Mission 003: Constant Drift

[Gheskori]

OOC: Mission details to become clear as we progress. I will put a synopsis up eventually but let's feel our way forwards and see what happens.

USS Sabretooth, Hebridian Sector, Beta Quadrant...

The long-range scout vessel glided just above the ecliptic, orbiting in a wide ellipsis around a nameless star in the constellation Carina. This far out of system, the star appeared no more than a pinprick of off-white light, casting the craft's sunward facing in sparing, dusty illumination. It was deathly cold out here, seeming even moreso when considering how far the ship was from home.

The Hebridian Sector had been little explored by Starfleet. It lay at the border of Klingon space in a nook between outlying Federation territories little travelled by UFP-chartered vessels, the jurisdiction of a deep-range Klingon outpost, and a voluminous rift spanning over thousand light years. It was the task of the USS Sabretooth to begin cataloguing various star systems that until now had only been glimpsed from distant observatory stations, closer to the Federation's core.

The Ops officer was making his report, only vaguely interesting the Captain's bored eyes. "Nothing of note really. A slightly uncommon asteroid field; a solitary planetoid; the usual collection of comets and a low-density dust cloud."

"No life," the Captain observed, twiddling his thumbs. He frowned and cocked his head. Was he referring to the lack of biosigns from the star system, or to the state of his own existence?

"Sir, that slightly uncommon asteroid field is doing something slightly uncommon." The Captain's gaze flickered to his tactical officer, silently requesting an explanation. "It's moving out of the plane of the system. At tremendous velocity..."

The Captain asked for a visual and was shown something incredible. The asteroid belt - an artificially colour-enhanced gauze cast against a dark background - was uncoiling itself, pushing itself north away from the ecliptic.

"Sir..." a minute voice trembled, "The star's going nova."

"Wh- What? Power engines!" he barked, his disbelief at the asteroids' movement evaporating as quickly as it'd arrived, "Tactical, rear viewer, zoom in on the star." He trusted the officer would know to filter the image else they'd all be blinded.

The star appeared on the viewscreen just in time for the bridge crew to witness its implosion. "Good god....." Matter shot out with the fury of a billion suns. Knots of tortured stellar material were lost in the greater brightness, an all consuming luminescence that seemed to emanate some secret light, some secret process. "Warp speed, now!" They were out of range of the shockwave in moments, but for an instant, as they looked back into that nexus of energy, they witnessed a stellar object outshining the whole galaxy.

---

"Captain Gheskori, you will proceed with your mission, but we will be monitoring your vessel closely, very closely indeed in light of the recent supernova at HD 87283."

Gheskori nodded before the panel of Admirals, "I understand." Hyvra - the world they were heading to - was a mere fifty light years from the site of the nova that had rocked the Federation with its occurrence two days ago. The star had been nowhere near the end of its expected lifetime. The scientists were totally baffled; right now, across the Federation, they were holding frenzied conferences discussing the implications of the event. None of that mattered to the Enzio. It didn't affect their mission; they'd just have to be careful in transit, what with the cataclysmic shift in the interstellar medium and all.

"That's it, Captain," Burke said, "You're due to depart at 1200 hours today, so you best get a move on." Ghes nodded at each Admiral in turn, finishing at Burke with whom he shared a conspiratorial grin.

"Is our specialist stowed safely on board?" he said over the top of his tea. Commander Browne, the Enzio's assistant tactical chief sat opposite Ghes, looking down the concourse leading into the main dock. They were eating and drinking at Kostya's, a popular cafe at the end of the promenade closest to the docking bay.

"She's been shown to her quarters," Browne said. "Captain... Any clue as to what we're actually doing?"

Ghes checked his chronometer: it read 1109. "We're brokering an arms exchange between two warlords engaged in a time war." He slurped the rest of his tea down, his eyes shifting around. He espied a red collared officer moving among the crowd with aides in attendance. "Oh, Commander, Commander... over here." He sat up slightly and waved. Parsons spotted him and made his way over to their table.

"Before I start," Ghes held his hand up, then brought it to his commbadge, "To all crew of the USS Enzio, this is Captain Gheskori. Please would you all report back to the ship. We're leaving in fifty minutes, sharp. Apologies for the extremely short notice."
He didn't know how many of the crew were still aboard Spacedock, but it made him laugh to imagine them all rushing back to the ship.

<Tag All>

[James T Matthew]

Scene: S-B Assailant
Holodeck Program- 342009
(Winds of Fire)
“James was soaked in sweat as well as dirt and blood from the Holo deck characters
that he had just finished fighting. The crew that he passed in the corridor gave
him strange looks but James just ignored them. He never did care about what
others thought about him and that was even more so. Especially after the past
twenty four hours that he had.

“Stepping off the turbo lift on deck 12 James passed Some People in the Corridor they were all staring at him. He must have really looked like hell for them to
be staring at him. He ignored them as he walked to his Quest quarters. Stepping in, he
tosses his dirty uniform jacket and tossed in on his bunk.

“Walking into the small bathroom He stepped in front of the mirror, and seen for the first time what everyone was looking at him so hard for. Half of his face was covered in grit and blood. It looked like he had been in a small war, but the truth was that the training program he was
using was pretty close.

“Pulling off his dirty uniform he stepped into the sonic shower and let the sonic
pulsed wash away the grit and grim that he was covered in. Yet nothing could
wash away what he was feeling. Maybe he should talk to someone about what he was
going through, but he didn't know who he could trust. No there was no one he
could trust in telling them how he felt and getting some help. It was a burden
that he had lived with this long and it was one the he would continue to carry.

“Getting out of the shower James walked by his desk and noticed that there was a
new message for him. James tapped the screen and brought up the message. After a
few moments of reading it he let out a sigh well all Shorleave has been cancel all officers and crew are to return to the ship.

"Finally something to take my mind off of all this turmoil that is going on in
my life now." He said to himself as he looking at the clock on his desk. "Well
looks like I've got a little time to go and get something to eat before the
briefing." He said as he finished getting his uniform on.

Now dressed, James headed out the door to his quarters and made his way to the
Base Nears transport room.

<Tag All >
Cmdr James T Matthew
COO, USS ENZIO
NCC-750081

[Tiana Galwyn Cet]

Tiana had slept for fourteen hours and then by the time she had had another shower and breakfast (which was really closer to lunch) she had learned that Savin had been released.

She made a point to stopping by to see him later that day and also managed to get on top of her paperwork and personnel transfers and all the other things that went with being head of department.

By the time she had properly caught up the Enzio was in dock and she was able to go for a swim and do a bit of shopping and generally unwind for a couple of days. Then she threw herself into planning and setting up a small experiment looking at the effects of theta wave harmonics on crystal growth in micro gravity. Of course it wasn't any immediate use to anyone but it had been shown that there should be some very interesting properties in the resulting crystals...


=/\=To all crew of the USS Enzio, this is Captain Gheskori. Please would you all report back to the ship. We're leaving in fifty minutes, sharp. Apologies for the extremely short notice.=/\=

Tiana smiled when she heard that. She was back at her desk reading when the announcement was made. Several of her staff were all ready on board working on pet projects or generally unwinding. The rest she had no doubt would be on time.

[Gheskori]

USS Sabretooth, two days ago...

