The Q and the clone

Seelowe materialized on the bridge and made himself comfortable in the captain’s seat. He enjoyed this part, that brief moment just as they become aware he is there, when the mouths opened and the jaws dropped. He fixed a benign smirk on his face and glanced about, waiting for the first reaction. They were all there, Mason standing in the corner like an iron clad sentinel, Joe working on the underside of a console only his legs and backside sticking out, Miral at the helm concentrating on numbers and star charts, Arado and the Romulan hunched over a display screen deep in discussion, and one other.
“When did they find YOU?” this time it was Seelowe’s jaw that dropped in surprise. He quickly recovered himself as the red headed woman turned and glared at him with her hands on her hips.
“Where did you spring from and what are you doing in my seat?” Mimps Masala demanded.
“You are leading this merry band now?” he rose languidly and swept his arm towards the vacant chair, “By all means. Don’t want you to break out the bat, do we?” he said referring to a past incident when her weapon of choice had been a baseball bat. He moved off to one side and did a quick head count. “By gods we are close,” he thought to himself, “Damn close.”
Masala glared at him again, it was not the first time they had met and the experience left her to consider him more of a hindrance than a help.
“So how does this time travel thing work?” she asked, ignoring Seelowe and addressing the rest of the crew. “As I understand it we have to go back in time to get Hlad.”
“I know the procedure,” Mason said from the corner, “as does my AI.”
“I've gone over the data Colonel Auer gave me,” joined in Tumim, “and have calculated the best time possible to approach the station, it’s about 20 years in the past.”
“I…” began Seelowe then he closed his mouth knowing he can’t interfere.
“Tumim, give Mason the coordinates and let’s go get him,” said Masala falling easily back into the command role as if the months she had been away had never happened.
“Hey Pointy Ears,” chuckled Mason, “give me the temporal time frame and the spatial coordinates and I’ll get the AI to do the rest.” Tumim tossed him a data pad and Mason began inputting the numbers. “Give me a few moments here and we will have the data needed to program the jump.”
“There I think I’ve got it!” came a muffled cry of triumph from inside the console Joe was working on. He wriggled out, stood up, drew a cigar from his pocket and lit it.
“You disabled the fire suppression, huh?” said Seelowe as he watched the cigar glow red at its tip.
Joe blew out a stream of smoke, “Yep,” he said. He grinned around the fat cigar clamped between his teeth.
Mimps watched as Joe savoured his cigar, it was irregular behaviour for a crew member but this was not a regular crew and she could deal with that later, right now she had more important matters. She turned to Seelowe.
“Just what is your part in all this? Why do you want the Carolina?”
“My part?” he raised an eyebrow and affected an expression of mock indignity, “I am merely an observer waiting for quorum to be met which will indicate that the Carolina is about to be found. We have a temporal echo showing certain crew, their attire... once I see it...well...then we can get you people out of this gym locker,” he indicated the small bridge of the Rorschach, “...onto MY ship and to the point in time we know where the Carolina is, but not a moment before." He looked down, momentarily studying his fingernails. “You have any idea where that space pirate Heron is?” he asked casually. “She is in the temporal echo too.”
“Kelly has been lost, we haven’t found any trace of her in this time,” said Mimps with a touch of sadness in her voice. Kelly had served with her on the Carolina, saved her life and the Captain’s on more than one occasion, the thought of perhaps never seeing her again was something Mimps did not want to dwell on.
“I suspect she will find us,” said Seelowe looking up again.
Mimps glared back at him, eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You need us for something, otherwise you would just go get the ship yourself. Why is it so important we are all here together?”
“Let’s say I need you and you need me and leave it at that shall we?” said Seelowe cryptically. “Once on my ship I can tell you more...but not until your..."crew"...is together. So far...you keep pulling up short dear, though I DO commend your efforts.”
“So you are telling me that at some point we do find Hlad and we do find the Carolina. I guess we shouldn’t be worried about this mission then.”
“I’ve never said you should worry. However time is of the essence.”
“Well then, let’s get moving.” Mimps turned to the cyborg standing at the rear of the bridge. “Mason, you ready? Send the coordinates to Miral and let’s get this thing in motion....apparently time is of the essence.” She rolled her eyes towards Seelowe.
“Yeah, the coordinates are ready, this time to within a few milliseconds,” Mason replied as he transmitted the coordinates to Miral at the helm.
“We'll need you two tin cans to lead us in,” said Mimps to Joe and Mason. “I don’t think they will just lay out the welcome mat for us.”
Joe took a last puff of his cigar, stubbed it out on the sole of his boot, returned the stub to his pocket and grabbed his helmet. He listened with satisfaction as the seal hissed and automatically locked it in position then waited for the HUD to boot up and the readouts to appear.
Mason was running through a check list for the jump through time and space.
“Torpedo ready and loaded. Firing sequence ready. Deflectors activated.”
“Go ahead,” said Mimps returning to the command chair, “….engage!”
“Firing sequence activated. Detonation,” intoned Mason from the back of the bridge.
All eyes turned to the view screen as a small red point of incandescence bloomed into a rolling cloud of glowing red and gold with a swirling tunnel of gas forming and expanding in its centre.
“Wormhole stable,” confirmed Mason.

