Mission 7 : The Oldest

[Daniel Schirra]

Studying the hieroglyphs, he couldn't help thinking someone had shouted his name ... Standing, he headed toward the entrance he had entered through and listened intently, but he didn't hear a thing. Annoyed with himself, wondering if he'd imagined the voice, he returned to the monoliths and looked at the symbols.

As part of his training, he was required to code break. Nothing as elaborate as what he was looking at of course, but he wondered if he could at least employ some of the techniques to solving the riddle before him. The room was pristine, almost sterile, no dust, no stones up against the bases as you would find in the outside world, so he would have to work from memory he decided.

First, he counted the 'glyph that reoccurred most ... Fine, no better off of course, but it was keeping him active.

He ran his finger inside the figure, half wondering if it would trigger something, but all it did was discolour from the moisture on his hands. 'This is useless' he thought, frustration rising by the second. He decided to try something else, so began moving through the rows of obelisk's trying to spot the same 'glyph again, and there it was on every one in varying numbers. As he walked among the massive marble-type obelisk's he realized only some had the faint hum the first one had. Within twenty minutes he had established that of almost two hundred of the ones he had managed to check, approximately seventy percent, were humming. He almost jumped out of his skin as he rounded one of the pylons and came face to face with one of the sphere's. He stopped dead in his tracks, watching the orb as it approached him, but it suddenly stopped in front of one of the obelisk's and began to rise until level with the tip, then it dropped a multi-coloured beam emanating from it's surface until it almost reached the floor.

Even though all the sphere's were seamless, Dan had the distinct feeling this one was 'looking' at the obelisk while carrying out some function. It rose to head height then moved toward Dan, stopping less than a meter from him. It remained in place for thirty second's then moved away uninterested in him. He realized that the obelisk the orb was scanning no longer had the melodic humming, and he wondered if it had simply ceased, of if the orb had done something. He followed the sphere along the line, stopping and waiting each time the orb scanned one of the monolith's. Suddenly it changed direction and came straight at him, he ducked behind the nearest block and watched as the sphere shot along the line, much faster than he had seen it move before until it vanished from sight.

The monolith the orb had scanned first began to sink silently into the floor, he ran back watching for a chance to get below the room, but the was no break in the surface, it was almost as if the floor around the massive stone was viscous, allowing it to slowly sink below the surface. He risked putting his hand on the obelisk, holding it in place as it neared the floor, but even though the stone was sinking, the surface was as solid as his hand reached the floor and it rode up the almost frictionless marble until the tip sank from sight. The floor looked as if nothing had ever stood on it ...

He realized that the layout of the monoliths in the room wasn't uniform, he just hadn't noticed the gaps. It seemed that the sphere's were systematically removing the inactive obelisk's one by one. That was significant, he just didn't know how at this point in time. He moved along the row until he found an inactive spire then ran his boot down the front, leaving a meter long black scar from the sole clearly visible, he repeated this several times then took up a position where he could observe the marked monolith's ... Forty minutes later the sphere re-appeared. It glided along the row until it reached the fist mark then stopped before repeating the sequence of scans. This time Dan followed the sphere when it completed it's task, until it went through yet another doorway ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka shrugged and lowered himself onto the first rungs of the iron ladder, "I'll keep my communicator open, share it three ways with the landing party and the ship." Looking down in trepidation, he returned the communicator to his equipment belt and began his descent.

After some fifteen metres Karka emerged in a low-ceiling corridor. Light burst forward from dust covered fixtures in the walls, illuminating the passageway in either direction. The slight buzz of the communicator, rendered perceptible by his enhanced hearing, told him he was still in contact with the other elements of the away team.

Lights shot by on either side as he progressed through a sequence of what he now guessed to be maintenance tunnels - kept by whom he didn't know and, he suspected, by no one. Whatever creation lay before him, before them all, it had clearly not been used. No standard civilisation, like that of humans in this time, would colonise a world and found an effective museum in which their new society would unavoidably mould itself on a recreated urban structure of 200-300 years previous. What was before them was an invention of an alien intelligence designed to trick them, or perhaps to trap the original colonists... What if, this piece of Earth history had been here all along, since before the arrival of the colonists whose distress signal the Excalibur had answered?

He trusted himself not to get lost. He was already unfolding the layout of this place in his mind, mapping its contours into his interior where they would remain fixed even if the exterior varied.

The level continued for another fifty metres before ending at another ladder. Karka reasoned he had explored the whole level; this was the logical end point. He descended two further ladders, plunging deeper into darkness. By his reckoning he was now underneath the centre of the township, roughly on the Commodore's position, albeit 40 metres down.

The space at the end of the third ladder ended abruptly, the same fashioned lights in the walls either side of him fading. In front of him was a short corridor, ending in a small room with a desk and a lamp whose bulb was flickering. He started forward slowly, drawing his phaser and raising the open communicator as he entered the room. "Psonoir to - " Something was wrong; the communicator had cut out as he'd crossed the threshold. He was about to start back when something caught his eye - writing paper on the desk, a page half-filled with recognisable English, a pencil rolling gently back and forth.

The room had literally this second been abandoned, or at least that was the illusion. No other exit manifested itself. Karka started back and jumped out his skin. He'd stopped just short of it, his nose almost brushing the smooth surface. He stepped back, not too alarmed as he'd expected something in this place to change its parameters, and here there had been two such occurrences in the space of a few seconds. Something didn't want him to escape.

His eyes were somehow directed to an inset panel that emerged from the black obelisk halfway down. The panel lit up, a video display showing himself in this room, looking upon the object that seemed somehow different. The image broke up, resetting itself to show, much to his surprise, Daniel Schirra. The Excalibur's first officer was standing in a cavernous room of thousands of these same obelisks, sometimes sitting, sometimes walking amongst the black towers. Karka watched as Schirra paused before one of the obelisks; something highlighted the object's significance for Karka, All of this lies inside here, something spoke inside his head.

Fascination with Schirra's predicament faded as he tried to grasp all that was going on. He made to step around the object and, quite strangely, emerged on the surface level, close to Commodore Ryat's position, however she didn't stay visible for long.

"Definitely... not 20th Century Earth." The place seemed to transform before his eyes, finally settling on something all too familiar. "This... isn't possible. This isn't real," he spoke quietly, dread instilling within him. For an instant it had been 23rd Century Earth, the familiar parks and boulevards of San Francisco appearing as they did on the day he left Earth with the Excalibur, then it transfigured into something even closer to home.

"Don't you remember, Karka? You never left."

"I think not," he replied, pushing through the long grasses. The meadow, indigo tinged by the skies, rippled all about him as it reflected the Hybrudean starlight. This was his actual home, as it appeared in the 29th Century. "What was that object? A type of computer? It read my mind and placed me in an illusion of Hybrudea, my homeworld."

His communicator clicked as if the voice was going to speak again but the silence endured. That, Karka thought, was the first vocal contact with this species, whoever was controlling this place. The communicator seemed to sigh.

Making his way through reeds towards the habitat cuboids on the farside of the meadow, Karka kept looking for Ryat, Prescott and the security teams, not sure if they could appear in this manifestation. Visual data would be supplied by the intelligence that had spoken. He realised he couldn't let the chance slip by. "You read their minds on our arrival here and created a version of Earth for them, but a massively out of date one. You must realise that now?"

[Daniel Schirra]

Forty minutes later the sphere re-appeared. It glided along the row until it reached the fist mark then stopped before repeating the sequence of scans. This time Dan followed the sphere when it completed it's task, until it went through yet another doorway ...

Stepping through the door Dan was shocked at what he saw ....... The room, if indeed it could be described as such, seemed to be endless. Hundreds, if not thousands or more, small, sarcophagus-type caskets stretched for as far as the eye could see. Row upon row upon row. He had lost sight of the orb when it had entered the room, which he was likening to a cathedral now. Walking toward the closest of the repositories he wiped the dust away. Jumping back at the sight of what seemed to be a small child !

Finally able to go back, he approached the child's resting place once more and looked more closely. It was a girl, eight or nine years of age from what he could see. She was serene in death, and he felt sadness at her demise at such a young age. He looked up and down the rows of repositories, moving to the next in line. Stealing himself for what he may see, he again wiped away the icy dust ... It was another child, approximately the same age, and another girl. he moved to five, then six, then almost twenty of the coffin's, all with the same result, a pre-adolescent girl. He sat n the floor in front of one of the caskets, wiping away what could be a millennia of sediment trying to find something to help him explain what he was seeing, because his best estimate said there were thousands of children here ...

He thought back to the other room, the larger, more ornate columns, and the open spaces ... 'What if those were the adults, while in here rested the children ?' he pondered.

Suddenly one of the orb's floated silently into his field of vision. He remained totally still, not wanting to attract the sentinel's attention as it passed. It hovered over one of the repositories close to him, and he risked getting to his knees to see more. The orb scanned the coffin before seemingly making a decision and moving away. Dan watched in silence, a thought slamming into his mind:

"What if these Children are still ALIVE !" he said, no longer worried about being discovered.

He scrambled at the nearest casket, looking for any way to open it or check the condition of the occupant, but he was out of luck, no matter what he tried it was useless, there was no way to open the casket as far as he could tell, and he wasn't even sure the child would survive if he did so ....... He stared in frustration at the face of the little girl in the coffin, of life-support system, or cryogenic chamber, whatever it was, hoping he could figure something out. Maybe those sphere's were keeping the children alive, using the life-force of visitors to the planet for sustenance ?, No, it wasn't that ... These were the last remaining of some ancient, advanced race of beings, that sounded more plausible in his head as he stood and began walking among the sleeping .....

ooo000ooo

He had looked at over a hundred of the children now, all in the same, comatose condition, not that he could confirm that of course, given he had no way of opening any of the caskets, and even if he could what was to say the child inside would not perish once released. His head was beginning to hurt at the myriad of random outcomes to any action he could take. Should he force one open, should he wait, should he forget the children and attempt escape to the surface ? ....