"Tell me why that just happened. You, you, on this. I want a report in three hours."

"Captain, I don't understand...... The star's... intact." The Ops officer was biting his lower lip, sensing the frustration and bewilderment building among the bridge officers. The Sabretooth's Captain had had the ship disengaged from warp and brought about. The Ops officer continued shakily, "The star is intact. No sign of the nova. And no sign of that asteroid belt..."

"On screen," the Captain ordered.

The nova burnt brightly, stellar matter twinkling in the darkness as it rode the ever expanding envelope. Temperatures would still be high, barely subsided at all from the time of the explosion. A sharp pinprick of energy sat at the storm's centre, a new neutron star.

The Captain was about to angrily object but the Ops officer got in first. "Sir, I don't fully comprehend this, but it appears the star is undergoing several stages of stellar evolution simultaneously. It's in a sort of state of chronometric flux. Different epochs are passing within the region of the star: we're seeing birth, main sequence, giant phase, death..." The viewscreen told them none of this. They saw only the silent system, a nova spreading its curious tendrils into the darkness.

---

~ All personnel reporting at stations ~ the computer intoned, ~ All departments reporting full readiness ~

Ghes adjusted his collar at the back of the bridge, a smirk of satisfaction touching his face. At last, he thought. The dockmaster had been pestering the harried officer of the deck for the last twenty minutes, trying to ensure that the Enzio departed Earth Spacedock on time. They were now five minutes overdue. The Denobulan Captain knew he could only blame himself - for not putting the word of their departure about the evening before - but it didn't worry him too greatly. Some excitement, some breaking of the routine was often needed in departing Spacedock. It was hardly a routine mission after all.

"You may do the honours, Commander Matthew," he instructed the officer whose watch it was. The COO put in the request with the dockmaster, fulfilled the other untethering duties and directed the helmsman towards the exit; the Enzio was finally underway.

"Good work, Commander..." Ghes said platitudinously, swaying slightly towards the turbolift.

"Just glad they haven't fired a quantum torpedo up our rear, sir."

The Enzio's target system was nearly three weeks out of Earth Spacedock. The ship would be stopping at Outpost Beta Hydra en route to collect supplies for the world in question. In the first two weeks before the rendezvous with the deep space station the crew were virtually granted some more time off. Ghes briefed the senior staff on the assignment in this time, holding a series of talks explaining each side's viewpoint in the interplanetary war. Beyond Beta Hydra space was dominated by shifting clouds of material outjetted from the remnants of HD 87283. Perturbed molecular clouds were remapping the stellar topography of the region. The Enzio was only skirting the boundaries of the zone to get to the system in question, but its crew would have to be wary.

Ghes came to the mission specialist's quarters. He looked the door up and down, as if discerning something behind it. He thought better of the whole idea. Specialist Liral hadn't attended one of his briefings... Ghes hadn't a clue what she might be doing. The computer reported nothing was amiss; she was simply in her quarters, doing nothing. "Ghes to all senior staff. Please gather in the ward room for the latest briefing."

<Tag All - we are during the two week period between Earth and Beta Hydra>

He walked past the science lab on the way back to the bridge. Galwyn Cet exited as he passed by. "Ah, Tiana..." he said, falling into step. The conversation eventually swung towards the CMO's son. "How was Savin when you last saw him?" he inquired.

<Tag Tiana>

[Tiana Galwyn Cet]

=/\=Ghes to all senior staff. Please gather in the ward room for the latest briefing.=/\=

Tiana acknowledged the order, took a moment to tidy up the surface of her desk and then reported to the ward room. She was the first to arrived after the Captain.

She smiled as she settled in her seat. "I looking forward to finding out what we're up to this time. Ensign Merrik was telling everyone that we were going to be investigating weather of Saterlis III, then again she's a meteorologist and atmospheric physicist so weather is a good fraction of what she thinks about.

Tag: Ghes / Briefing

**************************************

The first part of the trip was reasonably quiet and she had even found time to put in a couple of hours work on her theta wave microgravity experiment.

She had literally just stepped out of the lab when she saw the Captain, he seemed very pleased to see her and they talked for a while.

"How was Savin when you last saw him?" he inquired.

"I haven't seen him a few days," Tiana said, she felt a little bit guilty about that. He knew he could talk to her if he needed to but... was that enough? "He's getting there slowly, still a bit nervous of himself and surprised that people are willing to be treated by him I think..." Tiana paused a moment. There was a lot more she could have said but it didn't seem quite right. She was tired, maybe that was it.

Tag: Ghes

[Deleted]

Commander Walters scowled as the computer flashed a message on the screen. “Simulation complete, structural failure.” Slamming his fist on the control panel he ignored the more detailed report that followed.

“Forty-seven tests, forty-seven failures...” he muttered to no one in particular. For some reason the Captain wanted the Enzio equipped with a slipstream drive, and as it had been for the past 20 years, was being a big pain it the [word deleted]. There were reasons why the only successful slipstream installations were on ships specifically designed for it, the Vesta-class being one of the most famous.

“Ihlin?” he shouted, out into the rest of Main Engineering. Normally he’d use the comm but he knew the S’ti’ach was somewhere around and could hear him. Sure enough, a blue face appeared over the railing two decks above.

“Yeah boss?” he asked, the alien’s big floppy ears perking up.

“Got a minute? I need to run something by you.”

“Be right there.” Instead of disappearing from view to get to the elevator, Ihlin simply jumped over the railing, grabbed the warp core, and climbed down head first, all four arms and his two legs skittering along the metal. In a fraction of the time it would take for an elevator ride, the structural engineer was standing next to the chief engineer. “What’s on your mind?”

Will chuckled and waved Ihlin over to the computer. “I’ve been running slipstream simulations but haven’t had any luck.”

Ihlin cut in. “Let me guess, the variance in the quantum field keeps knocking the ship out of the corridor shredding the ship?”

Will shook his head. “Not quite. I’ve been able to keep the corridor stable. Instead the variance is shredding the ship through unequal tension and compression stresses along the corridor axis.”

Ihlin nodded slowly in understanding. “Typical problem. If I remember right the issue was one of aerodynamics. Since the ship is slipping through an energy field you have to take the ship profile into account. That’s why it usually only works with specifically designed ships.”

Frowning, “So without some way of making the hull stronger there’s no way to use a slipstream drive outside of short bursts?”

“Pretty much.” Ihlin confirmed. “But you’re the propulsion specialist, you’re the one that’s supposed to solve these problems.”

That got a chuckle out of the human, but before he could say anything the comm chirped. "Ghes to all senior staff. Please gather in the ward room for the latest briefing."

Glancing back down at the smaller engineer, “See what you can come up with for SIF upgrades while I’m gone, I remember a paper suggesting the idea of stronger, more adaptive fields countering slipstream fluctuations.” Ihlin nodded in acceptance and Will headed for the Bridge. His report was not going to be a fun one.

[Deleted]

Now that some time had passed, Saryn studied his son working with patients in sickbay. He knew it took time for him to adjust but he also knew that some time, he had to accept the fact that this had happened, and that somehow this would always be part of him. He could see the younger Vulcan was anxious around patients, almost as if he was afraid to work with them, or on them, as if they would shy away from him because of what he had done.