meanwhile…..
Kelly Heron was aboard her commandeered Klingon ship, cloaked and hiding behind an asteroid. They had recently returned from her mission to sabotage the Gibraltar, warn off the Ferengi and delay the Romulans who were all now searching for the Carolina and her crew. They waited patiently, cloaked and powered down, watching the small federation ship on the warbird’s view screen.
There was a beep and a flashing light appeared on a console. A Klingon officer studied the console then glanced nervously at Kelly and said something affirmative to her in Klingon.
Kelly Heron stood up from her chair, "He's there?....finally,” she muttered to herself then switched to Klingon and barked out a command. “Prepare to power up gently and follow them should they move. Blue is our target not the rest of the crew." 
Kelly checked that her blades were sharpened and tipped with green icky Klingon goo of death. It had a name she hadn’t bothered to learn, to her non-Klingon ear it sounded like something that rhymed with phlegm. 
Kelly nodded to the view screen, "Stand by, they are going to jump again," she growled.
The Klingon helmsman was slightly terrified of his new Captain so he knew not to get things wrong. He guided the ship carefully and slowly behind the federation vessel watching his sensors for the right moment to accelerate and follow them into the wormhole…..

“Miral, you have the helm,” said Mimps, “take us in.... or whatever the correct term is for time travel.”
“Aye ma’am,” said Miral smartly. She manoeuvred the ship slowly towards the swirling mass of gas and cloud. The ship shuddered and lurched briefly, her past experience was making each passage smoother than the last. “We are through,” she announced after a few moments. “Laying in a course for the planet.”
“Are you two walking arsenals ready?” asked Mimps turning from the view screen and taking in the various weapons and attachments on Mason and Joe’s body armour.
“Commander we are approaching the planet,” interrupted Miral, “shall I take us into orbit just out of sensor range?”
“Yes Miral, we would prefer it if they didn’t know we were coming.” Even after all the years of serving together Mimps was still impressed by Miral’s efficiency and she was certain that whatever ship she commanded it was in good hands with her Andorian friend at the helm.
Miral DeCuir tapped a few keys and expertly eased the ship into a very high orbit just out of sensor range, “Orbit locked ma’am.”
“Away team to the transporter,” commanded Mimps rising to her feet.
********************
They materialised in a wasteland. Small puffs of dust swirled around as each person reappeared on the planet surface. A crazy jigsaw that was once a paved road stretched ahead of them, destroyed and collapsed buildings were behind them, there was no obvious sign of life anywhere.
“Well this place looks ….cheerful,” said Miral taking out her tricorder.
“Charming countryside,” said Seelowe with his usual sarcasm.
“Looks like a pretty decent world war happened here,” said Mason
“This makes Remus look like a vacation spot,” added Tumim.
Arado was studying his own tricorder, “I am reading elevated tachion emissions, we may have hit a temporal anomaly.”
“This doesn’t look right,” said Mimps frowning and looking around. “There is supposed to be a Romulan security base, we are supposed to find Hlad here. Mason check the coordinates again.”
 “The coordinates were correct…” Mason muttered as he tapped a few numbers into his control panel. “…Oh son of a bitch!” he exclaimed as he stared at the readout.
“What?” said Mimps looking at Mason with an even deeper frown. “Are we in the right location? Are we even on the right planet?”
“No we are not Commander,” said Mason raising his weapon and scanning the horizon. “I’ll give you a hint, and it is only one letter.”
“Not…?”
“The frakking Q,” growled Mason.
“Oh great,” said Mimps with exasperation.
Seelowe stepped forward and made a polite cough, “May I suggest we take some cover before the natives eat us?”
“What natives?” retorted Mimps, “there is no one here.”
Mason continued his scans, “For once I agree with him,” he said gruffly. “I suggest we move to that house over there,” he indicated a dilapidated wooden shack with no windows, a large hole in the roof and several planks missing from the walls. “Should be safe enough there till we can figure out what the frak is happening.”
Unbeknown to the crew Kelly Heron was crouched low on the sand dune hidden by her personal cloaking device. She knew it gave off only minor neutrino emissions and she hoped it would go unnoticed long enough for her to get close to Seelowe Blue. She removed a thin and fragile needle from her belt and moved ever so slightly closer to Blue as the crew studied their tricorders trying to make sense of what had gone wrong in their mission to find Hlad.
Miral’s tricorder gave a beep and she looked down at the results. “I am picking up traces of a temporal weapon having been used somewhere in this area,” she said as they all moved towards the shack, “judging by the decay rate the traces are very very old.  I am also detecting a quantum cromodynamic confinement anomaly - the only thing that could cause that is a temporal weapon of some kind.”
“All this is the result of a temporal weapon,” queried Mimps, “all this destruction?”
“Commander,” shouted Joe who was bringing up the rear, “I am picking up an approaching target.”
They all stopped and turned and watched as a man came walking towards them along the shattered road.
Joe raised his weapon and trained it on the man, “Stay right where you are,” he growled.
“Steady Joe,” said Mimps softly, “don’t blow anyone up just yet.”
“Ah…my favourite band of misfits,” the stranger greeted them with a smile and a mocking sweep of his arm. He was dressed casually with a finely crafted leather jacket and soft boots on his feet. “Yes it was me,” he said apologetically, “I brought you here.”
“And just who are you,” demanded Masala.
“I am part of the Q Continuum,” replied the stranger. Then he turned to Joe and snapped his fingers. Joe suddenly found that his mouth was sealed shut and all his weapons powered down and useless. “We have taken an interest in your little hijinks,” continued Q, totally ignoring Joe who had ripped open his visor and was pawing frantically at his mouth. “I bought you here for a reason.”
Mimps Masala stepped forward and stood squarely in front of Q. “Before you tell us your reason, release my officer,” she demanded.
The Q looked down at Mimps and chuckled, he snapped his fingers again. Joe took a long gasping breath in and looked back at the man with murder in his eyes. Q continued to ignore him. He waved his arm to indicate their desolate surroundings, “This is what will happen to your federation if you don’t find that ship,” he said.
“Man…didn’t see that coming,” said Seelowe with surprise.
“I thought you were supposed to know these things,” said Arado in Seelow’s ear. “Is this an alternate future then?”
Seelowe shrugged.
“Well Q,” said Mimps, “, it’s nice of you to show us this little demonstration, but you could have just sent us a sub space message.”
“Where’s the fun in that,” smirked Q, “you would have missed seeing all this. In fact this house was yours and Arado’s, if I’m not mistaken commander Masala.
