Homeward Bound (Part 1)

Posted on Sat Aug 3rd, 2019 @ 6:36am by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Commander Rylie Cattmor & Lieutenant Commander Orin ch’Valri & Lieutenant Commander T'kaarch & Lieutenant JG Haruna Mizuhara & Lieutenant JG Morgana 'Deathstrike' DeViro & Chief Petty Officer Jack 'Crow' Addy

1,280 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Ripples
Location: Ranger

ON

It took another two weeks before they found the right balance with the probe and finally had a way back to their proper timeline. At least, they had a high probability of getting back home. Nothing involving time was 100%.j

At the same time, the odds of getting stuck in this future--or killed--were increasing. There had been two more attacks on the station and T'mpest finally convinced the commander that the only way to win the war was to prevent it from happening. To that end, she had the information from the Abydos AIs and the data from the station. It would be enough, once she got back, to discredit the President and send him to a penal colony for the rest of his life. And to take down his network of assassins with an 87% chance of success.

"All stations report," she said.

"Science systems nominal," T'kaarch purred, "Sensorrrs arrre calibrrrated forrr anything chrrroniton rrrelated, the prrrobe is rrready to be launched forrr futurrre past us to find it, and we've been studying all the data frrrom the prrrobe to give us the highest chance possible forrr ourrr own time surrrf to worrrk."

"Excellent. Thank you," the captain said. The success of this venture depended on T'kaarch and T'mpest had no doubt he was up to the challenge.

As Rylie took her own seat, she leaned over the arm to monitor details from around the ship, all while trying to ignore (without much success) the constant thoughts of hope, fear, and some impending doom from the surrounding area, including some from adjoining decks. "Additional power stabilisers have been successfully installed in key areas, captain; Haruna finished them late last night. Engine efficiency is still down seven percent though from the fall out of the last attack on the station, when the port nacelle caught the brunt of the docking arm failure. Hopefully it'll be enough that this works. The rest of the ship reports ready, the Ra is locked down, and Lieutenant Commander Verini disembarked first thing this morning."

"I hope she is okay with this," T'mpest said. "I could not give her all the help she wanted." But she sincerely hoped that getting them back home and stopping this war from beginning would be enough. Even though she would not remember them, T'mpest hoped to meet her some day.

"Of course." she replied succinctly. "She kept thanking us for the opportunity and trust we gave her, and she regretted not being able to work with T'kaarch sooner."

T'mpest flashed her a smile at that. "I do not blame her. T'kaarch is one-of-a-kind. We are fortunate to have him on the Ranger."

"You flatterrr me," T'kaarch said softly. Sensitive cat ears have their advantages. Fur also had advantages, as no-one could see T'kaarch blush slightly, leaving Rylie to smile to herself, sensing more emphatically how the Caitian was feeling than anyone else was.

T'mpest again looked down at the systems display, satisfied to see that all was as ready as it could be. "Take us out," she said to the helm. "And to the nebula." She glanced at T'kaarch. "As soon as we are in position, launch."

The Ranger slowly moved into deep space, then faster as the nebula was targeted by the helm. Before long, the viewscreen showed a speck. Then a larger light. Eerily, there was a black dot in the middle of the bright area, as if someone had drilled a hole through the nebula.

"Chrrroniton levels nominal, Captain." T'kaarch purred, "I suggest holding this position forrr the prrrobe launch. We don't want to get too close. Yet."

With a small confirmation nod from the centre of the bridge, the officer manning the helm touched a few controls slowing the ship, "Controls reading all stop, velocity decreasing, seven thousand k-p-h and slowing." A beat later, he continued, "Maneuvering thrusters engaged. Now reading all stop, captain."

"Is the chrrroniton torrrpedo rrready?" T"kaarch asked. Though the entire bridge crew had been part of the earlier simulation, it's always best to be overly prepared. And the time window between probe launch and torpedo detonation wasn't that large.

"Ready and armed." Orin replied before adding softly. "At least, I think its armed."

The comm channel opened between Engineering and the Bridge. "Hey!" Haruna's voice called. "We're all ready to row down here" she said. "Just make it quick though, this ship can't take much more. Even a girl genius like me isn't a miracle worker" she said.

"Launching prrrobe..." T'kaarch's fingers worked furiously to pinpoint the exact location, direction and speed the probe needed to go, "now." The probe entered the viewscreen's sight, quickly disappearing within the larger picture.

"Tactical, you know what to do" T'mpest said.

"Target is locked." Orin replied firmly before tapping the console one more time. "Firing."

First, the torpedo detonated, generating a large flash across the viewscreen. Then the small black dot seemed to enlarge towards the point of detonation, creating a line where both light and time seemed to converge. It swallowed the probe, and within another split second, the scene returned to it's original display.

Jack stood by Orin, his arms crossed over his chest, as he watched the display unfold on the view screen. He stood there in awe before turning to Orin. "So... let me try to get all this straight, Boss In order for us to go back we have to send a torpedo that we just now sent... to ourselves. A torpedo we only just received before we sent this one. The very torpedo we needed to figure out how to get back home. So, does that mean the Ranger who sent the one we got also got a torpedo from themselves? Which came from another ship, who sent another torpedo, after getting a similar torpedo from another ship? Who got a torpedo from another ship-"

"Addy?" Orin said softly, his eyes focused on the viewscreen.

"Yeah, Boss?" Jack replied with a raised brow.

"Stop talking."

"Gladly." Jack said softly before adding. "My head feels like it was about to explode."

Morgana tapped at a console, set up for science, which she used to observe the event. As she spoke, she never looked away from the console, keeping here eyes focused for anything abnormal or interesting. "It's a Predestination Paradox." She said firmly. "It's an phenomenon in which, an event of time travel, is part of an event that already occurred. A Paradox, like that, can also lead to the initial event where time travel was first introduced. There is no telling how far back this paradox goes. Did the very first event have its own torpedo or, is that Ranger, still stuck because their torpedo was sent back along a different timeline? The variables are too big and too complex to determined and best left as a mystery that should just be left just that. A mystery. The important fact, regardless of how it began, this event gave us a means to go home. We, in turn, have an obligation to continue the event by sending our own torpedo first before making our attempt home."

"In other words..." Orin replied firmly, looking over to Jack, before concluding. "Don't dwell on it and accept it as a good thing."

(To be continued...)

Captain T'mpest Michaels
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant T'kaarch
Chief Science Officer

Commander Rylie Cattmor
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Commander Orin ch'Valri
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant JG Morgana deViro
Assistant Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Chief Petty Officer Jack "Crow" Addy
Tactical Officer

Lieutenant JG Haruna Mizuhara
Chief Engineer

 

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