shot a lazy smoke ring up into the frosty air as the last star faded from the sky.
"But the whole state, it was supposed to be-to be destroyed!"
"Nothing is ever 'supposed to be'. It's what we make it, day-to-day." Donna said softly, "The concept of destiny is a crutch for the weak minded."
Al nodded, "You know, Voltaire once said that history is just a long succession of useless cruelties. Well, not tonight."
"Amen..." nodded Tina.
But that still wasn't enough to quell the concerns of Sam Beckett's once again in-the-dark progeny, "All that's well and good, but what about this Captain...Captain..." Fuller frowned, "Um, what did you say his name was again, Admiral?"
Al cleared his throat, "Um, Hoshi. His name was Captain Hoshi."
"Right. What about Captain Hoshi and his crew? In their original history, New Mexico was wiped off the face of the Earth, but now that it hasn't been, what's the impact on his future?"
"Sadly, we'll most likely never know. But hey, honey, that's the way the cookie crumbles here at the Project."
"But-"
Gooshie stopped shuffling his feet and spoke up, "Sammy-Jo, Thucydides called history 'philosophy learned from examples'. What that means to me is that five hours ago I was shot, but thanks to Dr. Beckett and the Admiral here that bullet never left it's weapon."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning I'm going to learn from the example and start living for the moment. There's a Christmas party still in full-swing down in the Cafeteria, and if you'll follow me down there I'd like to buy you a glass of punch."
Sammy-Jo smiled, "Spiked?"
"You know it."
"Got yourself a deal."
"I want one too." grinned Tina and she followed after the two programmers, then paused for a moment, "Al, baby? You comin? You still owe me that dance, starship Captain from the future or not."
"Sure, honey." he nodded with a wan smile, "I'll be down in a minute."
A moment later the elevator slid shut, leaving him and Dr. Elesee alone on the veranda.
"He was here again, Al." Donna said quietly, and toyed with the end of her shawl.
"Yeah...he was here again..." the Admiral replied sagely, "And he'll be here again, I swear to you. And next time will be the last time, Donna, 'cause he'll be here to stay. No more fake-outs, I swear to you."
She sighed, "You know what, Al? You could sell snow to the Eskimos."
"Yep," he replied as he stubbed out his cigar, "ice cream too. Goodnight, Donna."
"Goodnight, Al." then he was gone and she was alone once more.
Well, mostly.
"Dr. Elesee?" the jelly-like cubes of her wristwatch spangled like a molten rainbow.
"Yes, Ziggy?"
"Somebody new has appeared in the Waiting Room. Should I alert the Admiral?"
"Not just yet. He owes Tina a dance. I'll handle the arrival for the time being."
"Understood." replied the computer. There was a long pause, then "...Donna?"
The woman blinked in surprise. She couldn't remember the hybrid computer ever addressing her by the first name before. "Yes, Ziggy? What is it?"
"...I miss him too. I-I just wanted you to know..."
Donna swallowed against the lump in her throat, "Thank-you, Ziggy. Please tell the Corporals I'll be down in a minute."
"Of course, Dr. Elesee." the watch went dark.
And under the beginning of a brand-new dawn, just for once, the tears did not fall...
The End...for now...