The Chaos Series - pt 9

THE CHAOS SERIES
An "Enterprise" story

By Alison M. DOBELL

RATING: PG-13
ARCHIVE: Yes. Just let me know where.
FEEDBACK: Welcomed.
EMAIL: AlisonMDobell@aol.com
WEBSITE: http://carlajane.50megs.com/Ali00.html

SUMMARY: "Commander Tucker begins to fear he may never find his way back to Enterprise. Trapped and confused he tries to understand just what it is the aliens want from him."
DISCLAIMER: The usual disclaimers apply. The characters and 'Enterprise' are the property of Paramount and part of the wonderful legacy of Gene Roddenberry. No infringement of copyright is intended.

Part 9

VAIN PURSUITS


* * * * *

"Why did you bring him?"

He noticed the censure in the Matriarch’s voice. "I let the others go." He said in mitigation.

"You should have let him go too." A pause. "Your obsession with these Humans is unhealthy."

"I was bored."

"No. You were reckless. Our destiny does not lie in the pursuit of pleasure."

"He may be useful."

Her eyes narrowed tightening the leathery face. They could all hear the scorn in the Matriarch’s voice. "Useful?"

"He talks of his Captain and an urgent need to find him."

"How does this concern us?"

He paused as if choosing his moment like some piece of theatre. "He mentioned the Timeline. His Captain is lost... somewhere in Time."

* * * * *

Commander Shran was furious. His request to use the com on Enterprise to contact his ship was immediately granted. He opened a channel only after presaging the transmission with his personal authorisation code. The second volley was shorter than the first, truncated in the middle of an all out assault presumably coinciding with Shran's contact. The channel opened and Lt Tara's imperious voice echoed over the bridge.

"What trickery is this, Vulcan?"

Shran stepped forward, his image now being picked up by the Andorian ship along with his audio transmission. "This is Commander Shran, you are to cease firing at once!"

Lt Tara looked startled, discomfited then irritated. "You should have told me you were on the pink skins ship, Commander."

"I'm telling you now!" Snapped the Andorian Commander.

His second tilted her head slightly in the closest she would get to an apology. It puzzled her that Shran trusted these aliens, that he could so casually put aside years of Vulcan domination. It irked her but he was her Commander and she would obey him. For now.

"Lt Dala is still on the surface, I am returning to retrieve him. You will stand by and await my next communication."

Her look darkened but Shran had the com cut before she could launch into a protest. It was a relief to him when her scowling image vanished from the screen. He looked at T'Pol. "If you are coming we must leave immediately."

T'Pol nodded and turned to Lt Reed. "You have the bridge, Lieutenant."

He opened his mouth to argue but she interrupted him.

"There is no time for further discussion."

"At least take a security detail with you."

"Very well, have them report directly to the transporter room."

Then T'Pol strode briskly off the bridge with Commander Shran close behind her. He threw a last look at the Armoury Officer and Lt Reed almost smiled. It looked for all the world as if the Andorian was asking him to 'wish him luck'.

* * * * *

The Matriarch at least had the courtesy to hear him out. He could tell by her tone that she was not impressed. "How like children to think they can fix the future by tinkering with the past."

Trip cleared his throat carefully. He felt groggy and sore all over, his throat being especially painful. Probably from the amount of times he had thrown up since regaining consciousness. He hated this place but knew it was more than his life was worth to say anything negative to this volatile species. "It's our best hope of savin' the human race from total annihilation, ma'am."

Her tone if anything got even more acidic. So sharp that Trip inwardly winced. "You are a like a child who flicks to the end of the story to see how it ends as if this will save having to tread the path needed to get there. You do not yet understand your error."

"Error?"

He would not have been surprised if she had started breathing fire, her disapproval coming off her in dark waves that merely heightened his sense of apprehension. "Yes. The only thing that matters is the journey *not* the destination."

"Not sure I can agree with that, beggin' your pardon ma'am."

