Chapter 4 - Rewind
Jack and Marie hurried to the bridge.
“Can you get through to them?” Jack
asked Lieutenant Flanora at the communication
station.
“We’re encountering some interference,
but I think I can clear it up.”
Jack waited a moment before taking his
command chair. “Chamberlain to Commander Kadan. Can you read us?”
Static filled the air for a moment, then
faded replaced by Loftus’s voice.
“Nakano is dead, and Burton is wounded badly,” Loftus reported.
“Damn it,” Jack muttered. He took a
breath. He wanted to retreat into a dark place in his mind, but he couldn’t.
His people needed him. “Can you get back to the shuttle?”
“Negative,” Loftus answered. “They’ve
cut us off.”
Jack turned to Melissa at the Ops
station. “Have we been able to cut through that transporter interference yet?”
“No,” Melissa said, looking up from her
display. “We’re barely able to maintain communications.”
It took everything he had for Jack to
not jump in a shuttlecraft to personally lead a rescue mission.
He should have never sent them down
there. They could have scanned the system more before committing to…
Melissa looked up from her panel. “That
subspace field down there is expanding and intensifying.”
Jack stood. “Red alert! Raise shields!”
Marie turned to Jack. “Anything I can do
to help?”
“Want to take the tactical station?”
Marie didn’t respond, but instead moved.
She relieved the ensign who had been there.
The lights on the bridge dimmed a
moment, but were immediately back at full strength.
“What the hell was that?” Jack asked.
“Subspace field has passed through us,”
Marie reported from tactical.
Jack turned to Melissa.
“No apparent impact on our systems,”
Melissa said. “But…”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“That field wasn’t a standard subspace
field, it was…”
Lieutenant Flanora’s
communication panel chimed. “Sir, we are receiving communication from the array
of satellites.”
Immediately Jack’s mind went to the most
likely circumstance—they had captured Loftus’s ground team and were going to
use them to pressure Jack into leaving the system… or something worse.
“Sir,” Flanora
began, a frown on her face. “It is Commander Loftus channeled through the
satellite system.”
At least she was still alive.
“Put her through.”
This time the sounds of the intercom
were static free.
“Captain, we’re set to meet the village
elders in an hour,” Loftus said, not a trace of the earlier intensity in her
voice. “So far, the Davellans have been quite
welcoming. But we have no information about the Zhukov at this time.”
Jack turned to find Melissa staring at
him, her mouth agape as he expected his own was. He then cast a glance at Marie
at the tactical station as she was shaking her head.
Jack finally thought of something to
say. “Commander, is Mr. Nakano there with you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can you put him on a moment?”
A few seconds passed.
“Yes, sir?” Nakano’s voice asked.
Jack tried to imagine what the hell was
going on, but in case this was a ruse, he didn’t want to let on he knew about
it. “Mr. Nakano, what is your estimate of the planet’s tactical abilities?”
“I haven’t seen anything even close to a
weapon since we’ve been down here.”
Jack turned back to Flanora,
signaling with his hand to cut their side of the audio.
“Are we sure that’s them?” he asked.
“Computer verification confirms it was
both Loftus and Nakano,” Melissa said.
“Any sign of weapons fire at their
location?”
“None,” Melissa answered.
“Three minutes ago, Loftus said they
were being attacked and Nakano was dead.” Jack shook his head. He turned back
to Flanora. “Put me back on.”
Flanora
touched several controls.
“Commander,” Jack began. “Where is
Lieutenant Burton?”
“Back at our shuttle,” Loftus replied.
“But I was considering having her join us. There’s no indication these people
bear us any ill intention.”
“Have her remain with your shuttle. I’m
coming down.”
“Aye, sir.”
As soon as the communication ended,
Melissa walked up to Jack. “Absolutely not! This is a volatile situation at
best. I can’t let the commanding officer of this ship go down into a hostile
environment.”
“That’s very executive officer of you,”
Jack said with a smirk. “But as Loftus reported, the people down there are
peaceful.”
“And five minutes ago, they were under
attack by those peaceful people.”
Marie joined them. “I have to agree with
Commander Vargas, Jack. This is a very unusual situation.”
“I agree,” Jack said. “And that’s why I
have to go down there.”
“You can’t leave your ship,” Melissa
said.
Jack turned to Marie. “Admiral Alanni
commanded starships for ten years. She is more than capable of taking command.”
“This is your ship,” Marie said. “I
can’t…”
“The only explanation I can come up with
which fits the current facts is we are in the midst of a possible temporal
incident,” Jack said to Marie. “One of
us has to go down there.”
