章節 41: Non Sequitur: Part Two
Chapter 42: Non Sequitur: Part Two.
Harry Kim's POV
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I slowly walked back to my apartment. Watching everyone who passed me to see if I was being followed or if Micheal, Sarah or Mollie were nearby.
"Troubles, Harry?" Cosimo called out from his cafe as I passed. I gave him a small smile and shrugged as I walked over to him.
"You could say that." I replied.
"Let's have some coffee." Cosimo suggested and gestured me to sit down at a small outside table. I hesitantly sat down as Cosimo sat down across from me and leaned forward.
"I was sent here to watch you, to make sure that you were all right. But it's now clear that you are not." Cosimo...He bluntly admited.
"Who are you?" I demanded in alarm.
"We exist in what you would call a temporal inversion fold in the space-time matrix. It's not necessary to understand. It only matters that there was an accident. Your shuttle intersected one of our time streams, and boom! A few things were altered as the result of the accident. History and events were scrambled a bit, and you ended up here." He explained with sympathy.
"Well, you've got to get me back."
"We don't know how."
"What?"
"We only know that an accident occurred. We don't know how or why." He admitted.
"Well, that's not good enough." I snapped. "There's got to be something we can do. Where is this time stream of yours? Maybe I can use it to get back."
"The time stream weaves through the galaxy like a thread. I could show you how to find it, and you could try to recreate the conditions that existed before the accident, and fly back into it, but there's no guarantee what will happen to you if you do."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, you may be able to change reality again, but there's no way to predict how it would change. You could end up at any point in the space-time continuum. You might return to your original reality, or you might find yourself a billion years in the future. Or at some time before sentient life even existed on your planet."
"I guess I'll have to take that chance, because somehow I have to get back."
"Are you so sure? This is a pretty good place for you, Harry. You have a wonderful job with Starfleet, a beautiful woman who loves you. Why be so quick to turn your back on all this? Maybe this is your, er, fate. Isn't that the word your people use? That thing which was meant to be? Hmm? Seems to me you're actually a very lucky man." Cosimo argued.
"What about Danny Byrd? He isn't so lucky. And Tom Paris, Bini Filters, Captain Janeway's kids and her dog? Fate wasn't so kind to them. No, it isn't supposed to be this way. I'm supposed to be on Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. Tom and Bini should be alive with a will to live! Not sulking in bar with no one giving them a chance. Those kids and Mollie should be with the Captain. And that's where I have to go. I have to change it back to the way it should be.
"Very well." Cosimo muttered and sighed. Then pulled out a computer disc. and handed it over to me."This will tell you where the time stream intersects this region of space. That's as much as I can do for you."
"Thanks."
"Good luck, Harry Kim of Voyager. You're going to need it. Unless of course, you decide to stay. In which case, I'll see you in the morning, same time. Vulcan mocha, extra sweet." Cosimo said with a smirk and got up to reenter the cafe.
---40 minutes later---
Micheal, Sarah and Mollie had managed to sneak back into the apartment without anyone seeing. They were now helping me get the anklet off. Micheal was silently handing me small tools from an engineering kit as Sarah sat beside him, holding Mollie. Suddenly, Libby entered into the bedroom, glaring at me.
"Libby." I said, slightly startled. "I didn't hear you come in."
"Obviously. You're in enough trouble as it is. What do you want them to do, put you in prison?" She barked. I gestured the kids to leave. They nodded and went into the living room.
"No. I'm just trying to get back to where I belong." I insisted. Libby's face fell and she slumped next to me.
"Where you belong." She quoted sadly. "You used to say you belonged here with me. But I guess everything's changed, hasn't it?"
"Look, I know the last few days must have been pretty tough on you."
"Do you? Do you really know what it's like when the person you love suddenly changes?"
"It's still me. The guy who was in your seat at the Ktarian music festival. The guy who took three weeks to work up the courage to ask you out. The guy who still wakes up in the middle of the night and says your name out loud, hoping you'll answer back." I insisted.