"Welcome."


Dan's heart almost stopped at the voice. He spun around, then again, trying to locate the source of the single word ... Then he saw her ... She was standing beside one of the caskets, six, maybe seven years old he guessed, a silken white dress moving slowly in the climate-controlled environment of the chamber. Long brown hair, to the small of her back, blue eyes, no, the bluest eyes Daniel could remember ever seeing. She was barefoot and smiling sweetly.


"You came ... Tell me ... Where is the other ?" ..........





< tag : Karka >

[Alyana Ryat]

OOC: My apologies once again all, I have had a horrible cold that has sapped my energy and imagination

"Psonoir to Ryat and all away team... I've uncovered a system of underground passages at the edge of town. Reading... no lifesigns. Nothing immediately indicative of a threat. Permission to proceed?"

“Permission granted Lieutenant. Stay in touch, don’t go alone and watch out for spheres.” Aly half smiled as she gave her orders, they did sound quite strange. She doubted they were the oddest ever issued by a Starfleet officer. She frowned as the seriousness of the situation and her missing Exec washed over her.

She looked around what they now knew to be a recently constructed copy of 20th century earth. It had seemingly been constructed for their benefit. She wondered vaguely whose mind they had borrowed this from. Whoever they were. She knew it wasn’t her. If they were trying to communicate that was positive she would try and make it easy. The sphere nearest her was hovering some thirty metres away and hadn’t moved in minutes. She guestured to two of the security team to indicate what she was going to do.

She stood up and focused on the sphere. “I’m Commodore Alyana Ryat of the Federation Starship Excalibur, I’m in charge of the team on this planet. If you’re trying to talk to us, it’s me you need to talk to.”

She heard a faint giggle and turned to see her six-year old flower-girl self staring at her from the alley opposite.

“Do you see her?” Aly pointed at the girl and murmured to the surrounding security personnel. They nodded in response.

“Can I help you?” Aly asked. She knew she was talking to herself, but this wasn’t her and it’s wasn’t in her head. This was happening.

“So lonely. Will you be my friend?” With that the flower-girl spun and skipped down the alleyway. She passed out of Aly’s line of sight.

“Can any of you still see her?” The response was a collection of shaken heads. She had gone once again.

Aly spoke over the communication link ensuring that Lt Psonior's part of the landing party knew what had happened.

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka was nearing the habitats - bleached white in the starlight but shaded indigo by the planet's atmosphere - having made his way out of the reeds on the far side of the meadow. He half expected to see friends, Lirwa and others, gathered about the trees near the habitat entrances, just as he'd seen them when he'd arrived back from his first Excalibur mission (that mission 600 years in the past). However the place was deserted.

He entered one of the habitats, only now realising that he was being contacted. He raised the communicator; the interference was appalling, but he could make out the whispery static of Commodore Ryat's voice, "Can I help you?"

"Umm, Commodore? Yes, Psonoir here."

There was a pause, breathy static emanating over the communicator. “Can any of you still see her?” she spoke again cryptically, apparently not having heard Karka.

At this point Karka happened to glance outside the pristine portals of the habitat - that let the planet's indigo atmosphere diffuse into the room, shifting to a pale lilac - and he saw a small girl skipping through the grasses, white dress tailing behind her silently, somehow it seemed reflecting the starlight. She was gone an instant later.

"Commodore, this is Lieutenant Psonoir. Are you reading me?"

"Lieutenant? Is there a problem?" A pause, "Did you see the girl?"

"Yes, sir... Well, I saw a girl at least. An infant, not older than thirteen standard Earth years perhaps." Karka tried to espy the girl through the habitat portal again but she was long gone, if she'd even been there. "Commodore, I emerged near to you on the surface shortly after my investigations underground... But the town transformed for me. I've entered a facsimile of..." he stopped there. He couldn't very well divulge knowledge of his true origins to these people. Tell them that he was a humanoid from 600 years in the future? Perhaps in time.

"Commodore, I believe I know at least part of what's behind this. An alien intelligence is reading our minds and creating images and settings of our respective homes. I don't think the original colonists had anything to do with it. The aliens created 20th century Earth suburbia for the Excalibur's human crew - the predominant species aboard the Excalibur - and perhaps considered that to be appropriate for the ship as a whole. I... I believe I've found Commander Schirra, sir. Or I've at least seen where he is." Karka waited for a response but realised the comm had cut off again.

Still, the others of the away team might appear in this place, somewhere and in some form. He turned to the exit, intent on hunting down the girl who'd disappeared amongst the shimmering grasses, and finding other members of the away team. His head was down as he exited; he found himself confronted with another of the obelisks. He sighed, annoyed at having jumped again. He should be getting used to this by now.

He glared down at the video display panel duly projected towards him. It showed Schirra apparently talking to the same girl Karka was sure he'd saw, and that Ryat had apparently also seen. Interestingly, the room Schirra was in was different this time. The CEO could just about make out sound, where before the video feed if that's what it'd been had been silent. "... Where is the other?" the girl's mouth moved.

Karka watched impassively. Other...? He surveyed the new room Schirra was in: coffin-shaped objects, like hibernation pods or stasis units. Finding that he was able to adjust the zoom on the display screen, Karka zoomed on the casket next to the girl. To his considerable shock, the girl in the casket was the exact same as the one standing before Schirra. He grunted. "Twins?"

He thought back to the message the disembodied voice had deposited in his head: ALL this lies inside in here. Could it mean... that all they were experiencing was encased inside just one of those obelisks?!

He scampered out of the habitat, into the surrounding tranquil meadow. Harsh light beat through atmosphere, refracting throughout the atmosphere into exotic regions of the EM spectrum, exciting troposphere-borne particles and emitting maddening colours. He sat in the grass; alone in the meadow. That girl, standing beside her casket; perhaps that whole scene on the display was part of the illusion; the 'girl' had created their surroundings, controlling it from actual reality from within her real casket, which was somehow linked to the obelisk in which all this was taking place...

Psonoir stopped himself. His Hybrudean mind could theorise endlessly, drawing from a wealth of experience and ideas from the sub-partitions of his mind; rapid thought processes and logical, sometimes suppository deductions. There was no guarantee he was right about any of this...

He lost his strand of thought. A figure was approaching from the distance, on the lip of a rise in the undulating meadow. He or she was silhouetted against the colourful sky, and was heading towards him. Silence seemed to drape itself all around. He sat up on his haunches, drawing his phaser and making sure he was hidden amongst the reeds.

<Tag All>

[Daniel Schirra]

"Welcome ......"

Dan's heart almost stopped at the voice. He spun around, then again, trying to locate the source of the single word ... Then he saw her ... She was standing beside one of the caskets, six, maybe seven years old he guessed, a silken white dress moving slowly in the climate-controlled environment of the chamber. Long brown hair, to the small of her back, blue eyes, no, the bluest eyes Daniel could remember ever seeing. She was barefoot and smiling sweetly.

"You came ... Tell me ... Where is the other ?" ..... the girl asked, looking left and right as if expecting this 'other one' to suddenly appear.

"Sorry ?" Dan asked, following the girls' gaze before returning to face her, "Who are you ... Where did you come from ?" he asked, suddenly cautious.

"The other one, the man 'out of time' ..... He is with you, is he not ?" ..... Dan had no idea what or who the child was referring to. He stepped forward, dropping to one knee so he was at eye-level with her. She was calm, serene, almost angelic, as she regarded him with interest, her head tilted to one side, "You have not brought him here. Could we have been so wrong as to have made such a graven error of judgement ?"

"Can you tell me who you are. Are you here alone, is there anyone else that I can speak to ?" Dan said, firing questions at the child.

"My name ...." the girl said, hesitating as if trying to recall it, "My given name is Rriaa, and yes, at this moment I am here alone. I was, chosen, to approach the one we had envisioned coming to our world for so long, but now you are stating that you are not the one. If this is so then we are indeed lost from time." she turned and began to walk away, the conversation over. Dan rose and caught her up quickly, reaching out to prevent her from going through into the next room. His fingers touched the gossamer fabric of her dress, and his world spun as what seemed like a thousand volts of electricity surged through his body. Muscles spasms contorted him into a quivering wreck kneeling before the angelic child before he fell onto one side. She stared down at him, pity in her blue blue eyes, a tear of sadness falling to the floor as she turned away once more, this time Dan could not have prevented her leaving, even if he had wanted to.

Riveted to the floor with pain, it took almost thirty minutes for the neurological trauma to recede fully allowing him to shakily get to his feet. He approached the door the child, Rriaa had passed through, but it remained stolidly closed to any attempt to open it ... Frustration building quickly, he gave up and turned his back to the door. He slid down until he was seated. Looking back along the row's upon row's of obelisks, he once again pondered the idea that they were not only a form of casket for the dead of the race, but could also be stasis chambers, life-capsules of some ancient, alien design. If so, there could be literally thousands of the race still surviving down here.

Maybe the sphere's were designed to search out this 'Other one' the child had referred to ...... 'So what went wrong ?' he thought ...... If those orb's were designed to look for a specific molecular biology, or a unique genome, why did it make such a massive error by bringing him into this subterranean labyrinth. It was a given that he wasn't the one the girl was looking for, so could it be someone else among the crew of the Excalibur, could it be possible they were looking for someone who was not a member of the Human race ?

