LtCmdr Connor Dewitt - Quiet (Part II)

[Tim]

((Conference Room, Deck 1, en route to Deep Space 33))

Zerva: I don’t mean to beat upon a dead horse here ::to the three:: You took a lot of risks coming here to tell us all of that to us. As was pointed out before, what if this leads us to a time paradox? One we are forced to repeat. One where the very actions of being here started this whole thing? There are many examples among the dozens of logs from other starships that this very thing has happened before.

Charles: The Temporal Prime Directive has already been violated six ways to Sunday. ::glares at the interlopers:: Whether or not we believe them, or trust their motives, the cat is out of the bag now.

El’Heem: The Lieutenant is right. Whatever they think the Hobart Hole can do with temporal anomalies, I am skeptical. There is no scenario where I believe the intent of these…butterflies who wish to flap their wings and change the course of history, will matter. Lieutenant Zerva is doubly right, in that their arrival assures the future they intend to prevent. We can still fix this by sending them back to the future.

Connor frowned. Fix it? Or cement desaster? He was not sure what the right call of action was. His thoughts trailed off to the temporal prime directive. All Starfleet personnel were strictly forbidden from directly interfering with historical events and were required to maintain the timeline and prevent history from being altered. The directive also restricted people from revealing too much about the future so as not to cause paradoxes or alter the timeline.

It was written from the perspective of the time traveler. He never wondered about the implications for somebody in his position.

Hobart: You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be, Lieutenant. I can’t order you to avoid your death, but I promise I won’t order you knowingly to it without a damned good reason. Make of that what you will.

Zerva: I would rather not know my own fate in your timeline, thank you.

Korras: Nor would I. It is not relevant, either way. However, I believe we need as much tactical information as we can get.

Something in the room broke, silently, and Nolen felt the rupture in his heart. He felt something rupture in the Admiral’s, too, and as Lieutenant Matthews spoke up, he searched her face. Disgust, and disenchantment were written plainly behind the creases time had supplied her.

Charles: Captain? With respect, I think this briefing should end, Sir. We need time to evaluate the information we have been given and discuss the ramifications for our own, present timeline, crew members.

Connor looked to Shayne, wondering what direction the Captain would take now that the cracks had fully split the room.

Shayne / Any: Response

Charles: We need to discuss it, for us, for Starfleet now. Not for them, Captain, and I feel having all three of them here is an unstable element in a risky and unpredictable situation. I hate to have to point it out but several of your higher ranking staff are… coming across as emotionally compromised.

Connor blinked at the word "compromised." It stuck like a burr. His mind immediately shifted to Talia. To Ayemet. To Kael. Maybe they were compromised. Maybe he was. Maybe they were the only ones seeing this clearly.

Harford: To that end, Sir, I would like to review and possibly redo some of the scans taken upon their arrival. ::looks at Ohnari almost apologetically:: I don’t want to call anyone’s professionalism into question, Sir, but I do think a member of the Medical team who has not just met their son should be given the chance to confirm Doctor Ohnari’s assessment.

El’Heem: I concur with Doctor Harford’s assement. There is emotional entanglement that cannot be overlooked, and have suspicions of it being a result of temporal interaction between linked individuals, rather than genuine emotional attachment.

Connor flinched as if slapped. Guilt tangled with anger. This wasn't just about professionalism anymore. They were talking about his life—his family—as if it were a contaminant.

Hobart: ::raised voice:: Stabilize those tongues before I fetch the welder.

Connor didn’t move looking towards Shayne as if he expected a reaction.

Shayne / Kael / Any: Response

Charles: Are you hiding four pips on those clothes of yours? I said Captain, not Kael.

Connor’s gaze flicked to Kael. He could feel the tension radiating from his… son. The word still made his chest ache.

Charles: You can’t be considering this so-called… plan, Sir? It’s embarrassing that this is the best they could come up with.

Kael: Response

Connor didn’t breathe.

Charles: Kid, I will slap you back to the future myself.

The Chief Engineer stood halfway up from his chair.

Korras: ::in a tone that indicated no room for discussion:: There will be no slapping here today. Save your energy for the Lattice Alliance.

Hobart: ::yelling:: Enough! Security!

Connor sank back down, tension still radiating from his shoulders. It only took seconds before a pair of crewmen showed up to show their visitors out.

Hobart: Please escort our guests back to their quarters. ::glaring directly at Lt. Matthews:: Not another word.

Connor’s eyes didn’t leave Kael as the trio stood. As the Admiral passed him, she paused. She seemed almost dazed, lost in thought.

Admiral: ::looking around the room:: I never realized that… all of that was what happened in these meetings back then. I think I might have made a mistake. I may have overestimated you all.

It was a knife to the gut, and the silence it left behind was thick and unyielding. Connor stared down at his hands, trying not to be annoyed. Discussions like this were one of their strengths. Not a weakness. He realized they might be a luxury somebody like Admiral Ginny would not have anymore. But hey did.

Shayne: Response

Harford: Captain, if I may? ::pause:: Lieutenant Matthews isn’t wrong, Sir. Surely there is an alternative. Please give us, your crew, the chance to find one. I have to believe that you wouldn’t have gathered us all around this table if you weren’t looking for solutions and an open discussion.