Saryn, however, also observed that only a very small fraction of the patients actually did request a different doctor. He tapped his son's arm to get his attention when he heard the call to report to a briefing. "I will return shortly, until then, you are in charge of sickbay." He reasoned it would do the boy's confidence good, to be in charge for a while.

Gathering his PADD and tricorder, Saryn left sickbay and headed for the briefingroom. Quietly, he took his seat after giving the captain a nod in greeting. He would speak with the Denobulan after the meeting, provided there was time to do so.

[Gheskori]

Ghes had just begun the briefing when the last of the senior staff stepped into the room. This was his final conference before the Enzio reached its halfway point at Outpost Beta Hydra. Past that Federation station the Enzio would be entering the region of the supernova, skirting its edge to get to the destination system.

"I see we're all present," he smiled as the last officers filtered in and slipped past him to their seats. "It's been codenamed the Harlequin System. Four planets, three rocky, two of which are inhabited, and an outer asteroid belt. The innermost planet is populated by humanoids while the second world is home to an insectoid species. Both are warp-capable, although they don't currently have the resources to commit to space exploration as they are at war with each other."

One hand went up immediately. "Why should we be involving ourselves in a conflict between non-Federation members, even if they're post-warp?"

"Because they are engaged in a temporal war. A temporal war, fought within Federation territory, where any military action carried out has an unknown effect on the history of the region and potentially disastrous consequences for the timeline of the Federation. It is our duty to put an end to this conflict.

"We're not diplomats of course," he added quickly. "Perhaps fortunately, the foremost authorities on either side are not the keenest of negotiators... Talks between the two sides never progress very far, as elements in both administrations later alter the timeline so that the talks did not happen in the first place. We're here to encourage and facilitate an exchange of arms, under the pretence of getting them to talk to each other in terms they can both understand. In reality, we will attempt to withhold these arms and thus prevent them from continuing their war."

"What are they warring over exactly?" someone asked.

"The third rocky world. It's believed that locked under the small, outer world's crust there is some resource critical to both war efforts. The humanoids and insectoids are fighting for this resource merely so that they may continue fighting." Ghes paused, and shrugged at the incredulous looks he received.

"The last assault, a couple months ago by the insectoid species, attempted to erase the humanoids' entire military arm from history, but it went badly wrong. Now the humanoids' whole world is in a state of quantum flux. Some regions are as they were in the past, while others are in the future, and these are constantly fluctuating. There are some pockets of stability, where the present timeframe is approximately equivalent to ours..."

Ghes didn't fully understand it. The scientists on board had attempted to explain it to him... Something to do with a standing wave. "The humanoids' army still exists and maintain a foothold on the insectoid world."

Some more questions were asked before they were all rudely interrupted by the intercom. "Captain Gheskori, we are receiving a hail from the USS Sabretooth."

"Acknowledged," Ghes replied with uncharacteristic curtness. He spoke to his staff again, "We are a few hours out from the Beta Hydra station, where we will pick up supplies and... weapons, to barter with the two warlords on each side. This is unsavoury, I know, but sometimes we have little choice when our futures, and our pasts, are at risk.

"Any more questions before I take the call from the Sabretooth?" he asked, looking into the eyes of each officer, wondering what they made of the news that they were deceiving the two Harlequin species by offering them more weapons.

<Tag ALL>

[Deleted]

Saryn listened intently as questions went back and forth, his mind already on the situation at hand. He looked thoughtful as he listened his eyes always on the speaker as if to better take in his or her words.

"Captain, what is the state of medical facilities?" he asked when silence fell after Gheskori's final question which was addressed at the assembly of officers. "Is there any information on the amount of wounded on either side? Or other medical requirements?" He gave the Denobulan a pointed stare. "If there is some way we can help them, are we not obligated to offer our assistance?"

(Ghes)

-------

Savin glanced around in sickbay as he stood in the middle of the room, tricorder in one hand, a dermal regenerator in the other. He felt a little lost, having been left in charge without any kind of preparation of being in charge. A nervous expression played across his features as he watched the nurses deal with the few patients that were there.

He turned, when a nurse pointed towards the door and a young engineer was brought in and laid out across a bio bed. "What happened?" he asked as he rushed over.

"Conduit burst, he got caught in the spark of it sir," one of the young men who'd brought him in answered, looking directly at the doctor, knowing he was deaf. "Can you help him?"

Savin nodded as he carefully started to remove the injured man's uniform. He froze when the man suddenly jerked and slapped at his hands, before violently shoving him away. "Not him!" the junior officer snarled, "he's a killer. Anyone, but not him!"

The second engineer gave the Vulcan a look of sheer apology. "Don't mind him, he's in a lot of pain Savin. I trust you to help him, I need you to help him."

The note of confidence was overwhelming but Savin wasn't sure what to do. Clearly the injured engineer didn't want his help, but his injuries were severe enough to warrant a choice of ignoring his wishes. "You need to help him," the second engineer pressed, while holding his fellow crewman down on the bed.

Savin nodded slowly and approached the bed again. "If I do not help you now, you will only aggravate your injury," he stated calmly, though his exterior calm took quite an amount of effort. "I am going to give you a mild sedative to reduce most of your pain, then I will repair the damage to your skin and give you a wide spectrum antibiotic." He reached for a hypospray and pressed it against the engineer's neck, before removing the damaged section of his uniform completely. Within minutes he had repaired the damage and prevented any possible infection of the injury.

"You may take him to his quarters as soon as he wakes up," Savin informed the other engineer, "if there are complications he is to return but I expect none."

"Thank you doctor." The engineer smiled at him. "You're doing fine, don't listen to what others tell you. Many in engineering know that what happened wasn't your fault, just that some are a little dim. Commander Walters has expressed every faith in you, and I believe him." He patted the Vulcan's shoulder. "Have a little faith in yourself hm? Perhaps you should pay the chapel a visit, even if you're not a religious man, it might help ease your conscience a little."

The Vulcan frowned, yet nodded quietly, shying away from the immediate touch without trying to offend the man. "I will do that. Thank you."

[Tiana Galwyn Cet]

"I see we're all present," Ghes said. "It's been codenamed the Harlequin System. Four planets, three rocky, two of which are inhabited, and an outer asteroid belt. The innermost planet is populated by humanoids while the second world is home to an insectoid species. Both are warp-capable, although they don't currently have the resources to commit to space exploration as they are at war with each other."

"Why should we be involving ourselves in a conflict between non-Federation members, even if they're post-warp?"

"Because they are engaged in a temporal war. A temporal war, fought within Federation territory, where any military action carried out has an unknown effect on the history of the region and potentially disastrous consequences for the timeline of the Federation. It is our duty to put an end to this conflict."
As soon as he mentioned 'temporal war' Tiana winced, given her specialism relating to gravity and the nature of space time she had attended (and passed with honours) more than the average number of temporal physics courses. Right now, all that meant was that she knew in detail several scenarios that could result from a temporal war and she had the language to describe it. She cursed under her breath in her native tongue not really a sensible reaction but this was somewhere close to her worst nightmare.

"We're not diplomats of course," Ghes added quickly, perhaps misinterpreting Tiana's expression or comment. "Perhaps fortunately, the foremost authorities on either side are not the keenest of negotiators... Talks between the two sides never progress very far, as elements in both administrations later alter the timeline so that the talks did not happen in the first place. We're here to encourage and facilitate an exchange of arms, under the pretense of getting them to talk to each other in terms they can both understand. In reality, we will attempt to withhold these arms and thus prevent them from continuing their war."

