I just couldn't wait for the weekend...
CHAPTER NINE
Joe stood near bye as Seven worked on the portable emitter. “Can you fix it?” he asked. It was the third time in an hour he’d asked that. She looked up from the Briefing Room table.
“As I have explained,” she replied with a sigh, “The components are extremely aged. I am replacing what I can with newer parts but this technology is still far in advance of what I have to work with.” She paused for a moment. “To answer your inquiry- I don’t know. If I had peace and quiet I might be able to reconstruct the damaged circuits. It is taking all of my concentration to determine the pathways and resistance of electrical flow needed.”
Joe opened his mouth and then shut it again. He wandered over to the window and stared out into the great black.
Seven continued her work in silence. Joe hummed arias in his head.
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The chip didn’t fit neatly and Joe had to play around with the connections for quite a while. Had he been human, he would have needed to rest but his power source was good for several days before he needed to recharge. He kept at it. Eventually, he had what he thought was a clean link between the chip and his IHP. He picked the padd up once again. Examining the instructions, he tapped basic commands into the IHP. Then he pulled the connection from the Everlite, severing the tie between battery and bulb. In the darkness, after sorting out the voltage and ground lines he separated off half of them and hooked the other half into the chip, directly, according to the instructions Daniels had left. The additional power made his presence glow, like an angel out of legend. Drawing an unneeded breath, he hit the ‘Refresh’ command on his IHP. His world buzzed with confusion for a moment and then he was himself again. Looking around at Daniels’s office one last time, he triggered the new chip. An energy build-up began in his IHP but before it reached its peak a half-remembered sensation overtook him. “I’m being transported,” he thought, and then disappeared.
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“This ship has seen better days.” That was the first thought Joe had when he re-materialized. It was obviously some kind of cargo ship. Whatever it had been, today it was a barely functioning wreck. Panels were missing from the wall, showing exposed EPS conduits and other circuitry, two of the four transporter pads were dark and the ceiling lacked proper lighting. The Vulcan behind the transporter console glared at him with obvious anger. The same two Klingons that Joe had seen performing the strange ritual were on either side of him.
“We detected a strange energy emission from Earth. You are the source.” The Vulcan seemed upset.
“Have you ever heard of Surak?” Joe inquired sarcastically, “Your current behavior is causing a negative impact on your blood pressure.”
“How would you know that? Are you one of the Demons?” Both Klingons drew disruptor-style pistols and pointed them at Joe.
“I am a holographic physician and even if I was flesh and blood your rising hostility would make the diagnosis a simple one.” Joe waited expectantly for a reply.
“Stretching the realm of believability, let us assume that you are as you say. The last known holographic being ceased to exist four hundred and forty-seven years ago. How do you explain your current existence?” The Vulcan sounded almost reasonable to Joe.
“I was lost in the Delta Quadrant nine hundred years ago. I’ve just returned to Earth.” Joe looked at him steadily, ignoring the Klingons. “It took a long time to come home.”
The Vulcan raised an eyebrow. “If that is true, I suspect this is not the homecoming you had hoped for.”
Joe relaxed a bit. “Indeed,” he said, doing his best-remembered impression of the long-dead Mr. Tuvok. “Nevertheless, I need to return to the surface. I was in the middle of something when you …interrupted.”
“So you say,” replied the Vulcan with a taciturn expression. “Cover him. If he does anything unexpected, shoot the device on his arm.”
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“Who I am is not important right now,” Joe said. “Vash, you have to stop him! Don’t let Captain Picard activate the gate system! Hurry!”
Vash had recovered her composure. “Go ahead and stop him yourself. Jean-Luc gets an idea in his head and nothing stops him.” She put her hands on her hips. “And you never did say who you are.”
“I can’t, the chip…” Joe’s image wavered in a rainbow effect. “The chip is failing. I’m going to …” Joe vanished. Vash looked at the space he’d been in for a moment and then spun on her heel, racing back towards Picard. He met her at the chamber entrance, flushed with excitement.
“Jean-Luc, don’t-” Picard cut her off.
“Vash, I’ve done it! I’ve activated the gate system!” He looked quite pleased with himself. Vash stopped in her tracks.
“That’s great, Jean-Luc,” she replied dully. “I don’t think you were supposed to do that, though.”
Picard looked at her curiously.
“Why would you say that?” he asked.
Vash waved vaguely behind herself. ”There was a man,” she trailed off weakly.
Picard peered over her shoulder. “I don’t see anyone,” he said.
“He vanished,” Vash replied, lamely. “But he said you shouldn’t activate the gates before he left.”
Picard glanced back into the chamber behind him. “It’s a bit too late for that,” he said. The Iconian device throbbed with power. “The gates are active.” He grasped her arms in his hands. “Do you know what this means for the Federation? What we’ve done?”
