Something had gone wrong

Something had gone wrong. But what?

Josh was sitting on a boulder in front of the Guardian, deep in thought, trying to puzzle out the answer to that question. It didn't help that his head hurt and his bruised ribs ached badly. Kramer had done what she could, but without any sort of a medical kit she was limited in what she could do.

Step by step, Josh worked his way through the sequence of events. Stepping back through the portal, they had arrived at exactly the place they intended, at exactly the time they intended. They had managed to get into the conference quickly and quietly, again, exactly as was intended. Their plan had worked, if not perfectly, then certainly well enough. The assassination attempts had been stopped, just the way Josh had remembered it in his history. Azetbur, Captain Kirk, and the Federation President had lived. Colonel West had died, Admiral Cartwright had been arrested. The Guardian had reappeared, allowing them to step back through and return to Pemra-3, just as they had planned.

Everything had worked out just as it should have.

Then what? What was he – were they – missing? Why was the flow of time not restored? Obviously, they had overlooked something.

Josh rubbed his head in frustration. They had been debating the issue for several hours, going around and around in circles, coming up with nothing substantial. Speculation was rampant, but hard facts were hard to come by. By this point, tempers were beginning to fray.

To add to their problems, the Guardian had chosen this decidedly inconvenient time to go silent. No matter who addressed it or how, the Guardian would not – or could not – respond. Both T'Katha and Kramer had even attempted telepathic communication, without success. Though scenes from the past continued to flash by in the Guardian's portal, it was utterly silent. T'Katha had scanned it with a tricorder and had found nothing obviously different that would account for the Guardian's sudden silence.

"Is there anything abnormal or unusual?" Josh asked.

T'Katha shook her head. "I cannot say, though there is nothing apparent. I am at a loss to explain this turn of events, Joshua."

"Well, obviously we didn't do something right," Julie chimed in. "The only real question is: what?"

"We've been through this a dozen times. Unless the timeline is much more sensitive than I was led to believe, we should have been successful," Josh answered. "Events at the conference worked out just as I remember them in the history books."

"Indeed, everything transpired precisely as I anticipated as well," T'Katha added. "My memories of the conference are from a first-hand perspective; the memories my father shared with me. From my perspective, our plan was flawless in its execution. I cannot point to any errors, not matter how minor, that would serve as a basis to explain our failure."

More statements of the obvious, Josh thought bitterly.

Julie blinked, as if hit by a sudden thought. "Well, if we did everything right, then maybe it stands to reason that someone else's actions were responsible for this mess. After all, it was someone else, namely General Kalor and his buddies, who triggered the changes in the first place."

T'Katha regarded the doctor with an odd expression on her face. "Most logical. Of course, we have not considered the effects of actions by third parties."

Josh shook his head. "No, remember, we put Kalor and his goons out of commission. That was the whole point of our plan in the first place."

"Maybe it was somebody else, someone we haven't seen yet," Julie suggested.

"Perhaps, but unlikely," T'Katha responded. "There is no evidence of any other parties attempting to directly tamper with historical events."

"Then that leaves Kalor and his pals. But we dealt with them at Khitomer. Which takes us back to square one," Julie groaned.

Sudden inspiration hit Josh. "Maybe, maybe not," he mused thoughtfully. "Remember, before we left, there were a couple of things we pretty much ignored."

T'Katha nodded. "When watching scenes in the Guardian, we did observe them attacking and killing us in this chamber, yet to the best of our knowledge this has not occurred. Additionally, there was the Guardian's statement that we had 'already' gone back in time, despite none of us having any recollection of such an event."

"Let's take another look," Josh suggested.

The trio crowded around the Guardian and peered intently into the portal, trying to discern the images that were speeding by so quickly. As usual, T'Katha scanned the Guardian with her tricorder as they watched.

Time passed, events flashing by in front of their eyes. Then suddenly, they were watching scenes very familiar to them.

Things were flashing past so quickly that it was hard to make sense of what was going on. But the image in front of them presently was unmistakable. Plainly, it was the cavern they were standing in, with the Guardian in its familiar position.

"Look!" Julie exclaimed. "It's General Kalor and the other Klingons!"

Julie was correct. In the scene, the three Klingons were watching the Guardian carefully, then suddenly jumped through the portal. Josh, T'Katha and Julie studied the image intently.

Suddenly, Josh froze, the hair on the back of his neck literally standing up. This whole situation seemed eerily familiar, as if…

As if he had already been here!

"Look out!" Josh yelled, whirling around.

Just in time. Leaping towards the three Starfleet officers were General Kalor and his cronies, who had seemingly appeared out of thin air. Bat'leths at the ready, they charged towards the Starfleet officers roaring blood curdling battle cries. They had a wild, bloodthirsty look in their eyes, and Josh knew without question that they were beyond reasoning.

This time, though, the Klingons had not caught Josh and the others by surprise. This time, the Starfleet officers had time to react, time to defend themselves and attempt to ward off the savage attacks of Kalor and his henchmen.

Kalor came straight at Josh, swinging the bat'leth in a vicious arc, trying to decapitate Josh with one shot. Lithely, Josh stepped out of the way, putting Kalor badly out of position. Then, expertly, Josh delivered a nasty kick to the Klingon general's knee, forcing it to buckle beneath his weight. Dropping to the ground, Kalor let go of his bat'leth and rolled over in obvious pain.

The second Klingon charged straight at T'Katha, clearly underestimating the Vulcan woman's strength and general agility. Easily side-stepping his initial assault, T'Katha assumed a defensive posture and looked for an opportunity to get in close and deliver a non-lethal nerve pinch.

