"Of course not sir," Jevor replied evenly. "It's just something I have to do. Something I'm compelled to do."
Freeman's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Compelled? By whom?"
Jevor laughed awkwardly, "Perhaps compelled was a bad choice of wording on my part."
"That still doesn't answer the question," Freeman noted.
"That it doesn't," Jevor agreed with a shrug of his shoulders. "It just needs to be done."
"I order you not to pursue this dangerous course of action," Freeman said after a pause, straightening in his chair. "Let Starfleet take care of it."
"I'm sorry Captain, but I cannot follow that order at this time," Jevor replied. After he said that, part his consciousness couldn't believe he'd spoken that way to his Captain, while another part somehow seemingly approved. "I am prepared to resign my commission."
Freeman blinked at him, speechless. The two officers stared at each other for several moments before Freeman regained his composure enough to speak. "You and I are going to have a very long talk about all this, assuming you survive," Freeman seethed at Jevor. "Now I assume you're not so foolish enough as to proceed without a very good plan. Do I get to know what that is?"
Jevor shrugged, "I haven't really thought about that. I suppose I'll just analyze the situation and wing it once I get there."
Freeman's eyes bulged and his face tightened. "You're going to wing it?" he shouted at Jevor. "What has come over you Commander?"
"I can't explain it," Jevor admitted calmly.
Freeman growled with disgust. "Contact me again when you've succeeded," he ordered irritably. For a moment his steely expression softened and it appeared as though he would wish Jevor luck or some such; however the moment passed and Freeman looked away. "Screen off," he said simply, and the Captain's image faded from the viewer.
Jevor sighed and sat back in his chair. He didn't know what was making him act this way; in fact he didn't really perceive that there was anything wrong with what he was doing. His concern from the conversation was that his Captain was displeased with him, but as the stars streaked by the windows of his rapidly moving shuttle, even that faded from his mind. Never before had he felt so focused, so driven toward a single tangible event.
A day and a half passed without further communications, leaving Commander Jevor alone with his thoughts in the shuttle. Eventually the computer aroused him from his meditations with an alert that a ship matching the Bristol's configuration had appeared on long range scan. He sat forward in his seat, a strange calm coming over him even as part of his mind cried out in fear and confusion as to the strange course events were taking.
His shuttle grew closer to the Bristol as the latter adopted an intercept course. Jevor made a motion to put up the shuttle's shields, but that same strange sensation that had led him on this perilous quest convinced him not to. As the two ships drew nearer, each dropped out of warp and approached each other on impulse power. Once the shuttle was within transporter range, it and its started occupant were beamed aboard the Bristol.
Warily, Commander Jevor retrieved a hand phaser and tricorder from a panel within his craft before he then exited the shuttle. Before him, and not twenty feet away, stood the semi-transparent form of a female that he knew; a woman that he also knew had died a couple of months ago. That same small part of his mind that had been trying to warn him of the danger he had been getting himself into was screaming now, but he paid it no heed as he took a few steps forward to greet her.
"Commander Falinn," Jevor addressed the image before him.
The Bajoran woman smiled at him. "You needn't be so formal; we are acquainted and you are a good friend to my love. Call me Ehlara."
"Then call me Belan. Am I here because of you?" Jevor asked bluntly.
"You are very shrewd, Belan Jevor. I need you to help me," Falinn Ehlara replied.
"First we must retake the ship," Belan agreed, thinking that was part of what Ehlara was implying. "We cannot allow the Bristol to continue to take innocent lives."
"That situation has been remedied. The assistance I require from you is something else," Ehlara replied.
"I don't understand," Belan told her. "Can you tell me what has happened here? How did I get here?" His eyes grew suspicious as the rational part of his mind reasserted itself over whatever compulsion had brought him to the Bristol. "Did you do something to me?"
Ehlara held up her hand, "I will answer all your questions, Belan. Right now I will assuage your concerns and we can save the details for later." Jevor felt the ship lurch back into warp speed, while she continued, "I helped convince you to come here so that in time you and your crew could regain your ship for yourselves. I have put a stop to those aboard that have caused your people harm, but we must return them to their place of origin before your ship can be fully returned to you. Your assistance will be needed once they have left the ship."
Belan's face was ashen, "You're going to have to provide more of an explanation than that, Ehlara. For all I know, this is some sort of trap. I don't see how you were able to compel me to come here, let alone how you're even here at all."
