Chapter Thirteen
Amber continued to take readings, trying to figure out what the hell just happed as Halee ran up to the spot where James had disappeared before her eyes. Just then, all the main lights in the corridor flickered to life as main power came back online, and Halee's com-badge chirped.
"Valco here." Halee said, still sounding stunned by what just transpired.
"Halee? Where's James?" Hatoko asked, a tone of worry creeping into her voice.
"Hatoko, James just disappeared right in front of us, are the turbo lifts functioning now?" Amber asked.
"Yes they are."
"Good, I think you should get up here right away, we detected a device that might have caused this, I'll report this to the Captain." Amber said in a commanding tone, but still unsettled by the disappearance of her friend
"Ok, we're on our way. Hatoko out."
"So you're saying that he just disappeared after the tachyon readings you detected spiked?" The captain asked. He was standing in the middle of the bridge looking at the main viewer at an image of three of his senior officers on the bridge of the Antarctic.
"Yes sir, and the device we found, it's of obvious alien design. Commander Kobayashi thinks that it's some kind of tachyon pulse generator. It builds up power until it discharges, much like an old fashioned capacitor. It sends out a tachyon wave that could do a number of things." Amber explained.
"Like what?" Jon inquired.
"Until I test it, I don't know; it could be some sort of time travel device, or something completely different. Until I understand it better, I can't think of a way to get James, I mean Commander Soul back."
"Do we have any idea what happened to the crew of the Antarctic?"
"We've only found one corpse so far sir, and judging by the state it was in, I'd say the crew we're attacked and boarded by an unknown alien species. The body we found had a severed arm grasping its ankle, and she was desperately trying to get away from it." Halee answered. "We'll know more once we've transferred the ships logs to the Divination for analysis."
"Maybe they will shed some more light on just what happened, and a way to bring back the Commander. Once the logs are transferred over, beam the body you found to sickbay and return to the ship. Divination out." He ordered and sat down in his chair letting out a small sigh of frustration. What the hell is going on here? He thought to himself.
"Amanda? What the hell… ahh… my head…" James said as he grabbed his head and doubling over in pain.
"James! What's wrong?" Amanda screamed as she ran to his side just as he passed out. She quickly tapped her comm-badge. "Harrison to Sickbay, medical emergency, deck twelve. Hold on James, I'll get you help."
"I didn't believe it when I was told, but now that I'm here…" Captain Robert Matthews said. "Where's the Major now?" He asked
"Major Soul is in his quarters, sir." Amanda responded. "Captain, he just appeared behind me, looking completely lost, he looked at me, turned three shades of white, and then collapsed on the floor." Marine Captain Amanda Harrison reported to her commanding officer.
"What's his condition doctor?" Robert asked.
"Judging from DNA scans, he is James Soul, but a few years older. I believe the reason he passed out was due to radiation poisoning. His body was saturated with tachyon radiation when he got in here, but it's since dissipated. Right now he's just sleeping and it perfect health." The doctor reported.
"Good. You're excused Doctor, and make no note of this in your logs as per the Temporal Prime Directive, instruct your medical staff to do the same." Captain Matthews ordered.
"Aye sir." The doctor nodded and left sick bay. Robert walked up to the side of the bio-bed.
"'Commander' Soul. Wake up." He said calmly.
James began to open his eyes, his vision was blurred but he could make out two people standing over him. When his vision cleared, he made out Amanda's face and a smile went across his face involuntarily, and her face turned a very light shade of red. It was then that he sat straight up.
"Whoa, slow down, you'll pass out again." Amanda said putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Maj… I mean 'Commander' Soul; do you know where you are?" The Captain asked.
James looked around and immediately recognized his surroundings. "This is the medical bay on the Majestic. This makes no sense, last minute I was walking down the corridor on the Antarctic, I heard Amber yell something out, then I was here." James explained. Amanda's eye's perked up when she heard the name of their friend.
"Do you know what year it is?" Robert said, asking another question.
"2381." James said with out hesitation.
"I guess that explains the uniform. James, I think you've traveled back in time two years. The year is 2379." Amanda said.
"What month is it?" James asked, rubbing his left temple.
"What for?" Robert asked, sounding a bit confused.
"What month is it?" James asked again.
"It's March 8th." Amanda finally answered.
"Two months till…" James said, stopping in mid sentence and biting his lower lip.
"James, if you know anything that could alter the time line worse then it already is by you just being here, you're under orders to keep it to yourself." Roberts said, cutting in.
"Aye sir. I will." James responded.
"Now commander, how did you get here?"
James scratched the back of his head and began to report how he got here to the best of his knowledge.
"You don't do anything small do you?" Amanda joked. James' expression became slightly depressed. It was taking almost every ounce of his self control not to just blurt out how she died so that he can prevent it.
"So an alien device is how you got here? I don't suppose you know how to get back do you, because we can't really drop everything and head to Yaxanaar. We are in the middle of a war."
"No sir, I know I can't ask you to do that." James responded, now realizing that he might never get back to his own time, and that he might have to relive the next two years of his life.