"What are they warring over exactly?" Tiana asked, mainly to give herself something else to focus on.

"The third rocky world. It's believed that locked under the small, outer world's crust there is some resource critical to both war efforts. The humanoids and insectoids are fighting for this resource merely so that they may continue fighting." Ghes paused, and shrugged at the incredulous looks he received.

"The last assault, a couple months ago by the insectoid species, attempted to erase the humanoids' entire military arm from history, but it went badly wrong. Now the humanoids' whole world is in a state of quantum flux. Some regions are as they were in the past, while others are in the future, and these are constantly fluctuating. There are some pockets of stability, where the present timeframe is approximately equivalent to ours..."

Tiana put both elbows on the table and put her head in her hands, when considering temporal flux 'stable' was a very relative term especially if the region was still being poked at... She was getting more and more nervous this was worse that fire.

She would have to read up and make models and consult with her colleges knowledge was a good way to counter fear. In this case she was pretty certain that the fear was rational. "The humanoids' army still exists and maintain a foothold on the insectoid world."

Some more questions were asked before they were all rudely interrupted by the intercom. "Captain Gheskori, we are receiving a hail from the USS Sabretooth."

"Acknowledged," Ghes replied with uncharacteristic curtness. He spoke to his staff again, "We are a few hours out from the Beta Hydra station, where we will pick up supplies and... weapons, to barter with the two warlords on each side. This is unsavoury, I know, but sometimes we have little choice when our futures, and our pasts, are at risk.

It was more than unsavory it was down right terrifying, it probably wasn't a good idea to try to explain in detail what unstable temporal flux could do. Most people in starfleet would have an idea although from what she had learned most thought either thought it was possibly amusing or a headache keeping your tenses straight. Very few people thought about the nastier side.

"Any more questions before I take the call from the Sabretooth?" he asked, looking into the eyes of each officer, wondering what they made of the news that they were deceiving the two Harlequin species by offering them more weapons.
Tiana shook her head she had so much to do that she barely knew where to start.

[Gheskori]

"If there is some way we can help them, are we not obligated to offer our assistance?"

"We don't know how receptive they'll be to offers of aid," Ghes answered Saryn, "Some of you may not like it, but the current state of affairs in the system means we can't simply intervene, or even offer humanitarian aid. We must keep our distance for now, until we can get a feel for the situation."

Ghes came to stand at the head of the conference table, after circling the attentive staff, "Any interference on our part means we would be directly involving ourselves in their timeline; that could have bad consequences for us if they were to use one of their chronoton devices. Who knows? Our very involvement might even prove to be the catalyst of a temporal incident."

The Captain dismissed the staff from the briefing, just before the helm officer informed them that the ship should reach the Beta Hydra outpost in a little under two hours. Ghes nodded to the CNO and led the staff back to the bridge, swinging into the command chair.

"Put the hail from the Sabretooth through to the viewscreen," he said, holding down a button on his arm panel as the tactical officer was not present.

The Sabretooth Captain's face appeared, taking up most of the viewer. "Captain Gheskori. We've been waiting for your call." The officer nodded then appeared to look down; it occurred to Ghes that he was instructing his helm officer. "We're transferring the data now, Captain."

The image blanked out, replaced with lines of scrambled code that were subsequently supplanted by darkness. "What are we seeing here..?" Ghes mused.

"Magnifiying, sir," the navigational officer said. A box appeared around the fuzzy light patch on the screen and it resolved itself; the bridge was stunned into silence. They were witnessing a planet of which an entire hemisphere had disintegrated into space. It was a split, fleshy red apple, tumbling through the void. But that wasn't the most bewildering part of it.

The Sabretooth informed them that the planet was undergoing the same phenomenon as had befallen the nearby nova star. There were loops and bows in the intact hemisphere, the stuff of the world seeming to fold back into itself in denial of the laws of spacetime.

This, they deduced, before arriving at Beta Hydra outpost, was a consequence of a recent temporal incursion in the vicinity of the Harlequin system (the Enzio's destination). Grave danger lay ahead; the Enzio would have to avoid contact with anyone or anything that'd been in the Harlequin system 'until' it got there, else they risked becoming contaminated in that system's timeline.

"Sir, we've just entered communications range with the Beta Hydra outpost."

"Acknowledged. Send a greeting and request a docking berth. Let's acquire these weapons and supplies as quickly as possible." Ghes rose from the command chair, exhaling heavily. Doubtless he would be hearing from Command soon about the planetary explosion... The purpose of the Enzio's mission might change if that destroyed planet was involved with the Federation.

"Commander Matthew, a moment please," he said, alerting the Second Officer and summoning him to the ready room.

Ghes sat in his chair, waiting patiently with an uplifted expression for the door to close behind Matthew. "Commander, in Commander Parsons' absence, I would like for you to take the XO position on a temporary basis. You are the exec for the remainder of this mission, or until Adam returns to us." Ghes poured a drink for the stand-in XO and shifted it over the table. "Do you have any questions, or concerns, before we beam over to the outpost?" he said questingly, eyeing Matthew above the rim of his drinking glass.

<Tag Cmdr. Matthew>

<Tag All - we've reached Beta Hydra outpost, where we'll take on weaponry to barter with the two warring species. The outpost is Federation administrated but is open to non-Fed traders - think Ferengi and assorted mercenaries>

[James T Matthew]

Ghes sat in his chair, waiting patiently with an uplifted expression for the door to close behind Matthew. "Commander, in Commander Parsons' absence, I would like for you to take the XO position on a temporary basis. You are the exec for the remainder of this mission, or until Adam returns to us." Ghes poured a drink for the stand-in XO and shifted it over the table. "Do you have any questions, or concerns, before we beam over to the outpost?" he said questingly, eyeing Matthew above the rim of his drinking glass.

"Cmdr Matthew 'Captain there will be no problems assuming the XO responsibilities until his return as for our current mission I have been making my around the ship The Senior Chief Petty officers tell me they have been Hearing some rumbling from some of the new Younger crewman About this mission so far the senior chiefs have kelp them in line so far I Subject we have two Or three security drills just to keep the ship on their throes the last thing we need is a call for battle stations and have some people not at the duty station '

also I have ask the chief security officer to post some of his officers at the Docking bay ramps to scan all Cargo before its move to any cargo bays on the ship I know it sounds A little over the top but back when I was A junior Lt we had A Standard Mine transported on to the ship from what we thought was a secured base that almost got us all killed we was just lucky our sensor pick up the Magnetic Signal before I we off it would have distorted the ship and the base also we are now in a Combat Area and Starfleet Command general orders must be Fallowed.

< tag Ghes >

[James T Matthew]

Time: 0500 hours
Scene: Outpost Beta Hydra.

“Ensign Torah Keels stood pensively staring out of the view
port into the expanse of the universe. The stars around her blinked
uncaringly as she waited for the arrival Lambda-Warp Shuttle
that was due to collect its passenger(s) and transport them at mind
numbing speeds to the waiting starship presently on a mission
elsewhere in the quadrant. In this specific case, the USS Blackhawk.
She briefly wondered whether the specifications on the defiant class
vessel was designed by the analogy of a heavily armed diplomat.

