Lt Jovenan – The frontier of history and the future
Jovenan
((CloQ’s Realm))
Game. Yet another game.
Caught in the bizarre pocket of, or out of, the universe, Jovenan and her friends were at the mercy of the insane false god that was teasing them. There was little they could do to argue for their freedom, but it had to be done. They had won already.
Jovenan: But why are you continuing this? We played this game already, we – we fixed the history, the Romulans are in the war again. Y-your timeline doesn’t exist anymore!
She realised her voice wasn’t quite as confident as she had hoped for. She was unsure. Sure, they had identified the assassination of the Romulan Senator as the cause of the divergence of the timelines, and they had done their best to replicate the results of the event. But she couldn’t know if it had worked as they had intended.
CloQ laughed and waved their hand over the boards, and Jovenan realised she was scared of how wrong she had been.
CloQ: Currently your friends are stuck in a timeline that… ::they paused as they pointed at both the Mizarian and the Edo:: you two created with your little assassination. And I will keep them there forever unless you can beat me. ::They pressed their clockbadge and images flashed in all around them, a brief history of the changed timeline, the little girl growing up to be a fierce empress and a leader of the galaxy:: And it’s not a very nice timeline, I tell you that much.
Jovenan could barely stand out of the shock. They… They had failed, their efforts were rendered meaningless – no, worse, they had tried to fix the history, but they had only written a future that was crueller and senseless. Her eyes darted from side to side as her mind rushed to find the error in their ways. The uniforms, the props, their remains that may have stayed behind… They must have made so many mistakes, and they had failed miserably.
Silveira: Considering the plot line that was set up I am sure everyone did their best.
Dakora: Response
Jovenan couldn’t hear the consoling words from her friends as a tear fell off from her cheek. She turned to Gila, who had fallen to the ground, collapsed powerless hearing what evil their condemnable actions had caused.
Sadar: ::broken voice:: No…
Jovenan: ::to Sadar, quietly, teary:: Sorry.
But CloQ wasn’t done. There was still this other game. When Jovenan’s eyes met theirs, they were looking at her with a face of sadness, mockery to the pain she was trying to endure.
CloQ: Oh why so glum? You didn’t have a choice, did you? I created this world, I forced your hands, there was nothing else you could do, was there? You had to kill that senator, didn’t you?
Silveira: Then I don't understand. If you admit you forced their hand… They followed the rules.
Jovenan shook her head and lowered her eyes to the ground. There were rules, and then there were laws.
Jovenan: It’s not that simple…
Dakora: Response
CloQ: At least, that’s what you want me to say. The truth is that Betazoid doctor of yours has all the imagination of a Ferengi tube grub, and about half as charming. There were any number of things that you could have done that wasn’t murder an innocent man… But ::they raised a slender finger:: if you can figure out what really happened in your timeline, I will reset this.
Jovenan raised her eyes back to CloQ. They had options, and they had chosen poorly… But that was not even the thing that caught her attention the most. They could still reset it all, to return the things as they stood and should remain. Would that wash off the sins they had accumulated on their skins? Maybe not, but it was the right thing to do.
CloQ raised their hands, and suddenly, the room changed. The ever-ticking clocks faded away and the walls moved, turning the room what looked like something that could be built by mortal hands, an office with a table, chairs and a view out into the dark space, full of stars, and a large, glowing whirlpool. Jovenan recognized what she saw outside, and no doubt, so did everyone in their team.
Sadar: This is… Deep Space 9?
Deep Space Nine, Terok Nor, Starfleet’s main bastion in the front lines to the Dominion War and the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant. Jovenan had never been there in real life… in her timeline, that is, and she saw no reason for them being there in particular.
Silveira: I am not sure how Captain Sisko will react if he finds us here. Or is that your plan?
Right, they needed to do something, and considering CloQ’s words, they really might need to mind DS9’s wartime commander when in his office. But plan? They barely knew what the game was.
Jovenan: From the news articles I browsed, the Romulans didn’t join the Federation and the Klingons for the First Battle of Chin’toka like in our timeline. We, um, assumed that was the major divergence point, and went on to, er, look up the origin of that change.
Dakora: Response
Silveira: I know I am not the most clever, but I don't understand. Historically the Romulans joined against the Dominion when their Senator was murdered. And that was after his meetings with Captain Sisko. Is that what you’re setting up?
Senator Vreenak met with Captain Sisko? Huh. That might allude to why they appeared in his office specifically.
