Where the Wind Comes Sweepin' Down the Plain

OKC, Improved?

Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma, Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.

-- The Company (Oklahoma)

=/\=

There was a door chime. "Just a sec," Rick said. He had a souvenir of his time with Milena – a small photograph taken by her sister, Noemy. The picture was of a sad-eyed auburn-haired woman with a faraway look. He took one last glance, and put it into his desk drawer. "C'mon in."

"Am I interruptin' anything?" asked Kevin O'Connor, the department's Chief Engineer.

"Nothing in particular."

"I've done a thorough investigation on the damage to the HG Wells," Kevin stated.

"Maybe Carmen should be here to hear about the problems with my time ship."

"She's got an inkling. Richard, you did a bit of fancy repair work there, and with the wackiest things – scrap junk aluminum and a pair of woman's nylon stockings."

Rick smiled a little at that. "Good thing I didn't go to an era before plastics were developed."

"Right. We might need to restrict travel, yanno, if things like this keep happening. Woulda been a far different story if you were in 1458 instead of 1968."

"Agreed," Rick said, "so, do you have findings?"

"Yep. Now, here's the deal. Whoever cut the dark matter intake line on the Wells also cut it on the other two active time ships here in the Human Unit – the Flux Capacitor and the Jack Finney. I analyzed the cut patterns and found that they match. It was some sort of scissors or shears, and there's the tiniest of notches about a millimeter from the top. See for yourself." He fiddled with a PADD he had with him and projected three nearly identical images onto the wall of Rick's office.

"I take it these aren't all pictures of the same thing."

"Right you are. Fluxy's here on the left, then Jack, and then the Wells over here on the right. And that notch is here, here and here." He pointed.

"Find the notch, find the shears, find the culprit," Rick said.

"Right. Now, consider the fact that everyone in this department – hell, most of the people in the Temporal Integrity Commission itself – knows that the dark matter collector is necessary for powering a new style time ship. The old Audrey Niffenegger ran on chronitons, but all of our newer ships are already converted over to the new way of doing things."

"Which you invented, Kevin."

"Don't remind me. If I'd known they'd be targeted, I woulda hid the collector lines better in the design."

"It is not your fault."

"Well, thanks. As I was sayin'," Kevin said, "we got newer design ships. And so do most of the units. The Ferengi don't, 'cause they wanna squeeze the very last bit of value outta the older designs. I swear, the Penar is gonna be stranded in medieval Ferenginar one of these days."

"Well, they want to get their money's worth."

"They're the only species with Warp Drive that still gives a damn about money. Wacky," Kevin commented, "in any event, most people know that the collector line is a vital component. So we can't cut down the list of suspects that way."

"Isn't Carmen turning over the investigation of this to Section 31?"

"Not this time. They still can't find Otra. I think Carmen's about ready to give up on 'em."