North Atlantic Ocean - 1916 (Three days into Time Stasis)
They flew past frozen waves and iceberg clouds, not even the rush of wind to keep them company as their speed was kept to a glacial pace to avoid overtaxing the time drive as it probed through the negative tachyon field. Even the skies and the seas were as empty as the promises of lowered sentences for good behaviour. The Legends knew that Jurgens would be slamming their cell doors if he could. But Arvind had pointed out that it was in their mutual best interests to cooperate and suggested loosening the restraints on all except Astra and Gary. Jurgens had begrudgingly complied, if only because Gideon and Behrad were his best chance of figuring out what the CessÅ Protocol was.
A couple of the more gung-ho cops eventually approached Behrad in the galley with a friendly air, insisting that they only wanted a quiet word to hear the unfiltered nature of what the Legends got up to, warts and all.
"So," One grinned after enough time had passed for them to no longer be strangers. "Any chance you've got a stash somewhere on this ship?"
"What!" Behrad freaked. The Waverider might have been brought back but he'd left the habit far behind.
"Hey, it's cool." Buddy One nudged Buddy Two. "It's legal where we're from. Totally pure too, no aftereffects."
"I said no!" He tried to push past them only for a friendly hand to push him back.
"We're not trying to get on your bad side," Good Cop explained. "Just trying to pass the anti-time." He smirked as if it were the funniest joke in the world.
"Besides," Bad Cop stepped in. "Wouldn't it help to have a couple of character witnesses for your trial?"
"Ah, crud." Behrad whimpered at what was coming.
"B said no," Astra might have cuffs on her magic but she hadn't learned spellcraft until after surviving Hell.
"And no means no." Zari looked as refined and fragile as a crystal flower. "So back off."
Dumb and Dumber were eventually patched up. Behrad had been doing his laundry and Zari had been tending to Astras ruined manicure so nobody could figure out who was involved in the fight.
"Dude, I get that you're pissed we're not locked up," Spooner took a deep breath and tried her best not to react impulsively. "But I'm just trying to use the microwave."
"And your captain said you made a gun out of the last one." Microwaves were hideously unsafe to tamper with. Maybe that was how she'd ended up with such a kick from the rifle. "I'm not letting you anywhere near it."
"Perhaps I would be an acceptable intermediary?" Gideon stepped in, on a rare break from monitoring scanners and reading computer files. "I can make Captain Cruz's popcorn for her and return the bowl."
"Not a chance, Computer Girl." He spat the title with enough venom for Spooner to recognise the slur for what it was.
"Gideon, I've told you," She carefully took a hand and placed the packet in it with a smile. "Call me Spooner."
Across the galley, a very different interaction was taking place. "How about a game of cards?" Gary smiled winsomely at the time cop who reminded the Legends of the absent Mick Rory as he tried to shuffle a deck.
"No." Growled P'tar and lunged across the table.
Another fight broke out as the cards sprayed everywhere. But Gideon and Spooner had been eating popcorn and couldn't say which of Jurgen's two men had started the fight that ended with them both on the floor.
"Lance!" Jurgens roared at where she was comfortably nested in the captain's cabin at the rear of the control room. Sara and Ava had promised to stay there in case anything went wrong. He had pretended to believe them and was keeping a constant watch on the pair. "Get your mob under control." Davo had just been in to inform him that four of his team were currently in the infirmary.
Sara pretended to think about it for a second. "No?" She suggested.
"Let me be clear," Jurgens bristled. "You're in my custody. You'll remain in my custody until the instant the cell door slams shut behind you where I'll then be your warden. And then, when I retire and live a happy life with my family, you'll be nothing. So get used to being nothing and do what you're told."
Sara had dealt with petty bullies before. She knew what they feared the most. "Ava."
