Episode Four "Microfractures"

"Now that's unexpected," Gary Seven muttered.

"What is?" Roberta Lincoln asked. Then she looked at the image displayed on the Beta V computer console. "Wow! I love the tat!"

"You shouldn't," Seven said. "That is a Romulan mourning tattoo." He zoomed the image out to show the entire face. It was unmistakably Romulan, but without the trademark forehead ridges and with a clean-shaven scalp. "This is Nero, after the destruction of Romulus."

"Wow." She looked closer at the tattoo, and into Nero's eyes. "So what's so unusual about it?"

"What is unusual is that this image was taken from a visual scan of the Guardian of Forever, depicting events that occurred in the 23rd century." He pulled the image back even further to show that Nero was with a group of other similar-looking Romulans in what seemed to be a prison facility of some kind. It was a still picture, but they could both see the quiet fury in Nero's face. "Computer," Seven said, "close on and enhance grid 335." The image shifted quickly to focus on two guards in the background. "Fascinating. That helmet looks Klingon, but I've never such a thing used by them." He glanced at Roberta, who was, for once, silently watching and studying. "Computer, search for any instances of that helmet appearing in the Klingon database. Past, present or future."

"Working," the shrill tone of the Beta V said. Then it displayed a grainy image of another helmet that seemed to be cast in bronze and beaten into shape. "A similar helmet was used during the brief reign of the the Klingon Emperor Ha'toria, by his personal guards, in the Year of Kahless 327. Old Earth calendar 1702. Following the death of Ha'toria in dishonorable circumstances the helmet fell out of usage and all records of its use destroyed."

"But if the records were destroyed...?" Roberta asked.

"Agent 597 filed the report last week after a mission to that time period," the computer answered.

"We have no records, aside from this image, of the helmet being used in or since the 23rd century?" Seven asked.

"Negative."

Gary Seven was silent for a moment as he considered the ramifications. "Transporter. Program destination Aegis Headquarters, 31st century."

Almost instantly, the large safe dominating one wall of the apartment opened to reveal the transporter alcove. "Isis? Miss Lincoln? Let's go."

As they followed him in, Lincoln muttered "You could have asked me first."

As they stepped into the darkness that was the Aegis control room, Isis had assumed her humanoid shape but maintained her position between Seven and Roberta Lincoln. "Yeah, whatever," Lincoln said.

"Commissioner Thoris," Seven said into the darkness. "We need to speak."

Ten minutes later, all four of them were sitting at a nondescript table in a nondescript office that could have doubled for the main briefing room in a 23rd century Constitution Class starship. "What's going on, 194?" Thoris asked simply.

"I have reason to believe that there is time travel going on that seems to," he paused, looking for exactly the right word, "circumvent all methods governed by the Temporal Accords. In fact, there almost seems to be a dimensional split of some kind going on."

"Would you care to explain that?" As Seven was about to speak, she held up her hand. "Wait. Computer. Coffee. Black. Anyone else?" Seven accepted the offer, Isis ordered a steaming red beverage that was favored on her homeworld, and Roberta asked for a root beer. All four drinks materialized on the table instantly. "Okay. I thought we could all use a drink of some kind, if your tone is any indication. Go ahead, please."

Gary Seven revealed what he'd discovered about Nero and where and when he had been seen, along with the mysterious klingon helmet. "I've rechecked records from the era, as of our current timeline, and we still find that Vulcan has not been destroyed, despite what the Guardian revealed to Ambassador Sarek and Admiral McCoy. And yet, this image of Nero was obtained from the Guardian, just as the destruction of Vulcan was."

"And why is Nero adorned with a mourning tattoo?" Thoris asked.

"The first assumption is that a wife or lover died."

"And?" She pressed him.

"Computer, this is Supervisor 194. Access records, Romulan census through the first decade of the 25th century."

"Working." Seven noted that the computer voice was identical to the one he'd heard years ago on the Enterprise. "Records accessed."

"Status of wife or lover of Romulan known as Nero."

"Spouse of Nero still alive as of the end of specified time period."

"Do the records indicate the death of anyone known to be closely associated with Nero?"

"Negative."

"Is there a file image of Nero from that era?" 

"Affirmative." A picture appeared on the screen, showing the same Nero that had been seen in the Klingon prison, with one glaring difference. There was no mourning tattoo.

"Well that is unexpected," Thoris added. "Do we actually have any idea how the Guardian works?"

"No." The answer came from Isis. "My people have studied it with the Vulcans. It's even allowed us to scan it, but we can't get anything from the inside."

"Kirk asked it what it was," Seven said. "'Are you machine, or being?', was his exact question."

"And it answered, 'I am both. And neither'." Isis added. "We thought that it might be biomechanical, but that's purely speculation. It's not like scans were blocked. They just came back with a null reading. So even the biomechanical theory is just speculation."

"I ask because the easy answer would be that the Guardian somehow made a mistake," Thoris said. "But I don't think that's the case. I think that it's shown something that really, inexplicably is the truth. But it's all guess work if we can't get a grip on just how the Guardian is showing things that can't possibly be real. If we don't know how it works we can't analyze its methods."

"That's why I thought of a dimensional split." Seven said.

"A mirror universe," Isis added.

"It's not 'that' mirror universe, if that's what you're thinking," Thoris said. "I've had some discreet conversations with our counterparts there, and while I can't reveal the details of what we talked about, I can tell you that Vulcan recovered from Tiberius' attack in the late 23rd century rather well and was still prospering as of last week."

"That eliminates that universe," Seven said.

"So we only have to check about a zillion more," Roberta added.

Thoris raised her eyebrows and Seven rolled his eyes. "We might have to go through the Guardian ourselves," Seven said.

"That wouldn't be my first choice," Thoris said. "But then I suppose we're already past 'first choice', aren't we?"

To be continued...