Her eyes flared wide then narrowed. He felt like an insect trapped under glass. "Of course. You are young, reckless, impatient. Who would wish to open the book of life and start at their own death? Yet this is what you are doing, Human. The lessons, the rewards, are in experiencing life. Living it. Is not all else folly?"

Trip could not get over how human her speech seemed despite the alien body, the alien mindset and the weird version of hell they had dragged him down to. As if reading his thoughts she leaned towards him, carefully keeping the Human downwind.

"We are ancient and have visited your kind over thousands of your Earth years. We have witnessed your futile wars, your punitive peace, your temporary moments of wisdom. So fleeting, so flawed."

Commander Tucker blinked feeling more than a little annoyed with her and trying hard not to show it. "I thought ya didn't approve of us?"

Her eyes flashed. "I don't."

"Then why're ya so fascinated with our culture?"

An odd noise behind him made him half turn. The alien who had brought him to this place was trying to hide his amusement. He did not however speak. No one did unless given leave by the Matriach to do so. He did not want to end up with his head impaled even if the Matriach was his mother. He was but one of thousands of her young.

"You have no culture!" The Matriach said.

Trip opened his mouth to protest then shut it with a snap. Something in the Matriarch’s eyes warning him that to speak now would be suicidal.

"Ah, enlightenment!"

He was not sure what to make of that so kept quiet. She waited and when he remained silent turned to her son. "You must either kill or return him."

"I have not yet finished my studies."

"You have finished when I say you have finished."

"There were more of them but the others got away."

"Do not ask me to sanction your greater folly. One is enough to infect all."

"He is not contagious."

"He should not be here."

Trip felt like he was trapped in some surreal tapestry. Contagious? What the hell did they think he was? A virus? A thought occurred to him that prompted him to speak up. "Uh, ma'am? Can I ask ya somethin'?"

The Matriach flashed a look as if to say 'I told you so' then glowered at Trip. "Speak Human, for your time grows short."

"Ya say ya been visitin' Earth for thousands of years?"

She nodded.

"An' ya can go back an' forth in time?"

She just stared at him as if he were an idiot.

"Okay, so I guess that's a yes too. What I'm tryin' to say is we lost our Cap'n. We think he's been taken to another time."

"Why does this concern us?"

"I was hopin' with all your knowledge ya might be able to help us find him."

Trip wasn't quite sure what to make of her reaction. Was she surprised, impressed or horrified? Or had he finally managed to mortally offend them? Yep, it sure was fun being Trip Tucker. If only this was a nightmare, he could wake in the morning and laugh the whole thing off. That was, *if* he could wake up.

* * * * *

He hurt. Ached all over but celebrated the pain. At least the pain told him he was still alive. It hurt to blink but he needed to clear the debris from his eyes. To see where and possibly *when* he was. It was a shock when his vision finally cleared.

"Daniels!" Hot on the heels of his surprise was relief. Now he could get back to Enterprise. It was then that he noticed Daniels was not smiling. In fact. He wasn't doing much of anything. "Daniels?"

The barely breathed name seemed to hang in the air between them. A tendril of fear touched the Captain's heart. What now? He eased himself upright, vaguely aware that he did not seem to sport any physical injuries this time but too concerned about Daniels to dwell on that now. He stepped up to the man and forbore the instinct to reach out and touch him to see if he was all right. This could be a fabrication of reality. A trap. Slowly he walked around the standing man, noticed how the eyes were open and staring as if trapped in some horrific moment from which he could not escape. He focused on the chest, noticed no sign of breathing. Not a fraction of movement in the whole figure. It unsettled him so much he stumbled back a step. The sudden voice behind him making him whirl round.

There was no one there. At least. No one visible. The chuckle lacked humour, the tone deadly serious. "You blame this man for your predicament."

Archer's eyes narrowed. "Who are you and why are you doing this?"

"Your slow pathetic brain seems to lack the concept of memory, Captain."

He frowned. "Are you the... being in the void?"