Sadar: I-In the alternate reality Lieutenant Jovenan and I were sent to, the Senator made it all the way back to Romulus.
Jovenan moved her eyebrows closer together in the middle. That was the earliest point of divergence they could find, and there was a portal to Romulus in Genkos’ childhood home. It had not been too large a conclusion… But it had been, as it seemed.
CloQ: As you humans say, you’re getting warmer.
Jovenan: We assumed his assassination had been where the timelines had changed, so we tried to… ::pause:: Apparently, it was not and something else had changed even before that.
Dakora: Response
It was possible she had missed something when skimming the news headlines or that it had been something not spelled in ink. The details of this era were not completely undisclosed, and as much as it hurt her pride as a science office, she didn’t know too much about history.
Sadar: History is nothing more but a curated recollection as represented by historians’ best attempts at interpreting the evidence left behind… Which means that-
Silveira: History is written by the victors.
Sadar nodded her head, but Jovenan frowned. She wanted to believe that their civilization would have been past the times when those with power dictated how the progeny would remember them, past the times when history could be selectively authored. She knew she was naïve. It was just a large contrast to her own homeworld, where history was not written by anyone.
Dakora: Response
Sadar: Th-That being said, you can’t just-
Sadar had paused for a moment, and before she would continue or anyone could interrupt, she let out a scream.
Sadar: Eek!
Jovenan turned to see what had alarmed the Junior Lieutenant so.
Jovenan: Wha―
Dakora/Silveira: Response
Her eyes widened as she noticed the figure through the glass doors. A bald, bearded man in a uniform similar to which Jovenan had briefly served in on the Excalibur, except for the red collar with four golden pips. Even if she hadn’t noticed the signs of a Captain and a commanding officer, she would have recognized the person from the history books.
Sadar: C-C-C-Captain Sisko!
They had been caught! On Romulus they had at least managed to hide and craft their disguises for a while, but CloQ had set them a trap much earlier into their stay here. Whatever they were planning, they had forced them to violate the Temporal Prime Directive quite visibly by allowing themselves to be seen by a… Why didn’t he move?
Jovenan: He- He isn’t moving.
Dakora/Silveira: Response
Jovenan had a deep breath. CloQ had showed them some mercy in allowing them to continue their investigation before exposing them.
Sadar: I-In that case, I suggest we get out of here? Wh-Where should we start? The docking bay?
Before Jovenan could even consider their options, CloQ stepped forwards, a hand on their hips. Why were they still here again?
CloQ: I wouldn’t worry about leaving - Sisko isn’t coming in until you discover what he did. ::they pointed at the PADDs on the desk:: Figure it out.
Jovenan looked at each of her friends one at a time, and then to Captain Sisko’s immobile, frozen body on the other side. She hoped whatever CloQ had done to him wasn’t permanent; the history needed him. But he had apparently done something, something that he should have done but didn’t… Or something he shouldn’t have done but did anyway. CloQ was devious, but they had pointed Captain Sisko to them specifically, and they might need to take it as something more than just a trick.
Jovenan picked a PADD from Sisko’s table – she hoped he would forgive her – and opened the file that was on it. It was a crew complement, no, a list, a casualty list across the fleet for the previous week. It was long, too long for Jovenan’s liking. War. War was whatever was the nastiest place people believed in.
Jovenan: It’s 2374 again, not far off from the events on Romulus. ::looks at Sadar:: So it might not happen at all if we find what went wrong here.
Dakora/Silveira/Sadar: Response
CloQ: You have all the time in the world.
Jovenan looked at them briefly, standing there with their hands wide open, before lowering her gaze back into the PADDs. She chose a new one, different one, hoping that it might shed some more light on what they were supposed to find.
Jovenan: What are we even looking for? Senator Vreenak? Something about Romulans, or is it something even further back?
Dakora/Silveira/Sadar/CloQ: Response
Jovenan once more took a new PADD. They were in a mess. At least with the news articles from the computer interface on Betazed she knew what she should be finding, she knew something of history and how it was supposed to have been rolling. But considering CloQ allusions and the talk about victors writing history, Jovenan wasn’t too sure that she could spot an inconsistency. If there even was one.
Something on the PADD caught her eye. She raised an eyebrow.
Jovenan: Does any of you recognize the name Grathon Tolar? Sisko had negotiated him a pardon for death penalty and a release from a Klingon prison.
Dakora/Silveira/Sadar/CloQ: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant Jovenan
Chief Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11