"Sure, we could let your squad run riot around the ship." Ava had tried to pass off her mechanical attention to detail as a trait of cloning but Sara knew it came from a natural love for rules. "But your team has no idea how to run the Waverider and it shows. P'tar keeps hitting the red button in the toilet because he thinks it's the flush, Davo wanted to reboot the time drive to see if that fixes it, and you?" She evaluated him carefully. "You want to bench the people who actually can run the ship because you're too focused on roles to see that we're all stuck in this together. So, hey, why don't you let your team go wild and then, when we're stuck like the rest of the world, you'll at least be in charge."
"Thank you, honey." She returned to the thick leatherbound she'd pulled from the bookcase. Whatever spellwork Astra had wrought had restored every detail of their original ship and she'd always meant to read at least one of Rip's old books. "If we weren't having a baby already, I'd screw you so hard we'd get pregnant again."
"Sara!" Ava lit up like the skies outside and Sara had never found the deadly colour more beautiful. "We're stuck in an anti-time field surrounded by police officers."
"So?" She asked innocently before leaning over to kiss the love of her life.
"Arvind!" Jurgens roared to the pilot. Without an A.I. to automate the journey, they were flying in shifts. "How long until we hit the coast!"
"Not long now!" Arvind called back. "We should be seeing Nova Scotia in a little under ten hours."
"Unbelievable," Jurgens muttered. "Greatest technology on the planet, limited to sixty miles an hour." They'd been flying for two days already. After accepting that his team were - for the moment - working with the Legends, Jurgens had begrudgingly agreed that the two captains were moderately accommodating hosts. Sara and Ava were the only two currently sharing a room after revealing her pregnancy while Gary, Gwyn, Behrad, and Alun were bunking in one room with Zari, Astra, Spooner and Gideon in another. Jurgen and his team had split between the rest, taking shifts to exercise and eat to maintain form. Besides the petty squabbles (that would be accounted for once they reached headquarters), there was only one true irritant left.
With all the cops and Legends bunking up to save room, nobody had wanted to share with the one guy who had betrayed both sides. "Mr Gold, was it?" Alun nervously approached.
"Hey, man." He waved halfheartedly. "I would offer you a drink but I don't get a lot of visitors." Being in the brig was a mutual solution. Time Police wanted him in custody, Legends didn't want him around. At least the door was kept unlocked.
"In that case," Shuffling a hand under his jacket, he came back with a small flask.
"Alun, you're a king amongst men!" Taking the flask, Mike gave a hefty swig. "Ah!" He sighed dramatically. "I forgot how disgusting this stuff could taste." He passed the drink back with a muttered thanks. "So, what did they throw you in here for?"
"Nothing," Alun admitted. "Commander Jurgens and his men are imposing hosts. Miss Lance and her friends,"
"That's Captain Lance," Mike corrected sternly. "And they're the Legends."
"But, well, she," Alun was uncomfortable again. With Gwyn assisting Behrad and P'tar in trying to reinforce the time drive without taking it offline, he had nobody aboard whom he had more than a passing familiarity.
"Whoa, really?" Mine raised an eyebrow. "Dude, I know this will be a lot to take in, but for real? Didn't you have nurses when you came from? Or that fancy lady who sits on a throne? Are you going to sit there and tell me ladies can't do all the same stuff?"
"Yes, the roles we each have." Alun insisted. "Nurses to tend the sick alongside the doctors, Queen Mary to rule alongside King George."
"My man," Mike smiled. "Where I'm from, the biggest divider is what sports team you support or who your favourite hero is. If Sara Lance is the best captain around, why shouldn't she have the job?"
"Because it's not right!" Alun insisted. Talking with the prisoner was easy. There was no judgement for being taken out of his time or dismissal for not being useful. But why couldn't he see?
"Then, riddle me this; I'm a black dude," Mike pretended to be shocked by the sudden revelation. "And I was put in charge of guarding the most sensitive point in all of history. How does that fit into your worldview?"
