Time for a Change
By Les Bonser
This is a work of non-commercial fan fiction. The characters used in this story remain the trademarked property of their respective owners. No trademark infringement is intended and no profits are made by the author for writing or distribution of this work.
No permission is given to anyone other than the author to archive this on any website. No permission is given to anyone other than the author to repost this on any newsgroup.
Chapter 15
Spanish California
Bruce Wayne reined in the horse. He and Diego were on the road from the de la Vega hacienda to the Pueblo de Los Angeles. The two men had become close friends in the two weeks since Bruce had arrived here.
"What's wrong?" he asked Diego.
The Spaniard pointed to the horizon. "That dust cloud. I think it's the Alcalde's men. They are due to collect taxes today."
Bruce nodded. He and the Spaniard had spent several nights in long discussions. Diego had tried to explain to the Englishman why he dressed as the Fox and fought against the Alcalde's tyranny. Bruce understood the desires that fueled Diego's fight. He himself spent a greater part of his personal fortune and his life on his own similar fight.
"Perhaps a visit to the Alcalde is in order for tonight?" Bruce suggested.
"Si," Diego said. "Perhaps."
Tony Stark walked into the transporter room. The computer aboard this fabulous ship had informed him that it was time to depart on his "away mission." The computer here was even more advanced than the systems he'd designed himself for the Stark Solutions offices or the Avengers Mansion.
Geordi was in the transporter room, waiting for Stark. La Forge didn't expect Stark to be wearing the armor.
Stark walked in and indicated that he was ready. "I stand up here, right?" he asked, pointing to the transporter pad.
"Right," La Forge told him.
Stark pulled the helmet down over his head. The suit's systems automatically activated the magnetic interlocks and the helmet sealed to the collar of the suit. Inside the helmet, Stark could see the startup sequence in the head's up display.
La Forge joined him on the transporter pad. "Wow," Geordi said. "I never imagined," he said as he tentatively reached out to touch his friend's armor. Powered up fully, the armor became solid, rigid, shiny. Very impressive, Geordi thought, nodding in appreciation.
Inside the suit, Tony smiled. He'd seen this ship and had scanned through the computer library on some the technology used by the Federation and Starfleet. He was proud that the engineer responsible for maintaining the Enterprise was impressed with his little suit.
Geordi turned to Data and O'Brien at the transporter controls. "Energize when ready," Commander La Forge said. He had his tricorder at the ready.
"Energizing," Data said. "Good luck, Geordi. Good luck, Tony."
Commander La Forge and Iron Man were gone before Geordi had a chance to say, "thanks."
Iron Man and Commander Geordi La Forge materialized in a lightly forested area. Iron Man immediately took a defensive posture and began scanning their surroundings for any potential threats. He didn't have any reason to believe that they were in any danger, but his many years of experience and many training sessions with Captain America were too hard to ignore.
Geordi immediately began scanning with the reprogrammed tricorder. He stepped away from Tony, Iron Man, for a moment. The quantum signature from the armor was strong and was overpowering the tricorder's ability to scan for other quantum signatures.
"Anything?" Iron Man asked.
"No. Your armor is throwing the tricorder off. It's such a large signature, I can't isolate anything else."
"Sorry," Iron Man said.
They waited a moment. Geordi stepped away further, still shaking his head. "I'm still not getting anything else."
"Perhaps I can help. A little reconnaissance might be worth the effort. And I'll move far enough away from you to get a decent reading."
"Uh, sure," Geordi said. "Just keep in communicator range."
"I've got your signal frequency stored in the armor. No way you're getting away from me," Iron Man assured his companion.
With that, Iron Man turned on the boot jets and slowly lifted away from the ground. Geordi stood in awe.
"That really is some suit," Geordi said to himself. "I've got to get me one of those." The engineer immediately started thinking about how to reproduce the exosuit after Stark left, but then remembered his mission. He turned his attention back to his tricorder. He was pleased to see that the interference was clearing up as Stark moved away.
Iron Man flew above the woods. He really had no place to go, he just wanted to put some distance between himself and Geordi so the Starfleet engineer could complete their scan and they could return to the Enterprise.
