Star Trek: Intrepid
Inevitability - Part 2
by Galen Holcomb
(intrepidlogs@hotmail.com)

Inevitability - Part 2

Chapter 2

Saturday July 26th, 1975.
(Judo-Christian Calendar, old Earth)

"So you like Rhonda Kerry, hunh?"

The question made Jason stiffen as he navigated down the embankment. As luck would have it, his right foot was resting on a wet patch of grass, and the sudden movement nearly sent him falling on his butt. After a moment of ungraceful flailing, he managed to recover his balance.

Chagrined at his loss of dignity, he met Jeff's accusation with one of his own. "So? You like Julie Davis."

Jeff shrugged. "I dunno. I guess." Then he gave his friend a look of pity. "But you've got such a big thing for Rhonda, it's not even funny. You oughtta just ask her to be your girl friend."

"I was gonna," Jason lied. "But she got pissed at me a few days ago."

Jeff slid down the hill they were decending, navigating the slope with ease. "Really? Why'd she get pissed?"

"Cause she thought I wanted her to do my homework. She was being dumb." He looked to Jeff for vindication and Jeff nodded in understanding. Girls were always getting upset over something dumb.

"I was just trying to get her to come home with me. So I asked her to help with my homework, that was all."

Jeff shook his head in exasperation. "Man, a chick would think that, wouldn't she? She couldn't figure out you were just trying to be nice."

The two boys exchanged dour expressions, as if to say, Girls. Whatta gonna do?

A moment later the two friends reached the bottom of the embankment, ratty sneakers slapping the wet sand of the lake's edge. The weekly pilgrimage to Seattle's Angle Lake was a ritual that occurred every Saturday. Well, almost every Saturday. Two weeks ago, Jeff's stupid sister had come down with the measles and Jeff had had to stay home and take care of her. Since Jeff was immune to the disease, his parents had sentenced him to a weekend of servitude.

But today the expedition had gone off like clockwork and the pair was rewarded by the familiar sight and sound of water lapping at their feet.

Jeff, all freckles and elbows, was already kicking off his shoes. "Let's swim on this side of the lake this time!" He exclaimed, pointing to a small dock a few dozen feet away.

As Jeff moved into a fast sprint, Jason scowled at him. "We don't have permission to use that dock!" He called after his flying partner. "We might get in trouble!" A family that lived on the lake's edge had given permission for the boys to use their small, private dock to swim from. But it was a safe bet that whoever owned this other one would frown on the intrusion.

But his warning was more a formality than a true objection. Jeff was the bolder of the two and, during the last year, had been Jason's guide to the shadier side of fun. Jeff seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of exactly where the invisible boundaries were in the world, the ones you could safely traverse and the ones you didn't dare. Jason trusted him more often than not. After all, under Jeff's leadership, the duo had been flitting from one youthful misadventure to the next-----and to date, their escapades had landed neither of them in serious trouble.

Besides, how could using someone's dock be considered dangerous?

Standing next to Jason was the telepathic Lethean. He flexed his clawed hands in thoughtful meditation. "That boy, Jeff Burke. He was your best friend, wasn't he? He was one of those memories you suppressed when you gained full awareness of your past. Fascinating." The creature added.

The boy looked at the alien curiously. "I didn't surpass nothing."

"Suppress, not surpass. And you did suppress him." The Lethean hissed quietly. "You miss him terribly, don't you? While at the same time you blame him for what transpired here today. I see that now." He appeared to be looking at images that only he could view.

Aubrey's childhood persona squinted at the Lethean, seeming to notice his appearance for the first time. "You're weird." He proclaimed. "And my dad told me that I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." With that, his legs pumped him over the grass, as he sped after his friend.

Behind him, the Lethean wrestled with concern. Something was amiss. He wasn't getting immediate access to all of Aubrey's memories, as he should have. Something seemed to be slowing down the process, forcing him to observe the chain of his memories in a plodding, sequential order. He had gained entry to his mind, but only with limited privileges. It was a restriction to which he was not accustomed.

Could Aubrey be doing this?

No. He was human, and humans had no defenses to ward off telepathy.

This type of push back was more of what he typically found in Vulcan minds, during those few occasions that he had forced himself on such a subject. (For which he had charged a tidy sum. The level of expertise and brute force needed to break a Vulcan's mental shields was phenomenal. Only the most accomplished Letheans could manage such a feat. He was proud of his track record in this area but detested the extra work that was inherent.)

Could it be an aberration?

Perhaps, but there was no time to dwell on it. He would need to ride along with the man's recollections, being careful to get the information he was tasked to retrieve, when it presented itself. Although this would require more vigilance than he had anticipated, the end result would be the same.

He reclaimed his focus, looking on as the two boys invaded a stranger's yard.

"This is a really cool dock," Jeff observed with admiration, as he took in the long elegant structure.

Jason gave a half hearted "yeah," as the duo made a beeline for the dock's entrance.

Jeff was looking about him excitedly, absorbing every moment of the trespass. Jason thought he almost seemed disappointed that no one had thus far emerged to chase them away. Forbidden actions were less fun in the absence of tangible danger.

