Time is a path between the past and the future and back again. The Crossroads are the present. --attributed to Surak of Vulcan*

"Commander?" Capt Forrester asked as he entered his ready room. "Would you mind explaining that outburst?"

Cam MacLaughlin fidgeted knowing her reaction had been undisciplined. She watched Capt. Marcus Forrester settle behind his desk and look at her with his no-nonsense composure.

Cam sighed sharply and stood at stiffer attention focusing her eyes on the small viewport over his right shoulder.

"It was uncalled for, sir"

"It may have been uncalled for but that still doesn't explain it."

"Sir? It was frustration. Pure and simple." she spoke sharply.

"What DID happen on Rebus 4 Commander?" He asked softly.

"I am not certain. My tricorder logs were wiped. I have no evidence of what I saw. Just the word of Lt. T'Laren and Lt. James, both of whom only saw a fraction of what I did. My incomplete records only show up to the point I approached the object on the sand dune. Not its oscillations not its disappearance."

Cam thought about the chasing of the sensor data, how she begged Capt. Forrester to allow her to beam to the source of the sensor distortions. Finding the odd object sitting on the sand in the middle of a desert and how with an odd grinding sound and the light on the top blinking innocently, it had vanished...almost like it was grabbed by an unknown type of transporter beam. How Audra McKay seeing that the sensors were going off the scale tried to yanked them back. And all was gone. No distortions in the fields...nothing. In her frustration she had actually yelled at Terry James as they worked together at the main science panel on the bridge.

"None of it makes sense. Its not like the confidential files you let me see at all. It something different entirely and somehow similar. In that on the surface they appear similar but the differences are marked when you look closely at the details." She spoke softly in humble tones. "I simply lost it in frustration."

"Then tell me straight Commander, are we dealing with the Q?"

"No sir. Its something completely different.

What--"

"DelaMarco to MacLaughlin."

She sighed, "Go ahead."

"I have the translation ready."

"Relay it to the Captain's ready room, Lt."

"Yes sir."

Forrester glanced at her with curiosity sparking in his blue eyes, "Translation, Commander?"

"There were markings on the object sir. Some of which I could read. It was writing in old English."

"Old English?" Forester wondered.

"I don't understand it yet sir. My tricorder sensors were not able to penetrate the object, yet the distortion was registered. Its almost as if the distortion was more apparent to the sensors of the ship, being further away it was clearer," She rubbed her eyes and began reading.

"Anything there?" he wondered.

"Here read for yourself. This makes no sense! Its a set of instructions for contacting the police!" She said feeling utterly exasperated. Marcus spoke a minute later, "I agree this is odd. Unfortunately now that the situation has changed we must make the rendezvous with the Selasa. I would like you to keep looking into this but I am going to need your assistance with the Salasain. They have required our technical assistance in getting their labs up and running again with the civil war now over."

"I understand sir." Cam sighed accepting her orders.

****

The Tal were an odd people in Cam's estimation. They tended to be rather reclusive and shy. They on the whole were an insightful race with a natural aptitude towards the physical sciences and theory. But with themselves, narrow minded in attitude and opinion.

She had been working hard on a solution to the problem of their labs when she stumbled across a startling revelation. The more she thought about it the more she realized Capt Forrester needed to know.

"Sir?" she asked entering his ready-room.

"I trust that things are going well with the Tal?" He wondered looking up from some administrative work. His eyes met Cams and from her posture he concluded that things were not going as well as hoped.

"Sir I have come across evidence that I find rather disturbing, in a political as well as scientific light. I think I know what kindled the war sir. I think Starfleet should be aware of the situation because I think its very close to erupting again."

"Political analysis now Commander?" He wondered with a smile.

She looked at him with a determined frown, "Sir they were experimenting with time travel."

Forrester thought a moment and shut off his monitor, setting aside the paperwork to pay closer attention to what his CSO had to say.

"That was not the official line to Starfleet."

"No sir, it most certainly was not." Cam agreed.

"Experimenting," he pondered, "In your best estimation how far along are they? And what kinds of experiments are they performing?"

"They are working on temporal distortions. Well that seems to be the angle of attack. I think they might have either found a means to control it or they are on the verge. Its at that point where if they don't have they soon will." She handed him a PADD, "this is data I've flinched from their computer systems while I was working on restoring the DLL links."

"So what do you feel are the implications here?" Forrester wondered sounding rather professorial.

"Implications? I'm afraid that they are using us to push the door open. I'm afraid that the experiments themselves triggered the war. I've found a lot of very hot opinions on the DLL, and the more I looked the hotter they got and more divided. Who ever was conducting the study was doing so without the restored governments blessings. And now Starfleet was suckered into providing a means to further this."