Mimp’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped in surprise, she spun around and was met by a similar expression on Arado’s face. “What?...” he spluttered, “…whose?”
Mimps stared at the house, “But...we’re not…we aren’t…we don’t even own a house,” she finally blurted out.
“When your ship wasn’t found it went insane,” said Q strolling over to the house and picking a piece of flaking paint off the door. “It eradicated everything and everyone from its past.”
“The ship must have adapted...become...smarter as it made contact with other races,” said Seelowe. “Gods knows WHAT it might have learned.”
“So because we gave up, this happened?” said Joe, finding his voice again.
“That is correct,” said Q. “In this future you gave up after 10 years of searching.”
Mimps looked a bit closer at the surrounding landscape and said "Oh" very quietly.
“I know we won't be giving up now,” said Miral.
“Couldn’t you have stopped it,” piped up Joe, “you and your little band of merry men?”
“Well, we could have,” said Q brushing paint flakes off the toe of his boots. “It was amusing at first, but then the ship came after us. With all that knowledge it got from Bekkers’ database it discovered a way to actually harm us.”
“So Carolina came after you as well Q? I bet you didn’t like that,” said Mimps with a wry grin. “And now you want us to help you stop her.”
“Oh no, I’m just putting the proverbial fire up your asses so you get it right. You really don’t want this to happen, do you?”
The cloaked Kelly stepped unseen a little closer to Seelowe, the needle primed and in her hand. Q was being a handy distraction as always. She reached out and jabbed Seelowe Blue in the neck with her needle, its tip green with the icky Klingon two stage poison. As she jabbed she made a buzzing noise imitating an insect then quickly withdrew the needle from his skin.
Seelowe slapped his neck and said “Ouch,” then staggered a few steps forward as he felt his knees weaken.
Q turned and watched Seelowe carefully. “What you don’t understand,” he said, “is you are all needed to balance out that ship,” he paused as Seelowe sank to the ground, “and you need to get him to your medical bay.”
They all turned as one and saw Seelowe drop like a rock. He hit the ground hard and lay unmoving.
“What have you done to him Q?” snapped Masala. Joe drew his weapon and pointed it at Q.
“Oh it wasn’t me,” said Q. He glared over Joe’s shoulder and snapped his fingers. “Look behind you human.”
Joe spun around and levelled his gun at the cloaked and hooded figure that had suddenly appeared. “Get down on the ground!” he growled.
The figure drew a small dagger, shook its head and said, “No.”
“Lower the knife and show yourself,” barked Mimps.
“My mission is complete, there is no harm ye can bring to me Joe,” the figure pushed back her hood and revealed her face.
“Kelly?” gasped a shocked Mimps. The bright blue of the one azure eye was unmistakable.
Kelly Heron winked at Mimps, “Ahoy Commander, I kept your seat warm and several dozen folk from catching you,” she said with a grin.
“Kelly what have you done?” said Mimps indicating the prone figure on the ground.
“Removed a clone,” said Kelly grimly. “He was following you and leading you astray all the time…there are millions of them, they will send another now he is gone, we must leave this place fast.”
“Miral was down beside Seelowe scanning him with her tricorder.
“Can we do anything for him?” asked Mimps.
“I can't do much for him here,” she said. “We really need to take him back to the ship....he has been injected with an unknown toxin...”
“Wait a minute...” interrupted Arado, “Millions? Misleading us? What do you mean? Who sent him?”
“Seelowe Blue skewed timeline alpha, he sent us all on this merry goose chase, he hid our true captain from us, the one hidden on the holodeck of the Carolina is our Captain...he’s blissfully unaware he’s in a holodeck western. We have to find Hlad and find the ship, we are running out of time and we have too many people chasing us,” said Kelly earnestly. “I have waylaid the Gibraltar and the Ferengi...I believe we have a Romulan here? Perhaps he can help with the Romulans?”
Tumim cleared his throat uneasily, “I will do what I can, but I'm no match for the entire Empire.”
There was a quiet beep from somewhere under Kelly’s robes. She withdrew a communication device and listened carefully, then she replied briefly in Klingon. “We have unknown vessels approaching this system, we have to leave now, Hlad is clearly not here,” she said urgently.
Just then Miral’s tricorder let out an ominous tone. “Commander,” said Miral quietly, “he is dead.”
Mimps knelt and turned the head of the clone towards her, she knew it wasn’t her Captain but still it bothered her to see the life gone from those familiar features.  “I guess we can’t do anything more here.” She rose and looked around at the circle of crew mates. “Everyone back to the ship.”
“Aye ma’am,” said Miral briskly as she snapped her tricorder shut.
“What do we do with that,” asked Arado. He touched the Seelowe clone gingerly with his boot.
Before anyone could answer Kelly removed a Klingon disrupter from under her cloak and everyone jumped back as she vaporised the body.
“Less baggage the better,” she said coldly.
********************
“Hail that ship that is following us,” said Mimps as soon as she was back in her command chair on the Rorschach.
“It's already moving out of range, she's fast,” said Tumim.
“Get a lock on it and follow,” snapped Mimps.
Miral quickly swung the ship around and followed the departing warbird.
Kelly’s face suddenly appeared on the view screen. “We have minutes before their sensors detect us. We gonna run or fight, Commander?” she asked with a familiar twinkle in her one azure eye.
“I think we should run,” replied Mimps, “we are only two and we are here to find the Carolina not to start a war.”
“Agreed Commander,” Kelly nodded. “But where do we run to?”
“We need to get back to our own time,” said Mason. “I have the coordinates. One thing I am never wrong about is how to get the hell home.”
“Problem is Mason,” said Mimps as she rubbed her temples, “just exactly when is our own time? We have been forward and back so many times I’m losing track.”
“I’m transmitting a file,” said Kelly from the view screen. “It’s time line Alpha. I’ve been mapping it the whole time we’ve all been tearing through it. I’ll be breaking every temporal directive in existence by showing you this, but hey…breaking rules is what I’m best at.”
“Thanks Kelly,” said Mimps and they grinned at each other. “Una and Mason process that time line and get us out of here.”
“I’m on it,” said Arado. Using the file sent by Kelly and the data from their previous jump he was able to quickly open the wormhole. Miral effortlessly moved them through it and Mason sent a parting spread of torpedos towards the incoming enemies just before they disappeared.
“Back where we started,” announced Arado as they reappeared at the other end of the wormhole.
Joe stuck the butt end of his cigar back in his mouth, lit it and inhaled deeply. He sunk back in his chair and let out a long celebratory stream of smoke.
Mimps sniffed the air and glanced over her shoulder at Joe, then she flicked a switch that reinitialised the fire suppression system. The cigar went out, Joe swore and everyone else grinned.
“Right,” said Masala, “now let’s get down to finding out exactly what is going on.”