A racking sound grated on the Captain's senses but he dared not react. Do anything to make his unwanted host prolong this nightmare. "You violated my space. Disturbed the annals of time that flow through this amorphous corridor."

"Please, help me to understand."

"I am not responsible for the limitations of your species."

"I know and I can't do anything about that but I have to get out of here. Return to my ship."

A pause. "Ah, your ship." Another pause. "Your *mission*."

Something about the way he said that last word caused a slither of apprehension to slide down the Captain's back. "You said I would die."

"Yes."

"You intend to kill me?"

"All things die, Captain."

A thought occurred to him. "*All* things?"

The being seemed to intuit his meaning. "I am not a thing."

The Captain tried to slow the rapid beat of his heart. "Am *I* a thing?"

"You are a carbon based lifeform of inferior intellect, though in your limited capacity you are at the top of your food chain." A longer pause this time. "That you managed to reach the stars is unfortunate. The contamination cannot be allowed to continue."

"H.. how do we contaminate anything? We're just explorers."

"A comfortable lie to make your errors seem honourable."

The Captain blinked, not sure of all the nuances hidden in that assertion. "Look, we don't mean any harm to you or anyone else. I don't know how I got here or even where here is." He chanced a quick look back at Daniels. The man had not moved but at least he had not vanished. A thought occurred to him. "What did you do to him?"

"His timeline is frozen."

"Frozen?"

"What you would term suspended animation only it isn't."

"Why is he here?"

"You blame him."

"And?"

"The blame is yours not his."

"Then why bring him here? What is it you really want?"

"It will be easier to show you."

Immediately the Captain felt a tremor of fear run through him. In the next instant he realised that fear was only part of the equation that cursed his every breath. A howling wind of darkness flexed around his soul, his mouth opening in a scream that had no breath to fulfill the dread flushing through his heart. His mind clouding with terror, his nerve endings taut and overloading with sensations that heaped horror on horror until he thought the sheer terror would rip the fabric of his being from the consciousness of God himself. Creation had never looked so bleak nor Chaos so all consuming. Death was not a single moment as he had once believed. It was a yawning eternity of every kind of dread and damnation imaginable.

* * * * *

Trip was half intrigued, half terrified. The hard chitinous fingers clawed at him, alien eyes burrowing into his own with emotionless curiosity. A kind of detached interest that had nothing to do with his well being but everything to do with the pursuit of knowledge. What they wanted he could barely guess, that they would not let him go until they had it he no longer doubted.

The Matriach watched. A souless presence which somehow was not evil. She was not immoral but amoral. This species did not torture for fun but for the experience of torture, whatever the hell that was. Their odd way of looking at things was beginning to colour his own perceptions in a way that startled and captivated him in the oddest sense. He had never known a species like them not that he would have sought them out but the questing part of his soul wanted answers. Wanted to understand this conundrum evolving before his very eyes.

"What ya doin' with me?"

They did not reply this time. Hard thick nails prodded him. An older alien stepped forward, the hard hands retreated. Trip sighed with relief then caught his breath. The alien was very ancient, body bowed and slow in movement as if every joint pained him. Him? How the hell did he know it was a him? Yet it felt accurate. The alien stopped in front of him, rheumy eyes stared into his. As he watched a thin membrane washed over the eyes only clearing them a little. Trip wondered if he were blind. "The Matriach tells me you search for another?"

He blinked in surprise. When the hell had she done that? So far as he was aware they had never left him so when had she called this elder? "Um yeah, my Captain."

"Explain Human."

So he did. The words at first hesitant began to multiply on his tongue, the story tumbling from his lips like an emotional release. The hands were back but seeming to pat him, whether to reassure or search him he could not tell. The rheumy eyes held him in thrall until every word in his head emptied out of him, every emotion drained into that oddly compelling gaze. He felt suddenly naked in a way he had never done without clothes. It was as if his skin had been peeled back, his head and heart opened out and dissected. As creepy as it was he felt no fear, his mind numb, his bodily organs in suspension while the alien slithered its' thoughts through the pathways of his mind. Yet it left no imprint, his body shuddering from moment to moment as different senses trembled to the mental touch of something that would never be human.