The third Klingon started in to attack Kramer, then saw his general knocked to the ground by Josh and changed course to assist Kalor. Out of the corner of his eye, Josh observed the second Klingon closing on him and turned his attention from Kalor to this new adversary.

Backing up, he sought to keep both Klingons in front of him, avoiding an attack from behind. Using a large boulder as cover, he ducked in and around the rocks, evading the deadly swings of the primitive but lethal Klingon swords.

Freed from hand-to-hand combat for the moment, Kramer grabbed a handful of dust and ran up quickly towards T'Katha's position. "T'Katha!" she shouted, "stand back!"

The Vulcan woman instinctively obeyed, allowing Julie a clear shot at the big warrior fighting with T'Katha. Rushing up as close as she dared to the hulking Klingon, Julie threw the dust at his eyes, hoping to blind her opponent.

It didn't work out quite as she had planned. The Klingon did not appear to suffer even momentary loss of vision from the dust, but he made the critical mistake of stopping to hurl a stream of insults and curses at the diminutive doctor. That gave T'Katha enough time to step forward and neatly apply a Vulcan nerve pinch to the distracted warrior, who instantly fell to the ground.

Josh, though, was not faring as well. He had managed to avoid taking any serious damage, but though he was fairly quick and elusive, the Klingons were both trained warriors and outnumbered him two to one. Blood trickled from several small cuts and bruises where the Klingons had scored a minor hit on him, and it was only a matter of time before he took a wrong step and Kalor ended the fight with a knockout blow.

"C'mon," Julie said to T'Katha, "We've gotta help the captain!"

"Do you have a plan?" T'Katha asked.

"We should both try to concentrate on one of the Klingons. That would even the odds for the captain, as well as give us an advantage."

"Very well. The Klingon next to General Kalor is more exposed to us. I suggest we attempt to neutralize him."

"Agreed," Kramer replied. Picking up a rock, she aimed quickly and fired it with deadly precision at the Klingon's head.

Growling menacingly, the Klingon whirled around, instantly forgetting the human captain locked into combat with General Kalor. Outraged at being insulted by a mere woman, he bolted towards Julie with astonishing speed for such a big man.

Julie attempted to sidestep the warrior's attack, but guessed wrong, and ended up taking on the full brunt of his attack. Knocked off her feet into the air, the petite doctor flew backwards several feet and slammed into a wall of the cavern. Moaning in pain, she rolled over and slumped to a stop, knocked unconscious from the tremendous force of the blow.

The doctor's Klingon assailant also crashed into the ground, his rough tackle of the much smaller human women throwing him off balance. Uninjured, he rolled over and quickly pushed himself up, ready to get back into the fray. As he was getting up, however, T'Katha applied a second nerve pinch, knocking out the second Klingon.

Now, General Kalor faced the two Starfleet officers alone. Laughing contemptuously, he positioned himself so that both Josh and T'Katha faced him, and swung the bat'leth in a wide arc to keep his foes at bay.

"It's over, Kalor," Josh panted. "This whole crazy idea isn't going to work! Put down that bat'leth and let's talk this thing out."

"I don't think so, Captain. I have a mission to complete and I intend to do so. The Klingon Empire has served as the Federation's puppets long enough. I say, no more!"

"Kalor, listen to me," Josh continued. Hopefully, Kalor would continue the conversation. Maybe Josh could talk some sense into him, but if not, at least it was buying him precious time to catch his breath. "When you alter the course of history at Khitomer, you won't help the Klingon Empire. The only people who will benefit will be the Romulans."

"That's a lie," Kalor growled. "A trick, to force me to surrender."

"No, no tricks," Josh answered warily. Kalor seemed to be listening to what Josh was saying, but he suspected the Klingon was only playing for time. Josh kept his guard up, and hoped T'Katha realized the same thing.

Apparently not. Stepping forward, the Vulcan woman added, "We are telling the truth, General," T'Katha began. "You see…"

"T'Katha, look out!" Josh interrupted. In her eagerness to explain things to Kalor, T'Katha had allowed herself to come within range of the fearsome bat'leth. Swinging suddenly, before T'Katha could take advantage of Josh's warning, Kalor caught the Vulcan woman on the chin with a powerful low that snapped her head up and backwards with sudden, jarring violence. Without a sound, T'Katha dropped to the ground like a stone, either unconscious or dead. Josh couldn't tell which.

That left Josh and Kalor standing. Laughing, Kalor jabbed and swung his bat'leth, daring Josh to make a move within its deadly range. "Now it is just you and me, Captain," he began menacingly. "Fitting. You have proven a worthy opponent thus far. I shall enjoy killing you."

It was at that moment that an object came hurtling out of the Guardian's portal and landed at Josh's foot. Looking down, he realized it was a phaser – an old, 23rd century-style weapon. Without thinking, or pondering this bizarre turn of events, Josh picked up the weapon, pointed it at Kalor and pulled the trigger without hesitation. The bluish energy streamed out from the weapon, hitting the astonished Kalor right in the chest and dropping the general with a single shot. Startled, the Klingon general cried out in surprise, then dropped to the ground, unconscious.

In the cavern, all was silent for long moments. Breathing heavily, Josh pondered the phaser in his hands. Certainly, it had been a stroke of good fortune that the weapon had come through the Guardian's portal when it did. Or was it good luck? Josh had his doubts, but there were other things to worry about first.