"Kale’s! I will never drink again!" She admonished quietly, her
eyelids closed, hands clutching her stomach unaware of the busy
thoroughfare of space traffic presently in orbit around the
station. "Well, at least not with Sarien Brandy liberally mixed with
Andorian Whiskey." The Ensign corrected quickly recalling exactly
why and how many concoctions it took before most of last night
became a blur.

In the finest Klingon-Ferengi tradition, her uncle Tooke and Bok had
given her a farewell worthy of many songs. Drinking songs, she
painfully recalled which no doubt would be a horrid (and
embarrassing) future reminder, along with the holo images of her
ungracefully keeled over the waste disposal unit backwashing fresh
Klingon Gaagh with bitter vehemence. Feeling slightly queasy she
paced over to the replicator and ordered Bolian tonic water in hope
to calm the churn in her stomach, slight double vision and not to
mention the class 5 headache that throbbed between her temple. She
felt like a first year cadet in the aftermath of their first post
semester blow out, rather than the daughter to a bloodline that were
known to be able to brew and hold their drink. She hoped that she
wouldn't lose the small sense of composure completely, or more
specifically on the deck along with last night's generous buffet
that her Ferengi friend had also arranged for. It would be hard to
explain to the station CO or her pending commanding officer why she
failed to make her posting on time.

Like clockwork, the aforementioned shuttle took its berth into a
docking port, the airlock opening with a silent hiss.

"Thank Kale’s." tora exhaled and considered why the Bolian
tonic water was doing little to calm any of her frayed and very hung
over nerves. She hoped the Lambda-Warp would not have the same
effects on the indigestive systems. Had she not been too busy
dismantling her mother's equipment, perhaps she could have managed
to somewhere in their lives to discuss why this particular Klingon
(hybrid) gets hung over. Residing to the journey, she tentatively
seized her Starfleet issue carry bag, slung it over her shoulder and
walked towards the airlock.

“Two feet before she entered the shuttle tora realized exactly
why it was only designed for one. It was a good thing she didn't
mind working so close to things such as warp cores, plasma conduits
or there was no way in Shovel she would even consider the
invitingly and mendaciously comfortable chair which lay waiting
before her. Stuffing her luggage into a stow compartment, Ensign
Tora lumbered into the chair, sealed the hatch and activated the
forward console. The vessel was a technological marvel, one she
wished she would get a chance to dismantle. It was a good thing
these shuttles weren't designed for more than one person. One could
likely take an eye out with a careless elbow or diagnostic spanner.
Tapping the console, she activated the comm. channel.

< Ensign leigh to Beta Hydra traffic command. Request permission to
disembark. >

The channel burst to life. < This is Beta Hydra base traffic command, you
are cleared for launch. Good luck Ensign. Traffic command out. >

From the forward and only view port she noticed the ship engage
departure. She hoped she would survive the trip. Her thrill seeking
persona was far too busy dealing with the thought of having no room
to consider her options if her stomachs decided not to enjoy the
trip.

Her last thought prior going into abject terror and wrapped
fascination as the vessel immediately jump to something well and
truly beyond warp, was her concerns on getting to know the Triton
crew. After all, she had all the socialization ineptitude (read,
aptitude) of a newly liberated Borg drone and that was under strict
first contact diplomatic conditions .

Character: Ensign Torah Keels- NPC
Position: CEO
Outpost Beta Hydra.

< Just some mission Filler Capt. >

[Deleted]

Commander Walters sighed and tossed his PADD back onto his desk, the headache already pounding away behind his eyes. With the Enzio sitting in dock the ship’s systems didn’t need much in the way of attention (especially after the intense shakedown they gave it during the post-Jupiter overhaul). What they needed right now was some sort of idea on whether or not the ship could be protected from the totally insane temporal effects. The numerous temporal incursions were overwriting themselves causing massive spacetime distortions making the usual warp field near-useless.

And that was just the beginning of it.

Without some form of temporal shielding there was no way to know how the Enzio would be affected by the ever-shifting timeline. It could be possible that unless they interacted with anything nothing would happen to them. It was also possible that they could be erased from history, transformed into a garbage scow, or turned into Borg drones. It all depended on what the “new” timeline detailed for them. The biggest problem was just that he had absolutely no idea. Neither did Hriss or Ihlin.

Sighing again, Will decided it was time to bring in the big guns. Turning his console towards him he activated the computer interface. “Computer, open subspace comm line to the closest Department of Temporal Investigations office. Request studies on overlapping temporal incursions and possible defenses from the effects.”

“Working...” Unfortunately the status bar was filling quite slowly so he decided to go get something to eat while he waited.

[Gheskori]

Gheskori lay on the couch in his quarters with the lights off. The dark extended utterly into all corners of the room, shrouding him in night besides a small device built into the PADD he held in his hands. An Earth poet named Tennyson was his current read.

Distant stars kept watch on the portal of his quarters, a cleft in the side of space where the living organism within was protected from the void by less than a metre of duranium.
On the other side of the ship there was no night to look out on. The vessel was hard-docked to the Beta Hydra outpost; no soft umbilical corridor, no free floating inside a spacedock, instead a no-nonsense mechanical lock, a bared metallic kiss between the mechanisms of Enzio and the aforementioned outpost.

A red glow seemed to leak through his quarters leaving him cold for an instant - being as he was cocooned inside Tennyson's poetry, his expectations mutated by the fantastic realm laid down in Come Down O Maid. Soon he realised he was receiving a priority message; he called for the lights to be turned on full.

"At last." He sat at his personal console, regarding Admiral Burke with a wry expression. Eventually he tilted his head in apology, "Sir, It's good to hear from you. This is about the planetary explosion?"

Burke tilted his head in turn. Perhaps, Ghes thought, a look of slight puzzlement crossed his features. Just as Ghes began to fear the worst, Burke nodded and his face reset, "Indeed, Captain. Schrodinger VII, a planet on which was being conducted a Federation mining operation, has been partially obliterated, as the result of a temporal incursion in the Harlequin system."

Ghes nodded promptly, "You have new orders for me."

Burke paused and his aspect grew darker, "Would you stop preempting what I'm about to say? Yes, new orders. Go to the Harlequin system, same as before, but upon arriving immediately and directly challenge the two factions, demanding that they end their war in the interest of the temporal security of the sector."

The lighting grew dimmer, momentarily, in Ghes's quarters, the faulty power conversion to the Beta Hydra outpost siphoning off more energy than was needed. The Enzio's CO saw very clearly that Burke was aggravated - continually glancing above Ghes and behind himself, making uncomfortable and angry faces at his aides. Ghes found this amusing. True, the sector for which the Admiral was responsible was currently undergoing a unique and rather delicate form of upheaval. But why bother?, Ghes thought. He clenched his fists, almost in anger at this stance as he was regarding himself self-critically. He tried to ignore the waves of darkness that pressurised his own mind.

"Aye, Admiral," he said quietly. "Anything else that I may need to know?"

"We're sending a detachment of marines to your vessel; I understand you currently lack one. It'll be larger than the usual complement as you'll have need of them if the two Harlequin factions refuse to cooperate. They should already be on the Beta Hydra outpost, waiting to be collected."

