章節 18: A Flash from the Past
"Rust?" Janeway asked with surprise at Harry's report.
"That's right, Captain. High levels of ferric oxide, corroded iron particles," he replied.
"Would you mind telling me how iron could rust in space without oxygen?" she asked.
"I wish I could."
"Mister Paris, alter our course to follow that trail of rust. One-quarter impulse," Janeway ordered.
"Aye, Captain," Tom acknowledged.
I had duty on the bridge today, so I was lucky enough to hear the beginning scene of an episode that I had been looking forward to. There was no real danger in this one, just a blast from the past and proof that aliens had visited Earth back in 1937. A certain person was in cryostasis on a nearby planet who had been an idol of mine, Janeway, and countless young girls who were born after her rise to fame.
"Captain, look at this," Harry said after ten or so minutes of following the trail. "I'm picking up traces of complex hydrocarbons in the rust, benzene, ethylene, acetylene..."
"Gasoline," I said with a smile right as Tom turned around to say it.
"Gasoline?" Chakotay asked.
"Liquid fuel that was used on Earth during the twenty and twenty-first centuries, typically used to power cars or generators," I explained.
"How did it get out here?"
"I'm detecting a small object. It appears to be the source of the rust and hydrocarbons," Tuvok said.
"Put it on screen," Janeway instructed.
The image of a red pick-up truck from the 30's appeared on the viewscreen. It had likely been floating there for centuries, yet it was still intact and might even be able to run, though I think that was more television magic than a true nod to classic American construction.
"Tuvok, beam it into Cargo Bay One. Rebecca, Tuvok, Harry, you're with me. Commander, you have the bridge," Janeway instructed.
Tom slumped his shoulders with disappointment but did not speak up since I had stolen his moment to show off, so I felt a little bad.
"Captain, if I may, Tom has some knowledge of twentieth century vehicles as well," I said, throwing him a bone.
"Alright, Tom," she agreed then tapped her badge, "Janeway to B'Elanna."
"Yes, Captain?" B'Elanna replied quickly.
"Can you meet us in Cargo Bay One?"
"I'm on my way."
The five of us approached the turbo lift, but as soon as I thought about all of cramming onto it, I got claustrophobic.
"I'll, uh, meet you all down there," I said.
"Don't like small places?" Tom asked with a smirk.
"Just when they are crowded," I retorted then shifted into the Yin Realm.
Thankfully, traveling through the Yin Realm was easy, but the world around me shifted to black and dark blue except for anyone living which were bright yellow. The walls and floor could be solid, but also phased through with a bit of Yin mana. I simply let myself drop through a couple of the decks down to Deck Eight then walked through the walls until I reached the cargo bay. I gave B'Elanna a bit of a scare when I stepped out of the realm, but she huffed and shook her head.
"Sorry," I said with a weak smile.
"It's fine," she replied as she walked towards the truck. "Is this what Janeway called me for?"
"Yep, it's from Earth, roughly 1930's if I'm not mistaken," I answered.
The cargo bay doors opened and Janeway, Tuvok, Tom, and Harry walked in. Everyone pulled out their tricorders and started scanning the truck, except for Tuvok and me. He seemed fine with visual observations while I already knew enough from the episode.
"Whew! It's a 1936 Ford," Tom said as he circled the truck.
"Mister Paris?" Janeway asked.
"That was the manufacturing date: 1936. Ford was the name of the company that built it," he explained then opened the hatch to the engine to get a better look at it. "Internal combustion engine, a reciprocating piston cylinder design. Fuel source was a refined petroleum, gasoline."
"So, is this an early hover car?" Harry asked with a bit of excitement.
"No, you're about a century too early for that. This is about one step ahead of the horse-drawn carriage," Tom replied.
"Traces of potassium nitrate, ammonium, and methane back here," B'Elanna said, scanning the bed of the truck.
"I think you'll find that's manure," Janeway said then sniffed a little, "horse manure, if I'm not mistaken. Judging from the mud on the wheels and the alfalfa seedlings stuck in the metal frame, I'd say this vehicle belonged to a farmer, or, at least, someone who lived in a rural area. But the question is: How did it get here? I doubt there are many twentieth century farmers driving around the Delta Quadrant."
"There are no signs of any wormholes or temporal anomalies in this region of space," Tuvok said.
"Let's run a metallurgical analysis of the vehicle," Janeway instructed and both she and B'Elanna moved over to a nearby console.
"There's still oil in the crankcase, water in the radiator. I wonder if the battery's still charged," Tom said, closing the engine hatch, then he walked around and got inside the truck. "Now, let's see... This is before voice-command activation, so there should be something in here called a key."
"What are you doing?" Harry asked as he opened the door on the other side of the cab.
