THE EDGE OF NEVER: The Briefing
Posted on 09/22/2016 @ 2:26pm by Captain Joshua Riker & Captain Syntron & Commander David Rogers & Commander Elliago Nasaro-Myth M.D. & Captain Neil Redding & Lt. Commander Elisha Leóne & Lt. Commander S'Tan Solius & Commander Aron'Son & Lieutenant Julian Carter M.D. & Lt. Commander Jonathan Livingstone
Edited on on 10/03/2016 @ 12:46pm
Mission:
The Edge of Never
Location: Starbase Lotus, Rear Admiral Kotari Office
Timeline: 8873.1
The office of Rear Admiral Kotari, the flag officer in charge of the entire Hromi sector, was as spacious as any conference room aboard a starship, saved for the colossal USS Horizon. It felt all the more huge because, at the moment, there were only three individuals present.
Behind the large real wood desk sat the aged Boslic wearing the uniform and pips of a flag officer. His eyes, as steely as his cropped hair and short trimmed square beard, looked without blinking at the two other men sitting on the opposite side of the desk. Both wore a non descript dark grey suit that nevertheless looked like a uniform. One was tall and lean with gaunt features. His companion was shorter and stouter with a ferret like face. Both were of a non descript age, short haired and clean shaven, but clearly Human. Their expression was as blank as their attire, except for their eyes. Their light was as grave as the voice of the admiral.
"Astronomical observation has been confirmed by direct visual witness from the Enterprise."
"And you have the Federation Council's report about the last census and the currently tracked data," the tall gaunt man added.
"With Starfleet's continuing reports about ships and installations status," finished the other, shorter man.
There was silence before the Boslic man dared to spoke again.
"And there is no alternative conclusion?"
The two men didn't provide any answer. They had already given the only one.
"How much time do we have left?"
"That, Admiral, is exactly the problem, " the shorter man said. "We cannot know. It might already be too late."
"C'est encore plus beau parce que c'est inutile..." grumbled Kotari, closing his eyes.
"Sounds like an ancient Earth dialect," the tall man said. obviously interested.
"French; something from a poetry book called Cyrano de Bergerac that Ambassador Picard gave me as a gift for my last birthday while he was in the sector; All the more beautiful because it is useless... The main character was saying this when dying at the end of the tale, defying death itself, sword in hand."
"Appropriate... even oddly prophetic in a way," the short man said, nodding. "That is why we came to you. If there is something to be done, it should be done without delay, with the proper tools and the right people."
"And the right way," added the tall one.
"That is why we have come to you, Admiral," now said the shorter man. "Lotus Fleet has among the best officers in Starfleet and the greatest number of experienced ones regarding what we need to do... and you have the only ship that can do the job."
"What about Project Millenium?" the Boslic officer said.
The two men looked at each other, as if consulting one another silently as to what to say... and what not to say. The shorter one finally answered.
"Testing has yet to be completed... and no trial run yet has been scheduled. We also have yet to get the appropriate selection of personnel and properly train them. That is our plan B, Admiral, because there is no garantee that we will be able to actualize Project Millenium in time to avert what is already happening. Again, your elite division is the one from which our best hopes lie to actually make it fly; that is why we have already selected and sent several of your officers to the project's site already. But we need a quicker solution... and we need it yesterday."
"Literally," added the other.
Kotari sighed.
"Very Well. We have recalled the vessel and it will dock with Starbase Lotus in forty-seven hours. We have gone over the mission parameters and we are ready to brief the officers that will implement them. You have told me what kind of people we need to do this and I will call here immediately those within our ranks that will fill the bill. If you are ready, gentlemen..."
"There is no time like the present, Admiral" the short man said.
"If there is such a thing," flatly stated the other.
Kotari tapped his combadge.
"Fleet Captain Samji; this is Kotari. Please send immediately to my office the following officers; from the Horizon, Commander Neil S. Redding and Lieutenant Commander Aron'Son; from the Phoenix, Captain Syntron and Lieutenant Jonathan Livingstone; from the Lotus, Commander David Rogers and Doctor Elliago Nasaro-Myth; from the McKenzie, Captain Joshua Riker and Lieutenant Commander Elisha Leone. Kotari out."
