As I post the new Smallville/Star Trek stories in which Captain Kirk lives in Smallville because of an altered timeline, each story will follow the same format: some element of suspense will be introduced at the beginning then you will read about Captain Kirk's life in Smallville, wondering when the hidden mysterious threat emerges. (Or if he's not in Smallville he could be on Krypton. Or who knows where?)
“How To Pollute a Timeline” does not have that format. So to correct that here's a new beginning to the story and a new epilogue with part of the middle.
SMALLVILLE IN THE ALTERED TIMELINE
October 7, 1947
The man who looked like Spock discovered something when he visited Smallville.
He learned that his counterpart, whom he called Prime Spock, was a minor celebrity.
Although this other-Spock-who-looked-like-Spock was careful to cover his ears, he found that young people who spotted him would shout and wave.
“Hey, there's Mister Spock! Hi, Mister Spock!”
Apparently his counterpart was associated with some famous authors on this Earth.
Because of this, the other Spock learned to disguise himself. Ironically, he found that by wearing a blue Starfleet uniform in Smallville he was most inconspicuous. A fedora and sunglasses also helped hide his features.
While sitting in a local diner, he discovered an advantage to sitting in a certain booth. The acoustics in this booth were such that he could hear everything Kirk, Spock, and McCoy said as they talked in their usual booth.
Sitting in that booth writing in a notebook, this other-Spock listened and learned.
This is part of what he heard:
With a hand to his chin, Kirk thought for a moment. “It doesn't sound like he meant to go back to that day and change everything,” the captain observed.
“No, Captain. Clark Kent seemed confused, disoriented, even unstable. Recall his skin had patches of green and gray, like he was suffering some bizarre illness. He was, I think, not himself.” Spock continued to glance around the diner. “It seems he was manipulated or tricked into altering the timeline.”
“And here we are,” McCoy said and sipped some coffee.
Spock frowned. “Yes, of course, doctor. Here we are.” Eyebrows raised in an expression of slight surprise, Spock tilted his head back slightly. “I would dare ask: where else could we be?”
Grunting impatiently, McCoy scowled. “What I'm getting at, Spock, is: Can we get out of here? Is there a way to change all this, undo it somehow?”
“I cannot be certain, doctor. But if there is a way, then of course none of this will have ever happened.”
When McCoy heard this, a broad grin spread across his slightly lined face. “Say, Spock, that brings up an interesting subject.” With a sly look, the doctor leaned back as he crossed his bare arms. “Here's a conundrum for that logical Vulcan mind of yours. If, as you say, it happens that none of this ever happened, how is it we're doing it right now?”
Spock frowned deeply as he slowly lowered his arms to his side. As he pondered and mused, his caterpillar-like eyebrows doing a subtle little dance, Spock shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Leaning in toward Kirk, a grinning McCoy spoke in a low mumble. “We better be careful, Jim. He might start to break down like one of those androids on Mudd's planet.” Leaning in toward Spock, McCoy put on a face of mock inquiry. “Well, Spock?”
The Vulcan looked uncharacteristically perplexed. “I am quite certain I do not know, doctor.”
As a radio in the background broadcast a mirthful little tune that suggested confusion and humor—played on a flute, no less—Spock stared off to the side as he uttered a single word.
“Fascinating.”
“Oh, and one other thing,” McCoy said. “If all this is going to be changed back somehow, why does it matter what we do to the timeline?”
Spock responded with only silence and the Spock look.
EPILOGUE
The other Spock closed his notebook.
He had learned quite a bit.
When the time was right, he would attempt to manipulate and tempt his counterpart, Prime Spock.
If he succeeded, he would bring Darkness not only to this universe but to many universes beyond.
Posted: 28 Apr 2012 07:09
Registered User Currently Offline
Posts: 379
Join Date: May 2006
TO: New Arrivals
FROM: Cosmic Daniel Jackson
cc: Cosmic Chloe Sullivan
Hey, gang. Welcome aboard. We need all the help we can get.
Sometimes new arrivals need a little Background.
They ask questions like: “Who comes up with these names?” (As a matter of fact, I do.)
“Why call it Prime Earth?” they ask. “That sounds like Grade A beef or something. Wouldn't Earth Prime be a better name?”
Guys, it's called Prime Earth to distinguish it from Earth Prime.
Prime Earth is where characters in books and TV shows actually live.
