“Ah hell!” Xander shouted as he ducked another blast of weapons fire, the fight wasn’t going well, Giles had said that there were going to be bigger dangers in Sunnydale now that he was bringing all the potential slayers here, but he never mentioned anything about demons with some sort of energy weapons. “Crossbows! Fire!” He shouted as a few of the potentials beside him let loose a flurry of arrows towards the weird green skinned demons that were using some sort of weapons against them.
“Well you said it wouldn’t be boring!” Faith shouted as she threw a knife over the wall they were hiding behind and ducked back before she could pose a target for their weapons.
“Yeah,” Xander grimaced over at her. “But I didn’t think energy weapons would be part of the deal!” He grimaced again as one of the energy weapons hit the wall they were hiding behind and sent debris flying over the group.
“What do we do?” Cho shouted as she reloaded her crossbow and squatted down as low as she could while she shuffled towards Xander.
Xander paused, looking over at Faith for any hints and then frowning when she just shrugged at him. “Anyone have a...” He broke off when another energy blast hit the wall, shaking it roughly and causing a few rocks to shake loose. “Plan?” He finished off lamely.
“Run?” One of the potentials offered with a small smile before the wall shook again.
“I want one of those,” Faith said with a feral grin, nodding past the wall to where the demons were still firing at them with the strange energy weapons.
“Would be useful to even up the odds,” Xander agreed with a nod, glancing around to check their ammo situation he tried to quickly come up with a plan that would allow them to win, or at least survive this encounter with the new species of demon so that they could come back and finish the fight later. “Think you can get one if we cover you?”
“I’m game,” Faith grinned, cracking her neck and shaking herself loose.
“Right, on three, you get the ray gun, we’ll cover you.” Holding out his hand he smiled back when one of the potentials handed over her crossbow without a word. “Don’t die,” He nodded to Faith with a smile as she moved off towards the edge of the wall so she could get around it quicker.
The firing had stopped for the moment so he figured this was as good a time as any to try for it.
“One,” He watched as everyone loaded up and readied their crossbows. “Two,” This time everyone got ready, holding their crossbows close to their chests as they got ready to stand up and let loose a flurry of bolts towards the enemy. He spared one last glance towards Faith’s back and smiled, knowing she would make it. “Three!” He shouted as everyone stood up, firing the bolts towards the green skinned demons. He didn’t have to check the Faith was already on her way, there was a blur of motion off to one side that his peripheral vision caught but he ignored it, focusing on the task as hand as he automatically reloaded the crossbow, standing sideways on as he slotted the bolt into place before aiming and firing again.
Another energy blast caught his eye this time, over to the side where Faith had run from, only this time it came from behind them and was coloured a burnt orange hue instead of the acid green energy that the demons were using.
“What the...” He muttered, not wanting to finish the thought or question this newfound good luck as he saw six or seven men moving towards the fight, each using the same sort of ray gun that the demons were using. The newcomers were dressed in some sort of black body suit that glittered silver when they moved, it moved like fabric but seemed to be solid in parts like metal. “If this is another Initiative group I quit!” Xander muttered, happy for the assistance but hoping that weren’t going to have to put down another army program.
“Got it!” Faith shouted as she slid back behind the wall, closely missing another green energy blast that impacted the ground next to the wall, sending dirt and small rocks flying up into the air. “Who are the new guys?”
“Got me,” Xander muttered as Faith handed over the ray gun along with two other pieces of technology. “What are these?”
“Dunno,” Faith shrugged. “They were on the guy’s belt so I figured I’d take ‘em, not as if he’s going to be using them is it?”
“Suppose not,” Xander nodded, turning the ray gun over in his hands as he tried to locate a trigger of some sort or anything that remotely looked like a button to fire it.
“I'll take that,” A voice came from behind Xander causing him and Faith to spin around while the rest of the potentials kept up their defence of the position.
“And you are?” Xander asked, holding the ray gun tightly in his hand while his discreetly pocketed the other artefacts that Faith had taken from the body.