Kelly and Q

(a prequel to Kelly and the Klingons)

Kelly was aghast when the foothold gave way and she began to slide, it all happened so fast.  One minute she was traversing the snow capped mountains of Terrod, heading towards the sanctuary of the Klingon listening post, the next slipping and sliding down a steep cliff of ice and rock.  A miniature avalanche of snow behind her, cascading down around her, gathering speed, she bounces off a rock with a squeal and her backpack jolts free and careers away under its own momentum.

She wrestles for the flailing pickaxe tied to her hand and attempts to slow her descent, this may have worked on Earth or any other M class planet; however the Ice here was frozen trillions of centuries ago and was so hard and impervious to anything short of Adamantine.   It did however pivot her, so she wasn’t sliding head first and could actually see her fate.  She didn’t have a lot of time to decide which vantage was best.  The precipice was fast approaching and her descent was not slowing no matter how hard she pressed on the ice axe.  Her eyes grew wide as she saw her backpack slip over the edge and vanish from sight, the avalanche was roaring around her now surging downwards, propelling her towards the edge.

Cursing in ancient Romulan, Kelly careers off the precipice and begins the long descent to the jagged rocks beneath her.  At the last second she throws out the pickaxe, desperate to catch on a rock or tree root, anything.  There was a moment of weightlessness, followed by a biting pain as the thin cord around her wrist dug into her flesh.  She swung under a slight overhang and into a refuge of safety from the ice and snow crashing over the edge and tumbling down to the rocks below. 

Slightly dazed and battered her symbiont and various parts of her body complaining all at the same time, she looks up into the smiling beaming face of a Human male.  He was holding the pickaxe loosely in one hand, as if he could lift several times Kelly’s weight.  She hung from the thin cord attached to the pickaxe.

“You really do your best to find interesting ways to die don’t you?”  he says

Kelly blinked and clambered up onto the ledge of ice he stood on, after a few moments the roar of the avalanche dies away as the last remnants fall out if sight and she huddles on the ledge to get her breath back.  She glances at the male, clearly conflicting emotions raging through her mixed with adrenaline of the recent fall.  She starts to speak then stops several times.  Finally taking a deep breath, waving her pickaxe at the male and raising her top lip into a sneer “Fnyahh meh” she retorts finally.

The male, dusts some snow off his impeccably smart tuxedo and he adjusts his bow tie.

“Ahh I see you're still working on your grasp of the Klingon language, try more grrr from the back of the throat,  get some phlegm in there next time,”  he offers helpful advice and mocks her at the same time.  He checks his Rolex watch before putting his hands in his pocket. 

“No rush, I’m not cold.  You take your time to gather your thoughts, I’m sure you have many questions, you often do when we meet.”