"Trying to bring this beauty back to life," Tom replied. "Now, where are the keys? Aha! Here they are. Okay, choke out, clutch in, give her a little gas, turn the key, and step on the starter."
The truck's engine started revving to my surprise, but I guess Tori had made sure it would work just like in the show. With a wave of my hand, I threw up my Wind Domain around the truck and myself then blocked the air off from everything outside of it. Right on cue, the engine fully turned on, releasing thick exhaust from the tail pipe and backfiring. Harry backed away quickly since he had heard it, but no one outside of the bubble had. I shrank my Domain down as I moved to the back of the truck, so that I was only containing the exhaust.
"I suggest that we increase the ventilation in the cargo bay before I need to release the exhaust," I remarked.
"I'm on it," B'Elanna replied.
"What's that?" Harry asked, sitting inside the cab with Tom.
"That is an amplitude modulation receiving device, AM radio. I'm not sure we'll pick up much out here," Tom said.
There was a slight ringing sound when he first turned it on followed by the hissing of static as he changed the frequency then we heard it. A sharp beep before returning to the static. He swept the frequency back until he locked in on the signal of repeating dots and dashes, morse code.
"Whoa. What is that?" Tom asked with surprise.
"It's too regular to be random interference," Harry said.
"It's morse code," I explained which made everyone look over at me. "It's a code that was used during the same timeframe as the vehicle used to transmit messages before radios and telephones became more reliable. This is a distress call known as a S.O.S."
"How do you know so much about ancient Earth?" B'Elanna asked.
I shrugged, "I spend a lot of my time reading and what you call ancient Earth isn't too different than where my group left, so I've been curious to see the differences."
"Harry, I want you to go back to the bridge and track this signal. Tom, lay in a course after he has found it," Janeway interjected with her orders, drawing the attention away from me.
"Yes, ma'am," they both said in unison and Tom turned off the truck.
They headed for the door, along with Tuvok after Janeway had given him a look.
"B'Elanna, have a team examine this vehicle and give me a report," Janeway instructed.
"Yes, Captain," B'Elanna agreed, before she left the cargo bay as well.
I raised the hand that was containing the exhaust which looked like a smokey ball. Using my Wind mana, I forced the ball to get smaller until it was the size of a golf ball then infused Ice mana into it to condense it into a liquid. I released my Domain and let the liquid fall onto the bed of the truck.
"Is there anything else that you know about this?" Janeway asked.
"I know that I was born closer to the 1930's than you, but I wasn't a history buff by any means. I only know morse code because Katye studied a number of languages when she lived on Earth," I replied. "My best guess would be alien abduction since people used to claim that it happened, but it was just believed to be crazy rantings."
"That's fair. I guess I have gotten used to you having the answer for strange situations," she said.
I chuckled wryly since I did know what was going to happen, but was not telling her since I knew that everything could be handled safely. Janeway and I headed back up to the Bridge and found that Harry had already traced the location of the signal. Things started unfolding like the episode and Janeway ordered the ship to land on the planet.
Echo and I got to join the away team and explore the planet with Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Harry. Our tricorders picked up a power source that was in a different direction as the distress call, so Janeway split us up to investigate both. Echo, Chakotay, and Harry went to check out the power source while Janeway, Tuvok, and I headed for the signal.
The terrain reminded me a lot of southern Arizona with sand, sparce green vegetation, and rocky cliffs and hills. The sky was blue with hazy white clouds which made me long to fly, since I had not had the chance to, in months. Once we reached the top of a hill, we could see the source of the distress call. A large silver plane with two propellers, one on each wing, and a wide tailfin was laying at the bottom of a small ravine. There was a bit of dust on it and the orange accents on the wings and tailfin had faded, but the black registration number could still be made out on the top of the right wing, NR16020.
"My god," Janeway breathed as she saw the plane.
We continued down the side of the hill and approached the plane slowly. I could not help but stare at it in wonder. My grandfather had a model of this very plane on one of the shelves in his study and had been the one to teach me about the pilot, though I did learn a little about her in school.
"The metal is an aluminium alloy. It appears to be an ancient Earth aircraft," Tuvok noted.
"This isn't just any ancient Earth aircraft. That is a Lockheed Model 10-E Electra," I remarked, running a hand along the underside of the wing.
"I thought you weren't a history buff," Janeway said.
"I'm not, but my grandfather used to make model airplanes of those used during World War Two. This one may predate it, but I'd be very disappointed if history forgot her contribution to aviation and woman empowerment," I replied.
"Whose plane was it?"
"I can't say for sure since there were numerous ones made, but a particular famous pilot and her navigator disappeared in one of these," I replied then opened the hatch and jumped into the plane.
