"I see, all I can tell you is that time travel has been experienced before and maybe in the future we have mastered it, why would he come back in time I dont know. Maybe hes hiding from something, I dont know that either. But what do you need to solve this?" Rajnus asked curiously.
"Maybe theirs a temporal paradox here that we dont know about. But im not sure the Temporal prime directive would apply to this either." Rajnus added.
"Well, that's the thing. The solution to how to get out of this might be hidden in his memories. We need to have some idea on how his memories were surpress to store them safely away. It also might explain his time-traveling. For all we know, this is just a side effect from extensive time-traveling," answered a doctor.
The images seemed to fast-forward again. The doctors noticed the number of buildings increased exponentially. The number of machines also increased dramatically, with an army of them surrounding the buildings. Some resembled tanks, others robots, still others airplanes, and there were many more. A number of shields overlapped thoughout the base, with a number of gunships patrolling the skies. Some of the smaller machines where projecting similar blue beams at some of the buildings, others constructing other buildings.
Suddenly a new screen moved forward.
"Incoming message from Brigader Pershing," announced the feminine voice from the ACU's computer.
An image of Pershing appeared and he said, "A UEF dropship has managed to escape the Aeon blockade. They haven't been able to reach the space gate yet. You do your best to protect it from the Aeon."
The brigader's face then paled. "The Aeon are launching an attack on your base and it isn't light. Scans show a Galactic Colossus heading toward your base. You might want to get your Fat Boys moving." The brigader's image then disappeared, replaced by a screen that showed the Aeon advance.
Dolan hit several buttons and the ACU suddenly teleported near a UEF dropship.
"Glad you showed up. I need you to hold off the Aeon for a couple more minutes. The engines are almost fully powered." A man in a UEF piloting uniform spoke rapidly as his screen showed up in Dolan's interface.
Several Aeon tanks showed up and started firing at Dolan's ACU. They were quickly dispatched with the ACU's antimatter cannon.
"Multiple hostiles closing in on this location. Get that ship out of here!"
"Copy. Primary Thrusters engaged. Launch trajectory plotted."
"Hostiles approaching, ETA, 4 minutes. That's all the time you'll have."
Some of Dolan's forces arrived to reinforce him and clashed with the closing Aeon forces. A number of explosions shook the ground. A number of the Aeon started focusing their fire on Dolan's ACU.
"Im a starship Captain who follows the prime directives, I am not a doctor who knows what his condition is. Do what you can I need him back in peice and hopefully in 1 peice of mind. UNDERSTOOD!" Rajnus told the Doctor.
"CLEAR THE ROOM!" Rajnus said in a rather angry voice, then he set the room to private mode, once the doctors and nurses had left.
"You have some explaining to do RIGHT NOW!" Rajnus said in the most authority voice he could muster. "What were those images of your UEF days?, and WHAT! in gods green earth are you?. Your not an android, androids arent as stuck up." Rajnus added.
"You forgot a god complex. Thinking your better then us. Your not!. You may think you are but you are as weak as anyone else when it comes to transporting your damn robot arse out into space and destroyed!. Dont think for one second that I wont do it. You go crazy on me or think your god and I will. Do I make myself clear!" Rajnus told Dolan in a drill sargeant tone.
"Oh im so honored, it wouldnt be the first time. So why dont you tell me about this file they had on me? Then tell me the SIMPLE version of who else they had files on?" Rajnus asked calming down a bit.
Dolan replied, "Understood. As for a shut down process, none has ever been developed since if symbionts were ever in that situation, they were already dead or captured. Besides, I doubt I could survive for too long without my implants. I think they were working passively when they were deactivated by the people who captured by me."
Dolan walked to the still locked door. "So what class is the U.S.S. Normandy?"
Dolan's body was beamed to sickbay, which was pretty empty, considering all of the wounded from the Lothlorien's crash and the battle for the control of the Swift Retribution. His body arrived onto a surgical bed, where there were more scanners. The doctors scanned him several times and found out he was in a coma due to the sudden trigger and release of roughly twenty years worth of memories that were artificially surpressed and were now all being viewed by Dolan's mind simontaneously. Also, a strange video feed seemed to be coming from one implant near Dolan's brain that projected all of Dolan's current thoughts, which revealed some unusual images. Upon this discovery, one of the doctors tapped his combadge.
