SBA 4.2 The best of times, the worst of times

[Deleted]

Leaving the Romulans to talk, Korok walked away and into the ambassador's personal room adjoining his office. Assuming he wouldn't mind. and not particularly caring if he did, Korok sat at his computer terminal and opened the Federation communication array. At first he considered trying to call in reinforcements, but then thought better of it. What would he be calling them to reinforce, and who would he even contact. Many of the people he knew would be dead, or at least old men by now, he ascertained from the stardate.

Instead, he established a link to the Klingon central database, and attempted to use his access codes to log in to the mainframe. Unsurprisingly his codes didn't work. Well, after nearly twenty years he would have hoped his warrior's prudence would have encouraged him to change them once in a while at least. Settling instead for public domain data, Korok worked quickly to establish what had transpired in the years that were seemingly yet to come in his life. He was relieved to see that both Chintoka and the Dominion war had been successes, and was even more relieved to see that the Empire was still in reasonable shape. He then began to examine specifics; searching for the names of people he knew from his time. He was shocked to see that Martok, his old commanding officer, was now Chancellor, Gowron having been kileed shortly before the conclusion of the war. He then searched for K'Vok, his old first officer. According to the databank, he was now a General, and a decorated hero of the Dominion war. Korok smiled at this, and vowed to drink to this when time was restored.

Then, in an instant, an impulsive burst of recklessness overtook him, and he began to search for his own name. Having already been told by the admiral that he was an ambassador on this station, he began searching. As the file came up, Korok leaned back in shock. He was only a Major now, having been court martialled and demoted during the war, and then seemingly exiled to a menagerie of diplomatic posts on the outskirts of nowhere. He delved deeper, finding that he had lost his ship at Avenal VII, and had then assumed responsibility for the attack's failure, protecting his commanding officer of the period. Looking up the open court martial records, he found a list of charges and evidence, and amongst it the testimony of an old adversary that had seemingly kept a grudge in what would become his future. Ch'lork, a Colonel as he remembered it, had become a General after the war, and was now a leading warrior in the new KDF. It had seemingly been his testimony of Korok's foolhardiness and incompetence that had sealed his fate, and had it not been for what Korok assumed to be his friends in the EMpire, he may well have been executed. Determined now to find out more, and unsatisfied by the open records, Korok began punching in every command code, access number and ID registry that he remembered, hoping that at least one of them had at least some measure of validity. After a few minutes he struck old, and a borderline expired level 6 access code gave him access to basic locator transponders, as well as certain files in the database. Just as he was about to progress, something on the tactical overlay that had appeared caught Korok's eye. A Negh'Var class cruiser was making good speed towards the starbase he was on, and a few lightyears away, within the nearby nebula a small taskforce remained on station. So many Klingon ships in such an enclosed space was never good, particularly if you were not on them. Remembering his oath to the Trill admiral to acknowledge his seniority, as Korok emerged from the office, nodding to both Romulans and Saarok, he touched his communicator.
"Colonel Korok to Admiral Lin. Admiral, unless you have invited some Klingons, I fear you may have a problem"

[Deleted]

After escaping the attentions of the trill ambassador, Aiken ran through the corridors of the large base. Although he hadn’t been on the base for a decade, the route still came naturally to him; he had been here long enough to know the place as well as any. As he dashed along, he only paid attention to one other person; a young Vulcan that he suspected was Ambassador Saarok; following the directions of the computer in the opposite direction past him. His reporter’s instinct twanged and he almost turned around to follow him, but the pull was too strong; he had to see her. His path was blocked on a few occasions by force fields that had appeared in an effort to compartmentalise the problems, but he knew the ins and outs of the starbase and just about managed to navigate around them.

After fifteen minutes, during which he cursed himself for not keeping active and fit as he wheezed and coughed, he turned a corner to see the door to her quarters in front of him. Room 63122; her quarters. He must have been here a thousand times, and yet he saw it now as if he’d never seen the beauty of it before. He slammed his hand against the call button and waited. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply as he leant against the bulkhead, the tears returning again, but this time tears of joy at the prospect of seeing her radiant face once more. He spun as he heard the doors slide open behind him, subconsciously tugging at the bottom of his shirt in an attempt to look more presentable.

“Crap!” It wasn’t her. Of course it wasn’t, she didn’t move here until after Nahi died. He ran from the door without explanation, leaving a slightly confused looking pensioner in his wake. There was a brief second of worry as he contemplated whether that had, in fact, been his daughter, but he dismissed it almost as briefly. She didn’t live there yet, and even if she had been affected, she wouldn’t know the entry code. So once again he found himself dashing through the station, although this time he was straining more at his memory to remember where Nahi had stayed at this point in time.

When he eventually arrived there, he took a bit longer running through his memory, checking and rechecking with any reference points that he could find that this was definitely where he would find her. After exhausting all of these, he tapped two fingers against the call button, promising himself that he would deal with this calmly, regardless of whether he had made another mistake. He hadn’t. As soon as the doors slid open, he found himself face to face with Nahi, and impulsively flung his arms around her. A manoeuvre that unfortunately prompted her to exhibit her prowess at martial arts, as she forced his arm back, causing pain to press through his shoulder.
“Who the hell are you, and what are playing at?” She asked, every word dripping aggression and the desire to hurt him.
“Nahi, stop! It’s me, Aiken. It’s Aiken!” He said in increasing levels of panic as his shoulder was put under more and more pressure.

