The Escape (19 page)

A man with no hair stood beside them. He held a small scanner and was monitoring Drickel.

For. a moment Drickel's gaze remained on the man-no hair! Amazing. Such a thing never happened on Alcawell. Not in all the Periods put together-then Drickel realized he was staring. Finally he turned his attention to the fourth person.

She was apparently the captain he had heard a few moments before. She was slender and shorter than the men who surrounded her, but her clear blue eyes had intelligence and her expression wore its authority well. Her hair was a very tame brown, but the color suited her. Even the red on her uniform seemed more vibrant than the other colors he had seen in this place.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm alive. I assume that's thanks to your people." The captain nodded toward Pointed Ears and his pale companion. "Lieutenants Tuvok and Paris found you." She pointed to the other man. "This is our doctor, and I'm Captain Janeway.

You are on the, Federation Starship Voyager." Starship? They called these things starships. The word evoked night skies filled with stars, warm jungle air around him, and birds chirping in nearby trees.

Some poetry, then, to these people.

"Nice to meet you, Captain," Drickel said.

Then he looked directly at the two men.

"Thank you for saving my life." Paris said, "You're welcome." Tuvok bowed slightly.

"We have questions we need to ask," the captain said, moving closer to him. Her voice was sharp, firm, and commanding. She stood with her hands clasped behind her back, her posture erect but not rigid. Her movements also implied a great physical strength.

"Ask away," Drickel said. If this was anything like Control, the more he said the better off he would be. He didn't know if PlanetHoppers had rules the way Alcawell did, but he suspected they might. "Mind if I sit up first?" Janeway glanced at the doctor.

"Why are my patients always eager to damage themselves?" he muttered. "Doctor?" Janeway said.

"I'm sure it will be fine. I'm sure you should all diagnose yourselves." He glared at Paris and Tuvok. "At least you two are finally clean." Drickel suppressed a smile and swung his feet off the table so he could face the PlanetHoppers more directly. He patted the waist of his jumpsuit. It felt odd without the weight of the belt. "Does anyone know where my belt ended up?" Tuvok nodded. "We had to remove it so that you would become visible. Since the belt obviously had other components, some of which might be dangerous, we placed it in a containment field in Cargo Bay One." I "It was still working when you found me?" Drickel was actually shocked. If the invisibility device was still working, then there was no way they could have seen through the shield. These people were even more amazing than he had imagined. "How did you-That' "There will be time enough for that later," the captain said.

"But first I'd like some information about my away team.

I need to know where they are being held and how we get them back to Voyager. was Drickel heard her words, but didn't understand them. ""Away team"?" "Three of my crew were accidentally taken by that shuttle down there just after we first arrived here," she said. "It returned seconds later with a Mr.

Kjanders on board. He said that my crew was being held by Control in the past and may be executed. I assume you are working for that Control since you were trying to scare us off." Drickel tilted his head back. So that was the Time Alarm that Red had mentioned. He hadn't put those two elements together. All that work Drickel had done to protect the live shuttle had been wasted.

He had arrived too late. The PlanetHoppers had already triggered the shuttle.

This entire mission from start to end had been a disaster.

The captain was watching him closely. Behind her scrutiny he could see concern for her crew. It was that concern that convinced him he'd better lay this all out. "I know nothing about your away team," he said. "And that's the truth." "Then why were you trying to scare us away?" Paris asked.. "Because that is my job as defined by the Watchman Regulation Acts numbers 00000 to 49,000, all sections and subsections. We make certain that no Period is violated by a PlanetHopper, or anyone else for that matter." "I hate that term," Paris muttered.

"I do work for Control," Drickel continued, ignoring him, "but in a very special force we call the Back Room. Our job, simply, is to guard these old abandotied time-shuttle stations from intruders.

I do this in fifty Periods." "So your race did not just abandon this Period," Tuvok said. "Your people died out at some point?" Drickel laughed. "Oh, no. Actually, we moved-was "Gentlemen," the captain said. "This is all well and good, but it can wait until we've recovered the away team." "Your away team as you call them is in serious trouble," Drickel said. "If you will allow me to explain a few things." He rubbed a hand over his face.