=/\= Sickbay to Captain Rajnus =/\=
Lt. Dolan had been found in a coma on the Heraan ship. There are...complications. We need your help and possibly your security clearance. You might need to contact the Admiralty. Please come as soon as you can.
=/\= Sickbay out =/\=
One of the doctors turned to Rajnus and said, "It seems Dolan is in a coma partially due to roughly twenty years worth of memories, surpressed by some foreign means, surfacing at the same time. It is also most likely due to the fact his mind is somehow viewing all of those memories simontaneously. But that's not all."
The doctor motioned toward a console, where it seemed a movie was playing.
"We've detected a faint signal from something near Dolan's brain, which seems projecting a video feed of all of those memories, in order. Of course, some of the older memories are much more vague than the newer ones, but it's what the newer ones show worry me the most. You might have to start from a little bit back, but here," the doctor pressed a few buttons, and the video of Dolan's memories switched to one of a radically different briefing room.
"See, if you zoom into the lower left-hand corner of this screen, you'll see a date. The year is 3825. We quantum dated a piece of the Lt.'s skin and got similar results. He's most definately from the future, but if you continue watching here, it most certainly doesn't seem like ours. This is where you come in. We were wondering if you had any information to help us figure out what is going on and how to cure him, though there might be some information we didn't see yet, since we didn't view all of his memories. We also might need to know if we're cleared to know this type of information, since I don't know if doctor-patient confidenciality covers this."
Another nearby doctor spoke up, "You might want to note, Captain, that during the briefing, we noticed Dolan and his company was being scorned by one of his commanding officers for being something called 'Symbionts' and that they had an upgraded form of some sort of 'loyalty programming' engaged." The doctor was quickly shut up by his collegues when the projected images on the console suddenly changed from the briefing room.
The image then entered a massive humanoid robot through its sizable head from above. A doctor noted it was very heavily armored.
"Major Dolan, your ACU is ready to be engaged." A number of screens then popped up in front of the seat Dolan was sitting on in this new image. Dolan seemed to recognize every single control on the seat since when he sat down on since he pressed a few, which made no apparant change.
"Armored Command Unit controls being released to operator," announced a computerized yet feminine voice.
In one of the screens, an image of a male popped up and said, "Major, you may proceed to the gate. Good Luck, sir," before disappearing.
Dolan pressed several more buttons on several of the screens and the ACU began to move to the gate. Upon passing though, the ACU was covered with what seemed to be a blue electricity and was suddenly transported to a clearing bordered by forest. The doctors noticed a ring of flames surrounding the ACU and concluded that whatever brought this ACU there had caused the devastation to the environment.
Dolan then began rapidly pressing a number of buttons and the ACU projected a blue beam from one of its arms to a location just in front of it. In a matter of minutes, a number of buildings had rose out of nothing and some even began producing much smaller machines on their own.
"It seems to be some sort of advanced replication technology that's creating those buildings and machines," a doctor observed, "Maybe this ACU is also controlling those buildings and machines."
"Maybe, but this isnt the problem, from what your telling me its images of his past, what im confused with is what his condition is in the present, how do you wake him up to full active duty again?" Rajnus said irritably trying to restrain himself.
"I'm taking heavy fire, here. Anyone coming to help out?"
Another UEF ACU appeared next to Dolan's and opened fire on the advancing Aeon.
"Targeting enemy forces," said Pershing as a screen of him slid forward. A series of explosions destroyed the front line of Aeon forces, but more were coming.
"The enemy is going to overpower you. The ship is on its own here. Initiate recall, Brigader. You too Dolan," said Clarke as she appeared on the screen, next to Pershing.
"Recalling in 5...4...3...2...1," Pershing counted down. His ACU then disappeared in a flash of light.
Dolan didn't recall yet, trying to give the ship more time. All of a sudden, a missile streaked through the sky and hit the ship.
"The ship's been hit! It's losing hull intergrity!" shouted Dolan.
"Major Dolan, I'm ordering you to recall! The enemy is closing in on your position and you won't be any good to the UEF dead! Recall, Dolan, recall!" Clarke's voice yelled.