"Somehow I don't think they were suckered, we were suckered. I think there were some opportunists at work and this was incidental. At least that's what I concur from the data you've been passing in your reports."

"But what should we do?" Cam wondered, "I know I am not authorized to halt the work going on, yet I feel as if continuing would be wrong."

"Why?"

Cam realized the Captain was merely asking her to justify her opinion and to think through the problem. She paused, and sighed, gathering her thoughts. "Sir, I don't think a race such as this is mature enough to leave history...and time, alone. I'm afraid that despite their technology they are not a mature enough race to temper their actions. I know that sounds like judgmental thing to say but.. to me they sometimes act like children who have discovered something interesting in Mommy's closet and cant resist playing with it."

"Are the Q mature enough not to meddle in affairs?" Forrester pointed out. "Who are we to say?"

"I know sir. I realize that. But I think that proceeding would be unethical. Doesn't the prime directive state that we should not meddle?"

"Well Commander are we meddling or aren't we? By withholding aid we are changing things also."

"Damned if we do and damned if we don't." Cam muttered.

"Commander, I am going to challenge you here. I will go to Starfleet with your findings but I want you to think this out and come up with a reasonable solution. I want you to investigate this fully, explore the options open and base your conclusions upon that. No skimping and no jumping to conclusions. I want you to tell me beyond a reasonable doubt where exactly they stand on this development and how far can they go. Full analysis, Commander."

****

Cam looked around the lab with her tricorder in hand. This was it, the Lab she wasn't supposed to know about...the one that wasn't supposed to exist, but did. "Connor would have a field day with this," she muttered thinking of her astrophysicist and his penance for intriguing machines and theory.

She began recording data and investigating the machinery before her trying to ascertain what kinds of field manipulation was gong on..information she was going to pass to Connor for his opinion. She knew she had to work quickly. Working with Jesse they ascertained where the lab was using the computer links as a map and with the fine sensors found that no one was in the vicinity of the lab complex. By correlating data from her computer download they found the right room that contained the portal. She beamed down to take a look first hand at the machine to get a better feel for exactly how the thing worked and to get more data for Connor to work with. After all if he knew the exact configurations of the coils and such then he could correlate how the thing worked with the blueprints that Cam had found ferreting through the computer library. Seeing something was different then looking at the plans..it became more real and complex.

"I'm in Jess" She whispered to the open commlink.

"Ill keep you apprised if anyone approaches." He replied. "If anyone does show, McKay, yank her out of there immediately."

Cam smiled picturing Jesse looking at Audra with one of his exasperated points of a finger. She knew he hated to send her down there but she insisted. The Captain certainly wouldn't condone this spying but he wanted a complete analysis, and that just what he was going to get.

Cam looked over the control panels. She had read the operating instructions, and casually hit a few of the switches in front of her.

"Cam what the hell is going on?" Jesse asked.

"I..turned on the machinery.""You powered up that? It wreaking havoc with the sensors, I don't know if well be able to yank you!"

"I need to know how this works Jesse, I mean if it does." Cam said calmly. "What does it look like from there?"

"A mess." Jesse replied sharply. "Cam shut it down."

"I need a few more readings."

"To hell with it shut it down!" Jesse warned "Your power fluxes are going to be detected by the Tal...your drawing a hell of a lot for their power distributions grids. They are going to realize that something's up."

"They already have." Cam whispered "Audra beam me out NOW."

"I cant. The equipment is causing ...I cant get a lock."

Cam found herself looking stupidly at the barrel of what constituted as a Tal rifle.

"Shut it off Commander." The Tal scientist warned. Cam recognized him as the turquoise haired head of research she had been working with. She felt a rush of surprise that he was involved in this.

"Shut if off, please." He repeated.

"Look I can explain. Starfleet is concerned with this and I need to know to advise them."

"You were not supposed to know about this."

"I realize that, but I stumbled across it. Look if you wanted our technical help then you should have been forthwith about this."

"We know what we are doing, I assure you."

"I don't think so." Cam countered.

"Why?"

"Because I think.---"

"Stop her!" Another yelled as it entered the room.

Cam held up her hands, "Look I intended no harm, I just am looking at this in an analytical sense. I am not trying to steal secrets or anything. I just--" It happened so suddenly that she scarcely had time to comprehend what was occurring...There was a flash and she felt her body being flung backwards. She felt the impact of her back on the control console. There was some yelling and she felt her body being dragged....

****

Cam MacLaughlin glanced down the street and blinked the drops of rain out of her eyes. The landscape was a dull gray fading into a dull black as night fell. She shivered inside her leather jacket and she tried to huddle deeper in the lambs wool pile.

She looked again on the edifice of the Museum wishing she had the pounds to go in and get out of the cold. But she had no money. And she had just been thrown out on top of it.

