Free The Escape by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch Page B

him.
    The woman approached the forcefield. The two men flanked her. Kjanders walked as close to the field as he could get and found himself looking down at all of them.
    "I am Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager. Who are you and what have you done with my crew?" Kjanders gaped at her, then rethought his position.
    Somehow he had expected the PlanetHoppers to be as glad to see him as he was to see them. But he was wrong. Of course he was wrong. He would have to convince them to let him stay.
    I'm Kjanders. I'm-an engineer on Alcawell, Period Eighteighty-nine. I didn't do anything with your crew." The first lie came easily. He hoped he wouldn't have to do that too often.
    "Period?" the man with the pointed ears asked. "I suppose that's confusing, since this is still Period Eighteighty-nine." Kjanders shook his head.
    "Although it doesn't-seem that way." "At the moment, I am more concerned about the three missing members of my crew," the woman said. "They were in the ship you arrived in moments before you.
    He couldn't lie too much. He would never be able to keep everything straight. That's what got him in trouble in the first place. "A tall woman with a big forehead, a child-sized man with too much short hair, and a man who looks something like that one?" Kjanders; nodded toward the man with the drawing. 85 "Something like," the woman said. Her voice was curt and businesslike. "I saw them before I got trapped in the ship," Kjanders said. "They got off and I went to examine it. It was so old-was "Off?" the woman snapped. "Off where?" "Three hundred thousand years ago. Still Period Eighteighty-nine, though. That was the problem.
    Control got them. I'm sorry." "Control?" the woman said. "What is Control?" "The Time Control," Kjanders said. "Your crew committed an eighthundred violation. Control has to act in those cases." "Three hundred thousand years?" the man with the drawing murmured. "Explain this violation," the woman said, ignoring the man. "They traveled. intrapcriod. Strictly forbidden. A felony, actually." "If they traveled within a Period," the man with the strange ears said, "and you saw them and, as you say, that was Period Eighteighty-nine, and this is Period Eighteighty-nine, then you committed the same violation." For PlanetHoppers, these people were sharp. Kjanders nodded. "But it was accidental.. I just wanted to examine the ship. I'd never seen one so old$91 "It was accidental for them too," the woman said.
    "Surely your Control will know that." "Control doesn't believe in accidents," Kjanders said. This wasn't going as well as he wanted. He had to shift their attention, and getting out of this prison might help. "Would you happen to have any food or drink? It has been some Real Time since I ate." "Mr. Tuvok," the woman said, "weapons")" The pointed-eared man shook his head. "Nothing that registers, Captain." "All right," the woman said. She clasped her hands behind her back. "Mr.
    Kjanders, if we release you and take you to a communal area, I want your word that you will do nothing to us or our ship." "I wouldn't," he said, with honest shock. "I certainly don't want to go back down to the planet. It's empty." "That it is," the woman said. "I will leave you with Mr. Tuvok. He and security will take you to the officers' mess hall. Along the way I want you to figure out a way to explain the situation my crew is in, and ways that I can help them." "You can't help them," Kjanders said. "They're with Control." "Oh, I'll help them," the woman said. "The question is whether or not I do it with your cooperation." She turned to the man with the drawing.
    "Chakotay, you're with me." Then she whirled and left, the man she called Chakotay following her. The Tuvok man remained. "You'd best cooperate with her," the Tuvok man said. "I gathered that," Kjanders said.
    He took a deep breath. He had wanted adventure. And the adventure had definitely begun.
    "Opinion, Commander?" Janeway asked as they stepped