* * * * *

Lt Reed noticed everything looked much the same as they had left it except that the tents and paraphernalia of the camp were gone. Left behind were not even signs that they had ever been there. No marks in the soil where the tents had been pegged. No tyre tracks. He felt his heart miss a beat, glad that in the end T'Pol had allowed him to come to the surface with the small security detail. He knew she was on the point of denying him but something in her look changed and she had nodded instead, allowing him to leave the bridge to Travis and Hoshi. Rostov was manning the transporter and Lt Hess was anxiously keeping Enterprise in tip top condition.

Commander Shran managed to locate Lt Dala without difficulty but even to the Humans the Andorian looked to be in shock. Shran frowned. "What happened?"

"You... you vanished. Then..."

"Then what?"

Lt Dala seemed to have difficulty forming words. T'Pol watched him closely, noticing his flushed skin, the blue seeming a darker tint. His face moist as if he was sweating heavily though it was not hot but cold. She knew the look of naked fear when she saw it. "This man is in shock."

Shran nodded but still stared hard at Lt Dala. "Again, what happened?"

The Andorian took a moment to find his mental bearings. "After you left things started to change."

T'Pol's voice was hard, sharp. "Change, how?"

He blinked and looked at Shran. The Andorian Commander nodded. Lt Dala took a breath to steady himself. "Things m… moved."

T'Pol's eyebrows rose. "Moved?"

He nodded and pointed to the mine entrance. Lt Reed frowned and did a quick mental recalculation. "The mine entrance is gone."

Commander Shran looked confused. T'Pol could not blame him. Lt Dala nodded at Lt Reed. "It doesn't exist any more." He paused. "When the camp was here the mine entrance was over there, it had a big heavy metal door." He pointed at Lt Reed. "The pink skins opened the door to escape the mine but were captured and taken into the tent." He was now pointing out where the tent had been in proximity to the mine entrance. As he told his story Commander Shran added a few details. T'Pol listened in silence, her eyes narrowing when they described the Chief Engineer's injuries.

"I do not understand." T'Pol paused. "How could a mine entrance move?"

"I believe I can offer an explanation." Said Lt Reed slowly.

T'Pol looked at Shran, he nodded. T'Pol gave permission for the Armoury Officer to continue.

"This is going to sound impossible but I believe the aliens have changed timeframes and in doing so have allowed Earth and the space around it to return to its' proper time."

"That is absurd." Said T'Pol.

"Yes, yes it is, but then this whole thing is confusing. I don't pretend to understand how time travel works still less what varying timelines can mean when it comes to how we relate to the universe. But I know this. Captain Archer has been forward in time and he came back. These aliens somehow went back into Earth's past and in doing so dragged modern day Earth back into that time period. Our presence in this area of space dragged us back too, and that includes the Andorian vessel. It's like we got caught up in some kind of time vortex."

T'Pol was frowning. Commander Shran looked confused. "Vortex?"

Lt Reed shrugged. "I'm not saying that's what it is Commander but I have no words for what has happened just a theory. I know it sounds outlandish but I think the reason that there is no longer an exit to the mine is that after the war the mine was filled in. Perhaps it was no longer stable. With the mine no longer in use there would be no need for an entrance. That would explain why it is covered in grass that looks like its' been there for years. It has. What we saw, what we lived through, was a glimpse back in time but one that had been tampered with by our alien *friends*."

For a long moment no one spoke then T'Pol said the one thing they were all thinking but afraid to voice. "If that is true, why did they take Commander Tucker with them?"

* * * * *

Part 10

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Three people have made comments

I have to admit I'm as confused as T'Pol...
Hope you resolve the aliens' agenda soon.

Very involved plot. Hope it clears up soon, too.

Yep, another fine chapter, Ali! I was so glad to see you had updated. Thank you!