A Cunning Plan (Part III)

Posted on Fri Sep 13, 2024 @ 11:31am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant T'Lul & Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher & Charghwl'IH of the House of Soval & Civilian Jason Haines
Edited on on Fri Sep 13, 2024 @ 11:36am

1,625 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Tergum In Tempus
Location: USS Pachacuti, Holodeck 4
Timeline: MD 03

[PREVIOUSLY]

"He's not incorrect," Alanna said bluntly. "The Cardassians, in their narrow-minded need to change their own history at any cost have caused a quantum instability that will do exactly as Caliban said. Unless we do something to stop it."

[CONTINUED]

She turned from T'Lul, growing increasingly frustrated at the Vulcan's inability to grasp the seriousness of the situation and addressed Caliban. "If my data is intact, I will have readings from the day of the attack, although I was more focused on the portals than the sun. I admit I haven't checked it recently. It's possible T'gan has more data, or at least can corroborate what you have. That, with the data on Pangaea, may give us the specific data we need." As long as they could go back in time and fix this. That is what she suspected Caliban was going to suggest. And if not, she would.

T'Lul responded simply, "If he is not incorrect, then it would be a simple matter to present the data to Starfleet to do something. As they have not, there is reason to believe that the error could be on your part. Data is data."

Charg looked to X'ae before stepping closer to the debate. "If the Ensign is correct, by the time the Federation has analyzed and debated the data it will be too late to act. That damage is already done. If what I am hearing is correct not only will this instability be prevented but the Cardassians would never have taken control of the station. This means we need to prevent the Cardassians from being expelled from the station."

Focusing his attention on Alanna. "Would that be your assessment?

"Yes Ambassador, Starfleet will take too long", Jason said with a snicker. "As a friend of mine used to say, we Kirk the fuck out of it. We break the rules to take care of this. I've been thinking about this for a few days, even without the Ensign's information, time travel is what needs to happen. It's going to be a tad trickier with what Caliban is bringing up, but the longer this is debated, the harder it will be to do this without severely disrupting temporal stability, let alone general changes in the timeline."

And there it was, Annora's suspicions were confirmed. With a sigh, she chimed into the conversation.

"And here I told Agent Parnikee, I would avoid purposely messing with the timeline. Eh, they can court-martial me afterwards. Let's just try and keep any changes to a minimum. Obviously, we need to stop the station from blowing up, the easiest way to do so is prevent it from falling into enemy hands in the first place. As we know it's coming, it should make it harder for the Cardassian to succeed. We may even be able to call for reinforcements before they jam communications."

Alanna was growing more optimistic as everyone spoke. "Agreed. There's only one real solution and little time to act on it." She turned to Jason. "I'm going wherever you go." She was not going to be left behind to watch him die again.

"Why do you say obviously?" T'Lul asked curiously. "I see nothing obvious about anything that has been discussed here."

Jason looked at T'Lul and slightly scowled. He then closed his eyes and thought a few moments inserting new information into the mental equations he had been doing. He had worked through temporal calculations numerous times since they had gotten off the planet. The only reason he was awake was some medicine he had cajoled out of a medic saying he had been having nightmares and couldn't sleep. He made a slight clicking sound, smirked, and turned towards Charg.

"General", he said appealing more to his warrior side than political one. "Do you have any ship commanders that would be willing to risk their command by letting us use their ship to violate probably a dozen rules and treaties to help us save the Captain and undo the damage continually being done to universe as we speak? A bird of prey will do in a pinch, but something a bit more modern would be better. It's obvious Starfleet is indeed going to take too long."

The analytic side of him was calculating the outcomes and if they failed or succeeded there was one fact that was inescapable. "My ship is yours. However, there is one fact that has not been addressed; that this will be a one way trip. If we fail we will undoubtedly face the consequences of our attempt in the past; and it is possible that even our failure could lead to success. Regardless, this present timeline will no longer exist." After a pause he continued. "Anyone that goes back will have a counterpart already there. If we succeed, in this plan, we will either have to eliminate them and take their place to ensure these events do not unfold again...or we prevent the trigger event and then take our own lives; trusting our other selves to carry on.

