The Chain Unbound
Chapter 11
'Stateless'
Mikolo expected some firsts on Earth to have a twist, what with human culture, items, and food permiating into the cultural fabric of the former Federation Empire until variations were owned by the local cultures. Like the sausage on a bun they called the 'hot dog'. Miko tasted something similar on Andoria, only the Earth variety had less spices and the bread was wheat instead of quadrotriticele. Or the pizza, which had variations throughout the Emerald Chain but tasted nothing like the big, floppy, cheesy slices she and Richard consumed to fight the sheer alcohol content they imbibed last night.
She vaguely remembered Richard's rant about New York City having the only true pizza when she brought up an etymologically similar dish from Naples.
They were both very drunk due to another one of Earth's specialties. Ale! And not the synthale served in taverns, replimats, and cantinas thoughout known space. Actual ale, without the synthahol! She worried at first about getting drunk, but it was only five percent alcohol content. Andorian Ale had way more!
The ale on her planet had the benefit of being enjoyed in shot glasses, a bottle shared among friends, not handed over bottle after bottle by cheerful locals impressed with her command of the local language while singing untranslated karaoke songs.
Then she learned about all the other forms of human beer, from lager (bleh) to pilsner (meh) to IPA (nice!). She would have encountered more varieties too, had the alcohol content of the previous beers hadn't caught up to her and put her world in a serious case of the spins.
So, drawing away a reluctant Richard from a rather charming and young Orion (Not from The Chain, an actual Terran several generations removed from the homeworld, and with an amazing tuck job!), the duo went off in search of greasy street food, which lead to the discussion on which city's fare was far superior. It was on their way to putting the issue to rest on chicken shawarmas and beef donairs that she expelled the contents of her stomach on the sidewalk.
Definitely time to come home.
Last she remembered was collapsing on the couch in the living room of the Last Dance, then waking up to a universe-ending hangover.
It was always the weaker liquors that snuck up on her.
Her antique phaser pistol wasn't in her eyeline, but she found the next best thing when she stumbled to the bathroom. An alcohol-neutralizing polyinoculator pressed against her neck and hissed. One shot and the leftover booze was rendered inert while re-hydration and swelling reduction set in.
She still felt tacky in her mouth. Stumbling to the replicator, she ordered some icoberry juice. It was one of the first luxuries Richard restored after connecting her dilithium crystal to the Last Dance's power systems, and spent the last few weeks repairing various systems, one after the other. They were close to getting the old Zambezi class runabout off the ground. She and her fading hangover was thankful for one less trip to the bodega.
She looked over into the small alcove Richard used as a bedroom. Like Miko, he crashed in his bed without changing out of his streetclothes, where he laid face down, snoring into a pillow.
It occurred to her that Richard was an unusual creature. There was strength and menace in his solidly-built frame, and something of a gruff attitude about him. Yet he was merciful enough to share his home, patient enough to guide her through the intricacies of Terran society, and secure enough to risk being vulnerable around his alien houseguest.
Her experiences left her wary of anything on this strange blue and green planet, but it was Richard's willingness who showed a trran side she only read about in the history books.
In a way, she found kinship because they were both people out of step. One obsessed with the past (and now trapped by it), the other a throwback of it, and both discovered the Terra of old, the joys of its present without the sorrows of what was lost.
As far as human companions went she felt she could do much worse.
Tossing off her streetware, she jumped into the sonic shower and set the pulse waves to deep scrub.
There was more to Earth than it's isolationist and ethnophobic government. There was an entire planet full of rich culture and genuinely decent people.
After she solved the causal loop, she thought she might give Earth another chance.
She heard a chirp. Richard's EDF tricom, in the bottom of the bathroom sink, flashed its call.
"Richard?" She called out, wrapping the shower curtain around her body. "Comms!"
"Muh?" Came his weak, barely sober cry. "Could you get that?"
