Chapter 16
"It is with some reluctance I must admit that Doctor Traze's… unconventional methods are effective," Dr. T'Ling said begrudgingly as she ran a scanner over North, who lay in an Infirmary bed. "However, you will still require additional treatment to fully recover from your injuries, Commodore."
"I'm just grateful for the lie-down," North said.
T'Ling closed her scanner. "I can also confirm that the neural parasites you were injected with are all deceased, and their damage was minimal. The humanoid brain is remarkably resilient, even in Humans, and yours has already begun to heal itself. The parasites should pass out of you naturally within two to three days."
North winced and tried not to think about that, thanking the doctor before she left him and Ambassador Mamao'lani alone in the private room.
"Well, I'm glad you're back in one piece," Mamao'lani said, squeezing North's shoulder. "I was worried about you."
North reached up and took Mamao'lani's hand. "And I'm glad I had someone to come back to."
Both men smiled at each other a moment before the door opened again.
It was Borr, also looking much more cheerful. "Commodore. Hope I'm not intruding."
"Not at all, come in," said North, sitting up. "Daniel, this is Borr, the fellow who helped rescue me."
Mamao'lani beamed. "Ah, then we owe you a huge debt! Thank you, Mister Borr, thank you!" He furiously shook the young Arboreal's furry hand.
Borr smirked. "Well, I wanted to show that not all Xindi are like those rebels."
"Indeed not," said Mamao'lani. "In fact, I heard through diplomatic channels that the Xindi Council plans to deliver a public statement later, condemning Zarah's group, to be delivered by the Reptilian councillor."
"Then maybe people will see we don't all hate Humans," said Borr.
"No. In fact, you're welcome to stay here among us as long as you like," said North.
"Thank you, Commodore, but I should be returning to my home colony. To my work. Actually, I was going to request some help in getting back…"
"Of course," said North. "Unfortunately, there aren't regular Earth ships heading out to Xindi space, but I'm sure that, with Daniel's political connections, he can secure you transport on another vessel."
"Certainly, certainly!" said Mamao'lani. "As I said, we owe you. It's the least I can do."
Borr nodded. "I'd appreciate that."
North smiled. "Now that Humans are part of an interspecies alliance in the United Federation of Planets, much like the Xindi themselves, maybe relations between our two peoples will improve."
The Arboreal chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't expect us to join your Federation anytime soon, if I were you."
"If there's one thing I've learned from this experience, Borr, it's that we never can tell what tomorrow holds."
"Good to have you back, Commodore," Thorpe greeted North upon his return to Ops.
North grinned as most of his senior staff were assembled at the back of the room, and there were similar expressions all around. He was back in the new uniform along with the rest of them – as a flag officer, his had additional gold trim across the chest. He shuffled up to the others, still with some difficulty, as it was only the day after his triumphant return.
"Happy to be back, Thorpe. And thank you all for your efforts. Even in my moments of despair, I knew I could count on my crew." He gave them all a prideful look.
"Message received for you from Earth, sir," Thorpe said. "It's from Admiral Archer, thanking you for thwarting the plot against him. Says he owes you one."
Archer, and a few other high-ups at Starfleet Command, were the only people who knew the full story of North's report, as the Temporal Cold War was still highly classified. All that his own crew knew was that the Reptilians had pretended to be 31st century Humans, allegedly trying to prevent an impending attack on Earth in the present, and thus required defence codes.
"Always handy to have people in high places owe you a favour." North chuckled, then spoke to Kostopoulos. "Captain, a word?"
He led Kostopoulos into his office, both of them taking a seat either side of his desk – the genuine article this time, faded serial number and all. He absently rubbed it, just to make sure.
"How are the repairs to Excalibur coming along?" he asked.
"Slowly but surely, sir," Kostopoulos said. "We took a bit of a beating. And we still need to synchronise the warp field with the deflector array."
North nodded. "I wanted to thank you personally for your rescue effort, Captain. It can't have been easy to be thrown in the deep end like that."
She sighed. "I have to admit, starship command is tougher than I expected. Space combat is a lot different from ground combat. And I think I may have made a terrible first impression on my crew."
"Plenty of time to make up for it," North said with a knowing smile. "And you performed exemplary. Things will only get easier from here, I promise you."
He turned to look out the window behind him, watching the two suns crest over the mountains into a new dawn.
"Yes, Captain, I feel assured that the future – the real future – is in safe hands."
Epilogue
Federation Temporal Agency Headquarters
London Megacity
West Eurasia
Earth
November 8th, 3049
Temporal Agent Timot Danlen shut down the swirling, holographically-projected images of the timeline, content that no further work was required, and once again stood in a bare white chamber.
Tapping an unseen control on his black suit sleeve, he opened the report on the case he was just investigating directly onto his corneas and mentally updated it with what he had learned. He always liked to sign off more personally though, so he activated the audio-textual recording function.
"Negative incident, indigenous activity only. No intervention required. Case closed."
With a wave of his hand, he filed the report and transmitted it to the central dataplex. He was almost disappointed that he wouldn't need to travel to the 22nd century again. The months he'd spent living there as "Crewman Daniels" on the Enterprise crew, as well as subsequent interventions, had endeared him to the era. Even if he had missed modern conveniences, such as instant beaming, 3D interfaces, and internal communicators. There was just something about flipping open a handheld communicator that he missed though…
Danlen smiled to himself at the memories as he exited the chamber and ran into fellow agent Jena Noi in the corridor.
"Danlen," she called, pleasantly surprised. "Were you just in the Temporal Observatory?"
"I was," he said. "But don't worry, it was a false alarm."
"What happened?" she asked as they both started walking off together through the vast headquarters building.
"The archaeohistorians found a fragment of a record dating from temporal coordinates alpha-zero-point-zero-two by tau-nine-point-four-seven by zeta-one-point-eight-eight which indicated a possible TCW incident. Native lifeform abducted by uptime group to aid in the war effort."
"September 2161, local calendar," Noi translated the coordinates. "So soon into the Federation Era."
Danlen nodded. "That's why we were concerned. But I took a closer look, found some more contemporary records. Turns out Zachary North was kidnapped by an indigenous group of rogue Xindi pulling a Rasmussen."
"Pretending to be from the future." Noi shook her head. "Like we don't have enough to do without running after hoaxes."
"I know, but everything must be investigated."
"Zachary North… first commander of Starbase One, right? The original Starbase One?"
"Actually, the original was destroyed at the start of the First Earth-Romulus War. North's was the second. No major temporal incidents though; that's why we haven't had any dealings with them."
Noi nodded. The 22nd century was more Danlen's area of expertise, due to his relatively Human appearance. Noi's exotic mix of alien features made it more difficult for her to go undercover in a less diverse time in the galaxy.
"Well," said Noi, "they may not have had any major temporal incidents, but from what I remember from history class, they still had plenty of excitement."
"Oh yes," said Danlen with a grin as they rounded a corner. "In fact, back in September 2161, the excitement was just beginning for Starbase One…"