HDA - Living in Darkness Trilogy - Pt 2 - The Search

It was the smell that hit him first. It was the smell of burnt leather mixed with stale sweat and something else. Frank opened his eyes and groaned. His whole body felt like a giant bruise. He looked around and the first thing he noticed was that the place he was in was dark. Dark walls, dim lighting, dark furniture. He looked around and saw Joe lying on what looked like a metal shelf, hooked to the wall with metal chains. Frank looked down at what he was lying on and saw it was the same.

He took a deep breath and wished he hadn't. The stench was getting to him. "Joe."

"Ugh." Joe slowly sat up. "Where are we?"

"Hello again."

Frank turned around to see the Klingon standing outside a wide door, almost as wide as the wall. It looked open, but he could hear a faint hum and around the rim of the door was a faint gold glow. "Who are you?"

"My name is not important. You two are, however."

Joe grunted and got off the metal shelf. "Why?"

"You've upset things, gentlemen, by being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Joe and Frank shared a puzzled look. "Not sure I follow you," said Frank. "How is being on the Enterprise the wrong place?"

"The wrong time. You shouldn't be here, now. You shouldn't be anywhere now."

"So what are you going to do?" asked Joe.

"Nothing. When the time comes you will realize what is happening." The Klingon turned to go.

Joe took off after him, assuming the doorway was open. He saw no bars, no chains to keep them in. He only got a few steps in before he went rigid. The Klingon spun around, slammed his fist against something on the wall and in a split second, the gold glow was gone, the hum was gone and Joe flopped limply to the floor.

Frank darted to his brother's side. "Joe!"

"Damn it," muttered the Klingon, growling. "This was not how it was supposed to happen."

Frank shot the man a glare. "Excuse me? You zapped my brother and you say—"

"Worf, what happened?" The new voice sounded cultured, almost French.

Startled, Frank angled his head to see a man, tall, silver-haired and with an aristocratic bearing walk up to them. He looked around and frowned. "Holodeck off."

The entire room faded to a black background with a glowing yellow grid. Frank's brown eyes widened. "What the—?"

"I am sorry, Captain," said the Klingon. "I was attempting to avoid a major contamination of the timelines—"

The silver-haired man nodded and tapped a small odd-shaped object on his red and black uniform. "Is the cloak still in place, Number One?"

"Yes, Captain," said a new voice, coming apparently from the very air.

"Picard out." He tapped the object again and looked at Frank. "I apologize for the rough handling. Worf, take the young man to Sickbay."

"Aye, Captain." Worf hefted Joe up in his arms and started walking away.

Frank scrambled to his feet. "Hey, I'm going too."

"We shall walk together, Mr. Hardy."

Frank skidded to a halt, stunned. "How do you know who I am?"

"It is a long, involved story, Mr. Hardy. Suffice to say, that we are out of time both literally and figuratively. We must get you back to where you belong."

Frank caught up with the man. "Okay," he said slowly, as they left the black and yellow room. He found himself in a familiar-looking corridor that yet didn't look familiar. There was a soft blue-gray carpet on the deck. There were glossy black rectangles in the walls. One man stood at one rectangle, touching it here and there and colors and symbols glowed. "Where am I?"

Picard managed a wry smile. "The Enterprise, Mr. Hardy. Just not the same one."

"There are two?"

"They do not exist in the same time period."

Frank stared at him. "You're from the future?" He looked around. "But—"

"Too confusing for me, Mr. Hardy. I would imagine it's even more so for you." He stepped up to a set of doors and they swished open. Picard gestured for Frank to walk in and then followed him. "Sickbay."

Frank noted there were no handles. "You don't use the handles anymore?"

"No. Much easier this way."

Frank thought the turbolift moved more smoothly as well. A few minutes later, the 'lift stopped and the doors opened onto another corridor. Several people passed them going in the opposite direction, all clad in the black and red, or black and gold jumpsuits. "Uniforms are different."

"Yes." Picard stepped up to another set of doors and smiled. "After you."

Frank walked into a vast room, with carpet and soft lighting. It reminded him of a doctor's office in a way. He saw his brother lying on a bed, with an odd metal arch over him. "Joe!"

An auburn-haired woman looked over at him. Her green eyes sparkled as she smiled at him. "He's fine. Just stunned. Worf had the door on its lowest setting."

Frank saw Worf standing stiffly off to one side, glaring at the carpet. Worf looked up and over at him. "I wish to apologize. I meant no harm to you or your brother—"

Frank looked over at Joe, hoped the woman knew what she was talking about. He looked back at Worf. "If he wakes up and feels okay, I guess it'll be all right."

At that moment, Joe's eyes flew open and he tried to sit up. "Wha—?"