"Recalling in 5...4...3...2...1..." counted the computer's voice. Dolan was blinded by a flash of light. but couldn't move any part of his body.
"Get him out of there! On to the stretcher! Get him through the gate, have Colonel Clarke take over Dolan's ACU!"
"Quantum Gate activating in 5...4...3...2...1..." Dolan saw a burst of what seemed to be blue electricity consume his body. As he dematerialized, he distantly heard shouts.
"A Czar crashed into the fusion power plants! He isn't going to make it through!"
However, he started to rematerialize, but not where he was before. Through barely-open eyelids, he saw he was lying next to a strange donut-shaped device.
An unfamiliar and confused voice began talking. "What the- Captain, a critically injured human in an unidentifiable uniform just appeared in front of the Guardian of Forever." There was a brief pause before the voice continued. "That's impossible, the last team came back already and everyone was accounted for. Permission to beam him to Sickbay. Yes, I know this would disrupt the mission, but we're Section 31, we bend the rules. Besides, he might have some useful information. Got it."
There was another pause and some vague commands before the voice continued. "Transporter room 1, 2 to beam directly to Sickbay."
There was a brief pause and black out before the images continued.
The doctor in Dolan's memories said "I've scanned his body again and picked up faint signs of implants this time. They have been very cleverly disguised and hidden. I checked and saw they are designed to improve every aspect of his body - speed, coordination, intelligence, strengh, you name it and it's improved. There is even an AI tied into his brain. I'm going to try and tap them to see if they hold any information."
All of a sudden, a voice in the past Dolan's brain rang out. "Liberation Matrix initialized. Disabling UEF Loyalty programming."
"What's going on?" asked the Starfleet captain in alarm.
Several minutes passed by, with the captain and the doctor attempting to override both the Loyalty Programming and the Liberation Matrix. However, the Liberation Matrix won out. The past Dolan broke through the forcefield and knocked out the captain and the doctor. He began to input a series of commands into the computer. He downloaded the entire ship's database into his implants before accessing the sensors and searching for the closest Quantum Gate.
Out of nowhere, a phaser beam hit the past Dolan, stunning him. The images blacked out again but soon resumed.
"I've disengaged most of his implants and his AI. I managed to suppress the memory engrams that showed his life in his timeline and replaced it with a past that is based on ours. He won't remember his life in this 'UEF'. He might have some brief memory relapses, but those would most likely be ignored," the doctor reported.
"He is a security risk. We have to get rid of him," replied the captain.
"He can be a great assest to the Federation. We just have to deposit him in a quiet corner of the Federation."
There was a brief pause before the conversation continued. "We could drop him off at the Expansion Fleet after a couple weeks here. We have to make sure he won't remember anything first. Once we're sure, we'll drop him off on a shuttle there. I'll forge an identity for him, just tell me what you imprinted him memory with."
In Avalon Station's sickbay, the doctors were in shock. The few that managed to retain their senses began running scans, trying to find these implants that were apparently found by this mysterious doctor.
The doctors soon found the various implants thoughout Dolan's body after running a multitude of scans. The AI was discovered to be intertwined with Dolan's brain and was dormant.
"Captain, shouting does no good. Do you think you can figure out how to reactivate the AI? It will most likely help reorganize Dolan's memories and probably the rest of the implants along with it."
The doctor then paused and quietly told Rajnus, "Captain, you also might want to know that Lt. Dolan is not only from the future, but also of a radically different timeline. We've managed to glean some information from several of Dolan's implant that appear to store data. His history diverges from ours at a very early time. No WWIII, only one alien species ever encountered, the whole galaxy colonized by humans in only a few centuries..."
The doctor shook his head in disbelief. "In any case, we might have some problems after he is woken up from this coma. If he remembers anything about us, we would be lucky. He might need to be rehabilitated, who knows? How do you come to terms with falling into the past of a very different timeline?"
He then turned back to a console and said, "So, try to reactivate his AI, alright Captain?"
A few seconds after the AI was reactivated, Dolan woke up, surprising several of the doctors standing around his bed. He sat up and quickly noticed Rajnus.