All things considered, it was ironic that it was Jason, not Jeff who noticed it first.

"Holy crap!" Jason gasped.

Jeff was already on the dock, his bare fleet padding against the textured boards. He noticed seconds later that his friend was no longer in attendance. "Jason! C'mon! What're you doing?"

"Hey, did you see that?" Jason called back. He was looking at the large two-story house that was set back from the dock.

Jeff wasn't used to dragging dead weight where his schemes were concerned. He became angry at being confronted with this sudden delay. "See WHAT? C'mon, let's GO!"

"There was some kind of flash from under that house!" Cried Jason, as he pointed eagerly up the sloping yard. "And I swear part of the house turned to glass for a second. I could even see inside it!"

Jeff trotted over, casting his eyes about the lawn. He was still hoping for an irate grown up to appear, waving a newspaper or bat, yelling "Get off my property, you damn trouble making kids!" But no adults were to be seen. He was skeptical about Jason's claim, but it hardly mattered. If anything about the house warranted close inspection, then he might yet get the excitement he was longing for. What the hec. It was an excuse to go snooping, at any rate.

"You said it turned to glass?" He asked, eyeing the structure.

Jason's head bobbed up and down. "Yeah, yeah, kinda. And a big flash of light came out of the cellar. It was really cool."

Jeff was studying the dark cellar windows like a jeweler hunting for imperfections in a polished diamond. Finally, he shrugged and slapped his friend on the back. "Ok, let's check it out."

But the other pursed his lips, already regretting his enthusiasm. Unlike Jeff, he had actually witnessed the bizarre event. Anything that could make a house go invisible was freaky. Trespassing was one thing, but this was the type of mystery that had the potential of real danger.

"Maybe we should tell my dad about this instead." He said, keeping his feet in place. Jason's father worked for Boeing in the aerospace division, a fact he was known for repeating to both friend and stranger alike. He believed his dad knew just about everything concerning science and astronomy. This new idea had the allure of both logic and safety.

Jeff did an abrupt about face. He gaped at him with astonishment, as if it had been Jason, not the house that had briefly turned to glass. "Your DAD? Jesus, I hope you're not turning into a chicken shit."

This was a stunning milestone for the other boy. Never in their shared history had Jeff ever accused him of cowardice. He felt as if the wind had been knocked from him. "Eat my butt." He retorted, but the comeback was a frail effort.

"Well I'm going anyway. You do what ya wanna." Jeff moved into an easy jog up the yard once again. "I saw something weird and I wanna know what it is." He added, now taking credit for the discovery.

Out of nothing more than learned behavior, Jason's body ran after Jeff, quickly catching up due to his longer legs. By the time his brain awoke, it found itself halfway to the house.

Jeff gave him one of those; it's about time kind of looks. Jason had been forgiven, but would be observed closely for further misconduct.

"Let's go to the side of the house, where the cellar windows are." Said Jason, with false bravado.

In silent agreement the other ten year old crouched low with him, as they circled around a bush, like spies on a secret mission. The house had two large picture windows on the first floor, but the drapes were pulled. The other nearby residences had their line of sight blocked by large trees that divided the property. All told, only someone on a boat in the middle of the lake might have had a chance of spotting them, and that was only if their suspicious behavior drew attention.

In due time, they were at the side of the house, huddled around the rectangular cellar windows that were set at ground level.

There wasn't much to see at first. Jeff began to huff at once about how there must be blinds or something obscuring their view into the room. He was in the midst of proposing that they infiltrate the house itself, when Jason interrupted him.

"Wait a sec," He said. Reaching out, he ran his fingers experimentally over the grimy glass. Sure enough, clear streaks appeared where his fingers had rubbed off the dirt. Together, they both started wiping the window clean with their hands. It was a vigorous display of teamwork that would have made both their parents proud, were it applied to more noble pursuits. (Say, tiding up their rooms for example.)

After their efforts had succeeded in clearing a good size peephole, they flattened on their stomachs and hooded their eyes with both hands to get a view of the interior.

Any fears that the snooping expedition had been a waste were quickly discarded.

What stood out were the arches-----six big metal frames that stood upright, about seven feet in height. All of them were positioned in a straight line, one behind the other, with about six feet between them. Strange protrusions stuck out from the edges of each frame, like jagged jig saw pieces. Against a far wall something was mounted on a stand, sort of like a podium. It might have been a control panel of some sort, but it had no buttons. Furniture was littered about the room in a haphazard fashion, as though it had been moved aside hastily to make room for the odd structures.

"Oh, this is major cool." Jeff observed with a hushed reverence. But ultimately, he wasn't completely satisfied with the finding. They could see most of the basement from their vantage point, but not all. Who knew what other strange curiosities might be waiting just out of sight? They either needed to get inside, or-----

Then he had it. Across the basement, he noticed windows on the other side of the room, but larger than what they were now looking through. A view from there would be a panoramic vista compared to the current offering.

