You Pointy Eared, Green Blooded...

Posted on Sat Aug 1, 2020 @ 9:00am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Civilian T'gan & Civilian Jason Haines

2,603 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Various
Timeline: MD5, 1300

[ON]

Jason had slipped away from his security shadow and turned off his communicator as he didn't want to talk with people. He had a lot on his mind. He knew he had to leave the station after all was said done. He had thought of just hopping on a transport and heading to earth for a while. He hadn't been able to fully commit to that idea. He knew Alanna would kill him and then there was the subject of his apparent fae blood and his dreams. He had, had the beach dream three nights in a row now, so he knew where he would be going. So now, there was just gathering gear and supplies for his new 'adventure'.

He paused and looked about the promenade. He had to take a deep breath as he saw someone he wanted to avoid. In fact he wanted to avoid everyone of their race, which was hard because there were so many on the station. He changed the route he was going to take and crossed to the "other side" of the promenade walk way.

There was a small Vulcan shop on the promenade that sold fresh herbs, and since T'gan didn't have the space in her quarters to grow more than two or three varieties, she often stopped by to purchase items, or make special orders.

She was on her way back to her science lab when she spotted Jason Haines. She immediately crossed over to speak with him. "Ensign Haines, may I have a word?"

Jason paused and took a deep breath. He didn't want to talk with her, but she was one of Alanna's co-workers so he would try to stay focused despite what he was feeling.

He turned to her, nodded, and said, "T'Gan. What can I do for you?"

"If you are free, I wish to discuss how you arrived at Deep Space Five," she replied calmly. She really wanted to ask about the temporal wormhole, but the promenade was not the best place for such a statement.

"In a banged up runabout", Jason said with a smirk. Seeing her lack of response to the weak joke, he shook his head. "fine, what do you want to know?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Everything. Do you have time to accompany me to my lab?"

"You are being very serious for just wanting to hear a boring story of my getaway", Jason remarked as they walked along.

"I am generally a serious person," she replied. "However, I do wish to speak with you more in-depth and a lab where we can talk freely is preferable to a noisy promenade."

Once they got off the turbolift on the science deck it was quieter. "I have a number of temporal questions."

"I'll think about answering them", Jason replied. "After all, I wouldn't want all my chaotic thinking disrupt your logical view of the cosmos."

One side of her mouth quirked up, briefly. "Perhaps my logic will bring order to your chaos. Then again, on a quantum level, the universe itself is chaotic."

She paused in front of her lab and opened the door. "Please, have a seat.

She sat at her desk and pulled up a holographic viewscreen. "Here is what I have deduced from the station's sensors. How, exactly, did you create the wormhole?"

Jason smirked a tad smugly, "First and foremost I didn't create a wormhole. I created a sub-space corridor, albeit a very short lived corridor, but that was purposeful. There are subtle, yet distinct differences between the two."

"Indeed. Please explain your process." She added the data collected from his sudden appearance, including the level of tachyon particles.

"Why of course", Jason said. "I fired a low-yield torpedo, programmed to detonate a half-kilometer in front of my run about, fired a tachyon pulse into the explosion while going at warp 6 until the runabout hit the explosion point and opened the corridor. I either made a math error, the shuttle's hull was falling apart, or the Marseilles got one last phaser shot in though, as I covered not only distance, but time as well, which wasn't my intention, nor was deep space five my destination."

T'Gan entered the math into the computer. "Like this?"

"Looks close", Jason replied. "but I had one hand putting calculations in and one hand piloting a runabout trying not to get blown out of the sky. Some of it was a little seat of the pants so to speak. I was a nightmare for teachers because I can see the answer in my mind so to speak, but have always been terrible at writing out the steps. It takes me longer to write out the exact equations than to provide an answer. So, I've answered your questions so far, I have one for you. Why are you so interested in all of this? What does it matter to you?"

"Because my interest is in temporal theory," she explained. "Or, rather, in taking theory to fact. You have an unusual ability to manipulate time and I am curious to learn how you do it."

