Chapter 2 - Perception

Kadan Loftus sat in the ready room of the Chamberlain, going through a variety of communications. She had put out feelers to some of her friends in the Bajoran military as well as less savory individuals, looking for anything which might help Jack's case. She was most interested in some rumors she had heard of Dameron and the Virginia's movements prior to their orders to proceed to the Geryon system where the Omega Directive incident occurred. If she could get her hands on evidence which proved Dameron and the Zeparans had cooked up this whole situation just to satisfy an old grudge the Zeparans held, that might be enough to not only free Jack, but to serve Dameron the justice he so richly deserved.

She quickly scrolled through the messages. Most were from friends asking how she was, but having no real information she could use. She'd respond back to them later.

But one message caught her eye.

She quickly initiated a direct line to the sender.

“Well, that was quick,” the thin Bajoran man on the other end of the transmission said.

“Hello, Cerenil,” Loftus said, checking to make sure the transmission was encrypted. “I am surprised to hear from you.”

“That hurts,” he said with a grin.

“Are you capable of being hurt?”

“All the time,” he said. “I just wear it well.”

“What do you have?”

“No catching up with an old friend? No reminiscing about our shared good times?”

“We were never friends, and most of the times we had together weren't good,” she said.

“There was that night on...”

“That wasn't good for me.”

“And here I thought I always left women satisfied.”

She frowned, not wanting to get into it with him yet again. There had been a brief moment fifteen years ago she had allowed herself to open up to him. But she'd quickly learned he was someone who took, but never gave like so many of the men who entered her life.

“If that's all this is, I can waste time in other ways,” she said.

“Is a full data dump from the Virginia a waste of your time?”

He now had her attention. “How did you get your hands on something like that?”

“The Virginia is a ship seething with resentment, and there are those in the upper strata of its officers who have been compiling information on Dameron for years hoping they could have something on him to either temper his behavior, or take him out entirely,” Cerenil said. “I've been helping a couple of them archive that data in a safe place.”

“For a nice fee I would imagine,” she said.

“More than nice.”

“I couldn't imagine you doing it out of a sense of altruism or justice.”

He smiled. “Starfleet is a problematic institution. Useful at times, yes, but its very nature contains the seeds of its destruction. I don't mind helping that eventual end come a little early if I can.”

“Yes, the Bajoran military is a much finer institution.”

“It's home, Loftus. It's us. We owe a duty to...”

“I'm not having this conversation again,” she said. “I like Starfleet.”

He leaned forward on the screen. “You know, if you just let this go its own way, they'll probably give you command of the Chamberlain.”

“Jack McCall is a good captain, and a good man,” she said. “I can't let him be tossed aside like some dead animal, and certainly not as yet another victim of Dameron's.”

He nodded. “I don't feel comfortable sending this data over a comm unit.”

“Care to come to Yed Post IV?”

He closed his eyes. “How about you come to me instead?”

“I can't,” she said. “I have a ship and crew to care for.”

“Then no deal.”

“You're coming here,” she said flatly.

He smiled. “I assume there is a threat about to be issued?”

“The Klingon Bird of Prey you sabotaged, you do remember that, don't you?”

He frowned. “You wouldn't.”

“Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't.”

“But there are other Bajoran officers who were involved in that operation.”

“Were there?” she asked, smiling.

The transmission ended. But she knew she just had to wait. Cerenil might get angry, but he was in the end, very practical.

After two minutes, the comm panel flashed. She touched the control.

“Yes?” she asked.

“There's a bar at the outer edge of the main city, near the Wornal River,” he said. “Do you know it?”

“The Xaranth?”

“Yes.”

“I know it,” she said.

“Be there tomorrow evening a few minutes before 2100.”

“And you'll have the data?”

“If you bring ten thousand in latinum I'll have it.”

“Five thousand.”

“Seven.”

She smiled. “Deal.”

The screen again went blank.

Loftus smiled. The thought of taking down Dameron made her feel damn good. But she was going to need help. She couldn’t risk facing Cerenil alone especially since he knew she’d be carrying access to seven thousand in latinum. She thought a moment, then touched a control on the comm unit.

It came to life, displaying a smiling woman’s face.

“Yes, Commander?” Celeste Purcell asked.

“I have a potentially dangerous mission I need to undertake,” Loftus said.

“Does it involve helping Captain McCall?”

“Yes.”

Purcell smiled. “Whatever it is, I’m in.”

***

Jack McCall sat in the living room of the apartment he had gotten for his stay on Yed Post IV, a stay he hoped would be short. More than anything he wanted to get back to his ship. But that wasn’t possible until this court-martial mess was finished. But as places he had bunked in over the years, this apartment while short on extravagance was pleasant enough, and more than adequate as a place to sleep and eat.