"Hey," Jeff said. "I'm gonna go around to the other side. I wanna see more of what's in there."

"Cool. Let's do it."

But Jeff brushed him off. "No, no. It's easier for me alone." He said quickly. "Better chance of no one seeing us if I do it myself. We'll both watch one side, ok?"

Jason was far from ok with this idea. In his mind he heard himself saying, maybe we should tell my dad about this.

He cringed at the memory. Of course the house hadn't become invisible! It was just a trick of the light and he had freaked out like a little girl. And in front of Jeff. What if Jeff stopped inviting him on cool capers like this one was turning out to be? He remembered the fun they had both had peeking into the teacher's bathroom at school where the foxy Mrs. Trunt was changing. Or the time Jeff had got him to sneak into the back door of the Lewis & Clark cinemas to watch a free movie.

His whiny-ass proposition of telling daddy may have just dissolved his friend's trust in him. He was now convinced that this was why Jeff had decided to strike off on his own.

Jason would need to swing the pendulum back in his direction no matter what it took.

"Yeah, well, if I decide to go down there, I ain't waitin' for YOU." He said, nodding at the peculiar tableau within the basement. He hoped desperately that his bad boy song and dance was convincing.

Jeff's eyes sparkled, so Jason's performance must have been at least partially effective. "Yeah, we should go down." He paused long enough for Jason to bask in his approval. "If those arch things can make stuff invisible, then they could destroy the whole neighborhood with radiation or somethin'." He was no longer a naughty boy, slinking around a stranger's house for the benefit of mischief. Apparently, he had now become a concerned citizen, risking life and limb for his community.

His bluff called, Jason stared into the windows, wondering how he could divert his friend from a stupid endeavor that was basically his idea to begin with, while doing no further harm to his reputation. But time had run out, for Jeff was already on his feet and moving along the wall to the front of the house.

"I bet we can crawl through those windows on the other side," Jeff whispered excitedly. "They're big enough. But let's go one at a time. When you see me looking in from the other windows, then you come. Cool?"

"Cool!" Jason agreed. He was torn between maintaining his status with Jeff, and fear as it became obvious that this situation had now gotten away from him, slipping through his hands like a wiggling fish.

He decided on the path of least resistance. He would follow as he always did, and then place the blame at Jeff's feet if they got into trouble.

They high fived one another and then Jeff slid along the wall. Jason watched him disappear around the corner a moment later, nimble and cat-like.

The two boys had parted company, thinking they would meet up again in just a few short minutes. However, the separation would prove more significant than either of them knew at the time.

Because it would turn out to be the very last time they laid eyes upon one another.

Chapter 3

Jason turned his attention once more to the strange room beneath him. He occasionally flicked a glance at the windows on the other side, anticipating Jeff's mop of blond hair to appear through the glass at any second.

The unusual frames that dominated the cellar floor weren't anything sinister, so far as he could tell. There was nothing about them that seemed in the slightest bit menacing. Honestly, he couldn't even take a guess as to what they were, so how could he be nervous about them in the first place?

But nervous he was. The idea of stepping within close proximity to those funny arches caused a queasy tickle in his belly.

And then it happened again. It started with a low hum, barely audible to the human ear. It was more like a vibration. And then it WAS a vibration, a deep powerful one. His bones seemed to resonate within his body, like a tuning fork.

Startled, he scrambled to a sitting position, looking madly about at everything around him. Where the hec was this noise coming from?

Well duh, Sherlock. It had to be.

Screwing up his failing composure, he got down on all fours and looked again through the small windows, gingerly holding an arm at the ready in case the vibration made the glass shatter.

Incredibly, the frames had turned into neon light tubing, shining bright enough to nearly blind him. He threw a forearm over his eyes and looked away even as the light intensified. He felt like someone had just turned one of those big searchlights on him, like the kind they use to advertise special events. As the intensity began to die down, he removed his protective arm and quietly gasped in fear.

Viewing the full interior of the mysterious room wasn't a problem anymore-----because, as before the entire wall of the house had turned invisible, along with part of the floor. He was able to see the empty living room and some equally bare bedrooms on the second floor. It was just like one of those stupid Barbie playhouses that girls had, the ones where you could swing open the walls and view the layout of all the rooms.

The cellar now looked like a big square hole in the ground, every inch and corner open to scrutiny.

"Jeff!" He cried out. "Hey, are you over there?" He very much wanted some companionship right now.

All at once, reality decided on a return appearance. The walls and floor snapped back into place, every bit as concrete and substantial as they were before.

The ground was still vibrating though, and the archways still looked like neon lights.

That was it for him. It was time to get his butt out of there before something bad really did happen to both of them. How stupid and trivial it now seemed to worry over what Jeff thought of him. The thing was, they had to tell someone. And he again thought of his dad. That had been the right idea the first time. His dad would get the authorities involved, and experts would soon unravel this frightening mystery. (He had learned the word "authorities" from watching TV. It invoked more confidence than saying "the police".)

