"I think I've figured it out!" exclaimed Jo from her science station.
After the USS Crockett's brief encounter with the Timeship from the future, Captain Cross had decided that the only logical course of action was to resume their original mission, mapping subspace phenomenon here at the edges of the Briar Patch Nebula. He was in no hurry to return to Serenity and face the inevitable debriefing by Temporal Investigations. Jo meanwhile, had buried herself in the library computer, determined to find some answers.
Matthew Cross, Dexter Gray and Alex Dalton crowded around the port science station. "If you can explain what happened to us, I'll give you a medal," said Cross.
"Okay, here's what I think happened," began Jo. She took a second to organize her thoughts, then proceeded. "In the original timeline, the Hindenburg successfully completed its flight from Frankfurt to Lakehurst. There was no Suliban bomb, and everybody lived happily ever after.
"The Suliban went back in time and altered the timeline by planting a bomb on the Hindenburg blowing it up. Thirty-six people died, but a certain dog named Max survived. This is our timeline, the one we're living in. It's altered, yes, but not drastically so. Apparently, we're responsible for that by going back and rescuing the dog Max.
"The Suliban figured this out, so they came to the 24th century and attacked us, thinking to destroy the Crockett before we had the chance to go back and save Max. This would have been the third timeline, one where Max was killed and history was totally screwed for Earth and the Federation."
"But they're the ones responsible for sending us back to the 20th century," commented Dexter.
"Yes, there's the irony," replied Jo. "If they hadn't come to the 24th century to destroy us, we would never have wound up in the 20th to foil their plans.
"I hate time travel," said Cross for the n-th time.
"All this over a dog?" wondered Alex. "How in the world can a dog change history so profoundly?"
"Simple chaos theory," replied Jo. "Go back in time far enough and even the tiniest change has enormous, far-reaching consequences."
She turned to her console and punched up a data file. "I found this in the library's history files." It was an image of an ancient newspaper article. Above tiny print was a black & white photo of a German Shepherd. The caption above the article read 'Heroic Dog Saves Local'.
"Max, I presume," said Cross.
"Yup. Seems that after his harrowing and miraculous escape from the Hindenburg, he and his family went to live in Colorado. A few years later, there was a house fire in the town they settled in. Max ran into the building, pulling out a man who had been overcome by smoke inhalation, saving his life. Seems like his experience with the Hindenburg affected his doggie brain in a way that he felt compelled to help the trapped man escape the flames. The man was Harry Muldoon."
"Never heard of him," said Cross.
"Of course not. He's not famous in any way," replied Jo. "What he is though, is the ancestor -- six generations removed -- of Judith Templeton."
"Never heard of her either," said Cross, quickly losing patience.
"Of course not! She's not famous either," replied Jo smugly, enjoying her time in the spotlight. "However, she has the distinction of being the midwife who delivered Lily Sloane. Without her, it's likely that Sloane wouldn't have survived, that being the post-WWIII era, after all, and without Lily Sloane, there probably wouldn't have been a first warp flight in 2063."
"Zephram Cochrane did that," said Alex.
"Sure, Cochrane was an engineering genius who built the first warp drive and he was the one who greeted the Vulcans who landed after his flight, but he was also a fall-down drunk. Sloane helped him build the Phoenix, but she also helped keep him on track and focused. We owe Lily Sloane a lot more than history gives her credit for, and our little trip through time proves that.
"Incredible. Such a small thing turned out to be so important..." mused Dexter.
"Ugh," groaned Cross. "Temporal Investigations is never going to believe this."
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