Thanks to all the readers and especially the reviewers. As promised, answers start flowing this chapter - but that also means new questions.
The Vulcan Science Directorate wishes it to be known that earlier reporting about its position on the impossibility of time travel resulted from overeager journalists misquoting an internal report.
Chapter 4: Stoppable the Cunning
"Where do you know me from?"
"Well, we met in pre-K, when we were four, and we were best buds for over a decade from there. You – uh, I mean, the Kim Possible I know started a website –"
"Sorry, a what?"
"Oh, right… Uhm, so in the late 20th, early 21st centuries, we had what they called the World Wide Web, websites offered services and stuff and you accessed them on your computer through what we called the Internet."
"I'm sorry, did you say twentieth century? As in nineteen-hundred-and-something?"
Ron started rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh yeah, I guess I should have started with that… I was born in 1987 on Earth, in Middleton in the United States of America."
Somehow, this raised more questions than it answered, but Kim let him continue. A man from the last millennium? This was simply too much to process at once. She had to remind herself to keep eating her meal.
"So, when 'my' Kim, sorry, I don't have a better way of phrasing it, when she started her website I went along with her to help people. Things sorta took off from there and we started going after criminals and even major supervillains. Things were great, until my parents decided to move to Norway, splitting me and Kim up in the process. It was a hard few months, but as it turns out the whole thing had been orchestrated by Shego, one of our foes, when she took over the world with the Tempus Simia, a statuette that allowed for time travel…"
"Time Monkey? You mean Temporis Sīmia, with the genitive case?"
"You'd think so, but take it up with the curator of the Tri-City Museum. Anyway, Shego travelled back in time, made a truckload of money and sort of took over the world, creating a future from which our friends called for our help. So Kim, Rufus and I ended up in the future, we had a big fight with the bad guys, and I destroyed the Time Monkey in the process. Then a vortex of some sort opened. Before I knew what was going on, I found myself on Earth, in 2366, at age 15, with no parents, no friends aside from Rufus, in a completely alien future."
Kim was struggling to follow along, but one detail was inescapable.
"Ron, we are in the year 2366. It's stardate 43498… And you very much do not look 15."
"Well, that's where things get even weirder. I went into the vortex with Kim and Rufus, but only Rufus was with me when I woke up on the other side of the thing. In a nutshell, I spent the last 12 years of my life looking for Kim or studying up on how I might be able to find her. I dug into records from around the time we left to fight Shego, and they just said we disappeared one day without a trace.
"So, I finished high school a bit late, between remedials and counseling, in 2369 – once that was done, I went to Japan, where I knew of an ancient ninja school I'd attended for a week back in 2003. Fortunately, they were still there and welcomed me as an honored elder. I studied with them for three years, that was how long it took to learn all they knew about the Time Monkey, which was not all that much.
"At that point, I figured I needed to find either the same or another Time Monkey. The legends really didn't say how many there were, so I joined archeological expeditions that seemed to be onto something, while also studying theories of time travel. I was on Betazed when the Dominion took over the planet, and I –"
"This Dominion," Kim asked with undisguised shock. Had she not finished her burritos yet, she would likely have spit out her food. "They managed to invade and hold Betazed?"
"Yeah, 2374 I think it was… That war was crazy, but we won in the end.
"Where was I? Right, Betazed, I joined the resistance movement. Between my sidekick experience in saving the world with Kim and my years of ninja training, they were eager to have me. My epic quest was kinda put on hold by this until the war ended about a year later. So I started looking again, and came across a Klingon prophecy that sounded much like the Time Monkey. Like any good Klingon prophecy, this was one was super convoluted, and it took me a good long while to decipher, but by 2377 I figured it pointed to some out-of-the-way asteroid cluster in the Gamma Quadrant."
"Wow, so you actually travelled all the way to the Gamma Quadrant?"
"Well, it's really no big, as you'd say, with the Bajoran wormhole and all that."
Bajoran wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant? That begins to explain the runabout's logs… Kim thought as Ron slipped Rufus one of his burritos.
"But I couldn't just go ask Starfleet to give me a shuttle or something, so I moved to DS9, lived there for like a year until the opportunity arose to secret borrow a runabout and sneak away in the shadow of a freighter headed through the wormhole. From the mouth of the wormhole, it was only about two weeks' travel at Warp 5, it would have taken them at least a few hours to notice the missing runabout, and I guess it all worked out because I reached the coordinates from the prophecy with nobody tailing me.