"James, I'll get the science staff working on this, we'll give it our best." Robert said, putting his hand on James' shoulder, who was now looking blankly at the bulkhead in front of him. "We're on our way to Star base 82 for re-sup…"
"What time is it?" James said, cutting Robert off.
"It's 1735, why?" Robert asked. James gave him a cold stare in response. Robert nodded and tapped his comm-badge.
"Red alert, all hands to battle stations!" Robert commanded as he ran out the door.
"You better get to your station, Magic." James said, calling her by the short form of her sign, "Black Magic Woman". She got it in the academy because she had a thing for mid-twentieth century rock music
"You and I need to talk." She said, concern showing through her voice.
"Later, now get to your station, Captain." James said getting off the bio bed. As soon as he got off, he had to brace himself as the ship rocked violently as the medical staff started flooding into the large sick-bay. Amanda was already out the door.
"James, I don't know where you're supposed to go, but you can't stay here." The chief medical officer said, noticing that he was still here. James knew that the good Doctor was going to get a lot of casualties today. If his memory served him correctly, the Majestic was doing its best to fend off four Jem'Hadar raiders alone. They'd make it through, but not before loosing a lot of good people. James always wondered how the Captain was able to get the ship battle ready just in time, now he knew why. James walked out of the sick-bay and out into the corridor. He braced himself up against the wall as an engineering detail ran past him. He stopped and opened up a nearby weapons locker, armed himself and headed to the only place he knew where he wouldn't be noticed, least for a little while, the mess hall. James knew what was going to happen as he charged the power cell on the phaser rifle he just grabbed.
Amanda ran out of the locker room and onto the flight deck after getting into her flight suit as fast as she could. The ship rocked hard and she lost her footing, her helmet falling out of her hand and rolled across the floor. Back on her feet she went to pick it up, but someone beat her too it.
"You alright?" A slightly younger James Soul asked, handing her the helmet she dropped.
"F-fine sir, lets get going." She stammered. She started to climb the ladder of her fighter and slid into her cockpit. Quickly running through the start up sequences, the sleek fighter powered to life as James' voice came over the comm system in her fighter.
"Alright Knights, basic defence routine beta, split into your wing man teams and take your targets. Aim for shield impacts from the Majestic's weapons. Let's kick some ass, Hoo-rah!"
Ten other 'hoo-rah's sounded over the comm as the Black Knights roared out of their hanger bay, Amanda closed up on James' six, taking his lead and headed for the nearest raider and they both started to fire volleys from their pulse phaser cannons.
Taking the lead of the fighters, the Majestic started to pound the raiders with phaser fire. Orange light flashed across Amanda's face as a phaser blast raked across the shields of the raider they were pursuing.
"Magic, let's give them the jackhammer. On three!" James suggested. "Three!"
With almost instantaneous reflexes, both James and Amanda's fighters started barrelling down on the raider, twirling down in perfect unison with an almost beauty to it, pounding the raiders shields with pulse phaser fire and launching two torpedoes at the last second before splitting up and getting way as the raiders hull splintered then exploded in a blazing ball of fire and debris.
"Woo! Majestic, scratch one raider." James reported in triumphantly.
"Good job Knight one, keep it up, they just knocked our shields down and sent boarding parties, take those raiders out!" came the voice of the Majestic's operations officer.
"Alright Knights, you heard the man, lets take it too them!" James ordered.
"All hands, prepare to repel boarders!" Thundered over the ships intercom as the intruder alert klaxon started to blare, and just as James remembered, a group of five Jem'Hadar beamed into the empty mess hall. Before they even finished materialized, James tipped over a table and began to open fire. Hearing the phaser fire from the corridor, three security officer bolted into the room, one of them took a blast to the chest and crumpled to the floor, his eyes glassed over with death. With the help of the other two, we easily dispatched the other Jem'Hadar.
"Major, what are you doing here?" One of the security officers asked, confused as hell.
"It's Commander, but never mind that, just follow me." James ordered as he grabbed a knife off one of the dead Jem'Hadar and slid it into his boot.
"Yes sir!" both officers said at once. James looked out the window at the raging battle outside as fighters zipped in every direction. He approached the door on the opposite side of the mess hall and hit the door control to open it and poked his head out. The corridor was empty so he motioned to the men behind him to head out. They proceeded down the corridor and stopped at the next intersection. James poked his head around the corner and saw three Jem'Hadar firing at a group of Marines; one of them noticed James and his group and started to turn as James opened fire. Two well aimed shots to its mid-section put him down. This distraction allowed the Marines to take out the other two.
"Thanks for helping us out… Major?" One of the marines said.
"Don't worry about it Gunnery Sergeant, I'll explain later, we got a job to do. How many more are there on this deck?"
"Alpha squad and Security Team two just reported that this deck is clear, but there are reports of a heavy fire fight in engineering."
"Then we head there; tell Alpha squad and team two to head there, if we don't help them out, this ships done for." James ordered with out hesitation.
"Yes sir!" the gunny sergeant said tapping his comm-badge. "Alpha squad, sec. team two, head to engineering and engage the enemy."
James and the rest of the group, now numbering seven, headed for the turbo lift.