* * *
One by one, the officers called for the meeting came to the huge empty office and sat at the table according to rank. Syntron and Riker were at each side of the head chair, followed by Redding and Rogers, then Aron'Son and Nasaro-Myth, finally Livingstone and Leone. It occured to them immediately that they had among them a senior and a junior commanding officer, one strategic officer and a sec-tac one, a chief medical officer, a science officer and an operations officer. They only needed a flight control officer and they would have a full bridge complement.
They had all been in the room for several minutes now and neither the admiral nor anyone else came to join them. but before anyone could express any impatience, they all felt the tingling of a transporter beam and the scene shifted completely. They were now seated in a much smaller room, dimly lit, with no ornementation whatsoever and only a widescreen covering the entire wall behind the headchair at the table.
In this chair sat Rear Admiral Kotari. Each side of him stood two men in a nondescript civilian attire absolutely identical. Their expression on their otherwise much different countenance was the same; serious and grim as they looked in turn at each officer seated at the table.
"Forgive the unanounced shift in meeting place," Kotari said in a voice much more strained than usual. "But this is precisely what we want to achieve; to make sure that anyone who could manage to pass our security up there would have no clue that we are down here. This unused meeting room is in the lowest part of the starbase, normally used by maintenance people on the night shift. You left behind hologram of yourselves who will discuss in my office with a hologram of me delineating some defense plan of the border discarded a few years ago. It will be enough to divert any unforeseen attempt to learn what we are truly be discussing here."
The hand of the Boslic admiral desiganted the two men beside him.
"These two gentlemen will first brief you on the situation."
The shortest of the two stepped forward.
"Dulmer," he said.
"Lucsly" said the taller one stepping forward also.
A few among them, Syntron, Redding and Rogers, had already met these two men before. They knew who they were.
They were agents of the Office of Temporal Investigations.
Syntron shifted his gaze from the two familiar Temporal agents directly to Rear Admiral Kotari.
"Are we addressing another consequence of time manipulation Rear Admiral? the Vulcan captain inquired stoically, yet with a serious tone in his voice. These were the most convoluted missions to contend with, as he had learned first-hand.
"Trust a Vulcan to come to the most logical conclusion before anyone else," Kotari acknowledged with a smile. "You are quite right, Captain. And this one is on it's way to destroy our entire reality. Gentlemen? You know more about this than anyone else."
Looking around the room Riker chimed in.
"I have seen enough secret meetings to know the difference between secret and hiding. It is not like you guys to be subtle, at least not secret spy subtle."
Pausing slightly Riker continued.
"This is really bad isn't it?"
The two OTI agents noded together but as usual, Dulmer spoke first.
"I will not give you here a refresher course in the Temporal Mechanics classes you all had at the Academy. Suffice it to say that we are all aware that altering the timeline means that you utterly destroy whatever came after the point in time you have tampered with. In contrast to quantum alternate realities, an infinite number of co-existing variations of our universe sprung from each individual decision made throughout existence, time like space is a unique constant of each universe. There is no such thing as alternate timelines co-exisitng with the original one; when the timeline is altered, it destroys the original timeline and replace it with it's own."
Lucsly then concluded in his own unemotional way.
"That is why we have now the Temporal prime Directive in place within Starfleet's General Orders, as an integral part of the actual Prime Directive."
He seemed to be intent on making sure everyone in the room understood and accepted this statement as his pale gree eyes went to each officer present in turn.
"Every Starfleet officer who ever encountered a temporal anomaly had and felt the moral and professional obligation to correct it and did one's best to do so... even mavericks like James T. Kirk knew this and acted accordingly."
"All but Katheryn Janeway," corrected Jonathan Livingstone; "at least, according to the reports of the USS Voyager."