She looked out at the street and watched the black beetle taxis zip past. Few people were out on this evening and those who were huddled under their umbrellas and gathered their macs around them. She could walk anywhere, but taking one of the beetle taxis was out of the question. She thought of Jesse and how he might be holed up in a warm pub having a pint of bitters by now. But no money meant no hope of getting in out of the growing chill, just like the museum.

She wandered along watching the people. "What Id give for a few bars of latnium, " She sighed. But of course, no one would require it either. Then she sighed realizing just how out of place and how depressed she felt.

Feeling blue she went and sat after wandering down Queens Gate Road into Kenningston Gardens. She thought of her father and silently thanked him for at least teaching her to read English. At least in this whirling dervish world she could read the signs and figure out a few things.

She was thoroughly depressed now and really began to cry. she felt so empty so out of place. Her emotions were getting the better of her and there was no hope.

"Can I help you?" a man offered sitting down on the bench next to her. He peered at her as she glanced about.

Cam wiped her face ant stared at him a moment her sobs subsiding, "Ill be all right."

"You're American."

Cam blinked and it took a moment to register what he meant exactly by that remark.

"Ahh," He nodded his curly head. "Jelly baby?"

"What?" she said peering at the bag in his out stretched hand. What was inside was apparently candy. Brightly colored and smelling sort of sickly sweet. Cautiously she took one.

He studied her a moment. "You look kind of down and out. Where are you staying?"

"Umm..."

"I thought so. I thought I saw you hanging about the Museum."

Cam frowned further. "I wanted to go in but discovered I needed money to do so."

"And you needed money for soup," he said. "What do you do.. for a living."

"I'm an...Archaeologist." Cam puzzled slowly.

"An archeologist with no job. Going to the Museum to scare up work?"

"No actually to look. I've never been here..."

"Do you need a place to stay?" He suddenly asked "Maybe you and I could work out a trade. I could use a research assistant and you could use a few pence in your pocket."

"What sort of reattach?"

"Library searches...some fiddling. Your background lends itself to the sort of research I'm interested in."

"I'M a bit skeptical." Cam scowled. "But..."

"Oh I understand. I get treated with a lot of skepticism. No worry."

Cam thought for a moment, "Could you tell me why you are in need of and assistant?"

"Certainly." The man shrugged.

"Well, why?"

"I need someone who understands history, and is willing to research anomalies."

Cam, who had been walking beside the lanky man with the wild mop of wavy reddish brown hair stopped dead in her tracks. The implications of that statement shook her and chilled her to the core.

****

"Then I take it you study history." She observed.

"Basically." He nodded as he unlocked the lab door. "Well here's home."

Cam looked around the hodgepodge of a lab. Bits of this and that were everywhere.

"Here's the PC I use to store data. But you needn't worry about that right now."

Cam blinked and pursed her lips looking at the cream colored collection in the corner on a desk. Cables ran every which way.

Cam where are you really from?"

"California. Monterey California."

"Your accent doesn't tell me that."

"Well spending years studying for a Doctorate under various professors doesn't lend itself to a pure accent. I've..."

"Your a Doctor?"

"Yes. Stanford University."

"Well apparently your more then just a student." He blinked, "I had you pegged as a professional student down on your luck."

"Well out of luck is a good way to put it." Cam sighed, accepting the hot tea and a towel which seemed to magically appear out of an odd closet.

"I think this should work out." he nodded. "Until your back on your feet, don't you think?"

"I hope so..."

"Good!" he grinned a warm grin. "Now well worry about other matters in the morning. There's a cot in the back room so if you really have nowhere else to go, there's always that."

"Thank you." Cam said trying to sound sincere. This was far better then living out on the street or in the park. (Didn't that happen? People down on their luck were living in the parks, hadn't she read that once?)

****

After two weeks Cam felt a lot more confident in using the system and doing the reattach for the Doctor. He was erratic and eccentric. His hours were odd and the company he kept were even odder. The biggest surprise was the odd assortment of individuals that periodically showed up asking for scientific information. Cam usually heard about a quarter of what was said and it still made no sense to her. But this Doctor seemed to be a scientific advisor attached to an agency that was attached to NATO (or something...) that would explain the interest in things. He ran experiments in various fields and there always seemed to be about three at once.

She was growing more confident in handling herself in the wilds of London. she could find her way to the newsstand and get a copy of the morning Times which she enjoyed plowing through. He even indulged her quirks of heading to the museums to see the things by accompanying her, his bag of jelly babies in his pocket.

Cam measured and carefully kept tabs on what exactly she said although she was beginning to think that that apparently distractible and ditzy Doctor really knew the truth about her. Or suspected that she was somehow different. But to that, he never asked.

