THE EDGE OF NEVER: The mission
Posted on 09/27/2016 @ 7:56pm by Commander Elliago Nasaro-Myth M.D. & Lt. Commander Jonathan Livingstone & Captain Syntron & Captain Joshua Riker & Commander David Rogers & Captain Neil Redding & Lt. Commander Elisha Leóne & Commander Aron'Son
Edited on on 10/05/2016 @ 12:24pm
Mission:
The Edge of Never
Location: Secret meeting at starbase Lotus
Timeline: 8873.2
Rear Admiral Kotari looked in turn at each officer seated at the table before announcing what they had all guessed already.
"You, people, are going to be the crew that will be attempting to restore the timeline."
There was nevertheless a moment of silence before the soft, charming voice of Elliago nasaro-Myth broke it with much worry edtching it.
"With all due respect, Admiral, what about Captain Kheren and his crew? He is one of our most experienced commanding officers and the most decorated in Lotus Fleet, and allegedly the most experienced with time travel alive today. So is most of the Horizon's crew as they mostly were also with him on board the Artemis where he gained that experience."
Dulmer tilted his head towards the Deltan.
"Yes, Doctor, and he and his crew holds the most stellar record in History in dealing with time related operations. That's why they have all been assigned... elsewhere."
"A plan B," understood Jonathan Livingstone.
"There should always be a plan B," Lucsly admitted.
"To tell the thruth, this so-called plan B would have been the best solution... but we are not ready," his colleague explained with a sigh. "We don't even know if it can be made ready before it becomes too late to even attempt it. That is why we also sent Captain Connora'Tu Felez of the Lotus with him. He is the most experienced Starfleet officer in Lotus Fleet, many times proven to be unfailingly reliable and your elite division's most experienced science officer. Maybe he will help us succeed in getting Project Millenium ready for Kheren and his crew to do something too... maybe..."
It was quite clear that the man was not so much speaking about it as he was almost praying, yet knowing that praying was futile.
"And this is why you have been selected to implement our Plan A," Kotari was saying with more emphasis. "You are the best officers available in all of Starfleet to immediately attempt a direct intervention and correct the problem at the source. But this is a most dangerous and critical mission, maybe the most dangerous and critical mission ever attempted by Starfleet. We therefore ask for volunteers."
Again, he looked at each officer in turn as he spoke.
"You Captain Syntron are the next most experienced commanding officer in regards to time travel, having served with Kheren during his own time displacement incidents. You are also the next best science officer in Lotus Fleet, well-versed in temporal mechanics. And you are Vulcan, like Ambassador Spock, as well as being because of this blood-related to the Romulans. You are the one best qualified to command this mission."
"Acknowledged Rear Admiral" was all that need to be said by Syntron.
His gaze shifted to the tall, bearded human facing the Vulcan.
"Captain Riker, you have already proven with your recent first command how reliably steadfast you are regarding Federation ideals and Starfleet ways, regardless of the odds. And you are our most experienced officer available after Captain Syntron. You will therefore serve best as his Exec, able to best assist him or even take over for him in any eventuality that could compromise him."
He then looked at the powerfully built man next to Syntron.
"Commander Redding; no one in the Federation is currently more knowledgeable with this time period than you. And your peculiar experience with time displacement and unique... situation makes you the perfect failsafe for this most difficult mission. Furthermore, you are an accomplished tactician, the best one available in our elite corps. Your services as Strategic Ops Officer will be invaluable if we are to have any hope to succeed."
Next he went to the only officer with a golden-collared uniform and three pips on it.
"Commander Rogers, your accomplishments as an engineer are second to none. You also have experience with time travel and, according to a certain recent classified report, uniquely gifted with security systems and starship automation... and even more to think outside the box. And you are Half-Romulan, which might prove valuable considering who we are facing. Furthermore, you are already familiar with the ship's systems, allowing us to launch as soon as this meeting will be over."
Kotari then looked at Elliago.
"Doctor Nasaro-Myth, you are the most experienced medical officer available and, like Captain Riker, unfailing in your devotion to the principles that govern us. You are also a reknowned expert in Xenology and xenomedicine. With all the possible unexpected encounters this mission might entail, as Commander Redding briefly outlined from the recording shown, this might prove critical during this mission into the unknown."
"Oh, joy..." simply said the Deltan.
The admiral smiled briefly, knowing that he had accepted the mission despite the forced groan. He then looked at the powerful grey-skinned officer sitting in front of the doctor.
