//------------------------------// // Chapter Fifty one: INTERLUDE WITH A TIMELORD // Story: STAR TREK: EQUESTRIA // by Alicorne //------------------------------// CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE INTERLUDE WITH A TIMELORD I held the Timelord’s eyes for a moment. “Ok, you heard the Pony!” I said briskly. “Communications blackout with the Werewolf, no detailed scans! If they show signs of powering up we’ll have failed in our attempt. Break contact with it and get the Ship to what safety you can manage. In that event, pass along to Lieutenant Kirk that my orders are to return back to Federation Space at best speed and advise them of what’s happened out here. Hopefully Admiral Quicksilver has a contingency plan set up by now.” I took a quick step up to the turbolift and paused to look around at the Bridge Crew. The young Ponies regarded me silently, their eyes shining with so many things we none of us had time for just then. “If we don’t make it back…” I turned toward Milky Way, the only one of them I’d had any sort of prolonged interaction with. “Tell Sunny and Tyllae that I love them both… and that I’m sorry.” “Of course, Starry.” She said softly. “Be careful!” “We both will!” The Doctor had trotted up to the doors until they opened and stood there with one forehoof raised and gave us all a devil-may-care look. “Let’s not be too grim, eh? Where there’s the TARDIS, there’s hope! Kyr may well think we’ve put ourselves into a trap when we’ve arrived but he’ll soon find out what deadlier creatures have discovered, namely that the worst thing one can put into a trap is, well, me!” He paused and treated us all to a wide, frankly horsey grin before poking me in the bottom with his raised hoof and retreating into the turbolift. “Come along, my good Captain! Geronimo and all that!” If anypony else had done that I would have backhoofed them straight across the Bridge. I was so taken aback by the act, though, that all I did was follow him in with every intention of reading him the riot act once the doors closed! It was a tight fit, only the fact that he was short enough to stand up to stand under my upper torso assets make it less awkward. As it was I had to twist myself around so I could glare at him as the doors closed and I reached for the activating handle. “Ok, Doc…!” I began, but the Timelord was busy peering at the wall next to him, ignoring me completely. “Button, button, where are the buttons?” He mused to himself. “Oh, wait! I remember how this works!” He peered out from under my overarching topography and addressed the ceiling, looking smug. “Cargo Bay Two, if you please!” He paused expectantly. When nothing happened he cleared his throat and tried again, carefully enunciating each and every word. “I say, Cargo… Bay… Two.” He frowned and waited. “Energize, make it so … please?” He sighed and looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye. “Maybe it only responds to Ponies wearing badges, I seem to recall something about badges… Give yours a tap, will you? I’d do it, but it wouldn’t be proper given its locale!” “As opposed to poking my butt on the Bridge?” I said icily. I grabbed the handle and twisted it so hard that it creaked. “Cargo Bay Two, Command Priority! Look, Doctor, I don’t know how it goes wherever the Hell you come from…” He cut me off… again! “I don’t know what you have to complain about!” He said defensively. “I didn’t break your tail! It hurts like the Dickens, too, thank-you-for-asking!” “And I kept you from breaking your slaggin’ neck, you clay-brained…” “And I kept you from scaring your Command half to death!” He said primly. “Really! Such melodrama! Wherever did you learn your Command Style? It seems to me…” “Stop interrupting me, damn you!” I thundered out. He shut up but remained looking up at me with that annoying, patronizing smile of his! The car thrummed to life, dropping us down and beginning to arc its way along the Primary Hull on its direct route to the nearest lift station. I gave him a hard look and took a deep breath before continuing. “I appreciate that you are privy to a lot of information that I’m not. I get it that you come from some sort of more highly-advanced society.” I gave him a warning look when he looked like he was about to say something. “I also suspect that you’ve interacted with more Alien Species than there are Ponies on Equestris! That being the case, I should think you’d have the elemental good taste not to act like some sort of scatterbrained twerp while you’re doing it! The Federation may be pretty small apples from your perspective but we’re not idiots and I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t treat me or the Ponies under my command with such superficial patronization, got it?” I glared down at him until the smirk left his face. “… And I’m sorry I broke your tail, but it was all I could grab as you went