He bolted to his feet, pivoted to run faster than anytime in his life-----

Jeff screamed from the far side of the house, the noise muffled by the now solid building between them. The shriek belonged to a child who had been made helpless with terror. It was a miserable agonizing cry, which rose high on the wind before speeding away to silence. It sounded as though Jeff had tumbled into a bottomless pit or been swept into the air by an evil witch.

He was paralyzed in a way he never thought possible. Jeff was a tough kid. His r‚sum‚ included everything from fighter to curfew breaker-----and on occasion, even bully when the mood struck him. This was a kid whom Jason had never seen shed a tear-----not even that time his father had whipped his ass until it was apple red. Jason had always drawn vigor from his smug indifference to the grown up world, with its convoluted mandates and hypocritical posturing.

But, some...thing on the other side of the house had got Jeff Burke, and got him good-----something that even the toughest kid in the world was powerless to defend against. That something had made Jeff scream like a five-year-old girl.

Every single nerve, impulse and neuron within his brain told him to follow his first idea, and get the hell out of Dodge-----get out before that same whatever it was that consumed Jeff came for him as well.

And maybe he would have, were he a typical kid. But something awoke within him in that instant-----perhaps the fist stirrings of leadership and loyalty that would define his later life. He began to feel just the smallest measure of true courage, tapping into a fortitude that had, until that very moment, lain sleeping. He thought of Jeff as his teammate, not just as a buddy -----his partner in crime and adventure.

And his partner needed his help right now.

It was his...responsibility to find him.

He leaned against the side of the house, doing a quick inventory of his nerves. When he was ready, he would leap to his friend's rescue. If he went soon enough, he could do it before his newfound mettle deserted him.

It was then that the wall upon which he was resting simply ceased to exist. One moment it was hard stucco...the next, he was pushing against thin air.

He let out a startled yelp as he suddenly pitched forward, falling through the empty space of the wall and then through the equally absent floor on the other side.

He plummeted head first into the strange cellar. Years of playground antics had taught him how to land from a fall. He managed a half-ass tuck and roll upon hitting the concrete floor, avoiding injury. What his maneuver hadn't protected him from, his youthful resilience did.

He found himself sprawled within mere feet of the radiant Stonehenge. He gawked at the odd room. The ceiling above him was there once more, as though it had never left.

Further inspection of the cellar showed no immediate signs of an exit.

But that was crazy. There had to be some way out this room. He certainly wasn't going to stay here, even if he had to scale the wall and go out a window.

Another aspect of this predicament was even more worrisome. There was still no trace of Jeff. He had held out hope for just a moment there that Jeff had fallen into the cellar as well.

But alas, Jason was alone in the strange room, with nothing but the bright arches for company, like luminescent sentries guarding a secret treasure.

As if all this weren't enough hair-raising weirdness, he discovered that the situation had just become far scarier than he would have believed possible.

Because he was now sharing company with a ghost.

Spell-bound, he watched a tall, translucent figure appear within the arch at the far side of the room, then begin walking forward in a straight line, passing under the other structures one by one as it continued its journey towards him. As the apparition moved through each frame, the air within crackled and the figure seemed to gather thickness and substance.

By the time it emerged through the final gateway, the "ghost" was as real as Jason himself.

Booted feet stopped directly in front of him. The glowing arches faded to their former metallic appearance, while the vibrations died to silence.

He looked up at the feminine body within the tight-fitting green overalls. Perhaps it was a failing of his gender that he was able to appreciate her long legs and curved hips despite his dire situation. That is, until he took in the woman's face, which was a breathtaking sight to say the least.

She wasn't human.

He had been wrong. This wasn't a beautiful specter from the afterlife. This was a monster-----something right out of Night Gallery or the Twilight Zone.

He somehow got to his feet again, but he was panicked to discover he couldn't avert his gaze from the creature, no matter how he tried. What if she turned him to stone? Had this happened to Jeff?

The monster-woman seemed just as surprised to see him, as he was to see her. She stepped back a few feet and drew a small device from her belt that was about the size of a cigarette lighter. She was pointing it at him as though it were a gun or something. Jason figured it for a laser, which would fit, since she must be from another planet.

"How did you get in here?" She growled. Her voice was what it might sound like if a tiger could speak.

But Jason couldn't answer. His new courage had slipped out the back door when he wasn't looking. That bravery had been fueled by the desire to help Jeff. But that didn't seem an option any more.

"I asked you a question, child!" She snarled.

"I'm lost," Lame, lame, and more lame. But it was all that came to mind. He tore his vision from her face and kept it on her boots, because he couldn't bear it any longer. Her mouth was full of jagged teeth so numerous; they seemed to spill out for lack of sufficient room. Her nose was pig-like, but in a menacing boar kind of way. Her skin was a leathery deep brown. Her eyes were like those of an animal, small and predatory. Unkempt black fur or possibly hair framed her ugly features.

With one hand, she grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, pulling him off his feet. "If this is meant as a diversion, then it is a pitiful one."

Jason clung to her outstretched arm in order to avoid chocking. He lashed his head around in panic; certain that the alien fiend was preparing to eat him on the spot.