There were always pounds in her pocket and food to eat in her little closet of a room. For that she was grateful. She had taken excursions to the park and through that and reading had discovered that it was true. People did live in the parks and abandoned buildings. She saw the panhandlers and the homeless, the hungry and the mentally ill. It frightened her and mortified her. This was not how people lived nor how they should be treated. But in reading she was beginning to understand the dynamics of why this happened and the discontent that was a color to her own history.

She once had a brush with the medical world when a pedestrian was hit by a beetle taxi when she was out walking. What she saw frightened her and she sincerely hoped she would never ever end up in a hospital. This world she was in could be a scary place.

****

It was an odd Tuesday afternoon that he went running out of the lab with an extreme air of emergency. Cam could see the army personal waiting. It left her puzzled but she went about her computer search when suddenly it hit her. The data she was working with seemed wrong. Annoyed that she had seemed to have corrupted her files she went in search of the little annoying disks she kept as backup. The PC was prone to periodic crashes and other such problems. It was an unreliable piece of machinery. But with some patients and such Cam could manipulate the software to do what she liked, though it was slow.

The disks were kept in a cabinet below one of the workbenches. She went over and retrieved the box and began searching labels for the files she was working with.

Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the funny old key that the doctor kept in his pocket. She picked it up and frowned for a moment.

"I guess it was a hole. Silly cant even mend a hole. Well what good at that am I?" she muttered depositing the key in her jacket pocket for safe keeping.

Annoyed about the files she brought up the backup files and found that ..lo and behold the same error was cropping up.

That did it. She felt confident that the information was wrong so she set off for the library to search the sources again.

She got the information and returned swiftly only to find that the Colonel was standing there with a glower on his face.

"Excuse me sir but, can I help you?"

"Well, yes. The Doctor left me instructions to meet him here and get some information."

"I'm not sure what information that is...He left me no instructions."

"Well should he show up I will be in my office."

"Yes sir."

"Young lady, I must admit you are one of the most respectful assistants I think he's ever had."

Cam scratched her head and felt the key in her pocket. she pulled it out after the Colonel had left the room. She fiddled with it glancing at the odd cupboard that she had seen it work in. Actually it wasn't a closet at all...it was like one of the phone booths that she had seen in her walks (they always said phone but she hadn't figured out how exactly they worked) But this one was an antique call box for the police (or so the sign over the door said). She frowned at it figuring the eccentric Doctor just had odd tastes. She wasn't one to say, she had a cow skull hanging in her quarters.

Then there was the nagging feeling that there was something she was missing something she couldn't quite remember....something about the Endeavour. She paused for a moment, the Endeavour seemed so like a dream now. Her friends long gone...it made her feel a pang depression.

Puzzled about the information that the colonel needed she fitted the key into the lock and opened the door.

And she stared. She pulled her head out and glanced around measuring the exterior dimensions and looked back in the door.

Quickly she shut the door and put the key back. As curious as she was she heard footsteps and loud voices. Her discovery merited further investigation, but there was no time at this point.

Quickly she booted the old computer and settled to work...or appeared to do so. "Colonel, If there is then I am sure that the evidence will present itself." The Doctor insisted.

"Then where is the proof you keep toting?"

The Doctor glanced at Cam.

"Could you explain what it is you've been researching?" He wondered.

The Colonel glanced at her.

"Well I was researching comet behavior and the impact of Comet Hytaki into the atmosphere of Jupiter. There was a very interesting paper published as an atmospheric study of Jupiter. Well the study has come up...missing. I stared searching further and its lead me to conclude one of two things a) the comet never impacted and b) the man who did the research didn't. Which brings me to another point...I think you'd better be very careful about computer security. There's a hacker on the loose that might try and access your system. He's already struck in the United Sates."

The Colonel frowned, "Are these matters related?"

"Well I think they might...but..." Cam shrugged.

"There you have it Colonel...."

"all right Doctor but your gallivanting..."

"Yes sir." The Doctor said to the colonels back. He turned to Cam, "What was all that?"

"Difficult to explain. But a guy that does atmospheric research also is a systems manager in Berkeley and...its a long story." Cam studied his expression and clearly he wanted to hear it, "Oh there's a hacker breaking into military systems and the guy in Berkeley was instrumental in tacking the hacker down. But this guy in Berkeley was supposed to write an atmospheric study about Jupiter. Well I haven't found the paper and interestingly enough there was this comet that was supposed to break and impact Jupiter... apparently it didn't happen. I was trying to find data in the NASA bases and I cant find squat."

"There's something your not telling me." He offered a jelly baby.

Cam accepted one with a shrug. "It has to do with history. Oh you dropped this key."

He took the key out of her hand and studied her with an intense glance. He then stocked off in search of a cup of tea.