As he flew, Tony marveled at what he'd learned. Earth, at least in Geordi's universe, survived a nuclear war and eventually combined with other races in the galaxy to form a Federation of Planets. He thought about the few races he and his fellow Avengers had encountered and had a hard time imagining accomplishing anything similar in his own universe.
He passed over a small ridge at the edge of the forest at a height of about 50 feet. Beyond the ridge laid a wasteland. The sensors in his armor detected a large radioactivity level here. He couldn't tell for sure, but he assumed it wasn't natural. His armor was radiation-hardened, so he didn't have to worry about any harm.
Iron Man flew on for several minutes before reaching a coastline. He turned to the left and followed the coast for another several minutes. He was stunned to see the Statue of Liberty come into view.
Lady Liberty was leaning over, and badly deteriorated. "Oh, my god!" Tony exclaimed. Civilization on this version of Earth had somehow fallen under a nuclear war. Saddened, he turned back inland and headed back toward their beam-down point.
After several more minutes of flight, Iron Man saw a small primitive city laid out before him. He was relieved that some portion of the population had apparently survived. Although he was tempted, he didn't go any closer.
Captain Picard and Geordi had both informed him of the Federation's non-interference pact, this "Prime Directive." Although the Federation was an entire universe away, Iron Man felt honor bound to abide by this rule. He was, after all, acting as part of the Enterprise crew.
He quickly shifted his stealth mode systems on. That would prevent any but the most direct observation from seeing him. It also greatly dampened the sound of his boot jets. Iron Man banked back over the forest and headed back to Geordi's location. The engineer should have had enough time to complete his scans by now.
As he circled back to the beam down location, Iron Man came upon a bunch of men riding horses. They were headed roughly in the direction of Geordi. There was no way Geordi could out run them and if they caught him by surprise, he'd inadvertently break the Prime Directive.
Iron Man thought about it for a moment. He wondered if he could swoop down over the riders, perhaps startle the horses slightly. Not enough to hurt anyone, but enough to slow them down. With his stealth mode, surely they wouldn't see enough of him to hurt anything.
He angled himself downward and increased the power to his boot jets. He easily caught up to the horsemen without increasing the amount of sound the baffled jets made. He was just about to fire a low yield repulsor beam across the horse's path when he realized that the riders weren't men.
They were apes. Gorillas to be specific.
Behind the lexan eye shields, Tony Stark blinked. Surely, he was imagining this. Perhaps the cellular deterioration was playing tricks with his vision.
As he got closer, there was no mistaking it. He hovered above the horsemen, uh, horse-apes and tried to decide what to do. Then he saw what the apes where chasing. Humans.
Several nearly naked humans were at the edge of the forest. As soon as they saw the apes, they scattered and ran.
The gorillas had rifles and began to take potshots at the humans. They were still too far away to hit the humans, but they were closing fast.
Just then, the speaker in Iron Man's helmet activated. "Iron Man, this is Commander La Forge. I've got my readings. Another dead end. You can head back. I think we need to leave and in a hurry. I hear gunshots."
"Yes, Geordi, I'm above the shooters right now. They're gor... uh, aliens. They're shooting at what appear to be humans."
"Tony, head back here, now. We have to leave."
"I can't just let them get killed."
"Tony, I understand how you feel, but this isn't our universe," Geordi said. "We have to leave."
Tony thought for a minute. It would be so easy to take out the gorillas with a repulsor blast. "Damn it," Stark said to himself. Geordi is right, he told himself. As much as I hate to admit it, this isn't our fight. And there's a whole lot more at stake.
He increased the power to his boot jets and was over Geordi's position in just a few seconds.
As Iron Man banked to come in for a landing beside Commander La Forge, two of the gorillas on horseback burst upon the small field where Geordi stood.
"Sorry, Geordi," Iron Man said into the communicator. "There's no way I'm going to let those damn dirty apes hurt you--Your 'Prime Directive' be damned."
Iron Man cut the power to his boot jets and landed hard on his feet. His inertia and the weight of the armor forced his feet several inches into the ground. He'd landed directly in front of the two horses, right between them. He reached up as the horses came by and he grabbed the halter of each horse. Electromagnetic servos throughout the armor pulsed; the horses were no match for the transistorized strength of the Golden Avenger.