Kelly takes a moment to check her equipment and clothing before even bothering with a response to him, finally she lifts her snow visor and looks at him with her azure eye.

“Fifty Umbraki pennies do not pay for a five course banquet Q!”  she says with a sharp slice of accusation.

“Oh you’re not still sore about that are you?  Sheik Las’ann would have been a good owner for you, his harems were some of the best on that planet, he did pay a very nice price for you.  I do hope you were able to serve him well,”  Q replies flippantly.

Kelly considers using Q’s eye socket as a pick axe target, she hefts the handle several times, twizzling it round.

“Yes I served him cold with a side of salad.  He decided to let me leave after that.  I guess my cooking was not to his liking” she says with sincerity, sniffling her nose and shrugging her shoulders.

“Kelly you really must stop trying to stick bits of sharp and pointy metal into people,” he chastises.

“You shouldn’t have left me there!”

“Would you prefer I left you here on the side of this mountain?”  he asks looking about the desolate landscape and sharp rocks far below.

She folds her arms and looks at him finally smiling she wags her finger at him.

“Ahaa gotcha, you need me for something!  You know apologies and bribes won’t work, so you try thinly veiled threats of impending doom instead,”  she says jabbing a finger at his chest. “So enough with all the games, who do you want dead and what’s in it for me?”

“Damn you woman, you're too smart to be Human,” Q grins and clicks his fingers, both he and Kelly vanish from sight, just as the ice ledge falls into the abyss below.

They reappear in another time and place, under the light and heat of another sun, golden and yellow, falling over brown rock and barren desert.  Q plays with the sand with the toe of his expensive leather shoes, drawing perfect circles.

“I do so like going to the seaside,” he sighs and swings both his arms “Breath deep, let the sea breeze fill your lungs Kelly.”

Kelly looks around for anything that looks like water, then back at Q.  She removes her battered tricorder from her belt and scans the vicinity, before closing it.

“Q we’re in a desert, I can’t find any water, let alone a sea breeze”

“Ahh but there was!” he whirls to face her. “Once long ago, this was the family home of your friends Mimps and Una,”  he says gesturing to the fallen down building Kelly had overlooked, then at the night sky.

“We stand now at the twilight of the federation and sentient life in this galaxy.”

She follows the direction indicated and gasps as she counts hundreds of shapes above her, all with a recognizable formation of warp cores, hulls and saucers.  This fleet moved like a shoal of fish, swimming through the inky black night sky.  Almost as if it shared a collective mind.  Kelly looked at Q for an explanation.

“Without a crew to guide her, without influence of other sentient life, with unlimited resources and a will to survive, to exist and,” he pauses to look at Kelly “To live long and prosper.  Like a teenager unfettered by parents she rebelled.  She went forth and multiplied, resulting in the destruction you see around us and the fleet overhead,” Q finishes with his arms spread wide, to emphasize his point.

“The Carolina,” Kelly gasps as realization hits her. “She did all of this?”

“Her and her kin yes,” Q nods. “Or she will do, if you don’t stop Seelowe taking control of her destiny, the clones are complete and are spreading out through time seeking the crew, and the Carolina itself.  It’s a race and you can guarantee the other races will be interested too.”  He rubs his hands together in glee.

“I’ve always rather enjoyed races, not to mention the quandary you face when you finally get to your precious ship, your Captain is lost to a Western holodeck fantasy, what happens to him in there may very well have fatal consequences to the Carolina, they are more closely linked now than they ever have been before.  It promises to be a most interesting observational study, the Q  are eager to see your solutions”

Kelly folds her arms and looks at him with a raised eyebrow of contempt.

“So I get to chase these Seelowes through time and space, eliminating them, finding the crew and…” she says her voice raising in tone slightly, “I need to find the Carolina herself, figure out a way to get onboard without getting vaporized, before liberating the Captain from the Holodeck? Whilst during all of this fending off just about every known race, faction and organization in this reality or any other??” she gestures to his tuxedo. “Whilst you..what?..go out for dinner?” she asks with incredulity.

“Yes with the Baron of Mumptinun, have you met him?  Big walrus of a thing, with tusks.  Quite the charmer he is,” he looks her up and down. “Still you were always a clever girl, I’m sure you can fill in the blanks as you go.  I recommend finding some Klingons you can work with, there seems to be several warrants for your arrest with the Federation, Romulans, Ferengi, even the Borg seem annoyed with you, I doubt even you can piss off a Klingon.”

Before she can speak he clicks his fingers and Kelly is stood atop a frozen Terrod mountain once more, the small winking lights of the Klingon listening post several snow filled valleys away.  She takes a deep breath and sets forth once more, her mind a jumble of thoughts, she tries to plan her next moves.  First she would need a ship.  Her footsteps crunched through the snow, grim determination in her stride.  The occasional mutter, curse or derogatory comment about the letter Q and its place in the alphabet the only sounds she makes.

Found

Arado composed himself in the command chair, nervously adjusted his tunic and proceeded to activate the command sequence contained in his isolinear chip. A swirling vortex filled the view screen in front of him as new wormhole formed in front of the ship. "This is it," he thought to himself as he cleared his throat and ordered the Rorschach on a course into the wormhole.

Miki looked at him from across the ship’s small bridge, her expression full of scepticism, and muttered to no one in particular "I hope he can get it right this time."

