Joe

A new day was beginning on the Rorschach, the Defiant Class ship that Seelowe had provided for their quest and which had been so whimsically named by the helmsman Miral. Arado had stayed up all night loading the research on artificially generated wormholes that he had been carrying out for the past 15 years. He knew he would have to make use of the formulas and procedures he had developed when they needed to retrieve a crew member that had been sent to a different time, and this could happen any time now.

As the crew assembled on the bridge and exchanged greetings, Seelowe materialized who knows from where, or when. A brief exchange between him and the crew ensued, during which, and in his customary caustic manner he demanded to know if the Carolina had been found yet and upon receiving a negative reply, bemoaned being constrained to having to “watch the timeline play out” without being able to influence it. He followed that with a significant statement articulated in the casual manner of one who has seen history unfold countless times: “You are short of a couple of crew members still. That said...I know that all the pieces need to be in place before you DO find the Carolina...” He turned and directed a sly smile at Illyan “Miss me, Doctor?”

“Oh, I’ve been pining away for you” came the lively retort.

Just then, a coded subspace transmission reached Arado’s console. “Col Auer is sending me details of Joe's location.... but apparently he is in 1930's America, so we not only need to get back to Earth, but we need to do a temporal jump too”.

Seelowe gave a bemused look and enquired “Oh? And HOW do you plan to do THAT? Is this tub able to form temporal vortices?"

“No, but I have been researching artificial wormholes for fifteen years. Thanks to the Carolina I have had years to plan how to get the crew back. I researched how to create wormholes and fix the aperture points at specific time/space junctures. I never managed to create a wormhole big enough for a ship with the limited power sources that the Bajorans gave me, so I could only send probes until now.” Arado paused and addressed the Helm “Miral, set a course for Sector 001, Warp 8. Hide us in Jupiter’s atmosphere.”

“Aye Lieutenant,” was her crisp reply.

Miral was one of the absolute best pilots that Starfleet had to offer. The journey into sector 001 was relatively short and uneventful. The access codes that Auer had provided allowed them to get through Planetary Defences unnoticed, and a tight turn into Titan at speed followed by near-instant deceleration ensured that they were able to enter Jupiter’s atmosphere undetected. While the crew and Seelowe in particular took it in turns to congratulate her for her flying skills, Arado began to prepare to generate the wormhole while everyone else made preparations to conceal themselves upon reaching Joe’s location. Miral and Mason opted for a portable holo-emitter that allowed them to change their appearance without having to make any physical alterations, not even to their attire. The Doctor changed into elegant green plaid period dress with a matching bonnet. Seelowe wore an outfit consisting of an elegant waistcoat and jacket and white breeches which was perhaps a bit too elaborate, but then again that was Seelowe’s style. Arado hurriedly changed into a very plain suit outfit with shirt and tie. This would do nicely, but his Bajoran nose ridges needed attention and Illyan obliged by removing them surgically as he finished his calculations and prepared to charge the main deflector.

“Mason, can you prepare a 50% yield quantum torpedo and fire it on my mark at the following coordinates..."

“Ja Voll Leftenant Arado one firecracker coming up.”

Arado humorously mocked Mason’s accent “Achtung, fire in den hollen!”

As Mason fired the quantum torpedo, Arado discharged the graviton and chronoton particle beam, and the detonation formed a wormhole as expected. The ship ventured in, closely followed by a small craft carrying a mysterious passenger which made it as the wormhole was beginning to collapse without being detected.

“Mason, are we in the right place... and time?”

“Ja we are to within a few minutes”

“Excellent! Choose a quiet spot and transport us to the surface, will you?”

The team materialised on the forecourt of a gas station, so named because it is where an ancient form of transport called the car came to be refuelled and in exchange released noxious gases from its tank. Or something like that. Mason soon picked up Joe’s life signs on his scanners and began to walk in that direction. Suddenly, the group came across a local inhabitant, or so they thought. “Circus is thata way”, she said in a thick American drawl as she pointed with her thumb without barely diverting her attention from the bagel she was nibbling on while Mason addressed her.