sailing by.” I added. The lift carried us on in silence for a few more seconds before beginning its descent to the lower decks. The Doctor’s gaze lost a lot of its manic enthusiasm and his expression softened, looking almost hangdog by the time he spoke again. “Well… it’s true that my unique, um, circumstances do give me a rather different insight into the Bigger Picture as it were.” He reached up to tug absently at his ear while he rolled his eyes away, contrite. “But that doesn’t give me the right to run roughshod over people I’m trying to help, doesn’t it?” He quickly glanced at me before looking away again. “I really do mean well, Starry, and I do have your best interests at heart. It’s only that I’ve been at this sort of thing for a very long time now and it’s been my experience that… in most cases… it doesn’t help matters for me to stop and explain in detail. What I do I do best alone, or with a few Companions who serve to remind me that I really am... in the final analysis... nothing but a Mad Pony with a Blue Box.” He smiled up at me apologetically. “Sometimes the colossal arrogance that I intensely dislike about my kind manages to come to the fore and I manage to forget on occasion. For that I do apologize and I promise I’ll tell you something about Gallopfrey and the Timelords should we come through this intact to satisfy your curiosity… and explain a little.” He reached up and patted my knee paternally, snatching it away when I cocked an eye at him! “Ahem! In the meantime I just want to say that what we’re about to do, although very dangerous, isn’t altogether hopeless! I have an advantage that Kyr does not!” The car began its final deceleration as I peered down at the little stallion curiously. “I speak the language of the Elder Gods!” He said triumphantly. The doors opened and he scampered out, taking the wrong turning until I called him back. Around the last corner we came upon Rocky and two of his Security Ponies guiding an antigrav sled with a pair of trussed-up Diamond Dogs sleeping upon it. I paused just long enough to get a status report from him. “As far as I can tell this is the last of them. No real problem now that the ultrasonics are going. Just a matter or walking up and stunning them if they aren't already unconscious.” He adjusted the position of a body while his mates held the sled steady. “Piece of apple cake now!” “Glad to hear its working!” I eyed the snoring, whimpering cargo and, despite myself, couldn't help but feel sorry for the militant mutts. The Mare in my head snorted and offered a replay of past events. I told her to show a little compassion and she replied with something barely audible and probable obscene regarding the entire Canine race. “Put the 'sonics on standby once you have them in the Brig. If we come through this all right the Doctor can see what can be done about sending them home. In the meantime...” I gestured to the bodies. “Do as you see fit to keep them under control...” The Mare in my head cheered. “...Within Equane reasons.” She shook her head disgustedly. Rocky eyed us both. “If we get through what? What's up?” “We're boarding the Klingon ship while its disabled. The Doctor has a plan, gimme your balephaser!” Rocky handed the thing over hoof-grip first while the Doctor made a face at it that the two of us pointedly ignored. He spoke up as I checked the readout. “Two standard stun settings used. You have maybe eight maximum-power shots left depending on whether or not you use the balefire settings. Call it two dozen standard stun shots. One pistol versus an entire ship? Doesn't sound like my kind of plan, Starry!” He gave the Timelord a skeptical look. “We're not going over to fight!” The Doctor said petulantly. “We're going over to prevent a fight, or worse. Think of it as a raid! In and out, very actiony and ninja-esque don't you know?” He skittered his forehooves around like an old-style martial arts actor from Sunny's collection of improbable movies. Rocky eyed him sourly before turning back to me. “Seriously?” He asked. “That guy?” “Steady on!” The Doctor admonished. “I hold a gold belt in Venusian Aki-Do awarded to me by sensei Warth the Elder himself, so there! I cold fight you and your whole squad under the table if I had a mind to. I'm a veritable Dalek when I get my dander up!” He suddenly dropped his guise of nonchalant buffoonery and gave Rocky a glimpse of what lay behind those soft, blue eyes. Rocky's own eyes hardened at what he saw but he stood his ground. Rocky worked his mouth for a moment, appraising the Timelord. “'Dalek', huh? I heard a story once in a bar on Rigel. Weird old guy, an alien of some sort. Never found out where he came from. He told us about a fight involving an army of psychotic robots. Only he called 'em 'Day-lex'. He said they were run off by a Pony, a Pony with blue eyes. Just showed up and confronted the whole mob