"Boy, was I surprised when I saw the statue. I was expecting it to be yay big…" Ron gestured a gap between his hands of some 30 centimeters. "But it was actually giant! Large enough for the runabout to fit inside a chamber that had been carved as part of the statue, I guess the whole thing was carved out of an asteroid?
"Anyway, it was freaky, suddenly I could communicate with my old ninja master, Sensei, as if it were still 2003! His answers were very cryptic, I don't think he really understood what was happening, especially because otherwise something would have been written down at Yamanouchi. Finally, I decided to meditate and make my wish – I wished that I could find you, Kim. Well, my Kim, but you look just like her, your mannerisms are all the same… Your eyes… I don't know what's going on, I can tell you don't know me, and yet I can tell you're the exact same person, somehow. Actually, hold on, I have a picture on me…"
Ron reached for his pocket and took out a wallet. "I know it's kinda weird to carry a wallet, but I had to back in my time, and it does mean I can carry this around more easily." He reached in and took out a small photograph, printed on paper, giving it to Kim for her to examine. It was unequivocally Kim Possible at around age 15, but her attire and the background looked much like her mental image of the 21st century.
"Here's another one, Monique took this one after we busted Frugal Lucre…"
She exchanged the two pictures, the new one showed both her and Ron. They were holding a bag each, hers labeled "Club Banana", his marked "Smarty Mart". Kim was too overwhelmed to ask any coherent follow-up questions, and Ron continued after a short pause.
"So, there was an energy surge from the statue, and we found ourselves, runabout and all, right where you found us. The computer had estimated the date and the location, but it seemed too unreal to believe. We were pretty tired at that point, so I had the autopilot hold position and Rufus and I went to get some shut-eye and hopefully plan out our next steps in the morning… And then you woke me up."
Kim was still speechless, practically entranced by the tale.
"So… I guess some poor petty officer now gets to type out all this…"
She finally snapped back in reaction to Ron's attempt at lightening the mood.
"Actually, speech recognition works just fine, the computer's been transcribing our conversation all along."
"I know, KP, I did live twelve years in the 24th century. But where I'm from… When I'm from, that stuff just wasn't good enough for serious use. Trust me, I tried to dictate out an essay and the results were freaky."
"Uh huh, bad," Rufus seemed to say.
Kim wondered, Does he really speak? Wouldn't even be the craziest part. "Well, I guess we can call it a session…" She glanced at Rufus, who was eyeing her unopened package of trail mix, then looked back at Ron. "Can I give him this stuff? Looks like he's still hungry," she asked.
"Sure, he'd love it. He actually eats almost anything, just need to keep cheese to a reasonable amount now that he's getting older."
Rufus made a few more indistinct noises, but it was clear that his reduced allotment of cheese made him unhappy.
"Back in the day, he would totally have eaten two or three of these cheese spread packets in a single burrito… But back to business, anything else I can answer for you?"
Kim had more questions than she knew what to do with, and in a somewhat deflated tone answered, "I need to go over all this first. For now, I'd just like to show you to guest quarters, you're probably desperate to get some more sleep."
"Actually, I'm desperate to not let this day end. It's barely 07:00 and I'm reunited with my best friend – in some way, at least – after 12 years of being apart." The wistfulness was plain to see in Ron's eyes, but suddenly shifted as he put on a wide smile. "It's been great, KP!"
Kim found herself smiling back. "Well, shall we? We've got you assigned to guest quarters here on Deck 4. I hear the view is pretty good."
Ron stood up, following Kim's lead, and helped Rufus into his pocket. Kim gathered the trays and placed them in the replicator, pressing the Waste Disposal button. As the replicator removed all traces of their meals, Kim led Ron out into the corridor. They walked the short distance to guest quarters, Room 0107. They entered the standard guest quarters, which naturally had exterior windows and a private bathroom, to provide visiting VIPs with at least a modicum of comforts.
"I have to be honest, KP, when I saw how crowded the ship's common areas are, I got scared. But this isn't bad at all, I've stayed in worse hotel rooms outside of warzones!" Kim chuckled at his remark. "It's not quite the same as the ones I'm familiar with, I got a ride on an Intrepid once – it was way cool, it was after Voyager called in from the Delta Quadrant, so suddenly that was the coolest class of starship ever. Anyway, the guest quarters were like twice the size of these, with an extra living room sort of space…" Ron noticed Kim's puzzled look. "Oh, right. The USS Voyager somehow ended up in the Delta Quadrant after being pulled over from the Badlands by a weird alien thing in 2371. Everyone thought they'd been destroyed for several years, until one day, out of the blue, their medical hologram shows up in the Alpha Quadrant. It was insane, everyone went nuts over Voyager. When I left, Starfleet was in regular contact with them, they were still a decade or two from home."
