The Muse Chapter 14b
Chakotay
"What you're telling me is -- well, I will acknowledge it is not impossible, but it is difficult for me to comprehend. You -- This organization that created you, can send you to and fro across time lines to adjust them, without destroying them?"
I shake my head, stand and pace to the view port. Daniels has spent the past hour or more, explaining who and what he is, and how he can travel through time without doing it any damage. More than that, he says he can help Thomas to travel through time without doing any harm either. I turn to face him.
"You say that you are -- designed -- for such travel," I still don't quite understand, he is not an android, he's not quite human, either, he says. He says that the borg technology Voyager brought home from the Delta Quadrant has helped his 'organization' immensely in their quest to protect the timeline. "Tom's not."
Whether Daniels likes it or not, I am not about to risk Tom's life on this without a pretty damned solid understanding, and assurance that he will be safe.
Daniels sighs, gets to his feet. "Perhaps," he says, "It would be easier if I show you?"
As he speaks, he takes a device from -- somewhere. I am not sure where. His garments do not appear to have pockets. Perhaps he has taken it from some kind of buffer, but my mind is distracted from the thoughts of what technology he used. He presses controls on the device and the room where we stand is transformed. Where there were floor, walls and ceiling before, now there is a swirling violet-blue mist interwoven with colored lines, gemotrical shapes floating, suspended by the same lines, flickering squares spin within the spheres and digital readouts inform of dates, times, seasons. I blink in surprise and step forward, reaching to touch one of the spheres. It has a tentative solidity, the sphere resting against my palm for a moment, until I drop my hand to my side and turn to Daniels. "I have seen something similar to this, in the Delta Quadrant, but it was one dimensional."
"It is a temporal observatory," Daniels explains. "Using it, we can monitor timelines. We are viewing the past just now." He points to a spehere. "The Byzantine Empire," he indicates another. "The Roman Empire, the Ming Dynasty."
I follow his hand as he point out each era. The lines flow from one time period to another, they have order, logic and possess a beauty that makes my heart pound. Remembering that other time map I shake my head, images of ugly snarled lines, destruction and death flash through my mind. My experiences with Annorax and the Krenim have taught me in a way no theory ever could, the danger of interfering with time.
"Monitoring is one thing," I say. "You told me you change time. How can you do that without wiping out..."
Daniels smiles and nods as though he had expected the question. "What we do is very different to your experience with the Krenim, Captain Chakotay. We are interested in preserving the flow of time, not resetting it to some desired point of our own choosing."
"So, why Tom?" I think it is a fair question. "Don't you have people in your organization who can assist you, or people in Archer's timeline who could?"
"Tom has the skills, and the experience we required," Daniels states matter of factly. No one in Archer's time has the expertise that he gained from the varied conditions Voyager encountered. Nor do they have expeirence with the manipulation of time. Tom Paris possesses both. He is also painfully aware of the things that can happen when time is manipulated for selfish reasons."
He doesn't say anymore, but he doesn't need to. I know where he was heading and I look away. The death of Obrist has hung, unspoken between Tom and I ever since that hellish year with the Krenim. I close my eyes, well aware of how my own selfish motives during that time contributed to the eventual outcome. The fact that my atonement for them resulted in the death of so many has never ceased to haunt me. I nod with a sigh.
"I guess we should speak with Tom."
"What you're telling me is -- well, I will acknowledge it is not impossible, but it is difficult for me to comprehend. You -- This organization that created you, can send you to and fro across time lines to adjust them, without destroying them?"
I shake my head, stand and pace to the view port. Daniels has spent the past hour or more, explaining who and what he is, and how he can travel through time without doing it any damage. More than that, he says he can help Thomas to travel through time without doing any harm either. I turn to face him.
"You say that you are -- designed -- for such travel," I still don't quite understand, he is not an android, he's not quite human, either, he says. He says that the borg technology Voyager brought home from the Delta Quadrant has helped his 'organization' immensely in their quest to protect the timeline. "Tom's not."
Whether Daniels likes it or not, I am not about to risk Tom's life on this without a pretty damned solid understanding, and assurance that he will be safe.
Daniels sighs, gets to his feet. "Perhaps," he says, "It would be easier if I show you?"
As he speaks, he takes a device from -- somewhere. I am not sure where. His garments do not appear to have pockets. Perhaps he has taken it from some kind of buffer, but my mind is distracted from the thoughts of what technology he used. He presses controls on the device and the room where we stand is transformed. Where there were floor, walls and ceiling before, now there is a swirling violet-blue mist interwoven with colored lines, gemotrical shapes floating, suspended by the same lines, flickering squares spin within the spheres and digital readouts inform of dates, times, seasons. I blink in surprise and step forward, reaching to touch one of the spheres. It has a tentative solidity, the sphere resting against my palm for a moment, until I drop my hand to my side and turn to Daniels. "I have seen something similar to this, in the Delta Quadrant, but it was one dimensional."
"It is a temporal observatory," Daniels explains. "Using it, we can monitor timelines. We are viewing the past just now." He points to a spehere. "The Byzantine Empire," he indicates another. "The Roman Empire, the Ming Dynasty."
I follow his hand as he point out each era. The lines flow from one time period to another, they have order, logic and possess a beauty that makes my heart pound. Remembering that other time map I shake my head, images of ugly snarled lines, destruction and death flash through my mind. My experiences with Annorax and the Krenim have taught me in a way no theory ever could, the danger of interfering with time.
"Monitoring is one thing," I say. "You told me you change time. How can you do that without wiping out..."
Daniels smiles and nods as though he had expected the question. "What we do is very different to your experience with the Krenim, Captain Chakotay. We are interested in preserving the flow of time, not resetting it to some desired point of our own choosing."
"So, why Tom?" I think it is a fair question. "Don't you have people in your organization who can assist you, or people in Archer's timeline who could?"
"Tom has the skills, and the experience we required," Daniels states matter of factly. No one in Archer's time has the expertise that he gained from the varied conditions Voyager encountered. Nor do they have expeirence with the manipulation of time. Tom Paris possesses both. He is also painfully aware of the things that can happen when time is manipulated for selfish reasons."
He doesn't say anymore, but he doesn't need to. I know where he was heading and I look away. The death of Obrist has hung, unspoken between Tom and I ever since that hellish year with the Krenim. I close my eyes, well aware of how my own selfish motives during that time contributed to the eventual outcome. The fact that my atonement for them resulted in the death of so many has never ceased to haunt me. I nod with a sigh.
"I guess we should speak with Tom."