* * * * *
Before Thorg could give any semblance of reply, he suddenly had a nanosecond of vertigo. Following which, he noticed that he and Berna were no longer aboard the Nightshrike!
"That's a very good question," interjected a deeper and more mature-sounding voice behind them: "I should like to hear its answer, myself!"
The two suspended Voyagers turned around and beheld Professor Garth (President of the Voyagers' Council) standing behind them. His hair just as silvery-gray, and his toga-like uniform just as immaculate, as they remembered.
"Hello, professor," Thorg responded: "It's been a long time!"
"Forty years, from your viewpoint," the somewhat older man agreed: "You do recall why I sentenced you and Berna to such a lengthy period of probation. Do you not?"
Thorg reluctantly nodded: "Youthful over-exuberance, you called it."
"Exactly! A more mature approach to getting your stolen Omni back from those two Earthmen would have been to show them how certain events would have unfolded if they had succeeded in changing their own personal histories."
A holographic tableau suddenly materialized to Professor Garth's left. A tableau showing a pair of uniformed guards strapping a third man, in striped cover-alls, to a grim-looking metal chair.
"The wrongful electrocution of a socioeconomic derelict for a murder he never committed."
The tableau now changed to a married coupled crying in each other's arms.
"The needless drowning deaths of two children trapped in an abandoned well."
This was followed by a third tableau depicting ruins of once-great buildings extending all the way to the far horizon.
"And the devastation of an entire city by political extremists! Yet, none of these things crossed your minds because of that aforementioned over-exuberance. A character flaw that I had hoped would be permanently purged from your systems by the time I laid eyes on you two, again. Alas! Only Berna seems not to have dashed that hope. But, you, Thorg...?"
The latter did not wait for the former to continue.
"With all due respect, Professor Garth? I know that Voyagers are only supposed to observe, preserve, and correct. There are certain times and situations, however, when more direct intervention is required! And this is one of those times. The giant inhabitants of that planet are in danger of being destroyed by a space station as large as a moon!! And, I cannot--in good conscience--allow that to happen."
"So what did you intend to do?" demanded Garth: "Single-handedly fight your way through all those enemy spacecraft to notify the nearest local Resistance..."
"Rebel Alliance," Thorg instinctively corrected him.
"...Rebel Alliance cell?"
Thorg shrugged and nodded. Prompting Garth's scowl to deepen.
"Then, there's only one more thing I can say. You're going to need a little more help than a bipedal wolverine and a four-armed, blue-furred bat!"
Berna and her lover looked at the elder Voyager in open-mouthed astonishment as his scowl suddenly converted itself into a shamelessly child-like grin.
"Oh, dear me! Did I neglect to mention that I'm also an operative of the Celestial Intervention Agency?"
tbc
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
SOMEWHERE IN THE 55TH CENTURY