“None of your concern,” The man in the black suit said simply. Up close the body suit did appear to be made out of fabric but it was like nothing Xander had ever seen before, it was slightly metallic with reds and purples shining off of the black and a silver glimmer underneath that looked like circuitry. “Please, hand it over, we’ll take care of this.”
“Demons are our problem,” Xander stated coldly, something about this guy was just pushing his buttons, he definitely had a command presence but it didn’t feel like any military he knew and the soldier memories in him weren’t clicking with the guy either so he was either a spook, or some other faction of the military. “So, who is it this time? Marines? Spooks? Are Mulder and Skully hiding around there somewhere looking for little green men?” Xander grinned for a second then something on the man’s face stopped him, it was as if he didn’t get the reference at all, either that or he just didn’t have a sense of humour, which if he was military was entirely possible.
“Xan, these guys have the guns, I say we let them deal with these guys,” Faith whispered from behind Xander, more than happy to let him take the lead on this but still wanting to have her opinion noted.
“I just want to know who I’m dealing with,” Xander said simply, holding out the ray gun trustingly as he stared into the man’s eyes.
“Captain Daniels,” Daniels said with a smile as he took the ray gun and attached it to his belt without the aid of a holster or clip. “Now get your people back, we don’t need any more casualties from the Suliban than we have already.”
“Suliban?” Xander caught onto the name immediately. “That’s the species of demon that are trying to blow up the school?”
“Why do you say blow up the school?” Daniels asked, staring at Xander with a questioning glare.
“They had a big metal thing, could have been a coffin, but I’m going to guess bomb from the way they’re guarding it,” Xander smirked as he looked around to see the rest of the black suited men were making short work of the Suliban demons.
“Silver?” Daniels asked, now looking a bit shaken.
“Yeah,” Xander nodded, not liking how panicked the captain looked now. “About twelve feel long, glowing red on one side with a green stripe over it.”
A shadow passed over Daniels face quickly before he tapped something on his chest. “Daniels to away party, we have a temporal torpedo in the high school, repeat temporal torpedo in the high school. I want a team there ASAP!”
Whatever he was going to say next was drowned out by a ripping sound that echoed through the area, it sounded like someone had torn a sheet of paper only a hundred times as loud and almost wet in nature, it was a sound that ripped through Xander’s mind and nearly made him fall to his knees, a couple of the potentials collapsed, holding their heads while Faith gripped onto the wall and ground her teeth to try and block the sound out.
“What the...” Xander shouted as a bright flash enveloped the school and Daniels grabbed them both.
“Trust me!” Daniels shouted before pressing something on his palm with his thumb while he held tightly onto Xander and Faith.
Then everything went white.
“Captain?” Another black suited man approached them as Daniels let Xander and Faith off of the platform they had appeared on, looking at Xander and Faith questioningly he quickly reached for his ray gun when he noticed Faith’s crossbow.
“At ease Lieutenant,” Daniels said quickly, his air of command back in full swing now. “Follow me,” He nodded to Xander and Faith. “Please give Lieutenant Miles your weapons, you won’t need them here.”
Faith paused, looking at Xander and then handing over the crossbow and he knife when Xander nodded. The building they were in didn’t look like anything he had ever seen before, the walls seemed to be polished metal with curves and lines cut into it in intricate patterns. The floor was a dark grey carpet with a red line running down the middle of the corridor a few feet in front of them where Daniels was now stood waiting for them.
“You won’t be harmed here,” Daniels said with a smile. “Please, follow me.”
“Whatever,” Faith mumbled as Xander shrugged before following Captain Daniels out into the main corridor.
“Where are we?” Xander asked as they started moving through the corridor at a brisk pace, his eyes taking in as much detail as he could while Faith seemed to be a bit on edge.
“You’re on board the Enterprise,” Daniels smiled as he stopped near a large monitor on the wall and began touching the screen quickly, pulling up random bits of data before moving on to another screen and repeating the process. “Daniels to the bridge!” He quickly said after scrolling through some more readouts.
“Sir?” This time a disembodied voice replied, seemingly coming from everywhere in the corridor at once.
“Raise temporal shields, we have a level seven alteration heading our way,” He shouted, the air of panic back in his words. “Quickly, follow me, I'll try and get you home as quick as I can.”