“You really think time has been
manipulated?” Melissa asked.
“Either that or the people down there
killed our officers and have simulated them in some way the computer can’t
differentiate,” Jack replied. “Either requires myself or Marie to investigate.”
Marie nodded. “Unfortunately, he is
right.” She looked at Jack. “But at the first sign of danger, get yourself back
up here.”
“Aye, Admiral,” Jack said as he headed
for the door.
***
Piloting the shuttle down was as problem
free as Jack suspected it would be. He landed next to the one brought down by
Loftus and her away team.
He walked onto the surface and found a
smiling Zaylie Burton waiting for him.
“Couldn’t resist, could you?”
Jack stared at her for several moments
still unable to get the report of her being severely wounded out of his mind.
“Are you okay?”
“Bored to tears, but…” She paused a
moment. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” He did his best to
appear genuinely confused.
“I would expect that kind of concern if
I’d been injured or something equivalent,” she replied. “It isn’t like you to
react like that out of the blue.”
Jack tried to shake it off. “We…”
“Captain, I’m not an idiot.”
Jack smiled. “No, you’re not. You’ll
have to accept that for the moment, I can’t tell you until I get a better sense
of what’s going on here.”
Zaylie frowned. “The people?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “And that
bothers me.” He cast a glance at her. “How about you take me to where Loftus
and the others are?”
“Anything to get out of guard duty for
the damn shuttlecraft.”
She led him away from the landing field
and into the city.
As the density of the buildings
increased Jack began to see some of the inhabitants. They were close to seven
feet tall, and slender. Their skin was a reddish color and their heads were
adorned with shiny blue hair which rose to a peak at the top. Each one they
passed cast a quick glance their way, but didn’t stop or slow in their walking.
Finally, Jack and Zaylie approached the central
part of the city, but still few of the Davellans were
present. On a walkway to a larger building, Loftus, Nakano, and Sunita stood
with a female and a male of the Davellan species.
“Greetings, Captain McCall,” the tall
female said in a soft voice and with a slight bow. “I am called Nara. Welcome
to our world.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “I am sorry to
trouble you, but we were having some… communications difficulties and I wanted
to make sure everything was proceeding well here on your world. If I might
speak to my people for a moment…”
The female and male each gave a nod and
moved toward the building behind them.
“What’s going on, Captain?” Loftus
asked.
“You’re sure you’re all okay?” Jack
asked.
“Yes,” she answered. “We’ve been having
a relaxing visit, and an interesting one.”
“Interesting?”
“Well, aside from not discovering
anything about the Zhukov, the Davellans are
extremely friendly and…”
“They’re very sexually open,” Nakano
said with a grin. “We’ve each been invited to have sex a number of times.”
Zaylie frowned. “Great. And I was stuck
guarding the shuttle.”
“Where are they at technologically?”
Sunita stepped forward. “They have
developed warp travel, but say they use it only infrequently.”
“So the Prime
Directive isn’t involved,” Zaylie said. “That’s a relief.”
Loftus looked around, then turned back
to Jack, her voice lowered. “What brought you down here?”
“There’s been no aggressive action from
the Davellans?”
“No, none at all,” Loftus said. “As
Nakano said, they’ve been quite inviting.”
“We’ve not seen anyone who appears to be
armed,” Nakano added. “But I suspect we’ve been watched closely since we
arrived.”
“You seem disappointed we haven’t
encountered any difficulty,” Loftus said with a grin. “Really, Captain. We’re
fine.”
Jack turned to Sunita. “Can I have your
tricorder please?”
She handed it to him.
Jack began to scan all of them. After a
few moments, he was pleased to discover they were themselves, but perplexed he
was no closer to an answer.
Zaylie grinned. “We pass your test?”
“Yes… unfortunately,” Jack replied.
“I take it you’d rather discuss this
after we return to the ship,” Loftus said.
Jack nodded and handed the tricorder
back to Sunita.
“What were your plans at this point?”
Jack asked.
“We’re supposed to meet with the elders
in ten minutes,” Loftus said.
“Go ahead and proceed with that,” Jack
said. “See if there’s anything you can discover about the Zhukov, and
also check into their culture a bit more.”
“Anything specific you’re looking for?”
Loftus asked.
“Anything out of the ordinary,” Jack
said. “And I’d like Lieutenant Burton to return to the ship with me.”
Loftus glanced at Zaylie a moment then
back to Jack. She didn’t say anything, having gotten the message that all
questions were to be held until they came back to the Chamberlain.
