Corrigere Praeterita (Part I)

Posted on Mon Dec 30, 2024 @ 8:06am by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant Bronwyn P’ril & Lieutenant T'Lul & Lieutenant JG Joah Jezka & Ensign Matilda Cromwell

1,327 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Tergum In Tempus
Location: Shuttlebay Somewhere
Timeline: Secret Location - Preparing To Go Back In Time

ON

Once again, Alanna was the first to arrive at the secret location. This time, T'gan was with her. Brianthe chose to stay at Bag End in case anything went wrong. They waited beside Alanna's shuttle to see who would join them.

Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas made his way to the location where the group of survivors had coordinated to meet. Frankly, he thought the plan was poorly-thought out and had a low probability of succeeding. He had experienced more than enough time-travel to last him for a lifetime with the knife wound in his abdomen to prove it.

He wasn't placing his life and existence into the unpredictable hands of a Pangaea portal. This time, he was placing all of that into the hands of a damaged shuttle and a temporal-paradox theory. If the calculations were off, by even a little, the group of survivors could end up traveling millions of years into the past before life had even begun to in this part of the universe. They'd be stuck, floating through space without any help, just waiting for the life-support to fail and give them a cold, quiet death.

But what other choice did they have? Deep Space 5 was in ruins, thousands of lives had been lost, and the Federation was on the brink of war with Cardassia. If they didn't try to go back to change the past, the present wouldn't be one worth suffering through.

"So does anybody think this will actually work?" Lt. Kivan said as he entered the shuttle bay.

"I do," Alanna said. "Although the odds for success are slim. We know when and where we're going, and we know what to look for." She smiled at the operations chief. "And with you on our team, the odds are better."

T'Lul had her doubts. The variables approached infinity from the best that she could calculate, but she had only been adequate at math and the physical sciences. She was certain someone from the Vulcan Science Academy would give her the exact odds of this long shot, but that was not required. If, by some happenstance they did arrive at the correct time and place, T'Lul had decided that she would contact her sources and let them know what was coming. It would be awkward not explaining the paradox but what other choice was there? She could stay in this place and have a tribunal convened as to her actions. Her career was in jeopardy if she did that, given how she had disobeyed orders to flee the station and lead a rebellion, no matter how logical it might have been. There also was the issue that someone had to keep their heads about them on this mission. "We do, but the variables do not weigh in our favor no matter how slightly the Lieutenant's presence may assist."

"According to my calculations, we have a 77.264% chance of arriving when we wish," T'gan replied. "That is because I have the exact rate and length of the temporal fluctuations from that date, which are critical for our success. However, the chances for finding and reversing the sabotage are 67.297% and 56.281% for getting assistance. Even so, the odds are still in our favor as we have Mr. Ta'Gas to run the diagnostics and effect repairs."

T'Lul had her doubts about the calculations. Perhaps T'Gan forgot to properly place a decimal point. Regardless, the Vulcan said nothing more.

"Thank you!" Matilda responded with a huge smile. She glanced towards the Vulcan who seemed to be such a naysayer, Lieutenant T'Lul. Then she turned her attention back to the consoles checking the power levels and usage.

"Just be aware this is not a Federation shuttle," Alanna cautioned. "I still haven't figured out everything it can do. But it'll get us there and back again."

Annora arrived in time to hear T'Gan spout out the odds of various aspects of their mission. Her and the Chief were gathering supplies for the mission, all the while avoiding the suspicion of those not involved. She would have loved to bring the whole security team back, but it was too great a risk.

"Getting to the right time frame is important, or at least close to it. As for the other two, getting help would be crucial although Starfleet would eventually figure out what happened. Even with fully operational systems, it would be hard pressed to stand up to the attack without the cavalry riding in to the rescue. We need a way to covertly break through the jamming and call for backup, even if that means sending someone out in a high-warp shuttle as everything kicks off. Then we can worry about keeping the station from blowing up."

"Yes," Alanna said. "We have information that indicates the station was sabotaged. We don't know how, though. We need to find and repair the sabotage so the station is able to defend itself without the Cardassians finding out. And we'll need some help before the attack. But sending out a distress call as soon as the station is attacked is crucial to get Starfleet to send reinforcements. What few ships we might get before that won't be enough against the Cardassian and Xi-Cadian forces. And for all of this, we only have two days." The group was far too small, but they couldn't risk too many more if they wanted to be unnoticed.

P’ril had remained quiet until now. She had not been privy to the events leading up to this meeting, and as such did not fully understand the importance of what they were doing. However, she chose to trust the powers that be to know what was necessary. So instead of asking why any of this had to be done, she simply asked, “do we have access to sensor logs and damage reports? They could help me figure out what happened and how.”

Alanna nodded to Kivan. "That will be his job. We won't have access until we sneak onto the station. We only know there was sabotage and the station was unable to defend itself. That's why it blew up."

Setting down her gear in the small cargo compartment, Annora listened to the conversation going on around her. She was encouraged by what she was hearing.
"The station remained intact until less than 5 minutes after we boarded it in an attempt to regain control. It may or may not be related to the sabotage preventing us from mounting a proper defense. We were focused on the Cardassian forces, so I'm afraid we do not have any sensor data leading up to the explosion."

"Which means a diagnostic will need to be run to determine what failed. And we need to do it without being seen, either by ourselves or others if we're supposed to be on the planet." At least in Alanna's case. She could not let Turvan or any of the Cardassians who knew who she was find her. "I could stay on the shuttle and transport anyone back who gets into trouble," she offered. Her job was to call for reinforcements and she could do that from the shuttle itself.

"I can run the diagnostic," T'Lul replied simply. "I became quite familiar with the systems when I was leading the rebellion."

Alanna nodded. "I'll let you and Kivan work that out between the two of you." She wasn't going to get involved in that. Kivan was the chief of operations and knew the station well. But if he wanted T'Lul to help him, she was fine with that.

Alanna made one more adjustment to the controls and turned to the others. "Okay. Let's go."

(To be continued...)

Lieutenant T'Lul
Chief Counselor
DS 5

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space 5

Lt Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
DS5

T'gan
Temporal Scientist
Deep Space 5

Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas
Chief of Station Operations
Deep Space 5

Lieutenant Bronwyn P'ril
Chief Engineer
Deep Space 5

Ensign Matilda Cromwell
Operations Officer
Deep Space 5

 

RSS Feed