Magus arrived in the conference room to find Pendragon, Duncan MacCleod and General Hague seated around the table. On the viewer was Captain Sheridan, calling from Babylon 5.
"Captain Sheridan!" Magus said. "I was hoping you'd be in touch! We have much to discuss."
"That will have to wait," said Sheridan. "If you look on your terminal you will see I have transmitted some coded information to you."
Magus seated himself at the table, and looked at the computer screen.
"I haven't got a clue what it says," said Sheridan.
"I didn't think you would have, Captain," said Magus. "I'm sure there's only one other in this room who would recognize this language. Am I right, Duncan?"
"I was never one for Navaho," said Duncan. "I only managed to pick out a few words."
Magus began to study the transmission intently.
"Whoever your source is knew what he was doing, Captain Sheridan," said Magus. "Who was he?"
"I was asked not to tell. All I can say is that it's a source from within the new Federation Senate."
"I understand, Captain."
"So what is it about?" asked Pendragon.
"It's about the latest plan by Grand Admiral Thrawn, which has been approved by my brother."
Magus continued to read the file. As he did his expression changed to one of shock.
"What is it?" asked Sheridan. "What's wrong?"
"Do you remember the device that Daniel Reid invented nearly four hundred years ago, that allowed us to travel from our Earth to another Earth on the other side of the universe in a matter of minutes?"
"I should do," said Duncan. "Although it brought us new friends, but it caused us a lot of trouble as well!"
"Thrawn wants to get his hands on it."
"How?" asked Sheridan. "If I recall my history, the plans for that thing were destroyed during the A.I. wars, by Reid himself, to stop the androids getting their hands on it. No other plans for it existed!"
"And no scientist has come close since," said Pendragon.
"Thrawn intends to go straight to the source!" said Magus.
"You're joking!" said Pendragon. "Let me guess! He's using that bloody wormhole we found years ago, isn't he?"
"The temporal wormhole was declared off-limits by the Federation Council three years ago," said Hague.
"Darkmagus now controls the Federation Council," said Magus. "He can go to that wormhole whenever he likes! And now, he's allowing Thrawn to take a Jem'Hadar team through the wormhole and back to the 21st century!"
"If history is altered, we could all go to pot!" said Pendragon.
"Not if I can help it," said Magus. "Captain Sheridan, thank you for this information."
The screen went blank. Magus turned to those in the room with him. "I want word of this conversation to stay within these walls."
"But what are we going to do?" asked Hague.
"I will deal with this by myself. If we send a whole team back to stop Thrawn and the Jem'Hadar then the whole space-time fabric could be ripped apart! I want no arguments on this, gentlemen! I will go alone!"
Anglo-Force mansion, Surrey, 2000
Chess was always a game that slightly confused James Watt. For some reason, he did not know why, he had never managed to grasp the essentials of the game, probably because the kids in the Chess Club at Cromer High School all appeared to be geeks to him. Even now, as Daniel Reid tried to teach him the basics of the game, he seemed bored. Indeed, in the past few months Reid and Watt had become good friends, probably because they were both 'reluctant heroes'.
"I don't care, Daniel!" said Watt. "I may live for a thousand years, and I'll never understand this game!"
"It's quite simple, really," Reid replied. "All you have to do is..."
The door suddenly opened, and the small figure of Phineas Magus stood in the doorway.
"I wouldn't try, Doctor," Magus said. "Even though his accident enables him to memorize vast amounts of information, he will only learn chess if he wants to!"
"Thank you, Magus," said Watt, closing the board and putting the pieces away at tremendous speed.
"I even tried with a Simpsons chess set once!" Magus laughed.
Then, the nanny-cum-housekeeper, Mrs. Goldberg, entered the room. "Doctor Reid! There's someone here to see you. An American lady. She says she knows you."
"An American lady, Yetta? Did she give a name?"
Suddenly, Magus clasped the side of his head and stumbled slightly. Watt grabbed hold of his arm, giving him support.
"What's wrong?"
"It's nothing. I haven't felt this way since we..."
Magus suddenly stood upright as if strength suddenly coursed through his body. "I have to go to Craigmillar. I will return shortly."
Magus then moved towards the window and flew away. Reid, puzzled, turned to Watt.
"What was all that about?" he asked.
Watt shrugged his shoulders.
"Sorry Yetta. Show the lady in."
A few moments later, Mrs. Goldberg showed the visitor in. The woman looked to be in her early forties, and was smartly dressed, and carried a large briefcase. Reid smiled upon seeing her, and soon greeted her with a warm, friendly hug.
"Donna! It's good to see you! Please, come in! Sit down! Yetta, can you get us a pot of tea?"
"Certainly! Isn't that what I'm here for?"
The woman seated herself in an armchair. Reid was about to sit down when he slapped his forehead.
"Where are my manners? Captain James Watt, meet Doctor Donna Alanvi, one of the world's finest scientific minds, and an old friend."
Watt and Alanvi shook hands.
"It's good to meet you, Captain. I've heard a lot about you."
"I wish I could say the same for you, Doctor Alanvi. Just tell me you don't play chess."
Alanvi looked at Reid, confused.
"So tell me, Donna, what brings you here?"
"I don't know if I can discuss this in..."
"In front of Jim? I trust him. It's safe to talk."
Alanvi took a deep breath before she spoke. "It's Sam. Something's gone wrong."
"What? What's gone wrong?"
"Two days ago, Sam leaped into the body of a musician in 1967. Shortly afterwards he lost his neuronic contact with Al. Since then Ziggy and Gushie have been unable to re-establish any sort of contact. We thought that since your neurons were the first to be aligned with Sam's, that you might be able to try and contact him."
"The connection may not be as strong as it was six years ago. After all I was only in on the experimental stage."
"Excuse me!" interjected Watt. "Can someone please tell me what's going on here?"
"My apologies, Jim. You see, before I went to work at the university, I worked on a project for the U.S. government, called Project Quantum Leap. It involved travel in time, but it had its limits."
"Doctor Sam Beckett, my husband, was the founder of the project. He believed that his life was like a piece of string, with his birth at one end, and his death at the other. Basically, he jumped into other people's lives, backwards and forwards throughout his lifetime."
"And these people thought nothing of a stranger suddenly entering their lives?" asked Watt.
"It will take a while to explain," said Alanvi. "But the thing is that we really need you, Daniel. You're our last hope."
"When do you want me to leave?" Reid asked.
"As soon as you can."
"It's alright, isn't it, Jim?"
"Sure. I'll even fly you over in one of the sky-jets. On the way you can explain to me about these pieces of string!"
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