CHAPTER 8

Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Charlie Evans assembled in the briefing room. Kirk could see Charlie looked disappointed and embarrassed:

"It wasn't your fault, Charlie! You said it yourself, there was no way to estimate how powerful Gary Mitchell is until you started trying to fight him. I know you tried your best. Now we'll just have to figure something else to try."

'Mr. Spock, do you have anything to add at this juncture?"

Spock replied:

"Only that we put as much distance between ourselves and Gary Mitchell as possible, Captain. Other than that logic provides me with no new alternatives."

Kirk wasn't ready to give up:

"Dammit, there's got to be an alternative! I don't believe in no win scenarios!"

Charlie stopped frowning and seemed to perk up a little:

"I'll tell you something, Captain. Something I have always wished I had the powers to do. If I knew how to do it, I could travel back in time to fix it. I could go back to the same day onboard the Enterprise, before Gary Mitchell was struck down by the energy pulses where he got his powers from in the first place, and I would convince you, Sir, back then, not to try and pass through the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy. That way what happened to Gary Mitchell never would have happened to begin with. The changes of the past would change things somewhat, but Gary Mitchell would have stayed normal, and you would never have been forced to try and maroon him of Delta Vega, or live with the fact you thought you killed your friend, and Gary himself would never have been exiled the past 20 years on Delta Vega, so he wouldn't have a grudge against you and want revenge. Everything else Gary Mitchell did also would never have happened.  I can't figure out how to time travel or else that's exactly what I would do!"

Kirk suddenly slammed his fists down hard on the desktop:

"That's it, Charlie! Time travel! We are able to travel through time into the past by sling shotting a starship around a star, the problem with that procedure is it's virtually impossible to have accuracy to land in the time in the past we want. Also to try something like that the entire starship and her crew have to go back to the past, which causes too many time continuity problems. But maybe there is a better way to time travel! Mr. Spock, are you thinking what I am thinking?"

Spock raised an eyebrow and replied:

"Indeed I am, Jim. There is, of course, the Guardian of Forever. It's possible it may well suffice to send Charlie into the past and onboard the Enterprise at very near the precise star date 22 years ago, the day or day prior to when our mission caused us to try and pass through the galactic energy barrier. However, the Guardian of Forever, in the case when we used it to travel back to 1930's San Francisco, in order to set right the things Dr. McCoy did in the past that wiped out our future, may have only allowed us to return to our present time period because our mission was to correct the past. If we let Charlie pass through the Guardian of Forever, merely to change a single event that would have little effect on history coming forward, other than to solve our current dilemmas concerning Gary Mitchell's godlike powers, its possible Charlie under those circumstances would be trapped in the past forever. I conject the probability of what I suggest in that way is true 98%, given what little we actually learned about the Guardian to begin with, since only it could explain its own methods which it did not before we left it as we found it."

Kirk understood Spock's concerns for Charlie Evans well-being if indeed he passed through the Guardian of Forever and was trapped in the past:

"Well, Charlie, you heard Mr. Spock.  We think we can provide the circumstances to allow you to travel into the past to stop what happened to Gary Mitchell, but as Spock said, it's possible you'll be trapped forever in the past 20 years ago."

Charlie smiled:

“That would still be better than being marooned on Thasus all alone with no other people to know and be friends with and I already went through all of that for over 20 years. In the past onboard the Enterprise, I could make new friends, and you and Mr. Spock would still be there to be my friends.  Just as soon as I explained I came from the future after your future selves rescued me from exile on Thasus. After all what happened to Gary Mitchell happened after I already met you as a much younger man, so you would recognize me and know I am telling you a true story about what would happen to Gary Mitchell in the near future if the Enterprise tries to pass through the galactic energy barrier. I am sure you two would want to believe me and the rest of the story about the Guardian of Forever. I would leave out the details so what happens in the future in that case wouldn't change, and I'd make sure not to change anything else of consequence using my powers. But before we worry about me getting stuck in the past, shouldn't we go to the planet where the Guardian is and ask it if I can come back to the present or not?"

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