"I want to know how you got in here! This room is sealed!"

"I-----I fell in! I swear!" He blubbered.

Her face crunched into a display of cruelty that would have given the Devil pause. "Don't play games with me, you little whelp! Or I'll rip your throat out!"

It was really dumb, but all Jason thought of in that moment, was what the Six Million Dollar Man would do in this situation. But the thought passed by his brain without bothering to stop. Because, in the final analysis, it didn't matter. Colonel Steve Austin wasn't here right now, Jason was. And last he checked, he wasn't sporting bionic limbs and superhuman strength.

The creature opened its slavering mouth, seeming to make good on her threat to chomp down on his neck.

The arches rudely interrupted her, as they suddenly flashed on, flooding the cellar with pure white light. The floor vibrated beneath them, the ceiling began to fade in and out, as it had done before.

The monster-woman dropped him in surprise. She glared at the glowing structures as though they had betrayed her. "Who's accessing?" She demanded of him. "It should only be me!"

Jason became alarmed at the fact that she was alarmed. She had just stepped through the portal from God only knew where. Yet she was startled that someone else was now arriving. Anything that could frighten this monstrosity was not someone he cared to meet.

They both didn't have long to wait. But it was no person or monster that was coming through this time.

It was a baseball.

At least that's what it looked like to Jason. It was a small ball that materialized within the outermost arch and then careened though the others as though someone had just hit a line drive from the other side. When it shot through the final portal and clanked to the floor, he noticed it wasn't a baseball after all. It was a round something or other made of chrome metal.

The monster roared in panic. "GET DOWN!"

She tackled Jason, spinning him around, interposing her body between him and the sphere. Her action was barely in time. The small device exploded an instant later. The concussion blew them both across the room where Jason bounced into the foot of some metal shelving. The shock wave caused some of the rusted metal within the shelf to shatter. Part of the structure crumbled, and an especially large box smashed downward, landing squarely on Jason's head and upper torso. Then the rest came down. Tools, metal pipes and other bulky objects rained upon him just before the entire shelf tipped over, striking him with deadly force.

Chapter 4

The two Section 31 agents dove through the gateway after the stun grenade detonated. They hit the cement floor and rolled into crouched positions, blanketing the room with phaser fire, just to make sure no one was left standing.

The taller of the two agents was a fair-haired man named Kurt Tracy. He spoke with a British accent. "Perez, secure the room."

Agent Antonio Perez, a short man of Spanish decent, whipped out a wafer thin tricorder and started scanning the prone body of the alien at his feet.

"Female Nausican." He said. "She'll be out for hours. It looks like she took the full brunt of the grenade." He began walking around the area, running the tricorder over the old furniture and junk that littered the cellar.

"Damn," Tracy said. "I'd hoped to find more members of the Opposition to take back with us." His eyes darted around the cellar. "Looks to be a residential structure native to this era. Hell of a flat to set up shop in. I'll have a look at the temporal interface, to see if I can download their data. If luck is with us, we might gleam a clue regarding what they were doing here on old Earth."

"Nothing good, I'll bet." Perez stared at his tricorder. "Hmm. I'm having a little trouble, here. Some kind of subspace refraction is interfering with my scans."

"Hell, it's no wonder." Tracy complained. He was running his own scanner over the control panel that was set up along one of the cellar walls. "This temporal gate is a shoddy wreck. We've got sharks and gremlins all about."

This statement made no sense to Perez. "Sharks and what?"

Tracy removed his backpack and began taking out small plate shaped devices. He tossed several to Perez. "Start setting up charges, just the way we discussed in the briefing." As the two men began attaching the discs to the cellar walls and support columns, Tracy explained. "Sharks and gremlins. That's what we call subspace sinkholes. They form around certain type of phenomenon. In this case, an unstable chronoton generator." He shook his head. "It's this damn black market technology the Opposition is using. It's distorting subspace all over this area. Chronoton leakage was quite severe also." He sneered at the Nausican. "Not that these bastards give a damn."

Perez slapped down charges as he moved around the metal arches, working his way to the back of the cellar, where junk and fallen shelves waited. "Are those sinkholes you were talking about dangerous?"

"They can be, depending on their size. The little ones we call gremlins, because they normally just cause some minor equipment oddities, which are a nuisance to communications and scanners, but little else. The big ones, the sharks, are quite another matter. They drift about, their apertures opening and closing at random. They're often big enough to swallow a person or even a vehicle."

Perez seemed to go a shade lighter. "Are there any in here?"

"One or two gremlins, which would account for your tricorder problems on that side of the room. Luckily, sharks always form a further distance away from the epicenter-----although some did appear very close to this house, according to the data I saw." He shrugged. "It was probably just blind luck that none ate a hole through the wall."

After Tracy had attached about six explosives, he moved to the unconscious Nausican. He bent down and began to frisk her. He removed a small phaser from her belt and pocketed it. Then he noticed something else which peaked his interest. Eagerly, he snapped off a small crystal cube from her belt. With obvious excitement, he began running his tricorder over the object. "I'll be a son of a bitch." He exclaimed under his breath.

