Jhalib Ekal, "Objective."

[Deliera Jay]

((Sickbay))

Ekal: I found a plan in place for the Veritas's premature destruction. The Commission's chief of operations is using it as a last ditch effort - she seems to think that because the Veritas fired on that Tholian vessel, then it's directly responsible for the state of my galaxy. So if the Veritas never *gets* to that encounter, and looks as if it's been destroyed through some other means, then that crisis is more or less averted and the Tholians go about on their merry way. Except that it's not a fool proof plan, because it's not been properly calculated - there's over a hundred and twenty unaccounted people immediately taken from my timeline that could have any number of consequences. By my understanding, it'd make the situation worse than it already is. But they believe this is their last choice, so they're going ahead with it anyway.

::He spouted a lot of words, even for him, and he had to take a couple seconds to take a breath.::

Ekal: That's why I'm here. I can't stand by and let an entire crew be murdered through the blind efforts of those without hope.

::The room had to take a moment to process what he'd said, Rahman glancing over to her XO. Blake in the corner had bowed her head somewhat, eyes closed.::

King: Response?

del Vedova: That's ::beat:: exhausting. How do you not have an endless headache?

::He *did* have a headache.::

G'var: Motherless PetaQ's! Qi'yah! What gives these future men the right to play with our lives? This TIC has no honor!

::Delano held up a hand as Ekal took a small step to the side, further away from the mildly frustrated Klingon. Since, you know, Jhalib was part of that TIC and had been for many years now. He'd also made some adjustments that affected the Veritas. Namely this one he was standing in at the moment.::

Delano: At ease, Ensign.

DeVeau: So wait...why destroy the ship?  Why not try other means?  Diverting  it?  Or preventing it from getting there without destroying it? A malfunction with weapons?  Why hurt and kill so many people to accomplish that goal?

Blake: Because that leaves those of us who would have been lost to roam in their timeline unchecked, which, logically speaking, might cause more problems than taking us all off the map would, right? ::She stood properly, arms still crossed.:: If half of us are already dead to them, what's a couple hundred more? In comparison to billions suffering daily?

G'var: These tahqeqs, they have abandoned logic and honor. They act about of despair and fear.

Delano: We’re dealing with desperate people. If history shows us anything, it’s that desperation can quickly erode integrity. But there is a certain logic to this. After all, we’re sworn to protect the Federation, and to lay down our lives if necessary. The Dominion War resulted in nearly 100 million Federation deaths. If you could restore those lives by destroying a single ship instead, I can certainly understand the temptation to make the trade.

Rahman: And if according to their history, most of us were going to die anyway, they probably figured the possible ramifications of our complete destruction would be negligible…

Delano: Not that I’m saying we should simply let ourselves be killed.

Blake: "Needs of the many".

::Now she was starting to sound more like the woman he knew, that cynicism oozing through her voice. It made his heart drop. Maybe Sky now was totally different from the woman he'd remember her being, and the only reason the change happened was because the Tholians took what little optimism she'd had at that point and smothered it. She'd gone on to become the Montreal XO for a year, maybe two if he remembered correctly, but she quit after that and fled to Betazed, never to leave the planet again.

::She looked more comfortable standing in this Sickbay now than how he'd remembered her standing in her own bedroom on Betazed. Jhalib hadn't come to this time to save his mother - he hadn't even given her wellbeing a second thought when he'd made the decision to come - so seeing her like this was causing him an internal conflict he didn't think he'd end up having.::

King: Response?

DeVeau: None of this makes any sense.

G'var: A thousand years ago, at the dawn of the Empire, five hundred warriors stormed the Great Hall at Qam-Chee. The city garrison fled before them. Only the Emperor Kahless, and the Lady Lukara stood their ground. Like Kahless Ekal has stood his ground to save us, we all must join him and stand together.

Delano: How do we stand our ground against an enemy who can anticipate any action we take?

Rahman: By having someone from the other side on *our* side.

::All eyes went to him, and he straightened his posture a little, swallowing. This was maybe more pressure than he'd bargained for.::

DeVeau: So...plan?

del Vedova: I think, at least from a diplomatic perspective, that we ought to try and find out what's up with the Tholians. Maybe we can avoid any further conflict.

G'var: After Morath threw their father's sword in the sea Kahless looked into the ocean and wept, for the sword was all he had left of his father and the sea filled with his tears and flooded beyond the shore. The people begged Kahless to stop his weeping, and he did and walked into the water to find the lost sword. He searched and searched the murky ocean bottom, holding his breath for three days and three nights until he eventually found the sword. We must be willing to do the same with the Tholians.

Delano: Well, I can’t hold my breath for three days and nights, but I do think we can find the Artemis, and I see no good reason not to continue on that course. You said yourself that the timeline has diverged from what you know.