Earth Prime is where people write about those characters: C.S., Lewis with Narnia, Stan Lee with the Marvel Heroes, and Al Gough and Miles Millar with “Smallville,” to name just a few.
We've even got Superbear on the Smallville Message Board writing stories about alternate worlds and alternate timelines.
(By the way, Smallville is kind of a cosmic focal point on Prime Earth. Or as Chloe Sullivan once called it, a “celestial bull's eye.” A lot of aliens and Heroes pass through Clark's hometown. It attracts all types, the good and the bad. The Earth-bound and the visitors from above.)
Sometimes new arrivals also have questions about altered timelines. For example, in the Mirror Universe, decades after Mirror Kirk was captain of the Enterprise and then ruled as Emperor Tiberius, there was a Kathryn Janeway.
It's an understandable question: If a timeline has been drastically altered, why would some of the same people be born?
When a timeline has been altered, people in that altered timeline feel a sense of what's been lost. Consequently, they seek out the same relationships to have the same children.
People in an altered timeline try to create what's missing. Captain Kirk didn't just “happen” to talk about Starfleet in his sleep. When Starfleet ceased to exist, talking about Starfleet in his sleep was, subconsciously, Captain Kirk's way of making Starfleet materialize in some form.
The people of Prime Earth have cooperated not only by putting on Starfleet uniforms but by encouraging genuine respect, not the kind forced by tin-plated dictators in the U-N or elsewhere.
It's much like when Captain Picard's Enterprise was caught in a time loop. Data found a way to subconsciously communicate to himself in the next time loop.
In the same way, a kind of subconscious communication takes place between alternate timelines. For example, sometimes people in one timeline act to prevent someone from being born.
A simple example is Howard and Marian Cunningham in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Originally they had three children: Chuck, Richie, and Joanie. But one night they abandoned plans for a romantic evening. Consequently, only Richie and Joanie were born.
Which is fortunate because Chuck formed a worldwide student protest movement that increased the power of dictators all over the world. (Yeah, I know. What is it with the people of Earth—the Tauri—and dictators?)
Ironically, Chuck's radical political views formed when Howard tried to build a bomb shelter in the backyard.
The writers of the TV show “Happy Days” tuned in to this altered timeline when Chuck Cunningham disappeared from the show without explanation.
But mainly people in an altered timeline try to bring back what's lost.
It shouldn't be surprising that when something is missing, people work to create it or bring it back.
Consider Smallville. (Before it was altered, I mean.) They had no Superman. But they would use phrases that describe Superman: “strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mere mortal men.” And they'd cause the colors red, blue, and yellow to appear. A lot.
Because they felt a need for Superman. So they would, in a sense, bring him into being with their words and their colors and even the “double-L” names for their children (Lana Lang, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, etc.)
With Superman missing, they still, in a way, created him. Much like with Data and his subconscious time loop message.
People on Earth Prime have had Superman since 1939. On Prime Earth, the guy who created Warrior Angel got a vision in 1939 of a caped man running while lifting a car and dumping out the passengers. That's because the creator was a “sensitive,” someone who sees into other worlds.
He brought a Superman substitute into his timeline until the real thing appeared in 2011 and ushered in the Age of Heroes.
Of course in the altered timeline the Warrior Angel creator actually saw Clark do that car thing with some bank robbers on October 7, 1939.
On that same theme, guys:
When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy spend time in the Beanery talking about Starfleet, some may find that odd.
I mean, after all, they're talking, in detail, about events on Vulcan that happened years ago. And they're doing it in a public place.
It isn't just that they're missing their old lives. It's just another way to bring Starfleet back by leaking word of it out to the public.
That may help. If the timeline becomes permanent—because Clark and SG-1 miss the deadline (and they are kind of busy right now)--there's hope Starfleet might still materialize in some form in the future. Even though obviously the Luthors aren't exactly big fans of intergalactic peace.
We can only hope, guys. You-Know-Who has already wiped out Starfleet. Let's hope Clark, and Superman, aren't next.
Just as the Prime Universe stabilizes all other universes, Starfleet and Superman stabilize the Prime Universe and its people.
Once they're both gone, it's all over, gang.
So let's just hope Kirk and Spock, while they're in Smallville in the past, don't accidentally wipe out Clark and Superman. After all, Doctor McCoy was only joking about wiping out his ex-wife.
I'd hate to think of McCoy kneeling over Jonathan Kent and announcing, “He's dead, Jim.”
If something like that happens, it's definitely all over, gang.
