The Night In

Posted on Thu Jul 18th, 2019 @ 3:52am by Lieutenant Jéanne-Thérèse Marsol & Commander Logan Vance
Edited on on Sat Aug 3rd, 2019 @ 3:57am

Mission: Preludes
Location: France, Earth
Timeline: 1940
Tags: Prelude

“I can give you some stuff for the pain, but it’s not much. With the war just starting, we are already thin on supplies. What do we need to do?” she asked about what he needed help with.

Logan tried to shake off the cobwebs. "First I need to know the date and where in France we are. I know we're in 1940. Seems like summer? Might give me a clue what they're doing here."

“It's just after midnight; it's now the 6th of June. We’re a small farming community, Andrezel. The closest major city is Melun. Does that help at all?” she asked as she started gathering some things to go with them on their journey and shove in her bag.

Logan nodded his head but then something clicked. With the woman's back turned, he pulled up the picture and read the back. "Marsol, June 6th." Marsol was the name of the woman in the picture.

Obviously if the picture were a prediction, it hadn't happened yet. The rest suddenly made sense too. He'd left in 2385 to come back here and she said the USS Coleman had stranded her here from eight years before that, making it 2377. Everything on the writing made sense. So what did the picture mean?

June 6th, 1940… They were near Melun. About forty kilometers southeast of Paris. That put them not far from PC Bruno. I need to get to Gretz-Armainvilliers as soon as we can. How far is that from here?" he asked as he tried to stand.

She went to grab him as he tried getting to his feet. Between the alcohol and the pain, she knew he wasn't in the best shape to go anywhere. “You’re not going anywhere in that condition. You need to rest.”

Logan swore but obliged her when his leg continued to protest. "How would it take to get there?

“It’s about twenty four klicks away, about an hour away. We can go when you can bear some weight on your leg. You risk tearing your artery that got nicked. Until then, come with me, and let’s get your leg up.” She helped him to his feet and swung his arm over her shoulder as she walked him down the hall to a small room. She helped him into the bed and propped some pillows under his left leg. “You’ll do neither of us good if you bleed out. Don't disappear on me. I'll be right back." She squeezed his shoulder reassuringly before leaving the room lit by an oil burning lamp.

He rubbed his leg where she had bandaged while he waited. If he could get to PC Bruno, he could sync up with the French intelligence branch and get information on what Section 31 might be doing and get ahead of it. As it stood, he was about in the dark as he could be.

She went and grabbed a couple of weapons and the last of the medical supplies she had. She found the two farmers who had brought him to her. Both dead outside the farmhouse. She went to the one that owned this farm and would have keys. As she entered her room where he was still laying, she said "your friends killed the men who saved you. I thought we weren't supposed to break the temporal prime directive or is everything different from your time?"

Logan's face fell. He was sure they wouldn't be the only collateral damage they would cause. "I'm sorry for your friends. The people that came back with me are not typical Federation. I knew something was off but I didn't expect this," he explained. "They must be with the people I came here to stop. I don't think it's a coincidence we landed here on this date. I need to find out what they are doing in this time as soon as possible. How long before I'm fit to travel?"

“Couple hours at least, resting ‘til after the sun comes up would be best. Maybe noon at the latest?” she was guessing. While the tear was small, it was large enough that she was concerned if he wanted to try to save the universe.

Dawn was at least six hours from now. He didn't like it but she was right that he was no good to anyone if he was dead. "What did you stay here? In France, I mean? I assume you're aware of the German invasion?"

She weakly smiled as she sat down on the right edge of her bed. "In our time, my family had a farm that had been in the family for awhile. We all know the history of France, the big dates at least. By the way, the invasion has already begun."

"So if you know that Paris is going to fall soon and that all of France will be under German control by the end of the month, what are you still doing here?" he wanted to know.

"With what money?" she asked. "What resources? I arrived post recession and straight into a war. It's taken me this long to get this far. I have nowhere to go. No valid identification to get ‘Jéanne Marsh’ off this continent," she said with quotes for her pseudonym.

Travel in the 1940s was dicey at best and nowhere in continental Europe was exactly safe. "I guess if you're stuck, laying low is your best option." He laid back. If he was stuck here for a while, he might as well rest a bit.