He had to make a decision he decided ... Did he remain here, hoping Rriaa would return and continue their conversation, maybe he would get some insight into this 'Other' her race were searching for. Or did he abandon any thought of her coming back to continue a conversation where she had obviously got whatever answers she required already, and make an attempt to find a passage to the surface, where he could at least inform the other's of what he had discovered ? ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka squinted, trying to make out the figure standing on the near horizon. The starlight behind made a silhouette out of the figure, making it impossible to deduce their identity; it seemed to waver in the piercing light, a spindly being and vague outline of a humanoid as if it'd only been half formed. From amongst the grasses Karka crept forward, up the rise in the meadow with his phaser drawn.

Nearing the silhouette that was also continuing towards him, he thought about the nature of the place he was in, and why he was here. Assuming these surroundings were a result of an alien intelligence having probed his mind and created an image of his home, then the same could've been done for all the other non-humans on the Excalibur; what hadn't it?

There was also the slightly worrisome matter of these aliens having discovered that he wasn't in fact human. Extensive tests, plagued by nerves and anxiety, had taken place on Earth - Federation medical personnel screening him before his taking up active service with the Starfleet. The tests had revealed nothing of his true identity. He was, as far as Starfleet was concerned, an ordinary human being. In reality there were no differences in physiology, but he was a 29th century biological mind placed in a human body. Could it be that these aliens had deduced that his body - although genetically identical to a human's - was of synthetic origin?

Whether or not that was the case, there was something about him that the aliens regarded as... special. The non-humans of the Excalibur - the Commodore's race, the Andorians, Tellarites etc. - had all been placed in the same facsimile of an obsolete 20th century, as if the aliens had seen the humans to be the dominant species and sectioned them along with the other minority species into... an older Earth! A place where they could do little harm, could be kept out of the way while...

Something didn't connect. But in any case they'd considered Karka different, had after his brief sojourn underground placed him in his true home. Perhaps the 'aliens' - he continued to use the term reluctantly - had taken a while to work out who he truly was, had moved him from the 20th century, through to the 23rd and then to the place they eventually realised was his true origin.

"Enough of this," he murmured, raising his phaser as he saw the silhouette approach. "Psonoir to Commodore Ryat. If you can hear me, I believe I know why we're in these separate environments..." He told her everything that had happened to him in the underground tunnels, how he suspected their surroundings were being synthesised by aliens, how the spheres may be responsible for maintenance of these certain realities, and how the girl they'd all apparently seen may be at least partly responsible for it.

<Tag Ryat>

He cut off before he could tell her about the caskets filled with dead or barely alive bodies. He swore he'd heard something - someone speaking. The figure approached, no longer silhouetted, but ironically suited in all black. Karka steeled himself, continuing to shuffle forward through the long grasses but ready to roll into cover if needed, for the opponent also had a weapon.

Little more than twenty metres separated them now, the Hybrudean star continuing its ascent in the skies behind his opponent. Karka approached, the enemy did likewise. They rose their weapons in unison. Karka stepped closer, his enemy copying his exact movement. Finally they were close enough to stare into each other's faces.

It was like looking into a mirror; Karka faced himself. "Hello, Lieutenant," the Hybrudean spoke. Karka felt his own mouth speak the same words. There was something he noticed immediately: this Psonoir before him was not in a human body; he was in his true form, humanoid with the same face but the overall shape smooth and streamlined.

[Karka Psonoir]

"Who are you?" Karka asked, keeping his customary calm.

"I'm you as you really are. Aren't I?" the image said. "A mirror. See how we move in unison? Everything you say I say back at you and vice-versa; simultaneously."

It was true. Karka was speaking to himself; in the case of the mirror image the words forming and vocalised before he was even aware of it, and for his own part - his questions to the counterpart - he did ask them of his own volition but the exact same question was fired back at him instantaneously... Who was questioning who here? he wondered. Who was Karka Psonoir...? If it was the mirror before him, then what was he?

Feeling suddenly very alien in his own body, Karka took several steps backwards, observing his opponent doing the same. He stepped to the left, then the right, then tried running. What if he tried to run past his mirror image?

The mirror laughed. "You see, Lieutenant. I'm the guardian of your mind, that which is trapping you. There's no escape until you tell us what we wish to know."

Karka sat in the grass again, the shimmering grass reflecting the indigo hues of the atmosphere. He espied his mirror's eyes between the waving silvery reeds. There was something the other Karka had said: he was a trap in his mind - presumably preventing Karka from breaking out of this illusory space and hopefully getting back to the Commodore and the others.

"You said 'us'," original Karka said, "You and who else?" The words echoed back to him. It was disconcerting, disorientating, as if he was subjecting himself to a harsh self-analysis.

"There are beings that exist here who wish to learn of your culture. 'Yours' specifically, Lieutenant. The others of your crew, they're not like you. We recognised the difference in you long before your ship arrived in our system. This has all been preordained. We've manipulated time and space to bring you to this place, courtesy of the Federation starship Excalibur. While it has its own legitimate mission, we checked and ensured that you would be aboard her for its assignment. Now our rendezvous with you is complete." The mirror smiled in satisfaction, "Don't be afraid."

"I'm not afraid. Merely disconcerted," Karka replied lightly, "That your race could know of my race's passage along the highways of spacetime; the excursions of our vigilantes into the deep past and far future; how you can predict where and when we'll be at any given moment... It suggests to me that you have some power greater than our own. You can observe our movements from some higher plane."

Karka felt himself shake his head. The mirror was doing likewise. "No," it said, "It takes all our energy to focus on a mere dozen of beings like yourself. Observing your own spacetime movements was a process that took three hundred Earth years."

Karka looked around the meadow: the habitats, the distant violet-green hills, the sparkling trees and the shades of Archives, graceful hulks in orbit above the indigo sky. "Let me go," he said. "Curiosity of our race's movements is none of your concern; it would serve you best to leave well alone. Let me return to my shipmates."

"Your shipmates?" the mirror scowled. "None of them are like you, Karka. You don't belong with them. Why do you keep up this charade? Why not tell them the truth?"

"Causality," Karka explained, then cocked his head. "Actually I may, in time. But it's no concern of yours!" He charged at the mirror, the latter doing likewise. They collided head on and vanished.

Karka looked around; he was in a large cavern, black obelisks all around in rows that stretched out for kilometres. At the end of the aisle he was in he saw a man that looked quite familiar. Schirra.

<Tag Schirra/All>

[Daniel Schirra]

OOC :: I hope this works OK .......


IC ::


Daniel chose to wait it out. He was hoping that the child, Rriaa, would return, would be able to enlighten him on what exactly was happening. He wasn't a fan of speculation. Knowledge, information, cold hard facts, that was what his profession required, but it also needed a modicum of that very same speculation to do his job successfully. He passed the time examining more of the obelisk's until the novelty wore off and he decided to try to find a passage to the surface, or at least a means to contact the Commodore.

Looking back toward where he had met Rriaa, he left and began walking along the row upon row of onyx obelisk's ... It was then he thought he saw her, far in the distance along the very same row he was walking. He stopped walking, this time waiting for the child to approach him rather than going to her. Time seemed to jump as he watched the girls' approach. She was over a thousand meters away one second, then five hundred, then two, then thirty meters, all in mere blink's of his eyes, then she was before him, her angelic smile in place as if happy to see him once again.

"You seem, confused, Daniel ..... Why would this be ?" to say her opening line didn't throw him off guard was an understatement, "Please, I am more than willing to help you in any way within my power, so do not anguish yourself."

"You know my name." he said simply, seeing the child smile once more, as if she had suddenly been asked to count to three.

"We know everything about you now Daniel ..... We have taken a great deal of time in our studies. Watching, waiting, listening ...."

He wasn't stupid. He knew obtuse replies, distracting comments, giving a snippet of useless or fragmented information in return for something more vital to the questioner rather than the one being questioned. It was almost the first lesson in 'Spy School' as Star Fleet Intelligence training was called. So he wasn't going to bite so readily this time around. He merely looked at the child with no expression on his face as if waiting for her to continue, which she did:

"You're vessel is impressive." she continued, sitting herself before him and crossing her legs. He wondered vaguely if she had coaxed that mannerism from his mind, or from one of the others as she motioned for him to sit too, then waited while he did so, "Of course, it is archaic, antiquated, almost primitive by some standards, but impressive nevertheless ..... Distance is such a linear notion, do you not agree. We long ago chose to forego the tedium of travel."

"We ?" he asked, eyes flicking up to the rows of pillar's then back to Rriaa. She motioned encompassing the entire cathedral of obelisk's.

"Our race ....... But something happened, far far in our history as to be almost forgotten to the winds of memory. For long before the universe as you now know it was fully formed, we were roaming the emptiness, seeking newness, uniqueness, inspiration from our decision to enter this realm. In your terms, millennia passed, eon's of what you see as 'time' drifted by us like grains of sand on a summer breeze, again I try to put this in terms from your own understanding ... It was while we were contemplating if we should remain when something even beyond our comprehension occurred. We found ourselves, for the first time in our existence, no longer alone."

Rriaa was crying now, tears rolling down her cheeks and dropping onto her dress.

"Other's came here ?" Daniel asked, not quite knowing what he was referring to by 'here' exactly.

"It was a darkness to our light if you will, negative to our positive .... The Yin to our Yang .... The T'lrnna to the Kri'rasa .... I think you understand what I am saying ......... We attempted contact with this new deity, but they chose to punish us for our apparent innocence, by imprisoning our species to an exile beyond our comprehension. Thus .... We are here."

