Mostly Harmless 3

Tim drove to the crime scene in silence, his mind on the task ahead and how much he would have to tell Jimmy to satisfy his curiosity. On one hand, it would be nice to be able to talk to someone else about the things he had been forced to keep secret for so long, but on the other hand, Jimmy was lousy at keeping secrets himself. One glare from Gibbs and the Autopsy Gremlin would begin to babble uncontrollably, and Gibbs was one of the last people who Tim wanted to know his secrets.

Jimmy was quiet for most of the ride, spending his time watching Tim and nervously glancing back towards the rear of the car. Finally he broke his silence.

"That thing…it isn't going to come back to life, is it?"

"It was never alive to begin with."

"Not alive…so it's a machine. A robot?"

"Not exactly," Tim replied as he remembered Jimmy's earlier comment. "It's not quite as complicated as what you've seen in the movies."

"So then what is it?"

"A drone. Usually programmed to find something and bring it back. I don't know why this one killed that Marine." It was a small lie. Drones were often used to kill their targets, but Tim figured Jimmy didn't need to know that. The less he knew, the better.

"A drone?" Jimmy thought for a minute. "Wait, like a Slab?"

"'Slab'?"

"You know, from Doctor Who…Smith and Jones? That thing that looked like a biker?"

"Oh…yes, something like that."

"So it's alien?"

Tim sighed. "Yes, it's 'alien'."

"But how do you know about it?" Tim waited for Jimmy to make the connection he had been dreading since the crime scene. "Are…are you alien?"

"As they say, I'm not from around here."

Jimmy took a moment to absorb that information, and when he finally spoke his normal cheerful tone was gone. "And that thing was after you because…?"

"Like I said, it's a long story."

Jimmy continued to stare at him, wide-eyed, until Tim let out a huff of annoyance.

"What?"

"Are you really…from another planet?"

"Yes." Tim hoped his terse answer would discourage further questions, but Jimmy was undeterred.

"Which one?"

"Not one you've heard of. Most here don't even know it exists, and I'd like to keep it that way."

That seemed to shut Jimmy up and finally they reached the alley where Sgt. Gannon had been discovered. Now that he wasn't been watched by the team, Tim had the opportunity to check for the spot where the drone had come through. After a few minute of searching he found it and returned to his car to retrieve the drone.

"What are you doing?" Jimmy asked, tentatively.

"I'm going to send this back, and hopefully discourage any more from making the trip." Tim carefully replaced the wires he had pulled free earlier and felt along the back of the drone for the switch that would open its control panel. Finally his fingers brushed over it and the panel slid open. He pressed a few buttons and soon found the drone's most recent program. The language had changed a bit since the last time he had seen one of these, but after a few moments he was able to figure out both its mission and the glitch that had caused it to fire on an innocent. He hissed in disgust when he found the problem.

"What's wrong?"

"Sloppy," Tim muttered as he shook his head. "Who are they letting program these things these days?" He glanced up at Jimmy and saw fear and confusion in the younger man's expression. "It was a glitch. The drone failed to properly screen its target and fired on Sgt. Gannon by mistake."

"Instead of you."

Tim sighed. "Yeah. Instead of me." Even though he knew he hadn't directly caused this, Tim felt the old guilt that arose whenever he remembered what had led him here in the first place.

"So what did you do?"

"Nothing. I didn't do anything to anyone," Tim snapped, anger returning along with the guilt.

"Then why…?"

"Later. I'll explain later, Jimmy, but let me finish this first, OK? I really need to concentrate on what I'm doing."

"OK." Jimmy watched with obvious fascination as Tim re-programmed the drone to indicate that it had found its intended targets and eliminated them. Tim did one final check to make sure he hadn't left any traces of his meddling before he turned the drone back on and let it stand up. It immediately walked over to the spot where it had come through before and a rip seemed to form in the alley wall as bright blue-white light spilled through. The drone flew into the rip and vanished as the hole closed behind it.