Vash looked at him. “Jean-Luc, I have no idea. But that man scared me. I’m not so sure what we’ve done was a good thing.”
Picard stared at her for a moment and then cast his gaze back towards the Iconian interface. A worried expression crossed his face.
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“I need to know what you know,” Riker said. From his place at the top of the briefing room table he glowered down at Joe. Geordi watched with interest while Data just stared. He wasn’t quite what he’d been before transferring to the B4 unit. Despite the awakening of his personality, Data still hadn’t completely recaptured his full essence. His responses to some stimuli weren’t as natural as they once had been. Seven was her usual self, not giving anything more than her presence. Deanna was the only sympathetic face around the table. Joe sighed and steeled himself for a rough time.
Joe looked at Riker. “There are things I can’t tell you. I hope you understand. The Temporal Prime Directive plays into this.”
Riker looked annoyed. “If there is a problem we have to deal with you need to tell us.”
Joe took an unneeded breath. “We have to stop Captain Picard. I know I came close, temporally speaking. Where is he now?”
Riker glanced at Deanna, who nodded her head slightly. “Beta Hydroxii Four. The Captain is on an archeological dig with his…girlfriend.”
“Vash?” Joe asked. Riker looked a bit surprised.
“Actually, yes. Why, is it important?”
“Damn! Commander, you need to get us to Beta Hydroxii now. We have to stop him!” Joe was upset on many levels. ”Commander, you have to go now-we have to stop him from activating the gates!” he jumped out of his seat, his hands on the table.
Riker considered it for a moment. Tapping his com badge, he said, “Helm, make course for Beta Hydroxii Four. Maximum warp.” Riker looked at Data as he opened his mouth. “Better to be in position if we have to act than to be out of position.” Data shut his mouth without saying anything. “Ok, Mr. Smith, I’ve just diverted an entire month’s relief supplies that are badly needed on Betazed on your say-so. Tell me something to keep me from turning this ship around right now.” Riker was grim as he spoke.
Joe paused for a second and then took a chance. “In two hundred and forty-two years the Federation will fall. The Iconians will destroy the Federation. Captain Picard will release them. Soon. At Beta Hydroxii Four.” He paused for a moment. “They are not just Iconians. They are modified. They have abilities even the original Iconians didn’t have.”
He looked at them all around the table. “Pretend Khan Noonien Singh was an Iconian. Now, do you understand?” The shocked looks (except for Data) answered his question.
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“Look, it doesn’t have to be this way. I have reason to believe this entire stretch of history is a mistake. I can fix it!” Joe’s tone was pleading now. “It doesn’t have to be this way. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”
The Vulcan looked at him in a long, drawn out moment. “Can you restore the Fleet?”
“I believe I can,” Joe answered. The Klingons bared their teeth in exaggerated smiles. The Vulcan merely peered at him under doubting eyebrows. Joe held himself very still and waited.
After a minute, the Vulcan said, “I am S’ton. You will come with me. I will see if what you say is true.” Without any further comment he headed for the transporter room exit, the two Klingons following. Joe shrugged and tailed them out.
As they walked through the corridor Joe noticed the peeling paint, the exposed eps conduits, and the bare deck plates. “Nice ship you have here,” he commented drily.
S’ton replied, “It is what little the Demons permit us. They deem it harmless.”
“I dare say they‘re right,” Joe said. S’ton said nothing further until they arrived at a lower-level cargo bay. After several tries at the control panel, the doors opened.
S’ton turned towards Joe. “The Fleet has awaited Restoration for many centuries. If you can, Restore it.” The Vulcan sounded skeptical. Joe gave him a puzzled look and tentatively stepped into the cargo bay.
It was divided into aisles by long shelf units stretching from one end of the bay to the other. On every shelf, as Joe walked down into the bay, were small, Lucite-looking rectangles. In each block Joe could see a tiny ship, a replica of an advanced-looking Star Fleet vessel. The cargo bay contained thousands of them. At first, he just walked along, glancing from side to side. Then it hit him. He stopped cold in his tracks. Turning back to S’ton, he asked,
“Is this the Fleet?”
S’ton nodded from his place in the doorway. “It is. When the Demons came they rendered the Fleet thus. It has been said that only the Captain knows the way of freeing them to defeat the Demons. He did so at Pyris VII and he will do so again. He has died and come again. He will live again. He will free us when the time of Restoration is upon us.”
“Pyris VII,” the Klingons echoed. “He freed his ship from the Demons!” The roar of their chant echoed through out the cargo bay. Joe stood there in the midst of the entire Fleet, stunned.
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Bravo on another wonderfully done installment.
Again, the author has utilized the Vash character perfectly here. 
)
Time travel stories can be difficult to pull off, but you're doing a good job on this one. I can't wait to see how this all comes together.
