Fic - A Glitch In The System - Part One

[indigoneutrino]

Before you start reading, just a forewarning that I think I'm most likely to abandon this. The original draft for this was done when I was fifteen, and although when I found it on my computer I did originally decide I would try rewriting and improving it, I'm now not sure I like it enough. I think the basic concept is interesting, but I'm just not very keen on the story or how I wrote it. I've managed to work on doing two chapters of it, but I'm not sure I'll continue this particular story any further. It has however given me an idea for a fanfiction story that I will work on, and I will probably consider doing another story based on a similar concept, but this fic probably isn't going to go anywhere. If you don't like unfinished stories, it's probably best that you don't read it.

Title: A Glitch In The System
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Rating: T because I don't know where this is going to go, but there's already quite a lot of strong language in it.
Summary: Elias Belman is the captain of an elite unit working for the Temporal Regulation Bureau. Dominie Nova is an amnesiac star voyager. She's also one of Belman's agents, and infuriating though she may be, she has certain abilities that make her incredibly useful to him.

A Glitch In The System

Elias Belman was not a patient man. He'd never had much time for imbeciles or the deliberately obtuse, and if he had it his way he would happily strangle anyone he viewed as obstructing him in whatever fashion. However, his political aptitude occasionally allowed him to restrain his hot temper in situations where it might be in his best interest to not piss off the people he found so inexcusably infuriating. Dominie Nova, despite being his best agent by a mile-long landslide, was not one of those people.

He banged on the steel door again, harder this time, causing a metallic clanging sound to reverberate around the dark corridor. He hoped it would cause a severe disturbance inside the room as well. "Nova, get out here now. I don't care whether you want to or not, you are my subordinate and you will fucking do as I say."

There was silence for a moment, and then the sound of movement inside the room as somebody approached the door. A voice on the other side spoke: two syllables, each clearly articulated for maximum impact. "Fuck. Off."

Belman sighed and kicked the door in frustration. Nova was far from being the ideal employee. She was a trigger-happy, self-indulgent, uncontrollable maniac with a superiority complex who he knew he should have handed over to the lesser authorities years ago. But, unfortunately, he also knew there was no way in hell he could afford to get rid of her. In fact, he doubted he could get rid of her even if he were to try. She had that annoying, but admittedly useful, habit of coming back every time she was somehow disposed of. Every time he'd believed her dead, she'd just turn up again out of the blue one day, usually without a clue how she'd got there and in a state much similar to how she was when he first met her.

He remembered that day well, and God, how he sometimes wished he hadn't chosen to spend that particular day off at that particular bar in the Outer Pleiades. The first time he saw her was when she almost landed on top of him, engaged in a violent fist-fight with some sod twice her size and yelling about how the bastard had tried to cheat her out of fifty credits. There were three things he first noticed about her in the instant the two combatants came crashing to the floor in front of him: one was that she was gorgeous, two was that she seemed to be winning, and three was that she was quite clearly pissed out of her head.

He'd just thought it was a simple case of two hooligans being drunk and disorderly, and although he just wanted to ignore it and pretend he was just an innocent bystander, he was bound by Federal Law to take action. The man had been easily taken care of, too drunk to even string three coherent words together, but when he'd arrested the girl and explained to her that he was a Federal Agent and she was lucky just to get off with a caution, she just laughed. When he'd asked for her name she refused to tell him, so he told her he was going to take a DNA sample to get an ID. Her only response had been, "Good luck with that." At first he'd put her lack of co-operation down to drunkenness and a general disregard for authority, but when her DNA had drawn up a blank on the Federal database he realised there was more to it than that. Despite running it through several times and checking in numerous different locations, he couldn't find any kind of identification for her. According to the records she didn't exist. She herself couldn't explain it, and she couldn't even provide him with so much as a name to go on. She genuinely didn't know who she was.

And that was how it had started. Being in his particular line of work he always hand-picked his recruits, and when he was presented with a case such as Nova's he found it too fascinating to let slip through his fingers. A girl with no name, no history and nobody to miss her should she suddenly disappear without explanation. That, combined with the fact she appeared to be quite good in a fight, had made Eli think that perhaps she would be ideally suited to being on his payroll. He'd offered to help her discover her identity in return for her working for him, and she'd agreed. And the more he'd discovered about her since then, the more frequently he regretted ever having made that offer.