"That's interesting", Jason said. "A few months ago, you dismissed my work and didn't think it was worth discussing. Now you are curious about it. Typical."

"When we spoke previously, you were working off Temporal Investigations' theories regarding Pangaea. Now we are discussing practical application." Her tone was calm although she did not see why he was so upset over her change in interest. His theories before were illogical. Or, rather, TI's theories. This application could lead to a breakthrough in applied physics.

"Not all of those theories were TI's alone", Jason said. "They were my work too and they all have a probability factor greater than zero, as small as most of those are, it still show's possibilities and you seem blind to those at times."

T'gan looked at Jason for a long moment. "I never intimated that they showed no possibilities, merely that TI's fears were unwarranted. Why are you intent on arguing?" Unlike Jason, she remained calm and unruffled.

"See, that's the thing, if the possibilities were there, then the fears were not unwarranted", Jason said. "We didn't play them up due to the low probabilities, but they needed to be examined. And what has me intent is the arrogance you give off, in fact the arrogance nearly 99 percent of all Vulcans give off. It's infuriating."

"I could have a fear that the sun would go nova. While the possibility exists, the probability is so minute it does not warrant the concern," she countered with Vulcan reserve. "I maintain that Temporal Investigation's fears that the portals would be used to facilitate an invasion force of ships is worth investigating, but not worth the level of paranoia they tend to exhibit." She found his elevating level of animosity concerning. "Why do you bring up this point now?"

"I didn't", Jason said. "You did, when you questioned the work I was doing with Temporal Investigations a moment ago. See, you will never understand because you think time can be put in a box like everything else that you measure. Hell, if it wasn't for Captain Archer of the Enterprise, Vulcans would still believe time travel impossible. I would have loved to been there the day Archer was able to pop that thought bubble. Time has a fluidity that can not be measured because it is impacted by things unseen and un-measurable. You can experiment with it in a limited sense, run simulations, but you can't put it in a formula and expect the same result every single time."

He put his hands up and let out a 'Bah!'

"Why the hell am I even talking to you about this?", Jason asked hypothetically. Scowling, he got out of his seat and headed towards the door.

Alanna opened the door. "Why are you arguing?" she asked Jason, looking from him to T'gan."

"He claims Vulcans do not believe in time travel," the Vulcan replied.

"What?" Alanna asked, not sure if she was talking to Jason or T'gan.

"Nothing worth talking about", Jason answered and left.

"I'll be back," Alanna said to T'gan, then hurried after Jason.

"Jason, what's wrong?" she asked, knowing this was more than an argument with the Vulcan scientist.

Jason stopped and looked at Alanna. She could feel anger, no hatred coming from him.

"I am just beginning to realize how much I despise Vulcans", he said, looking very cold.

"Is this about T'gan...or Sovok?" she asked quietly.

"Oh, at first you know Sovok was the man", Jason said. "but when I had time on my hands to think, I could see how our Vulcans were not that much different than his. Both definitely arrogant. The aggression and violence that Sovok and brood so willing embraced is just under the surface amongst the Vulcans here. I've never seen a ponn far challenge, but I hear when they happen, they are quite nasty. So I am not seeing much difference."

Alanna could feel the anger seething, barely held in check. "Sovok and his people didn't have the benefit of Surak. They chose to use their strength and intellect to dominate and control with fear and torture. He promised to torture me over and over, for years, just for his personal pleasure." She shuddered at the memory. It was one she'd tried to bury. "Vulcans here can tend to arrogance, but not violence. T'gan is not Sovok. Trust me, I would know."

"No, not right now they aren't", Jason answered, but all it takes is the right combination of things. "Example, what happens if this humans only club thing really takes off? You kick the Vulcans off Earth and those who don't follow Surak will make a stink and perhaps even take things into their own hands."

"I'm more concerned with those behind the Earth First movement. They're far more likely to become what you fear than the Vulcans are. Most cultures evolved from a barbaric history." She was growing more concerned about his anger

"Well, it doesn't matter", Jason said. "I'll just steer clear of T'gan and leave her at peace."