She looked at him suspiciously, and then dropped his arm contemptuously. “God, you look just like your father. I assume you’ve been… affected?”
“Thanks for saying it like it’s a disease.” He replied with sarcastic warmth. “Where’s Kistine?” He was peering past Nahi, trying to look for any sign of his daughter.
The woman, once a close friend and lover, looked up directly into his eyes, holding his gaze for a while. “She’s in sickbay, that’s where I was going now.” For the first time Aiken noticed that she was dressed up ready to leave. Considering that he prided himself on his observation skills as a reporter, he was amazed he hadn’t noticed. While he had been contemplating this, she had walked beyond him. “I suppose you are actually coming?” She asked irritably.

The pair stepped into sickbay a while later, the walk down having been marked by its rocky silence, which was now broken unequivocally.
“Where is my daughter? Someone said she was down here? How is she?”
“What’s happened to Kistine? Is she alright?”
The two spoke simultaneously, both betraying the worry that until now only Aiken had shown. The young Dr Mercy, Aiken recalled, answered calmly.
“She’s in a stable condition. She seems to have been caught in a battle of some kind. If you look here.” He indicated a burn on her hip. “You will see that she has been hit by a phaser blast. She will be fine, but we need to keep her here for the time being.”

Aiken looked around and saw that Kistine wasn’t the only victim of the battle, presumably the rampage that the two ambassadors had gone on. He also noticed that Ezdreiana was in sickbay. It seemed that he couldn’t shake her off; though he did admit that he had brought himself into contact with her this time. Her brow furrowed as she saw him.
“You’re not really an aide, you’re…”

[Magellan Lin]

Slowly the chaos that had enveloped Assailant was beginning to settle. All those affected by the strange bubbles of time had been found and quarantined. Only some, those Magellan had granted leave to, remained at large. Following their own agendas. There was an opportunity here that Magellan hadn’t failed to realise. Gathered here were people from all spectrums of the time stream. Past, present and future standing alongside each other. It was the future that was of most interest. Granted the timelines seemed separate, possibly even from alternate realities, but the similarity between the people affected and the memories they seemed to suggest that the divergence from the this universe and its time stream was small. There was intelligence to be had here. Tedak for one despite not knowing of this incident (unless he lied) would have some knowledge of a possible future, as would D’Beren.

Magellan pondered on the ethics of such matters. Knowing the future, even uncertain ones was a dangerous thing. He had sat through enough command briefings to know that. This, however, was his error and hard on the heels of his recent mental instability he needed something he could give to his superiors, something tangible, especially as it looked as if the events of the day would severely affect the peace talks. He needed to resolve this fast and mend some fences.

It was at this point he received a message from Korok. The violent and belligerent klingon at least seemed to realise what was occurring and was beginning to understand the severity of the situation.
“I ll confirm with Ops” Magellan replied, “But if Ch’lork comes here, you will need to pretend to be Major Korok and convince him all is well. All we need is things getting out of hand before we have a chance to fix this.”
Magellan keyed of his comm.
If the Klingons were coming it was entirely possible that a Tholian vessel was likewise en route. With Yakrene dead and Kaskrene but a larva there would be no easy resolution.

“Dr Chapman, what are your findings? We are against the clock. We need to devise a way to get all these people back to their correct times all before the Tholians and Klingons arrive to find out whats wrong.”

Tag all

[Deleted]

Vebn was aware of the situation on the station and at present was unsure how to react. It was an unusual state of affairs, but this quirk of fate was not something he could have foreseen and therefore didn’t fit into his plans. There were so many threads left dangling before him and with the quarantine in place he could not contact Romulus for advice and direction.

The talks for one thing were over and it would be more than likely that war would be resumed between the Tholians and Klingons. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. The war was indirectly his fault, it was he who had brokered the deal to sell the Tholians cloaks so that they could colonise planets in secret in return for…well that remained to be seen. It was also him who through his contacts who had leaked the presence of colonies in Klingon space to the Klingons. It was that single act that had sparked the war, but who was he to second guess the Praetor and the senate. His orders had been quite clear, a limited conflict between the Tholians and Klingons would distract the Federation from the Debrune, provide a market upon which to sell arms and lastly blunt the rising weapons of war that both the Tholians and the Klingons had been developing since the Dominion War.
It was his actions that had saved the Romulan Empire from the depredations of the Tholians. Had they not struck a deal the current war could well have been Tholian against Romulan. No, far better to let others die in the stead of Romulans.

His thoughts were interrupted as his aide allowed an older Romulan to enter. It took him a moment to realise who the figure was. It was Tedak, but older. The years had not been kind to him he thought as he rose and tentatively welcomed the Ambassador into the office.

“Ambassador, I should have expected for you to be caught up in all this. Is there ever any event that passes you by?”

Tag Tedak

[Felix Savali]

=/\=Admiral Lin to OPS=/\=

=/\=OPS here, go ahead=/\=. Felix responded

=/\=Commodore, I have received some information that there is a Klingon ship on rout to the station, can you confirm this?=/\=, Magellan questioned

=/\=I will make sure we do a thorough scan and will get back to you, OPS out=/\=

"Let's get to work Mr. F'rras"; Felix said

"Activate the Tachyon detection grid and start a full scan", Felix said

"Right away", F'rras responded as he started giving instructions to the rest of the OPS crew

It appears the plot is thickening, Felix thought. First they had this and now the Klingons are coming. Only thing they were missing to have a happy day was for the Tholian's to arrive, then it would be a real party.

