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“Okay, let’s just say for a moment that all of the crazy claim you are making are true, Branch: I’m some captain from this spacefleet organization that exists in the future and I somehow ran away into the past and decided to camp out here in Wyoming why? Since the future is apparently very nearly perfect according to you.”
“Maybe that was the problem, Captain. You always did have a need to be the hero, maybe living in the safety of a better time just wasn’t dramatic enough for you. You wanted to come back and be a real cowboy. You wanted to be the law not just follow it.”
“This is hardly the wild west.”
“Maybe you miscalculated. You wouldn’t be the first.”
“Even then, why would you be here? According to you I came of my own free will and if I wanted a rescue don’t you think I’d admit who I was if I was really this guy you’re talking about.”
“It’s not a rescue. What you did broke the temporal prime directive. I’m here to bring you back to face judgement.”
“So you are telling me I’m a fugitive too now? For what?”
“Going back in time like this is illegal because you could easily contaminate the timeline.”
“Contaminate how? Wait a minute, I’ve got it… like having a child that wasn’t supposed to be born to me with a woman I wasn’t supposed to be alive to meet… that kind of contamination, Branch?”
“I didn’t mean-”
“Oh but I think you did. You’d better think long and hard before you move forward here, Branch. What would you have to do if I really was this fugitive captain of yours? Surely you couldn’t just let such a thing stand.”
“I couldn’t hurt Cady. You know I wouldn’t, not ever.”
“Think about what you are saying, Branch. Really think about it. Do I seem like a man from a more enlightened time to you?”