Post by Slagathor on Feb 7, 2010 2:15:14 GMT
Part 9 – Averting Paradox
“Temporal oscillations are holding,” Carter yelled to the Doctor.
“I’m trying to establish a time fix on Cliffport, Maine, September 10, 1978,” Ann called out.
“No,” yelled the Doctor, as he heard on an explosion. The Doctor ran out of the Tardis. “No time fixes,” he admonished.
“Has the Time Tunnel been damaged?”
“No, the pyrotechnics in the tunnel is not unusual, sort of like the ‘splash’ of the Stargate’s event horizon,” Ann explained.
“I need to realign the Tardis’s time-space element with Tunnel’s vector control.”
The Doctor threw the final switch. The pyrotechnics continued, yet it was accompanied by the sound similar to the Tardis materializing.
Out of smoke and pyrotechnics in the Tunnel, two figures appeared coughing and sputtering.
“Doug, we’re back,” one of the men said.
“Yes, but who are these people?”
“Where’s General Kirk?” demanded Tony Newman.
“He’s dead.”
“Dead?” murmured Doug Phillips. “What about Ray Swain or Ann McGregor?”
“Ray’s dead too.”
“What about Ann?”
“I’m Ann,”
“You can’t be,” Tony blurted out. Then they just stared at the sixty-something year old woman.
“Ann? What happened?”
“We lost you. We tried for nearly a year to get a new fix on you, but eventually the project was shutdown.”
“Can you help us get back to 1968?”
“No,” interrupted the Doctor. “That would create a temporal paradox. You were lost. Nothing can change that.”
“And who exactly are you?”
“I’m the Doctor.”
“Doctor who?”
“Yes, I get that a lot.”
“These people came together to bring you back, using more advanced technology than we had back in the ‘60s,” Ann explained.
They were still clearly uncomfortable. Suddenly they were back in the Time Tunnel, but (to them) in the wrong time period.
“It would have been better had we stayed back in 1978,” Doug complained.
“I understand what it’s like being a wanderer in the fourth dimension, sometimes feeling there’s no place you belong. And I understand you lads have had it pretty rough. But this is a time where you are welcome. No one’s trying to kill you. And there’s lots of great stuff in the 21st century, the Internet, Stargates, wireless phones, fusion cuisine, rap music……. OK, you might want to give the rap music a miss, but still there’s a lot to see, learn and do.”
“I suppose so,” Tony said wearily.
“And I’ll help you adjust,” Ann volunteered. She hugged both Tony and Doug tightly. She had finally brought them home. Just then she remembered an odd comment, General Kirk had made the last time they spoke.
******************************************************************************
1970
General Heyward Kirk sat down hard in his office chair. It had been almost a year since they have lost Tony and Doug. Ray Swain, Ann MacGregor and a legion of scientists, engineers and technicians had worked tirelessly to recover the two lost time travelers, to no avail. The general was tried and depressed. The word had come down from Washington. The ‘plug had been pulled’.
He wearily pulled a bottle of whiskey and a .45 caliber pistol out of his drawer. Dr. Ray Swain came to the door. General Kirk quickly pulled a folder over the pistol.
“The last of the reactor components have been loaded for Area 51, General,” reported Ray.
“Yes, I heard,” he answered glumly.
“Drink, Ray?” Swain nodded no.
“So what will you do now, General?”
“I guess retire. You?”
“I’ve been offered a position at MIT. The one good thing about a failed top secret government project is that no one will ever know of its failure.”
“Yeah,” Kirk sighed.
“General, you can’t blame yourself. Both Tony and Doug, each made a decision to enter the Tunnel.”
“I’m a soldier. I’ve lost men before. Of course, never like this,” he admitted. “And never civilians. But…” he hesitated. “When are you leaving?”
“Tonight. The disassembly team doesn’t need me anymore.”
General Kirk stood up and shook Dr. Swain’s hand. “Good luck, Ray.”
“Good luck to you too.” Ray Swain walked sadly out the door. The two men would never see each other again.
The General slumped back in his chair, and took another swig of whiskey. He eyed the pistol again. Suddenly, another figured appeared in the door. He assumed it was a member of the disassembly team, but this man seemed rather oddly dressed.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked.
“I’m a time traveler. I just spoke with Tony and Doug.”
“That’s not funny,” the General snarled.
“Not meant to be. I AM from the future. We just rescued Tony and Doug.” General Kirk looked at the man suspiciously. “You don’t really think this is the end of time travel, do you General?”
“Where are they?” Kirk asked eagerly, hoping they’d just step through the door.
“In the future. I’m sorry; you’ll never see them again. But trust me; they’re safe.”
“I suppose that’s something…if it’s true.”
“But there’s something you must do to make that happen.”