"Sir we have detected two faint signatures that could be cloaked ships.", F'rras informed him

"2, can you give me any more info on who they are?", Felix questioned

"Well we can tell you that one of the cloaking devices is Klingon while the other is Romulan. That’s all I can give you for now.", he said

"I see, thank you Commander", Felix said as he went on to contact Magellan

=/\=Savali to Admiral Magellan=/\=

=/\=Magellan here, go ahead=/\=

=/\=We were able to confirm one cloaked ship with a Klingon cloaking device on the way. =/\=

=/\=I see=/\=, Magellan said

=/\=And, we detected another ship using a Romulan cloaking device on the way too=/\=

<Tag Magellan>

[Deleted]

“Ambassador, I should have expected for you to be caught up in all this. Is there ever any event that passes you by?”

The older Romulan shook his head in sadness. "I fear not ambassador," Tedak replied, "though I assure you this was not intentional. The last thing I remember was being on Romulus for important negotiations with the Breen, the next moment I was here and confronted with a twenty-five year old son who in my time is at least forty."

He noticed the tenseness in the younger man, and remembered how he and Vebn used to be adversaries. He wanted so much to assure the young Romulan that they were going to improve their working relationship over the years, and even form a friendship, but he had promised Magellan he would not disclose too much of the future; even if this future was possibly a parallel.

"How much do you know of this situation?" Tedak asked, "and how much do you know about Temporal Incidents? Several people have been affected, including Colonel Korok and Ambassador Saarok."

Tedak nodded towards the Klingon who had just emerged from an adjacent office. He exchanged a worried look with Vebn as Korok started to tap his combadge and report. "Colonel Korok to Admiral Lin. Admiral, unless you have invited some Klingons, I fear you may have a problem"

"Klingons?" Tedak querried, "what would Klingons be doing here with a fleet?" Then he remembered. "The negotiations between the Tholians and the Klingons," he murmured, "if I remember correctly we weren't invited to these negotiations." He looked up at Korok. "What of the Tholians?" he pressed the Klingon.

Just at that moment, Saarok entered the Romulan embassy, looking as troubled as a Vulcan could look. He looked as though he had been waiting outside for a long while and finally got tired of waiting. "Ambassador Saarok, what can we do for you?" Tedak asked, approaching his Vulcan friend. He glanced at Vebn, wondering what was going through the Romulan lead diplomat's mind right now.

[Deleted]

"Perhaps a more private location would be more appropriate for our conversation Ambassador?", Saarok questioned Tedak

"Perhaps your Romulan friend here will lend us his side office now, after he did the same for Ambassador Korok.", Saarok said looking at Vebn and before anyone said anything he dragged of Tedak to the room

"I must apologize for my manners.", Saarok said, "But it was important that i speak to you.", he said

Tedak did not look to pleased at being dragged of like that but decided to say nothing for he knew this was not the Saarok he knew although that one also, from time to time, did some things like his younger self.

"Now i know what i am going to ask you may appear illogical to you but in fact it is very logical as from what i have learned so far there might be some problems occurring here very soon therefore it is logical that i learn some information so that perhaps i might be able to prevent some of it.", Saarok said

"I would require some information as to what was happening in that room where i was with Korok that Trill Ambassador Ezdreiana and the Tholian? I presume it was a meeting of sorts, but what kind of a meeting? What was the goal of this meeting and also what was my part in all of it?", he asked the elderly Romulan who claimed to be his friend

[Deleted]

Veronica was not thrilled with the men that surrounded her. They had big heads.

After keeping chase with Saarok, she retrieved her padd as angrily as she was forced to part with it.

"Magella.. I mean, Admiral Lin," Veronica blushed, "if what you are saying is true, then we have a bigger problem than I expected."

Veronica was used to giving calm, thought out responses, but these people were being very demanding- wanting answers immediately. Veronica forced herself to pick up pace. The Admiral, after-all, had expressed that a bit of a crisis would ensue regarding the Tholians and Klingons. Both races she had contempt for, which gave her more reason to solve this so she could be tucked away in her lab when they arrived.

Scanning for spacial anomalies, she eventually found a place of maximum graviton flux. "This is where we need to concentrate our research." Everyone already had figured that out, and Chapman realized she still wasn't impressing anyone.

"Ah - here it is, the Copenhagen." she knew she could find something in her padd if she had the right information. There was enough data there to last a lifetime of reading. She had only a few minutes before she was booted out the door from this motley crew.

She quickly read, punched some calculations into their padd. "Well - it seems that there is also a high graviton emission from that nebula- and extrapolating the latest data backward in time... wherever and whenever that time was, you can see, "she showed Lin the padd, "that the emissions were focused to this point of the lab." She pointed to the predefined spot.

Magellan made a few more comments that pieced together the information. Others were coming and going at will, which was unwise to do during such a space-time disturbance... but Veronica's attempts to bring this to anyone's attention were brushed off as if she was just a silly child.

"What is the movement capability of this star base?" If they could move the base back to the point where this accident occurred, relative to the nebula of course, then she may be able to create an inverse graviton pulse. "The space-time bubbles should dissolve if this happens," she explained.

The Admiral was concerned about people's ages. Well, that's where it gets sticky. If we are out of phase with our burst by a small fraction of error, the space-time rift will seal, but everyone would be stuck respective to where they are now. "That would be unacceptable, I am guessing?" she smiled, but no one found it amusing.

"I suggest we get the base back into position, and get everything set up again to create the pulse, and then we can worry about accuracy."

"Who is going to create the pulse? Does anyone here know how to do that?" Admiral Lin questioned.

Veronica smiled. "Um - hello? I am a temporal scientist here." She felt more in command now, and starting shouting orders for the supplies they would need.

[Deleted]

ooc: elderly? if Saarok's 20 years younger now he's approx 70 right? that makes him at present 10 years Tedak's junior LOL

ic

Tedak allowed himself to be dragged away, knowing his Vulcan friend could at times be extremely impulsive. He'd tell Vebn what had transpired later, knowing the senior diplomat would feel he had a right to know.

