The darkness lasted but for the blink of an eye. yet, for everyone, it felt like they were waking up from a deep, disturbed sleep. Even the bridge,s instruments seemed to wake up with them. before their eyes, a peaceful panorama of stars stretched out to infinity.
"We... are... undamaged," first reported Jonathan Livingstone, his brain implants connected to ship systems letting him feel the ship as if it was it's own body.
"Confirmed," mumbles Elisha Leône as she blinked a bit groggily toward her own console readouts. "Ship power and assytems all showing green lights. No casualties reported"
"Wrong my dear," Elliago Nasaro-Myth declared in an annoyed voice, "there are casualties; my wits! As in, frightened out of, Captain Sir."
"Before we start handing out crazy pills, how about we make sure those casualty reports are accurate." Riker added.
The X'ell was also back at his own instruments and spoke without turning from tehm.
"Astrometric measurements and comparisons confirm that we have travelled back to our own universe, near the Klingon border, April 8th, 2233, according to the old Terran Gregorian calendar; current chronometer time one hour, thrty-five minutes, fifty-six seconds. Stardate is... minus 89682.03."
"What do you mean, minus stardate?" wondered the Orion ops officer with a frown.
"The stardate system Starfleet now use for ship positioning in the spacetime continuum was adopted only on January First, 2323 at 00.00 hour, Earth old Gregorian calendar," Jonathan explained. "Before that, during the second half of the twenty-third century, a much less accurate stardate system based on astronomical Julian dating was used before being properly quantum data readjusted to the one we use now. And before that, Starfleet simply used the standard planetary calendar of each ship's home planet, which became obvioulsy useless as the Federation pushed deeper out into space travelling outside of Einsteinian limitations. That is why logs from the USS Enterprise of Captain Jonathan Archer are in the old Earth dating system while those of the USS Enterprise of James T. Kirk are inconsistent with those of the Enterprise of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Since we are using this later system starting in the first quarter of the twenty-fourth century, anything before that is therefore minus stardate."
"Of course, its never an easy question like where are we. It always has to be a hard one, like when are we." Riker mumbled annoyed.
"So... we're here," sumrized Elliago. "Pardon the pun, Captain Sir but... what now?"
Jonathan Livingstone was the one to answer the doctor's query.
"Captain; long range sensors are detecting a ship in this sector moving at warp 4 on a trajectory from the Klingon border towards sector 001; Starfleet transponder reads NCC 0514 USS Kelvin, name class Federation scout vessel, Captain Richard Robau commanding."
On the main viewer appeared the unusual silhouette of a vessel with the familiar saucer design of Starfleet but with a large shuttle pod on top and a single nacelle underneath.
"It looks like one of the old Hermes scoutship and Saladin destroyer designs," Elliago offered as they all detailed the lone vessel closing in, still oblivious to the presence of the Spectre still outside it's sensor range.
"You're at least a quarter of a century too early for those, Doctor," Elisha countered, just as perplexed by what she was looking at. "I've studied in depth the history of Federation warp ships since the NX-01 of the twenty-second century and I've never heard of a Kelvin class... And this registration makes no sense; there never was a NCC-05 designation... and a name-class ship would bear the 00 end marker, not registered as the fourteenth vessel launched. And look at this; one warp nacelle? How can you generate a stable warpfield without paired nacelles?"
"You can if you have a fused pair of nacelles within one hull casing, like the Hermes and Saladin classes had," the Deltan explained. "In this era, it burned the assembly very quickly and required much maintenance but it paved the way for the twenty-fourth century most efficient twin-tube nacelles tested on the later Ambassador class and which made the following Galaxy and nebula classes so successful."
Then, he frowned as much as the alluring Orion woman did.
"But you're right about it being way too advanced for this time period... and indeed, this registration makes little sense."
"This is a consequence of the changes in the timeline caused by the arrival of Nero," explained the X'Ell science officer.
"I don't understand," Leône said then. "How could changes happen before the actual time altering trigger event?"