"How many of you were trapped here ?"

"In your terms ..." Rriaa said, frowning as if trying to add something up in her head, "One Quadrillion, or 10¹⁵ remaining members of our race .... But we are dying. The Channoui, or obelisk's as you are referring to them, are beginning to fail, decay, deteriorate, and as they do thousands of us travel beyond the veil. We have searched for the one that will be able to release us to our realm and allow us the freedom we have so long craved, we believe that person is among you today."

He leaned back against the warm onyx-like material of the obelisk and held out his arms. Rriaa crawled forward and climbed into those arms, burying her head in his chest, her small, frail body racked with sobs her physical form could not fight, his own tears fell into her hair as he caressed and comforted the five year old form of one of the oldest races of being's in existence ... Finally, Rriaa lifted her head and kissed him tenderly on the cheek, before looking down the row of chalice's that held her entire race. She stood, taking his hand and began walking, and for the second time, Dan could see someone far far away, waiting as if knowing they were coming to him ...

"We have company Daniel." she said, smiling ..........

[Alyana Ryat]

Aly was getting very annoyed with the intermittent communication. She had asked the Excal, at least that link seemed to be stable, to refine their scans to at least keep a lock on the members of landing party. They couldn't find Commander Schirra, and apparently the lock on Lieutenant Psonoir was shaky at best which at least fitted with the signal she had been getting. There had been there odd words and it seemed that his investigation was carrying on but she didn't know precisely what he was doing.

"Psonoir to Commodore Ryat. If you can hear me, I believe I know why we're in these separate environments..." He told her everything that had happened to him in the underground tunnels, how he suspected their surroundings were being synthesised by aliens, how the spheres may be responsible for maintenance of these certain realities, and how the girl they'd all apparently seen may be at least partly responsible for it. This was the information that Aly had been looking for. It made sense with the talk she had had with that girl.

She made sure that the rest of the landing party stayed in visual contact. Then chose somewhere to settle down. She address the world at large. If you want to talk I'm here"

[Daniel Schirra]

OOC :: Hope you don't mind my filling in some dialogue for you Karka. I just needed it to fit before tagging.


IC ::


He looked down at the sobbing, shivering child in his lap, finding it difficult to come to terms that she could be thirty, or six hundred and thirty years old for all he knew .... Slowly, very slowly, her sobs began to subside and she lay in silence, her head against his chest. He had almost thought she had fallen asleep, when she suddenly looked up and down the row of obelisk's.

"We have company Daniel." she said, smiling ... He looked in the direction she was looking and could see someone approaching. Whoever is was they were far off and seemingly in no hurry to reach them, Dan got to his feet as Rriaa slipped out of his arms, "Seven." she said, making him look down at her.

"Seven what ?"

"You were wondering how old I actually was .... Well, I'm seven. In your years I suppose that would be about, twenty eight, thirty ... Oh don't worry, we don't read minds, but occasionally, if we have any physical contact with another person, thoughts, memories, tend to bleed over." she said, smiling once more as if pleased with herself, "Hello Karka." she said, not taking her eyes off Daniel as the Excalibur's Chief Engineer approached from directly behind her.

"Daniel ?" Karka said, eyeing the child then looking round as if expecting someone, 'older' to appear.

"Karka Psnoir, meet Rriaa, she is seven and one of the remaining quadrillion or her race captive on this planet. Is that right ?"

"Well, we are not 'captive' as such, but you are right, we are contained within the influence of this planetary body.£ the girl said, turning to face the Engineer, but not allowing Dan to move his arms from around her, "We have been waiting for you Karka." she said simply, as if it explained everything that had occurred thus far.

"Waiting ... Quadri ...." Psnoir spluttered, trying to get his head around the astronomical numbers.

"Yes." Dan said quickly, "These, obelisks, hold hundreds of thousands of their race each, in some form of suspended state, though technically, only their essence, or 'being' is held here. What we have is the combined race of a system countless light-years from here. When I said quadrillion, I wasn't exaggerating ... Their System contained, still contains, over a hundred stars, all with habitable planets. What we have here is the 'entire' race of people from that system ..... I don't begin to comprehend how it was possible to transport so many, either way, it is far beyond anything we could even dream of, so I wouldn't even try to understand it."

"You called me Karka, did Dani ....."

"She can do this mind-reading trick thing." Dan said, shrugging, "It isn't important at this point in time."

"We have waited for you for so many thousands of years, Karka." Rriaa said, finally moving out of Dan's arms and taking one hand of the Engineer as if it were a sacred object, "And now you are here."

Dan watched the Engineer, wondering vaguely if the man actually knew what the little girl was talking about, but Karka wasn't giving anything away. In fact, he looked visibly upset by the proceedings. Had Rriaa got it wrong. Had she and her race pinned everything on the first Star Ship that took up orbit and came down to the surface to investigate, no .... This race of people had been very cautious. They hadn't expended the energy to reconstitute a physical body, even one as small as Rriaa on a whim, because to be able to do so they had sacrificed thousands of their people, syphoning the very energy they needed to survive in order to bring into being a living, physical, human-like body. He wondered how many times they had gone through this to find the one they needed to return home.

"I don't understand. Our vessel isn't capable of ...." Karka said, looking at Daniel, "You want us to transport you back to, where ? ...."

Rriaa looked up at the man, sympathy in her eyes as she kissed the back of his hand.

"It is not only a matter of where Karka, but a matter of ........... When."

Both Officer's of the USS Excalibur looked at each other over the head of the child between them ..........







< tag : Karka / All >

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka could still feel the imprint of the mirror image on him, diving into his body perpetually as if it was a being colliding with itself and trying to work out how such a thing was possible. He gathered his thoughts, rising to his full height amongst the obelisks and feeling the ripples of the implanted mirror ripple out from his chest and around his synthesised human body.

Swinging into his sight were the small girl in the white dress and the grey-shirted Commander, sudden spectres a way down the aisle. From a distance it seemed that they stared at him, in shock. The towers rose ominously on either side. Intercrossing bridges through spacetime whirled inside his head, geometric wireframes dotted with grey figures making their way along numerous position-velocity configurations towards their destinations in spacetime.

He was still coming to terms with his mirror's revelations: this species wanted something from him; he had a gloomy suspicion of what that was.

Schirra and the girl's image seemed to jerk forward, timelapsing to his position as he soon deduced he must be to theirs. They were before him, pallid images of horror - in the girl's case anyway - staring at him, expecting something from him. He opened his mouth to speak.

Karka stuttered his way through the conversation, giving little away but doing so brokenly, more taken aback at the candid nature with which Rriaa addressed him and requested his help. She seemed to think - as the mirror image had - that he was here for the sole purpose of transporting them back to their home. Perhaps in a way she was right... But he wouldn't be manipulated! Psonoir, vigilante of the Hybrudean race from the 29th century, had and would not be used by these people, his strings pulled like those of a marionette.

With Schirra's eye on him over the head of the girl - and being well aware of the Intel officer's skill in detecting fabrications, deflections - he spoke, "The Federation doesn't have the ability to translate people through time, Rriaa. Only in extraordinary circumstances - via unpredicted wormholes, uncatalogued astronomical phenomena and so on - is such a thing possible. But not only are they hard to predict, it's impossible to determine where your people might end up - "

"Karka," Rriaa gripped his hand tighter, "I don't mean your Federation. The power lies within yourself. We've watched you for... for many years," she glanced up at Schirra, as if she felt she only had to explain this alternate way of viewing time to the Commander.

"I see... And, so I've been told." Karka withdrew his hand, "But I'm afraid you've got me confused with somebody else." He winced; he knew it was harsh, and was well aware these people knew of his abilities, that he was deliberately denying all knowledge when they must've spent great energy to guide him here.

He looked back at Schirra - still curious, listening closely no doubt. "This is some predetermination illusion, Commander. These people... They've been waiting for many years. They're acting out of desperation and must realise that Starfleet's unable to help them."

"She seems very interested in your help, specifically, Lieutenant," Schirra said, raising an eyebrow.

"Indeed. And why they've chosen me I don't know..." Outside of the lie he was telling, he did actually have a reason to question why he'd been the choice, and how Rriaa thought he could possibly help her even with the knowledge he possessed. He may have been Hybrudean and he could bend his will to make such a thing happen (or so he believed), but he existed in a human body and it would be difficult.

"You tried your best to break free of our web, Karka," Rriaa spoke softly, "Confronting your guardian in the image of your homeworld, distant from here in time and space... But understand we did it only to ensure you were led to this place... We mean you no harm, we need only your help."

Karka said, "I saw this room. I saw you walking among the obelisks, Commander, in a screen on an obelisk in a network of tunnels underneath the town. From there I was transported through several illusory timeframes, ending in San Francisco. Earth." Karka looked down and saw Rriaa smiling.

"When do you want to go?" Karka asked solemnly, wearily.

"Our species was driven to this place millions of years ago, by another race. They were militant, cruel, not what we expected or hoped for. It is then, we would like to go, Karka."

Karka looked at Schirra and then the girl once more, "I have nothing to say. Nothing to do. This is beyond me, beyond any of us in this time."

Laughter echoed in his mind, Karka, you know that isn't true. Let not the limitations of the human frame inhibit you. Send these people back to where they belong. Ha, you have our authority!

Karka was stunned; the archive, his home and birthplace, had spoken across the centuries... From that ill-defined place where time existed as a standing wave oscillating through the fabric of subspace, shifting sections of Hybrudean space through different timeframes without end. This was the first time, the first! that he had been contacted in such a direct manner. Obviously the future Hybrudeans thought this to be of some importance... Karka, painful though it was the ruination of his time in this particular past reality it could be, may have to take drastic and revealing action in order to save Rriaa's people. Not only for them, but for Hybrudea.