The inside had been stripped down to practically nothing, but that had been a change done by the pilot rather than the aliens or residents of this planet. All that was left inside were the two seats where the pilot and navigator would have sat. I moved up to the cockpit and found an alien power source which was powering the radio which was sending out the distress call. Instead of focusing on it, I examined all of the dials, buttons, knobs, and handles that made up the control system for the plane. It was a piece of history, even if this was nothing more than my 'brother's' creation, so I wanted to remember it.
"Rebecca?" Janeway asked, leaning her head through the hatch.
"It's an automated S.O.S. that is powered by some kind of alien fusion-based generator," I replied.
Before she could reply, her badge chimed, "Chakotay to Janeway."
Janeway tapped her badge and said, "Go ahead, Commander."
"We've located the source of the trianium readings. It appears to be some sort of mine shaft. If you can spare her, I'd like to have Rebecca join us because of her abilities," he replied.
"We've located the source of the distress signal, so Rebecca and I will join you," Janeway said then turned to Tuvok. "Return to the Voyager and have B'Elanna send out a team to analyze the alien generator."
"Yes, Captain," Tuvok agreed.
We walked back up the hill while Tuvok headed towards the ship, before Janeway and I headed towards the others.
"Amelia Earhart, that's who you were talking about," Janeway remarked as we walked.
I smiled and nodded my head. "It was. It's good to know her legacy lasted over four hundred years."
"Do you really think that is her plane?"
"It's the same model of plane that she disappeared in, so there is a chance. Most people thought that she crashed or that she was captured by the Japanese, so I would find it particularly funny if the truth was that she was abducted by aliens. I guess that would mean that I had something in common with her then," I chuckled.
She chuckled as well, and eventually, we ran into the others. They were waiting at the mouth of a large cave with their tricorders out. As we approached, I spread out my Earth Domain and shifted it so that it spread down the mine shaft to get a view of what was ahead.
Echo was also using her Earth Domain, but due to her low affinity with the element, it could only stretch out a foot around her, and she was not able to manipulate it easily. Her Ice magic was so powerful because of her bond to Nyka, but the other elements were much weaker despite working on them every day. Human magic was typically unattributed while elemental creatures, like Nyka, Filigree, and my Dragon side, were suited to elemental magic, so it was not due to a lack of talent or practice that her Domain was so small.
Janeway and I led the group into the mine shaft with Echo and Nyka taking the rear. While I knew that things should be safe for now, there was no point in risking anyone's safety. Echo and I could react faster than the others and create some kind of defenses if needed. Thankfully, nothing happened, and we made it safely to the underground alien bunker.
Silver walls and yellow lighting of a slightly different design than the Vidiians; sets were expensive for the show, so a lot of things were reused when they could, especially the first few seasons. We spread out in the main cryostasis room where there were eight cases arranged with a layer of dust over their glass doors. Janeway walked over to one of them and wiped off the dirt, revealing the face of a Japanese soldier.
"He's human... and from the clothes, I'd say he is from the same era as the plane we found," Janeway said.
"I may be right," I chuckled, giving Janeway a look which made her smile back at me.
"Captain, there are five other cryostasis chambers nearby. No life signs in any of them. This appears to be the only one with people inside," Chakotay said.
"There's another male over here," Harry said, wiping off one of the chambers.
I walked around Janeway and cleaned the next one with the sleeve of my jacket. I had been hoping that I would be the one to find Amelia, and I got my wish. She had reddish brown hair, cut short for the times in a long pixie, and was wearing a brown leather jacket. On the left side of the jacket, there was a golden pin with a pair of wings over her name, A. Earheart.
"She really was abducted by aliens," I remarked, doing my best to seem surprised which was helped by my fangirl-ness at seeing this legendary woman.
We did nothing for now and returned back to the ship. Janeway called a meeting for all of the Senior Officers, where we discussed the options, just like they had in the episode. I stayed quiet through the conversation, since I knew that we would end up reviving them. The only real change from the episode was that Katye was chosen to handle the medical side of things, and, of course, I got to join the team that was awakening them.
When we returned to the cryostasis chamber, Harry deactivated the power source which opened the doors automatically. Tom noticed that the Japanese soldier was armed with a handgun, which reminded me that Fred was also armed. I walked over to him and checked inside his jacket where I found a revolver. After I took it, I used the hypo-spray to revive him then moved on to the next person while Tom, Harry, and Katye all moved between the other eight. Everyone was disoriented as they came to, but that was to be expected after waking up from a four hundred year long nap.
"I know this must be very strange for you," Janeway said in a gentle, reassuring tone when everyone was gathered in the center of the room.
"No... who are you? What is going on here?" Fred Noonan barked.
"I demand you release me immediately!" the Japanese soldier said, pushing his way towards Janeway.
"Please, if you'll just listen for a moment, I'll try to explain," Janeway assured.