La Forge stood in stunned silence as he watched Iron Man pull down both horses. Their riders tumbled to the ground, stunned.
Iron Man dropped the halters and ran to where Geordi was standing. "Let's get out of here," he said.
"Aye, aye," La Forge said. He activated the recall device.
Iron Man stood between the stunned gorillas and La Forge. One of the gorillas laid on the ground, stunned and possibly hurt. The other recovered very quickly.
"Filthy humans," the gorilla snarled as he raised his rifle.
The gorilla fired. The shot bounced off Iron Man's chestplate. "Get us out of here," Iron Man said.
"Give it a second," La Forge said. And just then, the transporter reached out and grabbed them.
Space Station Deep Space Nine
"Morn!" the gang at Quark's greeted the Lurian who was perhaps the bar's best customer. The heavyset alien waved to the gang and took his regular spot. Rom, working a shift to help out his brother, slid a Yridian ale in front of Morn.
"How's it going today, Morn?" the little Ferengi engineer asked.
Before the talkative Morn could answer, Rom's brother, Quark, came rushing behind the bar. "Rom, we've got big trouble," Quark exclaimed. Quark was so agitated, his ears were quivering and his lobes were slick with sweat.
"What, Brother? Is the Ferengi Commerce Authority after you about Moogie again? Or has Odo found out you've been..."
"Rom, shut up," Quark snapped. "I'm about to lose the bar and you're babbling. Some Andorian just won triple down dabo *five* times. FIVE times in a row! That is mathematically impossible. It's like the universe is upside down or something. There's no possible way it should ever happen..."
"Quark!" It was Commander Worf.
"Stall him," Quark told his brother. "I have to go liquidate some of my investments to pay off the Andorian. Make sure no one steals anything." Quark didn't trust anyone, not even his brother. And today he learned that he couldn't even trust fate. But then, the 236th Ferengi Rule of Acquisition said "You can't buy fate."
What really annoyed Quark was that the Dabo game was rigged. And the Andorian still managed to triple down. Five times!
Worf stalked over to the bar in pursuit of the Ferengi barkeeper. "Uh, Commander Worf," Rom said. "How is Nog doing these days? I understand you keep him quite busy up there in Ops. I didn't want him to join Starfleet and associate with all those hue-mons, but I've been so proud..."
"Rom! Where did Quark run off to?" Worf demanded.
"I think he had to pay off someone at the gaming table..."
Worf interrupted the engineer, "Rom, have you or your brother been reprogramming the station's computer system again?" The tall Klingon towered over the little Ferengi. Worf glared down at Rom, "If you have, I'll find out. It will be better for you both if you come clean with me right now."
"Commander, I haven't even been near the computer core since I helped Chief O'Brien repair the ODN conduits last month. Quark keeps me too busy here and I've been doing the replicator service schedule this month. You know how often those Cardassian replicators break down. And Leeta wants to redecorate our quarters. She has me replicating fabric samples until all hours of the night..."
Worf stomped off. He hated Ferengis, but he hated being left in charge of the station worse. He needed a warp engine under his feet. He needed to be on a ship. Not here on the station dealing with minor computer breakdowns.
The computer system decided today was the day to begin displaying all textual documents upside down and backwards. Worf remembered something vaguely about an ancient Earth scientist writing backwards as a way of preventing people from stealing his ideas, but this just was not the way to run a space station.
If only Chief O'Brien was here. He'd probably have the computer fixed in no time at all.
Worf let Quark's Bar and walked around the Promenade to Odo's office. Maybe the Changling constable had figured out something. Or figured out who did this.
"Constable," Worf said as he entered the Security Office. "Have you found anything. It was that stinking little Ferengi, wasn't it?"
"No," Odo said. "I would like to catch Quark tampering with our systems as much as you would, Commander. But I think I've isolated the problem. As you know, the Starfleet installed coprocessor and peripherals group uses a small subspace field generator. There is apparently some sort of temporal anomaly which is causing the subspace to reverse polarity. We have received several Starfleet advisory notices regarding this."
"And exactly how would we have read them? They're upside and backward!"
Odo morphed his body so that his head and eyes were upside in relation to the computer display. "It's not a problem, really," the constable said.
"This may work for you, but it won't work for the rest of us."