Annoyed, she slapped the tricom. The holographic projection of Colonel Ndoye took over the space of the small bathroom.
"Where's Inspector Corrigan?" Colonel Ndoye asked.
"Sleeping it off." Mikolo replied. "What can we do for you?"
Ndoye raised a judgemental eyebrow at Mikolo. "Rough night?"
Miko said, "Could say that. It was karaoke night and we had a few drinks..."
Ndoye sighed. "Clean yourselves up and report to headquarters. We got a problem."
Cleaned up, dressed, and nursing double-strong coffee while the alcohol neutralizers did their work, Richard and Mikolo returned to EDF headquarters. There was a different energy in the room from yesterday, one of professionally suppressed alarm. Everyone in the room was tense.
"While you two were out gallivanting," Ndoye summoned twin large 3D displays. "we received two more visitors, each showing diplomatic credentials. Do you recognize them?"
3D display monitors focused on stills and real-time feeds of two courier class vessels. One, a squat, bullet-shaped craft with protruding, talon-like wings, remained parked on a starport's tarmac, EDF security personnel surrounding the vessel, rifles and pistols at the ready.
Miko pointed to the first vessel. "That looks like a Xindi-Insectoid shuttle, I think. There's a few colonies in The Chain."
The other, a needle-like shuttle with a bright glowing ring on the aft section, remained in orbit, two monolithic EDF patrol vessels flanking its port and starboard.
"That's a Ni'var vessel." Miko said. "Scout ship. We catch them snooping around our border sometimes."
"That's what I thought." Ndoye flicked the screens, switching the views to two separate beings. "Recognize them?"
Miko looked at the Emerald Chain representative. The chitinous, buglike appearance of the Xindi-Insectoid repulsed her as much as it surprised her. "Really? They sent a Regulator?"
"A regulator? What's that?" Ndoye asked.
"Emerald Chain paramilitaries. Law enforcement and soldier all in one."
"And you're saying that's not a diplomat?"
"If it is, it would be a first. Our Plenipotentiaries are drawn from the upper classes. Xindi are usually lower class and relegated to the Regulators. Besides, look at the tricom on its harness. Totally different than mine." She pointed to her own badge, then to the screen. "Mine's an Invigilator badge. That's a Regulator's tricom. Trust me. That's no diplomat."
Ndoye nodded. "That matches, especially if they're sending a soldier find one of their citizens."
"As in... me? Are they looking for me?"
"Not in such direct words." Ndoye tapped the screen, un-pausing the picture, the insectoid's chatter filled their universal translators. "At first they offered to renew diplomatic ties on behalf of The Chain, but then went to inquiring about two of their missing citizens. You can guess who."
The playback on the Xindi-Insectoid's feed popped up with two summoned holoprojected heads, instantly recognized. One was Shryhl, with a sizable list of crimes underneath ranging from illegal smuggling to kidnapping.
Miko's blood went cold when she saw her own face, the charges of theft and forgery marked under her projection. There was only one reason to be charged with a crime, and few people with the motivation to put out an Emerald Chain wide call for her arrest.
Her own family, her thavey, effectively exiled the rogue Invigilator, cutting off any way back to The Emerald Chain.
Her cheeks flushed with anger and her antennae shivered.
"You're not gonna turn me over to the Regulator, are you?" She gulped.
Ndoye shook her head. "Establishing an extradition treaty with The Emerald Chain involves high-level talks with representatives on both sides whose paygrades exceed our own. Don't worry, you're safe for now."
Miko let out a deep breath. "That's a relief."
"However, we are already in talks with the Ni'var, and they're expressing an interest in you as well. At least, that time crystal of yours."
"You didn't tell them about it, did you?"
"No. As far as they know there's mysterious chroniton bursts, and we're keeping it that way. But he wants to find the source and talk to the person behind it."
Panic rose in Miko's throat. "What?! No! It's one thing to have The Chain after me, but you can't expect me to go with the Ni'var! They hate my people!"