"I... I think I have," Arado replied, his confidence momentarily slipping under the wild woman’s withering glare.

The ship turned towards the mouth of the wormhole and Miral took them in as smoothly as she could. She had learnt quickly after their first attempt at time travel, and this time the bumps and shakes as they immerged through the other side were not as bad.

Unbeknown to the crew on board the Rorschach they were not the only ones travelling through the worm hole. A cloaked Klingon vessel had been shadowing them closely, running silent and keeping within the sensor shadow, that blind spot just behind the ship where the warp trail will distort readings from a small object or a cloaked vessel making them impossible to detect. This Klingon vessel had been commandeered by a remarkable and secretive woman, someone with a mission to accomplish who would not be thwarted.

Their destination was a tiny planet, part of a system with binary suns, which made it difficult to maintain a stable orbit, but eventually Miral had the ship settled above the planet that was their target. The crew ran the usual scans and made preparations to beam down. Arado rose from the command chair, looked Miki straight in the eye and said "Right, let's go get your sister." Miki silently replied with a fixed stare and a nod.

It was a big group for a simple away mission, Arado, Miki, Dr Illyan, Tumim, and Mason. Miral stayed on the ship to monitor the unstable orbit, and Joe had his head deep in an engineering panel trying to figure out how to disable the fire suppression system so he could continue to smoke his cigars.

They materialized on top of the ancient ruins of a civilisation that had long been wiped from existence. Tumbled and broken beams and pillars and piles of rubble rose from the jungle of weeds and creepers that were gradually reclaiming the land back for the forest. Their scanners led them towards the forest and soon all sight of the ruins was hidden by the towering trees. Miki strode into the cool, dim shadows with a confidence of someone who carried a large sword and had no fears of what the dark closeness of the forest may hold. The others followed more cautiously, using their scanners and tricorders to monitor their surroundings. Mason just ploughed ahead, armour plating, shields and enhanced scanners gave him confidence in any terrain.

Miki was the first to find the clearing. She stepped from between the trees and out onto a low ridge. There was water on one side with a rocky out crop rising above, and the other side looked down into a small hollow. The rest of the away team soon joined her and there near the tree line, they could see a campfire and next to it, a rudimentary tent. Crouching beside the fire was a flame haired woman, her clothes were obviously worn but even from this distance they could recognise the flash of Starfleet red underneath the dirt and stains.

Miki set off running across the clearing, she let out an excited whoop and ran with her arms raised as she hurtled straight towards the other woman. The rest of the crew followed, and Arado was last, perhaps because after fifteen years, he wasn't too sure of what he would say to her.

The woman by the campfire stood, hesitated then barely had time to brace herself before she was nearly bowled over by the brown leather clad bundle that came bursting across the clearing and flung itself at her.

"Miki? Is that you? Am I glad to see you!" said Mimps as she staggered backwards from the impact and hugged her sister warmly.

"I came as soon as the dragons would let me," said Miki with a smile, letting her sister go and standing back to look at her. "And then that one had trouble with his sums," she said pointing at Arado.

Mimps turned to look at Arado. “Arado?” she said, confused as to why he looks so much older. Then she glared. "What took you so long? Nearly three months I've been waiting! What have you been doing, having a holiday?!"

Arado looked at her, then lowered his eyes and simply said "Well... it wasn't easy.... you may have been here three months, but I have been trying to get to you.... a lot longer".

"Yes, some longer than others," chuckled Mason as he walked up.

Mimps stopped glaring and grinned at him “Mason, you old tin can, I'm even glad to see you!" She contemplated hugging him but wasn’t sure how to get around all the weapon attachments, and she was fairly certain he couldn’t feel it anyway.

There was an unexpected rumble of thunder and it began to rain. Big fat drops plopping out of the sky and dripping off the trees making the fire start to hiss and smoke. She looked around at her camp, her home for the last 76 days. It was not much, but it had been a home of sorts. There was a standard issue survival tent stretched over a wooden frame, a small wooden stool, a bench, a table under construction and lying on its side near the fire, a half a rabbit skewered on a stick and warming over the coals, some skins pegged out for drying, and a patch of cleared land where she was contemplating building a hut, an unnecessary project now that she was being rescued.

“Well I'm glad I can finally get off this rock.” She kicked the now smouldering fire until it went out. “It wont take me long to pack and we can get back to the Carolina.”

The thunder rolled again, slightly closer this time.

“I have distressing news for you”, Arado hesitated before continuing, “The Carolina sent us all in different directions and to different points in time. She has been on the run for two years and Starfleet have issued orders to capture or destroy her."

Mimps stopped gathering her meagre belongings and looked at him. "Two years? But I was on board only three months ago. What is going on?"

"Like I said... we all went in different directions and to different times... your three months have been for me...over fifteen years," replied Arado and then he paused to allow the news to fully sink in.

“Fifteen….” she looked at him more closely, “Oh,” she said quietly, “I see.” She held his gaze for a few moments then broke away and stuffed the last of her things in a sack.

"We should probably return to the ship,” she said briskly, “...oh...what ship do you have if you don’t have the Carolina?"

"A Defiant class vessel that 29th century Seelowe stole," replied Mason. "The Rorschach."

Mimps nodded, "I have a lot to catch up on. It seems a lot can happen in three months."

Joe had greeted them with an enthusiastic “Mimps, how have you been!” when they returned back on board.

