WARNING: Unfortunately I have to give a warning that is also a spoiler. Those who are still very much affected by 9/11 may want to reconsider reading this. This story is not a tragedy – in the sense of the word, but an alternate history. Things will occur and history will not be changed. That’s the sad part. But, I don’t write perfect ending stories with perfect situations. I like to think that I write some of the scenes to bite. Bite hard. So, this is my alternate history with a twist. If you still want to read it please continue. If you decide that the subject is still too fresh and sensitive, I understand – remember, I wrote the scenes, then no hard feelings, read some of my Star Trek: Deep Space Explorer and Grid Traveler stuff. But be careful. DSE has a cross over with this one. It’ll be marked with a small American flag next to the link. Enjoy!
Episode II – Angels of Mercy
By James C Jones II
Today was not going to be a good day. The Klingons used to say, “Today is a good day to die!” The Ancient Greeks said, “Die now!” The Eiotioulians chanted, “Death is sweet when quick.” Well, I had no plans to find out. As far as I was concerned, “Life is sweet when it is very very long.” So, here was my dilemma. I was freefalling at terminal velocity. I had been blown out the back of a jet liner cruising at six miles up. Apparently, it was the third time I got blown out. The first two times I wouldn’t remember of course. Murphy, the best Tweaker in the business, said not to worry this time, she got it right. That’s when the back of the jet liner exploded and I went sailing out the back. The fact that I’m falling must mean she did get it right. But of course that still leaves me in this situation, ‘Up the creek without a paddle.’ The displaced metaphor was not lost on me as I headed terrifyingly fast toward a slowly rotating ground. I was losing consciousness when I heard my sweet angel Agee whisper in my ear. “John, help is on the way.”
I replied, “If you say so.” My clothes were in tatters and the fingertips were numb. I lost my shoes a mile back, or would that be up, and I was freezing. Then I felt prickly all over my body. I tightened all my muscles. Not fast enough though. I was suddenly snatched sideways and I felt my pants slip off my legs. Now I was pantless, cold, hypothermic, and nearly unconscious. But it was Agee’s sweet voice that kept me hoping. My angel and Nightingale sweetly and softly reassuring me that there is hope. A few seconds later I felt the Temporal Transporter beam caress and hug me. It gently took me away and placed me on First Deck. Then reality hit and I was whisked to Medical Deck. Doctor Polux was looking down at me. “We had a nice flight?”
I got up – slowly. “You and the jokes. Are you a Doctor or a comedian?”
He smiled and helped me over to a medibed. “You didn’t know. Back home I was known as Tr’looo’irta F’oo’tuy’irto.”
I gave him my best-hardened look. “You’re kidding with the language? Even the computer couldn’t translate that.”
He laughed. “Back home we watched old alien movies. Terran movies are particularly entertaining. Star Trek, catchy title but too many inconsistencies to have been taken seriously. But, the drama, and the comedy. Patch Adams is my favorite, which incidentally, is what that meant.”
“Agee, did you understand anything he said?”
“Yes, John, I did. Tr’looo’irta F’oo’tuy’irto has also been recorded and translated.”
“Okay, just making a reality check.” I lay down. “Okay Patch, you have anything to warm me up?”
He had walked into one of the rooms. “Already on it Colonel. A nice thermal blanket for you.” He placed it over me. I let the warm feeling squeeze the coldness away.
I sighed. Odeeti got away this time, but he was supposed to. I didn’t tell him that I was going to kill him in the past, which would have been his future, which was really the past, but part of this Time Line’s future, no that was this Time Line’s past – anyway, I got him in the end. He slipped up and hit a stopgap. He became a dead end and that was his mistake.
“Hey, Cord.”
Murphy walked in. “You look like shit.”
“You got a point to that?”
She smiled, “The Boss is on High Band for you –“
“What?”
Murphy nodded, “Agee refused to let him direct link. She made him use the High Band and he’s not very happy.”
