Lt. Tahna Meru - Person-Shaped Butterfly Effects
Meru Tahna
((Echoes of the Past: Deck 1, USS Gorkon))
The officers stood in the hallway with its green, bloodied carpet. Their path forward was blocked by a group from this time. Commander Sevo was the only one dressed appropriately enough to distract them, so the others waited quietly for her signal around the corner.
Meru briefly wondered if it would be worth attempting a disguise for the rest of the journey. She could ditch the uniform jacket for her undershirt and tangle up her hair, but the clean dress white pants would be harder to deal with. If they did end up traveling forward in time again, they couldn’t necessarily change their look quickly enough to keep up. And none of that solved the problem of having an unfamiliar face. She leaned one shoulder against the wall and tried to listen in on the remainder of Sevo’s guard-distraction masterclass, though the officers were already moving away. When they could no longer hear the other group's chatter or footsteps, the trio rounded the corner.
Sevo: Whoooo.
Gnaxac: Imp-p-pressive ad-libbing, C-c-commander.
Reynolds: Indeed. Well done.
The redheaded Trill looked like she’d been punched in the gut, doubled over with her hands on her knees and a pained look on her face.
Tahna: Are you alright, Commander?
Sevo: I’m fine. It was just hard seeing them. Especially Lieutenant LaMarr. She doesn’t make it out of this.
Meru’s stomach dropped and her lips tightened into a thin line. LaMarr was a Bajoran name. Was she Meru’s age when she died? Had they shared the same dreams of the stars since childhood?
Gnaxac: D-d-do you know when?
Sevo: Or… she didn’t. She dies in a plasma fire in a Jefferies’ tube as she’s passing a damaged plasma relay that explodes. We only know because she was with two others who managed to pull her out of the tube, but it was too late. It couldn’t have been Frorr and Zhang and that tube—::she pointed to the opening in the wall::—could it? Did I just save her life?
Gnaxac: I hop-p-pe you did!
Reynolds: I’m afraid not. It happened on deck seven, and it was Nkai and Johns who pulled her out. ::She frowned, remembering a weary Kael Tam telling her of another death, his voice cracking with each word.:: They were trying to repair one of our internal communication relays when we went to warp, and the output shift of the drive blew out the damaged relay.
Tahna: Even if you had saved her now…who knows what effect that would have had on the future.
As sad as it was, her death couldn’t be avoided six years after. Maybe it would be harmless, but they had no way of knowing that.
Gnaxac: Response
Sevo: I wasn’t lying about the blockage in the turbolift. I remember doing the scan for a route from Stellar Cartography to the bridge. There’s a car stuck between Decks 12 and 13, offline and jammed by debris. I’m… not sure about the Jefferies’ tube, now.
Gnaxac dutifully lifted his tricorder and scanned the area, and Meru tried to ignore the haunting thoughts of the young, dead Bajoran she’d never met. The Ferengi’s tricorder dutifully chirped away.
Gnaxac: It’s unb-b-b-blocked, but there are a lot of ch-ch-chronitons down there. Who knows what ef-f-f-fect that could have?
Reynolds: If we’re right about the Kerla being the source, it would make sense for the chroniton concentration to increase as we get closer. : ::Her brow creased together in thought.:: Though I’m not sure what that means for our initial theory that the time disparity reduces as we move away from the shuttlebay. Things could be in a serious tangle.
Sevo: Response
Did it matter how messed up the shuttlebay was? As long as they had the Kerla pieces all in one place, shouldn’t they be able to use it to get home…somehow, no matter how destroyed it was? Though she supposed it could mean they’d have even less access to the technology they needed to get home.
Lieutenant Gnax tried to open the hatch, but it was pretty beat up. A corner had been warped, sealing it firmly to the opening. He pulled a micro-tool from his kit and attempted to leverage the hatch open.
Gnaxac: Little h-h-help?
The Admiral knelt next to him before anyone else had a chance to move, and with a few good thwacks of a hyperspanner, the hatch popped free.
Reynolds: There we go. ::She snorted a soft, sardonic laugh and passed the hyperspanner back to Gnaxac.:: Four years studying starship engineering at the Academy well spent.
Sevo/Gnaxac: Response
Meru let out a tiny huff of a laugh, on that was quickly swallowed up by the smoky, burnt, decomposing smell coming out of the Jefferies tube. It was dark and smelled foul. Meru would have preferred to stay in the bloodsoaked corridor, but there was no other way to their destination.
Reynolds: I forgot the smell. ::She grimaced..:: Let’s not linger too long in here.
She could agree with that. She’d just made it inside the tube when a red alert klaxon blared, echoing loudly through the tube. The noise had just barely preceded the ship throwing them to the side and into the wall paneling, the hit reigniting the injury in her numbed wrist and sending piercing pain radiating up her left arm. Meru groaned and steadied herself.
Sevo/Gnaxac: Response
Reynolds: Of course. ::She sighed out bleak amusement. Of course they hadn’t travelled to one of the Gorkon’s quieter moments.:: This is going to complicate matters.
Sevo/Gnaxac: Response
Who knew how long this firefight would last? Or whether they were losing time in the future with every delay?
Tahna: We can’t afford to wait it out, so we’ll have to be careful.
Sevo/Gnaxac/Reynolds: Response
Meru climbed using her left elbow as an extra support in place of her hand, the Jeffries tube shaking as it absorbed each incoming blast. The alarm still blared overhead, obnoxiously loud. She wondered if it was heralding any deaths (or, probably more accurately, how many deaths). If she died in this past, would her family ever know what happened to her? Her mother would have a whole new reason to hate her and Starfleet both, if that happened.
Tahna: Every mission gives me a new reason to hate and, simultaneously, be grateful for the Jeffries tubes.
Sevo/Gnaxac/Reynolds: Response
A larger blast shook the tube, knocking one of Meru’s feet off the ladder. She recovered, taking in a shaky breath, in time to hear the clattering above, growing louder over the sound of the red alert. She shielded her head with one arm and pressed flat against the wall.
Tahna: Look out!
Sevo/Gnaxac/Reynolds: Response