"But if you're really Harry, you wouldn't be trying so hard to get away from me."
"I'm not trying to get away from you. I love you. And I promise you, I want to stay here more than anything. But I can't."
"I don't understand. I don't understand any of this." She pleaded.
"I don't think anybody knows me as well as you do, so you of all people should know that once I've made up my mind about something, I can't let it go. In some ways, it'd be a lot easier to forget about Voyager, just settle in here and build a life. But that wouldn't be me. You wouldn't be getting the Harry Kim you fell in love with. Does that make any sense?" I asked. Suddenly the anklet started beeping. I shot up and kissed Libby, then looked towards the living room.
"Kids! We have to go now!" I ordered. They scrambled into the living room and they both quickly kissed Libby on her cheek thanking her. Causing her to smile at them and tear up before she a tight hug.
"I hope you find your Mother little ones." She muttered as they opened the window and climbed out to the fire escape.
"The tampering alarm. Security will be here any second. I'd better go. I promise you, I'm going to try to get back. It may take a while, and I may not make it, but I swear, I will try." I said just as two security officers beamed in. I frantically climbed through the window and Libby moved forward and slammed it shut.
I followed the kids down the fire escape and onto the street. The security officers scrambled after us and one of them yell:
"Hold it!"
"Run!" I barked at them and we continued down another street, people around simply and no move to stop us as the security gained on us and I was eventually was rugby tackled to the ground, then the security guard takes out his phaser.
"Get up!" He barked as the other officer pointed a phaser at the kids as they huddled behind me.
Suddenly, Bini yelled and did a snap kick to the officer pointing at the kids. Tom came up behind the other one.
"Excuse me!" Tom announced and punched him hard in the head. Knocking him out. He hissed in pain and shook his hand in pain.
"Ow! There goes my bank shot." Tom muttered as Bini snap kicked the officer in the face, knocking him out with a bloody nose. Tom picked up the phaser as I scrambled up with shock.
"Mother fucker of a load a hens-" Bini started to rant as she wiggled her foot, trying to distract herself from the pain.
"What are you two doing here?" I asked them.
"Helping out a friend. Let's go." Tom quickly replied and grabbed my arm, leading us into a nearby alleyway, away from people who would be looking for us.
"So, how did you find me?" I asked as we manoeuvred between buildings and Bini and the kids were talking quietly behind us.
"I somehow still have a few friends at Starfleet. They told me you were in some serious trouble." Tom replied.
"Yeah. Starfleet thinks I'm a Maquis spy." I admitted.
"I know the feeling. Those security anklets really chafe, don't they?"
"You're the last person I expected to help me."
"Let's just say it's been a long time since anybody gave a damn about my future, including me. I don't know if I'm supposed to be on Voyager like you've told me, but it sounds a whole lot better than the life I have here. I'm willing to take my chances, Ensign." Tom explained with his boyish smirk.
"Call me Harry. You always did."
"Won't be long before they find us. We better keep moving."
"Wait." I called out. Stopping Tom just before we reentered the main street. "I found a way to get back to my reality. The problem is I'll need a ship to do it. I think I have access to a runabout, but I'm going to have to break it out of Spacedock."
"Sounds to me like you need a pilot."
"Know anyone who's qualified?"
"I know someone who used to be pretty good. And if I'm not mistaken, he still knows a few tricks."
"I have an office at Starfleet Headquarters. I think we can access the runabout launch codes from there." I chirped.
"Site-to-site transporter." Tom said and pulled out a small device. "With friends like mine, you never know when it'll come in handy. Where's your office?"
"Main complex, level six, subsection forty seven." I told him.
"I can beam us in. But we'll only have a few minutes before Security starts kicking down the door." Tom warned me.
"Let's do it."
-----
Bini Filters POV
On minute I was arguinh with two little kids who seemed to think that light speed was better than warp. Really ridiculous. Then suddenly I was inside of a Starfleet building being hustled into office by Ensign Kim.