and they ran off like Discord was after them. Called him The Last Time-Lord, or something like that. Helluva story and he told it just right so we'd keep listening. Just figured he was spinning a yarn so we'd buy him drinks. You know the type, Starry; you find 'em in all the bars near the starports.” He shrugged. “Maybe you don't. You're not much of a drinker, at least that's what the Doc says!” Before I could protest he'd turned back to the Doctor and scrutinized him with narrowed eyes. “A blue-eyed Earth Pony. Like I said, Helluva story. You know anything about it, Bub?” “My dear colt,” The Doctor regarded him levelly. “I know things that would freeze your blood in its veins. Tell me, this alien... what did he look like?” “Short, about your size, but big and wide.” Rocky's lips quirked up on one side in a grin. “No neck. He looked like nothing so much as a potato! Itty-bitty eyes and nose. Dark skin. He wore a leather outfit that might have been an old uniform. Didn't take any guff off nopony. Other folks there left him alone but he made a beeline for our table when he saw us. Short or not, everyone got the hell out of his way! I figured he was already drunk and was spoiling for a fight but he just pulled up on us and asked if he could drink with 'real warriors'.” He shrugged again. “Turned out all right. He bought the first round and accepted everything we pushed his way after that. Damned if he didn't act like it was due or something! Figgered him as an ex-soldier of some sort. Traded War stories with him though I can't say that I believed everything he told us. Nobody lives through that many fights! Real gung-ho type!” “Was there an eye patch involved?” The Doctor asked suddenly. “And a scar, right about here?” He drew a hoof high up across his eyebrow on the left side. “Yeah, didn't help his looks none but he wasn't exactly a fashion template in the first place!” The Doctor nodded, smiling about something we weren't privy to. “There is no thing as an 'ex-soldier' in the terms of his people. He's a Sontaran, Major Strax of the Fifteenth Sontaran Battle Fleet. A bit too eager with the grenades, but a likeable enough chap once he realized there was no going back to Sontar. He and I were associates for a while, nice to know the old boy is still knocking around. Rigel did you say? I'll have to pop 'round that way and see if I could look him up. It's only reasonable, I suppose, that some of them made it into this Universe, I did, after all. And I wasn't even trying! But first things first! We have a job to do and we'd better be tottering off! Geronimo and all that!” He turned to trot briskly on but I jerked him to a halt by grabbing his coat tail. “Wait one rock-rubbing minute, Doc!” I paused to double check the settings on the balephaser pistol Rocky passed me. Being a standard model, it was tiny in my hoof almost like a hold-out gun, the cylindrical barrel and its three tiny waveguides alone stuck out of my fist as I hefted it. Tiny or not it was still a balephaser and only an idiot would take somepony’s word for the state of the weapon without verifying it. I didn’t want to end up as a double amputee or go up in a cloud of baryons because I didn’t check the safety! Not that Rocky would ever be so careless, of course, but he’d never forgive me for being careless no matter what the circumstances. The settings checked. Eighty percent power and set for heavy stun, the safety was well and truly locked. I enabled the magnetomic dihesion plate, Starfleet doesn’t use holsters for handguns, and almost stuck the thing on my hip. I remembered the TARDIS’s narrow door with a wince and moved it halfway back toward my spine high on my left gluteus. The only other alternative was to stuff it into my cleavage, where it would at least have a soft ride, or hold the damn thing in my teeth when I went through the TARDIS door. Neither option appealed to my dignity just then so I cocked an eye at the Doctor and continued. “Is that true, Doctor? How long have you been knocking around our neck of the tunnels… and why is it nopony’s ever mentioned you?” He gave the coat-tails in my fist an irritated look and I released them. “My good Starry-Eyes, I am a Timelord with a functioning TARDIS. I’ll always be coming, I’m already here, I’ve been and gone long ago. It’s as simple as that!” I laid my ears flat with just the tiniest bit of a grimace and he saw fit to continue. “As far as my non-notoriety goes, I make it a point to work behind the scenes as it were. My job is to see that fixed points in Time and History remain fixed and intact. Otherwise all of Reality would become unglued and you’d have to contend with all sorts of alternate realities becoming hopelessly entangled. History must carry on as it should and when I do become involved it’s best for everypony if my efforts only exist in folklore or bar stories. It’s better that