Odo morphed back to his normal shape. He picked up two small hand mirrors from his desk. By arranging them together, he could reverse the image twice, rendering it readable.
Worf was fuming. Klingons preferred to fight something that could fight back. Using a couple little cosmetic mirrors wasn't a warrior's solution to this problem.
USS Enterprise, in the Beta Quadrant
After five separate ventures into other universes, the combined crews of the Enterprise and the Defiant had yet to find any of the five people they were looking for.
They had developed an interesting catalog of initial readings from the various universes they'd visited. Picard still wasn't sure what to make of Geordi and Tony's visit to "the planet of the apes," as they had taken to calling their mission. He hoped that Stark's interaction with the apes hadn't created any Prime Directive conflicts.
Although each of the visits were genuinely interesting from a scientific perspective, Picard was beginning to get annoyed with their success rate. He'd been in communication with Starfleet Command and they were likewise less than satisfied. But so far, no one had any other ideas for courses of action.
Doctor Crusher had scanned each of the crew as they returned from their away missions. Some of the crew had experienced more cellular degradation than anticipated. Apparently some universes were more detrimental than others.
Against his wishes, Crusher had taken Picard out of the rotation entirely. She felt that the cellular deterioration was affecting his bio-neural interfaces to his artificial heart. She thought his age might have been a contributing factor.
She was also watching Stark for the same reason. But the engineer from another universe so far hadn't shown any detrimental effects. She theorized that his armor might offer some of protection to the effects of the inter-dimensional travel. Plus, when sealed into the armor, he was using recycled air and not breathing the air native in the other universes he'd visited.
By the end of the first day, they had gone through almost one whole rotation of staff for the away missions. Only Data and Lieutenant Dax had yet to go. Picard had held Data back from earlier missions. He still insisted that no one knew what they were doing better than his second officer, and the Captain loathed the possibility of losing Data.
Dax was at the bottom of the rotation because of her lack of experience. Captain Sisko had confidence in the young Trill. Picard was less optimistic. Granted, the Dax symbiont has multiple lifetimes of experience, but according to her Starfleet record, Ezri was not a candidate for hosting a symbiont. He wasn't convinced that the Lieutenant had learned to handle being a host yet. That left her potentially unstable.
Picard would have preferred to send someone else on the away mission. He would have even preferred someone from outside the crew. Stark had so far made a positive impression on everyone he interacted with. Dr. Crusher, being Chief Medical Officer, was within her designated responsibility to override Picard's decisions based on medical grounds. She insisted that each person had to minimize their exposure to the cellular degradation.
Each away mission narrowed the choices for the future missions. Data, La Forge, and O'Brien had all refined the procedure for scanning, targeting, and beaming into the different universes. They had been able to automate large parts of the process, but it was still extremely dangerous.
Picard went to the transporter room. Dax and Data were there, getting their final briefing from La Forge. Dr. Crusher was doing medical scans on the Trill. She still wasn't sure what effect the cellular degradation would have on the symbiont.
"Commander, Lieutenant?"
"Yes, Captain," both said.
"Good luck," Picard said.
"Thank you," Data said as he joined Dax on the transporter. He took out his tricorder and had it ready. "Energize."
Ezri blinked as they rematerialized. It was pitch dark. Her first thought was that she'd somehow been beamed into a wall, or the ground, or whatever. And then her eyes adjusted from the bright transporter room to the darkness. She saw the stars.
The stars were bright. Not as bright and unobstructed as from space, but the unique brightness, the slight flickering, of stars seen through a clear atmosphere. As much as she loved to see the stars from the observation deck of DS9, she enjoyed seeing them from the surface of a pristine planet more.
She broke herself out of her reverie. Data was already scanning with the tricorder. Apparently the android second officer of the Enterprise wasn't as impressed by the view as she was. But then, he didn't have nine lifetimes of memories reminding him how beautiful the view was.
Ezri took out her own tricorder and began scanning also. Have to make this look good, she told herself. Somewhere deep inside her, she heard Jadzia's thoughts telling her she was doing just fine. That sometimes, it was okay to admire the view along the journey. Life was simply too short.
"Captain Picard will be pleased," Data said. "I believe we have finally located one of the individuals. I'm picking up a lifesign reading from that village. It appears to be a different quantum frequency than the baseline for this universe."