"That is another danger of time alteration," Jonathan answered. "In temporal mechanics, it is well known that effect can precede cause because time is a continuum; whatever alter it's flow can make waves in more than one direction; affect the past as well as the future. I think this is what we are seeing here, with this starship that should not exist."
"I studied temporal mechanics thoroughly in my years." Interjected Commander Riker. "The idea that a jump to the past can alter the past prior to the jumps arrival is not universally agreed upon. The idea that you are altering all of time by simply jumping to the past is shaky at best. I mean we are not simply rewriting a holo novel where you can change the basis of the universe to fit a story. This is time and physical existence being changed years before the time traveler ever arrived in the past."
Rubbing his head Riker just simply sighed in slight annoyance.
"I hate temporal mechanics."
"You are quite right, Captain Riker," the X'ell acknowledged. "It is that very uncertainty factor that accounts for most people's difficulty and... annoyance, with temporal mechanics. That being said, if we picture time as a river, with it's flows, currents, tides, eddies and ebbs, droughts and overflows, it is easier to understand how a temporal alteration can affect both the past and the future from that point; like building a dam and drying up one side and overflowing the other. Here, we do have the evidence of this precursor-effect alteration; this particular starship design never existed in our timeline... and yet, here it is, flying well before the actual time distorsion occured."
His big golden eyes went to his sensor readout as he continued making his report.
"Fact is, this ship is quite behind his time technologically speaking, despite his anachronistic warp engines. It has no defensive shield emitters nor phasers; defensive systems are limited to polarized hull plating and armament consists of phased pulse cannons. Despite it's century old technology, hull analysis confirms it's been out in space only for a few years."
The avian chief of science now looked at his commanding officer.
"They will be totally defenseless against the Narada; and there are eight hundred lifesigns aboard."
"Eight hundred!" exclaimed Nasaro-Myth. "They really packed their ships in those days!"
"And I thought the Maquis raider ships felt tight." added Riker.
"They're colonists evacuated from a world near the border threatened by the Klingons and sent back to Earth. According to the T1 circuit, this ship will be destroyed when ramming the Romulan ship to allow the shuttles and escape pods to escape. The maneuver will be attempted by one Lieutenant Commander George Samuel Kirk who will die as a result, leaving his wife Winona alone to raise their second son; James Tiberius Kirk."
"But... History says George Kirk was still in Starfleet to congratulates his son James as he became the first captain in History to assume command in his early thirties," protested Elliago.
"Our History," corrected the X'Ell. "Now, everything is about to change... unless we prevent the destruction of this ship."
Gaining awareness, and still snugly strapped inn his chair at the engineering console , David looked around. As the crew discussed the status of themselves and the ship he studied the master systems display. Lieutenant Leône was a competent engineering officer and he trusted her synopsis of the ships well being, but he also needed to check for himself. As the events unfolded on the bridge behind him Rogers minutely ran standard diagnostics on the ship.
The M/ARA was still purring contentedly, and no undue wear showed on the dilithium crystal. EPS conduits were still slightly hot from the extended push at high warp, outrunning the time wave, but they were being cooled as he studied them. After a quick check of the other systems; Life support, auxillary power; offensive and defensive systems; David concluded they were in relatively good shape, considering. A small pale green light blinked on all the nacelle's coils however. Pale green meant wear on the coils, but they were operational. Running a detailed scan revealed wear on the verterium cortenide liners. The emergency warp speed had done slight damage to the coils, but they were okay for normal use, up to and including maximum. But another extended use of emergency warp would burn them out. He noted the slight wear in the log and, as he turned around the conversation of the others caught up to him.
'2233', he thought? 'That can't be right.'
Looking over toward Syntron he asked the, to him, obvious question.
"Sir, are we in the right time? My understanding was we were going to stop the Romulan vessel from going back in time through the singularity created by Spock at the Hobus star system! On stardate ... uhm ...64444.5?"
David paused slightly, then continued, still looking at Captain Syntron.
"Are we not about 54 years early?"