way, believe me!” “But you’re here!” Rocky interrupted. “And if you’re here that means we’re gonna make it all right since you’re going to be here in the future so what’s to worry?” “Think about what he said, Rocky.” I cautioned. “The fact that he has to be around to fix things indicates that he’s not always successful. Am I right, Doctor?” The Timelord’s face went expressionless for a long second and his body almost sagged as if he’d taken a heavy blow. “I have failed before, on more than one occasion. Trillions of billions have died because of what I’ve done or failed to do in the course of Time. How clever of you to deduce that.” He said flatly, giving me a look with eyes that resonated of guilt, sadness, and despair. I suddenly realized that the persona of the manic madpony was his only shield against the knowledge and the memory, his only lifeline to what his kind reckon sanity. I was so shaken by the realization that I almost missed what he said next. “Tell me, what do Starfleet Records have to say about the Temporal Cold War?” I blinked. “The say what now?” “Never heard of it.” Rocky stated, then turned to his Security Ponies. “And neither did you two. This meeting never happened, read me? I’ll debrief you later. I still got a bottle of Genuine Ancient Rocket Apple Bourbon, pretty smooth, too! I got a feeling we’re all going to need a snort before this is done. Now get goin’!” He fixed them each with a stern eye. Trust Rocky to recognize a Security Breach when he saw one! “Admiral Forest and Captain Archer were Ponies of their word.” The Doctor observed as the Security Ponies hurried on their way. “Captain Archer? Of the Enterprise?” But that was decades ago. There’s nothing in the Federation Database about anything like that!” I protested. The Doctor gave me a Fey grin and tapped his nose coyly. “Magic Blue Box, Captain! I’ve been at this for a very long time indeed.” “Temporal means having to do with time, right?” Rocky said. “Are you saying you had a hoof in that?” “Yes and no.” The Doctor nodded. “I was never onboard Captain Archer’s ship. I was needed … elsewhen.” He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts before proceeding. “The Temporal Cold War was… from this point in Time… a theater of a greater conflict. Namely, The Time War fought by the Timelords of Gallopfrey and a coalition of enemies the chief of whom was a race called the Daleks. This conflict splintered Time and is reflected in countless realities. The Daleks and Cyberponies I know are represented in your timeline by a species called the Borg…” “Who the Hell are the Borg?” Rocky demanded. “Spoilers, my good colt, spoilers!” The Doctor patted him on the knee to keep him quiet. “As I was saying, the Klingons and Roamulans you know are analogues to the Sontarans, Rutans, and dozens of other militant species of my time. All the timelines bear certain similarities, all contain reflections of the events that were spawned in that first, Primal Timeline. The Time War is the penultimate conflict that runs through them all. Evil and Good are in conflict in all Space and Time. Your Federation, by its very existence, made it a target for those forces. It’s enemies sought to attack it at its source, trying to destroy it before it began. And old trick, really, one that most species try when they develop Temporal Technology... with rare exceptions. It never turns out well. Not. At. All.” “The, ah, Timelords won then.” I stated, hesitating at the look he gave me. “I mean, you're here to carry on the fight so they must have won.” I regretted that the instant I said it for the Doctor’s face, though it did not fall, shut itself tighter than any Blue Box and his eyes became flat windows lit from behind by a light that brought no warmth of comfort to what lay inside. “The Time War ended with the destruction of the Daleks... and Gallopfrey. I saw them all burn in the Vortex. I made it happen, you see. There was one chance in that one instance, an instance that would never come again ...and I took it. The Daleks would never be a threat again. But there would be Gallopfrey no more.” There was hurt in those haunting eyes and deep, abiding shame in that low voice. “I committed a genocide to stop countless others. If they had won the Daleks would have 'ex-ter-min-ated', as they were fond of saying, all other life. ...I've been cleaning up the leftovers ever since in an effort to keep the timelines separate and secure so that all of Reality does not descend into Chaos. But Chaos is persistent and echoes of that One War rumble like a subtle drumbeat throughout the ages” As he spoke one hoof drummed the deck, one-two-THREE-four, one-two-THREE-four. If the look in his eyes was any indication, that sequence held a special significance. It meant nothing to us if the look on our faces were any indication to him. “Where and when those echoes concentrate and reinforce themselves...” He went on. “The Old War, the Chaos grows strong and tries to start the cycle all over again in some other timeline. That's where I go, wherever, whenever I'm needed. It's the job I chose for myself. It's what I do. I'm the very last Timelord... and it's my responsibility to make it all right again. To my dying breath, Starry. To my last, dying breath.” He gave me a weary, horsey smile while the shields slid into place over those tragic eyes with the smoothness of long practice. “You're telling us,” Rocky said slowly. “That you're some sort of War Criminal, at least, in your eyes? We have a saying out here, Doc. 'The Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend'. I don't know if I'm ready to believe all this applesauce about alternate realities and so forth. I'm just a Security Chief and I've got what you call a pragmatic take on things. You're here and you're here to help. That makes you all right in my book. I'm sure as Hell not gonna judge you, not my department. I only know what I've seen and heard from the other decks. The Word is that the Doctor and that cross-eyed Pegasus are All Right and that's good enough for me! You ever get called up on the carpet for whatever you did or didn't, you make sure they call up me and mine for character witnesses. We'll set 'em straight, see if we don't!” He reached out to thump the little stallion on the shoulder, his face creaking into one of his rare smiles. “Thanks, Doc, for trying. You gave us this chance at least and a chance is all anypony can ask for, Right, Starry?” I was silent, regarding the Doctor. Not that long ago Tyllae told Caper that she thought it was her job to find out what the Faeries did to make Nightmare Moon so mad... so she could make it all better all by her little self. For the sake of all her departed kin she stayed in this world to help us. In her sadness and regret this Last Faery could still summon up the courage to smile and play. What, I wondered, did the Doctor do in order to carry on? I wondered if the two of them had any time to compare notes about the hardness of the worlds? I had to shake my head slowly before I spoke. “I don't know if the ends justifies the means. Khan thought it did. So did Hitter and Stallion Joe... but they all had different motivations, didn't they? Would they have at least tried to atone if they had the chance? Does your knowledge of alternate future history include those scenarios, Doctor? Or is that another case of 'spoilers'?” The Doctor only shook his head. “Fixed points in History, Starry, they can't be changed so there are no alternatives to consider. In that much, at least, I've been successful.” He gave me a wan smile. “I have had my triumphs from time to time!” “Hmm...” I considered the Timelord. “I can intellectually comprehend your position, though I can't fully appreciate it on an emotional level. I'm the only Equestrin that I know of in Starfleet and that can be rough enough, living up to the deeds of my forebears. Still, I can empathize with you if just a little on those grounds... assuming you need the sympathy. You are frankly a case beyond my imagining. I wouldn't ever want to be in a situation to have to make the choices you did. I can only hope that I would make the right one...” “Be careful what you wish for, Starry-Eyes!” The Doctor said softly, giving me an unreadable look. I quirked an eyebrow at him but he remained silent. “Be that way, then! Look, I'm certainly not going to stand in judgment of you, I don't know if I even have the authority to do so! We all have to take the responsibility for our actions in what way we can. That's how we do it on Equestris. Do Good when you can and do your best when you can't. You never gave up and, from my admittedly biased viewpoint, that works out in your favor. At any rate, Tyllae thinks the worlds of you and any friend of Tyllaes' is a friend of mine. I don't judge my friends, it's not what friends do. If helping us stop Discord helps you then I'm ready to help and that goes for the Ponies under my command. If it'll help I'll purge all mention of you from our logs. I would imagine that mentioning you would only draw unwanted attention anyway, am I right or am I right?” “You are a quick study, aren't you?” The Doctors' Fey look was back. “Yes, I would prefer that. The fewer Ponies... and others... that know of me, the better!” “Fair enough!” I drew myself up and checked the position of the balephaser behind me, making ready to be off. There was just one niggling point I wanted to make out of sheer cussedness, I suppose. “Just one other thing...” “Yes?” “You seem to be awfully sure that yours is this 'Primal Timeline'. What's to say that this one isn't and the events here aren't reflected in yours? Our trouble with Discord seems to me to be on a par with your Time War. The stakes seem to be the same. With the Prism, Discord bids fair to become all powerful. He's already penetrated other realities to make the damn thing, you know! Chaos across all Time and Space can hardly be worse than your Daleks. I wouldn't give a hoof-full of gravel for anypony's chances anywhen with him in charge!” The Doctor drew back as if I'd just smacked him on the nose! “What? I assure you, Madame, that Timelord history is very explicit in its conclusion that we were the first to unlock Temporal Technology. By dint of this fact our History extends from the Event One to The End Of The Universe! Prior to the Time War there were no other realities beside ours. We had conclusive evidence to support the claim, trust me.” “They used to say the Light Barrier and the Sound Barrier couldn't be crossed, too!” I countered. “And did the Timelords ever develop Magic? Has anyone else?” “Now see here! Magic is only a term for a technology that hasn't been scientifically qualified. I couldn't tell you of all the times I've seen an advanced culture take advantage of an undeveloped one by passing its technology off as magic...” “I'm still waiting. You’ve been around Ponies enough to see real Magic at work. Did the Timelords ever develop it or not?” The Doctor eyed me crossly and drew a grumpy breath. “No.” He ground out. “No other species has managed to develop real 'Magic', whatever that actually is...” “Yet we, in our limited experiences, have encountered many species that have legends of Magic. They have none themselves, but the stories persist. It seems to me that there is only one timeline where it happened. Using your analogy of reflected images it doesn't seem impossible to me that this one would cast its reflections into all the others, giving Science the semblance of the Magic it resembles. The Chicken or the Egg, Doctor!” “My dear Captain!” The Timelord shook a hoof at me. “All species tend to put themselves at the Center of the Universe as it were. Sheer arrogance on their part...” “Like the Timelords, maybe?” The Doctor worked his jaws as if he were trying to chew a particularly stale ration bar. “It may be...” He said slowly. “That Equestria may represent a polar opposite to Gallopfreyan Technology...” He shot me a sudden glance. The idea had never occurred to him before. In all fairness, though, there was no reason that it should... except that I felt that he needed taken down a peg or two! Maybe it was just the Augment in me rebelling in the face of dogma. It was just an off-the-cuff observation on my part, after all... but it felt good! “... The idea opens up all sorts of possibilities, I have to admit!” He eyed me narrowly. “Are you a student of Temporal Physics, Starry?” “Nope! My field is Cosmology as a matter of fact.” I gave him a smug smile. “I'm doing my Doctorate paper on the relationship between Dark Energy and Subspace in regards to the distribution of matter in observed Galaxy clusters.” “Well, well, well...” He eyed me speculatively, and then grinned. “So you want to be a ‘Doctor’, too? Again, be careful of what you wish for, Doctor Wistful Eyes!” “Doctor who?” Rocky cocked an eye at him. “That one’s taken.” The Timelord said quickly, waving a hoof at the Security Chief. “Besides, that is a question that should NEVER be answered, trust me in that!” “Yeah…” Rocky rolled his eyes at me with a shrug. “Well I got a bottle that’ll make it real easy to forget any of this ever happened.” He tipped me a wink. “After my watch, that is!” My Old Shipmate lapsed back into his usual somber mien. “Do it right, Starry! Come back safe!” He gave the Timelord a penetrating look before adding, “I got the feeling you can take care of yourself, Doctor Whosits. Just keep an eye out for the loose cannon here and I’ll take it kindly.” “Commanding Officer standing right here, you know…!” I said warningly. “We’ll both do our best, I promise!” The Doctor said warmly, reaching one hoof up for Rocky to shake. The Security Chief looked at the little appendage dubiously and carefully gripped it. “Yeah, I know you will.” He grunted. “That Strax character had you pegged right, I think. ‘Nuff said. We’ll be waiting.” “You should know one way or the other in five minutes, I should think.” The Doctor looked thoughtfully at the old-style watch on his foreleg. The boson’s whistle of the comm panel on the wall made us all jump. “Cargo Bay Two, respond! There’s a massive energy surge on the Werewolf! Captain Starry-Eyes respond, please!” “Don’t take that!” The Doctor cried out as Rocky reached for the comm button. “Doctor, we’re supposed to be watching for that, remember?” I said sharply. “It may to too late to do anything now!” But the little stallion was already scrambling down the corridor to the Cargo Bay. He called back over his shoulder. “Unless I miss my guess we’re already doing it! Allonz-y, Captain! Geronimo!” I gave Rocky a hard look and charged after the Doctor!