“Sure,” Xander nodded. “What’s a level seven alteration?”
“That’s classified,” Daniels said with a grimace. “It’d be safer if you didn’t know.”
“Temporal shields?” Faith turned the two words into a question with a raised eyebrow. “Come on; is this some sort of practical joke Xan?” She turned to him, hoping he would own up to it but frowned when he looked as puzzled as she was.
“Temporal, that’s time, are you guys playing with time travel now?” Xander’s voice rose so he was practically shouting by the end of it. “What? Some demon cyborg hybrid wasn’t enough for you? You want to mess about with time travel as well?”
“I assure you, we aren’t ‘messing about’ as you put it.” Daniels turned back to Xander, staring him down with his own cold eyes.
“Xan...” Faith tapped Xander on his shoulder, trying to get his attention in a small voice.
“Seriously, why mess with it at all?” Xander ranted ahead, ignoring Faith for the moment as he stepped over to Daniels and got right in his face. “You want to mess with the past? What for? Kill your enemies before they attack? And what if they get the same idea?”
“Xan...” Faith tried again though her voice was still little more than a whisper.
“One second,” Xander waved her off again, concentrating on Daniels who seemed to be smirking at him now. “Go on, tell me, show me why you thought time travel would be a good idea, we haven’t even managed space travel yet, what makes you think that we...”
“Xander!” Faith shouted, interrupting Xander’s rant finally as he span around to see Faith stood by what looked to be a large window, it was the view out the window that finally caught his attention, making him stand still while his eyes shot open in disbelief at the sight in front of him.
Out of the window they could clearly see stars and planets with various sized spaceships moving around them, there was a soft pink and purple nebula off to one side and above them they could see more of the building, well spaceship he guessed now, that they were on, stretching out into the distance before arching upwards softly to create a sort of upside down horizon.
“Right...” Xander said softly, unable to find the words to actually describe how he was feeling at the moment.
“This is where I wake up right?” Faith asked in a small voice, pinching herself on her arm while her eyes never left the spectacular view out of the window.
“You dream of sci-fi often?” Xander quipped, unable to help himself even though he was feeling like his brains had fallen out of his head while he looked out of the window into space. “Is that...” He paused, pointing to a small bluish planet off in the distance.
“Earth?” Daniels smiled, moving over to stand next to them. “No, it’s Catain four, a small planet on the outer edge of the galaxy orbiting a binary star; the stars are on the other side of the ship.” He smiled as Faith and Xander seemed to try and pull themselves together.
“Right...” Xander shook his head as he ran his fingers through his hair and tried to form a coherent thought. “Time travel, space travel, other side of the galaxy, I’m guessing we aren’t in the twenty first century anymore?” Half of him prayed he was wrong but deep down he already knew the answer.
“I’m afraid not,” Daniels paused as the ship rocked slightly and all the ships outside shimmered out of view in a soft yellow wave. “Bridge, report!”
“The time wave caught up with us Captain,” The disembodied voice returned. “A level seven alteration centred on Earth in the early twenty first century, we’re remapping the time stream now but it’ll take some time.”
“Engage cloak and set a course for Earth, top speed.” Daniels said firmly. “Keep me apprised.”
“Will do sir.” The voice replied before going silent.
“It’s the late twenty sixth century,” Daniels explained with a smile. “The ‘demons’ you were fighting, well, they were aliens, we’re involved in a war, the Federation against the Cabal.”
“The Cabal, more aliens?” Faith whispered, still trying to find her feet in this conversation while her eyes kept drifting to the window to see stars flying by at amazing speeds now.
“Yes,” Daniels made the word soft, almost an apology. “The Temporal Cold War has been raging for years, it’s only recently that the Cabal have dared send agents back to earth’s past to destabilize the Federation.”
“So you’re the good guys?” Xander asked, trying to wrap his mind around the idea of fighting a war through time.
Daniels nodded with a smile. “The Federation is an alliance of hundreds of different species of humans and aliens, all working together.”
“Sounds cool,” Faith said in a small voice, slowing becoming more comfortable with this but still amazed the humanity had actually made it this far without killing themselves off.