"What village?" Ezri asked. "I can't see anything."
Data looked around. "Yes, it is very dark here," he agreed. "According to the tricorder, there is a small village approximately 300 meters in this direction." He pointed off to his right.
Ezri pointed her tricorder in the general direction Data had pointed. "Yeah, I got it." Dumb mistake, Ezri, she told herself. If that was an enemy location, they could have killed us by now.
"We will need to get closer to be sure."
"Lead on, Commander."
"Very well, Lieutenant."
"Uh, Commander?"
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"You can call me Ezri," she said.
"Very well, Ezri."
Data lead the young Trill through the darkness.
The two men had left their horses in the brush near the eastern wall of the pueblo. Batman helped boost Zorro up to the top of the wall and then quickly followed. The wall was only about 12 feet tall and he didn't need to use the grapple gun he carried in the holster at his hip.
Zorro dropped silently into the courtyard on the inside of the wall. Batman likewise followed him.
"Which way?" Batman asked in Spanish, his voice low.
"This way, Senor," Zorro. The Fox pointed to the Alcalde's villa. It was at the opposite side of the village.
"Why didn't we climb that wall?"
"And where would the challenge be in that?" Zorro's teeth shone in the dim starlight of the night as he smiled.
Batman shook his head. This Zorro was indeed the Robin Hood of old Southern California. He had a noble undertaking, but he had an adventurous spirit. Batman had seen too many people hurt because they didn't take this seriously. They considered it a game.
Zorro was scurrying from shadow to shadow. Thankfully, the village was quiet.
Batman would have preferred to have stayed to the rooftops, but the slate and clay roofs would have been too noisy.
The two men quickly and quietly made their way across the village. The were headed to the Alcalde's villa.
Zorro believed that the pueblo's governor had kept some of the tax money for himself. It was Zorro's intent to liberate some of that money and return it to the rightful citizens of the pueblo and the surrounding area.
This is really more Catwoman's game, Batman thought. Or Ollie, God rest his soul. This was just the sort of social injustice that Green Arrow would have gotten involved with. "Here's to you, Ollie," Batman mouthed to himself as he and Zorro reached the outside of the Alcalde's villa.
"So how do we get in?" Ezri asked. She and Data had circled the village. It was similar to an ancient Bajorian or Trill village; a baked clay brick wall, about 4 meters tall. The gates were closed for the night.
Data looked around, and then up. He pointed to the top of the wall.
"Look, Data, I didn't remember to bring any anti-grav boots. Did you?"
"Lieutenant," Data said, "Ezri, you do not weigh that much. I have calculated that I have the sufficient strength to lift you to the top of that wall."
"And how will you get over the wall?"
"I will jump," Data said, matter-of-factly.
He held out his hands, cupped in front of him. "Ezri?" he prompted.
Ezri tucked her tricorder into its harness at her waist and reluctantly placed a foot in Data's hands.
"Are you ready?" Data asked.
"No," Ezri said.
Data waited patiently. Ezri took a deep breath and tried to put Jadzia and Curzon's thoughts from her mind. She tried to sift through her thoughts. What she really needed was Emony's help right now. The third host of the Dax symbiont, Emony had been a galaxy-class gymnast. From somewhere deep within her, she felt a feeling of confidence. She couldn't tell if that was Emony or Torias. Torias had been a pilot. Every pilot she'd ever known had a certain amount of cockiness--confident even when they had no right to be.
"Ready," she said. The next thing she knew, she was at the top of the wall and hanging on tight. Data had lifted, no make that thrown, her with just the right amount of force to lift her to exactly the right point.
She hung on to the top of the wall with both arms. Ezri tried swinging one leg up. At first, it didn't make it. The rush of adrenaline gave her a boost in strength and the second time, her boot heel caught the edge of the wall. By the time she hoisted herself onto the top of the wall, she realized that Data was already on the top of the wall.
And she watched as he lightly dropped to the other side and stood waiting patiently to catch her as she dropped the four meters to the ground.
"Now what?" she asked as she stood beside Data. The inside of the village appeared as quiet as the outside.