"yes and no," Dulmer answered; "further studies showed that her recorded tampering to bring back Voyager sooner than it should have was in fact a correction of the timeline altered by the Krenim Empire's timeship. In the Alternate timeline, Voyager made it back thirty years later because the Krenim's tamperings had destroyed from their path a civilization with technology that would have brought them back sooner... So, our current Admiral Janeway is not the one who went back in the past to bring her ship through the Borg Conduit that this same civilization would not have allowed to exist in their space... But that is another story for another time. Now, we are faced with someone who deliberately altered the timeline and not only did nothing to correct it, but according to our changing History compounded his crime by spreading history-altering knowledge and technology of the future."
Lucsly did not give them time to wonder who. He said it with a bland, detached, cold tone.
"Ambassador Spock of Vulcan."
An eyebrow raised ever so slightly on the captain of the USS Phoenix as those last words were spoken.
"Since we have all been specifically called to this shrouded meeting, it would seem logical to presume that there is to be some type of mission that we will be ask to undertake. Are we to cross back into time in an attempt to undo these transgressions or are we charged with trying to convince a younger version of Spock not to proceed with these breaches in protocol?" Syntron inquired without knowing the full scope of what these temporal agents were referring to or how Rear Admiral Kotari was planning to proceed.
"We cannot resolve an alteration in time by making another one ourselves," Dulmer answered. "The Hobus catastrophe is part of our timeline. Up to the point of Ambassador Spock's actual involvement that gave him the opportunity to alter time, we must not change anything or risk causing further damage. Intervening against the actual alteration is the only safe recourse."
"If there is such a thing," Lucsly flatly commented.
Rogers had taken a seat beside Riker and no sooner had he thought about maybe having a cup of coffee, he was transported away to find himself inside a smaller room with barely enough seating for them. As Admiral Kotari apologized and the briefing proper got underway, David forgot all about the caffeine.
Then David recognized Dulmer and Lucsly.
Oh, great, he thought worriedly. Another temporal investigation.
But, as they laid out the reason for the clandestine meeting, David paid rapt attention. He had found the temporal mechanics class at the academy extremely engaging. As the briefing unfolded, David found himself agreeing with Captain Syntron's questions. And, logically, arose a query in his own mind.
"Sirs, if I may. Just how do we know this is not the proper timeline we are in? I mean, as agent Dulmer pointed out, a replaced timeline is destroyed. How can we tell that there was a replacement when we are all here enjoying the ... to us ... real timeline?"
Looking about him at each of the officers around the table, David shrugged a bit and then tried to rephrase the question.
"We have our history ... our timeline if you will. What gives rise to the acknowledgement of, as you put it sir, 'our changing history'?"
Redding felt a spark of sympathy for the young man, but there was no way he was going to get into that discussion again. He long ago decided to let smarter people than himself make those kind of decisions.
But..
"For what it's worth, being unfixed in time myself, I have noticed nothing unusual 'shifting' around me."
Then he thought it over.
"However, my latest mission might be a factor in that as well, seeing as time manipulation was involved."
"A legitimate question," Lucsly said to the both of them.
"And before we discuss it," Kotari interjected, let me state for you and for the record all that this meeting is classified."
"To answer it," Dulmer then said;" we have, as in all valid scientific approach, several lines of inquiries that allow us to observe and check the timeline and detect alterations before they actually alter us. Some I am not at liberty to discuss at this point, as they involve classified technological resources we have been developping for quite some time now. Others are given to us through standard scientific observations and others still through fortuitous means... like the case of Commander Redding himself or the one he is refering to; the Guardian of Forever."
He made a pause to gather his thoughts to speak as succintly and comprehensively as possible of something that was vastly complex and not yet totally understood. As he spoke, the wallscreen lighted up and showed images, graphs and data about all that he was speaking about.
"Picture the flow of time as a river, with it's eddies and currents, it's falls and rapids, pools and rocks. What we call the timeline is like it's riverbed; the more you get up to the source, the stronger the current is. That is why going back in time is harder than moving forward; as a matter of fact, we are all moving forward in time as we live, following the current if you will."
He paused again to let that sink in. Then he went on.