Ekal: Certain things, yeah - personnel, primarily, given what you've told me, but I'd need time to triple check what I know happened in my time compared to what has happened in *your* time. The Montreal being nearby - that shouldn't have happened. The Veritas and Montreal weren't supposed to cross paths this year at all. I wasn't sure that adjustment would change anything because of Commander Zhou's injury, and it's an honest fluke that it did.

::Evidently he'd underestimated just how attached Zhou was to the Veritas, and probably to his mother, too. Surprising, given how flippant he was about it whenever Jhalib asked him about his time in Starfleet. Generally Zhou would cut the conversation short by suggesting a drink and maybe a strip club - which came with a rather amusing story he still laughed about to this day.::

King: Response?

Delano: For all you know, you’ve already saved us by giving us warning. Second guessing ourselves at this point could make things even worse.

del Vedova: And who knows how much worse, since you were questioning us about the birth of the Federation!

Ekal: Calm down, doctor. Everything from our two times seems exactly the same, save the Veritas running into the Montreal early.

King: Response?

DeVeau: We need to tread carefully.

Blake: Agreed. If you say that there's a threat to this ship, we need to look at all angles. Would they send someone to the ship?

Ekal: More likely they went back further than I have to implement something.

Blake: And in your opinion, what would they implement?

Ekal: I don't know - this is the 25th century we're talking about. It could be anything between a bomb, a virus, even a misaligned deflector array during warp. It'd have to have been a foreign upgrade between and when the Veritas first entered the Shoals, though, since there's no way they'd be able to infiltrate Starfleet ranks.

Blake:::with a sigh.:: That doesn't narrow it down. The Veritas has been receiving civilian upgrades and materials since the moment I stepped aboard to keep up with repairs.

Ekal: Yeah. Probably how they got it aboard.

G’var/King: Response?

Rahman: You said Veritas was at the initial event that caused the Tholian conflicts. Did the destruction of Astrofori One happen in your history, too?

Ekal:::nodding:: It's a fixed event.

Rahman: So even if the point of divergence has already happened, with key personnel now aboard Montreal, some elements of the timeline remain intact. Which means the war won’t be because of Astrofori One but because of Veritas’s eventual confrontation with the Tholians.

Ekal: Confrontation with the Tholians is inevitable. No matter what change - big or small - it will occur at some point, in some fashion. But we *can* dictate exactly how bad the damage of it is, which was the TIC's objective.

::There were certain "fixed events in time" that *had* to occur somehow, regardless of meddling from outside sources. From the formation of the Federation, to the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. And these things did not have to be natural disasters, either -  Astrofori One was one of those fixed events, though exactly the amount of casualties or survivors, how many pieces it ended up in, even the date and time of it's end, were all subjective to the particulars of the event. Try as anyone might, not everything could be calculated.

::Constable likened time to hair tied in a plait. Time might be different depending on the timeline and dimension, but they all flowed together, and crossed paths at certain points, brushing against each other to have awfully familiar events to one another - like plaitted hair.::

::The Veritas was not fixed in time. It was not so important to the timeline that it could not be saved from certain doom - which only provided him more evidence that the theory the Veritas was the focal point in his home's current state of affairs was false. He was certain that award could be afforded to something having occurred in the Menthar Corridor - either the old and brittle alliance Starfleet had with the Cardassians, the taskforce Starfleet put into place following the original vessel's departure, Astrofori One, or perhaps a combination of all three. But there was no firm way to avoid conflict with the Tholians. As their encounters with the Sphere Builders are, the Tholian engagements were inevitable no matter what they did.::

Blake: If there was *very little* damage, all of us would sleep better at night.

Rahman: Can you tell me more about that event? Does it have something to do with the Artemis?

Ekal: We weren't told.

Blake: You're a time-traveling agency and Starfleet didn't tell you about the event you're trying to correct?

Ekal: We're civilians employed by Starfleet - even growing up around Starfleet, there were things I wasn't told because "it's classified", so we do what we can. Starfleet told us what they thought we needed to know - that the Veritas would find a large ship called the Artemis and end up in a disastrous firefight with a Tholian vessel along the border between the Shoals and Tholian space. I don't know what class the Artemis is, how big it is, or even what it was doing there. Just that it's there.

Blake:::muttering:: About as comprehensive as Captain Nickson.

Ekal: I'm assuming that's the ship's captain?

King: Response?

Ekal: Makes sense.

::Sky looked up again, arms uncrossing and a mild bit of optimism suddenly touching her eyes.::

Blake: Wait a minute, you said you know that it's there? At the conflict between the Veritas and the Tholians?

Ekal: . . . yes.

Rahman: ::her voice harsh:: Then tell me where the damn ship is.

Tbc . . .

Jhalib Ekal

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