But you
Why you wanna give me a run-around
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down
-- Blues Traveler (Run Around)
=/\=
HD got to Greenville, South Carolina, right on time. It was October twentieth of 1977. "Okay, let's see," he said to himself, "the plane crash is caused because the pilot thought he had more fuel than he really did. So one engine stalls in mid-flight. Then he and the co-pilot try to move the fuel over to the other engine – the only one that's working. And they screw up. The other engine stalls. They tell the passengers that they need to get strapped in. Then they try to land at a small airfield, but they end up getting desperate and picking a swamp. There just isn't any way to get to that airfield. They end up slightly overshooting the swamp and hit a tree."
He took a breath. "Man oh man, it was just error and problem on top of error and problem, compounding them. The plane breaks into three pieces upon impact. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve and Cassie Gaines, the assistant road manager and the pilot and the co-pilot all die, either in the crash or just afterwards. Gawd." He paused for a second.
"Nearly everyone else is hurt. I think that's all of it. It's enough, certainly. So, hmm, I guess the crash was prevented – because I know that in the new reality they flew to Baton Rouge completely without incident – by someone making sure that the plane had as much fuel in it as the pilot thought it did. So I guess I gotta either prevent someone from fueling up, or drain the gas tank. Okay, I can do that."
=/\=
Carmen sent a message out to everyone in the Human Unit who was around: Gather at the center courtyard in one hour. Wear your best uniform. Attendance is mandatory.
She showered and changed, and clipped her hair back from her face. She tried her Communicator one last time, but the static remained impenetrable. "I do hope that I won't be going to one of these where it'll be your name engraved on the monument, Otra," she said to herself.
For that was the nature of the ceremony. There was a stone and glass monument in the center of the USS Adrenaline, intended to bear the names of all of the Temporal Integrity Commission members killed in the line of duty. So far, it had only been engraved with one name – Eskon, a Cardassian who had been killed when he had strayed too close to an automated grain processing machine in 2482 Cardassia.
And now there would be another engraved name. She hadn't known Chellewev – most of the male Calafans kept to themselves, whereas the women were overly gregarious – but she'd seen a few of them at times. Hopefully, it would be one of the male Calafans with hair, for that would mean that Chellewev was at least thirty years old at the time of his death. For if he was younger than that, well that just seemed to be an unbearable thing.
She took one, fast look in the mirror before emerging and joining other species – Bajorans, Trill, Ferengi, Breen, all four bipedal species of Xindi, Andorians, Aenar, Gorn, Cardassians, Azezans, Betazoids, Klingons, Kazon, Tandarans, Witannen, Xyrillians, Imvari, Tellarites, Romulans, Remans, Vulcans, Olathans, Suliban, Arisians – and countless others, as they made their way to stand in solidarity with the Calafan contingent.
=/\=
"2041," Tom said, "time to head over to the Solar System." They had been circling Krios Prime for most of their journey. "Now, Dan, we would normally have been orbiting Dawitan until now," he explained.
"I take it we didn't because in the new reality we've got some major issues with them?" Dan asked.
"Right you are. So now we're gonna fly both spatially and temporally. Once we get to the Asteroid Belt, I'll cloak us up. We'll go into orbit around the moon, but we'll stay synchronous with the dark side. People in 1995 have telescopes – hell, they've even got Palomar and the Hubble. Even cloaked, they could catch a ripple of some sort. We can't have that happening."
"Right. Hey, Rick, we're almost there!" Dan called out.
"Oh, thanks." Rick came back and rejoined them. "What's the plan?"
"Find McVeigh and make sure he and Nichols do what they're supposed to," Tom said, "so we're off to Junction City, Kansas and the Dreamland Motel."
=/\=
The courtyard garden was packed. The species had more or less separated themselves out into their various units. Carmen found Kevin, Deirdre and Crystal. "Where are Boris and Levi?" she asked.
"Boris is over there," Crystal pointed. "I don't see Levi yet."
"I'll have his hide if he misses this," Carmen muttered under her breath.
Bryce Unger strode to the middle of the courtyard, where there were two curved benches defining the space around the monument. "Fellow Commission members, welcome. I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am, but also how relieved I am, in some ways, that this is only the second time that we are having a ceremony such as this. And I am proud of all of you, for being here and supporting the Calafan Unit. Our ancestors had a vision, many centuries ago, for all species in the galaxy to work and live together in harmony. That began as the Coalition of Planets, and it became the Federation. And we are together as an offshoot of the Federation, one of its crowning achievements. You, my friends, do not just talk about interspecies caring and cooperation – you live it."
He paused. "The Calafan Unit has been with us at the Commission for a long time. They were one of the first species to join. Their ability to readily pass between our universe and the mirror gives them a unique perspective, not to mention having helped many of the other Commission member species with their mirror missions. This tribute is the least we can do to thank them. And now I will turn the ceremony over to Kaiwev, the leader of the Calafan Unit."
Kaiwev was tall, coppery and had hair. He nodded to Bryce before he spoke. "I thank you all for joining in our mourning. Chellewev was from my side of the pond – the universe you call the mirror. He was, of course, a time traveler, with a specialty in military maneuvers and strategy. As many of you may know, our names have meanings that are important to us. His name breaks down to chelle, which means machine or mechanism, and wev, which is a male suffix that means master of. Hence his name meant Master of Mechanics. But he was not as mechanically inclined as our engineer, Yilta. Often, our names prove to be ironic. It is one of the jokes that we Calafans play on ourselves, I suppose. I hope that when you see his name on this monument that you will smile a little, thinking of a master of mechanics who could not tell a hyperspanner from a magnetic wrench."
He smiled a little, an encouragement to the other species. "And now I would like to call up the remainder of the Calafan Unit to assist me. We are going to sing our funerary chant committing our friend's body to our four gods: Lo, Abic, Fep and Ub. Then Yilta will carve Chellewev's name into the monument, using a hand phaser. I ask you, I hope you will turn off your Universal Translators for a moment and listen to the chant in our language. The translation will be projected onto the sides of the monument. Thank you."
The other Calafans came up. There was a silver woman with hair, and one without. A coppery woman with hair joined them, as did a pair of silver men without hair. Kevin fumbled with his implanted Communicator so as to turn the Universal Translator off.
Miva da miva
Ele da ele
Enne da enne
Dary da dary
Imspi da imspi
Ilben, cha, pran
Chellewev da Lo
Chellewev da Abic
Chellewev da Fep
Chellewev da Ub
And then he looked at the translation:
Soil to soil
Air to air
Water to water
Fire to fire
Speech to speech
Heart, faith, skies
Chellewev to Lo
Chellewev to Abic
Chellewev to Fep
Chellewev to Ub
Yilta came over – she was the silver Calafan woman who had hair, and she aimed a hand phaser at the monument. Kevin stepped back in order to give her some room and his foot turned down awkwardly. He had stepped on something strange.
He looked down. It was a pair of gardening shears.
=/\=
But you
Why you wanna give me a run-around
Is it a sure-fire way to speed things up
When all it does is slow me down
-- Blues Traveler (Run Around)