Let's Do the Timewarp Again

Posted on Thu Aug 19th, 2021 @ 1:26pm by Commander Grace Vetur & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D

1,345 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Out of Time
Location: Science
Timeline: The day after "History Doesn't Lie"

ON

First thing in the morning, Grace went in search of Percy. Repairs on the two ships were almost completed and it was time to get them back to their own timeline, if they could. It wasn't hard to find him, fortunately.

Percy was making a bit of noise walking down the corridor, rounding the corner with a jar of levithi nuts in his hand. He was on his way back to one of his labs when he stumbled across the First Officer standing near the lab entrance. His cheeks were stuffed with a mouthful of nuts.

He quickly chewed and swallowed the nuts. "Sorry," he said with a big gulp. "If you are looking for some crazy experiments, I apologize. I don't have anything to give you nightmares about today."

She couldn't help smiling. Of course he knew she checked his work every day. "Actually, I'm looking for you...unless you need to store those nuts for the winter first." There was a hint of a humorous lilt to her voice.

"levithi nuts," he replied. "Efrosians eat them like candy. It's incredible the amount they consume. The oils are fascinating. They help with space sickness," explained Percy. "Looking for me? What escaped from my lab?"

"Space-sickness? I'll have to remember that," she said, making a mental note of the nuts. "Nothing escaped, that I know of. I find myself in need of your help."

That must be an awkward feeling thought Percy knowing how often Grace checked on his labs, loved over reports coming from his department, and genuinely did not let the Chief Science Officer have much slack on the tight leash. "Anything that I can do to help, Commander," Percy replied. "Is this about our friends from the past?"

"It's about our...friends. All we know for sure is they both went into the nebula, there was an exchange of phaser fire, and they ended up here," she began. "I would like your help finding out exactly what happened and if we can use that to send them back to their own time."

"Not surprising," Percy said shaking his head. "Under the right spacial conditions with certain anomalies, we have this sort of stuff happening probably more common than we are aware of. However, this added tidbit of information of weapons fire makes sense, adds a bit more ingredients to a temporal cocktail, Commander," stated Percival.

The Chief Science Officer paced around the room a bit. "Did the Federation starship activate their tractor beam and lock onto the Romulan vessel?" he asked speculating in his mind what had brought these two ships to where they were now.

"I don't know. I believe the Relent fled into the nebula and the Relentless followed. But I may not have all the details."

"The devil is in the details, my dear Commander," he shot back at her with a look of curiosity. "Both in problem and in solution" added the Chief Science Officer and he crossed his arms. "I believe these two ships between the Constitution class' phaser fire and the Romulan's disruptors created a fissure of sorts...a temporal tear if you will."

"A logical assumption," she said. "But how do we recreate it to send them back? And if we can, can we send them back one at a time? I'd like to give the Relent a five minute head start."

Percy looked at Grace "Is it wise to send them back?" he countered. "Not to be the devil on your shoulder, but if these two ships are as we know them considered to be lost, then would we not potentially be doing damage by sending them back?"

He dismissed the philosophical argument for a moment and held up a digit to excuse himself. "I'm sorry, you did not come here for a philosophical debate, but a physics one. We may not necessarily have to recreate this exactly. Theoretically, we could create one of these fissures...theoretically, of course, and I believe with our deflector dish."

"For the philosophical debate, why would we assume they should stay in our timeline? Don't they belong in their own if we can send them back? For the deflector dish, get me some specifications and test them first."

"Me, do something without running an appropriate test?" Percy mockingly looked offended. "I would never fathom such a brash thing when it comes to science" he added sticking his tongue out slightly at the First Officer.

She gave him a look that said she didn't believe him.

Percy cleared his throat. "For the record, I did not say let them stay in our timeline. You have all been looking at things in monochromatic dynamics, black and white. You look at it blue pill vs red pill, but you never consider the purple pill."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you consider the purple pill to be?"

"This is off the record," Percy said clearly. "Strictly off the record, Commander. You have two ships that as far as our historical records to the best of my knowledge indicate went missing never to be heard nor seen from again. Sending them back rewrites history, keeping them here condemns them to a future they do not belong in. The purple pill is the toughest to swallow."

He looked at Grace. "Blow up the damn ships," he said crassly.

"I disagree. We do not as yet know if they were supposed to go back as they won't do so until we send them there. Time is relative. In our timeline they are lost. A month from now our records may show that they never left," she countered. "As for your purple pill, I cannot condone the murder of hundreds of people just because they got stuck in our timeline. If they are stuck here, we take the Relent to the nearest Starbase and contact the Romulans to come and get their people. We leave them with enough supplies to survive until they are rescued."

Percy nodded "Just throwing it out there, Commander, whatever is decided is decided. I will follow those orders" replied the science officer. "I will work on this deflector idea and confer with our Chief Engineer. Until then, I hope at the very least I thank you for allowing me to feed your head."

"I appreciate your assistance, and I appreciate that if we decide to let them live, you'll follow orders." She hoped it meant that he was settling down, at least a little. He'd caused quite enough mayhem on the ship already.

Lieutenant Bálor nodded. "I'm a scientist, Commander. I have to preserve life at all costs, but I also have to weigh all the options even the ones nobody wants to hear. That is part of the duties of a good science officer" explained Percy. "Though I am not telling you anything that you do not already know."

"No, you are not. I'm sure I'll hear something like it before we're done here." She sighed. There would likely be others who wanted to kill the Romulans regardless. "My job is to do the best I can, and I will not put myself in the shoes of Kodos."

Percy smiled. "So long as you don't utter the words 'I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'" quoted the Chief Science Officer. "Though if you have to, I'll be there right there with you."

Grace smiled. "I doubt that will happen, but I appreciate knowing you'll have my back." It was not at all what she expected to hear when she first entered the room. "I will let you get back to your work. Please let me know what you find."

"Thank you, Commander, I'll get on that for you," he said grabbing a PADD. Percy was happy to get back to work, but more importantly, pleased that Commander Vetur had come to him for answers.

Grace inclined her head. "Until later, Lieutenant."

____
OFF

Lieutenant Percival Bálor, Ph.D
Chief Science Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Commander Grace Vetur
First Officer
USS Ontario

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