clearyourmind

the past, Denobula, twenty-eight years ago. The past……the past…the—

He felt the shift, opened his eyes, and was quite surprised.

Cabin E-14. Still.

It was much brighter, he was near the door, and Hoshi Sato was staring at him.

“Doctor…?”

He was leaning against the bunk, again with his toolkit in his hands. He blinked. “Xesophia…?”

“What?”

He stood straight. “Oh, excuse me, Ensign.”

Why was he here? He’d only gone back ten months or so. The memory was quite distinct. It had been his first time in these quarters.

“You zoned out there for a minute.”

“Just making a…diagnosis.”

“Diagnosis? You haven’t even looked at him.”

“Yes, well…I’m very adept.” A crewman lay on the bottom bunk—Ensign Starrow, if he remembered correctly. One of Hoshi’s friends. He’d moved to other quarters a month later. Phlox couldn’t remember if Daniels had been his roommate at this point or not. Also, if he remembered correctly Starrow had—

“—a touch of food poisoning.”

“Food poisoning?”

“Yes. It would be wise to refrain from consuming meat you’ve brought from home, especially after a week at room temperature. I know you prefer your mother’s home-cooked meals, but I highly recommend the mess hall.”

Starrow stared up at him, both pale and astounded. He tried to say something, but failed, so Hoshi said it for him.

“How did you know that?”

“As I said, I’m very adept, Ensign.”

What else had he done? He tried to remember. Had he said anything different that would change things in the future? He couldn’t afford to foul things up—

Oh, I see, his better half muttered, you’ll bring back Xesophia and change a thousand lives, but you’re afraid to foul up a diagnosis. Bravo, better frame that Hippocratic Oath.

“Shut up…” he muttered back.

“Ex cuse me?”

Oops. “Ah…shut up…that mouth of yours, Ensign Starrow, until you can put something healthy in it,” he scolded. Phlox felt his fingers tingling, and he wondered how long it would last. Had the device even been placed here yet? He spared a glance between the bed and the desk, but saw nothing—which was the nature of the object, he supposed, so who could be sure.

He had to get back. He tried not to think too hard about it so he wouldn’t prematurely slip back into the present…future—whatever. He wasn’t ready quite yet. He had to think this out. If he left now would he disappear before their eyes? That could be very bad, indeed. Or would he just leave his past body, and everything would return to normal in both timelines? Or, if by going back he had indeed created an alternate universe, would this Dr. Phlox merely cease to exist?

He gulped. He should have left well enough alone. He’d go back, but he’d make sure he was alone, just in case.

“Well, if you’ll excuse me,” he said, “I’ve got some work to do. In sickbay.”

Both Hoshi and Starrow were still rather incredulous, and only Hoshi managed to utter “Thank you” as he exited the cabin.

The doors closed behind him, and he was about to attempt the return when Daniels strode around the corner, heading for Cabin E-14. Phlox’s heart froze.

“Doctor Phlox,” Daniels acknowledged as he began to pass him—and then lurched so hard he nearly pitched forward to the floor. Phlox didn’t move. Slowly, Daniels worked his way back. He stopped next to the doctor, was quiet for a moment, and then sighed.

“You found it.”

“How do you know?” Phlox asked quietly.

“I can see it on your fingers.”

Phlox looked down. He saw nothing.

“How far ahead?” Daniels kept his voice hushed, so Phlox did the same.

“What?”

“How far did you come?”

“Ten months. Or so.”

Daniels let out a nervous breath. “After the first front.” Then he looked Phlox square in the eye. “You’re playing with something far worse than fire, Doctor. You have no idea how serious this is. What have you changed? Anything?”

Phlox fidgeted with his tools. “I made an early diagnosis, I suppose.”

Daniels’s eyes rolled up in their sockets, as if to consult some hidden manual, and his lips moved in rapid whispers: “Early diagnosis ten months after the front early diagnosis early diagnosis. Early. Diag. Nosis…” His gaze returned to Phlox, steady and calm, but deep within there was something hot and extraordinary. “No, I think you’re all right. But you’ve probably only got three or four minutes.” He paused. “You didn’t run into me before, did you?” It wasn’t really a question.

Phlox thought about it. No, he hadn’t. It had taken him a good fifteen minutes to diagnose Starrow, and now that he thought about it, another officer had entered the cabin—Daniels, no doubt—retrieved something, and quickly left. In the past Phlox remembered, he was still in Cabin E-14.

“No, I didn’t. Not like this.”

Daniels sighed again. “You’ve already been delayed. Go. Now. And don’t try to come back. Not for Xesophia, not for anybody.”

Phlox’s gut wrenched and it felt like someone had poured glitter down his spine. “How do you know about Xesophia?” he whispered.

“Doctor, I experience the timeline like you do a book. I can flip from chapter thirteen back to one with a single turn. I can hold my fingers in three or four places, yet not lose the rhythm of the story. You and Xesophia are around chapter nine.”

Phlox looked back toward the cabin. He should be in there. “There is no other Phlox in this timeline, is there? I’m him.”

“Right.”

“Then why do I remember still being in there?”

“You’d never understand. That’s just the way it works.”

“And when I leave, what happens to the here and now Phlox?”

“If it’s not too late, if no changes have been made, then everything should return to normal. Which is why you have to shut up, Doctor, and go.”

“All right, I’m going.” Phlox closed his eyes and started to concentrate.

“No. Inside Cabin E-14.”

“What?”

Daniels took another anxious breath. He was getting nervous. He started talking faster. “The reason you didn’t go back to Denobula is because time travel operates in multiple dimensions within the time-space continuum. When you traveled back with my…device,” he said that carefully, “you ended up in Cabin E-14 because that’s where you started. To go back from Denobula, you’d have to start from Denobula. And the reason you didn’t go back twenty-eight years is because you didn’t exist in Cabin E-14 twenty-eight years ago; the farthest you could go back was your first time in the same space.”

“Ten months ago.”

“Normally you’d have to be in the exact spot, but these quarters,” he looked fondly toward the doors, “this place is special. You can only travel to times when you have or will be present in Cabin E-14. Unless, that is, an outside agent initiates the temporal momentum, but that’s infinitely more complicated.” He pushed Phlox toward the doors. “That’s all the time for today’s lesson, so go, good doctor, you’ve got less than thirty seconds before things get really complicated.”

The doors slid open in front of him, and when he turned back around, Daniels was gone, but he still heard him say, “Go back, Doctor, and never try this again. Xesophia is gone.”

Phlox swallowed nervously and slowly reentered Cabin E-14.

“Doctor?” Hoshi sat on the bunk next to Starrow, mixing something in a bowl.

Phlox was afraid to say anything. What if it turned out to be the one thing that destroyed the timeline? Still, he didn’t feel comfortable going back right in front of them. He didn’t completely understand how things were going to return to normal, but he couldn’t help thinking that things would be easier here after he left if there were no witnesses to his shift.

“Excuse me,” he said and entered the closet. He closed the door softly and waited a moment to clear his mind.

“Doctor?”

His fingers were tingling. Hopefully there would be enough residual…energy, or whatever it was left to take him back to the future. The future.

And there he made his biggest mistake.

Again, the sensation of falling through the floor and—

—there he was. Cabin E-14. Holding the transparent device in his seemingly empty arms, pulsing like warm mud around his fingers, that one word still echoing dimly in his mind

(the future)