<Tag Schirra, All> - OOC: Hope I've left you enough to work with

[Daniel Schirra]

"I'm ... 'When' do you want to go ?" Karka asked solemnly, wearily.

"Our species was driven away to this place millions of years ago, by another race ..... They were militant, cruel, not what we expected or hoped for. It is 'then' we would like to go, Karka." Rriaa said, a glimmer of hope in her childlike eyes.

Karka looked at Schirra and then the girl once more, "I have nothing to say. Nothing to do. This is beyond me, beyond any of us in this time." he said, almost dejectedly.

Daniel was watching the man who had quickly become his closest friend on the Excalibur. Something he couldn't quite pinpoint was telling him that the man before them wasn't telling the whole truth about their situation. But surely, if he could do something extraordinary he would have, unless ..... Unless it would mean he was revealing something beyond what he could, something that could jeopardize the ship, or the crew themselves. He decided to ask the man outright:

"What is she talking about Karka, is there something, some small act that could help these people ?"

"Dan ........" he replied, once again looking at the child before continuing, "They have got it wrong. I can't help them."

"Then we will need to find another way. She is going to have to allow us to get together and work on this." Schirra said, placing a hand on his friends shoulder for reassurance. He turned to Rriaa then almost as an afterthought, turned back, "You asked her 'when' ...."

"Sorry ?" Psnoir replied, realizing his error too late.

"You asked Rriaa 'when' she wanted to go back to, before you said you couldn't do it ... I'm just curious as to why you would ask in the first place ......... You can do it, can't you ..... Somehow, you have what they need, what are you afraid of, the Commodore, the crew, the Federation finding out you have some unique ability ? ..... Look Karka, I consider you a friend, and from what little I know of you, you don't seem the type of person to abandon someone, be it a single person, or a race of people, if you have the means to help them in some way." he crouched beside the man who had his head in his hands, not wanting to look at the little girl standing before him.

"There are ........ Issues." Karka said finally.

"Well, whatever issues there may be, I'm sure you will be able to overcome them my friend." Dan said, "You are their only hope They need you."

Dan raised himself from the wall and Rriaa took his hand. The two looked down, one at his friend, the other, at their only means of salvation ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

It wasn't so much a unique ability. What Schirra couldn't know was the temporal aspect to Karka's 'skills'. He wasn't a product of the 23rd century merely gifted with something extraordinary - a quirk of genetics, or a result of something imparted on him during a short lifespan.

Yes, he might be able to tell Schirra of his ability to send Rriaa and the quadrillion members of her race back to her own time, but he couldn't reveal the whole truth: that he was actually an impostor - an alien in a human body, not a trained Starfleet officer at all, and from the 29th century. When or if he carried out the act, Schirra and the others would surely realise Karka's powers ran far deeper than something of the 23rd century.

He thought back to that stunning message from the Archive. Send these people back to where they belong... But then, was the Archive playing a trick on him? Some subterfuge or prank? It wasn't unheard of. Contemporary 29th century Hybrudeans lived lives of contemplatory ease. Those without responsibilites in Archives or Institutions and who lived on the homeworld had near 100% leisure time, and their views on vigilantes (such as Karka) were that they were playthings - nebulous beings blundering through the avenues of spacetime in folly - and they could be misled, cajoled into taking unfortunate actions and ridiculed for it. Presumably there existed a reality in which Karka did save Rriaa's people, and that those jesters back in the 29th were trying to lead him either to take that course of action or avoid it.

No. There had to be another way that wouldn't reveal his true identity to the Excalibur crew.

He looked at the girl, her pallid face stained anaemic with glistening tears. She was a ghostly apparation, a nebulous angel. "I'm sorry, Rriaa. I cannot do what you ask... You have me confused with somebody else, or you're reaching out to the first that you recognise has supernat-"

The second mistake.

"But Commander Schirra is right," he quickly recovered, "There is a way we might be able to return you to your time and place, but using our ship's systems, not anything I might have." He grinned at Schirra, trying to feign embarrassment.

He spoke quietly to Schirra for a moment, opening a channel to Commodore Ryat at the same time and hoping - although probably beyond hope - that she'd be able to hear, "Commander, and Commodore if you can hear me... A starship, jumping to warp speed... A particular misalignment in the plasma injectors to the coils in the nacelles can, theoretically, create an artificial wormhole in the vicinity of the ship, for just a few minutes."

Schirra blinked, "Something you learnt at the Corps, Lieutenant?"

"Aye, sir," Karka said, lying again. He'd read the historical records of the USS Enterprise's 2271 mission to intercept the V'Ger entity, which of course hadn't yet happened. And now he was about to draw on knowledge from even further in the future. "I believe we can calibrate the injectors and deflector assembly in such a way that we'll not only be able to create an artificial wormhole, but we'll be able to define its exit point in both space and time."

"Lieutenant... This is madness."

"Yes, but it's 'their' only hope." Karka stared at Schirra intently, Schirra staring back, scrutinising the CEO, clearly sceptical that this was Rriaa's people's only hope. Psonoir turned to the girl, "Rriaa... Allow us to return to our ship. We can only attempt this from there. You have my - ... Our word, that we'll not leave." Psonoir's words were heavy and harsh - again he felt a pang of guilt inside.

Rriaa didn't speak, sitting down on one of the caskets near Schirra who then sat next to her. Eventually she nodded, sadly, a singular tear rolling down her cheek. As Karka dissolved in a column of light - being transported back to the Excalibur - she looked into his eyes, pleading for him to surrender part of himself, to swallow his pride and status as an incognito explorer of past aeons to help over a quadrillion people trapped under the rock of a dead planet.

<Tag Schirra>

Karka was wallowing in misery at his own selfishness as he materialised on the Excalibur transporter pad; he headed to deflector control to start making the necessary modifications.

The Archive spoke, filtering breathily into his mind from across the centuries, Karka... You know this won't work. There was laughter, then tutting, Come on, localise a standing wave, propel them across spacetime and their home. You don't need the Federation vessel! Vigilantes... Always thinking of themselves.

Thoughts spiralled endlessly through the partitions in Karka's mind, trying to break into the adjoining sections, drag his mind down into a chaotic mire. He kept the emotion from his face, but he feared the Archive, his birthplace, spoke the truth. A quadrillion people... He'd do his best to save them, but did that extend to destroying his incognito status in the realm of the 23rd century?

<Tag Ryat, Schirra

[Alyana Ryat]

Aly had heard the odd sound of childish laughter but the little girl that looked like her had not reappeared. As far as she could tell she was the only on who had heard the laughter on another planet she might think that she was going mad but this sort of thing seemed to be about as normal as this planet got. Occasionally one of the other members of the landing party would look up and then around and then ask if anyone else had heard that. No one had.

Aly bit her lip as she contemplated what to do there was no way she could leave while two of her crew were missing. Or at least occasionally missing. The odd word of communication was getting through. Jenni had complained that she was fighting against something that was adapting to keep the signal out. Somehow Aly wasn’t surprised. What little she had gleaned from the messages that Lieutenant Psonior had been contacted by a representative of race resident on this planet. She also gathered that Commander Schirra was there also. It was something of a relief to know they were well and together.

Suddenly her communicator beeped. Aly responded quickly, “Commodore if you can hear me...” It was Lieutenant Psonior, his voice as clear as if he were standing within a metre of her. “A starship, jumping to warp speed... A particular misalignment in the plasma injectors to the coils in the nacelles can, theoretically, create an artificial wormhole in the vicinity of the ship, for just a few minutes.” She wondered if this was some sort of code, but it was far more likely that she had just missed a lot of what had been going on.

"Lieutenant... This is madness." That was Commander Schirra, also coming in clearly over the comm link.

"Yes, but it's 'their' only hope." Karka said "Rriaa... Allow us to return to our ship. We can only attempt this from there. You have my - ... Our word, that we'll not leave." Aly wondered who Rriaa was, the way he was talking she guessed that this was the name of the representative he was talking to. She knew she would have to have words with her CEO about making promises, he sounded as if he had got emotionally involved in the situation, which while not 'wrong' always complicated matters. She was especially concerned with the promise as his plan apparently involved a jump to warp which might be considered the definition of leaving.

Suddenly Aly received notification that the transporter locks had stabilized, she gave the order to beam everyone up.

Aly looked around at her landing party as they materialized back on the Excal. Her CEO bolted for the door almost before her had finished materalising. Aly glanced at briefly at Commander Schirra and then followed Lieutenant Psonoir. She finally caught up with him in deflector control. He was all ready busy with something, presumably the theoretical adjustments he had mentioned, he did not look up when Aly entered.

“Do you want to tell me what happened down there?”

Tag: Karka

Aly wasn’t quite sure she could imagine that sort of number, in a way that abstractness made it easier. “I assume you are proposing to test your theoretical wormhole generation with the Excal? What are the theoretical risks to the ship?”

Tag: Karka

Aly pinched the bridge of her nose. “If you are certain that this is the only way. Go ahead. It is good to see you again Lieutenant.”

[Karka Psonoir]

Vigilantes... Always thinking of themselves!

Karka focussed his mind, channelling the linguistic subroutines and transferring them into time-defying wave packets to shoot into the future. He was kneeling below the deflector control main console, two panels open exposing primitive duotronic circuitry.

Leave me!" he fired into the future. To send such a message took all his effort. The jestering Hybrudeans in the distant future had the power relays of a full archive - or perhaps more - at their disposal to send their meddlesome messages.

