THE EDGE OF NEVER: The mission

"Am I to infer Rear Admiral based on the delicacy of this mission and the configuration of this vessel that we will be carrying out this endeavor with only the officers surrounding this table manning the essential stations?" 

"You are quite right, Captain" Kotari acknowledged. "To minimize as best as possible the variables that could further alter the timeline, we must limit to the bare essential personnel those who will be involved in this mission."

He nodded towards the half-Romulan with the golden collar.

"Commander Rogers is already well versed in the Spectre's technical configuration, having served as chief engineer aboard her. Having him on the job will allow us to proceed very quickly and efficiently with all the needed modifications He is also well versed and... experienced in starship automation and how to make a ship's trail and presence inconspicuous."

Like all flag officers of the Fleet, Kotari knew of the now infamous theft of the USS Diamond Star, sister ship engineering platform of the Lotus fleet flagship USS Horizon. Rogers had accomplished this feat singlehandedly and had almost gotten away with it in order to save his only sister from the clutches of the Orion Syndicate. Yes, he was uniquely qualified... but as his exploit would have exposed severe flaws in Starfleet Security, it had all been swept under the rug and classified, with Rogers officially commended for his contribution into an alleged "Starfleet Securty testing and improvement operation." The Rear Admiral couldnt discuss theses particulars with lower-ranking officers, even if those were themselves to be trusted with an even greater secret. So he moved on, pointing at the starship on the monitor.

"The Akira class had been especially designed as a heavy cruiser capable to tackle the Borg. With her massive expanded top aft cargo/hangar bay, she can easily swap out various modules that allow her to utilize different capabilities. In her Exploration load out, much of the hangar bay gives way to fully stocked medical and scientific laboratories. Already possessing a brand new, state of the art astrometrics lab, this configuration allows the crew of the Spectre to boldly go nearly as well as her larger cruiser brethren."

Data scrolled over the visual;  Length : 464.43 m; Beam : 316.67 m; Height : 87.43 m; Decks : 22; Mass: 3,055,000 metric tons; Standard full Crew: 500; evacuation limit: 4500; Armament: 7 Type X phaser arrays, total output 17,500 TeraWatts and 15 Pulse fire-5 torpedo tube, including two pairs of 2 broadside launchers and 2 aft ones with a payload of 300 quantum torpedoes; Defence Systems: Standard shield system, total capacity 1,876,500 TeraJoules and Standard Duranium/Tritanium Double hull plus 5.4 cm High density armour with Standard Structural Integrity Field; Advanced sensor suite with twenty-one light years long range capability and tachyon emitters to detect cloaked ships. Normal Cruise speed : warp 6 with a Maximum speed of warp 9.3 and an emergency speed capability of warp 9.8 for 12 hours.

"Ablative armour generators had been added to the basic configuration," Kotari continued. "Although this nullifies phasers, transporters and tractor beams when activated, the exceptionally high torpedo capability of this design keeps this ship most combat effective even under such protection; which will allow for a lower signature to hide from unwanted attention while being impervious to all weaponry of this era, up to and including the ancient, most destructive Romulan plasma torpedo."

Schematics of the ship appeared as the Boslic flag officer spoke, offering further information. The selected lotus Fleet officers noted other unusual elements of this very sleek-looking design; one was the hangar bay arrangements. Two large shuttle bays were located in the saucer section, one at the forward edge and one at the rear, linked together through the centre of the ship, allowing large numbers of launch and landing operations to be handled simultaneously. This allowed the Akira to evacuate large numbers of small survey craft, or ferry evacuees on board at a high rate or act as a fighter carrier. The current load was of a wing of five Peregrine fighters, another of five Kaneda advanced combat shuttles and a dozen class XI shuttlecrafts with a dozen shuttlepods and workpods.

All in all, she would be far stronger, faster and resilient than anything in this era, much like would have been an atomic submarine against wooden sailing ships of old Earth.

But there was one other, most peculiar system to which Kotari brought their attention to.

Since most of the present officers were not familiar with the Spectre, Kotari elaborated on this unique system.

" The DYCEP is a relatively new Starfleet technology. This material has proven to deflect incoming scanning beams with a high degree of success. However, due to plating covering the whole exterior to mask the ship, the Spectre is unable to go to either full impulse or fire weapons. DYCEP is not a cloaking device. The user of it is still visible on-screen, albeit somewhat harder to see. The best comparison to make is that a cloaking device is like rendering yourself completely invisible in a desert, while DYCEP is like wearing a brown suit and hiding behind shrubbery. You're hidden, but you'll be found if someone's looking long and hard enough for you.  The system also absorbs and screens much of the engine and warp emissions from escaping into space, to help keep the ship concealed. However it can only do this for two hours at most before it must be removed and allowed to discharge the energy via the deflector dish, or the ship risks overheating and either damaging the DYCEP layer or even exploding itself."

He made a pause before concluding.

"Overall, DYCEP was conceived as a tool to be used for periods of discreet observation or limited battle usage. However, to the much less accurate and powerful sensors of a century ago, the effect will be as good as an actual cloaking device of the era, as long as the ship stays below full impulse. I'm sure you can all appreciate this advantage during the kind of mission you are about to undertake... and we will not even have to trample our own principles and laws to do it."

He then looked straight at each one of them.

"You are the best crew we could hoped for to accomplish this most delicate and difficult mission. This is the best ship we have on hand to do it. You know what's at stake and what you will have to do. Any questions?"