"What's that?" Perez asked, placing the last of his own explosives.

Tracy tapped the side of the cube twice with his index finger. The cube was only one quarter the size of his palm, but this changed instantly. It liquefied, then grew into a large disc before becoming solid once more. Another quick tap on the disc and a standard keyboard interface appeared. The symbols were alien at first, but as Perez watched, they changed before his eyes into Federation standard characters.

"I'll be damned if this isn't it!" Tracy grunted. He reversed his earlier actions, and the object resumed its former shape and size. He clipped it to his belt.

Perez thought he looked almost giddy, like a kid presented with a new hover-bike on Christmas morning.

"You know what that is?" He asked Tracy again.

The other man allowed a razor thin smile to appear. "God's window." He said and turned away, leaving his cryptic reply in the air behind him.

Perez was used to secrets and need to know directives. He shrugged it off.

His tricorder suddenly beeped at him. He glanced at it, and then did a double take, his heavy eyebrows rising high. "My God, we have another body in here. The gremlins must have prevented me from detecting it."

"Where?" Tracy demanded.

Perez turned around in a slow circle, then jabbed a finger towards the rear of the room, indicating an overturned shelf and a pile of metal parts. "There!"

They both jogged over and began removing debris from the heap.

"They're alive, whoever they are." Perez reported as they pushed the shelf off whoever was underneath. "But not for long."

"Bloody hell!" Tracy spat, as soon as they had a clear view of the prone body. "It's a kid!"

Perez bit his lip. "And native to this time, judging by his clothing. But how did he get in here? The Opposition has the exit sealed with cement and those windows up there don't open."

Tracy let out an irritated puff. "Probably the chronoton leakage. It could have thrown parts of this building out of sync with normal time. If this kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he could have become trapped here."

Jason gasped in pain and ogled at the two men in black who now stood over him. He was in agony worse than he had ever thought was possible. He gagged at the taste of his own blood. His lungs felt like they had water in them. He fought desperately to hide his tears from these strangers. "I want my dad," He murmured thickly.

The two agents stepped away, thinking they were out of earshot.

"How bad?" Tracy asked.

The other man did a quick review of his medical scanner, which he had recovered from his first aid kit a moment before. "Bad. Severe head trauma, puncture lungs, broken bones and internal bleeding. A heavy object must have landed on him when the shelf fell over."

"Can he be saved with 20th century medicine?"

Perez slowly shook his head. He was trained as a medic and knew what mortal injuries looked like. "He won't survive without modern treatment. I would have to stabilize his condition at the very least for this era's doctor's to have a chance."

Tracy let out a string of obscenities that an Orion mobster would have found educational. "We have less than thirty minutes before we have to blow the charges and return back through the portal. Can you do it by then?"

"Sure, but he'll still need a hospital."

"Not a problem." He jerked his head back at the portal. "Since that piece of junk has been putting out odd temporal effects, I'm sure law enforcement agencies are already in route. If not, they will be after we tap into the local communications grid and call them. We'll be sure to unseal the exit and place him upstairs so they find him."

Perez seemed doubtful. "And you're sure these bombs will only dissociate inorganic metal, specific to this technology-----and not people?"

Tracy waved off the question impatiently. "Yes, yes. We went over all that in the briefing. Just get to work straight away. We can't afford to have someone die in the past who wasn't meant to. The timeline might go to hell in a bloody hand basket. God knows it's happened before."

Perez turned away at that point to attend to the boy. He didn't realize that Tracy had frozen in place upon making his last statement. His face lit up as though he just had the greatest idea ever conceived.

"Just a minute. Hold off before you do anything." He said. "Something's come to mind. I might be able to kill two birds with one stone."

The other man grunted impatiently. "What?" He was distractedly pulling instruments from his medical kit.

Tracy withdrew the small cube from his belt and began to once again unfold it. That done, he strode over to the injured child. He then held out the odd circular mechanism at arms length, directing it at Jason. With his free hand, he started tapping on the plate's small control panel. A thin beam of light emerged from the device, momentarily touching the boy before turning off.

"Is that some kind of medical scanner?" Perez was feeling his curiosity awaken.

"Hardly." Tracy trotted over to the temporal unit's control panel. He began doing something furiously, but Perez couldn't see what, because his back was turned.

Jason began to moan loudly. He tried to get up but cried out as searing torment jolted over him from head to toe.

Perez winced as he kept a steady eye on the tricorder. The boy's vitals were dropping steadily. He put a callused hand on his head. "Lie still. You're going to be ok." He said softly. "My name is Antonio. Antonio Perez."

Jason blinked his wide eyes rapidly, as if in reply. Then his face contorted in misery. "Please, get my dad..." He sobbed through gurgling lungs. "I'm hurt, I'm hurt a lot and it REALLY hurts." Tears were now flowing steadily down his cheeks.