I said, “Agee, it would have been alright –“
“Sorry, John, but I made an informed decision. He’s supposed to use High Band anyway. I informed him of such.”
I reached over and grabbed and flat-T from the stand. “Hey, Boss –“
“Don’t ‘Hey, Boss’ me. Agee was out of line by this.”
“Even when the regs say for you to use the High Band anyway?”
He stared at me for a moment. “You got a new assignment. It’s a recovery mission.”
I rolled my eyes. “I hate those –“
“Regardless, this one is big. Temporal Prime Core is involved. Agee has the coordinates now. We’re going for a big score.”
I nodded, a big score. The last time we went for a big score was Hiroshima. We recovered five hundred on that one. “Big?”
“Bigger than Hiroshima. We’re talking a hundred Time ships.”
“We only have five – oh, the entire Temporal Fleet?”
He nodded, “From the 24 th to 32 nd.”
Murphy whistled loudly. “The coordination must be a bitch?”
The Boss said, “Murphy! Quit the cursing. You’re a lady!”
She laughed loudly and silently mouthed “Whatever.”
The Boss was from 18 th century England. He forgot this was nearly 1200 years later.
“Okay, Boss. We’re on it.”
The flat-T winked off.
“Agee, are we there yet?”
***
I was seated in the Auditorium on Temporal Prime Core. About a hundred people were sitting patiently in the room with me. Most of them were talking to themselves. If I hadn’t known these were Time Cops I’d say they were nuts.
I looked at my TtADD. The information said that the objective was Earth, September 11 th, 2001. It also said that 9/11/2001 was a pivotal moment in History. The only Superpower than went on the offensive to stop rampant terrorism. The fact that we survived this long proves they were successful. However, that particular Superpower ran itself to an end game and was eventually swallowed up by the communal world government. Victory and Success are not always synonymous. So, what were we going to do? The plan was to use the combined Temporal fleets and rescue any victim of the twin tower collapse and airplane crashes that met certain profile criteria. Being a Time Cop is not easy. Finding a perspective Time Cop is even harder – expensive and extensive. Each individual chosen has to be watched, monitored and tagged. Essentially, you have to find an individual who has reached a dead end timeline wise. As deflating an ego statement it may sound the irony is that you really do affect the timeline. An absolute and perfect paradox. For me, I was rescued from drowning in the Mediterranean Seas in the 13 th Century. Murphy is from the 19 th Century, Chicago. That’s how you get recruited – at least from the 27 th century forward. You have to be done with your influencing at a relatively young age. I was 32, pretty much at the end of my usefulness back then. Now I’m a hundred and twelve with a few hundred years left. Even though I’ve been doing this a long time it still seems new and exciting. 'Meet new people and see new places' is an understatement.
Anyway, the plan was to use about a hundred time ships and converge on that day simultaneously. Madness, you say? Madness, I agree. Temporal Prime Core decided to do this in one shot. There’s no record of any strange phenomena occurring. So that points to one of two things. We succeeded or it never happened. Time was funny that way. I must have spoken out loud because Captain Gale Richardson on my left said ‘It did work.’ He was one of those rescued. He said he’d buy me a drink after this. I asked him was there a particular reason. He smiled and said, “For being there, it helped.” He left it at that. I shrugged and said, “Causality’s a bitch. Then you kiss and make up.” Old joke. We both laughed.
Then I thought about the coordinating. That was going to be a monster. I was glad I hadn’t been assigned Linker. Absolute madness, this entire plan was, but that’s why I loved doing this. Sometimes bold, exciting, and daring – nothing like it in the known Universe. What got me thinking about the whole operation was that rumor had the 34 th Century running the show and carefully moving all the pieces together. It was the 32nd Century that created the Temporal Prime Core, but they seemed to be getting advice from the 34 th century, which was a stopgap for us. The “34 and 35 line” was put in place to keep us here and outside the 35 th century. Whatever happened to the 35 th Century Federation no one knows? All Time chips have been hard coded to not enter the year 3399.5 and beyond. Something about a Temporal Cold war ceasefire.