****

"'old very still and don't move." the voice whispered in a rough accented sort of English.

Cam felt the cold blade at her throat and she wondered if she could deck this guy using some of those moves that Jesse pulled on her. She decided that the weight factor was not in her favor, and she held still.

The thug seeing that all the fight was out of her threw her on her cot in the back room. She could hear the others rifling though the lab. her mind raced wondering how she had managed to bungle into this while coming back from a walk. In fact her bomber jacket was making her sweat.

"Keep her mouth shut, now Matty." One of them said roughly.

Cam glanced at the pile of clothes on her bed turning over in her mind how she could reach under them and draw the type I phaser she had stashed there. Her uniform was in the bottom of the pile where she kept it folded in a tight bundle. She thought about the Endeavour and how these thugs were not too distant cousins to the Klingons.

Her fingers knit themselves into little knots as she sat waiting and wondering what they were looking for.

Thug A suddenly bashed her when Thug C said something unintelligible. Thug B started yelling at Thug A and C for their stupidity. Cam found her nose not far from the pile of clothes and in falling her fingers ended up just shy. her fingers quickly reached forward and she fished the small phaser out while the others were distracted. Her eye stung when a trickle of blood came off her eyebrow. She was trying to make further sense out of the noises she was hearing but her brain was having trouble focusing on even the simplest sounds. She tried to sit up and was met with at wave of dizziness.

Her movement caused one of the thugs to look up and reflexively point his gun at her.

The other glanced at him and grumbled something.

Cam remembered feeling the contact of something on the back of her head, then all became black.

****

The Doctor looked over the mess and stepped carefully over to her small crumpled form. He gently lifted her shoulders, caressed her forehead and called her name.

"They," she whispered opening her eyes.

"They what?" He wondered. He glanced at the call box and made a decision. Cam gasped as he picked her up. The jostling of her neck caused a stab of pain to ram its way over her nerves. She noticed the he had worked the door open and the world slid away as she passed out.

**** The blackness gave slowly away to a sense of gray and she realized she had been dreaming. She tried to rub her eyes but her arms still felt heavy. She rolled on her side and became more aware of the sounds around her. A soft tick-tock remembered from somewhere.

A hand touched her forehead and cheek and she heard the soft mummer of motion. Involuntarily she moaned as she tried to open her eye.

"Lie still, your very fortunate, you know.

"Huh?" she wondered opening her right eye.

She found herself looking into the blue eyes of the Doctor. His reddish brown hair flowed gently around his face in a cascade of waves. He touched her cheek again, his hand felt cool. "Uhh no. I seem a bit hazy...what happened?" She wondered rubbing her forehead.

"You suffered an accident. But I think you'll be alright."

Cam glanced around at the rich paneling and pulled at the satin and down comforter she was burrowed under."Where am I?"

"Don't worry about that now. You need rest. Your body is still recovering from being rather stretched and pulled in several directions at once."

"That makes no sense." Cam shock her head. She grunted, "Then explain that again?"

"How about we try it again after you've had a cup of tea and you feel a tad more with it."

Cam sighed, she couldn't argue with that logic. She felt run over and worse for the wear.

But where was here and why couldn't she remember what happened? Cam turned the thoughts over slowly feeling the small metal objects in her hand. She blinked and clumsily picked them up where she could see them. A glance around made a little voice go off in her head that said she wasn't in Kansas anymore. She hurt and nothing made sense.

The overhead florescent danced off the polished surface of the odd triangle. She brushed it softly wanting to cry. she put down her commbadge wondering how it had ended up with her here.

Cam rubbed her nose being careful of the spot on her eyebrow that was trying to heal Someone had stuck a bandage on it, and it itched. The Doctor she quickly surmised. Cam studied her commbadge letting her fingers trace the two rectangular blocks of background.

"How...do you feel?" he wondered as he walked in her room.

"Confused. I don't think I've ever been attacked by thugs before. New experience." She paused gathering her thoughts She played with the key on the chain, saying nothing.

"There's a lot you don't understand." He said softly touching her hand. Her gray eyes glanced up at him from under their heavy lashes, she nodded with a small movement of her head. She let the chain slither into the other hand. It clicked against the commbadge softly.

She looked around the ornate Victorian room for a moment.

"And there's a lot to explain."

"I know that." she whispered back, glancing away from his hypnotic blue eyes.

"Are you...frightened?" he wondered sitting beside her.

"I don't understand it but I'm not frightened. Curious yes." She said truthfully,"And emotionally confused. But..."

"You'll understand soon enough." he assured her.

****

Cam opened the lab and glanced around. "Oh what a mess."

"The data Cam."

"The data? Its in the computer...I hope. They got my blank disks," she grumbled.

"What we must find is why."

"I think it has to do with a comet...but I cant seem to pinpoint... wait a second!"