"I would require some information as to what was happening in that room where i was with Korok that Trill Ambassador Ezdreiana and the Tholian? I presume it was a meeting of sorts, but what kind of a meeting? What was the goal of this meeting and also what was my part in all of it?"

The Romulan nodded. "They were delicate treaty negotiations between the Klingons and the Tholians. You and Ezdreiana were the neutral party as far as I know. Unfortunately, since neither Vebn nor I were invited to take party in these negotiations, neither of us can help you further here. I would suggest you contact Ezdreiana, she may be able to give you all the information you need. Now if you will excuse me, I believe I was discussing something with Ambassador s'Khellian. You are welcome to observe."

The older Romulan swept out of the room and came to a halt in front of the much younger Romulan. "I must apologize for my friend's behaviour," he started, "as you can see he's been affected too. Now, where were we before we were interrupted?"

[Magellan Lin]

I suggest we get the base back into position, and get everything set up again to create the pulse, and then we can worry about accuracy."

"Who is going to create the pulse? Does anyone here know how to do that?" Admiral Lin questioned.

Veronica smiled. "Um - hello? I am a temporal scientist here." She felt more in command now, and starting shouting orders for the supplies they would need.

Magellan stared at the data Dr Chapman had showed him, it all seemed to make sense. In matter of moments she had managed to calculate the problem and come up with a solution. Then her words suddenly sunk in.

"Move the base!!" He couldnt imagine how that could be possible, not quickly, they had stabilisation thrusters but it would take for ever to move a base this size, then it dawned on him.
"We don't need to move the base - it moves itself. We are in high orbit of Qualinost, we need only to wait," he checked the time " 12 hours and 46 minutes and we will be back in the same position as the time of the accident."

Chapman nodded,
"That should work. It will give me time to assemble my apparatus to generate the pulse."

"Then I should try and get everyone affected back into the place where they were at the time of the accident"

"Yes thats what I said" Veronica stated coolly, "It woudl work best if they were in the right place in space, it cuts down on the variables."

"Thats something I can do" Magellan nodded, glad that there was something worthwhile he could help with, "I ll make arrangements. You get anything you need, this base is at your disposal."

[Deleted]

Stomping through the base, Veronica traveled down hallways she never should have had to visit. Even though this spacetime incident was slowing her progress down, it was rather intriguing, dreaming of the possible outcomes that could occur... or did occur. She mumbled to herself funny anecdotal comments made by Jeremy - her partner - about cause and effect, not quite remembering them. She made a not to herself to contact him when this was over... or before it began, as it might turn out to be- she wasn't quite sure. She was sure, though, that a high rate of inverted graviton particles would undo any so-called damage done.

"That one will probably do." Veronica had made it to engineering, where she was requisitioning a phase inverter with a piece of gravity plating. "It only has to emit enough gravitons for the inverter to manipulate. The lab has enough equipment that wasn't ruined to amplify the emissions."

The blank stare she received told her it was time to get going. She lugged the heavy materials back up to the lab, denying any help from others. Transporters were off-limits- it was recipe for ending up in an alternate universe, or so she had read. It was a common misconception, but just as well, one she wasn't willing to put to the test.

"Alright - let's put this together!" she exclaimed, dropping the equipment rather hard. She realized her nonchalant attitude when the crash made the others in the room startle. Picking up the equipment, which fortunately did not suffer any misfortune, she said her previous statement less exuberantly. *cough*.. "ready to put this together?"

[mercy]

It had been a little under two hours since Stuart assured T’Val and Ezdreiana that they would be safe. Sealing off sickbay was not going to have any affect against any time continuum or anything else of that nature. After checking in with Admiral Lin, Stuart was assured that everything was being done to set things right. There was nothing for the doctors to do other than reassure their current patients.

Seeing D’Beren at the age of twenty was a bit disturbing, and knowing that he was to have a little brother…even more so. Stuart and T’Val spoke in private about the possibilities of this timeline being true, or if it could indeed be an alternate one. Silently, it gave Stuart some hope for a cure of T’Val’s bareness, he very much wanted to have a child with her. Stuart vowed to start looking into the possibilities.

Finally a station-wide announcement was made. Everyone was to return to where they were two hours ago, just before the time-line accident, in hopes of a reversal. They had about twenty minutes to get there. Stuart and T’Val spent a few long minutes with D’Beren, complimenting what a fine young man he was. Tears of happiness trailed along T’Val’s cheeks as she released him to go where he needed to go.

Ezdreiana took the hatchling that represented Kaskrene, and they were on their way. There was only one thing left to do for Stuart and T’Val, they needed to get on a shuttle and distance themselves from the starbase as they weren’t on board during the accident.

[Deleted]

After finishing his discussion with Tedak, Saarok did not find it to appealing to stay and observe the conversation of Tedak and his brothers and simply departed from their embassy. He was on his way to find Ambassador Ezdreiana when the call came for everyone to return to their places or the places where they were when this event took place. Saarok thought that perhaps that arrogant human scientist did know something about how to fix this or at least made a lucky guess that her chances of accomplishing the change would be best if everyone was in their proper places. Not that it was impossible to do it with people being in different places, but that was most likely something that was far beyond her comprehension of temporal mechanics.

Saarok entered the Jeffries tubes and proceeded to climb to the conference room where they first encountered the Tholian who they exterminated and those incompetent security officers. After an interesting trip through the tubes, Saarok emerged in the conference room. It appeared he was the first one to arrive there. But no matter, he was sure the trill would arrive shortly and would be able to give him all the necessary information, not that it would mean much to him if the change succeeded now, but one can never know too much. For all he knows that human might, instead of changing everything, throw the whole base back in time. Temporal investigations would certainly pay a visit to this base after this event is sorted out. When he ended his line of thought about temporal investigations, Ezdreiana arrived along with Korok.