"Well, I, that is quite a different subject," The soldier muttered defensively. It didn't matter who was in the trenches beside you. Rich, poor, young, old - all men fought for one goal and died the same.
"There was this zoo where I grew up. You ever been to a zoo?" Alun nodded, unsure where the conversation was going. "And they had everything. Pyrissian bats, Melchijor horses. And there was this exhibit on swans. Normal, Terran swans from some park in London."
"The swans are royal property!" Alun gasped. "Did the zoo steal them?!"
"They were a gift from the royal family," Mike wasn't sure Alun could stand to learn that
British royalty ended in 2066. "And there were these two swans there. I was only a kid but I saw them together and knew they loved each other like nothing else. Now, these two swans wanted children but couldn't. But a third swan joined them to help them raise a loving family by carrying the eggs for them."
"My Aunt Ida did the same." Alun had been forbidden from discussing it outside the family for fear of the shame it would bring on them. But he was destined to be dead and knew in his heart that he could never see his family again. "I fail to see what this has to do with our conversation."
"If two swans loved each other, doesn't that make it natural?" Mike pressed.
"I suppose, yes." Alun shifted. "But a barren swan is not that different from a barren woman."
"Alun, dude," Mike frowned. "The two swans were male. Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey!" He pointed a finger accusingly as Alun's face twisted in anger. "You just said it was natural if swans did it!"
"Swans are not people, Mr Gold," Alun said hotly, rising to his feet. "And I will thank you to not,"
The door to the holding area breezed open. "Alun!" Seeing his reason for being in the cell, Gwyn hurried around to join him. "I heard shouting." He glanced between the pair. Mike may have been relaxed but he had betrayed the team without blinking.
"Mr Gold and I were talking," Alun felt all his worries melt away at the sight of Gwyn's bushy face. But why had he grown that ridiculous beard?
"Mmhmm," Mike nodded. "About swans." He drawled with a smirk.
"Swans?" Gwyn spluttered. Avians were hardly a conversation that rose to shouting, at least between a soldier and a criminal.
"Yeah, big fan of the swans." Mike quipped sarcastically. "How about you? Any particular feelings on swans?" He watched Alun for any reaction to the answer.
"Well, swans," Gwyn noticed the examination and tucked his hands into pockets as he tried to figure out the reason. "They released a few around New York before I moved there. But I will forever prefer the black swans from St James Park."
"You moved to New York?" Alun breathed in wonder. "We always talked of seeing America."
"Yes, well," Gwyn grumbled into his beard, the use finally showing. "It was the only place where anyone would accept that a soldier could be more than a man with a gun."
"Don't be modest now," Mike interrupted with a wide grin. "Gwyn Davies, father of time travel himself. First human to create a working time machine and you did it before they even split the atom. I mean, c'mon," He smirked at Alun. "You have to appreciate the skills of the man!"
"I'm sorry, Mr Gold." Gwyn's manners got noticeably sharper when he was emotionally charged. "Did you say that mankind harnessed the power of the atom?" It had been discussed in theory, little more than the dreams of the far future.
"Yeah, we did!" He held his hand up expecting a hearty slap. Neither soldier knew how to respond. "Look," Mike retracted the palm with a sigh. "I'm not going to pretend the future is all sunshine and rainbows. Heck, the two of you don't need telling what humanity can get up to." Alun still wouldn't change out of his uniform for while Gwyn couldn't forget if he tried. "But there's so much ahead that you can't imagine. Atomic power, vaccination programs, the League, the Legion. A lot of that stuff was bound to happen eventually but time travel? There are civilisations around distant stars that did all that other stuff before cracking time travel. It takes a real special reason to do so." He looked between the two archaic idiots and wondered if his intellect was too far removed for them to understand. "Did you guys know that swans mate to life?"
"There you are!" Behrad popped his head into the brig before Mike could do any further damage. "Come on, we've negotiated a poker tournament with the fuzz: top prize is first dibs on the bathroom in the morning!"