"What?"

"Dammit why didn't I think of that before! Oh what an idiot I am! I have the historical data base I was working with. Shit I am so dumb!" She ran into her little room and pushed the cot aside. It hurt her shoulder, but she gritted her teeth. This was far more important then a wound. With some grunts and pulls she had the ammunition box she had appropriated and retrieved what she was looking for. "I hid this on the first night because I didn't want you or anyone to get their hands on the data inside."

"Why is that?"

"History!" she exclaimed. "You yourself said that someone tampers with history."

She opened up the tricorder. The phaser had been far easier to conceal form everyone but the tricorder, this was a dangerous instrument in the wrong hands.

"Cam? When were you born?" he wondered politely.

"I don't want to discuss that," she said curtly.

"How did you get here?" he wondered further.

"You brought me, remember?" She chided him because he did have occasional lapses in his memory.

"No here. Twentieth Century Earth."

She looked up at him and bit her lip. She studied his face wondering what to say exactly. What she had witnessed indicated that while he appeared human, he belonged to another race...possibly of shape shifter that preferred humanoid form and didn't shift often. They both were playing a game of charades.

"You know what I mean." He insisted.

"Yes," She admitted. "But if I level with you then..."

"By all means."

"2341" She said softly.

"I thought that I sensed something was amiss." He pondered. "Com'mon lets see if we can get your little hand held gizmo to work."

Cam followed him picking up the tricorder off the bench. He pulled a key just like the one on her neck and opened the call box.

"I don't understand..." she frowned.

"I thought that if we could load whatever information you have from your portable that maybe the main computer in here could help analyze and correlate it."

"Well if we had the computer core of a Galaxy then yes." she grumbled.

"I trust you Cam that's why you have a key. I think you can understand what this is."

"Well I'm not familiar with the technology but..." she followed him into what seemed so clearly a control room.

"I knew when you were from."

"Why? I mean how?"

"Your commbadge. I saw you fiddling with it one day when you were laying in your room supposedly reading. Your English is spoken like a non-native speaker, not even American. You speak like you learned it as a child, and yet are dependent upon a translator.

"A game my father and I played. He's a historian"

"I see," He thought for a moment. "And you ended up here somehow..."

"An accident." Cam thought, "But then again maybe it wasn't an accident. I was working on something that had to do with time manipulation. But how I ended up here, is a mystery."

"Time manipulation?" The Doctor wondered.

"The Tal. But I still don't understand how they could have learned about some of the theories of time travel."

"Gallifry..."

"Gallifry? I don't know--"

"A race that considers itself the guardians of time. Long lived and sensitive to aspects of the time-space continuum. There is a member of that race that likes nothing more then to spread his evil ways amongst the other races of the galaxy, he is known as the Master."

"There are many legends about such a race...speculative stories." Cam thought, "Your a member of that race, aren't you?"

"Yes." he said softly, ".I realized that something was wrong, intuition."

Cam considered this carefully.

"Does that trouble you?"

"No, why should it? If you knew when I was from then you would know the sort of society I'm used to being in. I'm troubled by the fact that you and this Master are both here on Earth. In a time that humans are scarcely able to leave Earth's orbit, let alone travel in time or across light years."

"If you help me then I will see to it you get home. Somehow I will get you back."

"Forwards." She smiled.

"I will fix the wrong." he pleaded, "You must trust me."

"Fine. Lets see if we can get the tricorder to download."

"Ill get you a bite to eat." he smiled.

"A bite? Emm yeah, but do you really think I should..."

"You know your system best." He shrugged and walked through another doorway.

"Wait I don't know your system!" Cam called after him. "Oh razzenfrazzen frickandfrack!"

****

"He is holding a ball. He's keeping the persona of a wealthy business man."

The doctor looked up from peering over Cams monitor. He had seated him self on the table to read the paper.

"A ball?" Cam wondered.

"I'm sure its him. I said I had my suspicions." The Doctor muttered. "What is that?"

"A manifest for some ship. Dead end."

"Umm cold prove interesting."

Cam frowned at him. "You know if you want to get him, You could waltz into that ball and..."

"What a charming idea!" the Doctor jumped down off the table almost knocking Cams coffee over. "Would you like to go dancing my dear?"

"Humph! If its anything like anything else your going to need a bit of CASH to get in." Cam grumbled.

"A thousand pounds"

"See? I told you."

"But you would look utterly charming in a ball gown, don't you think ?"

Cam frowned a bit puzzled, "Maybe so."

"Ill pick the gown. I have a few quid lying around...I think."

Cam watched him disappear with a shake of her head.

"Is he always this dingy?" She wondered to her computer.

****

"You look radiant my dear." he said offering her his arm.