"So, Harry, once we're on board the runabout, what's the plan?" Tom asked as we all moved to circle his desk, I am just assuming this is his office right now.
"The alien said that if I recreate the conditions of the accident and fly into the time stream, there's a chance I might be able to get back into my reality." Harry explained.
"Might?" I barked.
"He couldn't give me any guarantees. Bini, if you would please-" Harry said, inviting me to hack into Starfleet's database to get us onto the Yellowstone. I smirked and cracked my knuckles before and working "magic" on breaking the security net.
Suddenly a loud beeping sound erupted the console. I swore frantically speeded my efforts as Tom read the console.
"Security's just been alerted to an unauthorized transport in the building. It'll take them another twenty seconds to track it to this office. How are you coming, Bini?" Tom asked. I huffed in annoyance
"I am working on it! Can you not see that or has all that drinking finally made you go blind?" I barked back.
Tom leaned over the console and studied my movements as sweat went down my face. Time was pressing "Almost there. I've bypassed the runabout's security lockouts."
"They're onto us. We've got to go." Harry said beside me in mild panic was loud alarms started going off in the building. Fucking wonderful.
"Hold the hell on. I have almost bloody got it." I barked. Suddenly a security team entered, each of them raised their phasers to fire at Harry and Tom. I managed to yell "Now!" Once I put in the latest command.
Tom yanked me to the floor as one of the officers fired, blowing up the console, sending debris and sparks raining down on us. Suddenly, with a lot of relief, I felt the transporter grab us and teleport us to the Yellowstone
I stumbled off the transporter pad the moment we rematerialized, groaning in pain as the after-effects of a screwed up transporter system hit me hard. I stumbled into the nearest chair as Tom and Harry quickly rushed past me to the piolit seat (Tom) and the sensors. (Harry)
I wasn't able to pay much attention, but before I knew it, we were twirling, barely avoiding the closing space doors as we burst into space.
"We're clear!" Tom yelled as Micheal and Sarah grabbed Mollie and stumbled into the nearest two seats on the other side of the room. Holding on for dear life.
"I'm entering the coordinates of the time stream into the main computer."
"Adjusting course to match. Going to full impulse."
"We've got a starship on our tail. Nebula class." Harry called out as the humming of the engines increased beneath our feet.
"I'll try to lose them, Harry, but they're a lot faster than we are." Tom replied.
"Attention runabout Yellowstone."A ruff male voice came through the com system. "Power down your engines or we will open fire."
"They're going to try to do everything they can to stop us. They think we're trying to steal this prototype." Harry explained.
"They're closing to five thousand kilometres."
Suddenly the ship was hit with a massive jolt of weapons fire. Causing me to fall out of my chair and slam into the floor face first. I swore loudly and Tom shot me a quick irritated look before turning back to his controls. I held my nose as I stumbled back to the chair, pushing the jagged pain away.
"Shields down to seventy percent. Fifty percent." Harry called out. Another phaser blast hit the ship, sparks flew and everyone almost went toppling over again.
"Twenty-nine percent."
"I thought you said this ship was new and improved." Tom snapped.
"It is," Harry snapped back. "But it looks like they haven't finished working on the defensive systems. In fact, some of the safety interlocks aren't even in place. A few more of those hits and I don't-"
Another blast hit the ship, interrupting Harry mid-sentence. The cabin started to fill with smoke.
"We're losing antimatter containment. Attempting to stabilize the field."
"We're approaching the coordinates of the time stream."
"The containment field is weakening. We could be looking at a core breach." Harry announced.
"The ship's closing to three thousand kilometres."
"If we can't shake them off, maybe we can slow them down a little. This runabout is equipped with tetryon plasma warp nacelles."
"So?" Paris asked.
"Tetryon plasma emits multiflux gamma radiation. It disrupts subspace."
"We could vent the warp plasma. The second they hit the plasma cloud, their engines would stall. Give us a few seconds of breathing room."
"Exactly." Harry replied with a smile.
With one swift move, Tom and Harry worked together to stale the ship with the drive plasma.