"An opportunity not to be missed!" Gwyn said firmly. "I thought my sense of smell killed by chemical warfare and chemical spills but, with God as my witness, whatever foul stenches Davo creates are not of this Earth!"
"Yeah, dude." Mike snorted. "He's from Graxos IV. Those dudes age slow but it gives them all weird digestion."
"Alien physiology, nice." Behrad smiled. "Anything we can use against him?"
"Only that he's about five centuries older than you and knows every trick in the book."
"Ooooh, play it loose, keep him guessing." Behrad clicked his fingers enthusiastically. "I get what you're saying." He darted back out.
"You guys go on," Mike gestured wearily. "I've got things to do."
Twisting around, he stretched out in his cot as the pair left. Truthfully, he wanted to get his prison sentence over with. Time jail wasn't so bad if you knew the right people to get you things. Then you could be out and much more careful to avoid the time cops. "Hey," Behrad's head poked back around the corner. "What's the holdup?"
"What?" Mike rolled to glance at the door.
"Come on," Behrad waved. "Gideon's the dealer so we need all hands on deck to knock Gary out before she can try anything." He vanished again, sure of the fact that Mike would follow.
"Well," The intern hero threw on his WWII overcoat. "Might as well do something to pass the time."
They landed on Anticosti Island with Spooner the smug winner of the tournament. P'tar had tried to dispute the victory and Spooner had volunteered to break his nose again before her family managed to restrain her.
"You've got two hours of downtime," Jurgens commanded. "Lieutenant Arvind and Mr Tarazi have been able to increase the range of the temporal shield while we are stationary only. You can now move freely within three hundred metres of the Waverider! Do not stray beyond the temporal shielding, do not lose track of your partner. Dismissed!" His squad gave a crisp salute in response.
"Legends!" Sara barked at her family. "Stretch your legs, let out those farts, keep your heads on a swivel." Ava hid her face in both palms as the group proceeded to follow her orders to the letter.
"Captain Lance, Captain Sharpe," Gideon stepped onto the base of the ramp. "Permission to join you and Commander Jurgens on a short excursion?"
"Lieutenant Arvind!" Jurgens called after the retreating uniforms. "With me!" Arvind wordlessly turned and joined the group.
"Ava," Holding out an arm, Sara pretended as if they hadn't a care in the world. "Would you care for a walk along the seaside?"
Rolling her eyes at the sweet gesture, Ava took the arm with a smile and led the group along the shoreline. Tiny waves lapped at the shore as the conserved momentum was set free in their presence. Sara gifted her a present of a small sea shell and Ava returned the favour with a stone containing a distinct impact fossil.
"Not to break up your date," Jurgens commented sourly. "But I feel that Gideon didn't bring us out here just to rub your happiness in our faces."
"No," Sara tucked the fossil into her pocket. "She's here to tell us the plan won't work."
"What are you talking about?" Arvind said briskly. "I've done the calculations myself. The secondary time drive will be able to escape the tachyon stasis field."
"It absolutely would," Gideon reassured him. "But anyone attempting to bypass it to an earlier point will be unable."
"The convicts are right," Jurgens resisted the urge to throw up at the admission. "Gideon and I have been scanning for the last three days, trying to find anything that could be causing a field this big - it's solid from one side of the planet to the other."
"This isn't a stasis field," Ava admitted. "It's negative tachyons." Picking up a smooth stone, she flung it across the ocean. It skipped twice before hitting the edge of their safe zone and becoming stuck in the air. "We're able to move forward in real-time only because the time drive is constantly generating fresh tachyons."
"Anyone trying to rescue us would only get caught in the same trap." Sara had done the same tactic during her time with the League. "We have a choice to make - wait here and hope for someone to break us out or break out ourselves."
"You've been planning for this?" Jurgens glared.