"Ah, my dear Trill... it is a pleasure to see you again"; Saarok said attempting to be as polite as a Vulcan can be

"I must apologise for the... unfortunate events that took place earlier. I was... confused."; he said

"But now in the interests of this base, I have a few questions to discuss with you", He said

"What exactly were we negotiating with the Klingons and the Tholians?", he questioned

<Tag Ezdriana>

[Deleted]

The particle accelerator's glow filled the room. Veronica quickly left to make it back to her room. That's where she was when the blast hit. She had 10 minutes.

In her room, she reviewed the padd holding the sequence of events. She was pretty sure, from historical- or technically, future- accounts, that everyone would maintain their memory after the reversion. Veronica actually hoped she wouldn't. There was nothing pleasant about sifting through a room full of egos.

The starbase rumbled, and a visible wave made its way through the ship wall.

---

Veronica awoke in her bed. her memory a little fuzzy. The events prior seemed like a dream... or were the events yet to come? Everything appeared to work.

=/\= Dr. Chapman to Admiral Lin =/\=

The admiral responded.

=/\= Just checking in. Let me know if you have any problems =/\=

The Admiral responded in the affirmative, but had a hint of confusion in his voice.

Chapman started programming breakfast. She didn't have time to make a selection, when the ship shook, and temporarily knocked replicators offline. It was not long after when a Mr. F'rass contacted her.

=/\= This is Doctor Chapman. =/\= "Doctor" always sounded funny to her. She never used the moniker, nor did the people she surrounded herself with. It made her feel old.

According to "F'rass", who seemed to be more than informal with his name, the starbase was in need of her temporal "expertise"

=/\= Expertise?! I am an anthropologist. =/\=

=/\= The computer says you are a doctor, and you are a temporal science specialist. =/\=

...

Veronica realized her mistake, when she was being escorted, again, to the lab. Admiral Lin introduced himself to her... again... She chose not to inform him of what happened.

"I was just tuning the apparatus-I didn't notice the proximity to the nebula. I was just going to check that - but you contacted me - and I must have forgot." Admiral Lin seemed a bit apologetic about causing the problems, but Veronica quickly realized that she was the hidden link to the causality loop.

...

It was clear nobody was aware she was reliving the past 2 hours. This time, she would be careful not to drop the equipment. She should have checked the angular confinement beam last time, and she would have caught it.

Returning from the Engineering, again, she placed the equipment down gently this time.

"ready to put this together?"

She felt like an audio recorder playing back. She had already done this before.

This time, the confinement beam would be checked, and double checked. Veronica still didn't know if this was going to fix everything, but it sure beat being stuck repeating this horrific demise of having to regain confidences again and again.

[Magellan Lin]

"We are ready to go again" Veronica stated as she began the final checks.

Magellan looked at her slightly askew,

"Again?"

"Yes Again thats what I said."

"You ve already done this without informing me?" He asked indignantly

"No" Veronica replied slowly "I did ask you said yes..."

"But.."

"But nothing it didnt work so now I m trying this." she saw Magellan wasnt going to let this lie, "I tried it and it failed" she held up a hand to forestall his question, "I ve fallen into a causality loop. I ve relived the past 2 hours thats how I know it didnt work"

Magellan nodded and started to leave her to her work and then paused,

"You know your plan may have worked, and its just you that hasn't. We may all be in the future all fixed up and in the right place and you have flipped in to this loop....Its just a thought."

He left Veronica to her work and made a quick call to Ops,

=^=Have all the affected people returned to the locations they were in before the accident=^=

=^=Actually we have a problem. Saaroks aide has not returned to the conference room.=^=

Magellan cursed under his breath, trust Aiken not to play ball.

=^= Are we sure he was affected?=^=

=^=No, but nearly everyone else in that room was affected so its a good bet.=^=

=^=Okay have all security officers track down Aiken Drolar=^=

=^=The Reporter?=^=

Magellan sighed,
=^=Yes the reporter...he may know where to find the aide. When you get him bring him to me. Look just do it. Find him and find him fast=^=

[Deleted]

Tedak walked into sickbay after finishing his discussion with Vebn, beelining directly for his now adult son who was accompanied by his mother and stepfather. To the Romulan it looked odd to see his son with a stepfather of approximately the same age. "D'Beren we need to get back to the restaurant," he explained, "Magellan wants us to be where we were when the accident occurred."

D'Beren nodded. "Yes father I will be with you shortly." The young Debrune turned to his mother and stepfather. "I must apologize for giving you information on a possible future," he said softly while taking T'Val's hands in his. They felt oddly cool and reassuring, but D'Beren also detected a slight tremble. "I'm certain I'll have siblings in the correct timeline." He gazed directly at Mercy. "I have the utmost faith in you dad. If anyone can help mother it's you."

At last he turned back to Tedak. "Let's go father, we don't want to keep the admiral waiting."

T'Val gazed after father and son as they departed, then turned to her mate. "yes we must distance ourselves, if possible get back to Qualinost altogether. I would suggest taking the same shuttle, so that the situation will be the same as before. We just need to ask for permission."

The Vulcan tapped her combadge. "Lily, please contact Admiral Lin and ask for permission to take the shuttle we just returned with and give us clearance to return to Qualinost until the rectification experiment is done."

Lily confirmed the request. "Admiral Lin, Doctors Mercy are requesting their previous shuttle and require transport back to Qualinost to help reattain the situation as it was before the accident."

