Unscrupulous

Chapter 16

Pavel was appalled as he watched the destruction of the Romulan home world on the remote cameras that had been attached to the newly repaired doomsday machine. It was obvious to him that Riley had been unsuccessful at repairing the time line by retrieving the stolen items. Chapel was still not on board, and nobody had even heard of her. He had not heard a peep out of Mr. Seven or out of Riley, which was beginning to worry him. Never before had he lost contact with the supervisor for so long and he was wondering what was going on. He was beginning to realize that it was entirely possible that he would be stuck in this awful time line for the rest of his career and quite possibly for the rest of his life. However, right now, he had to concentrate on his job as chief navigator of the Enterprise. Chekov always thought that General Order Twenty-Four was a bad idea, for it meant the destruction of innocent lives as well as the guilty. It was a totally barbaric way to dispose of their enemies. He could not talk his captain out of it, but even now he was beginning to suspect that even Kirk was starting to regret this act. Also, soon after the Romulan home world had been reduced to rubble, the cameras and the sensors shut down, obviously fried by the amount of power needed to obliterate an entire planet. He could feel the tension increasing on the bridge as Uhura tried to re-establish contact with the device. They were all beginning to suspect that the cloaking device Kang helped them install had failed as well, and the surviving Romulans in neighboring star systems would soon find out that it was they who attacked them. Worse yet was the fact they no longer had any means of control or retrieval of the device. It could be anywhere by now, with a new lease on life, continuing it's relentless journey by destroying planetary bodies for fuel. Also, for Starfleet to enter Romulan space would make them instant targets for retaliation.

Riley and Roberta materialized without incident in the foyer of Sean Junior's mansion. They discovered Cedric the butler cowering in a corner by the entrance, looking quite frightened. He did not know what to make of what he was seeing and looked to them for an explanation. He had been unable to reach Sean Junior because of some sort of force field. The young astronaut appeared to be frozen in time, seated at the instruments of his spaceship, a strange swirling hexagonal shape surrounding him. When Riley and Roberta followed Cedric's gaze, they could not see the living room furnishings, for they were obliterated by the strange sight. Roberta finally spoke.

"Riley...that shape looks like the one you said was on top of Saturn, but you said it had five sides, not six."

"I must have miscounted, but come to think of it, you might be right. Seven did say that this might be a construct of the Q and that it was not a natural phenomenon. Don't be scared, sir." He said to the butler. "It won't hurt you and neither will we. This looks like some kind of time distortion. Something or someone is holding Sean here for some reason….only, from the looks of it, he's not really here but still on his spaceship."

"Why would they do that?" Roberta wondered, looking puzzled. "It's not his fault that his grandfather and Rasmussen stole those items."

"Who are you people?" Cedric asked. "How did you get past security and how did you suddenly appear out of nowhere? What do you want?"

"We are from a secret government organization that tracks and polices extraterrestrial activities here on planet Earth, sir. How we got here is not important. My name is Riley and this is Roberta. We are here to retrieve some stolen items from the future that have come in the possession of Mr. Christopher." He flipped open his communicator. "Agent 152 to Supervisor 194. Please respond, sir."

They heard nothing but static.

"Something must be interfering with the signal." Roberta guessed intelligently. "Maybe it's that vortex that's surrounding Sean."

"Hm. It could also be the reason why we lost contact with Chekov."

Roberta nodded in agreement.

"Who the hell is Chekov?" Cedric asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Are you really Russian spies?"

"I thought that crap ended with the nineteen sixties Cold War, sir. Chekov is a friend of ours and fellow MIB agent from the twenty-third century. Sean's grandfather and another man had pilfered some technology that humanity wasn't meant to have in the latter part of the twentieth century that is from the future. We are here to get it back so no more damage is done to the time line."

"I saw Master Christopher fiddling with a silver box earlier." Cedric said, calming himself. "Could that have the items you are looking for?"

"Possibly, sir. Could you let us see the box?"

"Of course. It's in the closet in the foyer. I will get it for you."

Cedric watched now with interest as the two strangers opened the box with apparent ease, using some kind of tool that resembled a ball point pen. He had been instructed never to attempt to open it, but to store it in a safe place where no one would think to look. He knew some kind of combination was usually needed to open it and was now beginning to believe their outlandish story about being MIB agents as he saw the futuristic contents. Riley smiled as he picked up the tricorder and they looked relieved when they discovered that these were the real items and not the toy replicas.

"Sir, we must take these items with us. They don't belong in the twenty-first century." Riley addressed the butler. "Maybe when we do, whoever or whatever is holding Sean will let him go. If we take the items with us, there will be no reason why he should be frozen is suspended animation like this...unless it actually is a natural phenomenon."

"We should get out of that distortion's range so we can contact Mr. Seven, Mr. Riley."

"Agreed, Roberta."

"How do you know what that thing's range is, Mr. Riley?"

"We can take a guess, Cedric."

"How do you know my name? We have never met before."

"Supervisor 194 told us. Let's go on the front lawn and see if we can contact Seven there."

"This I'd like to see." Cedric said, now with a slight smile on his face. From the look on his face now, he had finally recognized their names from a hundred year old science fiction television show. He followed them out on the front lawn by a water fountain. Riley flipped open his communicator and tried again.

There was a sudden flash of light. Roberta knew almost right away who it was. She stared at the Q, who was dressed in a twenty-fourth century Starfleet uniform with four pips on his collar. However, he was not the Q who had become her friend in the past.

"You are both too late. Jackson Roykirk was given blueprints of the items and has already developed the advanced technology."

"So what's the use of holding him in that strange vortex?"

"He simply got too close to the event horizon. It is a time distortion, as you guessed. I made it so I could distract humanity so you wouldn't move too far into space. I can move his ship so he isn't stuck anymore. However, the time line will remain as it is."