"Unless, Ensign, you have another option?"

T'Lul interrupted again, interjecting. "Your logic is flawed. If the mission is a success, we need not eliminate ourselves, as you say. In fact, that likely would cause a paradox. If we were to change the events of the past, our past selves would go on uninterrupted, as the change in the timeline would cause us to vanish as our timeline would no longer exist. Therefore, killing oneself would cause you to die in the new timeline."

Annora thought back to her classes and independent research on Temporal Mechanics, trying to figure out just which theory applied in this scenario.
"I'm not going to take out my past self, and she's not going to take me out either. In fact, I guarantee that, if necessary, the two of us will work together to achieve a mutual goal, all while taking precautions to hide the duplication."

it wasn't quite the correct term, but should get the point across. This general scenario was one she'd given plenty of thought to, especially in the early months after her arrival in the 24th century.

"As for what happens after we succeed, we'll cross the bridge when we get to it. I still think we need to focus on the big event, the destruction of the station. Assuming that's what was the primary cause of the temporal disruptions. We could stop the riot on the Promenade that lead to the Cardassians being kicked off the station, but I have a feeling that will only delay things. What's to say a similar incident won't happen down the line and we still lose the station? We hand them a major defeat in their attempt to gain control of DS5, and it should be a big enough bloody nose to keep them from trying again. Of course, we still don't know the direct cause of the station's destruction, but I have a feeling we never will."

"There are other factors in play," Alanna said. "Jason is aware of those and has already taken them into account. I believe that if we can successfully undue the key components, none of us will have to sacrifice ourselves." At least, from her understanding, she didn't think so. But she admitted that Jason knew more than she did about the temporal ramifications.

Caliban gave a small cough. "The truth is, from the available evidence, no one has successfully attempted to alter the timeline, that we know of. People just go and visit or come back with extinct species. That said, if there have been, we have no way of knowing. Which means if we are successful, this here and now will never exist. We won't be dying. We'll just not be." He shrugged. "It beats fleeing the inevitable quantum unravelling of time and space, and all matter coming apart at subatomic level and being spread over potentially 2 universes. So, I'm going to try. All I need is a ship capable of warp 9.8, and enough people to crew her."

T'Lul looked at Caliban seriously and asked, "Is there a reason that you are repeating what I have already stated regarding the timeline?"

Caliban was just looking uncomfortable, "People started talking about killing ourselves. I don't want anyone to do that."

"If that was your purpose, then I agree with it. I do believe that there is hasty and emotionally charged decisions being made without rational thought," T'Lul told Caliban.

Caliban shrugged. "I think hasty and emotionally charged is pretty justified right now."

Jason knew far more about temporal manipulation than anyone here, but Alanna wouldn't say anything. However, she did want to know if he had an alternate plan, but that was something best left to a private conversation.

Caliban looked back to Charg. "I also don't want to hang around? How soon could it be ready?"

He had felt X'ae's hand on his arm, to calm him earlier but now he looked to the Ensign. "I have several ships at my command that we can be utilized, all crewed and ready, from birds of prey to battleships. I would recommend one who's commander is not associated with my House so as not to raise suspicion and have him question any cover story. Should the situation arise.

"9.8 is slightly out of their recommend range but not by much. How big a ship do you want?"

(To be continued...)

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

Lieutenant T'Lul
Chief Counselor
Deep Space 5

Charghwl'IH of the House of Soval
Klingon Ambassador
Deep Space 5

Jason Haines
Civilian Ne'er-do-well
Pangaea

Ensign Caliban bel Asher
Science Officer
Deep Space 5

Lieutenant Annora Tesaro
Chief Security Officer
Deep Space 5

 

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