[Deleted]

Veronica was well-read on causality loops, at least the ones that ended with a solution within this universe in the past. Their very nature can have them ending before they start - and therefore, never get recorded. She once tried explaining this to her father when she was studying on Earth, and her father didn't believe they even exist. "Just a bunch of hogwash" he would say. "Heh - hogwash" Veronica thought, as she unplugged the particle amplifier.

---

Five tries later...

---

"I am very reluctant to try this again, Magel... Admiral, sir - " she was not used to the formalities, even though this was her umpteenth time through the routine.

The space-station had just rounded its orbit, and was heading again toward its closest point to the nebula. "Whatever we decide, we need to do it quickly, we don't have much time left."

Magellan had explained the disappearance of some crew members.

"Why didn't you mention that last tim.." what happened last time was nothing that Magellan could control, and Veronica changed her tone. Something she had said or did must have triggered this new information from the Admiral. "Well - that changes a few things. That sort of thing is well documented." she tapped her padd.

It wasn't quite common knowledge, as Veronica would later tell Jeremy about the incident, that breaking into an alternative space-time is actually easier than just displacing yourself in time, like the bubbles were doing. The interconnectivity between space-time made moving through one independent of the other very hard.

"I think if we run the system the same way as last time... or - my last time - then we will get your friends back. We just have to modify the chronoton particles to synchronize with the graviton particles. Your friends may still be altered in their personal time frame, but I am willing to guess fixing their age will be made easier by everyone's presence.

<Magellan>

"Here we go - " it was reaching the time again where Veronica ran back to her room the previous times. This time, she would remain present. The output should bring everyone to the present who had previously left. Veronica spared the graviton imprint explanation, which was ultimately the theory behind her being to bring everyone back from an alternate space and time.

On cue, the accelerator started accelerating, as the emitter starting emitting. A bright blast filled the room, sending everyone to the floor... again.

---

Veronica opened her eyes. She was on the floor of the lab still, not in her bed. "Phew - it looks like I didn't go back this time!"

Admiral Lin made a few communiques, and established that everyone was present, but still shifted by their particular bubble.

"We have time, Admiral, until the base comes back around to the nebula. Perhaps we can get this fixed now that the circumstances have changed. Everyone should be placed wherever they were displaced. In the meantime, we need to fix this power coupling." Veronica pointed to a clearly damage isolinear connector. "It looks like I'll be heading down to engineering again."

[Magellan Lin]

The IKS Heg’vak emerged from warp and entered into a counter orbit to assailant. Their active sensors began broad sweeps of the local space looking for anything unusual. The bright red warnings of Quarantine came over the comm from Assailant and already the limited science teams in the bowels of the Negh’var vessel were trying to ascertain the problem.

“Maintain radio silence.” Ch’lork ordered, “And prepare a landing party” he ordered his First Officer. If nothing was forthcoming soon he would transport inside and find out what the problem was. He had no love for Korok and in some small way hoped the washed up diplomat had perished in what ever was occurring, but he was still a Klingon diplomat and it was his job to protect him. He smoothed his long moustaches down, an action that clamed him and helped him focus in combat. Large even for a Klingon years as a General had led to a certain degree of corpulence and whilst his bulk had once been hard unrelenting muscle he was ashamed to say much of that had given way to fat. Still even a Walrus had tusks. His hand slipped unconsciously to the hilt of the mek’leth he carried strapped to his lower back.

“Reports are confusing” B’Tok reported, “Nothing seems to be wrong with the station. But they are set to Alert status. They seem concerned about letting people off the station… although” the thin wiry klingon scowled at his console, “There seems to be a shuttle leaving. Vulcan and Human life sign”

Ch’lork nodded and grinned,
“When they lower shields we shall beam aboard. Locate Korok and find out what is wrong.”

****

Watching from a discrete distance was the Emoli. The Tholian Battle cruiser was imperfectly cloaked. Battle cruisers were harder to modify to the Romulan cloak than Web Spinners were for some reason. To avoid detection they had entered orbit on the opposite side of Qualinost.
Having difficulty enough understanding carbon based life forms the Tholian Crew sat in puzzlement whilst they tried to ascertain why Assailant was quarantined and why the only Tholian evident in the caste mind on Assailant seemed to be that of an infant. A hatchling. An impossibility, no hatchling had been born in close to 5 years. They must find Kaskrene and more importantly they must find the hatchling and study it. It could be the solution to everything.

“They are leaving” Tekane clicked, pointing to a shuttle leaving Assailant and approaching the outer shield.

“We shall take advantage of this” Yakak replied, “Prepare a shuttle. We shall land as they exit. We shall find the hatchling.”

Tekane said,
“And Ambassador Kaskrene?”

Yakak shook his head,
“He is now irrelevant. We must move swiftly no doubt Klingon animals will be here soon themselves.”

****

After what Chapman stated as were several further attempts, unsuccessful attempts Magellan was unsure what to do. No time for him had passed, and yet Veronica had tried several times to solve the problem.

“Yes I understand” he replied as she told him once more that everyone affected had to be back at the same spot “But one of them has disappeared. We suspect Mr Dro… Saaroks aide was affected and he has yet to be found. I have everyone I can spare on it.”

Chapman didn’t look too impressed and then a flash of inspiration seemed to pass over her face,

“His quantum, temporal signature” she exclaimed

Magellan raised his shoulders in a shrug as if to say – What?

“He will have a different signature; he comes from a different universe. I need only calibrate this tricorder and then we should be able to follow his movements as a star ship would follow an ion trail.”

Magellan nodded, “Do it, the quicker we find him the quicker this is fixed.”