“Stuck on a rock for the last three months eating rabbits and pond weed,” Mimps replied.

Joe shrugged in his usual fashion, “I would have liked that better than being dropped off in the 1930’s.” He then unwrapped a cigar and stuck it in his mouth.

“Seems I will have to have a few stern words for Carolina when we find her.” She slipped easily back into her commanders role as if she had never been gone. “Just give me all the reports you have so I can catch up on what she has been up to.”

Miki stepped up beside her sister and slipped an arm through hers. "Sister, leave this stuff for now,” she said drawing her away towards the door to the crew quarters. "Come, let us be together and talk for a while. The dragons had a message for you."

Mimps looked at her sister then around the bridge, "I guess you are right sis, this can wait.” She allowed Miki to lead her off the bridge. “Una, send all the Carolina reports to my cabin," she said as they disappeared through the sliding doors.

Joe patted down his pockets looking for his lighter as he watched them depart, “Well this family reunion is touching and all, even bought a tear to my eye, but can we go find the Carolina now? I got a few words for Seelowe." He found the lighter and flicked it on. "A few words and my foot up his ass."

“Now that is an adventure to look forward to,” grinned Illyan.

Joe applied the light to the end of his cigar, took a few long draws to make sure the end was glowing red, blew out a cloud of smoke, then swore, as once again the fire suppression system kicked in.

*********************************************************

Later that night Tumim stopped Arado in the corridor on his way back to his cabin. "Una, now that we have Mimps back,” he said quietly, “I have a message for you from Colonel Auer. He told me not to give this to you until now." He handed Arado a data chip. "This contains the time space coordinates where we will find Hladson."

“Do you know where he is?” asked Arado looking at the chip in his hand.

Tumim frowned. “It’s not just where he is, but if we what him alive it’s also when,” he said cryptically.

Arado waited.

“That,” Tumim nodded to the chip, “will take you to a maximum security prison at the height of Romulan power.”

“Wonderful time to visit,” said Arado. “On Romulus?” he queried.

“No, luckily it is a system just beyond the neutral zone, but it will be heavily guarded,” replied Tumim."The good news, if there is any, is that Hladson is in the past so the security proceedures and codes are all information I have been able to secure."

Arado sighed, “We are going to need a plan.”

Where will it take them?

Arado entered his quarters, took a long hard look at the tricorder and sighed deeply. He put it down on his console and disrobed. He stepped into the shower, sonic emitter set to medium and accompanied by a fine mist of hot water that enveloped his body, condensed around every follicle and started to drip down his skin. He let out a loud growl at his abject failure. Another man may have been worried at the loss of face before the crew that this would bring, but not him. Another man may even be worried about having to face Miki's wrath, or taste the cold steel of her sword, but not him. All he had on his mind was that, after fifteen years of research into time travel of developing the formulas and running preliminary tests that would one day form the basis of the Carolina's temporal capabilities and the technology used on ships such as the Aeon and the Relativity, all he had to show for his efforts was a few traces of ancient DNA.

After the shower, he replicated his first pot of Raktajino of the evening and downloaded the contents of his tricorder onto his console before beginning to analyse Seelowe's calculations and formulas and run projections. He slowly went over every step of the process with a fine tooth comb, and when he had finished, he went over everything again. He collated those figures and formulas with his own and made note of any differences that he found. These were few, but given the enormity of the error he had just committed, the significance of those differences did not escape him. Four hours and three pots of Raktajino later he had fully extrapolated Seelowe's formulas into his work, devised a calibration table and refined the jump sequence, and drank enough Raktajino to keep him going without sleep for a week.

At that point he knew that all he needed to do was to use the new calibration tables to create a new wormhole and he would finally see Mimps again. He paused. He recalled her image on the screen, and scrutinized every feature of her face as he had done so many times before in the fifteen years since he had last seen her. It was then that he realised that while she'd look the same and time would have barely passed for her, he would now be 15 years older. Suddenly he felt the weight of every day that had passed since he had been transported out of the Carolina back into his own past and was forced to live an alternative life. For a fleeting moment he thought of bringing out his bottle of real Andorian Ale, but knowing that he still had a few hours of calculations ahead of him and how crucial it was that he did not mess up again, he reluctantly decided against it. Instead, he uttered a tired "Computer, Raktajino. Extra sweet" and turned back to his work.

Many hours later Unadecal Arado walked on to the bridge of the Rorschach. He had a data chip in his hand, but this time there was no shouting and waving it around, no excited tapping of keys. He crossed to the central command chair and sank into it with a sigh of relief and weariness.

Arado looked down at the data chip and turned it over in his hand a few times before he carefully inserted it into a vacant slot in the control panel beside the chair. He tried to ignore the dark haired copper skinned woman glareing at him from the other side of the bridge, and concentrated on the numbers appearing on the screen in front of him.

“It has to work this time, it just has to,” he thought to himself. He’d spent all night checking and rechecking the data that Seelowe had entered into his tricorder, and now it was time to see where it would take them.

Late

A dot, that’s all it had been, a point, a few pixels on a screen, a misplaced decimal point in one of the thousands of calculations he had made. But that little thing might have cost them the mission.

