Lt Jovenan – I'll try to find some time...
Jovenan
((The Fifth Chalice, Oxeania Commercial District, Tharazad, Betazed))
The offer was difficult to say no to.
After Hiro had left the Artemis, Jovenan had been left missing his company and cooking. Now she was given an opportunity to join two wonderful colleagues of hers for a cooking date. The introduction of the two to each other hadn’t gone quite as Jovenan had intended, but something amazing might still come out of it.
Silveira: That’s perfect, sometimes the most simple are the ones that we learn better. So the most tasteful. I am guessing we aren’t jumping right into the mission, we can get some time for this. :: Vitor winked at Gila.:: What do you say Lieutenant Sada?
Sadar: I-I can take time of… Probably...
Jovenan: Well, um, I’m not exactly certain about my timetables with my new position, but I’m sure I’ll have some evenings open. If not, the next shoreleave for certain.
She hadn’t really thought through what her new job would mean to her. How did being a CSO differ from being an ACSO? Would she be spending all her time in her new office doing administrative PADD work, taking part in department head conferences and bossing around subordinates? Vitor was also a department head, and he… well, she didn’t actually know what he did most of his time. It didn’t seem like he was caught with his work around the clock.
Maybe her timetable allowed some free time…
Silveira: OK so why don’t we…
Snap.
((Chez Adea, Dekoa, Betazed))
Some say a change can happen in a blink of an eye. If there had been a warning, Jovenan might have blinked. And yet, there was none, and the change occurred before her open eyes without her recognizing it until it was over.
Doctor Sadar still stood by her side, but the lights and shadows were wrong. Dim, filtered natural light from a single point on the side had taken over the artificial illumination within the bar they had been in. As Jovenan turned her head, she had expected to see Vitor, but where he had stood was nothing, and she instead saw walls and random chattel of an unknown household. She quickly turned her head to the other direction, finding, surprisingly, Genkos, a glass departing his lips as he had, too, come to realise the same as the two officers in his company.
We’re not in Oxeania anymore.
Adea: What in the four hells just happened?
Jovenan: I don’t know, but this is definitely not the same bar!
Sadar: I-I don’t understand. Where are we? A-And where’s my- I brought a tricorder down with me. And now it’s gone!
Jovenan looked at her. Doctor Sadar was fumbling for the tricorder on her belt, but she couldn’t find it. Had the Doctor lost it or was she so deep into panic that she had forgotten that it hadn’t been with her from the beginning, Jovenan couldn’t tell. Regretting not taking hers with her to a formal occasion, Jovenan didn’t need to look to verify she wasn’t carrying one with her dress uniform.
Adea: CloQ.
She turned to the Commander, who had walked to the window, looking out. She came just in time there to see an unfamiliar person, clad in Starfleet uniform, disappear in a flash of light. Besides that, there was just a street and some foliage. It definitely wasn’t the urban locale of the bar they had come to. Still, there was something familiar with the landscape, the trees and bumps and turns of the street.
Jovenan: What’s CloQ?
Adea: They’re a Q with a real penchant for time, and a real hatred of us. And he seems to have thrown us into my childhood home. Circa… ::he looked around:: 2375, give or take a year or two.
Q!? The last thing she had expected was a nonsensical intervention from a nigh omnipotent being. She didn’t know much about them, but something everyone had been taught was that there was little logic behind whatever a Q did; for all she knew, they might be already dead.
She looked around the room they were in once more. She didn’t recognize it, but after what Genkos had said, she began to notice details that made sense for their location. The architecture, the materials, everything resembled the building they had visited mere weeks ago. But everything was also wrong.
oO 2375. I was one or two years old. Oo
Sadar: Judging by our uniforms, we’re-
Doctor Sadar couldn’t finish her sentence when she was interrupted by the house shaking violently. The glass and small objects tingled as the structure was met with an external force she couldn’t pinpoint. As a planetary scientist, she could tell it was not an earthquake, tornado or any other natural phenomenon CloQ might have thrown in their paths. No, this was artificial, and by the time they heard the roaring sound and saw the machines of war above them, there was little question what it had been.
Sadar: The Dominion...
Adea: This is wrong - the Dominion never cared about this part of Betazed…
Different options came into Jovenan’s mind. Maybe they were actually a few years earlier than Genkos had deduced, and this was a minor flyby he wouldn’t have remembered. But when the final thought found its way to her consciousness, she was certain it was the correct one.
Jovenan: With a Q involved… They might have changed the entire course of the history, for whatever reason.
For some reason, it terrified her more than anything else she had already seen. Travelling to the past was always dangerous, but if one could look into a history book or remember details from that era, it was far more manageable. But now, CloQ had whisked them to history that had never been written.
Sadar: I agree… ::attempts to find her tricorder again, in vain:: If that is so, then he’s not only cut us off from the rest of the crew, but also taken all our equipment and stranded- ::widens eyes in fear::
Jovenan could see the panic in Doctor Sadar’s eyes as the new junior lieutenant tapped her combadge.
Sadar: =/\= Doctor Sadar to the Artemis. =/\= ::only static answered her:: =/\= Artemis, please respond? =/\=
Great.
Adea: Response
Jovenan: Then the Artemis is waiting for us 26 years into the future, in another timeline. ::shakes head:: And who knows where everyone else is.
Sadar: We’re alone, no equipment, no Artemis, and we have no idea whether the rest of the crew is even in the same time period as us! ::rapidly twisting anxiety band:: Wh-What do we do?
Jovenan felt sympathy towards her panicking colleague. She wanted to comfort her, but she had to admit that she wasn’t feeling great either. They had been in many dangerous situations and crisis, but they had never been this much out of their world. Scan, analyse, fight someone, call for a transport. Now Jovenan didn’t even know where to begin.
Jovenan: Well, firstly we calm down and then we… um, Commander?
Adea: Response
Sadar: B-Beyond the standard 500 km radius, I don’t think there’s much we can do to enhance our commbadges’ reach without getting our hands on some equipment…
Jovenan shook her head.
Jovenan: Communication attempts might also alert the Dominion forces. I don’t think they’re going to be very friendly to us…
Adea/Sadar: Response
She thought for a moment.
Jovenan: We don’t know if Starfleet is anywhere near us, but there might be a resistance cell or a ―
A sound. It was very quiet, but she had definitely heard something. A creaky plank, or swishing clothes, but it wasn’t just wind, it was someone.
Jovenan: ::whisper:: There’s somebody in here…
Adea/Sadar/Elain: Response
((OOC: There was some confusion whether our uniforms had changed as well. They hadn’t. Remember, if there’s an inconsistency, Q did it!))
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11