Short 5 - Nemesis of the Timeline

A return visit to Bajor had not gone according to plan.

Apparently, some friends of ours were waiting, and waiting with heavy firepower. Phaser fire erupted over our heads as the girls and I ducked into an empty building space in one of the smaller Bajoran cities. "Oi, come on, we're just visiting!", I called out over our cover. I looked over to see Janias gripping her lightsaber. But I knew her martial training as a Jedi had been very short; she wasn't up to facing the force aligned against us.

"Attention, I'm speaking to the being known as the Doctor!," I heard a voice call out over a megaphone of some sort. "We have you surrounded! Surrender immediately!"

Camilla peeked over the barrier. "Doctor, can't you remote control the TARDIS?"

"I've tried," I said, my hand still in my pocket around the remote. "Oh, clever. Quantum isolation field. Probably a field application of the technology they use to protect their records from timeline alteration."

"Just who are these people anyway?", Janias asked.

"Federation Department of Temporal Investigations," I answered. "Timecops. Really stodgy about playing with time travel. They don't much like me."

"Last warning, Doctor," a second voice warned.

"Seriously, Lucsly, I'm going to the magistrate for a restraining order!", I retorted. "We're not even on bloody Federation territory!"

In the distance I heard Agent Dulmur say, "He's got us there."

"He's too dangerous to let him get away," Lucsly insisted. "We have to bring him in. I'll let the Director handle the politics."

I drew in a sigh. Lucsly was a very by-the-books orderly time agent, arguably the best of the age... but he seemed to turn red with anger whenever I entered the mix.

"Doctor, how are we going to get out of this?", Janias asked.

"Let me think, let me..."

I heard the familiar chime of Federation transporters. We peeked up over the wall again and I noticed armed Starfleet and Bajoran officers had joined the DTI agents. Bloody great, this is really turning out...

And then I noticed just who was leading them.

So had Lucsly and Dulmur. "Captain Sisko."

"Gentlemen. This is my first officer, Major Kira Nerys."

"We didn't need the backup, but it's good to know Starfleet's backing us on bringing the Doctor in," Dulmur said, motioning our way.

At that point I was just about ready to seriously consider my long future in a New Zealand penal colony, or wherever they stuck me as a dangerous "time criminal".

"You're not taking him anywhere," I heard Nerys say. "Captain Sisko is here by request of the Bajoran Militia. We demand that you shut down this illegal operation immediately."

There was a tense silence. "What?" I could hear anger bubbling in Lucsly's voice.

"The Bajoran Government considers the Doctor a valuable expert on temporal issues," Nerys continued. "You are violating Bajoran territory and attacking an ally..."

"He's no one's ally," Dulmur retorted.

"He's bamboozled you, Major, you and your entire government. He's a madman, a menace to the stability of TIme itself...!"

"Oi, I can hear you!" I stood over the cover we'd found at the building front. Dulmur was clearly incensed, but I thought Lucsly looked to be on the verge of a stroke. "I'd ask you what I'd done that you're getting ready to throw a punch at the Major, Lucsly, but that might muck up my timestream."

"I don't need to tell you specifics to know what you are," Lucsly retorted. "You're a rogue time traveler who treats the timeline like his own personal plaything."

At that point I figured that at some time in the past I had been motivated to meddle a bit with local affairs and a younger Lucsly had gotten involved. The anger and bile I saw in him was real and it was cracking his usual demeanor of strict reason and unemotional presentation. "Well, I don't deny I have to tidy it up a bit here and there, but I prefer to keep the timeline intact."

"Gentlemen." Sisko's voice cut through the argument. "Agent, your Director can file a complaint, but as the senior Starfleet officer on station I'm under orders to protect Bajoran territory from foreign incursion. The DTI acted without government support when you launched this operation. I'm afraid I must require you to return to your ship."

"At least let us take his time machine so he's not a threat anymore," Dulmur asked.

"Request denied," Nerys answered. "You've got ten seconds to get off Bajor or I have the authority to throw you all into the stockade."

And then, of course, she started counting. Rather dramatic. I like to think I taught her that.

The DTI agents all looked to Dulmur and Lucsly. The latter was struck dumb with pure rage, his face beginning to turn purple. It fell upon his partner to, after Nerys reached six, press his communicator and order them all beamed up.

As he did so, my eyes met Lucsly's. And I could see his fingers twitching. He was getting ready to draw his weapon and fire anyway. "Whatever happened, Agent, I acted in the best of intentions," I said.

"You think you have the right to decide what should happen in the timeline," Lucsly countered. "I'll never accept that. One of these days I will take you down."

Before I could answer, he disappeared in a transporter field.

I held the TARDIS control and was reassured to hear a repeated VWORP behind me. With my TARDIS back in hand I walked up to Sisko and Nerys while the girls, with another rest ruined, headed back into the TARDIS. "Thank you. I just came to enjoy the local festival and I had those blokes shooting at me out of the blue."

"Don't mention it, Doctor," Nerys said. "I'll give my report to First Minister Shakaar, sir."

"Go ahead, Major," Sisko answered.

She nodded, flashed me a smile, and walked off. That left me with Sisko. The Sisko and the Doctor... but of course, I was the one facing the real intimidation. "I liked the bat," Sisko finally said.

"Thank you, Captain. I hope Lieutenant Dax enjoyed her books."

"Lieutenant Commander Dax did." Sisko kept his gaze on me. It was, suffice to say, most disconcerting. "So what next?"

"Oh, might as well stay for the festival." I extended a hand. "Nice meeting you, Captain Sisko."

"Try to stay out of trouble, Doctor." There was a bit of warning in that smile.

I gave a nod and returned to the TARDIS, to move it and join the celebrations being held elsewhere.

"Why does this Lucsly guy keep coming after you?", Janias asked, incredulous. "Risa, Trill, now here! We can't even enjoy ourselves without getting that guy on our tail."

"Agent Lucsly is a very devoted man who believes the timeline must never be altered or changed. You might say it's a religious issue for him." I went to the controls. "Okay everyone, moving us to a new parking spot. They're going to have dancing very soon and I feel the need to cut loose."

"Oh no," Camilla gasped in horror. "Doctor, you can't dance!"

"Practice makes perfect!", I responded.

"And it makes the rest of us blind," Janias retorted.

It was good to have camaraderie like that because I was unsettled. I hadn't done much in this cosmos so it let me to wonder why the DTI was so determined to arrest me. Especially the way Lucsly was acting. The man could compete with Phineas Fogg for the orderliness of his life and adherence to time, yet he had been almost rabid when it came to me. Just what had driven him to that opinion of me?

I'd find out eventually. A story for another time.