"You are all speaking Japanese," the soldier remarked with surprise.
"Sounds to me like you're speaking English," a farmer said.
"It's because of a device we have," Janeway explained, pointing to her badge. "A universal translator. It allows us to talk to each other, even though our languages aren't the same."
"Who are you people?" Amelia asked.
"Look, just let us go home. We won't tell anybody," the farmer said.
"The hell we won't! I'm going to let the world know what you people have done. Do you know who you've kidnapped here? Amelia Earhart! I'm her navigator. This is going to be headline news. You people are in trouble," Fred threatened.
"Fred... let her talk," Amelia said.
"What I'm going to tell you is going to sound hard to believe, even preposterous. We think you were abducted from Earth... in the 1930s, and brought millions of miles through space to a planet on the other side of the galaxy. You were put into a... a kind of deep sleep for a very long time. It's not the 1930s anymore. The year is 2371, over four hundred years from the time you were abducted," Janeway explained.
None of them could really believe what she was saying, Amelia even shook her head and walked a few feet away in annoyance.
"You must think we are awfully gullible," Amelia interjected.
"Tell me, what's the last thing you remember before waking up here?" Janeway countered.
"We were over the Pacific, running low on gas. We were looking for an atoll to set down. We... tried to send out an S.O.S. and... suddenly there was this... huge light behind us, and the plane... stopped dead... and then it started moving backwards towards the light. I must've blacked out, I... and I w-woke up here, just now," she remembered.
"That's just the way it was with me. I was in my truck, heading into town. I was just about to get onto the blacktop, when this big light came down from the sky, just about blinded me. Next thing I know, the whole truck was lifted up off the ground," the farmer said.
"I believe what happened was that you were abducted by aliens. And if we can find out how they got you here, we might all be able to get back to Earth," Janeway replied.
Fred rolled his eyes at her statement before reaching for where his gun had been, but quickly realized that it was gone. I held it up so that he could see it, then bent the barrel with my bare hands before offering it back to him. That, of course, made the others back away from me with a hint of fear while Janeway sighed with a bit of annoyance.
"That was unneeded, Rebecca," she chided lightly.
"They won't believe you until you show them the Voyager, or some kind of proof, Captain," I replied.
"Chakotay to away team," our badges chimed.
"Janeway here."
"Captain, I'm picking up some energy displacements on the surface. I think it may be alien humanoids. It looks like they're using some kind of deflection system to trick our sensors. I think you'd better get up here," Chakotay suggested.
"Understood, Commander."
"Would you like me to handle it, Captain?" I offered.
"Yes, thank you."
I nodded my head and walked past the group from 1937, heading for the cave. Once I was out of sight, I shifted into the Yin realm and raced back up to the entrance of the mine shaft. In the distance on a hill, I could make out three glowing yellow bodies, which fit with what I remembered from the episode. I hurried over to them and stepped out of the realm with my phaser drawn.
"Lay down your weapons," I announced, startling them.
They were in strange-looking gray suits that covered every inch of their bodies except for a small opening where they could see through. The three dropped their rifles and stood up slowly, turning around in the process.
"You're not Briori," one of them said.
"No, I'm human," I replied since it was better than saying Vazukuru at the moment.
"Human?" he repeated with surprise then looked to his companions. All three pulled off their helmets and the one who had spoken said, "We're human. You're working for the Briori. They have ships like yours."
"No, we don't. We're explorers from Earth and we picked up the S.O.S. signal, so we came to investigate since we didn't think that there were other humans in this quadrant of space," I replied, putting my phaser away. "Our captain would greatly appreciate talking to you and learning about your people, if that is alright with you. She can answer any questions that you may have about us."
"Yes, I would also like to talk to her," he agreed.
I tapped my badge and said, "Rebecca to Janeway."
"Go ahead, Rebecca."
"I've made contact with three humans who live on this planet. Their leader has agreed to speak with you," I explained.
"Did you say humans?" she asked.
"I did. We'll meet you at the entrance of the cave."
"Understood. We'll bring the people that we brought out of stasis with us and meet you there," she agreed.
From there, things unfolded like they had in the episode. John Evansville, the leader of the group that I had met, told the story of how the Briori abducted a number of people from Earth to be slaves, but eventually, the descendants revolted and drove them away. After he did, he offered to show the crew and the Thirty-Seven's, what they called Amelia and the others, the three cities that his people had built.
We spent a few days on the planet, while Janeway let the crew explore the cities. Evansville offered to let any of the crew stay behind on the planet, which gave Janeway a dilemma since there would be no way to run the ship if too many people wanted to stay. Still, she gave the crew the chance to decide and, just like in the episode, no one asked to leave the ship. The look of joy and pride on her face when she saw the empty cargo bay was priceless and so much better to see in person.
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