Tim stood silently starting at the place where the drone had disappeared and wondered if it was really that simple. Could he finally stop hiding, stop checking over his shoulder for the next invader? Only time would tell.

He turned to Jimmy who was still starting at the wall, eyes wide. He noticed Tim watching and gave him a shaky smile. "That was…cool."

Tim just chuckled. "Come on, I'll take you back to your car."

Jimmy shook his head. "Oh, no. You owe me an explanation." He noticed Tim's expression and blushed. "I mean, I'd really like to hear your story. If that's OK…"

"Yeah, OK. Come on. This isn't exactly the best place for that sort of thing."

They both climbed into Tim's car and he started to drive west, soon leaving the city lights behind as he headed for the mountains. He drove to the spot where he had spent the night star-gazing and parked the car before walking to the rock where he had slept the night before. Jimmy soon joined him and they sat in silence, appreciating the view for several minutes before Jimmy broached the subject once again.

"What happened? What brought you here?"

"You seem surprisingly cool with all of this," Tim commented as he studied his companion and debated on how much to tell him.

"Well, I've always hoped to have proof that we…Earth's people, that is, weren't alone in the universe. I just never expected the proof to be someone I'd worked with for almost ten years." Suddenly Jimmy's eyes widened. "Are you…you're the only one, right?"

That got a laugh out of Tim. "As far as I know, I'm the only one at NCIS. I guess I should tell you I'm not alone, though. Some of my family is here, too."

"But not all?"

"No."

"Why not?" Tim winced and Jimmy stammered an apology. "S-sorry. What…I mean, if you want to tell me…" Tim remained silent but Jimmy pressed on. "Why are you here?"

"I guess you would say I'm a fugitive, even though I had nothing to do with what happened. It's my father's fault."

"The Admiral?"

"No, my real father. The Admiral is just a convenient cover story."

"Oh. What…what did he do?"

Tim sighed. "He was a traitor." He turned to Jimmy who wore a confused expression on his face. "My father broke one of my planet's most sacred laws and in doing so incurred the wrath of the entire ruling body. Since they believed his family had aided him, we were given the same judgment for his transgressions. We had to flee in order to survive, and the drones have been hunting us ever since."

"But what did he do?"

"He gave humans the key information that would allow them to develop space travel."

Jimmy's confusion deepened. "Why…why was that such a horrible thing?"

"Because no one wanted humans to ever leave their own planet."

"Why not? I mean, aren't we considered to be, you know…mostly harmless?"

Tim snorted. "Not even close. You know, it's funny. In almost all of the stories written by humans that deal with interstellar contact, the other civilization is the aggressor, the vicious conquerors who are bent on killing off the population of this planet. But to other civilizations throughout the universe, you are the ones they fear. Humans have been studied for thousands of years, and the general consensus is that they are the most aggressive, blood-thirsty, and vicious race in the universe."

Jimmy started to protest but Tim raised his hand to silence him. "Think about it: wars, genocide, mass murderers and even worse, serial murders that kill for pleasure. That is a completely foreign concept to those who have been co-existing peacefully for millennia. Earth's inhabitants are as alien to them as anything from one of movies you've undoubtedly seen are to you."

"If we're that bad….then why did your father do what he did?"

"He never believed the official word, mainly because he had actually visited here, even though that was also strictly forbidden. They didn't like the idea of you all contaminating one of us. Anyway, it turns out he wasn't the first. There's been an underground group that has been mingling with humans for centuries, and they believed that your race could be changed for the better. My father got it into his head that if you learned to travel, and could explore beyond your own galaxy, you'd gain an appreciation for peaceful living."

"That sounds…"

"Ridiculously optimistic?"

"No. It sounds…nice. But wait, if your race is so anti-violence, why do they want to kill you?"

"It's a last resort, when they can't re-educate someone. They would also excuse themselves by having the drones do it for them. No blood on their hands, if you will."

"Re-educate? Is that as bad as I imagine?"

"If you think that completely removing someone's memories and implanting new ones so they forget every good thing they learned about humans is bad, then yes. I imagine they would have the same dim view as some of the 'rehabilitation' attempts humans have made for law-breakers here."

