From: aa811@cleveland.freenet.edu (Terri M. Librande)
Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative
Subject: No Escape from Reality Part 4
Date: 24 Mar 1993 23:47:57 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
Lines: 181
Message-Id: <1oqrvd$qbl@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
Nntp-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


Part 4

As he said the words, the doors opened again.  It was the Captain, from
before, a man, he sensed, of great dignity and authority.  If anyone knew
anything he must be the one.  "Can you please help me?"  Sam asked, his
hands clenching at the bed, jolting away from Crusher's gently soothing
motions.

"We need more information on you before we give you the lay of the land,
as it were.  I'm Captain Jean Luc Picard.  What is your name?"

"I'm Dr. Sam Beckett," Sam repeated patiently, with just a touch of ire.
"I don't know how I got here, and I really just want to go home.  I'm 
involved in a Top Secret government project and that information is
priveleged.  Other than my name, I don't feel comfortable giving you 
anything else.  I need a year, a place, why I'm here."

"I see."  Picard rocked back on his heels, studying the man on the bed.
"Then we will do some checking on you, Dr. Sam Beckett.  As for where you
are, you are on board the starship, Enterprise."

"What year?"  The words were laced with desperation, glancing from face
to face around him.  "She said to ask in Earth years, which really is
making me crazy.  I"m not on Earth.  Where the hell am I?"

"Our designation is Earth," Picard said gently, sensing the man's true
near panic state. "As for the year, it's 2553."

The broad face went white, every drop of blood draining from his visage.
God, how could he have leaped this far ahead of his time?  Six hundred
years??  What had happened?

Crusher reached again to touch him, and he jerked away from her, his hands
wiping across his face, apprehensively glancing from Data's worried
expression to Picard.  Behind his steel grey eyes he saw empathy for him;
true concern for his well-being.  In all the years he'd been Leaping he'd
been able to only trust people by their surface, and he had to that now.
"I'm from 1995," he managed.  "And there's no way to send me back."

"I thought you said 1985," Data reiterated. "When you first regained 
consciousness you said a city and the year.  What I believed was a name."

"Tamlyn.  Yes."  The memories fell together, orderly and in place.

"This is very important, Dr. Beckett," Picard said sternly.  "Were you
travelling in time?  The Guardian implied you were.  That might indicate
you were moving through time/space in some way."

Sam's breath caught in his throat.  That reference again; the Guardian.
"What is this? How did I get here, damn it???!!!!"  His green/hazel eyes
slitted, suddenly suspicious.

Picard seated himself on a chair Crusher pulled up for him.  "The planet
we are orbiting..."

"Orbiting."  Sam accepted the words as best he could.  "So we're in 
space, right?"

"Correct.  On the planet is a time machine of sorts, that we call the
Guardian.  As we observe Earth's history through it's portal, you fell
into our laps, as it were.  At this point we don't know what to think, but
the Guardian indicates to us that you must be sent back.  We need specific
information from you, where your point of origin is, and when.  It's a
chance, but we might be able to send you home if we have the proper 
information."

"When?"

"It might take days to pinpoint the exact point of entry, Doctor," Data
said.  He handed his tricorder to the man on the bed, cueing it to the 
images of Beckett falling through the portal, and then the speeding vision
of time the Guardian presented.  "At the rate time passes through it, it
might take a long time to pinpoint your origin and return you to your home."
He glanced at Picard for a moment.  "My data implies that you came from 
'between time', something which the Guardian does not cover.  If this
is so, you may not be able to return.  Where were you the moment you 
'leaped' here?"

"I...don't...know!"

The expressive greenish eyes betrayed Sam's fright and total confusion.
Picard could see through the hesitant words.  "You do know, Dr. Beckett.
We can't help you if you refuse to say anything of it.  You're cutting
your own throat."

"How can I explain it???"  A headache was growling at the back of his
mind, just throbbing above his eyes.  It seemed to be growing worse 
with each question Picard asked him.  "Maybe the best explanation was that
I was 'between time' as he ..."  He glanced at Data, smiling apologetically.
"I don't know your name."