It wasn't just that she was completely infuriating and impossible to control: she was dangerous, politically speaking. He was used to finding himself in difficult situations with the government and among his peers, having been in charge of a very covert unit working for the Temporal Regulation Bureau for centuries, but with Dominie around she only served to create even more problems for him. She seemed to attract trouble simply by existing, and her abrasive personality certainly never helped the situation. If only she could manage to watch her tongue at times it wouldn't have been quite so difficult for him to deal with Major Brakhov, or Baron Tiber, or any of the other rivals his job had brought him into contact with.

But it was more than just Nova's volatile temper and hostile attitude towards authority that made her difficult to work with; the mystery surrounding where she really came from only promised even further trouble. They hadn't ever really been able to locate any potential family members using genetic tracing, but the closest they had got was to partially match her DNA to some fossils found on the no longer inhabitable planet of Arcturus Seven. Fossils that belonged to an extinct civilisation at the high end of the evolutionary ladder, that had been wiped out by a cosmic virus that had spread from Ursa Major several million years previously. And if Dominie were in any way linked to them, as nonsensical as that seemed, he knew the implications of that would be bad. Very bad indeed.

There were only two reasons he'd kept her on his team this long: a) being that she was highly good at her job, despite all the problems she caused for him; and b) that she was just far too intriguing for him to let her go now. However, despite his determination to uncover the truth about her, the more he found out the more she worried him. In particular, he was uneasy about how neither she nor him knew for certain what her name was. Without knowing what she was called it would be almost impossible to find out who she really was. The nearest thing she had to a form of identification was a cryptic inscription on the inside cover of a pocket watch she'd had in her possession when he'd found her: 'Domini Sempre Novae.' It was some kind of hashed together, grammatically incorrect Latin that Eli thought roughly translated to 'forever a new master', whatever that meant, and he doubted very much that it was supposed to be her name at all. However, it was the closest thing they had, so Dominie Nova was the name she'd come to be known as. Or sometimes, Eli just preferred to think of her as The Bitch.

Even she'd admit that was probably what she was. She did everything she possibly could to deliberately spite him, never listened to a word he said and disobeyed orders just because she liked to make him angry. She was bloody lucky she was so useful to him, as otherwise he might have put a bullet through her brain years ago. Not that that would have much impact on someone who seemingly couldn't die.

He hammered on the door again, wondering if he provoked her enough she'd open the door just for the chance to throttle him. "You're a selfish bitch, you know that? If you don't do this, just think how many people are going to suffer as a consequence."

There was the sound of slightly crazed laughter from inside the room, then a voice yelled back. "You are such a hypocrite! If I don't do it people are gonna suffer? Well you bloody told me that last time, and then when you screwed up you blamed it on me, you bastard. Apparently it's my fault so many people died, never mind the fact I was just obeying orders..."

"Nova," Eli growled threateningly. He was determined to shut her up and put her in her place, but she just raised her voice and continued to rant over him.

"But of course that's the only reason you wanted me on board in the first place, wasn't it? You knew all along that plan wouldn't work, so you just needed an easy scapegoat. The tossers at the Bureau all already hate me, so it would be quite easy for you to pass all the blame onto me and not have to worry about political repercussions. That is, until they deem me too big of a liability and tell you to dispose of me, but I doubt you care about that. So no, Eli, if you don't mind I won't be opening this door. I am sick of being used by you." The corridor fell silent again as she concluded her rant, and Eli gritted his teeth in frustration. Normally he could talk her round to doing what he wanted quite quickly, but it seemed that on this occasion she was putting up even more of a fight than usual.

Part of him could understand why. He knew she was right in her accusations, but he also knew that what he had done had been necessary. Its consequences were unfortunate, yes, but he found it difficult to feel guilty about it when she was so deliberately spiteful.

As he let out a sigh of frustration Eli wondered what tactic to try next. Since emotional blackmail hadn't worked, he went for the only other emotional angle of attack that had any chance of succeeding. "Sander would be so disappointed in you."