"Its rather interesting." Cam laughed. Looking down her bodice at the beadwork on the gown. "Do you think that our host will actually fall for this?"

"If it doesn't then well find another way to get him."

"Why are you so obsessed with stopping him."

"I told you, he wrecks time."

"He sounds like a few beings I've heard about."

Cam studied her escort out of the corner of her eye. He did look dashing and vital. His blue eyes blazed with the thought of the chase. Cam sighed, she was rather enjoying the romantic aspect of this, something she hadn't enjoyed on the Endeavour. She felt as if it were expected of her to be beyond the festivities, unbecoming of an officer. How there were times she wanted to break free and enjoy herself, whether it be with Jesse who kept making subtle offers or with Terry who seemed to just be there. Her fling with Xavier left her a bit sour. But that was then and she needed to focus on the now.

"Your too busy thinking." he said softly as she swung her across the floor.

"Too busy?"

"What has got your attention so?" he wondered putting her into a gentle spin.

"Nothing."

"Home." he said.

"Alright Dr. Smartypants." she sighed.

"Our host hasn't shown up."

"He's probably mucking about."

"I..." he suddenly looked blank. "Come on Cam!"

She followed him wondering what on earth he had suddenly though of. "What are you thinking?!" Cam wondered.

"The ball is a cover for his real actions."

"Where are...?" She matched steps with him.

"Don't ask questions!" he urged in a harsh tone.

Cam shut her mouth and kept following. They wound their way through the large hotel that the ball was being held. they road the elevator and found themselves on the roof.

"Now what?" Cam wondered looking about. There was simply no pace to go.

"What do you see?" he asked.

"What?"

"What do you see?" He gestured at the sky.

Cam looked up puzzled. "I see the stars"

"What is wrong can you see it?"

"No."

"There, by the Little Dipper!"

Cam studied the sky finding the old constellations it had been a long time since she had studied the Earth's sky, but she had been drilled by her Academy instructors and by her own curiosity as a child.

"Its..." she muttered wishing she had a Starfleet issue set of field glasses. "I think its a comet. hard to tell but if its that visible by the naked eye, it means its close to the Earth."

"Precisely!"

"I haven't read anything about a comet being visible at this latitude." Cam puzzled.

"He has suppressed any mention! He's managed to get into databases and remove that piece of information!"

"Wait the hacker I read about was spying. Not removing data."

"Your hacker was working with several others, correct?"

"That's right..." Cam pondered. "Oh you don't think he goofed with the rotation of the earth or something that drastic?"

"How would you affect the rotation?"

"Umm Detonation of...nahh that's too drastic...umm ..ahhh...pass a large body near the arch of the orbit and depending on the vector...it would slow rotation!" He smiled and looked up at the sky.

"But no one knows about this! Twentieth Century humans are going to react like a bunch of primal beasts...forecasting gloom and doom. And I never heard about any panic created by a comet!" "We need to start getting the truth out."

"Doctor, there's one more thing."

"What is that?"

"Some comets are known radiation sources. Atmosphere creates a buffer but if there is none, then other things might be affected. This wasn't a well documented fact, in this time."

"How would you be able to tell?"

"I couldn't. Not without instruments that simply don't yet exist."

"Then you don't know."

"No. It could be that he has found some way of finding out if this comet could alter the Earth's rotation or bathe it or all the junk that's in orbit in an oddball rad. I don't know."

"You have given me some good ideas." He touched her cheek. "We must find out what we can about what he knows."

"And get word out...right?"

"Right."

Cam suddenly looked towards the elevator. "Uh-ho"

The Doctor glanced over and saw the man dressed in an elegant tux with a woman on his arm get off the lift.

"I guess we weren't the only ones up here stargazing." Cam commented keeping the Doctor's velvet coat between her face and the other man. The Doctor stole another glance.

Suddenly on impulse he swept Cam into his arms and kissed her. He turned her slightly so he could observe the man using the back of Cams head as cover.

"You know," he whispered softly as he nuzzled her neck "That isn't the him, I think that human is his pawn."

Cam blinked feeling her heart surge and feeling erupting from deep inside. Her heart rate was defiantly picking up as he kissed the back of her neck. Her hand stole around his neck and her fingers started combing through his curls. He kissed her deeply again.

"He's gone..." he whispered slowly, letting his eyes look into hers. There was an odd expression lurking in them.

Cam suddenly realized that all the hopes, all the dreams were colliding, here, now, on Twentieth Century Earth. The thing she thought impossible was happening. She was falling in love with the renegade (his word) from Gallifry. Cam blinked and tried to catch her breath. "All right," she said gathering herself "So the gentleman in Airman isn't who we thought, but a pawn. What chase him down and get the truth?"

"Something else...." the Doctor pondered. "Let's go."