"Well, that was certainly surprising," said Dolan, with a hint of a smile. He paused before continuing, "It seems my implants are going to reactivate eventually, though it might take some time and most likely without warning." He paused again briefly and then said, "Well, it seems pretty unlikely I'll ever find my way back to my own timeline and time period. Besides, why go back to oppression and war? So, what ship have we been reassigned to? Just don't tell me it's one of those out-dated classes that the Federation doesn't produce anymore but still uses."
Dolan then took on a more serious demeanor and added, "Also, Captain, I request a transfer to either Chief of Security and Tactical or Chief Engineer. I have a number of upgrades to propose, dealing with a number of systems and will most likely be very intense. No offense, but while your systems are advanced, I know better ones. Either of those positions will allow for me to carry out those proposals, if they are approved." Dolan grinned. "And I doubt the Temporal Prime Directive applies here." He then awaited Rajnus's response.
"I am a Symbiont," replied Dolan, "Admittedly a far more developed version than most. Since I don't think it matters anymore, I think I can tell you everything. You're probably going to keep it to yourself anyway...you have that aura of secrecy. Anyway, back to what I am. First, a little alternate universe lesson. In 2592, Dr. Gustaf Brackman successfully combined an artificial intelligence with a human brain. The outcome was deemed a "symbiont", due to the symbiotic nature of the brain and the AI. Symbionts were and still are in my time, far superior to normal humans, with expanded memory, processing, and overall thinking capacity. The Earth Empire couldn't overlook this and took advantage of the symbionts. Symbionts were employed as the smartest minds in the Empire, pushing the human race forward. They were particulary used in the military."
Dolan gave Rajnus a few moments to absorb this before continuing. "However, the Earth Empire forced Dr. Brackman to install a "loyalty" program to bring any rebellious or disobedient symbionts under their complete control if he wanted to continue getting funding. It was essentially slavery and Dr. Brackman eventually rebelled. During the rebellion on Procyon in 2669, the Earth Empire activated the loyalty programming, instantly enslaving millions, possibly billions. Fortunately, Dr. Brackman had developed countermeasures against the loyalty programming. He fled to the far reaches of the galaxy, with some of his most loyal symbionts that hadn't succumbed to the loyalty programming, and formed the Cybran Nation, a group dedicated to freeing the Symbionts under the iron rule of the Earth Empire."
"Some time after, roughly 2679, the Aeon Illuminate made its appearance. They are a group consisting of descendants of people who disagreed with the extermination of the sole alien race ever discovered. Religious fanatics is a somewhat more detailed description. They are determined to cleanse the galaxy of all humans that refuse to follow The Way, some religious concept of their's. The Earth Empire tried to contain them but those efforts ultimately failed. The Aeon were just beginning their war against the rest of humanity."
"The Earth Empire had to contend with the Cybrans and the Aeon, along with numerous internal problems and conflicts. You have to understand, the Earth Empire was losing control of its colonies after the Third Expansion. It spanned thousands of planets at that point and rebellion was imminent. The Aeon was just the final push. 2819 is the date most recognize as the start of the Infinite War. By 2924, the Earth Empire's territory is mostly gone, having to retract to protect itself from any further overextending. Anarchy reigns throughout most of the galaxy at this point. In 3256, the Earth Empire is dissolved and the United Earth Federation, more often called the UEF, takes its place. The three factions continued to battle over the remenants of the Earth Empire, even now. In the year I'm from, the Infinite War has already lasted over a thousand years, with no end in sight."
"I am a Symbiont, a blending of man and machine, an upgraded human. I am still human, Captain, but just with a few improvements in memory storage and recall and processing speed. On the other hand, a robot would be just about how we are described within the UEF, nothing more than a tool to be used," Dolan answered simply. "In addition, in my case anyway, I was also genetically engineered for everything the military likes - speed, coordination, reflexes."
Dolan just smiled and replied, "I think I understand, sir. Just not too sure about the god bit. I would like to point out once again that while I might have implants and an AI inside my body, I am hardly a robot. I am just as human as you are, with just a few additions to my body and modifications to my DNA. Robot is a very insulting term to us Symbionts. I don't think you would be very receptive of me if I just called you a tool of Starfleet. That is what the UEF was using us Symbionts as...tools. After over a thousand years of slavery, I think you'd understand why I don't like being called 'robot'."