"It appears that my patient is growing tired," the doctor said. "If you would all leave him-was "No," Drickel said. "I'm fine. I'm just trying to figure out how to compress thousands of years and even more regulations into a few sentences." He frowned at Tuvok. "You people are quite sophisticated.

I assume you have time travel?" "Our people have done it, but it is very rudimentary. We prefer travel in space. No one in our culture regularly travels through time," he said.

"I think what Tuvok is saying," Paris said, "is that the more you explain the better off we'll be." "As long as it goes to helping my away team," the captain said. "And doesn't exhaust you too much," the doctor said. "No matter how strong your body is, it came close to failing you today. You must remember that." Drickel wouldn't forget that. It was probably time to approach Control about Watchmen teams. He sighed, That meant even more regulation.

"Let me explain why you found an empty planet," Drickel said. "You already understand paradoxes, but there is a level beyond paradoxes in time travel. A level that we didn't discover for many years." He scooted back on the table and crossed his legs. His hip seemed to be better too.

The doctor frowned at him. The took was almost menacing. That bare scalp made him appear sinister.

. "About one hundred and fifty thousand years ago Real Time from here," Drickel said, "we discovered that, for each decision point in Real Time, two or more alternate universes branch off depending on the number of solutions. Most of the time these branches simply blend back together like water running around a rock. But other times the branches form two or more distinct time lines. We discovered how to easily cross the boundaries between those time lines and in so doing discovered millions and millions of uninhab210 ited time lines where our race never developed on this planet." "So your race moved." Tuvok said.

"Fascinating. Drickel smiled at Tuvok.

He liked old Pointed Ears. The man was quick.

"At this very point in Real Time there are estimated to be over two hundred billion members of my race occupying over eight million alternate time lines." "I fail to understand how this affects my away team," the captain said. "It affects them in this way," Drickel said. "When Control discovered the dimensional shifts, the need to regulate our society became fierce. We already had strict regulations about time travel, but those regulations now had to protect the dimensions as well. Travel into the future became even more dangerous, and Control became even more rigid." "Shifted to another dimension, are you?" the captain said.. "No," Drickel said. "Those shuttles below were design ed before we knew about parallel universes. The ships return to the corresponding Real Time in the past. It was a logical protection once. But the regulations have changed.

Your away team got on one of our shuttles, went to the past, and broke the law through no fault of their own." "It is logical that a society like yours would establish unbreakable time guidelines," Tuvok said.

"But we are not part of that society," Janeway said. "True," Drickel said. "But your crew could have dispussed the future Alcawell with people in the past.

Each slip in the stream is extremely dangerous. That is why I work so hard at keeping PlanetHoppers away from the ships." "Good for you," Janeway said, "but I need to know if you can free them." These people were quite intelligent. The rumors he had heard about PlanetHoppers were clearly skewed. He felt a bit embarrassed by his explanation, as if he had been insulting their intelligence without meaning to.

"We might be able to free them," he said. "I'd need to get back to my time shuttle and report in." "The one in the underground cavern?" Tuvok asked.

"You found that, also?" He glanced around. "You are the only PlanetHoppers who ever beat me. And then you saved my life." He shook his head. "I am not only impressed, but I am also grateful. It seems only logical that I try to save your crew members." Drickel moved his shoulders and arms a little, amazed that even his shoulder felt almost as good as new.

"Doctor, when can I leave?" "You need at least two more days of rest before you will be in good shape. Your body needs time to recover from the shock. Your physique is different enough from the others in my files that if you did have an infection, I might not be able to find it. To be safe, I would order bed rest for a week." The doctor sighed and'glanced at Janeway. "But I understand that you-and all of my patients except the hapless Ensign Berggren, who seems content to snore his life away in sickbay-have busy lives to lead, and can't afford take care of yourselves. That being the case-was The doctor wiped his hands together as if shaking Drickel off them.?-the sooner you leave, the better." "Will do, Doc," Paris said.