“What?” the General asked, still not quite convinced.
“Greg, do you have it?”
“Right here,” answered House, holding a large envelop. Kirk eyed the unshaven man with a cane, who looked to him more like a hobo.
“We need to tape this envelop to the wall outside your office. It must stay there for several decades.”
“What’s in the envelop?”
“Information on how to rescue them.”
“Can’t we use it now?”
“The technology doesn’t exist in 1970, but it will someday.”
“It’s an odd request.”
“But a necessary one,” the Doctor insisted. “And you have nothing to lose, if it isn’t true.”
“Very well, let’s do it,” Kirk agreed. He had to admit, he had nothing to lose.
They went into the corridor. House showed them the wall, where he, Mitchell and Jackson found it. They taped the envelop to the wall with heavy-duty tape.
“House!” the General Kirk called out. House and the Doctor looked at each other, each wondering how General Kirk could possibly know Greg’s last name. Suddenly, a marine officer came over to them.
“Lieutenant House,” General Kirk announced. “No one is to remove this envelop from this wall. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” the young lieutenant acknowledged, but gave an odd look at the bizarre request.
“Make sure this location is guarded until we conduct our final closedown on Thursday.”
“Yes, sir.”
Greg House realized he was looking into the younger face of his now-dead father. Lieutenant House saluted to depart and assign a detachment.
“Looks like a good officer,” House quipped. “Bet you he makes colonel some day.” Both the General and the Doctor gave him an odd look.
“This means Tony and Doug will be OK?”
“One day in the future,” the Doctor assured him.
“Now that we’ve saved Tony and Doug, is that hot Doctor MacGregor around?” House asked. “I mean she’s the reason we’re here.”
“Greg!” The Doctor snapped.
“Ann MacGregor?”
“She has a part to play but don’t say a word to her,” the Doctor warned. The General nodded. He had learned the potential consequences of time travel. “We have to go now.”
General Kirk walked back into his office. The phone rang. Coincidentally, it was Ann McGregor.
“Hello Ann”…”No, Ray just left”….”Yes, it’s terrible thing.” He listened as Ann lamented the end of Project Tic Toc, and the loss of Doug and Tony. “You know Ann, I expect someday you’ll see Tony and Doug again. I don’t know exactly how. You just have to have faith”….”Good night Ann.”
General Kirk sat back down, took another sip of his whiskey, and returned the pistol to the desk drawer.
“Temporal oscillations are holding,” Carter yelled to the Doctor.
“I’m trying to establish a time fix on Cliffport, Maine, September 10, 1978,” Ann called out.
“No,” yelled the Doctor, as he heard on an explosion. The Doctor ran out of the Tardis. “No time fixes,” he admonished.
“Has the Time Tunnel been damaged?”
“No, the pyrotechnics in the tunnel is not unusual, sort of like the ‘splash’ of the Stargate’s event horizon,” Ann explained.
“I need to realign the Tardis’s time-space element with Tunnel’s vector control.”
The Doctor threw the final switch. The pyrotechnics continued, yet it was accompanied by the sound similar to the Tardis materializing.
Out of smoke and pyrotechnics in the Tunnel, two figures appeared coughing and sputtering.
“Doug, we’re back,” one of the men said.
“Yes, but who are these people?”
“Where’s General Kirk?” demanded Tony Newman.
“He’s dead.”
“Dead?” murmured Doug Phillips. “What about Ray Swain or Ann McGregor?”
“Ray’s dead too.”
“What about Ann?”
“I’m Ann,”
“You can’t be,” Tony blurted out. Then they just stared at the sixty-something year old woman.
“Ann? What happened?”
“We lost you. We tried for nearly a year to get a new fix on you, but eventually the project was shutdown.”
“Can you help us get back to 1968?”
“No,” interrupted the Doctor. “That would create a temporal paradox. You were lost. Nothing can change that.”
“And who exactly are you?”
“I’m the Doctor.”
“Doctor who?”
“Yes, I get that a lot.”
“These people came together to bring you back, using more advanced technology than we had back in the ‘60s,” Ann explained.
They were still clearly uncomfortable. Suddenly they were back in the Time Tunnel, but (to them) in the wrong time period.
“It would have been better had we stayed back in 1978,” Doug complained.
“I understand what it’s like being a wanderer in the fourth dimension, sometimes feeling there’s no place you belong. And I understand you lads have had it pretty rough. But this is a time where you are welcome. No one’s trying to kill you. And there’s lots of great stuff in the 21st century, the Internet, Stargates, wireless phones, fusion cuisine, rap music……. OK, you might want to give the rap music a miss, but still there’s a lot to see, learn and do.”
“I suppose so,” Tony said wearily.