"Know where we can find a Private Eye by the name of Akroyd?"

"Down on Third and Broadoak, just past Derek’s barbers, can’t miss it" came the reply with a smile.

The team set off again in the direction they had been pointed and Seelowe was soon checking the directions they had been given against the street names on the corners "One more house. Nope... two."

They all cautiously made their way into the sparsely furnished and frankly quite dirty office of Joe Akroyd PI, who was sitting with his feet up on the desk obviously not very busy. Mason was the first one in "Frak you ain’t closed till I say so". “I know that voice,” came the surprised reply. After they all got reacquainted and even Illyan had been introduced, the conversation turned to the reason why they had come.

“So what brings you to my neck of time? You couldn't bring me closer to my OWN time?”

“Who, me?” replied Seelowe

“ME you bonehead....sir”

"HEY...I had nothing to do with it bub. Blame Seelowe. Well, the OTHER Seelowe"

“You dumped me almost 100 years BEFOERE I was born!”

At this point and unbeknown to anyone in that dingy office, a mysterious figure silently approached the building and, readying a Klingon disruptor, aimed through the window trying to make out which of the shadowy silhouettes may be Seelowe’s

“Oh, wait. That was me actually but you wouldn’t know that would you... you see, you THINK it was Seelowe but it wasn’t Seelowe. It was ME Seelowe. Acting like Seelowe” He said as he sat down on the couch directly opposite the window. The mysterious assassin aimed at the source of the voice across the room and prepared to fire. Just then, a bin man disturbed the attempt.

"Oii you what you doing back there?"

“Who, me? Ummm... eating bagels” as she hurriedly put away her alien tech and tried to look all innocent.

“Oh God, now I’m getting a headache,” said Joe as he paused to pour himself a whiskey, “so again, what do you want here?”

“"They are getting the band back together to save the Carolina from certain destruction, and finding YOU allows me to divulge some information."

“Oh?”

"Violates all SORTS of temporal rules..but hey...might motivate you. Your precious Seelowe is ON the Carolina. But scans won’t pick him up... so if the Carolina is destroyed...Seelowe is destroyed."

As Joe hesitates to articulate something, Seelowe realizes that this may be a bit too much for him to comprehend. With the bin man gone, the assassin realizes that the conversation has taken an interesting turn and it may be in her interest to allow it to follow its course.

“OK...Betty Boop... try to follow... YOUR Seelowe did not send you here... I did. Get it?”

“Thanks PAL”, replied Joe fixing his narrowing eyes on the Seelowe in front of him “Now I know whose ass to kick... but you still haven’t explained how I fit in all this, you sending me back to my own time and all”

"Oh...that... well we don’t know really…all we know is this... we have temporal images of YOU, Auer, Bekkers, Hladson, this hot Doc, Heron and Mimps finding the Carolina. Oh, and the Blue chick too. What’s her name? Miral?”

“Explain, Einstein. What is a temporal image?”

"It’s an image of time really...I would explain but Einstein is like...18 right now and he is the only one that would understand. Suffice to say... we know THAT group with Seelowe... steps on the bridge. Odd thing is.... Seelowe is in a cowboy hat. We haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Ja ve need our ship back and you to be there Herr Akroyd, Ja Voll?”

"So yeah Tom Mix...YOU need to be there. I suspect you can clear your calendar."

"My calendar is pretty clear, business has been slow"

At that precise moment a paperboy came running down the street holding a wad of newspapers and screaming "Extra, extra, read all about it...Telescope spots new stars in the sky and they move!...extra extra"

“I think that might be our call to get the Frak back to the Rorshach.” Said Mason, at which point Joe stood up, slipped the 9mm Beretta from his top drawer in his pocket, put on his hat and coat and grabbed his desktop humidor and made for the door.

As they walk into the street, they notice the lady they had asked directions from earlier nearby, trying hard to look coy. Seelowe gives her a wide berth as he walks past some parked cars. She watches them walk away towards the transport site and follows them on horseback, but they are transported back to the ship before she can reach them.

(this post will be revised and updated as soon as there is time to do a little more work on it. But please enjoy what we have for now.)