"They've dropped to one-tenth impulse. Our containment fields at critical. We'd better hurry." Tom called out, I was able to catch a glimpse of the console to see the ship did indeed come to a complete stop. Those engineers on that fancy ship are all probably having heart-attacks!
"All right. Let's recreate my shuttle accident. I think I was travelling at one hundred and forty thousand kph." Harry replied.
"You think?" Tom repeated with hesitation.
"Look, that was another lifetime. I'm doing the best I can."
"Increasing speed to one hundred and forty thousand kph." Tom reported.
"Now, I also remember running a polaron scan. The scanning beam was sweeping at a radius of half a million kilometres. No, wait. A quarter-million. Activating polaron scan. That should do it." Harry said. Everyone tensed up. Waiting for the final impact.
"Approaching coordinates. Impact in four, three, two." Tom called out.
Nothing.
Wa-What? We all looked at each other in confusion.
"Did we miss it?"
"We passed through the coordinates, but the runabout was unaffected," Tom relayed. Pointing out the obvious as always. "The starship has repowered its engines. They'll be here in under a minute."
"I have to get into that time stream. Wait a minute, I'm forgetting something. The emergency transport. The last thing I remember hearing was Captain Janeway's comm voice. She said she was trying to beam me off the shuttle. That's it. I've got to beam off the ship." Harry said.
"Are you crazy?!" I exclaimed, wondering if we were maybe just following a crazy man.
"We have to recreate all the conditions of the accident, including that one. We just lost antimatter containment. Twenty-five seconds to core breach."
"I've locked onto the time stream. Get on the transporter pad." Tom ordered. OK. OK, I guess now we just go along with whatever insane person says.
"Not yet. The core is breaching. We've got to shut it down first." Harry insisted in panic as the ship started to shake and more and more fog filled the room.
"There's no time. That ship'll be here in another thirty seconds."
"In fifteen seconds this ship is going to explode. You'll be killed." Harry argued to Tom. As if we weren't here!
"Look. If you're right, then things will be changed back to the way they're supposed to be, and you'll find me back on Voyager." Tom argued back.
"And if I'm wrong, if this doesn't work, you'll be blown up right here."
"Go!" Tom yelled and shoved Harry onto the padd. Micheal and Sarah frantically looked around as they hugged each other. Tom shoved Harry onto the padd before he could protest any longer and pressed the dreaded button that transported Harry to either the better reality or his cold death in merciless space.
-----
Ensign Harry Kim's POV
"Harry?"
"Why isn't he waking up?"
"Maybe because he almost killed himself."
"OK, watch it."
"Poke him again."
"Excuse me? Who is the older human being here?"
"Harry."
"Crazy idea. Both of you shut it and let me handle this."
"You aren't doing a good job."
"SHUT IT!"
I felt poking on my cheek once again. I groaned and blinked open my eyes. The bright light momentarily burned my eyes. I rubbed my eyes and managed to have my eyes adjust to the familiar setting of sickbay and three people looking down at me.
A grumpy 15-year-old Bini Filters.
An annoyed ten-year-old Micheal Janeway.
And finally, a happy Sarah Janeway grinning at me.
"Hello there, sleeping beauty. Ready to get up and actually do something?" Bini asked with a chipper tone.
"Bini? Oh my gosh! It worked!" I jumped up, startling the three kids. "You guys are alive!"
"Ummm, yeah? When did we die?" Bini asked with a confused look mirroring the faces of the other two children.
"Nevermind. How long have I been out?" I replied, quickly getting a hold of myself.
"Well, B'Elanna punched Tom."
I chuckled as Micheal and Sarah pitched in, interrupting Bini and trying to explain in a rush.
---End of Chapter 42: Next: ???---
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UnknownFilters
UnknownFilters AN: So, finally posting a chapter after my unplanned hiatus. You would think that during a pandemic, with school cancelled and being locked inside my house, I would be writing more. Unfortunately, my creativity doesn't seem to agree. Welcome to my sad, sad, life.
Be safe everyone!
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