A Long, Long Time Ago

An Affair

I stopped to see a weeping willow 

crying on his pillow
Maybe he's crying for me.
And as the skies turn gloomy
Night winds whisper to me
I'm lonesome as I can be

-- Patsy Cline (Walking After Midnight)

=/\=

The remaining candidates, back in 3109, had gone through a couple of way stations already, and some had been split off, so as to further obscure the Temporal Integrity Commission's location. HD Avery found himself with Sheilagh Bernstein, Marisol Castillo and Rajesh Kumar, on some Menshara-class planet or another.

"Do you," HD ventured, "do you think they lose shuttles very often?"

"Oh, probably not," Marisol said distractedly, checking her PADD for messages.

"Listen, uh, you may be used to seeing people breathe their last right in front of you, but I'm not," he said.

"Oh, yes, yes, of course," she said, "It really is a terrible tragedy. She was a rather young woman."

"You think they got any other areas where they regularly mess up?" HD asked.

"It's probably not a regular mess-up," Sheilagh pointed out.

"The pilot will probably be disciplined," Rajesh said, "Or, she should be. The craft should have been thoroughly checked before use. We could've all been killed today."

"Huh, maybe," Marisol said, again distracted, "Look, uh, I'm sorry. You learn to be a bit removed from things. It's a survival skill when you're in the medical field."

"This is somebody's death, though," HD said, "We don't know anything about her, except she was a doctor."

Rajesh clicked a bit on his PADD, "Here, I'll look her up. It says here," he said after a pause, "that she was also a Professor of Medical History at the Dione Medical School."

"That's quite a loss for them," Sheilagh said.

"I hope she didn't have a family," HD said.

"I hope none of us do," Rajesh said, "Imagine being killed in the Dark Ages because someone thinks you're a witch."

"And then your poor family never being able to learn the truth about your death – it's horrible," Sheilagh said, "Still, the job looks to be a fascinating one."

"Definitely," Marisol said, "You'd learn a lot, and know about so many different things in time."

"There's certainly an attraction," Rajesh allowed.

"I still gotta wonder why they're hiring. Does anybody stay in these jobs?" HD asked.

"They said there's a senior guy. I forget his name," Marisol said.

"I'd feel a lot better about this if I coulda met him today," HD said.

"Yeah," Sheilagh agreed, "I'd love to see how people feel about these jobs, over time."

"Time," Marisol said, "I imagine expressions about time will become a bit amusing to us, eh?"

"Ready to transport," said their escort from the Temporal Integrity Commission, "You're all going home with this trip. You'll hear from us soon about the jobs," she set the Transporter's controls – they were on Rigel IX – and began to send them all home.

=/\=

Once she knew that the candidates were all back in their homes – or at least, gone from the Temporal Integrity Commission's auspices – Carmen made a call to Sheilagh Bernstein, "So, would you like to join our merry little band of misfits?"