His mind was once again about to burrow itself into the details of his case when the comm unit chimed. He touched the control, and couldn’t help smiling at the face on the display.

“Mei?”

“Could I speak to you for a few minutes?” she asked.

“Sure, why don’t you…”

“I’m outside your building.”

Jack nodded. “I’ll be right out.”

***

“How’d you find where I was staying?” Jack asked as he walked up to Mei-Wan, the night air sending a chill into his body.

“Harold, one of the members of my team, he’s quite resourceful.”

Jack smiled. She was different, more sure of herself than he ever remembered her being. Good, he thought.

“How did your presentation go?” he asked.

“The usual,” she said. “Lots of congratulating, but most everyone was worried I'd gone too far.”

“And here I remember that being said about your last presentation on Yed Post Four.”

She smiled. “I do have a habit of stirring the pot.”

“You love it,” Jack said as he motioned for them to walk together. “Tearing down people's preconceptions is what you live for.”

“I do get a bit of a thrill from it.”

“Don't forget... sometimes those preconceptions mean more to others than you might think,” Jack said. “And they will go to great lengths to protect them.”

“I've noticed more of that this time.” She looked at him as they continued walking. “How are you holding up?”

A slight grin crossed Jack’s face. “Fine. I just wish it was over already.”

“You’ll get through it,” she said. “You’re a survivor.”

He smiled. “So, what did you want to see me about? If you need me for something, you should understand I don't have a ship at the moment. I can't rush in with the cavalry, guns blazing.”

“No,” she said, taking a breath. “I just need you to hear me out.”

“Is this going to be a long story?”

“When do I tell long stories?” Mei-Wan asked.

“When it involves the Ancient Progenitors.”

She frowned. “Well, that is a long story.”

Jack turned to her. “You know I'm not good with this stuff. And besides, why come to me about it? It's not like I'm involved with that story.”

“I think you are,” Mei-Wan said.

“Oh?” he asked, raising a brow.

“Don't you think it odd that at the same time I'm giving a presentation about the Ancient Progenitors, one in which I connect the dots concerning their plan for galactic genocide...”

“They had a plan for galactic genocide?” he said.

“Yes.”

Jack shook his head. “I guess I’m more than a little out of the loop.”

“I know it's a bit much for people to take in all at once.” She looked at the courtyard ahead of them. “Anyway, I’m here, Forcas is here, and you are here.”

“I'm here because I thought I was going to have some shore leave while the ship was having some work done, and because...” He paused. He had always been used to telling Mei-Wan everything. But they weren't married any longer. It wasn't so much a matter of trust. He trusted her with his life. But he wasn't sure it was good to burden her with things which didn't involve her.

“What?”

“I was recently visited by a cosmic entity,” Jack said.

“What kind of cosmic entity?” she asked, getting excited at what this might mean.

“One that I have encountered before, but always in a dream.”

“Is it possible this is just that, a dream?”

“I thought that after the first time,” Jack said. “Though it had a quality my dreams never have.”

“Interesting. And I assume it had that same quality this time too?”

“Yes,” Jack said. “This being appears as an old woman with gray hair, and wearing weaved clothing, not modern human clothing despite her appearing in most respects human. But there is one thing about her that is distinctly not human...”

Mei-Wan stopped walking and started to tremble. “She has black eyes.”

Jack's own eyes widened. “Black in black eyes, yes. How did you know?”

“I have seen her too. She frightens me.”

“I had the same reaction to her.”

Mei-Wan turned to Jack. “Now I'm certain all of us being here at the same time isn't a coincidence.”

“I don't understand.”

“You remember the man Dasari?”

“That girl's father?”

“More importantly, the Temporal Engineer who met us in the past. I think there’s a connection between him and that woman,” Mei-Wan said. “I've met another Engineer.”

“You get around,” he said with a grin.

“More than you think,” Mei-Wan said, not matching his sense of humor, but instead looking down. “I shift through time.”

“I guess I was understating it when I said you get around.”

“I'm serious, Jack.”

“Exactly how do you shift through time?” he asked.

“When someone changes the timeline, I remain as I am,” Mei-Wan said. “I am aware of the memories of the me of the new timeline, but I'm still this me.”

Jack took a step back from her. “You're serious, aren't you?”

Mei-Wan nodded.

“Am I...” He hesitated. Mei-Wan could see that he was uneasy about this. “Am I in some of these other timelines?”

“You're in most of them,” she said. “In fact, all but one that I've seen so far.”

“How often does this happen? The timeline changing?”

“It seems to come in waves. The last time it shifted I experienced three different timelines before coming back to this one.”

He looked at her. “But you meet me in these timelines?”