“Captain,” The disembodied voice returned. “We’ve finished the scan of the timeline, it’s not good sir.”
“Transfer it to my TO.” Daniels said before picking a small black sphere from his belt and pressing a few buttons on it.
Faith immediately grabbed onto Xander as the entire corridor seemed to shift around them, with lights appearing around the corridor making up text and pictures, even the floor seemed to vanish from view, replaced with even more data that stretched on down as far as they could see.
“I won’t be long,” Daniels smiled over, running his fingers over several lines and trying to track where they swirled around and intercepted other lines.
“TO?” Xander asked with a raised eyebrow as Faith reached out to try and touch one of the lines before pulling her hand back as it passed through it harmlessly.
“Temporal Observatory,” Daniels explained. “It’s what we use to track changes in the timeline.”
“Right,” Xander smiled, staring around at all the multicoloured lines and text that was now swirling around him. “We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore.” He muttered to Faith who nodded mutely at him.
“Kansas?” Daniels asked, pausing what he was doing. “I believed you were in Sunnydale, California.”
“Yeah,” Xander nodded with a grin. “Guess you don’t have Alice in Wonderland here anymore.” He frowned suddenly, wondering what other cultural references had been lost this far in the future.
“I’m afraid not,” Daniels said softly. “A lot of cultural material was lost during the eugenics wars and the... well, I shouldn’t get into it but suffice to say a lot has happened since your time.”
“I'll bet,” Xander grinned, trying to imagine for himself all the changes and advancements that had been made over the six hundred year gap between his time and the time they were now in.
“What about demons?” Faith asked, finally back to her old confidence level but still a bit shaky on her feet as she couldn’t actually see a floor anymore. “Are there still demons?”
Daniels seemed actually reluctant to answer this question but finally relented when Faith narrowed her eyes dangerously. “No, the last demon was wiped out in the great war of twenty one forty three.”
“No demons?” Faith asked, excited that it could actually happen in her lifetime.
“The last slayer called was Melaka Fray,” Daniels said with a smile. “Sometime in the early twenty first century, we only have sporadic records of the battles that took place but it’s believed she managed to...”
“Captain,” The voice interrupted them again, causing Daniels to turn off the Temporal Observatory to answer it.
“Daniels here, go ahead.” Daniels replied.
“We’ve recorded another time shift sir, centred in the Delta Quadrant, stardate 51268.4,”
“We’ll get to it,” Daniels said quickly, cutting off whatever else the voice was going to say. “We need to sort out this one first.”
“Captain, this one is centred around the only other Federation Starship I could locate,” The voice replied. “The original time change seems to have erased the federation from the timeline, for some reason Voyager was unaffected by the change.”
“Voyager?” Daniels asked, rubbing his head as if a headache was forming. “Right, track the original timeline change and plot the best time for a temporal insurgence, set course for Voyager using the temporal drives, I want to get this sorted out ASAP.”
“Sir, the Suliban Torpedo detonated successfully over Sunnydale California, we tracked the changes but it appears to have been modified to ripple back through the timeline, affecting the past as well as the future.”
“Track all changes to the timeline; I want a full report of all changes centred around Sunnydale California.” Daniels stated firmly.
“I’m running temporal scans now sir, but as far as I can discern there isn’t a Sunnydale California anymore, or rather there never was one.” The voice reported its findings.
“What?” Xander shouted out.
“You can fix it, right?” Faith asked in a small voice, thinking of all the people that would have died when that explosion happened.
“I don’t know,” Daniels answered truthfully. “If the temporal explosion affected the past and future as well as the present, stopping the bomb may not have any effect whatsoever.” He paused, looking at Xander and Faith, apprising them somehow. “I'll do my best to get you home, I promise.”
“We’ll be ok,” Xander smiled, putting his arm around Faith reassuringly. “Do what you have to do, we’ll be fine.”
Daniels smiled gratefully at the two before considering something quickly. “If you’ll follow me, I'll show you somewhere where you can wait; we shouldn’t be long dealing with the changes in the timeline.”
