MSTed: SELA 2/4
by PAUL GADZIKOWSKI
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 series characters and concepts copyright Best
Brains Inc
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION series characters and concepts copyright
Paramount Pictures
DOCTOR WHO series characters and concepts copyright BBC tv
THIS TIME ROUND conceived by Tyler Dion, after Kielle
SHOCK VALUE characters by BKWillis
BOOK OF TALIESIN by Helen Fayle
KING ARTHUR IN TIME AND SPACE is mine.

[SCENE: This Time Round. ADRIC is behind the bar. It is a slow night
and there are only a few patrons, all lined up at the bar: DOCTOR THREE;
PERI; Space KING ARTHUR at about fifty in sort-of Captain Kirk's movie
uniform; Space KING ARTHUR at about twenty in sort-of Captain Archer's
uniform; the Bradleyard's sidekick LYDIA; and VIVIENNE of the Book of
Taliesin.

[All are reading off of a bigscreen tv presently in use as a computer
monitor.]

> SELA 2/4
> by PAUL GADZIKOWSKI
> STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION series characters and concepts copyright
> Paramount Pictures
> DOCTOR WHO series characters and concepts copyright BBC tv
>
> Chapter 2
>
> Personal log, displaced-objective stardate 36939.0:

ADRIC I don't think that jibes with the stardates given in the flashbacks in
Seven-of-Nine's secret origin.

OLD ARTHUR This story was here first.

> The Doctor
> and I have traveled in the TARDIS back in time, to Narendra III
> during the last battle of the Enterprise-C, investigating the
> Romulan commander Sela's contentions that she is Tasha Yar's
> daughter and that her existence is my responsibility. The Doctor
> has warned me - as I had already deduced - that we are very likely
> dealing with a predestination paradox. Nevertheless I am determined
> to interfere with the history of the Enterprise-C incident as
> little as possible, lest I damage the timeline which I am here to
> preserve.
>
> Picard watched as the TARDIS console central column rose and came to
> rest one last time. "Narendra III," announced the Doctor.
> "Where? On the planet?" Picard resisted the impulse to snap his
> questions, as if to an Enterprise officer making an inadequate report. "How
> long

ADRIC I say, that's rather personal, isn't it?

> after the battle?"
> "The Enterprise-C's final battle isn't quite over," said the Doctor,
> working dials and switches - presumably locking controls down. "I'm hoping
> to give first aid to some of the Klingon casualties, and to persuade them
> that it's not an affront to honor to hide in the hills till the Romulans are
> gone."
> "Since you happen to be here." But that was consistent with history as
> Picard knew it. These were the Klingons whose reports of the Enterprise-C's
> actions built the basis of the Federation-Klingon alliance. "Any suggestions
> on how to find Tasha?"

LYDIA Follow the loudest shouting.

> "It's not widely known in the Federation," said the Doctor, adjusting
> his hat, "but it isn't true that the Romulans never take prisoners. Surviving
> vanquished enemies are offered the opportunity to join Romulan society of
> their own free will, and are executed only if they refuse."
> "That must be what happened - happens to Tasha," said Picard.

DOCTOR THREE Willhappoven.

> "Though I
> can't imagine her going along of her own free will."
> "Few do," the Doctor said. He shoved the door lever with the tip of his
> umbrella, and the doors swung open. "That's part of the reason it doesn't get
> around."
> "Which in turn is why the rumors of prisoners at Narendra III were so
> easily discounted."
> The Time Lord bowed Picard to the door. "After you."
>
> Picard made his way toward the central square of the Narendra III
> colony, where a Romulan shuttle had landed, trying to avoid both Romulans and
> Klingons.

OLD ARTHUR I can see why the shuttle would have avoided landing on Romulans,
but ... oh.

> It wasn't difficult; what few survivors there were in the thick of
> the colony had already been located and placed under guard at the square;
> and, as Picard moved in, the mop-up squads moved outwards. Hopefully they
> would be frustrated in their further searching by the Doctor's efforts,
> though under normal circumstances they would have discovered *more* wounded
> and non-wounded survivors the farther they ventured from the central target
> area.
> Picard found a vantage point among the chunks of broken buildings where
> he could observe the proceedings when they started. Having only a vague idea
> what was going to happen,

DOCTOR THREE Like the author.

> he didn't try to form any plan of action,
> contenting himself with being entertained by the insults and threats the
> Klingons heaped onto the Romulans.
> Some twenty minutes after the squad had given up on finding any more
> prisoners around the perimeter of the compound, another group beamed in - the
> survivors of the Enterprise-C, with of course several Romulan escorts. Picard
> wasn't sure whether it was good or bad that Rachel Garrett wasn't among them.

LYDIA Good for *her* anyway.

> In fact there were no senior officers. Strategically, of course, that was for
> the best. Most of them, about a dozen, were in the contemporary Starfleet
> uniform, the maroon jacket dating from the Enterprise-A's time but worn
> without the undertunic or the belt. This only made Tasha Yar easier to pick
> out.

VIVIENNE You'd think the Romulans would notice too then.

> She was in the Starfleet uniform of her and Picard's time, but with the
> addition of a stylized sidearm belt that looked more decorative than
> functional to Picard. She had a cut in her forehead, just below the hairline,
> the blonde hair short as Picard remembered from his timeline but styled
> slightly differently. She stood straight as the other Starfleet officers, and
> walked as straight when the Romulans herded the humans into a group with the
> Klingons, but there was something different about her from the rest of them.

