Across the Universe... and Back?

Chapter 3

DolenzStarr

Captain Kirk waited a moment for the usual beaming sensation to occur, but instead Scotty asked, "Eight, sir?" There was a pause, and then Scotty acknowledged, "Alright, Captain, eight to beam up."

"Beam up?" Paul asked, aggravation laced his voice, "What does beam up me-," Paul was interrupted as his body began to shimmer, as did the other Beatles and Enterprise crew. Paul stared at them, then looked down to see himself disappear. Moments later, he was somehow standing on a large, circular, red platform. He looked around to see a man in a red shirt standing behind some tall, angular, desk-like thing. The man looked up from the desk-like thing, spotted who had transported up, and then the man's jaw dropped in astonishment.

"Captain, what are they... How can they..." the man stuttered, but Spock shook his head, almost looking surprised himself.

"This is not the best moment in time to say anything, Mr. Murphy." Spock glanced at Captain Kirk, wondering at his decision to transport the remaining Beatles to the ship. Spock glanced at the two security officers who had accompanied the landing party down to the planet, and the two security men moved toward the door.

"Does this prove anything to you?" Kirk turned to the three Beatles, who stared around themselves in awe.

"What is this place?" Ringo asked, wide eyed, "What was that sparkly thing, and how did we get here? Is this what 'appened to John?"

Kirk watched as all three Beatles turned to him, eager for answers, and he sighed. "This is my ship. I'm afraid I can't answer the rest of your questions, gentleman, but do you believe me now?"

"Well..." George hesitated, "How do we know this isn't just part of that government thing we were talking about earlier, eh?"

Kirk let out a strained sigh and rubbed his temples as the communicator on the wall gave a whistle. Kirk left the Beatles standing on the transporter pad and answered the call quietly.

"Kirk here," the captain sighed.

"Captain, the Klingon ship is taking off and I must say that they're gaining speed quite quickly. I think she's trying to enter the time warp again, and even if she's not going to enter the time warp, she certainly isn't sticking right around here!" Scotty's voice met Kirk's ears, and the captain's blood froze. It was practically pure luck, or misfortune, that they'd entered the time warp in the first place. It wasn't likely to happen again, but if it did and the Klingon ship went through it, it was more than likely that the Enterprise would be stuck in the past with no way to get home. Still, three of the four Beatles were here on this ship and if the Enterprise was to gather enough speed to enter a time warp with the Klingons, there was no time to erase or change the Beatles' memories and beam them down to Earth. If the Enterprise followed the Klingon ship through the time warp then the Beatles would have to come along into the future. In that unfortunate case, the group would learn more than they ever should about the future, plus any number of things could happen to them in an unstable future that had been the result of missing Beatles in the past. And yet John Lennon was on the Klingon ship, which in itself was extremely dangerous, and he was speeding away into a possible time warp.

"Captain!" Scotty's voice came up again, it had gained in desperation.

"Uh..." Kirk glanced over at the man at the transporter, who was completely baffled, the security guards who were watching their captain with expectation, Chekhov, who practically had his head in his hands, and then Spock, who gazed back at him, hoping he'd make the right decision. Kirk stared at Spock for several seconds before giving a heavy sigh, "Follow the Klingon ship closely and do everything possible to get in that time warp, if it happens again. It is imperative that we follow that ship where ever it goes, even if it's not entering a time warp!"