Unfazed by Rajnus's anger, Dolan replied calmly, "I am only trying to cover all aspects of the question. By strange people, I'm assuming you mean the Section 31 people. I'm afraid most of the relevant information is stored in an inactive implant, so you won't get the full story now. As you seem to know very well, Section 31 belongs to the Federation and does its best to keep the peace' by whatever means possible. I was captured by them, after which they disabled my AI and implants, and was then watched by them for about a month. That's where those images come from. Fortunately, I managed to download a lot of their Starfleet database, so I have a good familiarity with Starfleet technology and even some of its personnel. I find it interesting now they had a file on you, Captain. It seems they considered you a threat."
"It seems you are very high up in Starfleet Intelligence. I believe your rank is Director, is it not? You have clearance in areas most people don't even know exist. You've had some part in a number of major events throughout the galaxy. It mostly consists of your career, both public and private, and your medical file."
Dolan paused for a moment before continuing.
"The list is very long for the other files, but it includes almost the entire Admiralty, some notable captains and crews of certain ships and starbases, most of Starfleet Intelligence, a number of scientists, and dozens of political figures, both in the Federation and out. I suspect many of them are part of Section 31."
Dolan replied, intrigued, "Understood, Captain. As for what you can do with me, I have thousands of terabytes of information to offer to you, including weapon systems that it seems very few to none of the civilizations in this universe use, defensive systems a couple thousand of years ahead of this time, a transportation system that allows for almost instantaneous galactic travel, not to mention a far more advanced replication system, along with advances in nanotechnology. Whether you want this information is up to you, since whether it violates the Temporal Prime Directive or not is difficult to interpret. In any case, you better hope the Borg don't ever get anywhere near me or my knowledge. I'd rather you kill me first."
Dolan added after a moment, "You also better hope no agents are on the station or en route. It seems likely they would want to suppress my Symbiont side again."
"Replication technology? what do you mean by that?" Rajnus asked curiously.
"As for your being years of ahead of this space in time, I dont doubt that but im curious if you have a shut down process that will destroy your implants or whatever you keep your technology stored so if anyone messes with you without your permission it would destroy you before the 'said' information falls into the wrong hands. Thats a possible security measure we should look into if your creators havent thought of it yet." Rajnus added.
"As for you, I think its best you join intelligence as a field agent and still serve as my science officer till I need your expertise for anything else. But you best continue to act as if you dont have implants, its safer for us and for you. The files will read that your fine and the doctors know about patience confidentiality. You may be a machine or a symbiont but you still fall under the category of a patient. I think I best use your technology for good rather then evil dont you think ?. Also dont worry about the Borg, I think with you on our side the Normandy will survive anything. So with that said in addition to your science duties and field promotion to Agent within Starfleet Intelligence. Youll keep your normal rank and will advance as anyone else under my command. Also I expect my crew to respond to my orders without me actually giving them. So if I come up with a tactical plan you will assist in the execution of that plan to the best of your abilities without being told how to do your job. Is that also understood?. I think that covers it." Rajnus added.
"The USS Normandy is a Ambassador refit class." Rajnus said as he unlocked the door and canceled the Privacy mode, he then went over to the nearest console and deleted everything the doctors saw of Dolan's past, then made sure to delete their conversations and his as to make sure their was no trail leading back to Dolan's true nature.
"Alright that should do it, lets go. Im sure the Normandy wouldnt want to launch without its Captain and Science officer." Rajnus said as he left the room.
<Walks into the surgical bay and looks at the doctor, then at Dolan's unconscious body>
"Report." he ordered.
"I demand to speak with Colonel Clarke!" shouted a voice that Dolan realized was his own. "You have grossly violated UEF protocols! No civilian ships are allowed to enter the war zone for any reason! And why didn't you use a land gate anyway?! They're much safer."
"What are you talking about? What is this UEF you're talking about? What war zone? And what gate?" A person that was dressed in a Starfleet Medical uniform looked quite paniked and confused.
"Is this someone's sick idea of a joke?! Are you telling me you don't know what UEF is?! Are you telling me you don't know about the war that has been going on for the last thousand years across the entire galaxy?!"