Lily confirmed the request. "Admiral Lin, Doctors Mercy are requesting their previous shuttle and require transport back to Qualinost to help reattain the situation as it was before the accident."

Magellan looked up, he always looked skyward when talking to Lily for some reason.

“Okay Lily. I give clearance for them to depart.”


TAG All

[Deleted]

T'Val hooked her arm through Stuarts and together they walked off. "A son," T'Val mused, avoiding to look at her mate just yet. He was very aware of her desire to have a child of her own flesh and blood, and how much it hurt to hear time and again that she couldn't. Not yet. She knew Stuart was looking into the possebilities, but she wouldn't pressure him.

Yet, hearing a grown D'beren ask about his little brother did sting. She still avoided his gaze as they hurried through the corridors towards the shuttlebay. Their transport was still ready and waiting and T'Val slipped behind the controls; their pilot was sleeping in the aft section, so they had to do it themselves. Fortunately, T'Val knew how to pilot a shuttle and within minutes they had cleared the station.

"Shuttlecraft Taurus to Assaillant Control, we are ready to depart," T'Val reported in as she settled behind the navigation controls, keying in their vectored departure from the base.

=^=Control to Taurus you are cleared for departure.=^=

T'Val smiled sideways at Stuart, who had settled in behind sensor control. "Ready?"

"Ready," Stuart confirmed with a smile, "path is clear Mrs Mercy, by all means launch."

"Launching," T'Val confirmed and seconds later they were spaceborne, retracing their path toward Qualinost. "Control let us know when we are safe to return," she called in, "when time has been restored to normal."

=^=Acknowledged.=^=

"And now," the Vulcan healer commented, "we wait. What do you propose we do while we wait?" She smiled as she set the shuttle to autopilot on a slow speed, then turned towards her mate.

[Deleted]

Veronica looked up as well. Lily? This guy was loony, talking to his computer. She'd seen worse, throughout her studies of ancient cultures, of whole societies that had interpersonal dependencies with technology on levels far beyond this. She found that the deeper one got into their profession, the more they personified due to their lack of relationships.

"The tricorder is calibrated. Lily helped me." She smirked, but Lin did not catch the facetiousness of the statement.

<Lin>

"I hope you have an idea on how to retrieve him. I specialize in temporal anomalies, and while spacial anomalies are related, I've never really gotten the hang of it."

The truth was, dealing with alternate universes was risky. If she were to track the wrong person, let's say, then she could be bringing someone across that could alter events as we know it. She was not about to hold that responsibility, but modified the equipment for someone else to do it.

"By the way, when I was in Engineering earlier getting parts, I noticed there were still some of those ''bubbles'' floating around." She felt silly calling the temporal singularities "bubbles", but Veronica also didn't want to have to explain what the proper term was.

"Are we ready to begin?"

[Deleted]

Tedak and D'beren entered the restaurant they had been in before, when Tedak had agreed to meet with Ji'zhan. Fortunately for them, their table was still vacant, so they sat down. "I'm worried father," the young ensign spoke up, "when we get restored to our present selves, from this timeline, what will happen to us?"

The Romulan shrugged. "I don't know D'beren, it's quite likely our future will cease to exist because it hasn't happened yet. We are from a possible future on present perspective. It is hard to explain."

D'beren seemed content for now. "Why are we here, why aren't we up there trying to help find a solution for this accident?" The young Debrune seemed deeply troubled at not being allowed to help. "Our insight could be helpful."

Tedak nodded. "Perhaps, but the order was to return to where we were when the accident happened. However, we could ask for permission to come up." He tapped his combadge. "Tedak to Lin and Chapman, do you need additional assistance? My son and I are available should you need any. We understand the need for being where we are now, but this waiting game might become tedious."

The Romulan smiled to himself. "My son is a rash young ensign dying for some action. As a trained counselor, he could be of use?"

[Deleted]

"Pretend to be myself from the future!" Korok growled as he stalked through the corridors of Assailant, confused by the seemingly self-contradictory deck plans. He made a right, then a left, proceeded two hundred yards, and then made a quick about fave and headed back the way he had come. After nearly twenty minutes he found his way to the Klingon Ambassador's office; his office, not to put too fine a point on it. Entering, he proceeded to the computer terminal, and called up images of himself in the modern day. It seemed that he had not gained as much weight as he could have done, but he had seemingly lost some of the muscle tone in his upper body. His skin was wrinkled and darkened, and his hair peppered with white.
Thinking of the only viable way to disguise himself, Korok moved about the room gathering what he would need. He stuffed a bolt of what appeared to be Tholian silk into a ball, then forcing it under his armour to add to his girth. His sash he loosened to give the appearance of muscle loss. FInally, he replicated half a pound of flour, and, groaning, dumped it onto his hair and beard. Wiping the excess from his face, he inspected himself in the mirror. They would either not kill him on the spot because he was convincing, or because they would be too busy laughing. As he rummaged around the room to find more decorations for his charade, an alarm sounded on his computer terminal. Korok worked the console quickly, thanking Kahless that computer systems hadn't changed too drastically in twenty years. He found that he (meaning the modern he) had an encoded message waiting for him, as well as the fact that a Negh'Var class battlecruiser was approaching the station. Ignoring the message for the time being, Korok contacted Lin.
"Colonel Korok to Admiral Lin. The Klingons are here. What should I say to them about what has occure..." His communique was cut short by the materialisation of 5 Klingon warriors in front of him. Obviously they had taken advantage of Assailant lowering their shields for some reason. Closing the channel quickly, Korok stood to his full height and bellowed.
"What is the meaning of this intrusion! I will have you serving on a garbage scow for this insult" Then in true Klingon fashion, he decked the nearest Klingon to him. The officer stepped forwards, and Korok was shocked to recognise him. The commander in front of him had been a young boy the last time he had seen him, but was now a man, and a large one at that.
"K'Jol" Korok said, struggling to keep the disbelief from his voice.
"Uncle" the Commander nodded curtly, apparently not enjoying this mission "General Ch'lork has sent me to assess the situation and locate you. Why have you not answered our communications, Have you forgotten your mission and duty as well as your sense of honour" Korok bristled. Apparently his dishonour had affected the whole family.
"There has been an outbreak of Antedean Plague here on the station" Korok stupidly said the first thing that came into his head "I have been in isolation, as have many other station personnel. The talks have been suspended for the time being"
"You will take us to see the base commander. We must speak to him on behalf of General Ch'lork" This was an order, and could not be confused as anything but. Korok led them through Assailant, checking the computer index for the Admiral's location. On arriving at the research lab, Korok ntered, the Klingons with weapons drawn following in his wake.
"Admiral" Korok called out "I was just telling these officers about the outbreak of Antedean Plague that we have had" He closed his eyes momentarily, hoping that he cottoned on.