Psonoir continued, It may not work, but it's the only chance I have of saving a quadrillion lives while preserving the secrecy of my illegitimate presence here. Which would you say is more worthy: Tampering unnecessarily with the timeline by revealing my identity or carrying out my work incognito?

Your work is what you choose to do. Most vigilantes twist and break the causal chain of events of the past by revealing their nature. Don't go out of your way to be unique, different from the rest by concealing your true being... Limiting yourself like this might destroy the quadrillion you're trying to save.

Karka had been readying a response but it was clear the Archive had fallen silent. Perhaps they'd now try and contact him in the past, before he started on this mission and divert him from there; or they could send another agent to disrupt him, in which case he'd soon know about it as the timeline would change - instead he might be dead.

He continued recalibrating the deflector, aiming its matrix of complex antennae such that imaginary lines extended from them would intercept each other in the appropriate sequence. When the wormhole opened, the deflector would have to start emitting waves on a particular frequency into the phenomenon, to guide the exit point towards the desired coordinates in spacetime. He paused momentarily, having noted a new presence in the room.

“Do you want to tell me what happened down there?” the Commodore asked.

Karka continued rewiring the duotronics, "We made contact with an alien species, a representative of which materialised to us in human form. Their species have been trapped down there millions of years. They want to go home, back to the time before they were imprisoned." He paused, sighing lightly, "For some reason, they thought I was the one able to help them, believed I had powers beyond the human. Ironically enough, I have worked out a way that may make it possible.

"An idea postulated at the Corps of Engineers was that a ship, only a Constitution class, could inadvertantly create an artificial wormhole if its warp coils were misaligned upon jumping to warp. They also suggested that if the degree of misalignment was defined and adjustments made to the deflector, the wormhole could be 'aimed'." Reason for court martial in Starfleet regulations, Karka thought, lying to a superior officer. "Adjustments are nearly complete. The wormhole, if it activates... will send Rriaa's species to a location approximately 9 billion lightyears away and 11.7 million years ago."

“I assume you are proposing to test your theoretical wormhole generation with the Excal? What are the theoretical risks to the ship?”

Karka stood, finishing that stage of the modifications, "Indeed, sir. The risks... If we time the creation of the instable warp bubble correctly, the Excalibur will not have to enter the resultant wormhole at all - in theory the wormhole could be sustained indefinitely, presuming our instruments stay perfectly calibrated," very unlikely, Karka thought, "- or until we move away.

"However, considerable stresses could still be put on the vessel. If we station ourselves to close, we're at risk of spacetime and gravitational sheer tensions. We should also monitor chroniton count - there's a danger we could temporally displace ourselves. The wormhole will extend to the planet's surface and at the other end to the coordinates of Rriaa's true home... They should be lifted through it... I apologise, Commodore, but this is the only way I can think to save those quadrillion people using the Excalibur's systems," he said quite truthfully.

Aly pinched the bridge of her nose. “If you are certain that this is the only way. Go ahead. It is good to see you again Lieutenant.”

Karka bowed and extended a hand forward, the customary greeting/thanks of the colonial humans he'd initally been put among. "Thank you, sir. I shall do my best." He knew, however, he could save these people in an instant - not using the Excalibur. But it would place incredible strain on his body, rather than the ship's chassis. If it came to that he may not survive, however a quadrillion people would. Realisation of his selfishness drove itself home as he returned to calibrating the deflector.

He tapped the communicator control on the wall next to the console, "Bridge, this is Lieutenant Psonoir. Should be ready in 20 minutes, sir."

<Tag Ryat, Schirra>

[Alyana Ryat]

Aly sighed silently and then nodded. She turned to leave deflector control. A quadrillion people. She understood the number but she could not imagine it. Her CEO was quite right if there was a way to save them then they had to try. Ultimately the decision would come back to her as did all the decisions on the Excalibur. That was the joy and the cost of being a commanding officer. Aly headed to the bridge, if this worked then she wanted to see it. Also because this was a new discovery she wanted to make sure that they had records.

She stepped on to the bridge and quickly briefed everyone on what Lieutenant Psonior was attempting. She heard some swift intakes of breath from those on the science and engineering stations. That gave her an idea of how far out there and theoretical this was. Somehow Aly wasn’t at all surprised, there was no way that saving that many people should be easy. She settled in to her chair and leaned back crossing her ankles.

“Let’s set up for a detailed recording.” “Aye, Sir”, said CPO Daley.

Aly opened a comm link down to deflector control. “Lieutenant. This is Commodore Ryat. Let me know when your adjustments are ready.”

Tag

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka completing final calibrations of the deflector's transmission antennae, ensuring their alignment was such that the wormhole would open at the required coordinates. If the Excalibur was to initiate the beam too early or too close to the desired point in their orbit they would likely be pulled into the wormhole, or torn apart by gravitational sheer.

He could still feel the filtering through of information from the Archive, 700 years in the future. It breathed to him, snippets of messages and the murmurs of a million voices. It sounded like laughter, mockery of his situation... They knew which way it would turn out, at least in the current causal configuration. Psonoir knew - could almost see - the potential timelines opening to him, their routes dependent upon the actions he took in the following minutes, hours...

The wall comm panel sounded and he placed his equipment on the shelf, climbing down the tube's red ladder and pressing the comm panel in the corridor.

"Lieutenant. This is Commodore Ryat. Let me know when your adjustments are ready.”

"They're ready now, sir..." Karka looked about; passers-by regarded him strangely but with a noticeable awareness of the import of his presence at deflector control. He smiled as best he could as he awaited the Commodore's response.

He strongly doubted the possibility of success of this operation; while the risk to the Excalibur should it fail was minimal, that rationalisation might not be acceptable in a hearing or court martial, if it came to that. He could attempt to use the Excalibur, potentially risking the ship and the continued imprisonment of Rriaa's race beneath the planet's surface.

The alternative solution, using himself... not so palatable... He could sacrifice the facade of his assumed identity, use his own untested ability to translate the trapped species through time and space and possibly placing his own life at significant risk. The matter was reduced to who would potentially suffer the most: himself, possible death; or the Excalibur. He was not a member of Starfleet, in truth; not bound by the same oaths of duty and sacrifice to some greater good. Although Hybrudean culture did hold some elements of that philosophy in common with the Federation of 700 years past, the morals, ethics... ill-defined as any such ideas are, were much more loosely interpreted on Hybrudea.

He tapped the wall commpanel again, despite the objections crying out in his mind, "Commodore... If you're not willing to go through with this, I understand, sir... The idea is highly theoretical. The risks to the ship - while if the actual operation fails - are not substantial. But if we should succeed and open an instable wormhole, I cannot predict with accuracy what will occur. The ship may suffer structural damage, there may be casualties, although likely minimal... We could even be temporally displaced."

<Tag Ryat>

"Awaiting your order, Commodore." Psonoir nervously thumbed the transmit button to closed position. Conflicting thoughts ran through him. Shame, seeming the most noticeable and curiously central one. With profound sorrow, he hoped the CO gave the go ahead.

<Tag Ryat>

[Daniel Schirra]

Rriaa didn't speak, sitting down on one of the caskets near Schirra who then sat next to her. Eventually she nodded, sadly, a singular tear rolling down her cheek. As Karka dissolved in a column of light - being transported back to the Excalibur - she looked into his eyes, pleading for him to surrender part of himself, to swallow his pride and status as an incognito explorer of past aeons to help over a quadrillion people trapped under the rock of a dead planet.

They watched, arm in arm as Karka vanished from sight and returned to begin his calculations for the theoretical wormhole transit ...

"What he is attempting in an impossibility, you do understand that Daniel." Rriaa said quietly, and if he were honest, he too couldn't understand how the formation of the wormhole would automatically displace a whole race of people. He wasn't an Engineer, and Karka had said he had come across the procedure at Star Fleet Academy. While he didn't doubt the Chief Engineer, he was dubious of the success of their endeavour. His Communicator suddenly chirped to life:

=^= Commander Schirra .. We are about to begin establishing the wormhole .. The Chief Engineer has informed me that there could be issues on the Excalibur .. Please be aware these issues may affect the planet itself before we are able to transport .. I will leave this channel open =^=

=^= Understood =^= he replied, feeling Rriaa tighten her hold on him as he put the communicator on the marble floor beside them.

"Why are you so convinced that Lieutenant Psnoir will not succeed in his attempt to return you to your own time ?"

"You think that over time we haven't attempted countless ways to return to our own time and place ?" the child said, almost resigned to failure, "No ..... We searched long and hard for a being capable of transplanting our race. Karka is a somewhat 'unique' individual, a man with conflicts deep within himself. He is a good man, a honest man, but what he is doing is ripping at his very soul, if that is the right phrase .... He will attempt the wormhole, and we shall be here, I fear, what is the term you Human's use, 'it is our last resort' before we accept our inevitable fate and perish on this barren world." Dan looked down at the sobbing child, wondering how this one little girl could have the responsibility for her whole race, but she seemed to sense his question:

"Do not confuse small, with childhood, with knowledge, or indeed the responsibility you wonder about." Dan looked at her again, then spoke to the ship:

=^= Schirra to Excalibur .. What is the status up there ? =^=

=^= We are establishing the wormhole now ! .. We are being affected beyond the Engineer's expectations and may need to break away .. If so we will make a second attempt at establishing the hole once we are secure =^=

"We are sorry you came here Daniel." Rriaa said quietly, "We thought we had found the one that could help us, but we were wrong ... The wormhole attempt will damage your vessel beyond what we are willing to allow. Please contact your ship and ask them to cease before it is too late."

