Lt A.Dewitt & MSNPC Kael Ohnari-Dewitt- All Futures Lost Part 2
Emma Banin
((Conference Room, Deck 1, USS Khitomer))
The conference room was crowded and the crescendo of completing emotions and voices both audible and emotional were growing stronger. Her disagreement with the Doctor had been postponed with a degree of apathy partially forged by both sides’ intransigence and partially by the constraints of time.
The Doctor had only allowed a respite from further treatment in the promise of Ayemet’s return to sickbay, and as she sat there nursing her arm where the hypospray had found its’ mark and trying to sort out the competing voices around her she considered that the Doctor might have had a point.
She looked at Connor not saying anything, merely glaring at him. It made no sense to do so. Nobody but their visitors knew the history of why they’d were here but what she had felt on the Bridge, Connor’s presence now made more sense. It wasn’t Connor she was feeling. It was the Kael person, apparently Connor’s child from the future. Not hers though. Not hers.
Hobart: How long until we reach Deep Space 33, Lieutenant Korras?
Korras: Response
Hobart: No lingering effects on the ship?
Connor: Aside from the collective existential crisis? Nothing on sensors. The SDA’s prepared, Ensign Banks and I are going to operate it, if it becomes
She was about to report about her reaction to the Ouachita's reappearance but that would come soon enough. For the moment others were more concerned with any lingering effects from the Nebula.
Banks: Response
Michaels: Between the efforts of Science :: nodding toward both El'Heem and Semara :: and Engineering, the ship is ready.
Hobart: Any insight as to where the runabout came from, yet?
Ayemet: o0 The future. The only rational explanation0o
She sat in the room, every now and then glancing at Connor and Talia. She knew it was unprofessional and not helpful. whatever the truth behind these three people’s appearance they were here now. They had to be dealt with. Sent back to the future. Changing the past, meddling with time was a slippery slope and given how most of their missions went she had no inclination to be on that slide into chaos.
Semara / Richard: Response
El’Heem: Well ::pausing:: Yeah. Yeah…forty years into ::lifting his hands palms up and dropping them onto the table:: the future.
Ayemet almost threw her hands into the air in a gesture of ‘I told you so’ but the truth was that it was not now, nor indeed ever, a time for petulance. She was she realised feeling a flood of emotions over their visitors, of what it meant for her future, for what it indicated about her and Connor’s marriage. To mix these feelings in with a mission briefing and decisions made on the basis of what they all had to say would be building a house on unstable foundations. That would have been a disservice to all who served onboard the Khitomer.
Michaels: Perhaps not necessarily our future.
Hobart: And, how's everybody feeling?
Feeling? What a question.
Ayemet: : looking at Michaels: They are from the future. They’re here to disrupt the timeline. That presence I felt in the bridge. It wasn’t Commander Dewitt :unable to make eye contact with him: It was his child, Oh and I’m feeling great, never better. Why else would they be here?
Ohnari / Harford : Response
Hobart: Any… threats?
Charles / Zerva: Response
The doors to the conference room opened with an immensely satisfying swoosh. Kael marvelled at how well everything worked, how clean everything was. Their hosts had not been neither rude nor belligerent, but once the decision had been made by the one called Hobart they had also not been at all flexible in allowing Kael, Tori and the Admiral any leeway in doing anything other than washing themselves and then staying in the quarters until they were called to see Captain Shayne.
He couldn’t blame them, not really, and yet he felt a deep burning resentment towards them. It didn’t make sense, and he knew his parents would not approve, although his mother would be more forgiving than his father. Once again he glanced at Tori, and took a deep breath. There was simply too much at stake to put the mission in jeopardy due to errant behaviour from him.
Hobart: Oh, thank goodness. All present and accounted for, sir.
Kael: I hope you’ll hear us out Captain Shayne.
Admiral: He wouldn't have brought us here otherwise, Kael.
Shayne / Tori:Response
The Admiral sat in between Kael and Tori, a short blonde woman sat opposite him, eyeing him with a strange look on her face. He looked back at her a questioning look upon his face, to which she didn’t respond but to turn to his father on her left and giving him the same strange look.
Kael: :indicating Ayemet: What’s her problem?
Ayemet looked directly at the young man. He had Connor’s eyes. For a moment her heart broke. Connor’s child, Connor’s future; not hers. She was resenting the man before her and that wasn’t fair, and that was not helpful. Luckily future Lacy interrupted her train of thought.
Admiral: She's not your mother. Let's focus.
Ayemet:Looking at the Admiral: Why are you here? Why the hostility?
Hobart/ Shayne / Tori/Any: Response
Kael looked at the table and then raised his head. He had to control his temper which was born from stress at wanting Tori to succeed because it meant so much to her, but being fearful of what it might mean if they did.
Kael: My apologies :pause: We’ve been through alot, and it’s important that you listen to us. That you give us a fair hearing.
Admiral: We are your legacy. I'm Imogen Lacy, who you all call “Ginny.” Forty years from now, give or take, nobody does that anymore. This is Tori Semara, my best science expert, carrying on the work of her mother, Amelia. This is Kael Ohnari-Dewitt, our… technical specialist. ::clears throat:: We've come to hold back the tide in the war against the Alliance.
