The Great Experimenters
When the Enterprise came to a halt, they found
themselves face to face with a small vessel of an entirely unfamiliar design.
It stopped a few thousand kilometers from the ship.
"T'Pol, it doesn't seem to have any weapons."
said Tucker, both incredulous and relieved.
"Most fortunate."
"I believe they may be hailing us." said Phlox,
pointing toward communications where a light was blinking. They both looked
at him. "Just tell me what buttons to press, sub-commander." sighed the
Denobulan doctor.
In a few moments a pair of aliens appeared
on screen. They sort of smiled when they looked at the three officers.
One pressed a few buttons on a nearby terminal before the other began to
speak.
"Greetings! We did not expect to encounter
anyone here. It is most fortuitous that our paths have crossed."
"Hello. If I am not mistaken, you have intercepted
our ship." said T'Pol, leaving the helm and standing in front of the captain's
chair.
"Our scanners detected your ship sometime
ago. It was our privilege to investigate. Our ship is a craft of science
and exploration."
"As is ours. Do you come from a system near
this sector?"
"Ah, no, our home is very far from this quadrant
of space, many thousands of light years from here."
"Thousands of light years?"
"Across the galaxy. Yes, it is very far indeed.
Where are your homes?"
T'Pol looked at Trip and Phlox before replying,
"They are in this quadrant, but we have inadvertently come here from the
future."
The alien smiled wider, indeed he looked extremely
excited.
"Joy of joys! Then the great experiment worked!"
"Experiment?" asked Trip, his curiosity getting
the better of him.
"Long ago when our people flourished, we sent
out many ships to distant worlds that knew no life and planted, after a
fashion, seeds that would in time become new life. Then, in more recent
times, we set up temporal rifts, hoping that our progeny would find them
and come to meet us. I never thought that it would work, but here you are!"
"You are saying that you interfered with evolutionary
processes on many planets and that our coming here is the result thereof?"
questioned T'Pol skeptically.
"How can one interfere with life where there
was no life?" he questioned. Then he held up his hand, and said, "But we
did not contact you to quarrel. We were merely curious."
"Of course." acknowledged T'Pol.
"I can see much of what my people were in
their greater days in the three of you. It is a comfort to know that our
great experiment was successful."
"Why did you conduct this experiment, if I
may ask?" questioned Phlox.
"Our sun has been dying for sometime. We have
known this since the elder days of my race. We knew that we could not exist
forever, and it pained us greatly to lose all that we have built and become.
We wanted to be sure that the end of us would not be the end of all life."
"Can you tell us how to return to our own
time through this temporal rift?" asked T'Pol.
"Yeah, and we're missing most of our crew.
Can you tell us where we might find them?" asked Trip, putting his two
cents in.
"Time travel is a tricky thing. It is dangerous
to bring too many from one time to another. The rift uses a light-space
hybrid field to make a mirror image of a mechanical body and using it as
a conduit, it transfers biological lifeforms from one time to another."
explained he alien.
T'Pol raised an eyebrow and Trip stood there
with his mouth open. Was the alien speaking Greek?
"Do you mean a warp field?" Tucker asked.
"Yes, a warp field."
"So what do we do to get back?"
"You must simply re-establish your field and
pass through the rift again. It is perfectly safe. You will be back where
you should be in an instant, and then the rift will close behind you."
"Thanks. That's good to know." said Trip,
relaxing.
The alien smiled and said, "You speak almost
as one of us. It is most touching."
Commander Tucker grinned and said, "I can't
wait to tell the captain that one."
"You do not understand. When you return to
your own time, you will not remember any of this took place. It is an unfortunate
cost of temporal rift travel. I am very sorry."
Commander Tucker's face fell as the alien
spoke. It was almost too unfair to be true!
"Then I suppose we should take our leave of
you. The sooner we return, the better." said T'Pol, being rather diplomatic
for a Vulcan.
"Yes, and do not worry. Someday, your people
will know of their forefathers."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: I know this borrows heavily from the TNG episode "The Chase", but I like making connections between the series'.