Ghes acknowledged, ended the communicae and had the lights turned off again. The constant dimming and brightening had grown extremely annoying. He sat in the dark, staring at the screen and pondering the ethics of the coming operation.

* * * * *

He and his acting XO stood at the main airlock on to Beta Hydra. A small number of security officers and a few of the senior staff were with them, waiting to enter the outer ring of the outpost.

He looked over at Commander Matthew, "We'll split into three teams of three. You take two and see if you can find the marine detachment we're picking up here. I'll survey the public areas to procure our supplies, it can't be too difficult," he coughed, turned to another senior staff member, "You take whoever's left and ask the Federation administrators why we haven't been given our weaponry. Hunt it down if you can."

<Tag Any Senior Staff - if you want to be part of the weaponry/supplies hunt, we're now on the base in three teams of three. Let's see if we run into any trouble... >

[Tiana Galwyn Cet]

Tiana was entirely thrilled to be going on this away mission she had far too much too do contemplating the consequences of a temporal war and trying to work out if there were any ways to mitigate the effects of temporal fallout... Still, she could probably consider things while on the away mission. She was dressed in uniform for the mission. She knew this might not be as simple as it sounded. She reached the transporter room and stood in something close to paradeground rest as the Captain spoke.

He looked over at Commander Matthew, "We'll split into three teams of three. You take two and see if you can find the marine detachment we're picking up here. I'll survey the public areas to procure our supplies, it can't be too difficult," he coughed, turned to another senior staff member, "You take whoever's left and ask the Federation administrators why we haven't been given our weaponry. Hunt it down if you can."

Tiana wasn't at all surprised to find herself assigned to the Captain's team. It would probably be easier to locate an entire platoon of marines who were trying to be found than to locate the equipment they needed. Then again, she would recognise it and be able to tell if it was working...

[Gheskori]

Gheskori's team made its way on to the main trading deck of the Beta Hydra outpost, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves. The first thing they observed, however was that here Starfleet officers, while not exactly looked on with friendliness, were treated with a certain amount of grudging respect. Traders and mercenaries slithered out of the way as Ghes and his two officers approached. This should make things easier, the Denobulan thought, if they were going to secure the supplies. He looked around, caught Tiana's eye and nodded. They pushed through the crowds.

A small cove of shops fronting warehouses in an almost quaint corner of the trading deck was now before them. The three of them stood to the side, like spare ones for a short time, before eventually deciding to approach one of the vendors. "How much for the ultritium?" Ghes said quietly, leaning over the vendor sitting at the table.

"It's not weapons grade," the vendor said quickly, and with shaking hands regarded his padd "70,000 credits per kilo."

"I'll take it." Ghes said, taking out his own padd and performing the transaction electronically. He caught Tiana looking at him strangely.

As they walked away, Ghes confided in her, "Yes... It's not what you'd call 'supplies'. If we needed those I'd have asked Starfleet. I've been given permission by Admiral Burke to seek blackmarket products, else we'd never have any hope of negotiating with the Harlequin peoples. If it bothers you...?"

<Tag Tiana>

They began to approach another seller when a wafting acidic odour came over them. It floated down the main passageway of the trading area. Ghes shook it off as nothing, but when they'd concluded the next transaction he noticed increasing murmurs from the various clientele. There was mass confusion, but from what he could gather a chain of explosions had occurred around the other side of the outpost!

People were flying in panic, traders' stalls sent crashing to the deck. It was chaos. The team's commbadges chirped. It was Lieutenant Lane, the third team leader. "Someone detonated a weapons cache on this side of the station, sir. There's a chain reaction of explosions spreading around the docking ring and administrators believe the station's in danger. Recommend immediate transport back to the Enzio."

"Copy that, Lieutenant. All teams comply." Ghes then hailed the Enzio but the line was dead. He muttered a curse. Perhaps his order hadn't even got through to the other groups. He trusted Commander Matthew's team to make their way back as well though, regardless of whether the Commander knew the situation or not.

"Run back to the ship," he recommended to his own team, not having time to even think of the madness of this turn of events.

<Tag ALL three teams> <Tag whoever is on the Enzio - still docked?>

[Deleted]

Unlike the others, Saryn had gone off on his own to explore the station and search for supplies. He had left his son in sickbay and in charge of his medical domain. He knew that some might object to that but Saryn reasoned the young man still needed the confidence boost, not to mention the experience if he wanted his own sickbay in due time.

Dressed in a Starfleet medical uniform, rather than his usual civilian attire, yet without any rank indication attached, the Vulcan medic roamed the station. The timedisplacements that were mentioned in the briefing were disturbing at best and he knew all about being displaced in time, after all he and his family had been thrown a good two centuries forward in time and had no way of ever returning home. He paid close attention to his surroundings, mapping his progress with his tricorder.

Since he was a civilian he wasn't authorised to carry a phaser off-ship so in essence he was unarmed. He had also opted not to take his sword as he wanted to give the appearance of being harmless. He'd been walking around for a few hours when he suddenly stumbled upon several crates which were stowed away in the far corner of a storage room. They were labeled as medical supplies which was in fact exactly what he was after. However, the way they were stored, pretty much out of direct view, didn't sit right with him.

Carefully he approached the stack of crates and lifted the lid of one of them, examining a few random vials that he could directly grab. Frowning, he read the results, his concern turning into annoyance and anger. "Captain Gheskori, this is Saryn. I have found medical supplies, however...these are not of Federation origin. In fact, these are banned sir...illegal." He had heard the call to return to the ship but had opted to ignore it in favour of examining his find.

[James T Matthew]

Scene: Beta Hydra outpost
(The River edge café)

“James wasn’t sure what to expect. as they strode through
the promenade Area of Beta Hydra outpost he realized he was actually nervous thinking to himself I Served on many Star bases doing my Starfleet career and every one of them had Spies on Board them at Different levels but I can Honestly Say I have Never Felt so many eyes on me at that moment we came across a little Café.

“This place was one of those Places you Kept your hand on you Phaser at all times

“So we enter the place “
“Waitress-Can I help you Commander?

. Uh....yeah, sorry, You Won’t Happen to Scene a Group of Marines Around here have you

“Waitress No not today Are you staying Have a chair I’ll be back to take your orders just as we Sat down A loud Explosion went off Everyone in the café Hit the floor At that second everyone comm.. Badges went off you could hear Lt’Lane Voice “

Lieutenant Lane, the third team leader. "Someone detonated a weapons cache on this side of the station, sir. There's a chain reaction of explosions spreading around the docking ring and administrators believe the station's in danger. Recommend immediate transport back to the Enzio."

"Copy that, Lieutenant. All teams comply." Ghes then hailed the Enzio but the line was dead. He muttered a curse. Perhaps his order hadn't even got through to the other groups. He trusted Commander Matthew's team to make their way back as well though, regardless of whether the Commander knew the situation or not.

"Run back to the ship," he recommended to his own team, not having time to even think of the madness of this turn of events.

“Cmdr Matthew Taps his comm...Badge Matthew to Enzio returning to ship Well you heard the Captain People Let Make our way back to the Ship if we still have one Just My Luck I never got a Chance to Order Lunch.

< Tag ghes. >

[Gheskori]

"Captain Gheskori, this is Saryn. I have found medical supplies, however...these are not of Federation origin. In fact, these are banned sir...illegal."