“And I’ll help you adjust,” Ann volunteered. She hugged both Tony and Doug tightly. She had finally brought them home. Just then she remembered an odd comment, General Kirk had made the last time they spoke.
******************************************************************************
1970
General Heyward Kirk sat down hard in his office chair. It had been almost a year since they have lost Tony and Doug. Ray Swain, Ann MacGregor and a legion of scientists, engineers and technicians had worked tirelessly to recover the two lost time travelers, to no avail. The general was tried and depressed. The word had come down from Washington. The ‘plug had been pulled’.
He wearily pulled a bottle of whiskey and a .45 caliber pistol out of his drawer. Dr. Ray Swain came to the door. General Kirk quickly pulled a folder over the pistol.
“The last of the reactor components have been loaded for Area 51, General,” reported Ray.
“Yes, I heard,” he answered glumly.
“Drink, Ray?” Swain nodded no.
“So what will you do now, General?”
“I guess retire. You?”
“I’ve been offered a position at MIT. The one good thing about a failed top secret government project is that no one will ever know of its failure.”
“Yeah,” Kirk sighed.
“General, you can’t blame yourself. Both Tony and Doug, each made a decision to enter the Tunnel.”
“I’m a soldier. I’ve lost men before. Of course, never like this,” he admitted. “And never civilians. But…” he hesitated. “When are you leaving?”
“Tonight. The disassembly team doesn’t need me anymore.”
General Kirk stood up and shook Dr. Swain’s hand. “Good luck, Ray.”
“Good luck to you too.” Ray Swain walked sadly out the door. The two men would never see each other again.
The General slumped back in his chair, and took another swig of whiskey. He eyed the pistol again. Suddenly, another figured appeared in the door. He assumed it was a member of the disassembly team, but this man seemed rather oddly dressed.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked.
“I’m a time traveler. I just spoke with Tony and Doug.”
“That’s not funny,” the General snarled.
“Not meant to be. I AM from the future. We just rescued Tony and Doug.” General Kirk looked at the man suspiciously. “You don’t really think this is the end of time travel, do you General?”
“Where are they?” Kirk asked eagerly, hoping they’d just step through the door.
“In the future. I’m sorry; you’ll never see them again. But trust me; they’re safe.”
“I suppose that’s something…if it’s true.”
“But there’s something you must do to make that happen.”
“What?” the General asked, still not quite convinced.
“Greg, do you have it?”
“Right here,” answered House, holding a large envelop. Kirk eyed the unshaven man with a cane, who looked to him more like a hobo.
“We need to tape this envelop to the wall outside your office. It must stay there for several decades.”
“What’s in the envelop?”
“Information on how to rescue them.”
“Can’t we use it now?”
“The technology doesn’t exist in 1970, but it will someday.”
“It’s an odd request.”
“But a necessary one,” the Doctor insisted. “And you have nothing to lose, if it isn’t true.”
“Very well, let’s do it,” Kirk agreed. He had to admit, he had nothing to lose.
They went into the corridor. House showed them the wall, where he, Mitchell and Jackson found it. They taped the envelop to the wall with heavy-duty tape.
“House!” the General Kirk called out. House and the Doctor looked at each other, each wondering how General Kirk could possibly know Greg’s last name. Suddenly, a marine officer came over to them.
“Lieutenant House,” General Kirk announced. “No one is to remove this envelop from this wall. Is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” the young lieutenant acknowledged, but gave an odd look at the bizarre request.
“Make sure this location is guarded until we conduct our final closedown on Thursday.”
“Yes, sir.”
Greg House realized he was looking into the younger face of his now-dead father. Lieutenant House saluted to depart and assign a detachment.
“Looks like a good officer,” House quipped. “Bet you he makes colonel some day.” Both the General and the Doctor gave him an odd look.
“This means Tony and Doug will be OK?”
“One day in the future,” the Doctor assured him.
“Now that we’ve saved Tony and Doug, is that hot Doctor MacGregor around?” House asked. “I mean she’s the reason we’re here.”
“Greg!” The Doctor snapped.
“Ann MacGregor?”
“She has a part to play but don’t say a word to her,” the Doctor warned. The General nodded. He had learned the potential consequences of time travel. “We have to go now.”
General Kirk walked back into his office. The phone rang. Coincidentally, it was Ann McGregor.
“Hello Ann”…”No, Ray just left”….”Yes, it’s terrible thing.” He listened as Ann lamented the end of Project Tic Toc, and the loss of Doug and Tony. “You know Ann, I expect someday you’ll see Tony and Doug again. I don’t know exactly how. You just have to have faith”….”Good night Ann.”
General Kirk sat back down, took another sip of his whiskey, and returned the pistol to the desk drawer.
---- THE END ----
