Concerning Other Times And Places

Posted on Sat Apr 25th, 2015 @ 2:45pm by Commander Ehlana Winter & Commander Patrick Leroy

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Temporal Affairs

* * * Temporal Affairs * * *

Commander Ehlana Winter took one last look at the report on her padd and frowned. This one had some exceedingly odd facets and a simple report wasn’t enough for her. She wanted some details that the dry written word couldn’t give. She wanted to see reactions. She scanned Dr. Harding’s report as well, then pressed the comm panel on her desk.

“Marie, have Commander Leroy report to me immediately.”

=^= Acknowledged =^= came Marie’s voice.

Ehlana turned her attention back to the medical report as she waited.

********

Patrick strode down the corridor to the doors of the office he’d been called to. He had to postpone a meeting with his staff, a thing that generally never happened unless a war broke out, still this Commander Winters was probably connected to the high brasses of SB900 and beyond so, for once, he chose for the diplomatical solution.

He stopped right before the doors, straightened his uniform and pressed the chime.

Marie opened the outer office doors to admit Patrick. “Welcome, Commander. My apologies for the short notice. Commander Winter is waiting, go on in.” The inner office door opened. “We’ll have you back to work soon, I promise.”

He nodded to the assistant and entered the office. “Good morning Commander.” He greeted her stopping right inside the door. He never met this woman before and was a bit uncertain on how to conduct himself.

Ehlana spoke, her attention still on the medical report. “Please have a seat, Commander Leroy, and thank you for coming so quickly.” Her tone was direct, but not harsh. “I assume you know why you are here?”

“I haven’t been briefed by anyone but I suspect it has to do with my voyage to attend that experiment in Ialnalyn space.”

“It does.” She laid the padd aside and looked up, taking the time to examine him closely. “Your report is most interesting but I am curious about what it does not say as well. I also want to address Dr. Harding’s assessment. What you have experienced is relatively rare regarding time travel, to use the vernacular.”

Patrick shifted uneasily on the seat. “It is not easy for me to speak of this episode,” he responded, his eyes wandering away for an instant, well-knowing though that this passage had to be dealt with he returned to look at the commander. “Everything that happened is in my report and I tried to be asprecise as I could. Still the weirdest thing that could happen to me has been meeting again a person… Related to my counterpart in the alternate universe.”

He paused, striving to find the right words. “The same person I met as a child during the chroniton episode of some months ago when Admiral Wegener and Captain Hawke were suddenly transported in that reality.”

Ehlana nodded. She remained silent for a few seconds, then the atmosphere in the room shifted. Her voice, when she finally spoke, had softened.

“I understand that, perhaps better than anyone. I’ve had to deal with the same thing. There was someone I had to assist, in the past. He came to mean a great deal to me but given the constraints of the mission, there was nothing to be done about it. I couldn’t stay back there where he was, nor could he simply skip ahead a few hundred years. The kicker was that I couldn’t even tell him where and when I was from, nor that I was leaving. I simply vanished from his time one day. It brings a whole host of questions and curiosity as to what happens to them. More importantly, it’s hard as hell on those of us destined to leave them behind.”

“You’re right commander, I’m currently unable to forget or even start to digest what happened. For what I’ve seen the Federation is not faring well thirty years from now in the alternate universe and the daughter of my dead counterpart is in a quite exposed position. Any given day I wonder is she… Will she be in peril? And I cannot do anything about it.”

He stood silent then, his thoughts lost somewhere.

“For those who’ve never experienced a temporal or dimensional shift, those other worlds don’t seem to exist and thus they are not prey to such thoughts. For those of us who have seen them, however, it’s a different story. Some see them as spectators. In your case and mine, they were far more personal. You saw the child Faye here, very young, then again later as an adult. She was not your own, but we always feel an odd, unavoidable connection to our counterparts in other times and places.” Ehlana rose and moved out from behind her desk, coming to sit in the chair beside Patrick. “It might interest you to know that we are, in fact connected. Those in my line of work see and experience it time and time again. It’s why people in this department burn out so quickly and move on to other careers.”

“As if to say I’ll be never free of this thing. I could open a door, I did it once. I could do that again…” Patrick said following the line of his thoughts.

“No!” The word came out, sharp as a knife. “That you absolutely cannot do.” She took a deep breath and frowned. “Do you have any idea of what could happen? You could open up this universe to untold problems and change the course of history. I know one small thing doesn’t seem like much but even the tiniest change can have catastrophic effects.” She stopped to rub her temple a moment. “Please. You have to understand how grave an issue this is.”

“Yes, of course.” Patrick responded recovering himself. “I was thinking aloud even if I know that seldom the things we would like to do can effectively be done.” He shook his head slowly. “There’s another thing. What if what I’ve seen there should recur here within the next thirty years?”

Ehlana shrugged. “Anything is possible. But thirty years from now is a result of countless events from our past and the days in between. I find it interesting that an area completely unrelated to 900 was the conduit for sending you to the same universe that we’d encountered previously. And I won’t lie to you, I am concerned about the extreme time shift.”

“Yes, far across the fabric of time and also with damage to the body. There’s been a moment I thought I would never be able to come back. Killed by the degeneration of my body cells. Time seemed to flow at incredibly high speed only for my physique though. I’m conducting researches in Galileo Center about the matter. If I come up with anything useful I’ll have it arrive to your desk,” Patrick ended with a smile.

“I appreciate that very much. I will be doing some investigating as well and will keep you informed. I noted Dr. Harding’s concerns and will be monitoring those as well. I might also suggest seeing Counselor Swift. He has extensive experience with unusual matters and their after effects and can provide some much needed insight for you.”

“Yes, perhaps is the wisest thing to do.” Patrick agreed. “Our science and medicine can’t explain all; I hope it can still help.”

“And if you simply want to talk to someone who has been there, come see me Patrick.” She stood, indicating that the meeting was at an end. “Any time.” A smile lit her face at the irony of those words.

*********************

Commander Ehlana Winter
Somewhat Troubled

Patrick Leroy
Somewhat Shaken