Scientific Sleuthing (Part 2)

Posted on Wed Aug 7, 2019 @ 12:25pm by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Civilian T'gan & Civilian Jason Haines

1,591 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Astrometrics/Haines' Quarters
Timeline: MD10 1900 hours

[Previously]

"These events cannot be predicted or recreated," T'gan added, taking up the explanation. "The portals themselves are fixed points on the planet. As you know, if you try and stretch a temporal rift or, in this case, cavern, you fundamentally alter its basic structure and will no longer be able to predict where it will lead--if it leads anywhere. At the same time, you destabilize it by making the portal itself brittle. Any object passing through at this point will be damaged, if not destroyed." The image now showed a temporal portal being stretched from Pangaea and a ship trying to fly through. The damage to the ship and crew when it came out the other side was significant. More than half the crew would not survive and the ship was too damaged to withstand a return trip. "The temporal fluctuations are more flexible, but they are of a nature that they would become so thin as to render anything that passed through to lose both substance and mass. Again, there would be no returning from such a journey."

[Continued]

"Tell your bosses that Pangaea is not a passport to conquering new worlds, by us or anyone else. The only ingress is on foot, through the tunnels," Alanna said. "They're better off harnessing the power of a black hole or shotgunning around a star. Those are proven methods of time travel." The image now showed what could potentially happen if someone tried to manipulate Pangaea itself as a giant portal to other worlds by a fleet of ships. One theory destroyed the planet. One made the temporal energy inert. The other destroyed both the planet and the starbase.

There were ways to do what he was looking for, but no known species had anything close to the technology needed. The City of the Edge of Forever did, but that, too, was limited. Their job today was not to help Jason find out how to create such a temporal rift, but only how it could not be done with Pangaea at the present time. She was afraid to ask what he was doing with the temporal authorities. She was afraid to ask if the only reason he showed an interest in her was to get information on the portal complex.

T'gan handed him a PADD with the images and the data they'd shared. "Next time, ask for help."

Jason listened to all they were saying and rather than disprove Jason's theory, they confirmed that they knew that it could possibly happen, results not withstanding. It could be done. He stood up and started to pace some. It was obvious he was thinking.

"Damn, damn", he muttered.

"What?" Alanna asked.

He paused and looked at them both and said, "You see, you and your team are looking from the planet from one angle and I am looking at it from a different angle. This didn't disprove my theory, it actually proved it, despite the horrific results. You've just shown a high probability of extreme loss of life, not that it can't be done, and that is the problem. Damn."

With that he headed out of Alanna's office.

She hurried after him and grabbed his arm. "Yes, it's possible, but it won't be successful. No one can make a rift large enough without distorting the fabric of space and time. People will die and they won't come out where they think they would. It will fail and killing people. We gave the best case scenario. The more realistic one is that no one comes out alive. If your bosses want to do this, there are easier ways to do it that don't involve creating wormholes and black holes. Even then, if they could do that, they could use one of those to time travel and leave Pangaea alone."

Jason looked at her with a concerned look on his face and said, "Come with me. Just you, not T'gan."

He was hoping that this day wouldn't come where he would have to reveal his dual nature, but it had. Unfortunately he had to reveal it to Alanna.

He gently took her hand from his arm and continued on, his mind thinking now of different possibilities and what he was going to do now.

And that was when Stormy decided to cheat. She was worried about Jason, especially after what little he said about his bosses. She reached out telepathically, her thoughts brushing his...

As Jason walked along, Alanna could feel a jumble of emotions and thoughts. It was hard to really pin down what was prevalent. There was fear, worry, confusion, anger, and if logic could be described as emotion, well there was logic and calculation.

T'gan left the office and paused by Alanna. "Are you well?" she asked.

Alanna had stopped, overwhelmed by the emotions she felt. She shook her head. "No, I'm not."

"Mr. Haines?" the Vulcan surmised. "I do not know why you feel as strongly as you do. I saw no sign of reciprocity."

That's what Alanna was afraid of. She made a soft, choking sound and went back into her office and closed the door. It was only when she sank onto the couch that she realized she was still hearing Jason's thoughts. She just hoped he hadn't felt her spike of emotion.

T'gan watched her go, then decided to see if she could catch up with Mr. Haines.

As Jason walked along he noticed that Alanna wasn't with him. He turned back and went to her office, ignoring T'gan and rang the door chime. He wondered why she stopped following when he asked her to come along.

Alanna had forgotten to lock the door. She was sitting on the couch, her face buried in one of the cushions.

Jason opened the door and went over to her and place his hand on her shoulder and asked, "What is wrong?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "Give me a minute." She needed to get control of herself, to not let what T'gan said affect her like this. Not now, anyway.

"Ok, take as much time as you need", Jason said. "I need to talk to you about something, but it has to be in my quarters."

He gave her shoulder a little rub and then left her to collect herself and headed to his quarters and waited for her.

Alanna nodded. When he was gone T'gan came to the door. "Perhaps I was mistaken," she said. "At least he came back to see how you were."

Again, Alanna nodded. "I know. I just need a few minutes. Thank you for your concern." She was doing better. Feeling silly that she'd lost control like this, but the combination of worry, anxiety, and the fear she felt coming off Jason overwhelmed her.

"As you wish." T'gan took her copy of the data back to her temporal science lab to do more research. Humans were far too illogical when they let their emotions overcome their reason.

Alanna stayed where seh was for several minutes, then shut down her computer, disconnected her personal database and locked it away, then went to her quarters to shower and change.

[Haines' Quarters]

It was less than thirty minutes later when Alanna showed up at Jason's quarters. After a quick shower, she changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a Mayan pyramid on the front. Her hair was left loose. She took a deep breath and rang the chime.

Jason was still in his uniform and was definitely tense when he opened the door.

"Come in", he said.

After she came in and the door closed, Jason said, "Computer, security protocol HainesTI99."

The computer bleeped in compliance. After a moment or two Alanna could hear the faint sound of a white noise generator. He extended his hand to the couch and said, "Nice shirt. Can I get you a drink?"

"Yes, please." She needed something. "Sorry about earlier. Emotional overload." Where Jason was tense, Alanna had retreated emotionally to prevent another overload.

"It's ok", Jason said, going and pouring them both a drink. "It's been a rough few days."

He sat down on the couch next to her and then continued, "I'm probably not going to make it easier with what I am about to tell you, but given what you and T'gan were able to piece together, I don't have much choice. This is classified, so please this doesn't get told to anyone else, not even Commander Soran. I'll tell her when and if the time is right. What I am about to tell you is most likely going to piss you off so, don't hit me too hard."


She took a drink, deciding she'd need it to hear the rest.

He took a sip of his drink.

"I have not been one hundred percent truthful about myself", Jason said. "I don't work just for Intelligence. I am sort of on loan to Temporal Investigations, but undercover."

"I know." She paused. "Well, I know you've been lying to me, holding something back. I knew it had something to do with the portals." She took another drink. "And I know you've been using me to get information. I just didn't know what for." She looked into her drink, unwilling to see the truth of it in his eyes. "Thank you for telling me."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant JG Jason Haines
Chief Intelligence Officer
Deep Space Five

T'gan
Temporal Scientist
Deep Space Five

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

 

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