<TAG Admiral Lin>

[Magellan Lin]

Magellan turned to see Korok appear with several members of the Klingon Defence Force. His guts tightened in anxiiety, if the Klingons were here then it was highly likely the Tholians were too.

"Ambassador" he greeted "...Ah yes the Antedean Flu. it has struck us quite hard. I suggest you return to your ship immediatly."

K'Jol eyed the trill slightly askew,

"If there is a plague why are your cheif medical officers in a shuttle on their way down to the planet?"

Magellan thought quickly,
"The Debrune have developed a vaccine" K'Jol did not look impressed and so he decided to force the issue somewhat, he coughed loudly and then feigned a sneeze, holding his nose he said,

"The debrune have enough to innoculate us all, Dr Mercy is on his way to check its viability...via...via AAAAAACHHHOOOOOOO" he lunged towards K'Jol who staggered backwards a little, "Sorry" Magellan spluttered, "Perhaps you should return to your ship, I wouldnt want you infected."

K'Jol nodded, "I will make a report to the General. He will want us to remain however until teh matter is resolved, your base could be susceptible to Tholian attack. We will establish a defensive perimeter."

"Thankyou" Magellan replied,

"Uncle" K'Jol nodded at Korok and in a haze he and his team disaapeared in a transporter beam.

Magellan sighed,

"Korok, I want you to find Aiken Drolar, he ll be somewhere in the bowels of teh station - a bar or something no doubt, get him and youself back to the conference room in double time."

Korok nodded,

Magellan reached to a locker and pulled out a phaser,
"I need to check if we have any other unwanted guests"

TAG All

Ok I think we are struggling now so lets start to round it up.

[Deleted]

Veronica was making the final tunings to the tricorder, when she found herself in the midst of what seemed to be a diplomatic squabble. The worst part, was Admiral Lin was now calling her "doctor" in the medical sense.

"She's working on a medication right now."

Veronica had no idea what the Antedean Plague was, but she could tell that perpetuating the lie was in her best interest. Assuming the plague wasn't curable, she proposed a medicinal approach.

"Yes - I could use the silence," she received an angry look from the Klingon, "but.. but.. I'm almost finished here. We shall administer our treatment your crew as soon as we are finished if they have become infected."

The Klingon and his entourage did not move. Veronica, quickly thinking, turned to Admiral Lin, and quietly spoke to him. She did so in a manner that was just loud enough for the Klingon to hear. "It seems this is a mutated form. Very vicious. It's only a matter of time before the whole station is effected. I suggest we keep everyone onboard for quarantine if we don't get this taken care of in the next few minutes."

Acting like he was acting on his own initiative, Korok suggested to his crew that they await the incident on their ship. On the way out, he communiqued to his ship to ensure the biofilters were operational.

The doors shut, and Veronica loosened up. "Your welcome Admiral." She went back to work as if nothing happened.

"I think I have it calibrated. Here you go." she handed the tricorder to the Admiral. "We are going to have run the particle accelerator again to get this one to work. I'll turn it on, while you direct this where the signal is strongest. The coordinates of the alternate universe will be fed into Lil.. i mean..the computer, and it will calibrate where the phase nodes are." The Admiral wasn't paying attention while playing with the tricorder, and Veronica summed it up with, "Just point this where the signal strength shows the largest value."

[mercy]

"And now," the Vulcan healer commented, "we wait. What do you propose we do while we wait?" She smiled as she set the shuttle to autopilot on a slow speed, then turned towards her mate.

Stuart couldn’t help but smile as T’Val came over and sat in his lap, embracing him as they kissed. He figured that either she was very brazen or her pon farr had not quite subsided yet. “Why Mrs. Mercy…what about…” Stuart nodded towards the aft section where they had left the sleeping shuttle pilot.

T’Val then recalled that they were indeed not alone. With a little disappointment upon her face, she reluctantly returned to the pilot’s seat. Stuart began looking over his sensors as they were approaching the planet. He thought he saw a faint blip on the far edges of his readout. He looked up and out trying to search along the horizon of Qualinost.

“What is it?” T’Val asked.

Stuart looked over the sensors again, changing their parameters to see if he could get a better look. “I don’t know. As we got closer to Qualinost, I thought I saw what might be ship…here.” Stuart pointed out the location on the panel. “If it is, it’s on the opposite side from where Assailant can scan.”

Stuart looked over at T’Val. She didn’t need to sense his mind, his face said it all… ~What do we do?~