"And you won't be." Ndoye promised. She paused the Xindi's feed. Playing the Ni'var's feed un-froze the graceful, elven face, releasing a soft and controlled voice. =/\="We are investigating a series of chroniton bursts, originating from Andoria, and ending on your planet. Under Article 23 of the Temporal Accords, we invoke the right to investigate and neutralize..."=/\= Ndoye paused the recording.
Richard uttered, "Article 23. God damn, they're not screwing around."
Miko concurred. "True, but if they arrest me, they risk breaking the causal loop."
Ndoye countered, "How do you know they're not meant to help you?"
"Because they're single-minded and merciless!" Miko fired back. "They're nothing if not strict adherents to the letter of the law. If he's pulling an Article 23, he's not looking to repair the timeline or to put a temporal events. The Article only discusses the destruction of temporal materials."
"She's right." Richard said. "Never known a Ni'var to be flexible in their thinking. Can't let them risk our trip to Boreth."
Ndoye said, "It puts us in a risky position, diplomatically. The Ni'var have become close allies with The Federation, who have recently sent out peace feelers to the United Earth government. If we don't show some semblance of co-operation with the Ni'var we may end up jeopardizing our chances with The Federation."
"Screw the Federation!" Miko spat. "You don't have a deal with them, you have a deal with me! You know what's at stake if you back out of it."
"Got us there." Richard added. "Selling her out to the Emerald Chain or the Ni'var would be easy and convenient, but we may pay for it with something much worse."
Ndoye took a moment to process. When she answered, she was stern and pensive. "That is why, after hearing from both representatives and the United Earth govnerment, we have decided to keep aiding you in your mission."
Miko released her breath. "Thank the gods!"
Ndoye added, "However, we will not jeopardize our standing with the Ni'var in doing so. We've decided to stall for time, but we can only follow protocol for so long until the Ni'var force the issue. How soon can you leave?"
Richard spoke up. "Give me five hours and I'll have the Last Dance ready to go."
"The Ni'var will be over the South China Sea in two hours. That's your optimal launch window. Be ready by then."
"Thank god for buffer time." Richard sarcastically remarked. "I'll get started."
"Good. Dismissed, Lieutenant."
Corrigan disappeared in a transporter haze. Miko turned to Ndoye and said, "I know I've been an inconvenience, and we haven't started our relationship smoothly, but I appreciate the difficult position you're in, and I thank you for all the aid you've rendered."
Ndoye turned and saluted the Invigilator. "Then on behalf of the United Earth Government and the EDF, I wish you success on your mission."
Unsure at first, Miko almost mimicked the earth military salute, but something in her historical studies reminded her that it was not her way. Instead, she bowed, curtsied in the traditional Invigilator manner.
When she almost tapped her tricom to beam out, Ndoye stopped her.
"Before you go, the Ni'var representative mentioned something that may interest you."
She returned to the Last Dance shaken.
Ndoye's information was helpful, in a sense, but shook what she knew, what she felt was established, down to its foundations. It all sounded too impossible to believe, as if all the stars went dark and the heat death of the universe would soon follow. How was it possible? How could it be? Ndoye didn't have those answers either, a caveat she placed when she mentioned its source from their exchanges with the Ni'var representative.
She couldn't believe it if it came out of the mouth of a Ni'var. The emotional ones were masters of false truths and deceptions. The logical ones knew how to manipulate with semantics and logic. Neither held a reputation on Andoria for honesty and integrity, so it had to be a lie, hadn't it?
She'd believe the Terran's assessment, but even they were susceptible to falsehoods. But she had the transmission, and all the tool used to detect falsehoods within it. So it had to be true, could it?
She listened to the transmission herself just to be sure. And the Ni'var spoke it with their infuriating dispassionate calm.
Richard detected her shock when he crawled out from under the runabout's piloting console. "Hey, you okay? What's going on?"
Miko sat on the co-pilot's chair, head in her hands, and uttered, "I don't have a country anymore."
