A Captain And A Madman

Chapter Two: Strange Parallels

Things had progressed quickly from that initial meeting, as the initially hysterical Doctor had been escorted from the shuttle bay. With every moment that had passed, he'd seemed increasingly agitated; not outwardly loud or violent, but just growing tenser by each moment. He'd all but ogled a Vulcan crewmember they had passed, and when an Andorian had been spotted vanishing down a side corridor, the strange man had actually jogged off in pursuit.

Still, they'd finally managed to get him to sickbay for a quick examination, mostly to ensure he wasn't carrying any pathogens... only, from the way Doctor Crusher had turned several shades paler at the readings on her tricorder, clearly things wouldn't be so simple as that. Crusher hadn't let her own shock, or unease, leak into her bedside manner, however, and had been nothing short of courteous and every bit as soothing as Troi was trying to be.

And, sure enough, the strange visitor seemed to relax, bit by bit, with each passing moment, until he showed no signs of his prior unease.

Unfortunately, it was replaced with a sense of curiosity so strong, it bordered on Attention Deficit Disorder, which is why when Jean Luc Picard sat behind his desk in his Ready Room, less than half an hour after the stranger's arrival, the Doctor was not sitting across from him. No, instead the ancient, incredibly wise and immeasurably dangerous Time Lord was... kneeling on the floor, peering under the Ready Room couch.

"I must say," Picard finally called down to him, "you seem far more relaxed than you did a short time ago."

"Yes, well," the Doctor replied, hopping back to his feet, head craning upwards as he peered at the ceiling with great fascination. "Situation like this, there was a fifty-fifty chance the universe was about to implode... but it doesn't look like it's going to any time soon, so I feel much better now."

Picard honestly wasn't sure to say about that, but something about the way the man wandered about with no apparent regard for his host was starting to grate on his nerves, just a little. It also seemed irritatingly familiar...

"You must understand... Doctor... that your appearance here is highly irregular, almost contradictory." Settling into his chair, Picard tried to look relaxed... difficult, given his guest had opted to instead pace back and forth across the room like an overexcited child. "You enter this sector within a vessel that, by all appearances and readings is a relic from Earth's past, not even spaceworthy, with clothing to similarly denote an older time period. You speak our language flawlessly, and even possess a regional accent common to Britain. And yet my Chief Medical Officer informs me that you are unlike any being we have thus far encountered, and the... device... you used to scan us blocks even the most detailed scans of its interior."

The Doctor smiled a little at that, slim shoulders shifting in a brief shrug as he replied; "Well, it's not always inclined to give up its innards... as for the accent, Captain, isn't 'Jean Luc Picard' supposed to be French?"

"...touche," Picard replied, leaning forward just a little and lacing his fingers together as he tried not to let the offhand reply irritate him; "Nonetheless, we know that your arrival was heralded with a sudden increase in chroniton particle emissions. That would suggest time travel, which is why I must ask... are you from our past, or our future?"

"Hmm? Oh, I'm from the past." The Doctor paused before adding distractedly; "Well, no, actually, I'm from the future. Well, at the time I came from I was in the future, originating from the past, visiting the future... or it might have been the other way around... but technically I'm from an alternate timeline, so I suppose the answer would be 'neither leaning towards the former more than the latter, if one... absolutely must... lean...'" Trailing off for a moment, he gave the couch a gentle gentle tap with his foot, then spun on his heels. "But that's not important in the grand scheme of things."