Data had out his tricorder and was taking another reading. "Yes, the reading is stronger here. Definitely someone that is not native to this universe."
"Where?"
"This way," Data said and he began walking through the deserted streets of the village.
The village was small. It only took Data and Ezri a few minutes to cross the main square at the center of the village. Ezri didn't recognize the architecture of the buildings, but as they passed the largest building in the village, Data whispered that he thought they were on Earth, sometime between the sixteenth and nineteenth century. The Enterprise's second officer had correctly identified the building as one of the missions built by the Spanish in what was called at that time "the New World."
"There," Data said finally, pointing seemingly into the dark.
Ezri didn't see anything. She squinted and still didn't see anything. The village was quiet and everything was a shadow in the darkness. The stars were bright, but they didn't provide enough light for her to see.
Then, she thought she saw the shadow move. And then another. Two people, both dressed in black, appeared to be blended into the shadows between the buildings.
Data approached the two in a straightforward manner. "Excuse me," he said as he reached the first man. The man grabbed Data's arm and tried to maneuver the android against wall. Data was stronger and didn't move.
"Excuse me," Data said again. "Do you understand me?"
The first man didn't say anything, but tried another move. Data once again resisted the man's efforts.
The second man drew a sword and moved to confront Ezri. In panic, the young Trill forgot everything she'd been taught at Starfleet Academy in hand-to-hand self defense. But Curzon and Jadzia hadn't forgotten. Without thinking, Ezri deflected the sword easily and she took advantage of her shorter height. She slipped under the man's arm and applied a Klingon punch to the man's throat.
"Sir, you do not belong here. We are here to take you home," Data tried to explain to the first man, the one with the long black cape.
The first man stopped fighting. "Zorro, I think these two are okay," he told his companion, in Spanish. The second man was busy trying to recover his voice.
"Who are you?" the first man asked, his voice deep and gruff. Ezri had heard a similar voice in nearly every Klingon she'd ever met. They all thought it made them sound tough.
"That will require some explaining," Data said. "Perhaps we should remove ourselves from this village before we disturb the inhabitants."
Batman repeated the conversation to Zorro in Spanish.
"Si," the second man said. He headed to the nearest wall, still holding his throat.
When the four reached the wall, Data assisted Ezri up and turned to offer his assistance to the other two. He seemed somewhat surprised that they had both managed to scale the wall themselves. Without further delay, the android jumped over the wall and arrived on the other side just as the first man was helping Ezri down.
As Batman helped the young woman down, he noticed that she had a number of spots along her hair line. He couldn't tell if they were tattoos or a natural coloration. They were darker and larger than mere freckles. He had the distinct impression that although she looked human, she wasn't. It was an unconscious feeling; the same feeling he got around Superman and Jon Jonzz.
The two men blended into the darkness, as did the two Starfleet officers. The current issue Starfleet uniform was mostly black, with only the department color across the shoulders. Regardless, the four retreating into the brush beyond the wall.
As they walked through the brush, Batman noticed that the pale-skinned man moved with a certain precision. Was he an android? Batman wondered. Something about his body language reminded Batman of the Red Tornado. And that would account for why he was able to block my judo moves, he told himself.
"Okay, who are you?" Batman demanded when they were about 40 meters from the village.
"My name is Commander Data. This is Lieutenant Dax. We are with Starfleet. We were sent here to find you."
"Starfleet?" the man asked, suspicious.
"It's the exploration and defense arm of the Federation of Planets," Ezri tried to explain. "You probably never heard of us, right?"
The man didn't respond, but he said something to the other man in a language Ezri didn't understand.
Batman tried to explain in terms Zorro would understand. He lied to his friend, "They are travelers from my country," he said in Spanish. "Here to assist me in getting home."
Data apparently understood the language. "We would rather not reveal too much more around your companion. He is from this universe, correct? The less information we unwittingly impart to this universe's inhabitants, the better."
"Yes. But how do I know you're who you say you are?" Batman asked.
"You do not," Data said. He tried to describe as much as he knew about this man, perhaps to convince him that they were after his best interests, or at least to convince him that they knew where he really was from. "I can tell you that you were with four other people immediately before you came here. In an urban setting. There were two other men and two women."