I looked around and saw familiar faces. Captain Chiita Scar’an of the Reginald L Johnson. Captain Kork of the Time Craft Mek’Lah and a dozen others. I noticed a dozen Vulcan time ships represented, as well as some Outbound, Species 8472, the Independent I, Borg States, Xindi, and the Andorians. In all, 112 time crafts from the 24 th Century through the 32nd century. Temporal Prime Core was serious. We were really going to do this.
Our Head Director, Admiral Mayweather approached the podium. He liked the 19 th century parliament look and made nearly everything within Temporal Prime Core 19 th century looking. Personally, I thought it funny, if a bit over the top. Within Time Prime Core Command time stood still. That is, this place was nowhere yet everywhere. It was here at this moment, in the past at a particular moment, and in the future for when the moment happened. We all were representatives of the here, then and eventually. I guess I had expected the auditorium to be indicative of that. Not one time period but all time periods. I guess maybe I’m an Idealist of sorts.
“Gentle beings, let us begin. At precisely 0000.001 Prime Time regional Twelve all ships will enter time coordinate 20010911.0500 LNL time at 0,0,0. From there you will begin extraction. Those assigned to extract Airline passengers have DNA and Frequency Pattern. A name list will also be supplied. Those that do not match must be left behind. We need only non-correspondal individuals.”
I thought, ‘In other words, dead enders.” He prattled away for another half an hour. I may have dozed off once. I heard Agee whispering “John, remember the tooth, remember the tooth.” I caught myself before I blurted something out nasty. I want my fellow Time Cops to continue thinking I have some restraint.
After the meeting I went back to the Chaos Theory.
“Agee?”
“Yes, John?”
“Are we ready?”
“Talking to Kahless now. It will place every one in a respective time frame. We will be placed at reference -356230 days 10 minutes 13 seconds. More than enough time to get the Chaos Theory to Earth by 20010911.0000. Of course, we may have to do one skip adjustment but I can handle that.”
“That’s my girl. Speaking of which, Murphy around?”
“Yes, John, she is waiting for you in your shared quarters. Want me to patch you through?”
“Please – Hey Murphy, you beat me!”
“Slowpoke is all I have to say.” Then I heard a giggle. “Hurry up, I wanna show you something.”
What could I say or do? I hurried.
When I got there, Murphy was in the bathtub soaking. I tore everything off and to show that I had control and dignity I stepped into the tub. We played splash and grab ass for a while, got out and dried each other off. Murphy walked over to the bed and flopped on it.
“See? Look!”
She had painted her toenails red. Lucky for her I’m a gentleman. I only delighted myself to one toe at a time. And she let me massage her feet, which was a treat. Out of all the years I’d known her she let me touch them twice.
“What’s the special occasion? Red toe nails?”
She flashed a beautiful smile. “None, just glad to be here. The last mission was fun.” She giggled.
“You like seeing me blown out of the ass end of an airplane, huh?”
She giggled louder. How I loved that about her, the giggle of a child – pure and innocent. Not marred by time or guilt or adult life and situations. It was a carefree sound that made you believe that there really could be angels. She stopped and looked at me. “Why the stare?”
“I was just enjoying the moment.”
“How about we enjoy more of it? Come here.”
And enjoy the moment we did and then some. With fireworks and explosions.
***
Agee got us in Earth’s orbit without incident. We had to do two small skips to get us to the right time coordinates. She said, “Ship is cloaked and I’m contacting the NORAD computer. It may take a few minutes – this is the 21 st century.”