Confused, Richard asked, "What are you talking about?"
Miko said, despair creeping into her voice. "News has just reached this part of space. Our First Minister died weeks ago in some crazy attack on Federation Headquarters. Now the whole Chain is in political upheaval." She paused to suppress a hiccup.
Richard heaved himself up from his work to sit in the pilot's seat. His big hand caressed Miko's shoulder. "Oh dear. Is it true? How do they know?"
Miko nodded, weakly. "Ni'var, Starfleet Intelligence, EDF intelligence, Titan Colony, all say the same thing. The Chain broke weeks ago. The vastness of The Chain means we're only hearing about it now."
Richard was quick to add it up. "Andoria?"
She rasped. "My thavey didn't know, and he's an important man. I didn't know, and I'm an Invigilator. We're supposed to be in the know! So if he didn't know and I didn't know, what chance did the rest of my home moon have to know?"
"Probably very little." Richard said out of sympathy. "But hey, maybe that whole bounty on you won't be so bad now that there's no longer a nation-state to enforce it."
"That's no guarantee. And what of my home moon? What will happen to it? What of my clan? My mothers and fathers? My siblings? My friends?"
Richard engulfed her in a hug. She found his bulk oddly reassuring.
"If they're as spirited and tenacious as you? They'll survive."
She despaired, "The worst thing is how will I know? I'm a wanted criminal, forsaken by my own clan. Even if there's no Emerald Chain, there's still its legacy. Successor states, who knows which ones carry the legacy, which ones choose to still enforce its laws? I'm not safe anywhere near my home. I can't go back." She pulled the time crystal, recently returned by Ndoye herself, out from around her neck. "And if I could go back I can't thanks to this!" Her fist clenched around the crystal, until the knuckles went white and she felt the little stone dig into her hand.
Richard felt the little Andorian tremble, from her fist to her chest. He closed his other hand around hers, softly and subtly convincing her to lose her grip.
Richard grinned. "Chance made you take on more than most anyone I've ever known. It's an unfair burden, but I know you can handle it. And I'll help."
Weakly, Miko smiled and chuckled. "Warp or chunk."
"Bitch, please. We got drunk and karaoke'd together. We're well past warp or chunk." Richard patted her shoulder and crawled back under the pilot's console. "We'll figure out your situation after we solve the causal loop and chuck this stupid crystal into the nearest black hole. Sounds good?"
She wiped a tear from her eye. "Sounds great my friend."
"Good, and you can start by handing me the hyperspanner 'cause we're on a deadline."
Miko sighed. "Damn. Just when I was starting to like it here."
Programmable matter viewscreens over the canopy of the Ni'var scout vessel shifted a transparent surface, showing the slow-moving, blue-and-green marble to its pilot. It wasn't so green and blue now, the South China Sea was dark, ringed with the twinkling lights of civilization.
He heard rumor part of his lineage traced itself back to this sleepy little backwater, dating well beyond its slide into irrelevance. He knew the family chronicle well, passed the time waiting in orbit reviewing its digitized contents, allowing the luxury of making a game of spotting areas relevant to his family history. Omaha, home to his most distant ancestor, passed by hours ago while he remained in stationary position.
Times like this, making little games, waiting, his vessel flanked by EDF patrol ships, left him little wonder why many of his kind pursued the archaic practice of Kohlinar, the purging of emotions.
Because all the hermit planet's excuses and delays tested his patience.
If it wasn't security concerns, having dropped in unannounced, it was health and safety concerns, where they went over his vaccination records, because Earth was full of diseases his Ni'var immune system hadn't meet. Then there was the pleasantries. Earth was full of pleasantries. Greetings, well-wishes, sharing of news. He took a rapt interest when they let slip the fake Emerald Chain representative also waited, and he let slip they might be an agent from one of The Chain's many splinter states.
They were an infuriating people, but ignorant of events outside their solar system. He saw the need to trade some information in exchange for considering his requests.