Batman nodded. Kent and Bond were the other two men, and Lane and Catwoman were the two women. Whoever these strangers were, they knew a lot about him. And they knew that he didn't belong here. How they knew, he had no idea. He'd expected Flash or the young Green Lantern to somehow find him. He never expected the mismatched pair before him.
"And you have a way to get me home?"
Data paused. They didn't actually have a way to get the people home yet. They still didn't know what universe was the man's rightful universe. But he knew that his own universe, in fact all universes, were at risk if they didn't get this man and all the others back to their own universe. Data did something he very rarely did. He lied. "Yes," he said in his most convincing voice.
The man in the long black cape and the pointed-eared cowl looked at the two Starfleet officers for several long minutes. He finally said, "Okay."
Batman then turned to Zorro and said, in Spanish, "Looks like they do have a way for me to get home."
"Are you sure? They don't look like the men you described. Your friends, the one's you were expecting."
"No," Batman agreed, "But right now, I've got no choice. I have to trust them."
"Then I guess this is adios. I will miss you, my friend," Zorro said. He held out his gloved hand.
Batman took the hand in both of his and clasped the Spaniard's hand firmly. "And I will miss you too, Diego. Now hurry, before the Alcalde learns of your little plan."
"Si," Zorro said. He whistled and from out of the dark, a large black horse appeared, startling Ezri. The Spaniard took the Trill's hand, kissed it, and then saluted the three. He then mounted the horse and rode away.
Batman turned to the other two after Zorro rode off. "Now, tell me the rest of your story."
"We do not actually have a way to return you to your universe," Data explained. "But we will find a way. In the meantime, our universe, and possibly others, including your own, are suffering temporal disturbances. We believe the source of the disturbances is the displacement of yourself and the other four people from your world."
"What about the guy in the tin suit?" Batman had seen the gold and red armor just as he'd blacked out before awakening here in old California. He wasn't called the world's greatest detective for nothing. It was obvious that the person in the gold and red armor had something to do with this.
"He is assisting us. We will return him to his own universe as well."
"What do we do?" Batman asked.
"Just stand here for a moment." And Data activated the recall device.
And a moment later, the three disappeared from outside Pueblo de Los Angeles.
Geordi La Forge was in the transporter room when Data's recall signal came in. As soon as the Chief Engineer saw three people beginning to materialize on the transporter pad, he immediately signaled to Captain Picard. Data and Ezri apparently were successful in finding at least one of the "lost souls" as Dr. Crusher had begun calling the five individuals.
Leave it to Data to succeed where the rest of us failed, Geordi thought.
The three people materialized and the transporter effect went away. Data and Ezri stepped down from the transporter pad, but their visitor remained. The tall man in black stood where he'd materialized and looked around for a moment before likewise stepping down from the transporter platform.
"Welcome to the Enterprise," La Forge told the newcomer. As the ranking officer on duty in the transporter room, it was his responsibility to greet visitors.
"Where am I?" the stranger asked. His voice was deep and gravely. It sent a chill down La Forge's neck to hear him talk.
La Forge recognized him. Not from having met, of course, but rather from the video replay Stark's armor had captured during the transition from one universe to another.
The man was one of the two costumed individuals they had seen in the video. The man was nearly as tall as Worf, with shoulders and a chest the match of the Klingon's. He wore a long black cape that totally covered him. His head and the upper portion of his face was covered with a matching cowl. The cowl had a pointed ear that stood straight up on each side of the man's head. Although he was completely covered by the dark costume, La Forge had the distinct impression that the visitor was human.
"This is the Starfleet ship, USS Enterprise. You're in the 24th century," La Forge tried to explain.
As with Stark, La Forge was somewhat surprised that the man before them didn't seem overly confused about the time travel. Maybe there are more people used to the concept than we thought, Geordi told himself. Or maybe time travel is just a lot more common in other universes than it is in ours.
Just then, Captain Picard, Dr. Crusher, and Counselor Troi arrived. Picard had asked Troi to greet each of the travelers and appraise him of their mental condition.
"Ah, hello," Picard said. "I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Welcome to my ship." Picard stepped toward the dark visitor and extended his hand.
Batman took the bald captain's hand. He could sense the fact that this man was somehow in charge. Things hadn't changed that much in 400 years, he thought. "I'm Batman," he said.
