Back From The Future

Posted on Sat Jun 25th, 2016 @ 7:44pm by Ensign Ian Bren & Commander Ehlana Winter & Commander Patrick Leroy & Lieutenant Riley Sukotav
Edited on on Mon Nov 2nd, 2020 @ 2:47pm

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Galileo Science Center

* Galileo Science Center - Lab Four *

Time stretched out into eternity before suddenly contracting and bouncing Ian Bren into his own time: 2388. For him, the journey back through the three years was the longest moment of his life - mostly because he wasn’t sure he was going to survive. Even once the anomaly had spit him out, dumping him on the floor of the science lab, he still wasn’t sure he was alive - or where and when he should be. For a moment, he was blind and deaf; every muscle ached. He was concerned his head was going to roll off his shoulders.

Reaching up to hold his pounding head, he nearly brained himself with the sphere in his hand. “Shit...,” he almost dropped it, but scrambled to keep it in the palm of his hand.

The blinding flash slowly subsided, revealing Commanders Leroy and Winter in what appeared to be suspended animation. For Ehlana, even though the light was fading, she was seeing spots dance before her eyes, alternately blotting out different areas of the lab. She still couldn’t move but finally, she realized there was someone else in the lab.

Ian! The thought bounced around in her head but did not come out of her mouth. She knew that for the moment, time had stopped, at least for her and Patrick and Riley. She could actually see the shock wave that had returned Ian as it began to shrink back into the center of the room.

Frozen in the very moment he’d launched himself to protect Commander Winters, Patrick was experiencing a familiar tingling all over his body like that one time he’d been thrust thirty years in the future. He wondered if this was a mere accident due to the sphere decaying or the start of the Krenim offensive, both options unpleasant. The blinding light subsided in his eyes and the high-pitched buzz in his ears increased several notches until it stopped with a loud popping sound.

He stumbled, when the anomaly released its grip, suddenly returning them to normal time. Patrick managed to brace himself to a console before taking down Ehlana in his forward momentum. Regaining his bearings he looked around to see a dazed Ian Bren making an effort to stand from the floor.

“Lieutenant Bren!” He exclaimed in surprise.

Ehlana got up from the floor, rubbing her forehead where she’d bumped the console. She bent down to retrieve her scanner and what she saw there relived her. “Time has returned to normal.” A moan from the corner pulled her attention - it was Riley, who’d been thrown against the wall when the wave erupted.

Patrick quickly circled around the stations to reach Sukotav, he knelt beside him trying to assess the severity of his condition. “How do you feel Lieutenant?” Patrick asked eyeing the bruise on Riley’s forehead. Sukotav mumbled something that could have sounded as ‘I’m fine’ but Leroy wasn’t one to take risks he quickly tapped his badge “Commander Leroy here. We’ve had an accident in Lab Four. One to transport to sickbay lock on Lt. Sukotav badge. Probable concussion.”

Patrick stepped back watching the transporter light swirl around Riley until he was gone. Then he turned to the others “Commander Winters, Lieutenant Bren... Are you hurt?”

“Just a few bumps, nothing serious,” she answered. “Ian?” Ehlana stepped closer to Ian and began to scan him as she waited for his answer.

“When am I?”, he blurted out. “I mean... what’s the date?” With the hand not holding the sphere, he rubbed his forehead where he’d just bashed himself with the sphere. “And do I belong in this universe or did I cross over? Oh... that makes it sound like I died. I didn’t die, did I? I think I’m alive. This doesn’t look like my idea of heaven.”

“Stardate 64221.37,” Ehlana answered. “You vanished from this time thirty-four hours and ten minutes ago. And yes, you’re the right one for this universe, I promise.”

Ian grinned at her. “Hey! It worked!” He laughed and impulsively hugged her.

“Welcome home, dear.” Ehlana smiled, then realized what he held in his hand. “Is that the real one from wherever you went?”

“The real one? Um... I think it’s the one from ...yeah, from three years into the future. How’s that going to work?” He held it out.