"It does matter because you matter." Alanna put a hand on Jason's chest. "Not that you have to talk to T'gan. You don't. But your anger towards Vulcans in general worries me. I know it's only been a few days for you. I was angry at Sovok for what he did, for myself for not being able to stop him, for Daniels for taking you away..." She shook her head. "I was afraid you wouldn't come back, and certain that you would. I won't tell you that you have no right to be angry, but I'm still concerned. I want to help."

"There is nothing you can do to help", Jason said. "I must consider all my options."

To the average person what he said seemed innocent enough. To Alanna, with her Betazoid heritage though, it made the proverbial hairs on her neck stand up.

"Jason...what options are you considering?" She gently touched his mind, trying to calm him. After everything they'd gone through, she didn't want to lose him.

He smiled and then said, "All sorts of theories."

There was something dark lurking in the back of his mind, coloring his thoughts and his anger. It scared her. "Please, Jason, give it some time. Don't do anything rash."

"Alanna", Jason said. "how you choose to deal with certain things is different than how I do. Respect that please."

"I appreciate that. I can get too wrapped up in science. You help me get out of my lab and out of my research. And you enrich my life in more ways than I can express." She caressed his cheek. "I love you. My concern is that I don't want you to do something you'll regret later, or put you in a penal colony."

"There are many things I regret", Jason said. "So, if I did another thing, just add it to the list."

"There are things I regret, too. Meeting you is not one of them." At that moment, she didn't care where they were. She put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him.

Jason returned the kiss with just enough 'feeling' to show that he appreciated the gesture, but it was clear he wasn't in the mood.

"Look", he said. "I need to work through things in my way. I am not looking for sympathy, input, advice, or attempts at distraction. The way I feel is the way I feel. You might think it is dark and disturbing, but it is what it is."

"All I said is that I'm worried about you and I want to help. I'm offering empathy, not sympathy. We're both still dealing with what happened in our own way. We can help each other deal with it." At least, that was what she wanted. They were the only ones who understood what happened, and were the most affected by it. Together, she thought, they could help each other.

Jason paused and took in a breath.

"Look, I know you want to help", he said. "but there is more to things for me than this one element. I've got a hypocritical bitch of a station commander that I still need to avoid as much as possible, a lying station XO that would rather see me walk out an airlock than be here, and a psychotic captain out there wanting to kill me and my family that I am being bait for. I'm sorry, right now I don't have as many things to relate as you think. I'm sorry, I am not trying to be a jerk to you but I have the emotional capacity of a thimble right now for being positive and helping any one else."

"I know. At least academically. I'm not explaining myself very well, Jason, and for that I apologize. My issues are not your issues, I don't have someone trying to kill me anymore. I just..." She sighed. "I want to help you. I want to be here for you, to give you some support and maybe help alleviate some of your anger. I'm not saying your anger isn't justified. I'm just...concerned with how strong it is. Once Daniels is off your back, move down to Pangaea. Build a place by the beach. Hey, until you can get it built, I have a place down there. You're welcome to stay as long as you like."

"I don't know", Jason said. "Maybe, who knows. All I know is that right now I need some space, from everyone. I'm just going to go to quarters and watch a holo-vid or something."

She kissed him on the cheek and nodded. "Okay. Be safe." She wanted to say more, to offer to go with him, but she knew he needed to be alone right now. It didn't stop her from worrying, though. She gently caressed his cheek, sending him a mental caress and an assurance of her love.

"Thanks", he said with a weak smile and then turned and walked away. Alanna could easily feel the wall he had up around himself as he did. She had never felt him feel so distant even when they had just barely met.

Alanna watched him go, more worried than ever. She had to give him time, she reminded herself. She only hoped time would be on her side.

[OFF]

Ensign Jason Haines
No One of Consequence

T'gan
Temporal Scientist
Deep Space 5

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space 5
Deep Space 5

 

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