The reception room was barren. Just a couple well worn chairs with peeling leather, a faded gray paint on aged walls, and a bored petty officer in security yellow sitting behind a thick plexiglass barrier. He looked up at the sharp-looking lieutenant in teal and the weathered commander in red as they stepped into the room. Curious, he thought to himself. They didn’t have any visitors on the schedule today.

“Good afternoon,” said Dr. Hall as she approached the window. Her tone was professional and courteous, and she slid a PADD under the glass to the officer on the other side. “I have orders for a temporary medical transfer of Inmate C-621-224.” 

The brig officer reviewed the PADD. The orders specified the short-term transfer of Thomas D. Brooks into the custody of Lieutenant Lisa Hall, Ph.D. as the subject of a study on temporal dissociative disorder. The orders came on the masthead of the Fourth Fleet with the signature of a Fleet Admiral by the name of Allison Reyes, who was listed as Director of the Advanced Science, Technology and Research Activity.

“Please give me a moment,” the brig officer asked. “I’ll need to call someone down here to verify.” He simply managed the entry and exit of visitors. He didn’t handle the release of prisoners. “Please feel free to have a seat. It’ll just be a couple minutes.”

Dr. Hall nodded and took a seat. Commander Lewis stayed standing.

A few minutes later, a Starfleet Captain stepped through a door labeled Authorized Personnel Only. He walked straight up to Dr. Hall with his hand outstretched. She rose and shook it as he introduced himself. “I am Captain Ledren Drai, Associate Warden for Rehabilitation here at the New Zealand Penal Colony. I understand you are here for the temporary transfer of an inmate?”

“That is correct,” Dr. Hall replied as she handed him the PADD. “My unit is conducting research around the effects that recurrent temporal displacement has on mental health, and Dr. Brooks is a person of interest for the study.”

Drai turned to his colleague. “Devlin, did you validate the orders?”

“Yes sir,” the petty officer confirmed. While he’d never heard of the unit taking custody of the inmate, nor the Fleet Admiral who’d signed the paperwork, the system validated the orders. They were genuine, albeit very fresh. “Filed thirty minutes ago.”

“Why such a rush?” Drai asked, looking back over at the lieutenant.

“We were not originally scheduled to be in the Sol system,” Dr. Hall bluffed. “But Frontier Day pulled us in, as it seems it has just about everyone, so here we are. The Director figured that, since we’re here, we might as well not miss the opportunity to visit with someone with as many displacements on his record as Dr. Brooks.”

“Dr. Brooks is an odd duck, I’ll give you that,” agreed Captain Drai. What she was saying made sense. “He’s been with us for four years, and I understand him no better today than the day he arrived. He’s always blabbering about something that’s going to happen in the past or something that’s already happened in the future.”

“Yes, it’s called temporal dissociative disorder,” Dr. Hall explained. She had reviewed the notes from the colony’s staff while preparing their cover. Aligning with their expectations made it easier to accept the story. “It’s not well understood given how rare displacements are, especially with any degree of recurrence. My team is doing the first real research into it.”

Captain Drai nodded. A bit strange but made sense.

“As someone who takes pride in the rehabilitation of others, I’m sure you see the importance of studies like this,” Dr. Hall added gently with a compassionate smile. “I mean… Is Dr. Brooks any closer to a reintroduction into society today than he was when he arrived four years ago?” She’d read Captain Drai’s bio. She knew how to motivate him.

“No, I suppose not,” Captain Drai admitted regretfully.

“We’re looking to change that.”

“I appreciate that,” Captain Drai agreed. “But this is all a bit outside the norm.” He had no reason to be skeptical, but rather it was just an observation. “Such work is typically done here in our facilities under our supervision.”

“You do not have the equipment we need,” Dr. Hall explained.

“What about the security of the prisoner?”

“That is my responsibility,” Commander Lewis said with a gruff yet reassuringly confident tone. “I assure you that we are more than capable of ensuring that Dr. Brooks remains in custody, and we will have him back within seventy two hours as per orders.”

The way Commander Lewis said it, Captain Drai had no doubt he was telling the truth. The commander might have been wearing red, but he sounded like he’d fit perfectly in yellow if he ever wanted a change in career. And so, while they arrived as two, they left as three. It was time to hunt the hunters and to get some answers.