"The longer and the farther it flows, the deeper and more entrenched is that riverbed behind it.That is also why events in the past are much more fixed and deterministic, while those in the future are more open and fluid; why altering the past does not alter what came before it but is influential on what followed."
"Altering the flow of time would be like building a dam; diverting the flow which causes the rest of the original riverbed to dry up."
"Quite right, Lieutenant Livingstone," Lucsly acknowledged the X'Ell science officer's remark.
"One example of what we are able to do at this point," Dulmer explained, "is detecting this lowering of the river flow up to the point were the dry up is observable; and as for a river, this is first and best evident nearer the end of the flow. Astronomical observations has confirmed that the farthest galaxies known in our universe are disappearing. At this very moment, our entire universe as we know it has shrunk by one percent."
That sent a cold chill down everyone' spine. Lucsly drove the point deeper in tha even the graphic representation on the wide screen even did.
"Gateway station, monitoring the Guardian of Forever, has confirmed it; our reality is disappearing... and at an exponential rate. Time is at an end."
"And... Ambassador Spock is responsible for this?" Elliago Nasaro-Myth said with his purple eyes wide with disbelief.
Dulmer answered him but looked at everyone in turn as he did. behind him, recordings illustrated his every word.
"On stardate 64333.4, the Hobus super blue giant Hobus went suddenly supernova. It has been determined since then that some unknown agency had used remants of Iconian technology to inject protomatter into the core of the star, causing not only the collapse of the star but creating a subspace rift through which the detonation exponentially amplified and travelled through space at warp 9.99997; the speed of a subspace transmission, roughly a thousand times the speed of light. On stardate 64444.5, it had already reached Romulus and Remus."
Everyone was aware of the terrible cosmic catastrophe that had shattered the once powerful and proud Romulan Star Empire, decimating billions and plunging the survivors into a long, bitter civil war to try and regain their lost glory. But the OTI agent had much more to reveal.
"On stardate,64471.6, Ambassador Spock aboard an experimental scoutship of advanced design used another Iconian technology to attempt to stop it. Code-named Red Matter by the Vulcan Science Academy studying it, it was able to artificially create a singularity without the need of starmass, using the very gravitational fabric of space itself. The singularity literally swallowed the energy of the supernova detonation before it could expand further into the galaxy... and in the process, Ambassador Spock's vessel."
Lucksly then spoke.
"All that is now part of History. What is not generally known however, is that Ambassador Spock did not meet his end as would be expected of anyone or anything falling into a black hole... because that black hole at the very moment of it's creation met the erratic end of the Barzan wormhole."
Again Livingstone was the first one to understand the implications of what the tall man was saying.
"The Barzan wormhole opens on one end to the Barzan star system but it's other end moves through subspace accross the entire galaxy in a pattern not yet understood. Opening on the same spatial coordinates with a blackhole would turn that singularity into a new wormhole itself for the time they would remain connected. Anything caught into it's gravity well would travel through it instead of being crushed by infinite gravity."
Dulmer nodded to acknowledge the summary.
"And it has been known since Einstein and Hawking that wormholes affect time as much as space, since both are interelated through gravity. Spock found himself projected to the other end by a time displacement; which thus also means a space displacement. He re-emerged somewhen else... and therefore somewhere else than the Barzan star system... and he was not the only one."
On the screen appeared a curiously mishappen transport vessel, vaguely egg-shaped with numerous protuberances and what appeared like a gigantic planetary drill.
"This is the Narada, a Romulan mining vessel our engineers have determined was heavily modified with salvaged Borg technology. This is the ship that first detected the explosion of Hobus; but it's transmission could not overtake the supernova itself and therefore arrived too late to warn the homeworld. It did however arrive in time to witness Spock's affort to stop it... and like him was also swallowed in the gravity well of the newly made singularity... and into it's unpredictable wormhole. As far as we understand, the ever changing position of the wild Barzan wormhole sent him not exactly to the same time and space coordinates as Spock."
