The Point is Probably Moot

Chapter 15 - A Dirty Job

Is it any wonder I've got too much time on my hands?

Ticking away with my sanity

I've got too much time on my hands

It's hard to believe such a calamity

I've got too much time on my hands

And it's ticking away - ticking away from me

-- Styx (Too Much Time on my Hands)

=/\=

Dan had several selections when it came to who to be loyal to, and who to, truly, work for. The myriad of choices was beginning to wear on him, and to confuse him a little bit.

Just who was his master?

During the last major timeline disruption, he had had to assure that nearly two dozen children lost their lives in the Oklahoma City Bombing. And he had taken part in that temporal restoration, not only to keep his place at the Temporal Integrity Commission, but also because that temporal disruption had wiped out his family. It was a situation that had affected him more deeply than he had realized at the time.

And now the same scenario was presenting itself, all over again. Once more, his family was wiped. And once more, he had to perform a morally unpleasant task in order to get them back. To cause, again, the destruction of Deepwater Horizon meant not only the deaths of some eleven crewmen on the Gulf of Mexico, but also an enormous environmental cataclysm and an economic recession in the area. It was perhaps not as gut-wrenching as several deceased minors, but bad enough.

And now Marisol was proposing offing Tom Grant, as casually as she might have suggested that they get a cheeseburger.

Want fries with that?

Sure, just after I kill a friend.

He didn't have to listen to Marisol, and he definitely didn't want to. But he was mindful of the fact that she had been with both the Perfectionists and the Temporal Integrity Commission longer than he had been. He wanted to retain his place in both, despite his mounting confusions.

=/\=

A copper Calafan female answered their Communications hail. "I am Yimar, the High Priestess."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said Hoshi, "we know you're manufacturing contraband starship parts. You have a week to stop. Then we'll start destroying cities."

"But –"

"Sato out," she looked around the Bridge and then smiled at Milton. "Come with me. And Jun? No interruptions unless they surrender. We'll be ... busy."

The door to the Ready Room closed behind them, and Jun and Kira were left to imagine what their mother was doing with – and to – Milton Walker.

=/\=

The change rippled through time and Otra collapsed in the cafeteria. Fortunately, she had been lunching with Boris. He held her head to keep her from accidentally injuring herself.

When she finally came to, he asked her, "How bad is it?"

"I need to tell Carmen," she replied.

Carmen ended up calling the rest of the team to Conference Room four. It was standing room only. "Well?"

"It was the mirror, I am quite sure," Otra began, "I saw a pitched battle. The Defiant was battling six other Constitution class ships."

Kevin nodded.