“We're usually...” Mei-Wan's heart wanted to explode, to tell him they belonged together, but she knew if she expressed that, he'd refuse to believe any of what she had to say. “We're still married in some of them.”

He smiled. “That is interesting.”

“Not in all of them,” she said. “In one, I was a servant in your home.”

“Servant?”

“Three centuries in the past, there had been a war between China and the United States, and China had lost. My parents had been servants of your parents, and when you founded your own family, you brought me with you.”

“Slavery?”

“Not exactly,” she said. “We were friends when we were children in that timeline. You had taught me how to read, and we both dreamed of going to other worlds.”

“We were on Earth?”

“All humanity was. But you were pushing for humans to go into space again,” she said. “You were the mayor of Chicago.”

“That doesn't sound too bad,” he looked at her. “What was my wife like?”

“She was horrible. She drove the kitchen staff, where I worked, like a taskmaster. The two of you weren't very happy together. I think it was an arranged marriage of some sort.”

“What was her name?”

“Irene. But we were only allowed to call her Mrs. McCall, or the lady of the house.”

“Have you seen her before?”

“No,” Mei-Wan said. “Only in that timeline.”

“Interesting,” Jack said. “Has Melissa been in these other timelines?”

That hurt more than Mei-Wan would have expected. “Yes, sometimes. Or at least, I have run into her or heard of her in those timelines. Obviously, I didn't see her in the one where you were the mayor of Chicago since humanity hadn't gone into the galaxy.”

“She wouldn't have been born. Her mother was Vulcan.” Jack looked down. “Why are you telling me about this?”

“While I was in that particular timeline, one of these Temporal Engineers appeared.”

“Odd that he would go out of his way to find one person.”

“I'm still not sure why,” she said. “Based on what he told me, and other information I have, I believe they are making changes to the timeline to cause history to unfold along certain lines.” She took a long breath. “In the case of those changes in time, he said they were repairing some event which took place in the future.” She smiled. “However, in one of the timelines I experienced, he didn't show himself, and based on his reactions, I don't think he was aware of it.”

“So, they aren't omniscient.”

“No,” she said. “In that particular timeline, you rushed me to see a council of elders. You were aware of previous timeline changes.”

“Even more interesting.”

“I think you are at the center of this, Jack.”

“Me?”

“Think about it,” she said. “In the timeline Hank and I found ourselves, Dasari's daughter appeared to help us find the Guardian so we could go back and rescue you. They wanted you back and in command of the Chamberlain.”

“They may have failed in that regard,” he said.

“Is this trouble you're in that bad?”

“It's bad enough,” he said. “I broke the rules with Omega and there are those who want to nail my ass to the wall for it.”

“I suspect these Temporal Engineers will make it work out so you don't lose your command.”

He chuckled. “I have guardian angels?”

“I don't think their intentions are angelic,” Mei-Wan said. “They’re using you for something.”

“I was in the past for five years. But wasn’t that the end of it?”

“This has more to do with our time,” Mei-Wan said.

“But you're the one who remembers from timeline to timeline,” Jack said. “It sounds like you’re more important to what they’re doing than me.”

“They weren't aware of that until I confronted the Temporal Engineer in one of the other timelines,” Mei-Wan said. “I think I'm just an anomaly they hadn't expected.”

Jack looked up into the sky. “A part of me hopes you're right, and I can get back up there again.” He turned to her. “But I have to admit, I find this more than a little crazy, and quite unusual for you, Mei.”

“I know,” she admitted, letting out a breath. “But I don't think I've felt more certain about anything in my whole life.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Watch out for John Thomas Belvedere.”

Jack smiled. “The guy from Temporal Investigations?”

“You've met him?” she asked.

“Yes. Immediately after we returned from traveling in time, I was interviewed by him.”

“Now I'm even more certain,” Mei-Wan said. “He is the Temporal Engineer I was talking about.”

“These Engineers are part of Temporal Investigations?”

“No,” she said. “I think he infiltrated TI.”

“That would be quite a trick,” Jack said. “They've got some of the tightest security in the Federation.”

“Imagine if a group had access to technology across a variety of different timelines both past and future. There would be almost nothing beyond their abilities.”

Jack nodded. “I'll watch out for Belvedere.”

“And we should probably watch out for Dasari.”

“Which one?”

“I believe the daughter is just used to run errands,” Mei-Wan said. “The father is the one to watch.”

“But isn't he dead?” Jack asked.

“From our point of view yes. But since we're talking about a time traveler, he could still pop up at any point in the timeline.”

“I hate that about time travel,” Jack said.

“I have to get going,” she said.

“Where you off to now?”

“I have a meeting with Forcas.”

-GO TO CHAPTER 3-