He had been so certain, so confident, so….excited, when he had pin-pointed Mimp’s planet and finally had proof of where she was. “I simply have to calculate the time that has passed then we go back and pick her up just after she arrives,” he had blithely told them. He had sounded so confident as he explained all about the wormholes, the reconfigured torpedos and the reprogramming of the deflector dish, and after nearly fifteen years of research he had sounded like he knew what he was doing.

But they had arrived on a rock in the ocean, a tiny patch of land with the water lapping at their feet. That was when he knew that something was not right, it was supposed to be solid land between them and the little hut he could see in the distance. The rest of the crew had looked at him with frowns of confusion, some muttering as the water splashed their feet, others scanning the tiny atoll while he frantically tapped at his tricorder trying to figure out what had gone wrong. And then Seelowe had appeared, not the Seelowe they were looking for but the other one, the one who always seemed to know the most inconvenient time to show. He had smirked a few greetings, made some lecherous comment to Illyan and then casually stated he knew exactly where they should be going.

“It’s a bit far for a swim,” said Miral after Seelowe had pointed towards the hut.

“What’s the big issue?” said Seelowe. “We simply suspend temporal cohesion and walk under the water.”

They had all blinked at him, and then watched in amazement as he drew out an unfamiliar device, tapped a few buttons, stepped into the water and disappeared under the waves in the direction he had indicated.

Miral, never one to miss trying something new, was the first to follow, Miki required quite a bit of persuasion and finally a none too gentle shove, and Mason simply remodulated and extended his shields to repel the water.

They had emerged from the sea, damp but other wise unharmed on a small headland that rose up then dipped down to provide some shelter from the wind and waves. They gathered on the rise and looked down into the hollow. A tumble of stones could be seen scattered around, some of the larger pieces were covered with a creeping vine that sprouted yellow flowers at intervals. From were they stood they could see that the stones had once formed the foundations and chimney of a small hut or house, and they did not need a scanner to tell them that no one had lived here for a very long time.

“Doctor Nal…” queried Arado to Illyan who had pointed her ever present scanner at the piles of stones, “…find anything?”

“I am reading DNA matching Mimp’s Starfleet medical records,” said Illyan, “but it is not recent, it appears to be quite old. If it is hers she hasn’t been here for many years.”

“What?” said Arado with surprise.

“What?” repeated Miki glaring at Arado.

“Except for animal life, there are no life signs on this planet other than our own,” said Illyan showing the scanner screen to Arado.

Arado drew out his own device and started punching in numbers.

Seelowe was doing the same.

“That means she was here....” muttered Arado as he checked his calculations. “How long ago Doctor? Can you get a date from the decay rate on the readings you have?”

“I would have to say at least 100 years,” replied Illyan.

“I need specifics Doctor, I need to know exactly,” barked Arado.

“According to my scanner….” the doctor paused and looked up at Arado, “….103.2 years.”

Seelowe closed his temporal tricorder, leaned on one of the larger piles of stones and did a quick head count. “We are damn close to a temporal convergence,” he said to no one in particular.

Miki stepped up to Arado, “You said you could find her, but she is not here, were you lying?” she jabbed an accusatory finger in the centre of his chest.

“Mimps was here at one time,” said Illyan gently.

“Are you saying.... we are too late?” Miki loosened her sword and drew it a few centimetres out of its scabbard.

Arado looked down at Miki and raised his hands, palms out, trying to appease her. “Look, it was a miscalculation, probably one digit out. We can correct this.”

“A miscalculation and my sister lived and died here 103 years ago!” growled Miki.

“How do we know this is not Mason's fault?” stammered Arado as he took a step backwards.

“We only programmed to the data you gave us,” said Mason. “So you can’t blame the cyborg and his AI. My calculations were perfect.”

“I can fix this,” said Arado, “I know I can fix this.”

"I can fix this now!" snapped Miki. She drew her sword completely, placed its point against Arado’s throat and spoke very slowly, "you…will…find…my…sister."

"Terrific." Seelowe watched on with bemused amusement.

“Miki, no!” said Miral as she placed a restraining hand on the other woman’s arm, “Without Arado we won't be able to go back to the ship and try again.”

“Put your sword away,” Illyan said sternly. “Do you care more for finding your sister or spilling blood?”

“Looks like my formulas need more work,” said Arado glumly.

Miki glared at him and returned her sword to its scabbard with a slam.

Seelowe pushed languidly off the pile of stones walked slowly over to Arado, took the tricorder out of his hand and began tapping at the screen as he spoke, “Our temporal projection indicates you will find the Carolina when Hlad, Mimps, Kelly, Illyan, Miral, Joe, Arado...and…what’s-his-name…oh yes…Mason… are finally reunited.”

Arado watched over Seelowe's shoulder, “You make it up as it suits you Seelowe, we all know that,” he said as he took mental note of the corrections Seelowe was inputting.

“I just enforce the temporal laws I don’t make them,” said Seelowe. He snapped the tricorder shut and pushed it back into Arado’s hands. “But I am sure you will all work it out soon.”

“We should return to the ship,” said Miki impatiently, “so that one,” she pointed at Arado, “can get his sums right.”

“Yes all right, let’s go,” said Arado with resignation. He tapped his com badge and gave the command.

Seelowe watched them all dissolve into shimmering blue nothingness then bent and picked up one of the smaller stones from amongst the weeds and rubble. He turned it over in his hand as he walked to the top of the rise then he tossed it into the sea.

“So close,” he sighed.