All Our Tomorrows (Part 3)

Posted on Sun Feb 9th, 2014 @ 4:19am by Commander Patrick Leroy

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Ialnalyn Science Station
Timeline: Unknown

Walking about the station had been to no avail.

The few open doors and passageways led him to nowhere useful and for the closed ones… Well probably he couldn’t have been able to open them anyway. Even at his former physical condition that was, by far, very distant from the actual one.

Hours had passed now from the tragic moment he’d found himself stranded in the abandoned Ialnalyn station where he’d come to attend the stellar rejuvenation experiment.

Well, it seemed that the named experiment hadn’t gone too well.

His movement impaired by the frail body untimely aged due to unknown reasons, Patrick had in the end surrendered, returning at last to the main control room. No console he had inspected was in working order aside the one dedicated to the Prime Researcher and that was probably linked to control in turn all the others.
That one he’d been able to start up only to find, to his dismay, that an encrypted code was needed to access all the systems.

The lights on the console flickered now, without pause, following a steady pattern. Waiting... Waiting for the one resolutive sequence that he would have never been able to guess.

Sighing he leaned back on the chair weariness descending on him. His eyes went to the portals.
Volara star outside burned brightly, flooding the station and him with its reddish light. The celestial body, deemed old enough to be subject of a rejuvenating experiment, seemed to beckon him now... Mockingly.

So that was it.

Prisoner of an empty husk in space he would have met an untimely end of his days. Far from all who he loved and held dear and who would have never come to know of the whereabouts of his passing.
Suddenly air seemed to have become thinner and he felt the need to loosen the labcoat around his neck,
not that it mattered given the situation.

The familiar sound brought him back to the here and now. Swiveling the chair he turned to face the center of the room where a bright glimmer coalesced into two humanoid forms. One tall, the other one of average height and of coloured skin.
The newcomers donning well known uniforms, albeit a bit different from the norm. Relief took over Patrick as he recognized Federation attire, sort of.
He stood from the chair, dizziness almost instantly overwhelming him almost sending him sprawling to the floor.

“Easy” the tall muscular one said, coming closer tricorder in hand “This seems to be your lucky day Granpa.”

“No trace of anomaly anymore.” Added the other one, sweeping the room with his tricorder as well.

The tall one nodded briefly in acknowledgement without taking his eyes away from Patrick scanning him with the tricorder. “Human being it seems, Biko.” He commented turning to the coloured one.

“Keep scanning around, Steiner” Biko responded “We do not know what this station can have in store for us.”

“Oh yes.” Steiner replied with a grin “You can see for yourself Biko, kind of a threat huh?” he ended gesturing with a thumb in Patrick’s direction “Think command staff is a bit over-stressed.” he chuckled.

The comment garnering him a mild look of disapproval from Biko who shook his head and kept recording data.

“Now ol’man, why don’t you tell us your story?”

Patrick licked his dry lips. The two men seemed Federation personnel still something was definitely out of place albeit he wasn’t able to readily identify what. Thinking clearly had become increasingly difficult “I… I was attending an experiment…” He started explaining.

“Experiment about what?” The tall one pressed him holstering the tricorder. He came close enough to look straight into his eyes.

A bell rang in Patrick’s mind putting him on the defensive “Memory’s not clear…” he stammered, only partially feigning.

“Well it should be… Help us to help you.” The one named Steiner stated “An anomaly showed up here not long ago and we came here with a long detour on our former course just to find… You. This has to make some sense don’t you think?”

“We are from USS Sibyl a Federation starship.” Biko intervened his smile warm. “Now look… Are you okay? We can help. We can take you aboard for medical check.”

=^=Away team report.=^= A female voice interrupted them before Patrick could answer.

“Steiner here.” The big one responded tapping his badge “The anomaly has subsided and the station is desert aside from a lone denizen.”

=^= A denizen? I’m coming.=^=

“There’s no need...Er… Captain, no need for you to beam over. Situation is under control…” Steiner tried to reply but the communication seemed to be pretty over.

“Stubborn…” Steiner murmured between himself before turning again to Patrick “Okay, the Captain is coming you’ll give any further explanation directly to her.”

The transporter sound filled the room again as a figure materialized near them, a young woman of about thirty with blond hair kept in a sober ponytail and deep green eyes.
She gave a cursory look to Patrick then turned to her men perking an eyebrow interrogatively just as if to say i’m waiting.

Harrumphing Steiner took the initiative: “As I said over the communicator situation is under control. No need to endanger the CO of the ship. The anomaly has vanished and we just found the wizened one.” Steiner ended waving a hand in Patrick’s direction.

“Perhaps this man has a name. We could, maybe, ask him.” Biko intervened a hint of irritation evident in his voice.

“That’s fair.” The captain replied. Taking over the situation she stepped forward smiling.

“I’m Captain Leroy of Federation starship USS Sibyl. We’re on a science mission, a few hours ago we detected an anomaly at this coordinates and came to investigate. And you are?...”

A disruptor would have probably dealt less damage, as Patrick realized what had happened. The thin blond hair and the eyes so strangely familiar of the woman… He’d been thrust in the alternate universe and far into the future to make things even better.

A kind of personal Prime Directive kicked in as he deemed better to keep secret his whereabouts in front of personal need.

“I… I’m Francis.” he managed to say through shock choosing for his second name. Then he just felt dizziness taking him over again and the fit of pain made itself manifest starting from his chest, his knees bent consciousness slipping from him. He felt strong hands taking his arms, just in time.

the only thing he could hear, from the depths he was descending into, was the worried female voice of the captain:

“Leroy here. medical emergency. Four to transport, directly to sickbay.”

Just before everything faded to black again.


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Patrick F. Leroy
SB900 CSO Abroad