Ayemet: Not your responsibility. You can’t just go around changing history to a version that suits you.
It was a terse response, and uncalled for. Ginny Lacy, the young Ginny Lacy had once almost paralysed her for life, and she was with the child of her husband and best friend, a calculated move no doubt. It didn’t sit well with her, but she didn’t know the full story. She didn’t know the facts. But she had tasted the wrath of the Sheliak. She had experienced how they treated their enemy, and in that instant she understood their motivation a little better.
Ayemet: :More sympathetically: I know something of the Sheliak, but what will happen will happen. WE can’t change history to our liking. How many misguided people have tried to do that?
Hobart/Shayne /Tori/Any:Response
Dewitt: ::at Tori:: Have we lost the Isles?
Kael looked at the Starfleet officers before him. They were here to change history, that was true, but these people hadn’t experienced what they had. Here they were debating the issue like it was some sort of moral debating society, and not their actual lived lives.
Tori: Response
Any: Response
Kael: Captain It’s not just the Isles. That’s just the starting point of what happens. The Admiral and Tori :pause: They have a plan that could change all of that.
This was the beginning, Ayemet thought to herself, this was where these visitors would attempt to change the timeline. She shook her head ever so slightly in disbelief, They had already gone to a lot of trouble to catch their attention which to Ayemet meant that they were desperate or fanatical or possibly both.
Admiral: The Lattice Alliance was, at this moment, losing. It may not feel like it to you, but they are. They were spread too thin, and cracks were forming. I saw classified reports that units were beginning to turn on each other. That's why, a week from now, they're going to raid a POW camp on Alpha Trionus II.
Ayemet: To what purpose?
Any: Response
Admiral: They used overwhelming force, and it took six months before Starfleet figured out where they launched from. No survivors, orbital defenses completely destroyed. High ranking military official was the target, but that wasn't what mattered.
Ayemet looked at the Captain and back at the trio that sat before them. She did not like where those was going. The queasiness she felt in the pit of her stomach mixed with her feelings towards the man who was Connor’s son, and what his existence meant to her future, was a potent combination and she let out a small bitter laugh.
Ayemet: You can’t be serious.
Any: Response
Dewitt: What matters then, Ens… Gin… ::quietly:: Admiral?
Kael looked to the Admiral. The woman had been forged by the war. He admired her. Admired her perseverance, her ability to remain calm whilst he would capitulate to his impatience and short temper.
Then there was Tori. It was all for Tori. Even if he held secret doubts as to whether this would all work, she did not, and as long as he breathed he would follow her.
Admiral: A lowly quartermaster, a Tholian. Captured at the Siege of DS33, he proved to be a… unifying and stabilizing figure. Eventually, Supreme Leader. Unified the alliance, and conquered the Quadrant within a decade.
His Father turned to look at him and Kael offered a small smile back. It was a strange sensation seeing his Dad so young, so full of life, but he did not know why the short blonde woman kept looking at him with such a strange look in her face. Almost as if she resented him in some way.
El’Heem: Great man theory? You want us to kill baby Hitler?
Michaels: History is full of examples where a single strong leader dies and another rises up to take their place.
Connor listened quietly.
Any: Response
Ayemet : Hitler was a 20th century dictator who was the leader of Germany on Earth. The war against him cost millions of lives.
She turned back to face the trio, and she began to wonder just why the three people before her were there, and not the Captain, or indeed herself. Were they still alive in that timeline?
El’Heem: What made ::pausing:: uhh makes this…Tholian so formidable?
Any: Response
Michaels: I have a question. ::beat:: A two part question. ::beat:: I confess that I do not understand the equations and engineering around time travel or inter-multiverse travel. I will concede that your version of the Ouchita is capable of both. You could have travelled to anywhere in space and time. Why did you pick this place, in a nebula that makes detection difficult, and this time? If the quartermaster is the critical individual, why not travel to DS33 during the seige, where there were numerous dead Tholians, and kill him there?
Kael smiled at Michaels. A smile that unlike the one he directed at his Father, was devoid of warmth. It was the smile of someone becoming increasingly frustrated at all the talking and lack of action. It was a perfectly reasonable question, in fact rhetorical sort of question he would have asked in different circumstances, but he was still exasperated at al the questions.
Kael: Traveling through time ain't like dusting crops! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova, and that'd end our trip real quick, wouldn't it?".
Tori/Admiral: Response
Connor: So what is the exact plan, then, Ginny?
Admiral: Response
Ayemet leant forward . She looked closely at Ginny. She had never taken the time to get to truly know the woman, their shared history being something of a block to her trusting her enough to make the effort, but her husband had befriended her, and given her rank she had obviously been an exemplary officer of sorts. Perhaps she would listen to reason.
Ayemet: Admiral, I’ve had my taste of the Lattice Alliance hospitality :pause and then speaking slowly: But you can’t seriously think that by killing this individual it will somehow change everything for the better? You’ve no idea the effects their death might have.
Admiral/Tori/Any: Response.
Ayemet: You expect us to help you? Why would we do that?
Admiral/Tori/Any: Response.
TAG/TBC
MSNPC Kael Ohnari-Dewitt simmed by
Lieutenant Ayemet Dewitt
Ship Counselor
USS Khitomer
NCC 62400
A239810JA2Q