"No, we will keep trying, you and your race need to return home, I am sure they are doing all they ca ........" Daniel stopped speaking, he suddenly began to feel light-headed, almost as if he were going to pass out. he could feel Rriaa clutching him so tightly he wondered if she was cutting off vital blood flow, as the floor beneath him began to resonate, "........ Something is wrong. Maybe they are having trouble establi ........"

"No Daniel ..... We are going home." Rriaa said, releasing herself from his carress before kneeling before him, her small hands on his face, tears flowing freely down her cheeks onto her dress. She turned his head so he could see the rows upon rows of obelisk's and his eyes widened at the sight before him !

Hundreds, thousands, then millions of tiny star-like pin-points of light were emanating from the dark marble surfaces, rising slowly towards the ceiling of the enormous cavern. Their very presence brightened up the room until the obelisk's themselves seemed to glow in the light until almost white. He too could feel tears running down his face as he sobbed uncontrollably at the sight before him. He knew, knew beyond any doubt that each point of light was a life, a soul, a member of Rriaa's race. He had to close his eyes now, the light was so bright it could have burned his retina's ... he could feel the child moving forward, climbing onto his knee and folding her arms around his neck. He sensed, rather than physically felt, her lips brush against his, their tears joining.

"Thank you Daniel ... Thank you for finding us, for being able to see past your doubts and fears. I must leave you now, but my race and I will be forever in your debt." Something told him he needed to look at her once more, and he risked opening his eyes ...... The cavern was darker now, only a fraction of the minuscule specks of light remaining, he looked left and right then back at Rriaa. She was kneeling before him, translucent, almost angelic, her hair was moving as if in slow motion, her tears falling onto her knees as she reached out to touch his face one last time.