"We cannot do that, Commander," Livingstone explained. "The Hobus supernova and the projection of the Narada and the Jellyfish back in time are part of our timeline. If we change that, we change the timeline, we cause the very problem we are attempting to correct. What we must do is correct the actual problem, which is not the disappearance of the Narada and the Jellyfish but what they did here, in the twenty-third century."
From the Spectre's tactical station Aron'Son ran diagnostics on the ship's weapons and flight control systems as well as the DYCEP system verifying that everything was still functional. He listened to the stardate and time travel conversations taking in the information and processing it before speaking up.
"Captain, all weapons, and flight control systems appear to be normal. The DYCEP system is showing some minor power fluctuations. Additionally, if our goal is to prevent the destruction of the approaching vessel I see two options. We can destroy the Romulan vessel though from all accounts it is extremely powerful, or we can prevent the Kelvin from ever encountering the Romulans.
"There could be one way to do it without showing our hand," Livingstone suggested then; "if the Kelvin does not detect the wormhole's appearance, it will not deviate from it's present course, drop out of warp and investigate to be caught and destroyed by the Narada."
"Jam their sensors," understood Leône. "Those twenty-third century scanners would not be able to detect or counter our twenty-fifth jamming emissions; and if we stay hidden with the help of the DYCEP and some clever flying, they will never be aware of it, nor of the rift in spacetime. They will continue on their merry way as they should have.... and James Kirk will be born in Iowa with his father living to see him become captain of the Enterprise."
"Well, that would save Kirk and the Kelvin," Elliago agreed. "But what about Nero and his monster ship?"
"The T1 circuit reveals that the Narada was temporarily disabled after being rammed by the Kelvin and Nero and his crew were captured by the Klingons and spent a quarter of a century emprisonned on Rura Penthe. They eventually escape, miraculously timely enough, to somehow retrieve and repair their ship and intercept Ambassador Spock when he emerges in this era. Seizing his ship, they use it' reserve of red matter to destroy Vulcan and threaten the entire Federation... before finally being destroyed by the accidental release of all the remaining red matter on board."
"What do you mean, temporay disabled?" Elisha protested with wide eyes. "The explosion of a warp core would be enough to blow up a hundred ships like this Narada!"
"Unless that ship has Borg technology," countered the X'Ell science officer; "in this case, a Borg cutting beam with which to carve out and push away with a tractor beam that warp core before the impact. Although this is only speculation, it is a recorded fact of this new timeline that this mining ship has been altered with Borg technology... confirmed by our sensors. With only the impulse engine to produce a detonation of ninety-three point eight seven five megatons at impact, this particular vessel would be significantly damaged but still salvageable."
"But... if the Kelvin does not damage the Narada, will the Klingons be able to capture Nero and company as your alternate history records?" wondered the Deltan.
"Unlikely," Jonathan admitted. "A fully operational Narada will be able to decimate an entire twenty-third century task force with ease."
He turned towards the center seat.
"Captain; as we will intervene to correct these past events unfolding here and now, we will have to adapt to new circumstances unforseen at this moment. The T1 circuit will adjust our knowledge of what was, what is and what will be... but we might have to deal with more complications than anticipated before we manage to restore the timeline."
"So... do we save the Kelvin or not?" asked Elliago pointedly. "Mind you, Captain Sir, she's on her way and will detect the emerging singularity at any moment now."
"Intercept course plotted and laid in," announced Philter. "ETA five point three minutes at maximum warp."
"DYCEP nominal, ready for activation," added Leône.
"I have their scanners' frequency," Livingstone said. "These old scanners are only resistant to ten percent of the EM spectrum. It will be easy to locally amplify for them what they would detect as a rare but not unusual surge in the universal background radiation, blinding them from us under the cover of our camouflage, but most of all the singularity and the Narada's emergence."
"Captain" Redding said sternly. "If we're here 'now' then we need to be, the Kelvin will fall, no doubt. But what about after that? why did Nero allow the shuttles to escape? The impact and destruction of the Kelvin would have had a minimal effect on the Narada."
He looked at the main view screen "I think something else was keeping them busy, Sir."
Redding suddenly had the look of someone who just realized something and went back to work on his terminal.