“Guess you deal with this sort of thing all the time then?” Xander grinned at his play on words as they followed Daniels through the corridors of the ship.
“What the...” Faith jumped into a ready stance as a blue skinned creature with white hair and antennae came around the corner.
“Whoa!” Xander muttered, looking at the creature he noted it was wearing the same uniform Daniels was and saluted him before moving past to continue on with his duties.
“An Andorian,” Daniels smiled as Faith watched the blue skinned alien move away from them through the corridors. “One of the aliens that serve on board the Enterprise, in fact the Andorian’s make up about one tenth of the crew, along with Vulcan’s, Human's, Klingon's, Xindi and others.”
“Working with aliens?” Faith seemed almost amused by the idea. “Cool.” She grinned, thinking of all the different species she would see while she was here.
“And they all get along?” Xander asked, actually happy that humanity seemed to have grown up and found its own place in the galaxy, finally getting over planetary wars and arguments about oil and land.
“For the most part,” Daniels smiled as he led them into a large room where dozens of different species seemed to be enjoying some leisure time in a bar like environment. “There are still one or two species that are at war with each other, but there hasn’t been a great war since the Borg incursion of twenty five seventy two.”
“Borg, bad guys then?” Xander asked, trying to memorise as much of this as possible.
“The worst,” Daniels smiled at him. “But they were defeated by the Federation, several times in fact, this is Ten Forward, please order whatever you’d like, if you could just stay here I'll come and fetch you when we’re done.”
“Cool,” Xander grinned. “Free bar,” He smirked as Faith smiled over at him.
Daniels laughed softly at him. “There isn’t any alcohol served here, it’s all synthetic, meals are available at the table, just use the replicator built into the tables.”
“Right,” Xander smiled as Faith nodded, still looking around at the strange aliens that seemed to be moving around and interacting happily. “How many people are on board this ship?”
“The Enterprise is a Temporal Class vessel, with a complement of around nineteen thousand,” Daniels explained as Xander and Faith’s eyes shot open wide. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” With that he nodded to a free table by the large windows before walking back out of the room the way they had entered.
“Nineteen thousand?” Xander whispered over to Faith as they made their way over to the free table that Daniels had indicated. “How big is this thing?”
“I couldn’t see,” Faith admitted in a whisper. “From the window it looked huge though,” as they reached the table she ducked down to get as low as she could in the window to see how far she could see up. “I’m guessing it’s bigger than Sunnydale though,” She frowned, trying to actually get a picture of how big the ship was in her head.
“Yeah,” Xander whistled as he took a seat at the table, his eyes constantly being drawn to the window where the stars had been replaced by a red and black shifting view that made his head hurt if he stared at it for too long. “My uncle served on an Enterprise,” Xander started, trying to break the discomfort he felt when he noticed a few people and aliens were now staring at him and Faith.
“Guess it wasn’t like this,” Faith laughed as she sat down opposite him.
“Nah,” Xander grinned. “Aircraft carrier, he’s in the navy.”
“Not thought about joining up yourself?” Faith asked, she rarely got chance to talk to Xander anymore, which was a pity because he was the first one to actually accept her back into the group when she had come back to Sunnydale. It just seemed like lately they didn’t have the time for it anymore with the upcoming fights, though now time seemed to have a whole new meaning.
“Nah,” Xander waved it off, staring at the table to try and figure out how to use this ‘replicator’ thing that Daniels told them about. “I get sea sick,” Xander grinned as Faith laughed.
“No danger of that out here,” Faith said with a smile.
“Guess not,” Xander smiled, poking the table now in the hope that a button or something would appear to tell him how to use it.
“How about we just use the bar?” Faith said with a smile, trying to take pity on Xander who was still poking and prodding the table, moving around trying to find something that he could recognise.
“Good idea,” Xander nodded, finally giving up on the table. “Coke?”
“I'll go,” Faith smiled.
“Oh, see if they’ve got any peanuts or crisps as well,” Xander grinned as Faith shook her head in amusement. “What? I missed breakfast this morning.” He then smiled as Faith moved off towards the bar so he took a moment to stare around the room, noting at least fourteen different species of aliens, maybe more.
Log in to comment