"Goodbye Daniel ..... We would like you to thank Karka on our behalf. We knew we had found the one that would help us ............" then she disappeared like silken dew on a morning breeze ..........

~~~ ooo000ooo ~~~

The ship drifted silently in high orbit of the planet .... Below, Daniel opened his eye's, the obelisk's were dark, but not just dark in colour, they now seemed 'lifeless' for want of a better description, the dulled marble was cracked, small pieces had detached themselves, falling to the ground and crumbling into powder. the floor was strewn with decaying, almost decomposing spires, all seemingly in their last throes of life ... As he watched one fell, then another, and another, until one was falling every second, slowly falling to the floor and shattering into the finest dust particles. He was covered in the residue himself as he reached for his communicator:

=^= Schirra to Excallibur =^=

=^= Schirra to Excallibur .. Is anyone receiving me ? =^=

Moments pasted then he heard a reply:

=^= Ryat to Commander Schirra .. It sees we were all knocked unconscious during the transfer of the race from the planet .. Wait one moment Commander ......... According to the chronometers we were unconscious for .. Sixteen hours thirty four minutes .. Stand by and we will beam you aboard =^=

Sighing, he looked up at the obelisk he was resting against, surprised to see it still magnificently bright in the chaos of the dying monoliths around it. He moved away and almost 'felt' a hand on his face for a second before that spire too began to decay and crumble, then he felt the tell-tale grip of the transporter whisking him off the planet ... He materialized to see Lieutenant Psnoir waiting, he stepped down, a smile, more of regret than happiness on his face.

"You did it." Dan said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, feeling him tense a fraction before hiding his action.

"I ... Yes ... We did it ... There is damage to the ship but nothing we cannot repair en-route to Earth." Karka said, turning away, "The Commodore is on the Bridge."

Dan watched as the man left the transporter room, then after a moment followed him. Minutes later they were on the Bridge ..... He was dumbstruck at the sight that faced him. The planet below, once a barren, almost lifeless husk, the atmosphere dry and arid, was now a blue green jewel against the blackness of space beyond. Where there was vast valley's of lifeless desert, there was now blue sea. he looked at the scan's being run and could see that approximately forty percent of the surface was now deep ocean's ... As they watched in awe, rings began to form, the remnants of the thousand kilometer deep arid surface, they glistened as if possessing a life of their own.

"Climate has begun to stabilize Commodore." one of the Science team informed them.

Daniel turned to look at Karka. There was something in his expression, something he couldn't put his finger on, almost a sadness.

He decided that one day, not now, maybe not in the near future, but one day, he would ask the Engineer if the wormhole worked ..........






< tag : All >

[Karka Psonoir]

Having been given the hesitant go-ahead by the Commodore, Karka nodded to the small number of engineers he'd recruited to assist with the device now hooked up to the deflector. Through the ship's EPS grid, the device was also mated with the nacelles and warp coils, allowing the warp field that would generate the instable wormhole to be created.

"Ready here, sir," he commed to the bridge, hesitating over the comm transmit button. He could make this so much quicker, but he'd been down that avenue of thought and it hadn't led him to a desirable conclusion... only to the perhaps 50% possibility of his demise as a result of direct intervention in saving Rriaa's race using his own being.

"Execute on my command, Lieutenant..." Ryat responded, sounding tentative. Karka didn't blame her; the Excal's CO was risking the safety of her ship and crew with this farfetched idea.

Psonoir waited out the precious seconds, eyes closing and seeing Hybrudeans laughing, their jesting images projected back through time. Would this action lead him towards his exposure and death? Or to the improbably successful rescue of Rriaa's species by means of an artificial wormhole? There was a third possibility, a third plausible causal outcome, but he didn't want to entertain it right now.

He dismissed his engineers, marching over to the device that'd been hooked into the deflector control main interface. "Get aft and monitor warp bubble stability, ensure coil stresses stay within tolerance."

They nodded and hurried out, unsure why Karka wanted to be alone but understanding why it was best that they got to engineering as fast as possible.

"Lieutenant. Execute." Ryat commed. Psonoir pressed the orange button on the device.

The room seemed to shimmer, lighting up briefly as if some external entity had made itself known and quickly withdrawn, frightened when it had realised what was being carried out. Karka's visual field shimmered, compressing, sliding. Colours stretched. He lost his balance and stumbled to the deck, all sense of visual perspective skewed.

This was the result of the opening of the artificial wormhole in the ship's vicinity. "Engineering!" He crawled to a commpanel, choking on fumes coming from the device attached to the control interface. "Engineering, report. Are we staying clear of the wormhole? Warp bubble holding?"

"Aye, sir... We're clear. Bridge reports our end of wormhole is descending to the surface. My, it's a sight, sir. They've patched the visual feed through to us... Wormhole is breaking cloud cover, reaching beneath the surface. If this works..." With effort Karka pulled himself on to his back, resting against the wall and breathing hoarsely as the fumes from the deflector device began to fill the room.

"Wait..." Unwin, his assistant continued, "Nothing's happening," he said rather unhelpfully, "Bridge is reading no biosigns within the wormhole. They should all be being pulled in by now... The wormhole is losing stability!"

Karka reached up to patch the bridge through to this exchange but decided against it at the last moment. Feeling agony at that decision he replied to his engineer, "Unwin... Their species was in stasis, their actual bodily forms weren't detectable by us. It's feasible that they'll remain in that state as they transit through the wormhole."

"Either way the hole is collapsing, sir... Er, the Commodore wants to know what's happening; she's ordering the ship reversed away from the anomaly. Chroniton count increasing along with risk of temporal displacement... Orders, sir?"

Rising to his feet, the wobbling in perception beginning to fade as the nearby wormhole dissipated, Karka wheeled - disoriented by the fumes and visual misinformation - and placed his head against the wall, thumbing to transmit again, "Shut down the coils. Realign them to standard. Follow your CO's orders, Ensign. Agree with her that we accelerate our orbit to avoid the collapsing wormhole." The channel closed.

Karka screamed, aiming a fierce kick at the jury-rigged contraption connected to the deflector, sending it crashing across the room. In a cold sweat he climbed the adjacent Jefferies Tube, collapsing in exhaustion at the top. Here was the manual interface to the nav deflector itself. One look confirmed that the device had indeed burnt out.

He sighed, drawing in draughts of causal data, statistical entropic datastreams from the depths of time into his mind's frontal lobe. Hours ago he'd decided that if it came to this he wouldn't hesitate for a second. It was his duty - as a Hybrudean and as a Starfleet officer - to do all he could to rescue these quadrillion people.

Time started vibrating. To those around the ship it appeared that the wormhole was regenerating itself, warping light and space, making everything an artwork of trailing colour and distorted perception. But the reality of it was very different. His body became luminescent, light found rivers in his body to channel out through his pores. His lips parted in a silent cry. Thousands of causal possibilities streaked through his mind, barely glimpsed computations of improbable futures being made more or less likely with every passing instant of this interdimensional channelling. He directed his mind to the planet, called upon the Archives' power to break the crust and allow the mantle to remake the planet as it saw fit, and translate through vast but finite spacetime a long-imprisoned and sorrowful race.

Something broke within him. His mind darkened and his thoughts fled, diving to hide in unused corners of his partitioned brain. In the final moments of consciousness he seized a recognisable thought from the sepulchral darkness. Taking the thought he manifested it in the material world.

All over the ship crewmen passed out; collapsed at their stations, rendered unconscious in sickbay, lowered gently to the deck on the bridge, an unfathomable and restful sleep passing over them all. During their sleep their minds would be filled with a slightly erroneous account of what'd actually occurred. Karka already regretted it. They would be out for half a day, perhaps, he couldn't tell. His senses were strewn, cut up and cast to the quarters of his centuries-spanning mind. Maybe he'd used more force than intended... He couldn't know. The last tendrils of his thought withdrew and he lay dying in the cramped space next to the navigational deflector.


17 hours later, the Bridge...

The recovered Psonoir caught Commander Schirra's look. He nodded, composing himself and turning his eyes to watch the green-azure jewel on the viewscreen. The results of the inadvertant terraforming were impressive, more than he could've hoped for; it provided some solace.

He was quite visibly discomforted: it wasn't just the pain at having been forced to reveal himself and manipulate the memories of this crew - his friends. His physical self also writhed in agony, still recuperating from its near death experience in deflector control. He couldn't visit sickbay... the results of an examination would be incomprehensible, a diagnosis impossible. As far as the crew were aware he'd been lightly injured by an explosion in deflector control and had inhaled too many plasma fumes.

The rest of the story was that, while the wormhole had begun to collapse (as had truly happened), Rriaa's people had somehow been translated through the dying portal. Karka had been congratulated; perhaps he deserved the thanks, but it only served to further ruin his conscience...

"Commodore. I must request to be relieved of duty. I'd like to retire to my quarters. I must," he croaked, losing his balance slightly, "Sleep."

<Tag Ryat, Schirra>

[Daniel Schirra]

The Excalibur had remained in orbit once the Nnellii had been returned to their own time. Now they had gone there was no further need for the city-sized complex buried below the surface to remain concealed. The ship had scanned almost thirty of the obelisk cities scattered around the planet. Daniel, Alyana, and Karka had all gone back to the surface to take another look, but with what seemed like thousands upon thousands of inert marble pylons, they decided to wait for Star Fleet Science to arrive, they would make a much more detailed examination and prepare a report for Command. In the mean time the planet was off limits ...

Sat on the Bridge, Daniel watched the newly formed planet slowly rotate below them ..... Alyana had yet to make the decision to depart, thus concluding their mission. Two Science Vessels had arrived several hours earlier and the Excalibur Senior Staff had passed on all relevant information. A couple of times, he had noticed the Chief Engineer, Karka seemed, preoccupied and tired, it was obvious he would need rest as soon as practicable. In all honesty, Dan too felt as if he could sleep for a year, he ached beyond anything he could remember. Nothing was broken, it was just sheer exhaustion he thought.

The ship had suffered some damage during Psnoir's attempt to return the Nnellii and most of the Engineering staff were busy making running repairs while the more serious issues would be completed once they returned to Earth orbit ... They had sat with several of the Officer's from the Science vessels recounting what had happened, and when the Officer's returned to their ships or down to the surface Karka spoke quietly to the Commodore:

"Commodore. I must request to be relieved of duty. I'd like to retire to my quarters. I must ......" he croaked, losing his balance slightly, " ...... Sleep."

"Go to your quarters Lieutenant, Commander Schirra can oversee the Engineering repairs for the time being."

"...... And my request to be relieved of duty ?"

"I don't think that is necessary at this point in time Lieutenant. We're not going anywhere for the time being, take that time to rest." Ryat said, making it plain she wanted him to accept her decision. Karka looked from her to Daniel then back, before seemingly resigning himself to a long deep sleep. Nodding he turned and left the Bridge ... Dan watched his friend go, realizing it was taking every fibre of his willpower to remain upright, Dan motioned to one of the Security Officer's to accompany Psnoir then he turned to Alyana.

"I'll go look what progress they are making in Engineering." he said, heading for the turbo-lift.

The Commodore nodded then turned to watch the planet below ..........

[Karka Psonoir]

Karka's time retired in his quarters hadn't been lengthy. It'd indeed been a case of merely needing sleep; the request to be relieved of duty perhaps a hasty wish to dismiss himself from the bridge, or an actual misguided thought of wanting a longer respite than he'd thought necessary.

Already he could feel the recuperative powers of his engineered body taking effect, mending him from the petrified shock suffered in the wake of the rescue of Rriaa's people. Not only had it taken much of his effort to seize the mechanisms from the future for starting that temporal displacement wave, but his body had become exhaused too. He'd allowed the power to flow through him unabated - to burst from his pores, fill the cabin next to the deflector console with a pearlescent light while he'd collapsed in agony on the grilled floor and briefly become semi-corporeal. His body was human, after all; even its synthesised nature, its genetic manipulation of the common human form, couldn't have stemmed that causal tide of information rushing forth from the far future into the ordered harbour of his mind.


He made his way slightly unsteadily to engineering, attempting to gather his frayed thoughts. The science ships had recently departed - after studying the surface and assisting the Excalibur with its repairs. The major systems of engineering had been restored, although very little tidying up had been done in the aftermath, and there were a number of minor components still to be returned to full functionality.

Elements of the future still flowed into him as he entered engineering - gigaquads of exotic metric-encased data jittering in position and velocity as his mind tried to more precisely grasp a measurement of one or the other. He held a short staff briefing, still suffering, wavering in his attention, eyes losing focus as they zeroed in on an abstracted point in some other, more searching reality.

Conducting the briefing as best as possible - organising repair duty rosters, gathering sub-departmental updates, congratulating Assistant Chief Unwin on his promotion (much to the then Ensign Unwin's surprise) - he scratchily said, "Dismissed" and wandered back to his quarters after a brief check of the warp coils.


In the darkness with only the stars of many epochs for company, he found himself dreaming again. Images from the 29th assailed his unconscious: Lirwa - a smiling jester's face reaching his hand forth surrounded by a ghastly aura of green; others of that social group, similarly derisive, sneering; or - in other cases - empathising, uncertain images of their eyes looking upon him, perhaps endeared to him by his actions in the last few hours.

Yes, he'd been prepared to sacrifice himself - either to death or for the loss of his incognito position on the Excal. Yet that courage paled in comparison, withered to nothing, when set against the cowardice he'd shown before the eventual near-fatal decision. He couldn't reconcile that last selfless act of desperation with his previous willingness to remain an effective spy - an interloper, a vigilante traveller of the past aeons - on this ship, and allowing a quadrillion beings to remain trapped within that planet.

Turning in his sleep, an ethereal presence seemed to impinge on his unconscious. A pallid light had filled the room, situated in a corner near the ceiling and now drifting towards the bed. The formless, stunning luminescent light hesistated, then descended, pouring into his head through his eyes, crushing itself into his mind.

Within his dream, another apparition suddenly came to him, rising out of the sepulchral depths of his reality-heedless unconscious. He recognised her, but not in any wider cognitive sense. No connection with the real was made, only with the avenues of spacetime that he inhabited here in his dream.

He was leaning with his back against the avenue barrier, gazing through the azure wireframe depths up and down the highway. He saw the opaque forms of his vigilante colleagues approaching and receding as they made their way to their own desired junctures in time throughout the Alpha Quadrant.

"Karka, don't worry... You did it. We're home now... Rriaa's voice echoed over the light breeze running along the highways, barely audible, such was her tenuous connection to this recondite realm. Our world is even more beautiful than before... You placed us further back in its geological history. And there's no sign of our foe."

While surely not a child in the common understanding, Rriaa seemed content to have taken the form again, making herself heard in the same way in which she'd made that audible and visible connection with Karka and Daniel Schirra on the world the Excalibur still orbited.

Sighing, partly consoled by the soft words, Karka withdrew himself from the abstract highway, falling in unnatural silence from his perch on the ledge and watching Rriaa escaping, flying into clouds of the same bright shade as her dress, disappearing perhaps forever. He opened his eyes in his quarters, having released himself in contentment from the dream. Feeling oddly blissful, the hurt in his mind fading - no longer jittering and crying for his attention - he turned over again and dreamt of Hybrudea.

[Alyana Ryat]

OOC: Well done everyone, mission complete. Shoreleave thread now open.

"Commodore... If you're not willing to go through with this, I understand, sir... The idea is highly theoretical. The risks to the ship - while if the actual operation fails - are not substantial. But if we should succeed and open an instable wormhole, I cannot predict with accuracy what will occur. The ship may suffer structural damage, there may be casualties, although likely minimal... We could even be temporally displaced."

Aly sighed silently. Of course the decision had to come back to her. She had switched the ship to yellow alert, and had her crew metaphorically batten down the hatches and where possible move to safer area. She had never planned on commanding a ship but when the opportunity had come up she couldn’t turn it down. Here she was, once again making the decision by which others would live or die.

"Awaiting your order, Commodore." Psonoir said.

“Engage on my signal Lieutenant.” Aly paused a moment to check that all the conditions she had set had been met and test that her safety strap was secure. She was going to ride this out on the bridge whatever happened. She guestured to the science station for the extra recordings to begin and then counted down. “Three, two, one mark.”

What happened next Aly was never quite sure. She watched the wormhole open on the viewscreen and then for a moment it looked like it was going to collapse and she thought about backing the ship away and then there was a glorious swirl of colour and she awoke 16 hours later slumped in her chair on the bridge. Apparent it had worked. The Excal was a bit battered but in one piece and no one was hurt beyond bruises and the odd headache. It appeared that they had gone. A quadrillion people had been saved, by anyone’s standards that was a very good day’s work

She was puzzled that Lieutenant Psonior wanted to be relieved of duty but he was clearly exhausted and overwrought. She wouldn’t take his request seriously until he asked after a good night’s sleep and a proper meal. In the mean time she was planning on putting his name forward for a commendation, it was just going to take her a while to find the correct one.

She was relieved that things had worked out the way that they had but she knew she could have done nothing else. The distress call had ceased transmission and the surface became scannable, it really was beautiful and unique and intriguing. The Excalibur stayed in orbit for two days making repairs and waiting for the nearest research vessel to arrive once the Meitner was safely in orbit and a detailed survey under way Aly gave the order for the Excal to return to starbase.