"Commander Redding has a point," Elliago agreed. "No way this crazy Romulan would have left these eight hundred people escape if he could have prevented it. So we can save the Kelvin... but there might somebody else out there ready to pounce on this huge intruder... and us. In this sector of space, and following what altered history says, I would bet on the Klingons... and certainly more than one lone warship."
"Did they have cloaking technology in those days?" wondered Leône.
"No," said the Deltan doctor born and bred on starships under a mother-captain and a father starship engineer. "The Romulan-Klingon alliance happened around 2266, about a year after the Romulans themselves first applied the technology with their raiding War Eagle prototype that the USS Enterprise of Captain Kirk destroyed near the Neutral Zone. The Romulans needed better ships than their old impulse-only vessels of the time and so offered their anti-detection system in exchange for Klingon designs they later retro-engineered to build their Warbirds. But maybe this is another effect before the cause of temporal distorsion our feathery friend explained."
"Strange that proud, honor-bound warriors like the Klingons pretend to be would even consider using such sneaky tech," the Orion woman wondered.
"It is because in those days, the Klingons had split into two genetically different subspecies after trying to apply the augment engineering of Earth to themselves. The result were a kind of humanized Klingons, smarter but weaker, prone to fear and therefore craftiness and treachery, finding in this technology something much agreeing to their divergent devious nature. Later, when these genetic aberrations were corrected and removed, the Klingons saw cloaking as a way to build much smaller yet still efficient fighting vessels by which a brave commander could prove his mettle by taking on much more powerful ships with a reasonable chance of success. Much like the old U-Boats of Earth, the small crews aboard a small ship gained much honor by taking on more powerful opponents... and allowed the Empire to build an important fleet rapidly with minimal resources and go back to tactics based on individual prowess and courage as they always favored."
Leône nodded.
" I see... the same reason why they are one of the very few advanced spacefaring societies still using archaic bladed weapons in modern warfare."
"The Kelvin is in range," announced Livingstone, golden eyes on his sensor readout. "Ready to jam, Captain."
He blinked once then faced Syntron.
"I am also detecting an energy surge building up fifty three billion kilometers, bearing 120 mark 30, consistent with the emergence of a singularity."
On the screen, a portion of the starry vista of space started to crackle and flash as in a distant storm was brewing in the eternal night.
"The Kelvin is still at warp but her sensors will detect the phenomena in fifty-three seconds."
The image shifted under Leône's touche to show a familiar looking saucer-shaped hull marked with the bewildering NSS-0514 registration number along with the name U.S.S. KELVIN, behind which sprouted on top a not so familiar shuttle bay pod and underneath a just as bewildering single large warp nacelle.
The vessel was still travelling at warp 4, a reasonably fast cruising velocity for a ship of this era, at an angle that would normally have her fly past their own bow... until they would detect the spatial anomaly starting to forma few billion kilometers away. But for the moment though, it stayed on course, much to the surprise of many.
"How come they haven't detected the phenomenon yet?" wondered Elliago.
"It seems that this is another backlash of the temporal divergence affecting the past," Livingstone hypothesised. "Their sensors, and therefore in all probability also their communications, are not reaching outside of their warp bubble like ours do since the early days of warp travel in our timeline. Thus, they will not be able to detect the singularity until it is fully formed and exert it's massive gravitational effect on the local spacetime to disturb their warp field and become noticeable."
He looked again at Syntron.
"Captain, this will give us extra time to position ourselves to prevent them from detecting it and ensure that we will not be detected."
"We have reached interception coordinates," Philter then announced.
"DYCEP activated," then said Leône.
"Jamming their sensors with low intensity EM emission," Livingstone reported. "The singularity is opening."
On the screen, the bizarre-looking Starfleet vessel fle at warp on it's original trajectory for long, tense seconds. When those seconds became minutes, they all started to breathe.
"The wormhole is now open," declared the Avian science officer. "The Kelvin is still on course for Sector 001. If we maintain the jamming for another fifty-three minutes, they will be too far away to reasonably turn back and investigate what will appear as a rather common cosmic phenomenon."