"It's all right, Mr. Hardy," said the woman. "Let me give you one more check, to make sure the stun didn't harm you." She ran a boxy blinking, beeping object over Joe and then smiled. "You're fine." She did something to the metal arch and it opened up, allowing Joe to sit up.

Joe zeroed in on Frank and slid off the bed. "Frank, what the hell's going on?"

"I believe I can answer that question most ably, Mr. Hardy," said Picard. "This way, please." He gestured toward the doors and then nodded to the auburn-haired woman. "Thank you, Beverly."

"Of course, Jean-Luc." Beverly turned to Worf. "Relax, Worf, you're not going to be drawn and quartered—"

The swish of the doors closing cut off what she was going to say. Picard motioned for them to head to their left. "This way."

Joe and Frank shared a look as they followed the older man down the corridor. They finally reached a large room complete with a long table and chairs. Several of the chairs were occupied, the brothers saw. A tall dark-haired man with a trim beard sat in a chair near the head of the table. Next to him sat a woman with dark eyes and sable curls. Next to her, sat a black man with an odd metal thing over his eyes. Across from the black man sat a gold-skinned man with yellow eyes.

"Have a seat," said Picard, pointing to two empty chairs. He promptly took the chair at the head of the table. Once the brothers were seated, he waved a hand in the bearded man's direction. "William Riker, Deanna Troi," he said, gesturing to the dark-haired woman. "Geordie LaForge and that," he added, pointing to the gold-skinned man, "Is Data."

Joe frowned. "What's going on?"

"We have to return you before the timeline is irretrievably damaged," said the woman, Deanna Troi. "In the time since Kirk's ship, we've learned how to bridge the space-time gap."

"But why did you kidnap us?"

"Would you have believed us, if we just walked up to you?" asked Riker.

"Probably not," admitted Frank.

"I'm not sure I believe any of it. It could still be a dream, Frank."

Frank looked over at his brother. "Joe."

"It could."

Riker chuckled softly. "It's not a dream."

Joe arched an eyebrow. "You would of course say that."

"Usually when your conscious mind is aware that you're dreaming, you tend to wake up," said Deanna, smiling gently.

Picard cleared his throat. "The point is that we get you back to your time before it's too late." He made a faint grimace. "God, I hate time-travel."

Joe turned to Picard. "You've done it before?"

Picard heaved a sigh. "More times than I care to count." He sat back in his chair and gave Joe a nod. "I know it's confusing but we certainly can't let the temporal investigators get a hold of you."

Frank arched an eyebrow. "Temporal investigators?"

Picard nodded again. "Temporal Investigations was formed in our time to stop unwanted trips into the past." He sighed. "But this was necessary to correct the timeline."

"Why?" asked Joe.

"Captain Kirk is a smart man and I know he didn't tell you anything that could risk the timeline. Of course that now puts me in that same position."

"Captain," said Deanna. "If we return them to their time at the precise moment they were taken, then they would remember nothing."

"Well, that sounds familiar," said Frank. "We already heard that." He looked at Picard. "That would mean you could tell us, if you wanted to."

Picard smiled. "Yet, you may not like the answer."

Joe grunted. "You keep up with the suspense like that and you'll drive us crazy."

Frank frowned. "Joe."

Riker chuckled. "What the captain doesn't want to do is change history."

Joe narrowed his blue eyes. "Our future."

"Yes." Picard sighed. "You see, you two will marry and have children. Those children will have children and so on." He glanced at Deanna, frowned and then added, looking directly at Frank. "Put another way, one of your descendents will have a major role in starting what you see now.” He waved his hand as if to encompass the ship and the stars.

Frank stared at the man. "What?"

Joe took a deep breath but before he could say anything, Deanna spoke up. “We hadn't expected how significant you two are." She nodded to Joe. “You are an ancestor of a very influential man, crucial to Starfleet.” She took a deep breath. “You’ve even been honored enough to meet him.”

"Unfortunately, you were misplaced prior to the time you married. If your time is any longer, it could cause dangerous repercussions." Picard took a deep breath. "As in all of this...ceasing to exist."

Joe stared at Deanna and then shook his head. "No way." He held up a hand. "I don't mean I don't believe you, it's just—"

"Yes, I know," said Picard, sounding weary. "It was unbelievable for me as well."

"So what now?" asked Frank. "What do we do?"

"We're taking care of that," said Riker. "There is an unusual planet not far from here. It has a time portal that will allow you to go back to your time."

Joe looked from Riker to Picard. "But...?"

"There is a guard there to prevent someone from damaging the past."

The brothers shifted in their seat to look at the gold-skinned man. Something about the way the light reflected off his skin bothered Frank. "So what are you planning?"

"We must slip in unseen if at all possible," said Picard.

Joe shrugged. "I'm sure we can get around that."

"But how will that insure that we get back at the precise moment we left?" asked Frank.

Picard looked first at Riker, and then glanced at each of the other people in turn. "Damn."

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.