"Like Alun agreed," She nodded. "We get until our plan kicks in. Do either of you have any thoughts?" Like with many law enforcement agencies in existence, the lower ranks did the heavy lifting while the higher ranks did the heavy thinking. If any of the Time Police knew how to get out of this mess, it would be Jurgens or Arvind.
"We put ourselves in stasis and leave the time drive active." Jurgens shifted uneasily. "A beacon will alert headquarters to our distress once we have navigated beyond this field."
"Sir," Arvind muttered for permission to speak.
"Lieutenant?"
"With all due respect, it's risky." He admitted. "Any beacon we build will have to operate beyond the stasis field. Continuous operation would burn it out, intermittent bursts could mean we miss a window of opportunity."
"Gideon," Jurgens could hope for a more rational opinion from the fifth member of their party, considering her origins. "Do you have any suggestions?"
"I think it's going well, don't you?" Spooner smirked at the guards flanking her, Astra, and Behrad. Technically, they were still in custody and it seemed to reassure the cops that they could continue to watch over their captives.
"Commander Jurgens can be quite vocal." Davo admitted in a low grumble. They couldn't hear details of the conversation but Jurgens' tone carried far enough. Especially when he started shouting like that.
"I'm sure he's come up with a plan to put you punks away for good." P'tar sneered through his potato face.
"Oh, that is it." Levering back her arm, Astra punched him right in the face.
"Whoa!" Noticing the conflict, Gary slipped and tripped his way across the beach to where Davo and Behrad were barely holding back the fighting pair. Time Police and Legends alike flocked to the signs of growing violence, instantly squaring up against each other protectively.
"Stand down!" There had been no real need to cart around weaponry during the days spent crossing the ocean and Jurgens had advised his team not to introduce an unnecessary risk. Both teams were unarmed and spoiling for a fight.
"Maybe we can settle this in a more civilised manner?" Gwyn stumbled through the words as he stared down the Legends. "Emotions are running high right now and we are still to be travelling together once we leave this place."
"Gwyn is right," Alun spoke to the dark uniforms, back-to-back with his partner. The Time Police had admitted that they held no particular ire towards him for his part and he hoped that would be enough to listen to reason. "I'm sure we can find a middle ground from which to establish a friendly competition."
"Fine." Pulling off his jacket, P'tar stripped the rest of his equipment. "Me and her, mano-a-magici." By unspoken rule, both sides backed away to form a crude circle. Behrad darted in to drag an increasingly nervous Gwyn away, despite his stammering protestations.
"Oh, you're on!" Astra had been waiting for the chance to let off some steam for a while. "Take these cuffs off me and we'll see who walks away the same shape they started."
"The cuffs stay on." Davo rumbled. He might be centuries old by human standards but he was barely approaching middle age for his own race and was eager to live to see retirement.
"So much for a fair fight!" Zari's hands trembled as she tried to keep them up. She could hold her own in a fight but straight brawling was still beyond her training.
"Please," Spooner slipped off her jacket. "Allow me." She had a mad grin the Legends knew to stand behind because anything in front of it was usually looking down the latest gun she had put together.
"My money's on the short stack!" Mike cried out in excitement, his exile temporarily suspended as the crowd filled with bloodlust.
"What are you going to do, Pipsqueak?" P'tar had a full foot more in height and her body mass again. It was hardly a fair match.
Spooner took one step and broke his kneecap in two places.
Alun extracted his friend from the crowd as the violence escalated, leading them both to a bluff where they could overlook the motionless ocean.
"This violence, this madness," Gwyn said sadly once they were far enough away. "If these Time Police are from a thousand years hence, how could they not have become filled with peace and refinement?"
"Maybe it's not about how mankind will become in their natural state," Alun smiled gently, still processing his conversation with Mr Gold in the brig. "Maybe all that we can strive for is better mastery over ourselves."
