Lt Cmdr. Avander Promontory: Receiving Reports
Avander Promontory
((Ready Room, Deck 1, USS Octavia E. Butler))
Avander was late for an appointment.
The hours since returning from the future had been packed with a flurry of activity and coordination. Avander was really missing having a command team that consisted of more than just himself. The ship was already on course towards the wormhole (and, eventually, retrieving Captain Rouiancet and Lieutenant Herrick) but he would still have at least a week of time before he could take a break.
Even still, he wouldn’t have been late for this appointment if it hadn’t been for the sudden appearance of his brother, Trake. The elder Promontory was now back aboard the Wyvern. Both their ships were heading towards a rendezvous with the USS Themis who apparently held the only currently authorized DTI employee in the quadrant. They would be under a bit of a communication embargo until then. Then, after her assessment, they might be recommended for additional potential interviews when they got to the Alpha Quadrant.
It was bringing Trake to meet Meander that had really caused the delay. Meeting his brother hadn’t been quite the reunion (or, rather, “union”) Avander had dreamed up and he hoped that the animal would do some of the heavy emotional lifting. It was probably a net positive, but Avander was still awash with conflicting emotions. Still, the duties of his role wouldn’t allow him a moment to linger longer.
A yeoman indicated Toxin was already waiting in the Ready Room. Avander breezed in, took the chair behind the desk and looked at Toxin.
He looked as weary as Avander felt.
Arlill: It's good to see you, Commander.
Promontory: (distractedly) Good to be seen! Now let me get the story. You showed up in a 300-year old shuttle. (confused) Did the shard pull it through to this time as well?
Avander began to wave his hands at “all this” that had been going on, then stopped. Toxin had requested this meeting and he should let the man lead out with whatever was on his mind.
Promontory: I'll save my questions for after your report. Go ahead!
Arlill: Well, we can start with those. Yes it’s a 300 year old shuttle… with modifications. (beat) ::elevated:: We need to place a authorized personnel order on that shuttle (beat) Authorized being only us. And, umm, what was the next que…. oh! No, I wasn’t pulled back by the shard… A regular debrief would probably make morse sense, if this mission made any sense at all. I have a lot to tell you, from your perspective, it's only been a few minutes, but from mine, it's been much longer. I need to request your discretion in what I'm about to tell you, I trust that's an option?
Avander’s curiosity was piqued. He himself had once had an experience where he had lived a few years of life without any time passing for his crewmates, but that, like so many things, was classified, and as much as he would love someone to talk to about it, he was bound to silence. However, Toxin’s request for discretion intrigued the former intelligence officer.
Promontory: Within certain bounds. (beat) I do have certain Federation mandated reporting duties, but anything short of that can stay between us, if you'd like.
Arlill: Obviously, and definitely understood. I plan to submit a mission report directly to the DTI myself. (beat) where was I (beat) Ah yes, the mission that you've just completed, rather we've just completed, may have only taken hours for the crew of the OEB, but I need to report that my role in this mission has been years. What I'm about to tell you can can impact the lives of so many if they found out, it's important that this remains a confidential report, at the very least, it must be kept from the crew.
Avander massaged his temple in a way that he hoped didn’t convey an oncoming headache.
Arlill: Well, after we encountered the Cultist on Luna, I was able to, well, let's just say, encourage him in the bomb he had taken into a nearby shuttle. I only had hopes that my team returned unscathed to the future. After leaving Luna in the shuttle, I was able to beam the bomb in the space and return to Luna with the cultist, but on my arrival I found my team had already returned to the future. The fragments were all gone, and my option to return to the future was limited. I’m an engineer at heart and knowing a lot about historic engineering, I had heard about these bio pods, rather cryogenics chambers that were often used in the late 22nd century. After about six months of searching, I located one such pod and was able to acquire it. I spent the next 242 years in stasis.
Promontory: You… frozen yourself for a quarter of a millennium?
It was, on the whole, not a bad solution to the problem, but one not without risks, especially if no one from the future knew what was going on with the pod.
Promontory: And that didn’t pose any difficulties?
Arlill: well, unfortunately, the cryogenic chambers were primitive at best, minus a few toes and an early awakening, I arrived to what would be the future relatively undamaged.
Avander waved his hand, he supposed it could have been worse. Still, there was something the bearded blue man had said earlier that was nagging at him.
Promontory: You said you were with one of the Loom fellows?
Arlill: Oh, the cultist, well apparently the DTI formed a lot earlier than we had expected, it was really the advanced investigations department of the newly formed Starfleet, but they were eager to hold our “friend” the Cultist. I'm not sure what happened to him, but I highly doubt there's much in the records that are easily discoverable.
Avander had spent a stint of time as a temporal agent with a division of the DTI. He was relatively familiar with their official founding in 2270, but also aware that they had predecessors.
Heck, for all he knew, a time quake had altered history so that they were formed a hundred and fifty years earlier!
Promontory: I trust DTI, they’re some of the most solid people in the Federation.
They had to be. Watching history unravel before your eyes could break lesser beings.
Promontory: So, you woke up recently and flew that little ship all the way out here?
Avander tried to read his friend’s face. It was inscrutable, but something suggested there was more to the story.
Promontory: Is that what happened next?
Arlill: what happened next, well having woken up in 2397 I obviously had the obligation of preventing any further damage to the timeline… But I already knew things happened in our timeline that were unexplainable, that I kind of figured out were more explainable than we expected.
Avander didn’t think he liked where this might be heading.
Promontory: Such as?
Arlill: Response
Promontory: You’re kidding!
Arlill: Response
Promontory: That sounds like a big risk.
For someone who claimed to not want to risk the timeline, Toxin seemed to have been playing with a bit of fire.
Arlill: Response
((OOC: If the next few parts of this are flashbacks, I’m fine to let them role and then come back to Avander tags for the conclusion!))
Tags! / TBC…
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