"We are maintaitning parallel course and speed, " Philter confirmed.
"They might still be intrigued by a singularity forming where no star was located," Docotr Nasaro-Myth pointed out.
"Starcharts were rather rudimentary in those days of early exploration of this sector," Livingstone explained. "And with hundreds of refugees aboard, still this close to the Klingon border during a time of political tension between them, Captain Robau is on a record as a cautious man quite concerned with the safety of federation citizens; now this far out on it's return trip, he will not turn back and risk all those colonists aboard just to look at a standard cosmic occurence. he will record it in his log for later scientific investigation by another ship and in all probability continue on his way."
"Unless the Kelvin detects the Narada when it will emerge from the wormhole," insisted Elliago. "Such a huge, strange, unknown ship would certainly motivates him to turn around and investigate."
"Fortunately, the Narada's Borg modifications makes it undetectable to scanners of this time period," now answered the X'Ell; " that's how Nero managed to surprise and decimate the task force sent to Vulcan when he appeared in the Eridani system, just as it surprised Vulcan Central's own surveillance grid."
Almost an hour later, they all looked at the Kelvin moving away unharmed and unaware of the fate it had unknowingly avoided.
"One correction achieved," Livingstone stated. "Orders, captain?"
As the Kelvin continued upon its coarse David studied the readout from his boards. The DYCEP had been deployed for over an hour and the energy buildup from this deployment was building. As the concealing plating covered most of the ship, the engine emissions were unsble to discharge as normal and built up within the manifolds. The ship was within about a half hour of having to shut down the DYCEP or risk overheating or exploding. Rogers passed this information on to the captain.
"Sir. Manifolds are approaching peak temperature capacity. Recommend shutting down the DYCEP."
As the energy build up had to be discharged through the main deflector, this emanence would be visible to sensors within a twenty degree line-of-sight of the dish. Rogers also passed that reminder along.
"Energy discharge through the main deflector will be visible to the Kelvin's sensors if directed toward her."
Course correction plotted and laid in," Philter stated in response. "I have taken into account the relative position of the USS Kelvin and of the emerging Narada in order to mask completely the discharge. We will have to remain stationary to avoid cruising damage while the deflector is off as it discharges the energy build-up from the DYCEP system."
"Deflector aligned and ready," confirmed Leône with a nod from Livingstone at the sensors.
The discharge was like that of a photon burst that played accross space like some aurora borealis for a few seconds before it left an afterglow of incandescent free-floating molecules.
"No reaction from the Kelvin," reported the X'Ell from his sensor console. "She is resuming her previous course and speed towards sector 001. Without the early pregnancy trauma that occured on board a slow moving shuttle in this altered timeline, Wynona Kirk and her husband George will witness the birth of their second son, James Tiberius, in Riverside Iowa, North-Western continent, on March 22, 2228 by old Earth calendar calculations."
His huge golden eyes suddenly flickered and his feathery crest stood up as new signals balred for his attention on his sensor readout.
"Sir... The Narada has fully emerged from the anomaly which is receding... and is powering up. It appears that it detected..."
They all saw it on the main viewer as Leône shifted the view to the huge ovoid mining vessel. Around it approached numerous dark-hued bird-like vessels with a flat winged hull, short thin neck and large bulbous bowpod glowing with the energy of charging torpedo tubes.
"Klingon warships, D5 class, Sir!" Philter got from his computer connection to the Friend-and-Foe identification files.
"I read twenty-seven of them," Livingstone added. "They dropped out of warp and are taking a wedge formation to attack the Narada, with nine wings of three each, all tactical systems at full power. They have not detected us because we are screened by the nearest star emissions relative to their position. Klingon sensors in this time period can only compensate for six percent of the EM band. They will not see us from this bearing unless we overtake them directly."
"Why did they not position themselves under cloak?" wondered Leône.
"The alliance with the Romulans that will provide them with that technology is over thirty years in the future, even in this alternate reality," answered the avian officer.
Elliago Nasaro-Myth, seated at the left of the command chair, turned with an alalrmed expression toward his Syntron.