“Three years into the future?” Patrick quoted coming closer. “How about making a full report of what transpired Lieutenant? Are you up to it?” he urged him, the initial relief to have seen the young Trill safe and sound already masked by the usual formality.

“I can make a full report, sure,” Ian nodded. “Three years is an approximation - it might have been a few days either way, give or take. But the station was a wreck; the sphere had destabilized. The Krenim used that opportunity to take over the station...,” he stopped and looked around, “Where’s Riley? Is he okay? In the future, he was caught in the sphere’s effect.”

“Lieutenant Sukotav is fine. I had him transported in sickbay moments ago. He’s been slammed to the wall when the anomaly here subsided.” Patrick responded to appease Bren’s worry. “What do you mean exactly with sphere effect? Did you see Krenims there? And how is it that SB900 has been reduced to a wreck?...”

Ehlana rested her hand on Patrick’s arm. “He’ll get to that. What about this sphere? Now we have two and this one…,” she paused to scan it as it rested in Ian’s hand, “is far less stable than ours. How do we stop it so we don’t have a repeat of what Ian just witnessed?”

“I have an idea of how to stabilize them. It’s what I was working on when I was grabbed.” Ian gingerly put the sphere on a table and backed away. “As for the Station... they said the Krenim had been attacking the station for awhile. From inside and outside. All of the high level officers were rounded up and taken off the station when the Krenim took over.” He eyed the two of them, unsure whether either of them had been among those rounded up.

Ehlana nodded. “From what I can tell, that isn’t occurring in our future...yet. If you have a way to stabilize that thing, at least for now, I don’t see any weird variations happening. Let’s hope, huh?”

“I’m not an expert in this matter... But the weirdness to me rests in the fact that Time currents can be changed at a moment’s notice. The Krenim have this ability to jump back and forth and they’re already using it. Even if Mr. Bren has thwarted their plans and managed to get back here what prevents them from trying again? This time they could go directly for his mother even before he’s born…” Patrick shook his head in frustration with the last words.

“We should bring the action to their doorstep,” he added then. “Before this tampering with the timeline and our hasty reactions to correct the flow spin out of control.”

“Go after my mother?” Ian looked a little ill at the idea. “Oh, we have to end this. Maybe... wait,” he looked at the sphere in his hand and then at the containment field a few feet away. The sphere was there, too. “We have two. Can we send one to the Krenim?”

“If they are destabilizing, it could very well blow,” Ehlana commented. “Though if they get this far, I don’t have a real problem with that. Just between us.”

“We could try to deteriorate one of the spheres almost to a final stage and send it back to them. So that it will backfire in the very moment they try to use it.” Patrick thought aloud.

“Using their own weapon against them, yes,” Ehlana agreed. “What would it take to do that, Ensign Bren?”

“I’d need to talk to Riley, but I think we could nudge the protective shell and destabilize it a little faster. We’d just need to make sure that the sphere gets away from the Station and that none of our people are near it. It’s not a pleasant death,” Ian said, recalling Reva’s grief from the future.

“As soon as Lieutenant Sukotav is discharged from sickbay we’ll proceed on that.” Patrick said nodding to Bren “I’ll be helping out the two of you.”

Ehlana studied Ian for a moment, then moved closer, resting her hand on his shoulder. “I’m glad we got you back. You still have important work to do here and a horrible future to prevent.” She glanced back to Patrick. “I need to go but call if I am needed.”

“I hope we can avoid disturbing you, for that would mean things are going really awry. But in case of need I’ll certainly call you Commander.” Patrick responded to Elhana then turned his eyes on Bren, “You can rest until the moment Sukotav comes out of sickbay, Ensign. Then I want the both of you here to proceed with the task at hand.”

“Yes, sir. I’m going to take a nap. Maybe in my lab, back there,” Bren said, gesturing towards the lab and heading that way. “Have Riley wake me up!”

**************
Ensign Ian Bren
Lt. Riley Sukotav
Commander Ehlana Winter
Commander Patrick Leroy