YOUNG ARTHUR She was a speaking part?

> There was a grimness to the determination in her face that the other
> Starfleet officers didn't match. Or couldn't. Only in some veterans of the
> Cardassian conflict

PERI Or of the fanfiction on alt.sex.startrek.

> had Picard seen that grimness in a Starfleet face before
> now.
> The Romulans organized the prisoners into a formation, three lines of
> nine or ten each, mixing humans and Klingons, cuffing those wounded who had
> trouble standing. They were about fifty meters from Picard, and facing just
> away from him so that he could see their faces. When it was done a petty
> officer

DOCTOR THREE [officer] "It's *my* turn to call the ship!!"

> moved in front of them and spoke into a communicator. Two minutes
> later several officers beamed in, arriving in at-ease just between the petty
> officer and the prisoners. Picard almost whistled at the theatrics.
> Before anyone spoke one officer moved toward the prisoners, starting at
> one end of the first line and slowly walking past each of them. Yar was
> second from the other end in the front, and when the Romulan got to her he
> stopped. He looked her up and down for several moments. Then he began to
> address the prisoners,

OLD ARTHUR Remember the postage rate's just gone up.

> speaking loudly enough that even Picard had no trouble
> hearing, but still looking at Yar.
> "I am General Toranus," he said. Commander of the landing forces then.
> Toranus looked like a seasoned fighting officer: streaks at his temples
> above the pointed ears, girth slightly enhanced by a midlife decrease in
> physical activity level occasioned by duty or injury - Picard thought the
> general sometimes favored his right leg. "I am going to give you a choice."
> "Firing squad or

DOCTOR THREE Being made to read the rest of this story?

> hanging?" asked one of the Starfleet officers. More
> than one Klingon spat on the ground.
> "Death is one of two options you face," conceded Toranus unperturbed.
> There were murmurs and mutters now. Toranus ignored them, falling silent and
> continuing his staredown with Yar.
> "And the other?" Yar finally said impatiently, boldly crossing her arms.
> Picard could see Toranus' smile at what he must consider a victory,
> getting Yar to talk to him. "Come to Romulus and join our people."
> The Klingons roared and the humans shouted. "As slaves and bed-toys!"
> one Klingon woman cried out over the rest of the noise.

LYDIA He did say "join".

> "There is a probationary period of course," Toranus said when he could
> be heard again at all. He spoke no more loudly than before, forcing them
> back to silence so they could hear him. Yet to appearances he was still
> speaking only to Yar. "But citizenship is available to those willing to earn
> it. And the earning need not be entirely unpleasant."

YOUNG ARTHUR Read a chapter in my shoes.

> Certainly this last
> sentence was addressed to Yar particularly, and she knew it.
> "'Unpleasant' for whom?" she shot back.
> "It is time to choose," said Toranus. He drew his sidearm and walked -
> sauntered, though it made his limp more noticeable - back to the end of the
> line where he'd begun his inspection. He turned back to look at Yar as he
> pointed the disruptor at the Enterprise-C lieutenant there. All eyes,
> including Yar's, were on him as he fired point blank at the lieutenant, who
> dropped without a sound, without half her head.

PERI The Valeyard should be here. He complained once about the lack of
violence in this guy's stories.

> Picard was instantly granted a finer appreciation for the Doctor's
> character. Traveling time at will and constantly witnessing history's
> atrocities - and yet standing back, fighting the impulse to step in and
> derail historical events that must be left to their natural course. No
> wonder, when the Time Lord could fight, he fought so implacably as to hardly
> ever lose.

LYDIA Or it might just be that he's a B-movie style hero who never loses.

DOCTOR THREE Say now!

> On the other hand, the probability was that there was something here
> Picard needed to fight. How to find the balance between preserving the
> event's natural history and knowing when to step in? Picard had already
> considered this question, and had decided to make no move until or unless
> events were obviously deviating from Sela's past as he knew it - sketchy as
> that was.
> But it was going to be hard.
> Toranus moved on to the next prisoner in the front line, a Klingon
> colonist. He was one of those who'd had trouble standing when the lines were
> forming. Now he stood straight and attempted to look Toranus in the eyes -
> but the general was looking back at Yar as he shot the Klingon's eye, and
> brain, out.

OLD ARTHUR Well, *that's* not going to make it easier for him to stand.

> Next in line was an Enterprise officer whose perspiration-sheened
> forehead belied his calm expression. As Toranus put the point of his weapon
> an inch from that forehead the officer said, "I'll go with you."
> There was a cry of the man's name from someone in a rear row. Toranus
> looked at him, then looked back at Yar. Then he killed the officer anyway.
> Yar turned away.

YOUNG ARTHUR Let's all turn away, from this story.

DOCTOR THREE No, because You Asked For It.

> Someone - probably not a Klingon - behind them was stifling sobs, but
> Yar kept her eyes forward as Picard watched Toranus shoot the three Klingons
> and one human in the front line between Castillo and her. Then he walked up
> to her, and put the weapon to her forehead.
> Picard could see her eyes. They smouldered with all the anger Picard
> had ever seen in the eyes of the Tasha Yar he knew, and more.
> She wasn't going to back down.
> She wasn't going to back down and Toranus was going to kill her.
> "NO!" cried Picard, breaking cover and charging the tableau.
>
> END OF CHAPTER 2


Part Zero - Part One - Part Three - Part Four

Back to M