"Lieutenant Commander Aron'Son, you were literally born and bred as the perfect soldier. As your Starfleet record show, you have more than once proved it while following our most constraining Starfleet directives. In our best estimate, there is no tactical and security officer better for this mission, period."
Aron'Son only nodded, though he already had several internal concerns regarding the mission for which he'd been chosen. The stoic Jem'Hadar did not like the idea of time travel of any kind as he had voiced during the Horizon's most recent mission. The Dominion specifically avoided any and all thoughts of time travel or temporal interference. It made things messy and as a soldier Aron'Son did not like messy.
Kotari nodded then looked at the only woman seated among them.
"Lieutenant Commander Leône, you are as well our most experienced operations officer, already familiar with several different ship configurations and able to learn quickly to adapt to unfamiliar systems. You are our first choice to help chief engineer Rogers in managing the vessel and pilot it."
Elisha Leône turned a slightly darker shade of olive green as Kotari explained her role in this mission.
"Understood Sir. I will be prepared and ready to face whatever challenges we encounter" the Orion officer confirmed.
He could not refrain from smiling at the alluring Orion woman before addressing the last officer at the table.
"Lieutenant Livingstone; you are an accomplished scientist, able to speak unaided in all forms of communication, most versed in temporal mechanics and able to interact mentally with any kind of electromagnetic-based device. And you are a X'Ell, utterly unknown in our own time perid, let alone the twenty-third century; that, with Mister Aron'Son being Jem'Hadar, could help provide this team a perfect cover if direct contact is unavoidable and your identity as agents from the future needs to be concealed. You are uniquely endowed to help us succeed."
"I shall do my best, Admiral," the bird-like alien answered.
The Admiral looked at all of them, standing at attention before them all.
"Been a while since I sat at a tactical station, but I'm in of course." Redding said with a nod.
Hearing the accolades of the assembled crew by Admiral Kotari, David knew this august company was a formidible asset. Not only to itself and Lotus Fleet, but to starfleet and the Federation. Hell, even to the galaxy itself. But, as his own accomplishments were dictated, he also knew that he would be but a smaller part of the greater whole. As commander Redding indicated his willingness to undertake the mission, Rogers as well voiced his desire to participate.
"Admiral, I too will sign on. And if I may ask, which ship have you assigned for the mission?"
He had noticed during the briefing the indication of an assigned ship, but the question of travelling back in time had piqued his curiosity as to the class of ship they would be using. Time travel, as taught at the academy, was risky business. Even more so was the methods. Tapping into a wormhole woould be impossible, as the Barzan one was unpredictable in it's outlet point, which moved through space in erratic jumps of indeterminate lengths. So, the most obvious solution would be the light-speed breakaway method: Speeding around the gravitational well of a star, increasing speed using the gravitational pull of the stellar mass and creating a 'whiplash' effect to transport the vessel through time. If this was going to be the method of travel to the past, David would need the class of vessel in order to come up with the extremely precise calculations to accelerate the vessel through the time continuum.
The bearded Boslic officer smiled back at Rogers.
"For this mission, we need a ship versatile enough to adapt to any possible situation, easily automated to be efficiently manageable by a skeleton crew, powerful enough to face our time's Romulan and Borg technology, fast enough to reach quickly any part of Federation Space... and most of all capable of avoiding detection or identification by the people of this earlier timeline and, if unavoidable, could possibly be confused with a design of this era. We have only one ship in the whole of Starfleet that can fill the bill."
On the screen behind him appeared a Federation starship docking at this very moment within Starbase Lotus. Everyone, most of all David Rogers and Elliago Nasaro-Myth as they had both served aboard, recognized it even before reading it's name and registration on the top of it's oval saucer section and both the nacelles extending under it, all seemingly covered with some unusual iridescent hull plating that reflected the interior of the starbase around it.
NCC-80175 U.S.S. SPECTRE
Captain Syntron recognized the older fleet ship as well, although he had never stepped foot aboard her.
"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.
"A special ability of the Spectre is her Dynamic Concealing Exterior Plating. When activated, small black mirrors appear along the entire hull. These mirrors, while camouflaging the Spectre against space, also reflect any scanning attempts from normal sensors back at the source. However, this does not normally render the Spectre fully invisible. A concentrated sweep would fully reveal her and a good lookout could easily spot her. That is, in our current time period. Sensors of the twenty-third century will be completely fooled, in effect giving the Spectre a virtual cloaking ability but without the massive energy requirements of a true one. She will be able to scan and shield herself even under concealment, a most important asset for this particular mission."
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.