Ghes winced, as he Tiana and Ensign Provis ran past a large eatery that people were piling out of into the stream of panicked civilians crossing the promenade. He had some explaining to do to Saryn once they got back to the ship.

"Affirmative, Doctor..." he began, ducking past a panic-stricken family. The unit's wife reached out, gripped Ghes's arm tightly and looking desperately into his eyes. With a harsh shrug Ghes got rid of her, more offended at the touch of a stranger - as was typical of Denobulans - than annoyed by her pleading.

"'I'm sorry," he told the family, "You'll have to make your own way from the base aboard one of the lifeboat transports, if indeed the station's in danger."

"Please!" one of the children cried.

Ghes shrugged his shoulders and walked away, flanked by his science officer and Ensign Provis. He spoke into his commbadge again, "The procurement of blackmarket products is part of our orders for this mission, Doctor. I knew this wouldn't sit well with you so I decided to hold off on saying until after..." His sentence trailed off; he knew what he would say would sound bad, but it was the unfortunate truth.

<Saryn>

"Doctor, I advise you head back to the ship. There's been at least five explosions on the docking ring and the pattern of them suggests a spread towards our location. I can't take any risks; we have to get back to the Enzio on foot. Comms with the ship are down and so is transport apparently, else we'd have been beamed off already. Something isn't quite right here... Saryn?" Gheskori had no idea if his message had got through.

<Saryn>

It took them ten minutes to reach the Enzio's docking port. Thankfully she was still docked... The Prometheus class's fine lines streamed away into blackness before them. Ghes ushered his two officers down the vestibule and looked back, hoping to see the other two teams appearing round the corner of the docking ring. And hopefully Commander Matthew would be bringing a troop of green-clad marines with him.

<Matthew and whoever else is left on the station>

Gheskori scrambled down the vestibule, peering at the stricken station through the portals on the way. There was much to find out about what exactly had gone wrong. He could contact Beta Hydra's administrators - if there was anything left of their base - once he got back to the bridge. And there was also the matter of the supplies.

He strode through the airlock on to deck 17 of the Enzio. Some or most of his fellow away team members were around him, looking haggard and over-wired. "Bridge, this is the Captain... Lock on to our allocated supplies and beam them into the main cargo bays... And grab whatever other supplies you can find. The Federation will compensate this outpost for its material losses." Ghes hoped the comms blackout didn't extend to intraship as well...

<Walters? & All>

[Tiana Galwyn Cet]

OCC: Are we undercover?

"How much for the ultritium?" Ghes said quietly, leaning over the vendor sitting at the table.

"It's not weapons grade," the vendor said quickly, and with shaking hands regarded his padd "70,000 credits per kilo."

"I'll take it." Ghes said, taking out his own padd and performing the transaction electronically.

As they walked away, Tiana did her best to look relaxed but the captain had obviously realised that she was a touch lost. Ghes confided in her, "Yes... It's not what you'd call 'supplies'. If we needed those I'd have asked Starfleet. I've been given permission by Admiral Burke to seek blackmarket products, else we'd never have any hope of negotiating with the Harlequin peoples. If it bothers you...?"

Tiana sighed. "Confuses more than bothers, and Tiana rather than Cet." Cet had been involved in many more complex and dubious situations. "I don't think it's reasonable to have just one person making these deals. I'm willing to help. I don't know if I'd make a good 'heavy'..." These days she might be able to pull off the combat aspects of such a role but knew she didn't look it, even if she had had to get her measurements for her uniform altered eight times in the last five months. "but I should be able to do a tame scientist to check the quality of the merchandise."


They began to approach another seller when a wafting acidic odour came over them. It floated down the main passageway of the trading area. Ghes shook it off as nothing, but when they'd concluded the next transaction he noticed increasing murmurs from the various clientele. There was mass confusion, but from what he could gather a chain of explosions had occurred around the other side of the outpost!

People were flying in panic, traders' stalls sent crashing to the deck. It was chaos. The team's commbadges chirped. It was Lieutenant Lane, the third team leader. "Someone detonated a weapons cache on this side of the station, sir. There's a chain reaction of explosions spreading around the docking ring and administrators believe the station's in danger. Recommend immediate transport back to the Enzio."

"Copy that, Lieutenant. All teams comply." Ghes then hailed the Enzio but the line was dead. He muttered a curse. Perhaps his order hadn't even got through to the other groups. He trusted Commander Matthew's team to make their way back as well though, regardless of whether the Commander knew the situation or not.

"Run back to the ship," he recommended to his own team, not having time to even think of the madness of this turn of events.

Tiana ran as ordered. She drew on her metal map to weave her way back to the Enzio's dock. On her way a woman with blood streaming down her face ran into her face. Tiana slid to a halt and started to do what she could to help. A bit of field medicine could go a long way in these situations. She knew she could not delay long or her crewmates would start worrying about her but she couldn't do nothing. Comms were down so she would have to do it herself.

[Gheskori]

Gheskori entered the bridge, regarding the flustered crew that'd been trying to extract the Enzio from Beta Hydra Outpost. He raised an eyebrow and made his way down to the command chair. Flustered and busy, but also rather quiet, he thought.

"Have all the supplies been beamed aboard from the Outpost?" he requested.

"Yes, sir," the conn officer reported. "However, transporters went down for seven minutes and we had to rush the rest of the beaming. We picked up some unwanted items."

"Well that explains why you didn't beam us off." Ghes pulled up a ship status report on his companel, "But why did communication go down?"

"We don't know, sir."

"Then let's leave this place. Contact the Outpost administrators and inform them that Starfleet will send a relief vessel. We must press on with our mission. Oh, and thank them for the supplies." I feel bad enough about this already, he thought, without the knowledge that Beta Hydra may need to be dismantled adding to my guilt.

The Enzio left the Beta Hydra system and continued on its way to the Harlequin system. It began its long, slow arc along the perimeter of the supernova remnant that dominated the stellar cartography of the region. It wouldn't be long, the Captain knew, before Admiral Burke called him again, this time to find out what'd happened at the Outpost. The Denobulan needed answers before that awkward subspace communication.

"Matthew," he nodded curtly, seeing the temporary XO entering the bridge. "Did you succeed in bringing the marines aboard?" They stepped down to the command area together, taking their respective seats. Ghes said, "Please lead the investigation, Commander. I'd like to know what happened to the Outpost and why it seemed to coincide with our arrival there."

<Tag Matthew>

"Commander Walters. When you are ready, I would like a full status report. Come to my ready room." He'd opened a channel, too fixated on his companel to look around and see if the CEO was manning the engineering console.

<Tag Walters>

Gheskori checked by his quarters, pausing for a small drink of Denobulan ale. It relaxed his mind while having no intoxicating effect. Even so it was hardly proper for an officer while on duty, but Ghes took the liberty as the Captain. He surveyed his personal console for messages, finding nothing except the latest in a correspondence with a Starfleet scientist assigned to the supernova investigatory team. Following this, he checked by the El'Aurian negotiator's quarters, and finding everything in order, subsequently headed to the cargo bay.

He moved silently amongst the crates, containers of supplies. The cargo bay was almost full of them, dense and high like a forest. Rounding a corner, he saw the vulcan doctor crouching beside one pallet of containers, labelled 'Hyper-cordrazine.'