There was silence for a few more moments, during which Eli wondered if perhaps she was going to ignore him after all, but then there came the sound of metal scraping on metal as the lock was slid back on the other side of the door. Eli gave a self satisfied smile, which he quickly hid as the door swung open and he found himself looking at the furious face of Dominie Nova. "You wouldn't know fuck about Sander."

Elias rolled his eyes, "Whatever, Dom, I don't care. Just do this for me and I'll see you get paid and it'll all be forgotten about in a few days and we can all go back to being quite contentedly pissed off with each other. If it does go wrong I don't think you'd mind half as much as you're making out. You're just that masochistic."

She glared at him, but at least she hadn't slammed the door in his face. "I do this for you, and you don't bother me again for the next fifty years."

"Ten." It was a harsh deal, but she knew there was no point trying to negotiate, and he knew she was only keeping the act up because she enjoyed the argument. He knew she would agree before she even spoke.

Still glaring, she made her reply in a cold, harsh tone, "Fine. I'll get my coat."

As she turned back into the room Eli smiled to himself again, satisfied he'd won the argument but at the same time realising he'd lost all moral high ground. She was completely selfish at times, but it wasn't fair to call her a completely bad person. He really wasn't that different from her. As she collected her coat and headed towards the door his satisfied smile turned to one of sadness, as he thought to himself, maybe we are just as bad as each other.

Several decades previously…

Satellite Medical Station
Bellatrix System
Linear Date (Earth Calendar): October 16th, 3287 AD
Sequential Date (Elysian Dimension): Century 3.86

A metallic grating sound accompanied by the faint buzz of machinery signified the mechanized door sliding open. The figure on the bed blinked her eyes open and raised herself up slightly in order to see who had just entered the room. As she recognised the man's greying curls and slim moustache, Dominie Nova groaned. "I wondered when you were going to show up."

Belman gave a smug smile. "Well, a temporal fracture that large was hardly going to go unnoticed by us, was it?"

"What do you want, Eli?" she snapped irritably. After all the shit he'd just put her through, the decent thing for him to do would be to just fuck off and leave her alone.

"Hmm." He seemed to consider for a moment. "Well, despite all the trouble you've caused, I still think you'd be a valuable member of the team. It appears you have certain abilities that could be extremely valuable to us. And if you agreed to it, I am absolutely certain I could be of use to you in finding out exactly where you come from. So what do you say?"

She flopped back down on the bed and screwed her eyes shut, pressing her fingers to her temples in a mixture of stress and frustration. "Go to hell, Belman."

He looked a little amused. "Charming."

She opened her eyes again to glare at him. "I'm still pissed with you."

"I know. But you'll get over it."

The expression on her face was one that most people would have cowered under. "I don't think so."

He sighed, before turning to leave. "Well, the offer's still there if you change your mind, Dom. Just a shame I can't protect you if you're not on my side."

He was about to walk through the door. She had a choice to make. "Wait." Damn, she'd been cornered into that, and she knew it. He turned back to her, an eyebrow raised. She heaved a sigh of anger. "What do you want me to do?"

He looked at her, his expression now serious and businesslike, "If the Rigellian Order have been obliterated, then there are going to be other contenders for control of that region of Earth's history. You know there's only so much the Agency can do to keep them in check. That's why the Order of Elysia was set up, although without someone of your particular talents working for us we're not going to be any more effective in this situation than the regular Time Police. We need you on board if we're going to be able to preserve the Earth's timeline, or the result will be a universe in which the Federation never existed."

Dom grimaced, realising there was no way she could really avoid the responsibility for this. She may not have been solely to blame for what had happened with the Rigellians, but she'd most definitely played an important part in it. If she didn't help Elysia out now and they failed, there would definitely be consequences for her. But that still didn't mean they'd had any right to involve her in the first place.

There were a few moments silence while she considered his offer, and as Eli noticed the expression on her face was one of reluctance, he decided to say to something else to try and persuade her. "Of course, if you still don't want to I'll understand, but Konstantin Brakhov might not. After all, the exemption from the Paradox Laws only applies to Elysians, and senior though I may be, I'm in no position to convince the head of the Enforcement Unit to excuse you as well."