"Ron…"
"I know what you're thinking, 'how come the only known stable wormhole, to the Gamma Quadrant no less, and the place that Voyager was extracted from are both like a week's travel away from each other, at most? Honestly, I think that the Cardassians have been doing some sneaky stuff, it's too much coincidence."
"Actually, I was going to ask you not to say too much about the future. I'm already dreading the inevitable interview with Temporal Investigations."
"Right, sorry KP…"
She sighed. "It's no big… I'm actually dreaming of quarters like those you've seen. Not even an admiral would have quarters like that around here. Hell, I don't even have a window and I share a bath. That probably takes the cake."
"Nah, even excluding Camp Wannaweep, I'm thinking of that time we were stuck at a roadside motel for a night, after we dealt with Killigan. Even the TV was coin-operated, it was like the place was run by a Ferengi. Worse! The bed was one of those massage bed thingies, and I figured, 'it's just a quarter', so I gave it a try – but only your side of the bed did anything, I only got noise!"
It was convenient that Ron was outraged about the slights perpetrated against him by shady hoteliers, because the gears were turning in Kim's head. Wait, wait, did he just say we shared a bed?
"…and the guy had the nerve to not even refund my money, said we'd already sampled the goods! Can you believe it!?"
Sampled the goods…?
Ron was too busy ranting to notice Kim's reactions and proceeded to do his best impression of a sleazy motel manager. "He had the nerve to say 'pal, why you coming to me looking to get shook all night long, that's your lady friend's department'! He just did not get it through his skull that I wanted the massage I'd paid for, it's not like Kim even wanted it."
Shook all night long…?
"And the kicker, he tells me 'if you're that needy, just borrow the lady's little pink friend', I tell him that Rufus is my little pink friend – no offense, KP – and he just starts laughing like a madman!"
Little… pink friend…?
"So I gave up and left, I wasn't getting anywhere with that idiot. Hey, KP, everything okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just… uh, thinking about… stuff."
"Oh, sorry, didn't want to interfere with ship's business…"
This is so not ships's business.
"…but I had two questions."
"Sure, what can I help you with?" Kim was eager to get her mind focused on a different topic.
"Well, I kinda have some luggage on the Runabout. You know, some clothes and stuff…"
"No prob, I'll have someone bring it over. What's the other thing?"
Ron motioned to the kitchenette area of the guest quarters. "Since you have these facilities, I guess you must have fresh food on board, right?"
"Yeah, we have a hydroponics bay that produces vegetables to complement the rations and limited replicators, it's more energy-efficient, but limited. You can order from your computer terminal and pick it up an hour later…" Kim hesitated, before adding, "I think… I don't actually cook…" Her voice carried some shame.
Ron, however, just smiled. "I know you don't, KP. But I'd love it if you joined me for dinner."
Instinctively, Kim began answering the question without thought of any possible implications. "Well, my shift starts at 20:00…"
Before she could even finish her sentence, let alone reason about what was going on, Ron interrupted. "That's not terrible for a night shift. I'll have dinner ready for you at 19:00, with real fresh food!"
Guinan's words rang in Kim's head. Trust him… Maybe it was about his cooking? It has been forever since I've had fresh food… And I guess I do need to ask him more questions…
"19:00 it is. If you need to go anywhere, just call Security and ask for an escort. Ordinarily I'd post a guard at the door, but since the Security Office is practically next door, I figured I'd spare someone the boring assignment."
"Thanks for everything KP, I'll see you later!"
Kim walked out of the guest quarters and awkwardly waved back at Ron for the few seconds it took until the door closed.
It was around 08:00 when Kim arrived at her quarters. Fortunately, only the bathroom was shared, she and Yori each had a private bedroom. Lieutenants Junior Grade and Ensigns had to double up to a room, so she could hardly complain. The promotion to Lieutenant Commander, when it finally came, would bring such perks as a private bath and typically even a window. Yori made for a good partner in this arrangement, as she worked Beta shift, minimizing the overlap in usage of the facilities.
Kim removed her uniform and went to freshen up before bed. Once she had made her way into her bed, a novel thought came to her before she fell asleep.
This was a good day.