"Captain! These warships even in such numbers will be no match for the Borg-enhanced twenty-fourth century technology of the Narada! Without the damage done initially by the destruction of the Kelvin that caused it's capture, the Narada will destroy them all... creating a new temporal paradox as those ships should never have encountered her in the first place!"
"They will be all in range for the Narada's weapons in five point three minutes," announced Leône.
The Avian science officer then spoke, looking directly at his commanding officer.
"The doctor is right, Sir. It is impossible to predict the consequences of any one of those Klingons dying here on what should be the correct future; our timeline. Even if we ourselves manage to cause the damage initially done by the destruction of the Kelvin to allow Nero's capture, we will at best perpetuate this false timeline. There is only one solution; we must destroy the Narada, here and now."
"Kill them all? Just like that?" protested Elliago.
"Doctor... had it not been for this unexplainable convergence of coincidences that allowed them to survive the Hobus supernova, then even more to survive going through a black hole, in this timeline, they will die in twenty-five years from now... but not before crippling time itself. If they die now, nothing changes for them... but the life of the whole universe will be saved."
The coldness of the X'ell's reasoning was more than just the hard logic about the needs of the many; it was the very reason why they had come to this time period.
"Four minutes to weapons range of the Narada," reminded Philter in his calm, professional tone. " We are holding station at nine point six billion kilometers. ETA for us to intercept the Narada; exactly sixty seconds at maximum warp."
That would give them three minutes to destroy the huge mining vessel... or let time itself be destroyed.
Redding was still checking his screen and spoke without looking around.
"No, the Klingons will have to go as well." he said with an air of detachment. "Are you assuming that twenty-seven armed and running hot warships are headed here to take on the Narada? It's been here all off twenty minutes now, thats' quite a responce time. No, that's an invasion strike force against the Federation if ever I've seen one, and I have. It's more likely the Narada is the reason the invasion stopped here."
Redding turned to face his captain.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but none of them should be allowed to leave this area to report back what they see here... ever."
Livingstone shook his head.
"With all due respect to the Commander, his analysis is faulty. The Narada was never supposed to be here. Whatever the Narada does will alter the timeline and this is what we are here to prevent. At all costs."
He then looked at Redding to explain further.
"If this was an invasion force, then it was part of proper History and should run it's course. As a matter of fact, it is not; according to our unaltered records, these ships are the very first contingent of warships that will be part of the Battle of Donatu V, twelve years from now. They have just left Klingon space and detected the emergence of the anomaly and the Narada. That was not supposed to happen, even less so the destruction of these ships. If we do the job of the Narada, we alter the timeline the same way and have come here and done all this for nothing."
He turned back to Syntron.
"Sir, the Narada is the only anomaly here. It is the only element that must be removed... without affecting the rest."
"Quite a tall order," Leône said with a dry smile. "And how are we going to attack and destroy this monstrosity and without hurting and alerting the Klingons of our presence?"
"With all do respect to Mister Livingstone, my recommendation stands." Redding said without even a hint of annoyance. "Regardless of what history 'reported,' that small fleet of ships didn't wander into this on the off hope of running into a fight. They're in Federation space for a reason. I'm more inclined to think that the records were falsified to cover up this failed incursion into Federation space by the Klingons. I'm not suggesting your wrong, but I'm pretty damn sure I'm right."
"That is completely irrelevant, Sir. Whatever the reason, which I gave you, their presence here is part of History unless the Narada... or us... intervenes. We attack those ships... we destroy the future as surely as the Narada did in attacking them herself. "
He now lifted his huge golden eyes to the captain.
"We will fail this mission... and the future is doomed."
Rogers listened to the heated debate of the fate of the Klingon armada with slight detatchment while he readied the ship for warp. The DYSEP had cooled and the deflector was returned to normal flight configuration.
"Captain. Warp navigation is available."
After that announcement David turned to Lieutenant Livingstone to offer what was, to himself, a paradox about the current Klingon problem brought forth by Commander Redding.
