THE RELIANT

TIME COPS Part 2

"Look, Tamala will be all right. Nothing bad can happen to her. She's one of the good guys. She'll pull through. You'll see, Captain."

Right then Captain Yager spun around facing Sarah and unloaded all of his anger and frustration with this whole mission onto her.

"Listen, Sarah, this isn't one of your damn fantasy worlds, okay? This is real life." He angrily ran her hand through his hair. "You know, if you and Fleming didn't waste so much time living in fantasy and instead lived in reality like the rest of us then Tamal wouldn't have gotten shot trying to save your ass."

Sarah felt herself start to tear up as she took in John's hurtful words. She turned away from him and said, "I'm sorry, Captain. This is all my fault. If I had just gotten shot like I was supposed to then Tamala would be fine right now." She paused as tears began to flow down her cheeks. "You're android was right." She sniffed. "I'm such a loser."

John let out a frustrated sigh as he ran his hand through his hair again.

"No one here thinks you're a loser, Sarah, least of all Roger."

"Well, I don't think Bortis likes me very much."

"Bortis is a Morlon. He dislikes all humans."

"Including you?"

"Especially me."

John and Sarah shared a laugh, which helped lighten the emotional load of the moment.

"Look, Sarah, I'm sorry for what I said. It's just that-"

"Yeah, I understand. You want to preserve the timeline and all that." She paused and then said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one."

"That's an interesting quote. Is that from one of your shows?"

"Yeah. It's actually from one of my favorite Star Trek movies called The Wrath Of Khan."

"Star Trek?"

"Yeah. The quote is from one of my favorite characters Spock. He's half-human and half-Vulcan. I don't suppose there are any Vulcans in the future, Captain?"

"Nope, none that I know of. Though I did know a guy named Spock once. He was kind of a pain in the ass. Like you."

They shared another laugh. Then Sarah continued: "Anyway, Spock says those words to his friend Captain Kirk after he sacrifices himself to save their ship the Enterprise from the badguy Khan. You actually kind of remind me of Captain Kirk."

"Is that so?"

"Uh-hmmm," Sarah murmured, nodding.

"What happens to Spock in this movie?"

Ssarah felt herself getting choked up. "Then he dies in front of Kirk." She paused. "I balled my eyes out for a straight week after I first watched that scene. It was like I lost my best friend in the whole world. I know you probably think that's pathetic, Captain, since he wasn't a real person and all."

"Actually, I don't think that's pathetic at all, Sarah. I might not fully comprehend feeling that emotionally attached to a fictional character, but I don't think it's pathetic of you to feel that way. Maybe if you told me why you feel the way you o about these characters it would help me to understand it better."

Sarah hesitated before pouring her heat and soul out to Captain Yager.

"You see, Captain, I didn't have what you would call a very happy childhood. In fact, it was pretty lonely. My dad left me and my mom when I was really young and my mom had to work two and sometimes three jobs just to make ends meet so I didn't see very much of her."