Perez could take no more. He immediately dialed a hypo and pressed it against the kid's neck. Mercifully, the boy's face slackened into something approaching a normal expression. The painkiller would give some comfort until he could be treated.

"Tracy!" He yelled over his shoulder. "What's going on over there? I need to start on him right away."

But Agent Kurt Tracy of Section 31 was lost in images that were playing out upon the surface of the plate he was holding. It was like a small view screen, running three-dimensional records that were amazingly clear and detailed. Perez caught a glimpse of one picture that looked like a devastated city, one from this era. The buildings were ruined and the sky behind them was an angry red color. Other images came to life, parading by in quick succession. He saw armies doing battle in suburban neighborhoods. The montage was too quick for him grasp everything he was looking at.

Then it was gone.

Tracy methodically folded up the unusual instrument and returned it to his belt.

Perez put his hand back on the boy's head. "I'm going to help you now." He said gently.

"Agent Perez, step away from that child. We need to leave. Now."

Incredulous, he stood up slowly while keeping a careful watch on the medical scanner. "Are you serous? We have to save him. You just said so yourself."

"I was wrong. This device that I took from the Opposition agent, it works. I was able to see the information I needed."

Perez felt more lost by the second. "Tracy, please start making sense. I need to do my job and quickly."

Tracy fingered the strange object on his belt and weighed his words carefully before finally deciding to respond. "All right. I hadn't planned on disclosing this, because it's need to know information. But under the circumstances, I feel it's appropriate." He took a few steps towards Perez. "Our mission was not only to shut down the Opposition's temporal operation here in the past, but also to find this." He indicated the crystal cube he was touching.

"I gathered that, considering your reaction."

Tracy leered at him. "Yes. Well. What you don't know is what it does." He held it before him, the dim light splintering into various spectrums as it bounced off. "This device, when linked into a temporal unit, such as that one," He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "gives a person access to all branches of reality." He let the words settle over Perez, taking in his reaction.

The other man sighed impatiently, and glanced back at Jason. "You're going to have to be more direct than that."

Tracy was. "One can see the past, present and future of any individual for any given timeline. It can track anyone's history across multiple realities and alternate histories. Even parallel universes." He gazed at the cube as though in love. "All of existence laid out for the viewing. Do you get it now?"

"'God's window', as you said. Yes, I see why it has to be in safe hands. Now, what does that have to do with this kid?"

"Everything. I looked into his future. The one in which he survives."

Perez again checked the boy's vital signs. They had hit a plateau momentarily. It was his body's final rallying effort before the inevitable decline. "To what end?"

"To find out if his death would pollute the timeline, of course. But I found more than I had bargained for. You see, if he lives unimaginable devastation will occur."

"If you mean World War Three or the Eugenics Wars, that's already part of our history."

"Not like this." He walked carefully around Jason, as though he were an explosive that could go off at any time. "All of humanity. All life on Earth. Extinct before the 21st Century. No Federation. No Starfleet. Our ancestors. All gone." He nodded at the floor. "Gone because of him. IF you save him."

Perez felt a cold snake work through his gut, as though someone were tap dancing over his grave. He looked down at Jason, a frail ten year old, breathing heavily, bathed in sweat.

Tracy continued. "He was going to die anyway, you see. A few months from now, he'll be on what used to be called a 'school bus', when it will crash. He won't survive. Just as destiny intended."

"Keep your voice down!" Perez snapped. "He can hear you."

The two men walked a few meters away before continuing their debate.

"You want me to let him die?" Perez whispered harshly. "And why? Because some alien crystal ball says so?"

"I have every reason to believe the information I saw is accurate."

"And you know how to operate that thing? Despite having just found it?"

"Our intelligence has been gathering information on this device for a long time. We knew virtually everything about its operation, just not where it was. So yes, I was briefed on how it works."

It occurred to Perez that he would need to make his case quickly. The clock was ticking on more fronts than one. "Look, if he's going to die anyway, then what's the difference if I treat him? At least he won't suffer right now. If fate or God has other plans for him afterward, so be it. At the moment, I have a hurt child at my feet. I can't turn away."

"Negative. These events have probably created a tangent outcome already. There's a good chance he won't perish when he was meant to."

"Then use that thing to see what the outcome will be if we save him."

"As absurd as this may sound, there's no time. And the risk is too great."

"A child's life is at stake!"

Tracy felt his temper begin to slip. When 31 had assigned him to find the Opposition's time portal, he had selected a crack team of specialists, who worked closely with the Federation's Temporal Investigation Division. Had they been here now, there would have been no debate. Agent Perez had been a back up in the event the other two operatives were unavailable. However, the man had lately been showing a liberal streak, which was a danger to field operations.

The discovery of the Opposition's portal had come at a bad time. Tracy's team was not close enough to move in. So reluctantly, he had used this unwelcome substitute.

"Listen, mate. I'm going to make this easy for you," he seethed. "I'm the ranking agent on scene. You'll follow my orders. I'll not let you destroy the Federation simply because you can't control your emotions. Untold billions are at stake."

To accent his point, Tracy allowed his hand to brush against the small phaser clipped to his belt.

