All the Japanese with their Yen
The party boys call the Kremlin
The Chinese know (Oh-Way-Oh)
They walk along like Egyptians
All the cops in the donut shops say:
Way-oh-way-oh-way-ooh-ah-ooh...
Walk like an Egyptian
Walk like an Egyptian
– The Bangles (Walk Like an Egyptian)
=/\=
HD was rather surprised by what happened next. He had, to be sure, dreamt and thought about losing his virginity. On several occasions, truth be told.
Sometimes it would be an Orion girl who just so happened to find him irresistible. Other times, it was a Betazoid singer. They would harmonize. And then they would really harmonize. He had had crushes on a number of female teachers and musicians, and it had never gotten him anywhere.
But then! Ah, Sheilagh. He had not expected her to joke around. He had not expected her to be completely cool with his inexperience, and his eagerness, even when it threatened to kill the mood. He had not expected her to do things he had mainly conjectured at.
He woke up on the Audrey II the following morning, arms wrapped around her and feeling more content than he had in a long time. "I guess we better get under way," he said as she yawned.
"Yeah, I guess so. First, we need to watch the launch," she said.
They turned on a broadcast – it didn't really matter which one. The launch had already happened, as they had overslept. And it was the rocket going up, with the boosters flying off in both directions as the Challenger exploded.
"I guess we did it," he said, after staring at the images for a while. Pictures of the destruction were replaced with portrait images of the astronauts – Christa McAuliffe, Ellison Onizuka, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judy Resnick, Ronald McNair and Gregory Jarvis.
"Yeah, I guess we did," she said, putting her clothes back on. "That is definitely one piece of this job that I think I might never get used to."
He took her hand. "You being here, it, uh, it makes it all a lot easier for me. Let me know what I can do to, uh, if I can ever make it easier for you."
She looked him in the eye. "Just be close," she said, "be approachable."
=/\=
"Well?" It was Chip Masterson, holding a knife at Tom's throat.
"Uh, could ya'll move that away just a tiny bit? I'm afraid if I sneeze, I'll lose a liter of blood," Tom replied.
Tripp nodded at him. Chip lowered the knife slightly. "We're still waiting, Southern Man."
"My name is Thomas Grant. I'm here to get the little ship you saw – I'm here to get it back. It was stolen by a fellow named Milton Walker. He's, his group, they're called the Perfectionists. They want to fix time up the way they want it."
"Empress Hoshi is snooping around, too," Beth said, "I take it the two things aren't unrelated?"
"Can I get my PADD?" Tom asked.
Jennifer nodded and Beth gave it to him. He tapped it a few times to get it out of sleep mode. In sleep, it scrolled through a slideshow of family photographs – including Jennifer's counterpart in our universe.
"Thank you," Tom said, "now, I want ya'll to understand, I can't show you everything. I come from, well, it's a ways from now."
"What's your date of birth?" Chip demanded.
"June the seventeenth."
"Year?" Jennifer asked.
Tom sighed. "3070."
"I don't know as I believe you," Tripp said, "but go on." He had a large facial scar and it looked like he wouldn't mind going a few rounds if he needed to.
"Um, all right," Tom gulped, trying to think of just how much to reveal. "I got it. Here in 2192, the Empress is coming here in order to collect missing tribute. She's also looking for starship parts manufacturers."
"Does she find them?" Beth asked.
"I, uh …"
"Answer the lady," Chip said.
"Chip, that's probably something that can't be revealed. It'll screw with the timeline too much, I'm guessing," Lucy said. She had been hanging back but watching the exchange.
"Exactly," Tom said, "it's, uh, revealing it would be what's called pariotric. I really cannot tell you. And this PADD is only going to work on my commands. Killing me is going to make it a nice, fancy paperweight for ya'll."
"Ha, paper, as if we've seen that in decades!" Beth snorted.
"Be that as it may," Jennifer said, "tell us, because I am thinking we have common interests now, if Empress Hoshi figures out how to work that ship, she should be able to go pretty much anywhere in time, right?"
"Yes, although the very deep future is problematic. You go too far into the future, there are far too many variables. The ship can't get a lock. The past is easy. The future, not so much."
"Right," Tripp said, musing, "That makes sense. You'd have probabilities, right?" Tom nodded. "So the past is at one hundred percent and then, I am guessing, the percentages start to drop as you go later and later."
"That's correct," Tom said, "get about two millennia ahead and it's just like throwing darts at a board."
"Got it," Chip said, "but in the meantime, she could still go back and change outcomes, right? Maybe we wouldn't be able to get away with the twins," he said directly to Lucy.
"Or maybe we wouldn't be able to get away, Charles," Beth said to Tripp, "she could kill off the old man or something, and you and I would still be on the Defiant."
"No, we wouldn't be on the Defiant anymore," Tripp said, "'cause I'd be dead of radiation poisoning and you, God, you'd probably be dead, too. I gotta figure you'd've been Jun's first kill."
"The old man is Doug Beckett, right?" Tom asked.
"Doug Hayes," Jennifer corrected him.
"Oh, right. He, uh, he made it to my side of things," Tom said, "and he's a forebear of mine. And for a lotta other people, too."
"So the old man had kids, eh?" Jennifer asked, "With that blonde?"
"A few, yeah," Tom said. No sense in complicating matters by mentioning Melissa Madden's contributions to the gene pool. "Anyway, you can see why it's in my best interest, too, to get that time ship back. The way I see it, ya'll and I should be working together."
=/\=
In 3110, the Jack Finney arrived and Dan and Polly got out. He grunted at her, not wanting to talk. She shrugged. She was tired but also hungry. She did not really notice his foul mood as she made a beeline for the cafeteria.
=/\=
Sometimes you're better off dead
There's gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head
You think you're mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant in a West End town
Call the police, there's a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a West End town
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
West End girls
– Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls)