Star Trek: DTI: Time Lock by Christopher L. Bennett

Author:Christopher L. Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star Books

Vault time: 1654 UTC, July 6

External time: c. July 17

Kvolan and the others allowed themselves to be confined within the processing bay; with its shields active, it made an effective brig. The revived Warain used the bay’s tractor equipment to lift the false portal out of their reach, just in case; but Andos could read no deceit behind their willingness to cooperate.

Leaving Warain to watch the prisoners and advising T’Viss to have herself checked out in the medical bay, Andos and Lucsly returned to the control bunker. While Andos moved to the master control panel to verify the Vault’s status before deactivating the time lock, Lucsly opened the arms locker to secure the weapons he had confiscated from the raiders.

As he began to put the weapons away, he glanced over at the readout screen that showed the status of the storage bays. The bays that had been broken into were highlighted, and adjacent callout windows showed images and text descriptions of their removed contents. Lucsly paused in stowing the rifles. Something about the list of stolen artifacts was nagging at him.

“All right,” Andos said. “We show secure, and the Everett and the Khatami are in orbit, ready to assist us. I think it’s safe to deactivate the lock. Do you concur?”

Lucsly hesitated. “Something’s wrong. This was too easy.”

“Daiyar is dead, Lucsly.”

“So was the captain of the Kyushu,” he muttered.

“The Kyushu? I believe it was destroyed at Wolf 359.”

“I mean three-point-four years earlier. At Vemlar Four. The artifact they unearthed there allowed them to communicate with their near-future selves. At one point, Captain Tong experienced her own imminent death and was able to avert it.” That beneficial outcome was part of the reason the crew of the Kyushu had allowed themselves to succumb to the lure of the future knowledge the artifact had offered, growing increasingly trapped in a loop of second-guessing and indecision as they continued to search for the ideal future. They had nearly destroyed themselves before they realized that they needed to trust their own judgment regardless of the outcome. Once they had managed to deactivate the device, Tong had wisely called in the Department to secure the artifact, and it had been safely inactive in Bay H22 for the past twenty-one years.

Until now. Andos noted the status readout as well. “I see what you mean. I didn’t see the Vemlar artifact among their collection, but it’s not in its bay.” She turned to him. “You’re thinking that their past selves will have been able to perceive this future. Our deactivation of the time lock.”

“Mm-hm.”

“But the Vemlar device only shows you what your future self perceives. The raiders are secure in the processing bay. They can’t see or hear us enter the code.”

Lucsly hefted the rifles he still held. “But we did bring something of theirs in with us.”

Andos took out her tricorder and scanned the rifles. “You’re right. One of them has an active transmitter. It’s Kvolan’s. He tricked us!”

“And killed Daiyar to do it, knowing that the event would be altered.

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