The doctor tapped a combadge on his chest and said, "Captain, the passenger we picked up seems a little confused."
Dolan tried to assault the doctor. The collision with the force field around the surgical bay didn't seem to deter himself from trying to attack the doctor. The strangeness of the situation caused Dolan to quickly deduce he was viewing his own memories, though he couldn't recall these events had ever occurred.
"I think you better come down here, Captain. Quickly." The forcefield flashed several more times before the doctor said, "Computer, activate the Emergency Medical Hologram Mark III."
Dolan saw the Mark III EMH activate and say the standard "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The doctor then quickly said something to the EMH who replied, "Certainly," before taking a hypospray and walking straight through the forcefield. The view of the scene backed away quickly but the EMH was quick and managed to inject a sedative the past Dolan, as Dolan nicknamed the view he was occupying. Before the past Dolan completely blacked out, he heard distantly, "...should try mind probes...link his mind to the holodeck...not making sense...confused..."
"Sure, lets try to reactivate the AI." Rajnus said heading over to the console. Then he began to look over the data and entered a command. The activation of the AI failed, so Rajnus continued to enter several commands and it took 30 minutes but found a command that worked. The AI was active.
"Their you go, Doctor." Rajnus said.
"Easy, doctor, you dont try to concentrate on your past, you look to your future." Rajnus added.
"Now that you have a bit of background, I can tell you about my UEF days. I was in a group of experimental symbionts by created by Dr. Brackman - he's over twelve hundred years old now - to infiltrate the UEF as a sleeper cell, to be activated when needed. We were captured as children and soon reprogrammed with a much more aggressive loyalty program. We were already bred for the military and were upgraded Symbionts with an upgraded loyalty program to boot, so it was only natural we were "assigned" to the military as a special company. We were trained to fight the Aeon, since the UEF feared defection if confronted with the Cybrans, since it was likely the Liberation Matrix would be broadcast to us during the battle. That's why I'm not a fanatical UEF officer now; I had a form of the Liberation Matrix hidden inside one of my implants. It was activated when a group of Section 31 agents tried to tamper with me. Of course, even they still succeeded, but it also made them keep me underwraps from everyone that didn't know about already know about it at the time. In any case, I was an officer of the UEF and the head of the company of Symbionts. I was however one of the few operators of an Armored Command Unit, ACU for short, in my company."
"You see, in my timeline, by 2110, replication technology had just about been perfected. In 2316, this was used to develop ACUs, a formidable robot with the ability to form an army of robots within hours after deployment, using the planet's own mass and energy. The result was a far less "human-heavy" method of maintaining order over countless worlds as the Earth Empire expanded. But I'm getting side-tracked."
"My company was highly successful in our missions, with minimal losses and complete eradication of the enemy. What you saw was likely my last mission before somehow falling into your timeline. The UEF was still desperate for aid in the war. The Aeon was making progress in conquering the galaxy and neither the Cybrans nor the UEF could stand against them. My company was deployed onto Scorpii 18, where the Aeon had begun an offensive. To shorten the whole event, I was gravely injured and was about to be evacuated to a nearby UEF-controlled world, when what can only be describe as a giant UFO crashed into the power plants powering the thing getting me to point B. Somehow, that must have caused me to "jump" to your timeline and into the past and landed up by the Guardian of Forever. And I'm going to assume you saw the rest, since you managed to find the AI and reactivate it."
"Be quiet, I asked for WHAT! you were, not a blood history lesson. Now you keep it short and simple or else. Damn robot." Rajnus said starting to sound extremely impatient.
"Then stop acting like it, and stop giving me a long term explaination to a very simple question. You drive me insane sometimes. NOW!, what are these images of strange people and Section 31 images being inside your head!" Rajnus asked questioningly.
"Computer Intiate privacy mode" Simon ordered.
"Privacy mode enabled." the computer called back.
"Ok, Section 31 doesnt exist period, Starfleet Inteligence exists but doesnt exist, is that understood?. As for my files im honored, means more people will try and kill me, makes life interesting. Now what to do with you. More like what SHOULD I do with you?" Rajnus said pacing up and down the room thinking.
Dolan left the room and followed Rajnus out.