LCDR Nolen Hobart — Conduct Becoming Something (Part II)
Nolen Hobart
((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.
He stared at the Kressari with disbelief. What was there to fix? Sending them back wouldn’t change what they’d learned. What they’d heard. If what the Admiral told them was true, the only way to ensure that the “timeline” was unaltered would be to knowingly walk into their deaths. And if what they said was not true, then there were no temporal considerations at all.
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.
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.
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.
What were they doing? Why were they discussing this in front of the visitors? It was wholly improper, and belied a complete lack of concern for ship security. Questioning the command structure in front of civilians?
Hobart: ::raised voice:: Stabilize those tongues before I fetch the welder.
Shayne / Kael / Any: Response
Charles: Are you hiding four pips on those clothes of yours? I said Captain, not Kael.
Charles looked exasperatedly at Captain Shayne, and Hobart’s eyes flew wide, nearly rage-filled. But he was keeping it contained, and was content to let the Captain handle the situation. Or so he thought.
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
Charles: Kid, I will slap you back to the future myself.
This caused Hobart to burst out of his seat, nearly causing the chair to tumble over behind him. He’d heard enough, and this part of the meeting needed to end. Not because their visitors were disruptive to the crew, but because the crew seemed to have completely forgotten themselves. Was there a space fever of some kind? Some mass hypnosis that caused them to leave all inhibition behind? Whatever the cause, it was time to clean it up, and as XO it was his duty to get the mop.
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!
He waited for the doors to part, and when they did the pair of security crewmen that had escorted the visitors entered. Hobart’s jaw flexed as he decided who he wanted to sic them on. It took a solid six seconds of weighing the various options before he finally spoke again. He didn’t care how awkward the room felt.
Hobart: Please escort our guests back to their quarters. ::glaring directly at Lt. Matthews:: Not another word.
It was a slight breach of protocol. The Captain was there, and was perfectly capable of disciplining officers who stepped out of line. But Matthews was his direct report, and so his direct responsibility. He waited until the small gaggle of beings headed out. 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.
Hobart felt a weight lift off his shoulders as the doors closed behind them. For a moment, no one said anything. Nolen fixed his chair, and sat as the Captain resumed the meeting.
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.
Hobart’s nostrils flared. If she wanted to resign, he wasn’t going to stop her. He couldn’t stop anyone. But as far as he was concerned, she was putting the cart miles before the horse. They all were. Debating the nuances of the Temporal Prime Directive required believing that they were being manipulated into altering the “timeline,” whatever that was. For his own part, he bristled at the idea that they had no agency, that their part in the universe was already chiseled to stone. In that debate lay madness, because if it was so, this very meeting was already preordained.
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?
Nolen wanted to point out that the Lieutenant already done so, at length, but managed to curtail his tongue.
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.
Which, to Hobart’s mind, was all the more reason to do as they pleased with the information, and take whatever action they believed was justified, and take no action that wasn’t.
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.
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.
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
Nolen nodded, and turned his attention to Lieutenant Korras.
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.
END
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Lt. Commander Nolen Hobart
Executive Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3