Nolen’s dark eyes fixed on Dr. Harford. He wasn’t wrong? He’d just threatened a civilian with entirely unjustified violence, immediately after openly challenging the Captain’s authority and the senior staff’s competence. He wasn’t wrong? In every way that mattered to the XO, Lieutenant Matthews was exactly, precisely, and 100% completely inverted to “right.”

Shayne: Response

Harford: From what we’ve just been told, Starfleet was unaware and taken by surprise. That means that just giving us this information has already altered things. We have the chance to get ahead of whatever is coming and with an advantage that we didn’t have before. Which means that it is no longer certain that things will turn out the way they did for your future.

Korras: Indeed, we know what is going to happen, and we can prevent it.

Hobart: We think we know. All we have is the word of three people who convincingly appear to be time travelers. What we lack is substantial corroborating evidence of their story.

Any: Response

Harford: I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that I cannot condone mass murder. I took an oath to do no harm, and at the end of it all, I am a Doctor first. I won’t be a part of it. I’ll stay in Sickbay, I’ll patch you up, but if their plan is the one we're going with, I’d rather turn in my pips.

Connor’s gaze flicked to Harford, and for a second, he felt the stirrings of guilt again. She was right. They could not condone mass murder. No matter what it would mean for the future. For him. For Ayemet. For Kael.

Korras: I know Klingons as a race are not known for their.. philosophic tendencies. However, over time, there have been some musings about fixed points in history, or in the future, depending on your perspective, that are unavoidable, and have an impact on history. It is often the place where time travelers play a part. Earth, for example, when Kirk brought whales back, on a Klingon vessel. ::he paused briefly:: The theory is that the event is going to happen, no matter what. The outcome, however, can be changed. They call it a Shatterpoint, a point where the future can change to a different path. Like how a window can break, but it will never break the same way twice. It would seem we are dealing with a similar situation here.

El’Heem: Captain, permission to share my thoughts on the matter?

Connor looked to Ras.

Shayne: Response

El’Heem: ::looking around the room:: The moment we were told of these events, we became participants.  The observer effect is real. Simply knowing this information has already altered the outcome. Any attempt to intervene now is not prevention, it is interference.

Connor kept his expression neutral, but the word "interference" rang hollow. Hadn’t Starfleet always interfered, when it mattered? Hadn’t they always tried to prevent calamity where they were able to anticipate it?

Any: Response

El’Heem: The temptation to treat this situation as fixed ::beat:: as if the timeline is a rail we can divert whenever we feel like it even if the situation is so dire it feels like it calls for it, is… ::pause:: hubris on a cosmic scale. We do ot have the foresight to account for the countless variables we would influence. Billions of lives across space and time, perhaps millennia into the future, will be directly affected by any action we take here today. There is no way to guarantee that what we think is “better” won’t cascade into something far worse. Who are we to prioritize our lives over there’s? ::lifting his hand to point vaguely in a random direction::

Hobart: But that’s a fact, Lieutenant, and it always has been. If we never encountered these time travelers, it would still be a fact. This is the future we’re talking about. We can never know the full impact of any of our actions. And assuming for a second that this… forecast we’ve been handed is accurate, we would be idiots to blunder down some other path because we believe it is preordained.

Connor agreed with Nolen on this one. Mostly… Minus the idiots part.

Any: Response

El’Heem: Even if the wormhole used by these travelers is an anomly, if it’s some kind of exception to typical temporal constraints, which, like I’ve already said, I do not think is, it does not grant us moral license. The timeline is already fragile and out duty as Starfleet officers, as sentient beings, really, is to avoid tipping that balance further. Captain, I will not take part in premeditated slaughter, and as a former doctor, it goes against the very oath I took when I joined Starfleet. If I am forced to do, I am doing so under duress.

He looked to Shayne. He was sure they needed to do something. He was sure it was not mass murder. But they needed guidance on this one.

Hobart: Nobody’s ordering you to do anything except your job, Lieutenant. ::to Shayne:: Sir, I propose we investigate. Have our science team explore the theoretical impacts of the Hoba— the anomaly. I suggest we alter course to Alpha Trionus, see if there really is a POW camp there, and what it holds.

Shayne: Response

Hobart: Lieutenant, you have your orders. I assume you still want your pips, or do I have to make the course adjustment myself?

Korras: Response

Hobart: Good. ::to the room:: Dismissed. Lieutenant Matthews? My ready room.

Connor rose from his chair with more effort than he meant to show, his movements sluggish as if gravity had doubled. His head felt overstuffed. jammed with spiraling thoughts, conflicting loyalties, and the ache of a future that might already be carved in stone. He rubbed the back of his neck and for a moment he stood frozen, unsure of where to go. Every instinct told him to retreat somewhere quiet, away from eyes and expectations. He didn’t feel fit to lead a department, let alone make decisions with lives hanging in the balance. For a second he wondered who of his colleagues and friends did.

TAG/END

LtCmdr Connor Dewitt

Chief Engineer & Second Officer

USS Khitomer

A239901CD3