The last time she had to talk to a computer near this century was during the Great Blackout of New York City. Someone from a different time period decided to modify the power coupling so that it wouldn’t fail. The ripple effect was enough to set alarms off at Temporal Prime Core. We had to take the Chaos Theory in and instruct the Power Relay Station computer to fail and report the failure as a short. If Agee had hair she would have been bald by the time we finished. Eventually, I had to go down and phaser the thing to failure. Murphy also had fun. She spent the next twelve hours tweaking that assignment.
Agee said, “Okay, I’m in. I’m instructing the mainframe to filter out our signatures. Worst case scenario is that we’ll appear as the ghost images recorded.”
“Good. How much time left?”
Agee said, “Too little. All ships are in position. The first plane is due in three minutes.”
Egad! I watched the monitor with dread. With a morbid fascination my eyes were glued to the scene as the first plane plowed into the building. We had ten minutes before the first set of ships moved in to extract. “Agee, are you ready?”
“Standing by.”
I nodded and dreaded the entire ten minutes. People died before my eyes and I wasn’t having a good time. Plane two struck and my heart sank. “It’s show time”
Agee got the Chaos Theory up close to the building. There were a dozen other ships in position. I got up and walked over to the Temporal Transporter. I was suited up as a NYPD firefighter. The information from several Tweakers had given us information on when and where would be the best time to execute the extraction. “Okay, Agee, get me down there.” A second later I was in one corner of the building in Tower One. Someone yelled at me.
“Over here! We’re going up!” It was Richardson.
I followed him, along with others up the stairwell. I had about a hundred microtags in on my hand and a can of tag burst – for the last second moment. The plan was simple. Touch everyone in contact. Agee and the other ships would sort the signals out, match them to DNA and beam them out. I touched Richardson on the arm. He looked back at me as we ran passed the down flow of people. I lied, “Lost my footing.”
He nodded and continued up the stairs. We were headed to the 70 th floor.
Agee whispered in my ear. “John, there is a problem. We have to do multiple tries.”
Great! “How many?”
Richardson yelled back, “Ten more flights.”
Agee said, “Two for us.”
She knew I couldn’t talk. I just had to trust her judgment.
Richardson stopped on the 65 th floor. He told the rest of us to continue. A woman had fallen and broken her leg. I made sure I touched her. I nodded and continued up and up and up, touching people as I moved. I noticed a few other Firefighters doing the same thing, my fellow Time Cops. If I were a religious man I’d say we were the Angels of Mercy here to rescue the lost souls on their long journey. We were a team and each person we touched would become part of that team. ‘Gonna save some lives,’ I told myself. ‘Just keep touching, never give up, and never stop.’ Then it happened. The word came over the radio and Agee yelled in my ear. I turned and saw a commotion below me. It was Richardson. The building shook and he slipped off the railing into the center space. A Firefighter jumped after him, ‘brave soul’ I thought.
Agee yelled, “John! The building, it’s starting. Hurry!”
I took out the canister of tag burst and pulled the pin. A second later I tossed it above me. It burst and showered everyone with dust. I saw twelve more burst, at different intervals, below me. The stairwell dropped and everyone screamed, including me. Then I was back on board the Chaos Theory sitting on my butt.
Agee said, “Doing an emergency skip.”
The ship shook for a brief second. The Transporter sparked up and I was gone. I was teleported right in the middle of a crowd! I looked up and saw myself looking back. Agee yelled, “John, Jump! Richardson slipped over the side.” Without a second hesitation I jumped after him. He was a half dozen feet away. I heard the rumble of collapsing building. I reached out and was able to touch his boot. The lights went out and dust hit me in the face.
***
I came to in Medical. Dr. Polux was rushing from one end of the room to the other. He was yelling, “Okay, everyone, please stay calm. Everything will be okay. Please stay calm and all your questions will be answered.” He seemed happy that he was busy. Me, I was exhausted. I was also happy that it was over. The rescue was the easy part. Now for the answers, the denials, fears, hopes, and eventually acceptances I had new brothers and sisters to think about. My family just grew by a thousand.
End of Episode II