"We can beam you directly to your shuttle," Janeway said. She faced Drickel. "If you don't mind, we'll accompany you." Drickel laughed and stepped down off the medical table. "I would expect nothing else." He hesitated. "Oh, and Captain? You mentioned a person named Kjanders?" The captain nodded. "He showed up on the shuttle that took our crew and seemed genuinely shocked at what he found." Drickel laughed. "I suppose he was.

If it's the same Kjanders I've heard of, he is a known criminal sought by Control. I would be careful." The-captain smiled, the first real smile from her Drickel had seen. It softened her face.

"We guessed as much. At the moment, he is imbibing too much coffee in our officers' mess.

We've kept him under constant surveillance." Drickel shook his head in amazement again. It would be good to have these PlanetHoppers as friends. He sure wouldn't want to be against them again. "Would someone please turn off my program?" the doctor said.

"Emergency medical program off," Tuvok said.

The doctor faded away.

Drickel pointed at where the doctor had been.

He was shocked. Totally shocked. "I was cured by a-was 913 "Hologram," the captain said.

"An invisible man healed by a holographic doctor," Paris said. "That seems logical to me. How about you, Tuvok?" "I see nothing strange about it," Tuvok said.

"We have a holographic doctor and Mr.

Drickel was invisible. These things happen." Paris laughed, followed by the captain.

Drickel wasn't sure what the two of them found so funny. Apparently Thvok didn't know either.

These Planei Hoppers were very talented but very strange p.

JANEWAY DID NOT MOVE AS THE TRANSPORTER BEAMS Rand leased her.

Paris and Tuvok had warned her about the dust in the caverns. They had arrived before her and Drickel, and were already holding up lanterns to illuminate the underground room.

The dust was thick and the air was very dry. It sucked the moisture from her mouth and nose immediately. Paris had said that the caverns were warmer than the surface, but they still weren't warm. They, were at freezing, if she had to lay a wager on it.

Everything in the room was covered with dust. The beams of lights cut circles through the darkness, but the blackness still lurked at the edges. What looked to be the remains of a workstation was buried under dust. The only thing that looked new was a device near one side of the room.

Tuvok and Paris had trained their lights in that direction. The device was human-sized. It had a bench seat and a control panel and was the only thing not deep in dust.

"Do not move very fast." Tuvok reminded them.

"This dust is very light and can be stirred up easily." "I'll just stand here and be a lamppost," Paris said, holding the lamp up high.

Drickel and Janeway glanced at each other, then walked side by side to the time shuttle. The dust floated like tiny moths around them.

Paris coughed. "Dammit, Tuvok," he said.

"The doctor is going to order us to take showers again." Janeway smiled.

Drickel moved over to the time shuttle. Without sitting down, he touched a few buttons. The dust caught up to him and Janeway, swirling around them like a friendly whirlwind. Some of it caught in her mouth.

The dust had an alkaline taste. She was glad that Tlivok had already tested it. Drickel hunched so that the swirling dust stayed away from his mouth.

"Emergency override. Intraperiod Communication.

Drickel to Noughi, citing Watchman Regulations 500 through 537, all Sections. Noughi, are you there?" "Watchman Back Room Response via Emergency Override rules at Control, Items 999 through 1500. Noughi here.

Thisbetter be good, Drickel. You just caused me a month of regulation citing." A woman's voice came through after only a moment's pause.

The hair rose on the back of Janeway's neck. That 216 woman was speaking from the past as easily as Janeway spoke to Voyager. She was hearing a voice three hundred thousand years old.

"Probably more than a month," Drickel said.

His voice actually some lightness to it. Was he flirting? "Whoever popped my alarm sent me here late. The PlanetHoppers I was supposed to chase away had already lost three of their crew to your section several Real Time hours before I appeared." "Sounds like you're the one who gets to file the, complaint, Drickel." The woman chuckled.

"We'll have forms 7564.555 through 32,889.321 sent to your home system so that you can work on this problem when you return." Then she paused. "If this is what you caused an Emergency Override for, I will make sure you get extra forms to process." "No," Drickel said. "There's some problems here. What happened to those three crew members?" "They came through here. They were Rawlik's first.