Lt. Gnaxac - Step in Time
Elliot Huxtable
(( Deck 15, Shuttlebay 2 - USS Gorkon, Sometime in the past ))
Gnaxac looked from the Captain to Sevo to the Captain again.
Then back to Ayiana.
He was so confused. Time travel hurt his head.
Gnaxac: D-d-do you remember meeting f-f-f-future versions of yourselves? Or is this an alt-t-ter the timeline deal?
Reynolds: I’m not sure it’s either. We were on the opposite side of the galaxy, in a different universe, when this happened. Space-time isn’t so easily untangled, especially when it’s across realities. This seems more like a temporal echo—::she gestured toward the Trill::—hence the inconsistent effects.
Sevo: Th-that makes sense.
Tahna: Right. The Kerla was the catalyst, and it’s gone, so how do we get back to our time?
Reynolds: Echoes fade once you stop making the sound. So if the Kerla is still the locus of this event, we need to silence it. The question is whether we need to work with the Kerla was—::she gestured toward the empty spot on the deck::—or where it is in this echo.
Sevo: Th-that would make sense. A t-time ripple would need an anchor.
Gnaxac noticed that Sevo had developed a stutter too - clearly she was nervous too. He gave her a sympathetic smile. However, it might have just looked like he had a toothache.
Gnaxac: T-t-this echo? You th-th-think there might be more than one?
Reynolds: I don’t know. Maybe the whole ship is affected. Or only parts of it. Or different parts of it might be experiencing different echoes.
Sevo: That would be interesting, and confusing.
Gnaxac: I am b-b-both interested and c-c-confused.
Tahna: Where should the Kerla be in this echo, if the whole ship is on the same page?
Sevo: I don’t know how far into our… um… “visit” we are. After a few months, all our shuttles were out of commission or destroyed. So it’s probably in pieces in the main shuttlebay.
Gnaxac watched as Tahna and Sevo bounced off each other - it was masterful watching two clever people at work. Much like a match of sportsball, it was very riveting.
Reynolds: Response
Tahna: If we knew why the Kerla was the catalyst then we might have a better idea which version we need to work with to get back. If it caused this because of something that happened to it on the planet, then this location would make more sense. That variable wouldn’t have occurred in this echo.
Sevo: If the shuttle is the “anchor” for the displacement, rather than a point in space, the loci would follow the location of the shuttle. Like I said, our best bet is the main shuttlebay. :: She did a quick scan of the space where it had been.:: The focal point is definitely not here anymore. Chroniton and tetryon readings are declining rapidly.
Gnaxac: Od-d-d-d that there’s both chroniton and tet-t-tryons, no?
Reynolds: Response
Tahna: What if we modified a chroniton field to stop the echo?
Sevo: Could it be that easy? We’d need the correct temporal variance and frequency, I think. And this is assuming it’s one uniform time across the ship.
Gnaxac shrugged - they could but try; it either worked in which case whoop-de-freaking-do, or it didn’t, in which case they’d only wasted time. Time, which it seemed, they had in abundance.
Gnaxac: W-w-would it bring us all back? The whole sh-sh-sh-ship?
Reynolds: Response
Sevo: There’s no way to know until we get out there. If it is like a “wave,” it would decrease in strength the farther from the source it is. If the Kerla is indeed the anchor, and it’s still in the Main Shuttlebay, then there might be areas at the extreme for and aft of the ship that are back in our time. Everywhere else could be different times dependent on the amplitude of the “time wave”.
Gnaxac: An interesting hyp-p-p-othesis. C-c-could be that we are also t-t-the furthest back in t-t-time. The next corridor c-c-c-ould only be five years ago. Then f-f-four. Then three… My lob-b-bes hurt.
As if to demonstrate, he touched one lobe and let out a little squeal of pain as his fingers touched blood.
Reynolds/Tahna: Response
Sevo: Trust me, it’s making my head dizzy, too. Or maybe that’s a concussion. Jury’s out. :: She patted her head. :: Anyway, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do from in here.
Gnaxac nodded and gestured with one hand, whilst the other wiped the blood from it.
Gnaxac: L-l-lead the way.
Reynolds/Sevo/Tahna: Response
Gnaxac followed the group into the corridor and looked around, peering intently at the damage.
Gnaxac: It is me, or d-d-does it look less b-b-bad out here?
Reynolds/Sevo/Tahna: Response
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Lieutenant Gnaxac
Engineer
USS Gorkon
G239502GS0