That, and the Ni'var never cared for any Emerald Chain representatives. Why would their splinter states be any different?
What the gift of news from outside the Sol Sector didn't buy was an expedited entrance onto planet Earth. More procedures had to be followed, diplomatic ones, even though he explained he was no diplomat.
He was an agent of the V'Shar, the Ni'var Security Service, and he was tasked with the investigation of a potential temporal artifact.
He'd thought citing Article 23 of the Temporal Accords was enough, but the Terrans proved to be just as obstinate and thickheaded as his family chronicles claimed.
So he waited while the Terrans took their slow, inefficient time 'verifying' his claims.
He got an answer when he received a hail from the planet. He accepted the hail and saw the projection of a stern, human woman staring back at him.
Ndoye. The same human, possibly with more excuses and delays. She didn't disappoint. "Thank you for your patience, Taev Tekri of Ni'var. We apologize for the delays. We had to confer with our government to come up with a response to your allegations regarding the chroniton bursts. I've called to inform you we're currently investigating..."
Taev's patience choose to run out. He snapped, cutting off Ndoye, who was visibly agitated by his interruption. "I've had enough, Colonel Ndoye. Enough excuses, enough delays. My mission is time critical. If we don't start seeing some co-operation right now..."
It was Ndoye's turn to cut Taev off. "I understand your position, Special Agent Tekri, but this is not your jurisdiction, and because the Ni'var choose to suspend diplomatic contact with United Earth for nearly a century, we have a lot of details to discuss before we co-operate over anything. We have, however, cleared you for landing at the Hong Kong spaceport. If you'll please follow ground control's instructions..."
"Very well. We shall proceed. Taev out."
"Almost... there..." Richard grunted, the cable just millimetres too short, until it gave way and connected, lighting up the pilot's console. "GOTCHA!"
Mikolo clapped. "So we're good to go?"
Richard swung his bulk into the pilot's seat. "Got some minor stuff to repair, but we'll take care of that en-route. Seal 'er up and tell ground control we're a go for launch."
"Message sent!" Miko tapped the launch clearance button. "And good news! They're bringing the pointy-eared sneak down on the opposite side of the planet! We'll be shielded from his sensors now."
"Then let's light this candle!"
"Huh? You're seriously stretching my etymological knowledge here."
"You know, strap in and hit play on the music player. We're going into space!"
"ALRIGHT!" She stabbed the play button, blasting her new favourite track from last night.
The first thing to fly off Mary Jane's Last Dance was the awning, then the pallets that made her outdoor deck. Earth and muck squelched off the nacelles, then pressed flat and squished in a wave as the antigrav systems came online. Her nose turned away from the stacks of container homes and towards the shining midday New York City skyline, then above, towards a blue, cloudless sky.
Hoodwinking her pursuers certainly helped her forget her problems briefly.
"Hey motherfucker..." Miko sang.
"Get laid..." Richard chimed in
Both raised a finger at the launch button and stabbed it together.
"GET FUCKED!"
As the Ni'var craft lowered through clouds and into a rainy night, Taev noticed something detected on his sensors.
A chroniton emission, trailing from Earth, out into the solar system at high impulse, then warping out of the solar system to the galactic east.
Normally he wouldn't have detected a ship leaving the solar system, but with several stealth satellites seeded throughout the solar system, he extended his reach well beyond the orbital blind spot.
Breaking out of the parking course would have alerted Earth, so he was stuck touching his ship down next to the Xindi-Insectoid's vessel.
He deduced, logically, that it was Earth's plan all along to keep him busy and keep him blind to the vessel's sudden departure. It was only partially successful; he had all the sensor details he needed to track the departing vessel. But would it be enough? He was effectively trapped, possibly for a few hours more, with the locals.
At least his counterpart from the fake Emerald Chain was caught by the locals too.
"A gambit well executed." Taev shook his head and grinned.