Listening intently, David nodded occasionally, until the second Guardian was revealed. Then he paid rapt attention. The device was huge! And the good Doctor voiced his own revelation before he could state it. Then, David noted something that had not been asked and, to him, it seemed important. He voiced his concern as soon as the OTI agents paused in their briefing again.
"Sirs? If I may ask?"
Walking over to the display David looked over the image again, noting the miniscule humanoid figures next to the new Guardian. Turning back to face Admiral Kotari and the two agents, and the rest of the assembly, David voiced his concern.
"You all well know the characteristics of an Akira class, and you certainly can see this guardian on the planet in the image. So Admiral, are you suggesting we fly through the guardian in atmospheric flight? In the Spectre?"
An Intrepid was built to allow for atmospheric flight, but the Spectre was heavily weighted with DYCEP and massed over three million tonnes. He felt this point had to be brought up.
"Indeed that is exactly what you will have to do," Kotari answered. "Again, this is why and Akira class starship, and specifically the Spectre, were chosen."
Adjusting a few controls, the Admiral illustrated on the monitor with Utopia Plenitia and fleet reports what he was about to explain.
"Atmospheric flight for most starships is hazardous because of their very configuration. Starships are made in space for space. The Akira class however is both much more aerodynamic and compact that any other design, more aerodynamic than the more compact Defiant class and more compact than the more aerodynamic Intrepid class, both well able to fly and even land and take off. The Akira design is twenty percent more massive than the larger Intrepid, thus proportionately making such atmospheric flight more difficult. It has been evaluated that an Akira going through transatmospheric travel and forced to land would loose seventy-five percent of the structural integrity of its nacelles and forty-five percent of its main structure. But here, we are not talking about a crash landing; because of its duranium-tritanium hull and it's basic microfiber armor, the ship could easily fly several minutes within the atmosphere without any significant damage, even with shields and integrity field offline."
The display then shifted from the standard Akira design to the specifics of the Spectre.
"Even merely flying on full thrusters at five hundred kilometers an hour would not damage the hull proper, but atmospheric friction would put noticeable strain on some of some structures like the pylons. However, the addition of ablative armor generators to the Spectre completely solve that problem. Moreover, the standrad Laforge program 1 of metaphasic shielding already allows a starship to manage the heat and radiation of a star's corona; atmospheric conditions will be... a breeze, if you pardon the pun. It will still take expert piloting and no time wasted in sight seeing, but there is no reason the Spectre couldn't do it."
Rear Admiral Kotari took the following moment of silence to look one more time at each of the brave Starfleet officers about to embark on one of the most daring and crucial missions ever attempted. then he stood at attention as a salute to them.
"Since there is nothing else, this meeting is over. I don't need to remind you that everything said and shown here is highly classified. You will be transported directly to the Spectre and you will begin preparations to launch no later than twenty-four hours."
Livingstone nodded, having made the calculations already. At warp 9.3, the maximum speed of the Spectre, it would take twenty-two hours to travel the two light years to reach the location of the new Guardian of Forever beyond the Azimuth Horizon portal. Going at the warp 9.8 emergency speed was out of the question; the engine would burn out at best six hours before they would even reach their destination.
Taking all of those twenty-four hours to get ready would leave barely one hour before the estimated arrival of the destructive temporal wave... and the end of all hope. It would be dangerously close...
His thoughts were interrupted by the Boslic's stern voice.
"Dismissed... and good luck... to us all."
The familiar tingling sensation of the transporter beam whisked them out of the hidden room.
By Syntron on 09/28/2016 @ 2:04am
Note: The most recent posts I insert and highlighted in blue earlier this evening are now missing.
I can retype them in... but was wondering what happened to them?
By Kheren on 09/29/2016 @ 3:53pm
No clue. maybe you were typing at the same time as someone else and yours didn't register... that happened before.
Please try again.
By David Rogers on 09/29/2016 @ 10:36pm
I have had that happen as well Jeff. I usually check the Control Panel to see who is online in the RP section, before I enter a post.
AND ... I use notepad to make my post offline, then copy/paste it into the story online. Don't have to re-type it in if the post somehow doesn't enter. lol
By Syntron on 09/30/2016 @ 11:04am
The strange thing was that after I submitted the post it showed up.
Later it was gone. There was no one else on at the time I posted it... that was the confusing part of this. Anyway... I put in back in yesterday.
By Syntron on 10/01/2016 @ 11:38am
Here is a link to logistics of the USS Spectre:
http://www.lotusfleet.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=163
By Kheren on 10/02/2016 @ 12:36pm
Sumrized in-story for the benefit of the reader :)