Ehlara sighed. Her image was briefly replaced by a barely visible pattern of energy before it disappeared. Ehlara then reappeared less than a minute later. "We appear to have some time, so I will give you as many answers as I can." She then gave him a speculative look, her face barely suppressing mirth. "Perhaps we should do this someplace where you can sit down. Let's continue this in the Observation Lounge." With that she disappeared again. Jevor grunted sourly as he left the Shuttle Bay for the Lounge.
The strange calm that had accompanied Jevor to the Bristol aboard his shuttlecraft had now completely vanished, and the present conditions aboard the ship made him understandably nervous. He arrived at the Observation Lounge in an agitated state; the image of Falinn Ehlara was standing, making a pretense of looking out a window as she waited for him to come.
"Belan," Ehlara said, smiling warmly, "please sit down and be comfortable." Being in her very presence made Belan Jevor uncomfortable; he wasn't used to being able to see through people when he was conversing with them, and her soft voice seemed to accentuate her strange condition. He found himself increasingly trying to avoid looking at her as he took her suggestion and seated himself at the Lounge's long table.
"Won't you be seated as well?" he asked.
"If you'd like," she said after a moment's pause, realizing that telling him she wasn't really corporeal and thus had no need or desire to sit wasn't going to make him more comfortable. "Now then, what would you like to know?"
"Everything," he said flatly, gesturing with his hands. "Your presence here, what took over the ship, where we are going, and why you need my help. Also, if you could tell me whether or not I'm going mad, I'd appreciate it," he finished dryly.
"My presence here I cannot explain," Ehlara began. "I think it was Reiv in part that drew me here. I don't know why I was kept from joining the Prophets, but I've assumed that they have had some greater task for me to perform. I've already performed a couple of important tasks aboard this ship; this may yet be the last, in which case I would ask that I be returned to Bajor."
Belan merely shook his head and rubbed his eyes with his hands. "What are you? A ghost?"
"I suppose you could call me that," she agreed.
"What are these tasks that you've been accomplishing?"
"Aside from bringing about a peaceful end to this crisis, I helped thwart Commander Yilaan when she was under the influence of that dangerous mind altering illness of hers. I've also helped Lieutenant Reiv with some things, but I'd prefer not to go into any details," Ehlara explained.
"Who took over the ship?" Belan inquired.
"When your ship visited twentieth century Earth recently, your transporters beamed up more than just your crew; you beamed up surrounding energy patterns. These are, in fact, disembodied spirits like myself, only they died in a time where Humans hurt each other and battled with one another for property and economic gain. They saw the crew of the Bristol and their associates as enemies for having reft them from their homes, even as their people had suffered a similar fate while they lived. Once they figured out how to use the Bristol, they decided to exact some revenge until I convinced them it wasn't a good idea," Ehlara told him.
Jevor sighed a heavy sigh; the sigh of someone being forced to consider, even believe in, something so incredible that if it didn't all fit together he would've dismissed it out of hand. "So where are we taking the Bristol right now then?" he asked. "To Earth?"
"Not just to Earth," she replied. "To twentieth century Earth."
"You can't be serious!" he barked, half rising from his seat. "Time travel is very dangerous and very complex. If things aren't set just right you could rip the ship apart!"
"That's why you're here, Belan," she replied. "To make sure things go right."
Belan grumbled irritably under his breath for several moments while Ehlara looked on with a slightly amused expression. Eventually he shook his head, "I guess I don't have much choice in the matter do I?"
"No," she agreed, "you don't."
"I'm going to need some time to calibrate everything correctly, and I'll need to set up some automation routines. I'd prefer these aliens left the time traveling to me. Do you think you could convince them to relinquish control of the ship?" Belan asked her.
"When it the moment is right, I believe so," she replied. "By the way, I don't think you'll need to automate the ship."
"Why is that? I can't run everything by myself even under ideal conditions, let alone time travelling!"
"There are other members of your crew still aboard. When the aliens, as you refer to them, seized control of your ship, there were still a couple dozen people here. They were all put into stasis, but since you're being very cooperative, I believe I can convince the others to release them to assist you," Ehlara explained.
Jevor made a face. "Thanks," he told her. "However, since I have a feeling those aliens are bent on doing whatever they please anyway, my cooperation is a matter of survival for me, my comrades, and my ship, and not any particular desire to be helpful."
Ehlara ignored that. "I'd best speak with the others now, and you should begin your preparations," she informed him. With that, she disappeared from the Observation Lounge, prompting additional grumbling from Jevor before he too left for his appointed tasks.
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