"Something like that." Honestly she had no idea what she would have done. She tried to make it as far as she could from the northern beaches of France where they landed. It had taken her time to get this far. But it wasn't like there was a lot of places she could go with a world at war. And as much as she wanted proper identification to at least make it somewhere safe…. She wasn't one to run away from her problems. To top it all off, the more she appeared in records, the more she worried about polluting the timeline. She couldn't just stand by idle nor could she pull that trigger. She figured she would probably officially join the red cross or the résistance. The hospitals wouldn't take her without records. It had been a couple of minutes that she tried to formulate a more proper reply. "Honestly… I don't even know. I assumed I would have been killed by now."

Logan felt bad for her. Not knowing if anyone even knew you were gone or if anyone was coming for you. Then suddenly someone drops in your lap from your century. She must have thought she was dreaming. "I want to do everything I can to help you get back home," he took her hand and reaffirmed his promise. He kissed it lightly. "How long have you been stranded here? What year did you crash?"

"1935, five years now. Pilot didn't make it off the shuttle alive. My ACMO and I survived transport just seconds before the shuttle disintegrated over the ocean. He died within four minutes of rematerializing. Once I realized when and where I was, I tried to avoid everyone hoping to be rescued and not pollute. I didn't last long on my own. I got hungry. So I did what I could to make sure I had food and shelter. Once the fighting became local, the nightmare became real." It was almost too good to be true that she could be going home soon.

He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Good news is, no pollution that I'm aware of." It was the nice way of saying 'no one knew you were here.' "Thankfully, you won't have to worry about it much longer."

She hoped so. This all felt like a surreal dream. Where as she had spent the last five years living a nightmare, this felt like true hope. "I hope you know what you’re looking for?"

"Château de Vignolles. And while I know a lot about this era, I don't know a lot about the layout of small French towns," he admitted. "I just know where it's historically supposed to be.

"I know the Château." She yawned and stretched her arms above her head. This had her up way past when she normally slept. “Well, on that note…” she trailed off as she yawned again.

When she started to stand, he tugged on her arm gently. "Pretty sure this is your bed. I would feel like an ass if I kicked you out of it. Come on. I promise to be a total gentleman here."

“I can stay for a bit and you’re the one who’s been shot,” she commented.

"So, you've been living on this farm the past five years? Did you ever think about just… settling down? Starting your life anew here?" he asked.

Taking a deep breath before responding, “I’ve traveled from the coast after I realized I couldn’t just let myself go. I started helping around on farms as transient populations do. Once I realized I wasn’t getting out of here, I started making my way towards the battlefront. I don’t stay in one place too long for fear of someone realizing I’m not who I say I am. The owner of this farm was one of the two that were killed. He allowed me this room and knew that I was a nurse. So I’ve been treating soldiers and locals for awhile. We heard the battle tonight, and they went to investigate. Found you.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I thought how could I be true to myself without destroying the future. Problem is, they just don’t let women on the frontlines, and the war has only just begun. I don’t think much about staying or the past or my time because it hurts. Because of where I walked into the light… I highly doubt I’ll survive this war.” She yawned again. “I mean… there’s hope now, something I lost a long, long time ago.”

"Believe it or not, I know how you feel. Having to start over. A new life. Having to hide what you were before to protect who you are now," he shared. "Feeling a prisoner to that life just to try and survive. Maybe it's just a little bit of fate I ended up here in your backyard."

Yawning again, she decided enough was enough; she needed to lay down. She crawled up to the top of the bed from where she was sitting as she replied. “Maybe…Scoot over a hair.” As he did, she laid down, kicking her shoes off in the process. “It’s not a life I would wish upon anyone though,” she replied sleepily.

"No, no it's not," he agreed, sighing. He moved over to allow her on the bed. He could see she was exhausted. If he was honest, he wasn't much better. He was used to operating for several days without sleep but a lot had happened in the past few hours. "Did you leave anyone behind? Family? Husband? Children?"

“Just my family… didn’t have time for a husband with the war…” she murmured referencing the Dominion War.

"Sounds very lonely," he sympathized. "I missed most of the war. I ran a couple ops towards the end but that was about it." He turned to look at her. "At the same time, it reminds you to embrace life while you can, ya know?"

She took a moment to reply as she was nearly half asleep now. “It is...and it does.”

He decided between the two of them, rest might be the best thing for them right now. He tucked her hair gently behind her ear. "Thank you for helping me. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been here." Of course he did know. He'd be dead. This would be the first time he'd been in this situation.

Asleep, she murmured, “you’re welcome…”

---

Ensign Jéanne-Thérèse Marsol
Nurse, USS Coleman

Agent Logan Vance
Intelligence