On the screen, two images showed side by side, both evidently taken from the hazy projection inside a stone arch that pulsed like a living thing. one showed historical scenes of Starfleet of the twenty-third century; the other showed something at the same time similar and different; starbases and ship designs they had never heard about, propulsion technologies that looked more like transwarp than warp travel, weaponry too old for the time period, an apparent lack of shields to protect vessels, races no one had ever seen while many familiar ones seemed absent... an Orion girl in a weird Starfleet uniform on a unfamiliar bridge design... a falling starship plowing through San-Francisco... a canyon in Iowa...
Livingstone concluded outloud what they all understood.
"A Borg-modified civilian Romulan transport... and an experimental Starfleet scoutship... and they both ended in the past... and somehow changed it."
"Destroying the future... and us," Elliago added.
"It gets worse," Lucsly then said.
"It has been determined," Dulmer explained, "that when this new timeline eddies reached the exact time of the Hobus supernova detonation, this detonation will backlash not only through space but through time, along with a paradox that will expand to infinity."
Now they understood plainly why the universe was at an end.
The Vulcan captain listened intently as the conversation progressed and the dire information was presented before he responded again.
"Given the delicate nature and complexities involved in these timeline consequences, what specifically is being proposed here to successfully intervene against the initial alteration itself?"
"There is only one option viable for us," Admiral Kotari then said. We will send an especially selected ship and crew back in time to prevent both the Romulans and Spock from altering the timeline."
Redding looked at the images and frowned. "Are we absolutely sure this alternate universe isn't some sort of parody of ours, or should I say Kirks time?" He said seriously.
"Impractical ships, unrealistic aliens, and is that suppose to be Captains Kirk and Spock? I've met them both at the Academy and even though it was close to fifty years later than this time period, I wouldn't mistake that man for Captain Kirk."
He shook his head.
"It's more like a bad holovid."
"Don't we all wish it were," Lucsly sighed.
"Unfortunately, Commander, it's all too real," Dulmer said in a somber tone. "And this new reality is threatening ours like nothing ever did before. Your own testimony yet further confirms our worst case scenario. Even down to mere individuals, this is not the past that brought about our present. And it's about to change everything. If we don't put a stop to it, nothing we knew, nothing we are, will remain."
Syntron nodded subtly as the dialogue continued. This was going to be another frangible endeavor.
"Rear Admiral Kotari," the Vulcan then queried, "have you determined which ship and crew is to be sent on this precarious mission back through time?
"Looks like an ensemble cast Captain." Riker quipped.
"I am guessing they are going to send a combination of all of us. Best men for the job right? I imagine every one of us is here for a reason"
By Kheren on 09/22/2016 @ 2:33pm
Alright people: engage!
To Sorripto: note that I have included Riker instead of Sorripto, because Sorripto is still in the Romulan empire aboard the Alsea along with Jureth and Sangliar (hence why Aron'son instead of Jureth is called as well). Buth Riker's unique talents and experience will serve even better :)
By Connora'tu Felez on 09/22/2016 @ 8:39pm
Sorry, moved my post to 'A long ride Home'
By Kheren on 09/23/2016 @ 1:21am
np works perfectly
By David Rogers on 09/27/2016 @ 10:27am
YAY!!!!!!! We're gonna stop the JJverse!!!! YAY!!!! lol
By Kheren on 09/27/2016 @ 10:48am
Exactly right hehe
I'm so EVIL...
By Syntron on 09/27/2016 @ 11:14am
Even though a big part of me doesn't even want to acknowledge this fiasco of Jar Jar let alone contribute to it... if we can eradicate it all together in story, then its just a dirty job that needs to be done and we'll just roll up our sleeves and get to it...
By Kheren on 09/27/2016 @ 1:26pm
We'll give some much needed sense to it and then clean our RP of it for good, just like we did with the Borg and Section 31.
Told you this was momentous :P
By Connora'tu Felez on 09/27/2016 @ 6:30pm
Oh yeah, I'm in.
By Kheren on 10/03/2016 @ 1:02pm
thanks for joining Sorripto!