Disclaimer: Paramount owns the universe and all the regular characters, I just play here.
4. Learning what happened.
After they'd eaten several of the street people gathered around. One of them, a man called Elah, surprised them by asking, "That you are here, does that mean they're trying to use transporters again, in the future?"
"Transporters?" Chakotay asked, astonished.
"You didn't come here by transporter?" Elah asked. "I know you aren't from here, we figured you'd be from the future. Your clothes, the way you look, it made sense."
"You have transporters to travel through time?" Chakotay asked.
"No, no." Elah said. "Or, they weren't intended to. That's why they stopped using them, fifty years ago."
The Voyager officers listened closely, now. Chakotay didn't want to give these people too much information as to where they came from. Still, this information could be vital to their return to their own time.
"So you tried to use these transporters to cross distance, but you travelled through time, instead?"
Elah nodded. "Yes. Or, both, rather. They did get to the place they tried to transport to, but they travelled through time, as well. From what we learn about it in our schools, they figured it was something in the atmosphere that caused time travel as a side-effect. They didn't find any way to eliminate the time shift, so they finally canned the project."
"Are any of these transporters still around?" Chakotay asked.
Elah nodded again. "They've got one in the Museum of Science and Technology. But it doesn't work anymore."
He looked at them. "Why are you so interested, if you didn't come here from the future?"
Chakotay thought hard of something to say. But he was taken by surprise again. A woman who'd been quiet up till now, sitting a little back from the others and not even introducing herself as the others had, spoke up.
"You're from the past." She lapsed into silence again, but Elah had caught on.
"Of course. If you'd been from the future, you would've known all this," he said.
There was no use denying it.
"If these transporters can take someone into the past, perhaps we can use them to get back," Kim said.
"How far into the past did these transporters take your people?" Chakotay asked.
"Not far. A few hours, days at the most," Elah answered.
That wasn't nearly enough. Still, Chakotay wanted to see this technology. He asked Elah.
"Is there any way we can get a look at this transporter?"
"Sure," Elah answered. "The museum is open every day. You could see it there, but as I said, they took it off-line. They won't let you touch it or anything."
Chakotay hadn't expected they would. But with his tricorder, he didn't have to touch it. He could take readings just being in the room with it. He would go over there tomorrow. Now, they needed to get some rest.
"We have much to do tomorrow. Let's try to get some sleep," he suggested.
Leena and Kim agreed. They had quite a few questions, but with all of the street people gathered around them, they could not talk freely. They didn't want to give away even more about their origins.
Set showed them where they could sleep.
"Commander, do you want to set a watch?" Kim asked.
Chakotay considered. He'd thought about that, too.
"You don't have to worry about ocs, here," Set said.
"That's the second time you use that, what are ocs?" Chakotay asked him.
"Outcasts, from other cities," Set explained. "There's places like our Pass everywhere. We live on the streets, making money by doing odd jobs, selling things we make, making music like you do. Some of us make money in less honest ways. What people do outside, we do not care. But we need a place to sleep, and eat, and we need to feel safe here. No one here will steal from other street people. Anyone who breaks that code is cast out of any of these places. They become outcasts, and when they have no place to go, they move to another city. But they won't come here. There's always someone awake, and no stranger comes in alone."
The Voyager officers nodded. It made sense. Still, they slept with their phasers and tricorders near at hand.
The next morning they rose early. Not many people were up, just two men who talked quietly near one of the two fires that were still going. They sat down around the other fire, where they could talk.
"I'm going to have a look at that transporter today," Chakotay said. He'd thought about the various options. Leena had to go sing and make money, that was certain. He would've liked to take Ensign Kim along to the museum, but he did not want Leena to go off on her own. He'd also considered sending Harry to the museum alone, but although the young ensign was very bright, he lacked experience, and could easily run into trouble if he was caught gathering the information they needed.
"Ensign Kim, I want you and Leena to go to the Promenade and earn money again. I will go to the museum as soon as we have enough to get in. I'll get tricorder readings and as much additional information as I can. I might be back late, so get food before you leave, and we'll meet back here, tonight."
Kim and Leena nodded. They ate a breakfast of bread and left-over stew, and as the stores opened, Leena was back at her post.
After a few minutes, Elah showed up. He went over to Chakotay.
"You planning to get a look at that transporter today?"
Chakotay nodded.
"Let me come with you," Elah said. Chakotay looked at him.
"You'll never get near it without someone to distract the museum guards," Elah explained.
"I thought you said it didn't work anymore," Chakotay said.
"It doesn't, but that doesn't mean they'll let you get really close, and it'll attract attention if you show too much interest in it. Besides, it's quite a walk, I brought you a coat."
Chakotay gave in. He'd have to hide his tricorder from Elah, but he'd have had to hide what he was doing from any museum guards, anyhow, and Elah would be distracted himself while distracting the guards.
The passers-by were in more of a hurry at this time of the day, on their way to work or school, and didn't stop to listen to Leena, but they did notice the alien music. Soon Chakotay and Elah were on their way to the museum.
Leena kept singing. After a while, Kim walked off to look around. The instruments the stores carried were expensive, but he found an ingeniously made clay flute one of the street people sold elsewhere on the Promenade. He tried it out and found it well to his liking. It wasn't like having his clarinet here, but it would do. He bought it, and soon he was playing along with Leena.
As the day progressed, the people who walked by took more time to listen. When they stopped that night they had quite a few bac left, after buying their food.
"We can sleep at the shelter, tonight," Kim suggested.
Leena shook her head. "The Pass isn't that bad, and I think we'll need the money if we want to get back to Voyager. I'm eager to see what the Commander learned at the museum, but I doubt it'll be the last trip."
Kim nodded.
Chakotay had followed Elah to the museum. He was glad for the coat -it was a long walk, and it was still snowing.
Not surprisingly, the guard at the door wanted to see their money before even letting them into the hall with the ticket counter.
Once inside, Chakotay took his time. He did not want to be too obvious about his interest in the transporter, and he took the opportunity to collect some information on the other technologies of this planet, which might also be of help in understanding the workings of the transporter. He held his tricorder underneath his coat, taking readings as he could. When he needed close-ups, Elah watched for the guards.
Finally, he made his way toward the transporter. It was on the far end of a large room, and looked surprisingly similar to the earlier models of Federation transporters. Here, he definitely wanted to take some detailed readings. He told Elah so, and the alien nodded.
"I'll keep him occupied." Elah said, glancing in the direction of the guard. He walked over, and asked the man a question about a piece of equipment in the next room. Chakotay listened just enough to know that the guard was still busy, but he did notice Elah asking deeper questions, displaying quite a bit of knowledge of these technologies.
He quickly took his readings, and as he had collected all the information he could, they left. It was still mid-afternoon.
Chakotay considered going back to the Promenade, to see how Leena and Kim were doing, but he knew that there, with all the people, he would have no chance to go over the readings he had on his tricorder. He went back to the Pass with Elah.