Saryn detected his presence and rose to his feet. Ghes came to a stand a few metres away, leaning against another stack of crates; he saw the vulcan shake his head slightly. "This is illegal, and immoral," the Doctor said stolidly.

Gheskori folded his arms, leaning further on the crates. Eventually he spoke, "I know. But the people we'll be dealing with don't have morals, at least none that are apparent. These things... blackmarket medicine and outlawed weaponry, the use of these is nothing to them. Our hope is it'll be enough to get them to begin negotiations. Then, we can spring our surprise."

"Which is?" Saryn said slowly.

"We will withhold the weapons from both sides after we've offered them as part of a three-way exchange."

"This is extremely dangerous, Captain." Saryn turned back to the crates, regarding his scanner again. "Any error in judgement, or procedure, could result in the rewriting of history by either or both of the Harlequin species."

"I know," Ghes repeated, hoping Saryn was not rejecting the case he was trying to make. "I only hope we can avoid total temporal oblivion. Because I've been quite enjoying today."

<Tag ALL - Come on please>

[James T Matthew]

Scene: Commander Matthew Quarters, USS ENZIO

"Commander James T Matthew
Acting First Officer’s Log,
Mission Stardate 2.1400.

“We we’re very lucky, if you want to use that word to describe it. A few hours ago, I was intrigued to arrive at the Beta Hydra outpost a Space Station out on the edge of federation space. Now I have to admit I'm glad to be leaving with all of the Enzio crew intact and minor Damage to the ship Paint on the Forward Port nacelle after an unexplained explosions went off on the station.

"Captain Ghes Has Assign me a real headache of finding out just what happened at the Beta Hydra station ‘I have requested all Station and ship sensor Data Log Doing the hours we Where Dock at the station as well as any security Deck by deck Camera Footage on the station I hope of maybe we can see someone planting the explosives.
Our Chief Helm officer has been Studying over the last routing map for a d-warp safe corridor through. Harlequin System in the, Beta Quadrant it been rumored that some of the Area is mined Starfleet Intel have no information ether way.

"If the routing coordinates are accurate, we should be able to go to safely navigate the Area as soon as we pass the outer asteroid belt, which will be in a few days.
"That is, assuming Diplomatic service isn't sending us off to do more of its dirty work. Harlequin System was no vacation spot, that's for certain?
"Computer..."

[Chirp]

"Strike that last comment from my log."

[Comment deleted.]

"End log recording."

[Gheskori]

USS Sabretooth, 1 week ago...

Captain Dorvin was at a loss. He was in his ready room, having just dismissed his two senior science officers. He'd invited them to explain the planetary destruction the whole crew had just witnessed.

They'd told him that because the Sabretooth was outside the causal sphere of influence, its timeline had not been rewritten along with the devastated planet. Therefore the crew could not know the chain of events that had led up the disaster. Such things gave Dorvin a headache but he didn't have to think about it too much. That was why science officers existed.

His personal terminal lit up - an incoming subspace message from Starbase Assailant. Admiral Burke's features appeared on the screen and he requested an update.

"The pattern of temporal incursions is spreading, sir. Across the Hebridian Sector, towards the Federation border," Dorvin informed him.

The Admiral seemed distressed, and rightly so. There were several Federation colonies in a rough line just beyond that section of the border; all were at risk should this seeming 'contagion' spread further.

"The USS Enzio is en route to the Hebridian Sector, Captain. She should be passing Beta Hydra about five days from now. Transmit all your data to Captain Gheskori once he's in range. He needs to be aware of what he's heading into."

Dorvin nodded, "What's their mission, specifically?"

"They're to negotiate a peace treaty between the peoples of the Harlequin system. Those who would appear to be responsible for these cataclysms."

Dorvin remained doubtful, as in the previous communications. "They don't even use warp drive. How can their war and its sphere of influence encompass objects parsecs away?"

Burke sighed, "In truth, we don't know, Captain. But in the absence of any other reasonable explanation, we have to draw that conclusion. Besides, halting this distasteful conflict will be to the benefit of us all."

---

"Mr Walters... I'm glad you kept the ship in one piece," Gheskori grinned. They were well on their way on the final leg of the journey to the Harlequin system.

The Captain hadn't had a chance to speak with his CEO since they'd left Beta Hydra Outpost. Commander Matthew was belowdeck, investigating the explosions at the outpost; Tiana was doing temporal related research or some such, he didn't fully comprehend; Saryn was scanning and storing the medicinal supplies they'd taken on for bartering. It was only the hardworking CEO he had not seen.

"How's progress with our temporal defences?" he inquired lightly, having no idea if that was what he was working on, if it'd been a success or failure, or if he - the Captain - was on completely the wrong track.

"Remember we need to be scanning constantly for incoming objects that may have had some interaction with the Harlequin species'. Change course if any interception is likely," Ghes said loudly to the helmsman.

"But, sir, wouldn't our very act of avoiding such an object involve us in its timeline?"

"Aye..." Ghes said, his face almost sad, and then hardening in concentration. "We need some way of making ourselves immune to the objects we come across. To think I used to be a scientist..."

<Tag Walters> <Tag All>

[Deleted]

When the Captain called Commander Walters up to his Ready Room it took a while for the human to peel himself away from Main Engineering. He wouldn’t tell Gheskori, but it took both Ihlin and H’riss practically shoving him out the door or threatening a site-to-site transport (respectively) to get him to take the break. When he finally arrived he looked quite disheveled and was clutching a mug half full of room temperature coffee.

"Mr Walters... I'm glad you kept the ship in one piece," Gheskori grinned. They were well on their way on the final leg of the journey to the Harlequin system.

“It wasn’t that difficult.” the engineer sighed in relief as he sat down. “We got pretty lucky. With the worst of the explosions on the opposite side of the station we were shielded by the majority of the debris. It was a good thing too since we couldn’t raise shields.” He took a draw from his mug and repressed a grimace. He wasn’t a fan of coffee to begin with, and the cold sludge was downright nasty. “We did take a few dings but they’re nothing serious, mostly just some scratched paint and dents.”

"How's progress with our temporal defenses?" he inquired lightly, having no idea if that was what he was working on, if it'd been a success or failure, or if he - the Captain - was on completely the wrong track.

Will couldn’t hide his reaction this time. “Slow. With all due respect to Command but I really wish they had at least assigned someone from the Department of Temporal Investigations to help out. I talked to them and managed to get the plans for experimental shields but they’re beyond me.” He went to take another sip but thought better of it. “The underlying technology is incredibly complicated and in some cases doesn’t make any sense.” He shook his head. “I’ve already got volunteers working double shifts so with some luck we’ll have them by the time we arrive, but I can’t promise anything at the moment.”

Will was about to continue but the lights flickered. “What the?” he started, but the comm chimed right away. “Engineering to Commander Walters. We’ve got a small problem.”

He tried not to groan out loud. “What happened H’riss?” Walters recognized the voice.

“Someone tried plugging in one of the new shield components and somehow managed to overload the primary EPS junction on Deck 11. Decks 9 to 13 are all blacked out.”

“Great...” he muttered. “Sorry Captain, looks like I’ve got some fires to put out.” In his hurry to get back to Engineering he left his mug behind.