Date: Mon, 31 May 93 03:56:01 MDT From: tperreau@banshee.VLA.NRAO.EDU (Bill'n'Opus'96) Message-Id: <9305310956.AA01351@banshee.vla.nrao.edu> To: alt-ql-creative@cisco.com Subject: REPORT -- Future Perfect -- Part 2 Oops. I made a mistake! That's what I get for not proofreading! The year that Sam is in is 1023, not 1033. I also corrected a couple of inconsistancies. Sorry! Future Perfect Part II "...Time is like a small brook. Drop a pebble into the water, and there will be ripples. Eventually, the ripples fade away... ...Drop a boulder, however, and the stream no longer follows it's old path..." Excerpt from Zen and the Art of Temporal Physics, Revised Edition Temporal Index: August 12, 2653 (Old Terran Calendar) Spatial Co-ordernates: 105 degrees West, 40 degrees North, Terra (Temporal Monitor, NorAm Sector, Terra) At first it was an anomaly. Monitor tracked Sam's leap, and he didn't end up where he was supposed to. Internal warning flags were tripped, which in turn alerted the human operator. He glanced at the information scrolling across his monitor screen. <<< Sir, there has been an incident with QL1 >>> the operator signaled his supervisor through the biocomp interface. He felt his supervisor join in on the net and access the data. <<< Interesting >>> the supervisor reviewed the megabytes of data within seconds. <<< Keep watch and inform me of any temporal broach while I inform the director >>> the supervisor slipped out of the net. He headed to the comm center, sending out a message to the technician there through the net. "Comm link established," the technician said as the supervisor walked in to the office. The Rocky Mountains dominated the scene outside the window. Several of the higher peaks had snow, which glimmered in the noon sun. A holoimage of the director appeared, and the supervisor tugged his uniform into shape. Director Sil'ar looked away from his datapad. Silver hair added a very patrician air to the Vulcan, who was not in uniform, but wore more traditional Vulcan clothing. "Supervisor Cohen, I must assume that there is a problem, otherwise you would have not contacted me." Sil'ar leaned back, bringing his hands together and touching his chin. The Golden Gate Bridge was barely visible through falling rain. "Doctor Beckett has made an unscheduled leap, sir;" Cohen said. "He leaped back to 1023 AD." "Ten twenty-three?" Sil'ar arched an eyebrow. "Theory?" "Supernova 1999Tauri, sir. The first known tachyon burst. Apparently the tachyon burst and accompanying neutrino wave passed through Terra when Dr. Beckett was interleap. The resulting wavefront carried him to 1033 AD. Tempora theorizes that when Dr. Beckett completes the same task of the person whom he replaced, then he will 'snap' back into his own time." "Who did Dr. Beckett replace?" "Unknown at present. The possibility of a temporal broach is, however, high." "Are they any agents present that far uptime?" "Scanning, sir." Supervisor Cohen tapped into the net, which relayed the information to him. "At present, the closest agent we have to Dr. Beckett's known time is in Scotland, although about four hundred years earlier. The only available downlink is London, and prior to 1300, it is an automatic link only. Edinburgh is not established until 1500." "Who is the agent?" Sil'ar asked. Before Cohen could reply, he felt a tingling. <<< Warning >>> the general alert came from Tempora. Her voice went out over the entire net, so Cohen knew that Sil'ar was listening as well. <<< Broach Temporal Index 1033 AD Spatial Co-ordernates 4 degrees West 57 degrees North Pan-Dimensional exapanding at 5 years per hour >>> Cohen paled. The fastest broach ever recorded before had been slightly over 2 years per hour. Sil'ar closed his eyes for a second, and Cohen knew that Sil'ar was accessing his biocomp. "Fitting. Deploy a team to London, 1023. Recall the agent from Scotland as well to 1023. He will be the primary uptime. Deploy Commander Sara to Project Quantum Leap in 1999. Have her coordernate efforts there. She will need a cover, use Military Intelligence with enough rank to not make her requests questioned." "Yes, Director." "I will be there as soon as I can get Starfleet to deploy a backup team at Guardian." Sil'ar broke the comm link. Cohen wiped the sweat from his forehead and sent the orders through his biocomp. They didn't have much time. Temporal Index: September 18, 1999 Spatial Co-ordernates: Classified (Project Quantum Leap) "What do you mean, 'we lost him'?" Al bellowed at Gooshie. Gooshie took a couple of steps back away from Al. "When he leaped, he just...vanished." Gooshie replied. "Ziggy has no idea where Sam went, or when." Al looked up at the shimmering orb. The lights within seemed slightly subdued. "Don't tell me, you're depressed." "Admiral," Ziggy's tone was petulant. Al swore if Ziggy had a nose, she would have sniffed. "As soon as we can find out the language that the visitor is speaking in the waiting room, then we will be that much closer to finding Dr. Beckett." "And when will that be?" Al leaned on the control console. "I have the language phonemes parsered out, Admiral. The language is transitional, but it contains elements of Q Gaelic and of Middle Irish Gaelic." "Garlic?" "No, Admiral. Gaelic as in Gael, the race that finally conquered Ireland. Q Gaelic is the root for Irish, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic. Now one finds Gaelic spoken predominantly in Ireland and the Outer Hebridies of Scotland." "Thank you for the lesson in linguistics, Ziggy. What are you trying to tell us?" "That the visitor is from a time when the language was changing from the pure root form, additions of Latin words and other thoughts. I estimate that the visitor is from Ireland, between 1000 to 1300 AD." Al nearly dropped his cigar. "Ziggy, how is that possible?" "Under current theories, this is not possible. Yet the man is here, he speaks a language that no one else does in the world. Even I find it hard to converse with him in Gaelic, although his Latin is not much better." "How about English?" "I have already tried Old English, based upon tracts from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and from the Domesday Book. He seems to not understand it at all." Ziggy's lights took on a brighter twinkle. "News from the net, Admiral. The VLA has just discovered a tachyon wave from a supernova, designation SN1999Tauri. It is quite possible that Dr. Beckett was caught in this wave. Preliminary data are showing that the wavefront passed through or near earth about the time Dr. Beckett was leaping. Since between leaps, Dr. Beckett is not much more than a packet of pure quantum energy, it is possible that he 'caught the wave' in surfing terminology and landed far outside of his own lifetime." "Great, so now all we have to do is find Sam." "We have a location, even if it is a large area to search, and we have a baseline timerange;" Ziggy replied. "With further information on the taychon wave forthcoming, I might actually be able to predict within several days the location of Dr. Beckett. I will inquire the VLA as to the estimated energy of the wavefront," Ziggy's voice took on a superior attitude. "However, since their computers are not as efficient as I am, you can reasonably expect a delay." Al looked at Gooshie. "Damn. Fire up the imaging chamber, Gooshie. While this bucket of fused microchips is processing the data, I can be looking for Sam. Ireland, huh?" "That is correct, Admiral. From 1000 AD to 1300 AD." The lights had almost stopped their endless moving about. Ziggy must really be cranking out the amps for this, Al thought. "PNM and El Paso Power have been notified of a brownout condition. We will not be able to keep you in the chamber for long, Admiral. A few minutes at most, otherwise most of New Mexico, and parts of Texas, Arizona, and Colorado will black out." Ziggy stated as Al ran for the imaging chamber door, cigar in one hand and handlink in the other.