"It still sounds…brutal."

"Could be worse."

"Yeah, I guess. OK, so, if your dad gave us they key, why haven't we started zapping through walls like that drone thing?"

Tim laughed. "I said space travel, not temporal manipulation. Big difference. The drones travel through worm holes in space that they can create. Of course, they leave evidence behind of their path, but humans wouldn't recognize one if they did see it. What my father gave humans was a bit more complicated and long term. He wasn't sure if you'd survive the other type of travel anyway."

"Is that how you got here, by…temporal manipulation?" Tim nodded. "How long have you been here?"

"About twenty years."

"So you came here as a teenager?"

"Well, not exactly. We actually age much slower than humans, so I'd been an adult for nearly fifty of your Earth years."

Jimmy shook his head in wonder. "This is so…"

"Hinky?"

Jimmy let out a nearly hysterical giggle. "Yeah." His mood quickly sobered. "What happened to the rest of your family?"

"My father escaped, but not to Earth. I have no idea where he is, or if the drones ever caught up to him. My mother was re-educated, and likely has no memory of any of us left. My sister and grandmother are here with me."

"Sarah and Penny?"

"Yes."

"No wonder you're so protective of them…but if you all thought Earth was so bad, why come here at all?"

"It was the first place I could think of where they probably wouldn't look for us. I never publicly admitted that I agreed with my father, so I hoped that they would think I'd be too afraid to come here, much less drag my family with me. I had read my father's notes, looked through the evidence he gathered, spent time study human behavior and cultures, and…I took a chance that we could survive. We have."

"So after living here…do you think we're really that bad?"

"I think some of you are. But I also think some of you are better than the ones I left behind. Your planet, for all of its problems, truly is beautiful, and I've been able to adjust to it." Tim smiled. "I'm not sorry I came here, if that is what you're asking. Yes, I've seen some horrible things, and one of the reasons I joined law enforcement in the first place is to try and stop some of those things from happening, if I could. I think your society needs help, not condemnation for the actions of those in power, but I also think those actions are reprehensible. It's complicated."

"Yeah, it is. Does anyone else know? About you?"

"None that still remember. I have had to protect my secret on occasion."

"How?"

"One of the things that makes us different from humans is that we can, with considerable effort, make someone forget something we didn't want them to know. It's not something we do lightly."

"Are you going to make me forget? All this we've talked about?"

"Do you want to forget? Keeping this a secret is a huge burden, I know."

Jimmy sat in silence, considering Tim's question.

"I've kept secrets before. Or at least, I tried. But this is so much bigger…"

"Yes it is. Your choice, Jimmy."

"What would happen if someone found out?"

Tim paled slightly at the thought. "I think you know the answer to that question."

"Yeah, they'd lock me up in the nut-house," Jimmy replied with a grin. "Because there's no way anyone would believe the story." His smile faded. "But there's still the case…do you think Gibbs will accept that he can't solve it?"

"Since when does Gibbs ever accept that he can't solve something?"

"True, but it's not like you can send a drone to jail."

Tim chuckled. "Gibbs would probably try…but I can probably think of something."

"Just tell him 'this is not the drone you're looking for'."

"You really have been spending too much time around Tony," Tim groaned as Jimmy grinned and nodded. "You sure you can keep this secret?"

"I'm sure. Hey, Tim?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you…can you show me where you're from?" He pointed to the night sky. "Up there?"

"I can do that."

"And…can you tell me about it? Or would that…be upsetting?"

Tim smiled. "No, I can do that, too. It would be nice to tell someone, actually."

"Well, you know I'm a good listener. Have to be after working for Dr. Mallard all these years, right?"

"Right. So, do you see those three stars that form a big triangle?" Jimmy nodded and Tim started to explain how to find his birthplace.

As he shared his tales with his companion, he reflected on the fact that this was the first time he had been able to tell his real stories…and it was a nice feeling. It felt like the home he had left wasn't so distant anymore.

The End