"Livingstone, your quick on that computer. Was not the Donatra V battle a prelude to the Federation/Klingon War? And after that, led to the Organian Peace Treaty?"
David was not above destroying the Klingon armada here and now along with the Narada, but if doing so erased the Organian involvment in their 'real' history, what else might that change? If he recalled his academy history courses correctly, there were numerous battles that led to that war.
The X'Ell didn't touch his controls, using the direct connection of hgis mind through his sheereess to get the data faster. The lights in his feathered crest blinked twice before he answered.
"Confirmed. The Battle of Donatu V was inconclusive, creating a state of cold war instead of an actual one, escalating a decade later into what would have been the second Klingon-Federation war... without the intervention of the Organians who stopped it before it began. The Organian Peace Treaty Zone ensured no direct hostility could easily be started by either side, thus preventing much bloodshed afterwards... and allowed the first opportunities of cooperation that would eventually make possible the Federation-Klingon alliance."
He looked again at Syntron.
"Hence why it is imperative these ships reach their destination. If they are destroyed here, the Empire will conclude the Federation is attacking them and a war that should have never happened will erupt and devastate both Alpha and Beta Quadrants... while the Romulans will sit back and watch until they can sweep in and pick up the pieces. Then a century later, the Borg will come... with no Starfleet to stop them, as we witnessed before jumping back to this time."
"You can quote whatever the history books say all you want, but the fact remains that armada is here now. Klingons don't play war games. They're here to attack something and this is Federation space, so you tell me; what happens if it's not Nero? they'll 'change their minds'?"
He stood up.
"Look, I know the Klingons and I know the Donatu incident better than you do. If you'll check your files closer, you'll notice that none of these ships survived that encounter. Most of the people I talked to about it think they were either scrapped or lost in other engagements and just claimed as lost in the battle.The mere fact that all of these ships lasted the next twenty years almost guarantees at least some of them were added post conflict,. It's a common practice in Klingon culture, to save face for their houses."
"But that's exactly it, Commander; those ships should never have been destroyed. They are in their correct timeframe doing what they should have done;we and the Narada are not. Are we here to do what the Narada did and we be the ones to destroy the timeline like she did?
"Oh really?" Redding leaned against his panel and crossed his arms.
"Did you even take temporal causality? How do we know that were NOT suppose to stop them in order to maintain the stable time line? There are hundreds of examples of temporal inversions known to JUST the Federation, Janeway and the Micro chip, Sisco and the riots, and that's just two of the easy ones."
"And not a one recorded correctly in history until the inversion happened, not one."
"Just give one single reason why that fleet of ships is here, just one. Is there anything at all about them being here? I'll save you the effort, the answer is no." He frowned.
"So.. tell me, what other reason do we have?"
The X'ell blinked his eyes several times before answering. he was truly bewildered by the Commander's adamant resolve to destroy the Klingons.
"The T circuit, Sir. We have the Bureau of Temporal Investigations technology to maintain our correct knowledge of the timeline when we oursleves travel through it. Temporal causality is calculated by the circuit as well as temporal inversion probabilities. That's why we know indeed, despite what you see here, that there never was an invasion in this time period; and I told you, Sir,this is not an invasion; it has been well recorded in History as a military deployement prior to the Battle of Donatu V. When it will happen, it will be part of the chain of events that leads to the Organian Peace Treaty, the starting point of the Klingon-Federation alliance. The Narada did not stop any invasion; there never was one. She should never have been here; it is it's very presence and all that she did that destroyed the universe in our time period. Destroy those warships and you will not stop an invasion, Commander; you will at best cause the Klingon-Federation alliance to never happen... and at worse, take Nero's place as the destroyer of the timeline."
"I noticed you never answered my question, why is that fleet here? and I can count the number of times that TI has been wrong on both hands." He waved off any response.
"But were out of time, and it's not up to us." Then sighed.
"I'm just.. appalled.. at you're dogmatic trust on this situation that's all, if you want we can talk more later." and with a nod to the Captain went back to his work.
By Kheren on 12/29/2016 @ 2:45am
Continuing on the next post: Attack on the Narada