"*Bat* Man?" Dr. Crusher said. She had her tricorder out and began scanning him. "That's an interesting name," she commented.
"Batman. Of course," Picard said. "The ears, the cape. You must be one of the 'superheroes' Tony was telling us about."
"Who's Tony?" Batman asked. He wasn't used to being the center of so much attention. And when he was at the center of things, he liked to be in charge. He definitely didn't feel in charge now.
The pale man that had approached him in Los Angeles spoke up. In the light of this ship, Batman could see that the other man was definitely different. If not some sort of android, then an alien. "He is the gentleman in the 'tin suit' that you asked about," Data said. "Apparently, in his universe, he also serves in such a vigilante role. As you do in yours, correct?"
Batman nodded. He'd have to compare notes with this "Tony" fellow.
Picard introduced the remainder of his crew to their new visitor.
"Data, what took you so long?" La Forge asked. "You've both been gone for almost two days."
"Two days?" Ezri said. "We barely left."
"Lieutenant Dax is correct," Data said. "We were only gone approximately 18 point 3 minutes. If there was a discrepancy between how long we were away from the Enterprise and how long we were on the surface of the planet, I believe it could be explained by either the effects of the temporal anomaly or by the relative rates at which time passes in each universe. To speculate any further without additional information would be inefficient."
"Data, that can wait for later," Picard said. "Right now, we need to see if the retrieval of...uh, Batman, here, has changed the effects of the anomaly here in this universe. Perhaps you can contact the Vulcan Science Academy and update them on our progress here."
"Yes, Captain." With that Data excused himself from the room and left.
"Geordi?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Get Mr. Stark down here. I'd like him to assist us in debriefing Batman." Picard turned back to their new guest. "Surely that is a nom de plume? I'd feel more comfortable knowing your real name."
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," Batman said. "Your Commander Data indicated that you were attempting to recover the other people that were with me. At least one of them is a criminal in my world, my time. I can't have any of you unintentionally giving away my real identity. You won't do that if you don't know it."
"Very well," Picard said. "Batman it is. Doctor?"
"He's got very little cellular deterioration, Jean-Luc. But I'm picking up a lot of healed injuries. Otherwise, he's very healthy. In some ways, the peak of human physiology. I'd guess he could even give Mr. Worf a workout."
"Well," Picard said. It wasn't often that Picard heard Beverly so impressed with any of her patients. This whole mission was becoming very interesting, he thought. Geordi was obviously impressed with Mr. Stark and his suit of armor. The two engineers had become almost inseparable. And now Beverly was fawning over their newest guest. Two of the individuals they had yet to retrieve were women. Picard wearily wondered if Riker would make a pass at one or both.
"We'll arrange quarters for you, Batman," he said. "And then, we need to do some debriefing."
"I understand," Batman said.
"Lieutenant Dax, please see to having quarters assigned for Batman. Commander Riker can assist you if necessary."
"Yes, Captain," the young Trill said. "You can follow me," she told the tall man in black. She headed out of the transporter room and Batman followed.
After Batman and Dax left, Picard turned to Counselor Troi. "Counselor, what were your impressions?"
"A very complex individual," Troi said. "He didn't seem phased at all by the time travel or the fact that the universe was at risk. He's obviously dealt with life and death problems in the past, probably as the primary decision maker. I got a definite impression that he prefers to be in charge than to follow. Very intense feelings from him, but very very controlled. I sensed an almost Vulcan-like control."
In her earlier assessment, Troi had also categorized Tony Stark as "intense," Picard thought. Q, Klingons, Cardassians, Jem'Hadar, and now superheroes. Everyone I encounter these days is "intense," he said to himself. It almost made him want to deal with the Borg for a change.
Picard was in his ready room sometime later when Riker walked in. "Captain," his first officer said.
"Yes, Number One?"
"I was just preparing the weekly status report. I'm not sure Starfleet is going to understand some of this."
"Some of what, Will?"
"Men dressed up as bats, horse riding gorillas, Roman gladiator fights, well... well, it just all seems so... fantastic," Riker said.
"I seem to remember you being the one that was complaining about being bored before this mission started," Picard reminded his second in command.
"Point taken," Riker conceded.