****

Cam studied the blue eyes of the Doctor. They glinted with a mischievous mirth she couldn't explain. He tipped his wine glass and drained it. "Now here's to a wonderful evening."

"Why is it wonderful?" She wondered "I don't think we are any closer to understanding how all of this is related."

"That's not the point."

"Its not? Then what is the threat? If that comet is an emitter then all of Earth's communications are zip. Can't you understand the implications of that? Hell wars could start. For all we know you Master isn't the mastermind behind this at all. For all we know its Khan Noonian Sing who I would swear is the mind behind Mulhamar Kadaffi or Kohmeni or that guy in Iraq. I mean the seeds of war have been planted and history shows that there was some catalyst for the War. What if the break of communications is that catalyst? The truth needs to be out there!"

"You just caught yourself in your own conundrum you know that?"

"What?"

"You want to change history. You want to prevent something that happened in your history."

"But if..." Cam paused. She glanced around what could only be described as a parlor. In fact she had grown up in a sea side house that had one. It was a marvelous room full of old dark furniture, rich paneling accented with warm lighting and ornate wallpaper. She nestled in the overstuffed sofa and took his hand.

He set his cut crystal glass down on a side table and reached up to touched her cheek. She silently decided that she could stay like this forever--or at least until they reached the Endeavour.

****

Jesse Sanchez glanced in the general direction of Dr Montgomery, who stood flanked by Kate MacLaughlin (He had trouble thinking of her like that, but since she married Cam's brother, that's who she was). Commander Sinclair was talking in her cool even way with the scientist of Tal.

Jesse's ears burned with rage when he hear the ring and list of denials coming from the Tal leader. He grumbled to himself and walked over to Mira Montgomery.

"Have you found anything, Doctor?"

"Just the same residues that your tricorder has picked up. There was no error there."

"Damn," He lowered his voice. "You and I know the facts but why don't they...confess?!!"

"Endeavour to Dr. Montgomery," the sound of Commander Robins voice interrupted Jesse's tirade.

"Yes Commander go ahead."

"Doctor you have a medical emergency, sickbay is requesting your immediate return."

"Tell them I'm on my way. Lt. Sanchez?"

"Yeah I heard."

" The Captain will be here shortly. Tell him my findings and yours. I will talk to him later."

Jesse nodded tightly glancing at Kate.

Kate could see the tension in Sanchez's shoulders and face. She tried to smile to give him a little support. She could understand his anger and felt for him. She was also feeling bad because it was her friend also that had vanished. She followed Dr. Montgomery to the hall and beamed back to the ship.

****

Jesse Sanchez looked up at Rebecca Sinclair with a startled glance. His hand moved away from his mouth as he stared. He couldn't believe that an intruder alert interrupted this meeting!

Rebecca coolly nodded to him and he shot away from the conference table. Excusing him to the call that had just come in She interrupted Sanchez's briefing of MacLaughlin's activities prior her disappearances, and his assessment of the intruder alerts that had been popping up all morning in random locations all over the ship.

"Excuse me Captain." he said curtly as he headed out into the hall. Marcus Forrester glanced at the remaining department heads.

"Commander I think you speak for all of us in this matter. The situation is indeed frustration," Marcus paused gathering his thoughts. "I am sure that in the end all will work out. This may prove to be some glitch in the Security sensors, although, I know that they are in good order." He glanced at Rebecca with a slight shake of his head."But back to the other problems at hand.."

****

Jesse met his security team At the doors to the shuttlebay.

"Ok what have we got?" he wondered.

"What ever it is, set off the alarms," Ens Harding said. "I don't think that this is another malfunction."

Lyndon Fletcher let a frown cross his brow and he fiddled with his phaser. "I dont like it, sir"

Jesse took a deep breath and went through the doors.

He leveled his phaser at the figure emerging from the blue box.

Cam ran across the bay floor towards them her face full of a smile. She turned and looked behind her as the box vanished from sight.

"Fletcher! Get the Commander," Jesse ordered sharply."Take her directly to sickbay to be sure she's not been harmed.

"Fletcher to Sickbay, medical emergency shuttlebay three." Fletcher said as he took Cam. "Transporter room, beam me directly over."

****

"We have been worried about you." Jesse said stiffly watching Cams back as she looked out the conference room viewports.

"Well, " She huffed, "Dr. Montgomery says that despite what I went through Im fine."

"Then would you mind explaining what that was all about?"

"Id rather not. I made a promise," she shrugged, "Lets just say that I made an interesting new friend."

He let his frustration out in a huff.

She glanced at him and turned her gaze back to the warp-streaked stars. She fiddled with the key on its chain. She now wore it around her neck where it would always remain safe.

Out there somewhere, he was doing what he did best. Fixing time.