Lieutenant JG Anton Richards: Time Police or Time Predator?
nascidgaming
((3 hours, 4 Minutes of air remaining, time paused))
Richards: Now what?
Greaves: Still no word from the Thor, but the Tigris has her hands full out there (motioning upwards to ceiling). Apparently time is just as broken for them as us. A pair of old ships just appeared and that team is busy with them.
Richards: Well that doesn’t sound good…
Still no word from the Thor. It was taking much longer than Anton had expected.
An alarm sounded off, not overly loud, but still insistent. Everyone turned toward the sound, but it was Peri who interpreted the meaning.
Katsim: There’s a readout here…
Richards: What kind of readout?
Greaves: Only good things I'm sure.
While Wes was back to cracking jokes, which gave Anton a brief feeling to relief, although it was very short lived.
Katsim: A life form. A big one. But...outside the ship.
A lifeform? This mission was starting to get dangerous. Anton was under the impression that they were only dealing with an ancient civilization at an ancient time.
Greaves: Yeah, the Tigris said something about that, but I didn't really understand what they were talking about.
Richards: That doesn’t sound good.
Katsim: I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s huge. And I’m reading more levels of chronitons and anti-chronitons surrounding it. ::She paused, then added.:: And us.
Richards: So it’s a time traveling ship.
Lieutenant Reid had said she couldn't confirm the source of the temporal anomolies, but maybe they could. Afterall, a ship of this size must have advanced sensors. If they were online, maybe they could collect more data than the Tigris could.
Greaves: What's the particle density like around the.... thing? Could it be the source of all of these jumps?
The XO watched the scientist fiddle with the controls, but after only a second, she replied.
Katsim: I can’t tell.
Richards: It would be pretty coincidental if it wasn’t related in the slightest.
The team struggled to make sense out of the readings.
Greaves: This sensor output is horrible. Is there any way to tie into the ship's sensor arrays better?
Katsim: I can try.
Richards: ::Nodding::
He wasn’t sure exactly how Peri had intended on doing this. But with more and more access to the ship's computer, and the language it was written in. Anton imagined that things would only start to get easier.
Greaves: Then let's do that.
Wes briefly left the pair to attempt to access the sensors.
Katsim: I think...I think that's done it.
A moment later, more information lit up the screen and poured down over it. It was too much to read all at once, especially with the need for the translation. What normally would have populated immediatly first showed up in alien script, and then as the tricorder interfacing translated, the words would morph to the translated version. It slowed everything down.
Richards: All I'm getting is partially translated words and symbols again.
Greaves: Same here. The computer might as well have left it untranslated. What's it mean?
Katsim: It’s...it’s definitely thicker there. More particles, more active.
Peri’s fingers continued to move over the console, guiding the tricroder, and then she shook her head.
Katsim: From what I can tell, I don’t think it’s the *cause* of the chronitons and antichronitons. But...from what I’m seeing, I have a theory.
Richards: Hopefully the theory doesn’t involve. “Time Police”.
Maybe Anton hadn’t set off those explosions after all.
Greaves: Don't keep us in suspense. Spill.
His friend continued to stare down at the data, clearly lost in throught, and Wes was about to prod her again when she finally answered.
Katsim: Verterons are often present in wormholes. I’m wondering if, somehow, it got stuck. If the wormhole was located near a naturally occurring chroniton field…
Wes glanced to Anton as Peri's voice trailed off and she began typing quickly back into the console. From his side of the table, the Marine could see her flipping through different sensor filters and new data populated quickly before she moved. Raising an eyebrow and giving Anton another curious side eye, he watched the woman freeze.
Greaves: Figure something out?
Anton looked at Peri’s face. She was putting something together.
Richards: I knew it. I shouldn’t have given that kid the gummy worms. Stupid Anton.
Looking up, Peri licked her lips, then asked softly.
Katsim: If there was a battle here...if people died...where are all the bodies? Where did everyone go?
The Marine glanced left and right, looking at the compartment again. The thought had occurred to him earlier in the mission, but he'd kept it to himself, expecting to find remains eventually. Now that Peri brought it up again, he realized that through all of their exploration, they'd not found any organic remains.
Greaves: Maybe the Proud Mary was only disabled. They might have evacuated the ship? It's still fairly intact.
Richards: That would explain the hustle and bustle. We know that the ship was damaged, and there were injuries.
He nodded. It was a reasonable idea as well.
Greaves: Did you have another theory?
Katsim: Response
Richards: Maybe they encountered the same issue we are, maybe we are trapped here forever. In our own little separate version of reality.
He hadn't considered that, but he instead spun the conversation back to Peri's initial theory.
Greaves: Okay, so the idea is that the creature might have gotten stuck in a wormhole near a chroniton field? If it's stuck, then it has to have had a way to sustain itself, right? How does it get energy? Some form of photosynthesis? I can't imagine it could survive stationary if it has to hunt.
Katsim: Response.
Creature… Hunt… Photosynthesis???
Anton was not liking the sound of this.
Richards: But how do we fit into the mix? Unless…
Unless they were about to be eaten by a time manipulating creature. Anton went a shade more pale, and turned towards his fellow prey.
Greaves: Alternate theory. (pause) And tell me if I'm way off base here, but what if it moves via wormhole manipulation, hence the verterons, and what if it hunts via time manipulation, hence the chronitons and antichronitons. Appearing out of nowhere then snagging prey from a dangerous time to bring it to someplace safe would make for one mean predator.
Richards: That would explain the lack of bodies, but still doesn’t explain what they would want from us. We weren’t in a particularly life threatening situation… or maybe he’s had to adjust his hunting practices.
Katsim/Greaves: Response ?
Richards: We might want to let the Tigris know that they could be potential prey, or that we could be potential prey.
Katsim/Greaves: Response?
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Lieutenant JG Anton Richards
Security Officer
USS Thor
T239802AR1