"Data.  I am an android."

"Amazing.  We'll talk, but as I was saying, I was conducting a time
travel experiment.  My mind was affected by the initial, well, Leap,
as I call it. I've been bouncing around time for ages, I don't know 
exactly how long, but only in my own lifetime.  You have to understand
that my being here is impossible; it just can't be."

"You're here, Doctor," Picard said calmly.  "Please continue."

"It was an experiment, using a theory I developed. Unfortuantely...it
got a little out of hand, out of control.  My computer wasn't moving me
around after the first leap, and every indication, according to my
Observer..."

"Is this the 'Al' you spoke of before?" Data interjected.

"Yes."  Sighing, Sam dipped his head for a moment, missing his friend 
even more.  "He guided me, in the form of a hologram.  It sounds far
fetched, but he told me that God was buffetting me around from place 
to place, helping me set right what once was wrong.  I've changed 
lives, and caused events that changed things for the better, I hoped.  This
last time, I just left 1985 and was in the midst of moving through to the
next...place."  His eyes came up, locking with Picard's intense gaze.
"When I'm between leaps, normally, there is no sensation of time, no
passage of events or awareness.  When I arrived here, I felt a pull,
and light, wind, whatever.  It hurt, my head, everything being dragged,
and then..."

"Your head?"  Crusher gently touched the man's face, gazing into his
green/gold eyes.  "Are you in pain now?"

"A bit." Sam said reluctantly.  "It's nothing."

"Nothing could be something.  I'll give yoiu something for it." 

"Time travel--in the mid `1990's?"  Picard's face was one great frown.  He
didn't remember that particular bit of information from his history courses
at Academy.  "You say this device was of your invention?"

"You could say,"  Data interjected.  "that Dr. Beckett is my sort of
Great Grandfather.  No offense, to you, Sir," Data said, acknowledging 
Beckett' startled look.  "I checked his identity throiugh library records
and found many references to his research.  There was no indication that
you actually travelled in time, but I came across an amazing coincidence.
Some of the components you invented for your hybrid computer were primitive
versions of the instrumentation Dr. Singh used to build my brother and I,
'

"I'm pleased to hear that, but can you send me home?"  Sam didn't care to
hear about Ziggy now, or hybrid computers or components.  He'd spilled his
guts and it was their turn to play a hand in this strange game.  

"We'll do our best, Dr. Beckett," Picard said, rising from his chair.
"Data, I want to see you in my Ready Room."  The Captains eyes were a dark
storm, wanting to check and recheck this man's story from top to bottom
before coming to any conclusions.  "I apologize for the accomodations,
Dr. Beckett, but Dr. Crusher will insist you stay in her Sickbay until she
decides you are fit."

Beaming at her patient, with her best bedside manner in place, Crusher
sat in the chair the captain vacated.  "You must be very confused right
now, and upset.  Are you hungry?"

Sam hadn't really thought about the last time he'd eaten.  Dinner last 
night at Tamlyns, he guessed.  Candlelight, silly Valentine presents,
then...  He shoved the memories to the back of his mind, too painfull to
think about.  A waste of time, actually, thinking of someone long dead
and gone.  Everyone was dead, even Al.

"Dr. Beckett?"

The green eyes came up, his expression hollow and empty.  The others had
left.  The doctor seemed concerened.  "I'm sorry.  It's a lot to take at
one time.  I could use something to eat, if it isn't a problem."

"Not at all," she replied brightly.  "And you said you had a headache. I'd
like to do some checks on that, if you think you're up to it."  She patted
his hand as his eyes grew large with alarm.  "Completely painless, and will
only take a few minutes.  After that, I can send one of the techs for your
dinner.  Anything yoiu want."

She didn't think Sam was quite prepared for food coming out of the wall,
not yet.

-- 
"Girls who have glasses have lots & lots of energy!" Al--Single Drop of Rain
Terri Librande aa811@cleveland.Freenet.edu--Assistant Sysop
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Sig--Go SCIFI