The gesture wasn't lost on Perez, as he looked back and forth between the boy and his partner, his body locked with bitter indecision.

All at once, Perez seemed to visibly deflate, his shoulders slumped in submission and his head fell forward as though he were studying the floor. "You're right." He admitted softly.

"What did you say?"

With watering eyes, Perez heaved in a shuddering breath. "I said you're right. Let's just get this over with."

Tracy inspected him with contempt. "It's about time you got your head straight. Pick up the Nausican and I'll activate the portal. The charges are programmed to detonate thirty seconds after we enter the arches, so we'll have to be quick about our exit. The explosives will erase any traces of future technology after we're gone." He hoped that reciting procedure would have a sobering influence on Perez. He would definitely have to be eliminated upon their return. For now, Tracy counted his blessings that the man was too spineless to pose any more of a threat to his mission.

He patted the crystal cube at his belt, and then turned to begin keying in the sequence that would fire up the chronoton generator.

It was only when the strong arm hooked around his neck from behind did he realize his mistake.

He had badly misjudged Agent Perez.

Tracy tried the appropriate move to break the deadly grip, but Perez was ready for it. Panicking, Tracy thrashed his free arm around, desperately going for the phaser at his side.

But the smaller, stocky man kicked his legs out from under him while jerking Tracy's head backward with vicious strength.

Just before Tracy felt his neck break, he experienced disbelief. How could his life end like this?

Perez was nearly hyperventilating from the momentous action he had taken. He would shed no tears for the ruthless Tracy, but still, it gave him no pleasure to kill a man in cold blood.

He ran back to the boy and immediately began to administer the necessary treatment to save his life. He had nearly waited too long. It took a good ten minutes of sustained work to get him stable and out of immediate danger.

Perez wiped his sweaty forehead and sat back on his haunches. He looked at the boy's life signs and realized he would have to revise his earlier diagnosis. The kid was stable, but he wouldn't see the next sunrise were he left to 20th century medicine. His only chance lay four hundred years down the road.

Feeling euphoric from the anesthesia, Jason presented a weak smile. "Thanks for helping me, mister." He said in a low voice. It was still difficult for him to speak due to reduced lung capacity. "Are you a doctor?"

He patted the boy's shoulder. "Sort of. I need for you lie still, ok? You're not all the way better yet."

"Ok."

"What's your name?"

The boy drew in a long breath so he would have air with which to answer. "Jason Aubrey. Jason Daniel Aubrey." He amended with a low gasp. "Daniel is my father's name."

Perez knew he had to have witnessed Tracy's death. But the boy's mind must have already suppressed the incident to avoid causing more damage to his overloaded psyche. Not for the first time, he marveled at what the human brain could accomplish.

"Well, Jason. You lie there like I said and close your eyes. I have something to take care of."

Jason easily complied with the request. Shock was causing his mind to close up shop. His eyelids fell and he eased into a light sleep within seconds.

Perez climbed to his feet. He had more distasteful chores to complete before they left.

First, he stooped down and unclipped the strange "Crystal Ball" device from Tracy's body. He wanted nothing to do with it, but somehow couldn't bring himself to destroy it. That meant he would need to take it with him. He slipped it into his backpack, feeling like he was harboring a live cobra.

Next, he withdrew his phaser, thumbed the setting to maximum, and then burned Tracy's body to vapor. He couldn't risk having it discovered in the past.

Finally, he moved to the Nausican. He hesitated. He knew that he could only take one person with him through the portal. And unfortunately for her, Jason would need the medical expertise of a 24th century infirmary.

"Sorry," He said under his breath.

He fired before he could become conflicted on the subject. She disappeared in a crackling flash of light, leaving a small burn mark on the cement.

Perez walked over to the flat control interface along the side of the wall and finished keying in the command sequence that his late partner had begun.

As the system thrummed to life, he bent down and gently took Jason in his arms.

He woke from his light sleep. "Are you taking me home?" He whispered.

"We have to go to a hospital first. But don't worry. It's a special hospital where nothing hurts you."

The boy's face tightened with anxiety. "But we need to call my dad first."

Only a lie would suffice in this case. Perez was used to lying, just not to children who were on their deathbeds. "We'll call him when we get there, OK?"

The unstable effects of the time portal were again in motion. The cellar began to tremble as the six metal arches lit up with blinding energy.

With Jason in his arms, Perez moved into a fast run, passing under the nearest structure and heading towards the next. As they collided with each chronoton field, their bodies' space-time orientation was altered. The cellar around them became a phantom, then gradually faded from view as they continued forward.

Jason would have panicked when he realized that they were now running through the very same gateway that the monster-woman had emerged from-----but his injuries and the painkiller diluted his fear.

From behind them came a great sunrise, a sunrise so bright Jason had to shut his eyes to keep out its intensity. A roar followed immediately afterward.

"Faster, faster!" The man beneath him huffed.

Despite his best efforts to believe otherwise, Jason knew beyond doubt that he would never see his father or his friends again.