She glowered at him again. "Fuck off."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is that a no?"

"It was a 'stop acting like a manipulative git,' Belman. I'll do it as long as you stop blackmailing me. Instead, you can do what you promised and help me find out where it is I'm from." Even though she knew she had no choice but to agree to help him, it didn't make it any easier for her. She thought Belman genuinely was enough of a bastard to hand her over to Brakhov, and although she hated doing this to Sander, things would be even worse for him if she was put on trial under Section Six of the Paradox Statute. Not to mention that she did desperately want to find out exactly where it was she'd come from, and it was a promise she intended to hold Belman to.

Eli looked rather smug and pleased with himself. "I think we can make that arrangement work. Can you attend the briefing this afternoon?"

She glared at him, gazing round at the hospital room as if wondering how on earth he could be so stupid. "This afternoon? I'm in this med station for a reason, Belman, and it's mostly your fault. If you want me to be of any help to you at all then you can bloody wait until I'm ready."

He scowled, angry that the operation would have to be put on hold but realising she made a valid point. "As soon as possible then."

She glared back at him and made her reply in a hostile tone. "Fine."

Belman held her gaze with an equally hostile stare. He may have won the initial argument – to get her to agree to work for him – but it still felt like he was letting her be the one in control. He wanted to impose a time limit on her, to make sure she knew who was in charge, but at the same time couldn't risk losing her co-operation. She was much more important to this operation than he'd ever dare admit, and although he'd tried to convince her otherwise there was no way he could afford to hand her over to Brakhov. But still, he wanted her at the briefing this afternoon, as he'd instructed. Not because it would be particularly beneficial to the operation, but because he wanted to have won the argument. He wanted control over her. But as the events of the past few months had shown, Dominie Nova was far from controllable.

For a moment they both stared at each other in silence, indignant, challenging the other to back down. Then the tension in the air was broken by the sound of the mechanized doors sliding open again and another figure walked into the room.

Sander Levenko eyed the scene before him, a little amused. "Not interrupting something, am I?"

Both continued to glare at each other, not turning to look at him. It was the expressions on their faces that amused him: petulant, almost childish determination to stare the other one out, to win. Even when Dom spoke she didn't take her eyes off Belman's. "No, Sander. Mr. Belman was just leaving."

Belman gave a low growl of frustration, realising she'd won. He turned and exited the room, scowling at Sander on the way out.

Sander watched him go before turning back to Dom. "What was that all about?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nothing. He's just being a git, as usual."

Sander pulled up a chair to sit beside the bed. "Who was he?"

"Just a cop who's got it in for me."

He frowned and looked concerned. "Why's he got it in for you?"

Dom sighed. She didn't really want to go into all the little details of it with him. "It's complicated."

He was still frowning. "He didn't exactly look like a copper."

"Well, he's not exactly so much a cop as, well…" she was considering explaining it to him, and then decided she couldn't be bothered. "Like I said, it's complicated, and it doesn't matter now anyway."

"Are you sure? If he was bothering you then I can report him. Even if he is a police officer there are still rules about things like that."

Dom smiled at him, inwardly feeling bad that she having to lie. "No, really, it's fine."

He smiled back. "Good. Well, if that's all sorted I've got this report from the planetary dock you might be interested in. There's this expeditionary starship that's scheduled for…" He continued to talk about whatever it was he'd heard from the planet's space traffic control, but Dominie wasn't really listening. Normally, she'd be thrilled to hear about whatever plans he had for where they were going to head off to next, but she knew that wasn't going to be able to happen now. Elias fucking Belman had gotten in the way. Again.

Sander continued rambling on while Dom just continued to stare vacantly at the ceiling. Hopefully, all this would prove worth it. Maybe, if she could just do this one mission for him Belman would let her go. Konstantin Brakhov would get off her back and her and Sander would be free to go and do as they pleased again without the Bureau interfering. And maybe, in the middle of it all, she'd finally get the ultimate prize. Maybe, if Belman was true to his word, she'd finally discover who – and what – she was.