Lieutenant Commander Elisha Leóne looked on and listened with utter fascination as Rear Admiral Kotari explained and showed the unique qualities of this starship. As concerning as this mission seemed to be, especially with such a small yet specific crew chosen to undertake it, she could not help but also be quite intrigued by the very nature of this quest as well.

Almost impulsively, this Orion officer blurted out "Yes Sir... when do we get underway?"

"As soon as you can make the Spectre ready. Captain Summers and his crew are disembarking and sent to shore leave on the starbase."

"And you will have to work fast," Lucsly admonished sternly. "We calculate you would have to be away within forty-seven hours, if there is any chance for you to get out in time of this present before it is erased."

"I have a rather basic question, Admiral," Jonathan Livingstone then said but his large golden eyes were turned to the two OTI agents. "How are we going to get to the twenty-third century and back? I am aware of Starfleet's previous time incidents involving matter-antimattter cold start and timewarp slingshot effect. These are the only ways on record to voluntarily initiate time displacement. But cold start is much too slow to reach that far back in time and risk damaging the engines beyond repair, while timewarp computation is extremely complex to make and implement, risking either ship destruction or erroneous displacement. "

Dulmer nodded before answering the X'Ell.

"That is why we will use another option to transport you as close as possible to the actual moment when time was altered; the Guardian of Forever."

On the monitor appeared the image of a vast desolate rocky plateau dotted with ruins. In the center of it stood a strange doughnut-shaped object half-buried upright in the ground before which stood several Starfleet officers obviously studying with instruments.

Doctor Nasaro-Myth raised his hand and cocked his head.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but this Guardian of Forever looks to be about the size of a large doorway? How are we going to send a starship through that?"

"This," Dulmer answered,"is the time portal discovered in the middle of the twenty-third century by the USS Enterprise of Captain James T. Kirk. It is a sentient alien construct capable of showing, recording and transporting through the entire flow of time. Until very recently, this was considered a unique artifact of a long lost, unknown civilization. Until Commander Redding and several officers of the Horizon, while in the pocket universe beyond the Azimuth Horizon, very recently found this..."

The image shifted to a darker rocky plateau, quite similar to the previous one except that the ruins were more numerous and varied and the strange luminous arch half-buried in the ground was so large, the Starfleet officers standing near it were mere dots at it's huge base.

"This is a second Guardian of Forever, identical to the original in all respects except one; this one is about a kilometer in diameter."

"Large enough for even a starship to go through," understood the Deltan, truly amazed.

"It is from the records taken by Commander Redding's team of this Guardian's display of the time stream that we got confirmation of the exact cause of the destructive time wave we detected," Dulmer added. With this recording, you will be able to go through the treshold at the exact moment needed for you to get to that point of divergence... and find a way to correct it."

"If you succeed, you will be instantly returned to the present by the Guardian's own power. But you will not get a second chance," warned Kotari. "Once in the twenty-third century, you will not be able to use the portal again as the anomaly at this point in time will be too small and too wild to navigate in order to reach the pocket universe beyond. Nor will you have access to the gateway discovered by the Kirk of our timeline; the records of the new timeline shows that Kirk did not find it; the gateway planet was laid waste by the Klingons who discovered it first and bombarded it when they felt threatened by it's gravity-distorting time waves."

"And cold starting or timewarping through the slingshot effect to do it again will run a high risk of creating even more time paradoxes," Livingstone added; "because we would then be present multiple times in the same time coordinates. restoring the proper timeline will then exponentially become more and more improbable, to the point of statistically certain failure."

"The Krenim paradox," Lucsly said, nodding.

"Sir?"

Dulmer explained.

"During her voyage back home through the Delta quadrant, the USS Voyager under captain Katheryn Janeway encountered a civilization called the Krenim Empire. Time travel had been weaponized by this empire in the form of a time warship in order to erase their enemy from History; the resulting alteration in time however also destroyed part of the Krenim empire itself, notably a world were the timeship's captain's family had been. He tried to effect further changes to bring them back but, despite all his brilliant calculations, it only got worse each time he tried to change History for this specific purpose. Voyager managed to restore the timeline by succeeding in making it so that the man would never discover how to alter time... and it was most fortunate that it worked; but it left the Krenim empire altered for ever, deprived of it's former imperial glory and power."

"The more you try to alter time, the more time is altered; the Krenim paradox," Lucsly summarized.

Redding chimed in. "Annorax refused to accept that his family COULD not be saved, put quite simply, their deaths were the catalyst in his invention and as such any successful attempt would have meant that the drive would never had been created. Such a paradox could not be self-sustaining, and so it always failed."

"So, people," Kotari said, "we would never consider what we are about to send you to do if it was not literally a question of cosmic life and death caused by an alteration. You have but one shot at this; else, it would be futile. I know you understand what is at stake here and what is required. Our best hopes go with you"

 Rogers sat through the specification synopsis of the Spectre with half attention, as he knew the ship well enough. He instead, while paying half attention to Admiral Kotari, had used his personal PADD to begin running calculations on the slingshot calculations needed to get the ship into timewarp, when Livingstone voiced the obvious question: How are we getting to the twenty-third century? David glanced up from his calculations, prepared to give a partial rundown on slingshot trajectories and speed-to-weight ratios when Dulmer surpassed him.