It had been evening on this side of the ocean. Alun didn't understand why the group kept talking about tacked-up horns, though Gwyn had tried explaining it to him one night over dinner. All that he needed to know was they were living between one second and the next in this frozen oasis of time. Without the breath of the wind across their faces, the air was warm and still, and a flock of birds was frozen on the crest of a wave out at sea. "I used to wish that I could freeze a moment in time." He admitted, folding both hands behind his back. "Now that it is, I realise that this moment of calm deprived others of all their other moments."
"Captain Lance and her crew have innumerous experiences in these situations. I'm of no doubt that their plan will be successful." Alun smiled as Gwyn mimicked his posture, folding both hands behind his back. "What is so amusing?"
"You." He admitted with a laugh. "All these years you spent trying to rescue me have not changed you in the slightest." Alun pointedly straightened his posture and watched as Gwyn blustered and crossed his arms instead.
When the groups reconvened at the Waverider, it wasn't only the Legends acting as if they had been somewhere else the entire time.
"What happened to you?" Jurgens could see how relieved the rest of his team had become in nearly direct correlation to the amount of blood coating P'tar.
"Friendly sparring match." He mumbled through a broken nose. That was the second time it had happened and he was starting to expect it.
"Spooner?" Sara raised an eyebrow.
"Mm?" She groaned past a broken jaw. "I shink we unnershtand each slother." Bloody drool dribbled down her chin.
"Both of you, get to the medbay." Ava ordered. "No more fighting until you're both patched up."
Arvind caught the gleam in the eyes still capable of focusing. "And no fighting after you've been patched up either." Their faces fell as much as they were able.
"Come on," Mike was earning a lot of points with both teams for helping them both hobble back from the fight. Right then, he didn't want their favour, he wanted them to help him bodily lift two people getting blood on his fancy jacket!
"Before we depart again," The commander halted them at the bottom of the ramp, the Legends stopping as their captains stood alongside him in a united front. "Our plans have altered slightly. We no longer believe it is likely that a rescue will succeed."
"We?" Davo raised an eyebrow. Hundreds of years of experience made surprising him difficult but Jurgens was the most aggressively by-the-book time cop he'd ever met.
"Captain Lance and I have determined we have not been trapped in a tachyon stasis field but marooned by negative tachyons." Hopefully, the medbay could mend broken teeth because he was grinding them down to nothing. "Anyone attempting to rescue us directly will be unable to reach us and any attempts to leave the resources we require will fail as they will be unable to penetrate the field."
"To that end, we have opted to put the entire ship in stasis and leave the time drive operational to move us through the field in real-time," Arvind explained. "Temporal decay will have built to critical levels before we can reach our era, but the Flash and his team are significantly closer and less likely to have succumbed. Their technology will be our best bet at overcoming whatever is causing this attack."
"The S.T.A. have been shielded against temporal intrusions from the outside," Ava revealed. "It should be enough to hold out long enough to detect our beacon."
"Excess use of the Speed Force can saturate an area with tachyon radiation." Arvind continued, keeping the authority with the Time Police. "Central City should have enough residual energy to sustain itself for a short duration. We will likely reach a point where the Flash has been operating for an extensive period. If so, he should be aware of Time Police through his relationship with Supergirl - this will give us a tactical advantage."
"What if the Flash is as stuck as we are?" Davo asked.
"Then we'll resume attempts to return to our own time and join forces with the Legion." Jurgens declared, knowing that it was a moot point. They might be lucky to get through to the next century. The millennium after would be beyond their reach. "At worst, we can attempt to recruit him to aid us."
"One more thing," The Legends knew that smile: it meant an unpleasant task was in the offing. "You've all heard of Tom, Dick, and Harry," Sara smiled as she pulled out a pair of shovels. "Prepare to meet Charlie." Glazed faces greeted her words. "Only one raised by a World War II nerd, huh?" All eyes turned to the terrified scream that had sounded from their midst. "Ah, crap." She watched Gwyn gently take Alun into his care. "Here we go again."