Jhalib Ekal, "The Ekal timeline."

[Deliera Jay]

((Sickbay))

::Contrary to his partner's opinion, Ayden Blake did actually listen to the orders of his doctors when he needed to. Aside from having seduced Merce out of being his doctor, going off on long trips between planets, time traveling, and walking into active Tholian conflict zones with little more than a site-to-site transporter (all against medical advice), he had no idea how he'd given Merce that impression.::

::It'd taken an hour or two, but he was back within reasonable physical conditions thanks to DeVeau and del Vedova's efforts - he wasn't about to go on any long walks, though. Showered, clean, in newly replicated clothing, and significantly warmer than he had been before, Jhalib found himself with a bowl of some kind of bland but nutritious food that he was shoveling into his mouth but chewing slowly, staring at an empty holoboard being projected up onto a Sickbay bulkhead.::

::He was working out just how far back this temporal anomaly goes, but to do that, he had to compare notes with those native of this time. He pointed at the current date, bowl still in hand.::

Ekal: This is today's stardate, correct?

DeVeau/del Vedova: Response?

Ekal: Okay. In order to work out exactly where our times have split, we have to look at as many fixed events as possible. For example, the Federation was founded in 2161, right?

G'var: Response?

::On the top right, left hand side of the board, he wrote "UFOP 2161" in his taught Betazoid dialect. Apparently they were all in agreement that this was when the Federation was formed - though the only reason he'd imagine this having changed was if Sphere Builders managed to screw with it during this short time he's been AWOL from the Temporal Integrity Commission.::

Ekal: Something more recent, then . . . ::He thought for a moment.:: Hobus supernova?

del Vedova: Response?

::He drew a horizontal line, writing Hobus and it's corresponding date. They all could agree on that, too. So between the Federation's founding to the supernova, nothing (or nothing major, at least) has changed.::

Ekal: So the change was more local, then. ::He huffed.:: When did Captain Rahman take command?

DeVeau: Response?

::Two years ago, today, exactly. He added "Veritas/Cpt Rahman 239311.16" to the board.::

Ekal: And Kallo Ver claimed to find his fortune at around 239505. The Veritas was involved in that, right?

::His mother, back in the corner of the room leaning against the bulkhead with her arms crossed, gave a mildly irritated answer - as if the mere mention of Kallo in particular was of great personal annoyance to her.::

Blake: Unfortunately.

::He stepped back from having written "Kallo" and that corresponding date following another horizontal line, and rubbed at his temple, a headache still lingering but not as bad as it had been before.::

Ekal: I've been the only one from the Commission traveling around the Veritas up to this point. I've documented every single adjustment to the time period that has been made and calculated around that accordingly. Those changes have already been made and set - so I don't understand why the ship is now missing Chythar Skyfire, someone that was meant to be here on this stardate.

Rahman/Delano: Response?

::He turned immediately at the sound of the foreign voices, placing a bowl onto a straight surface.::

Ekal: To the Montreal? What do you mean, they went to the Montreal?

Rahman: Response?

::He glanced back at the board, the answer to his earlier, confused questions suddenly there. This was an adjustment he'd made *months* ago, having snuck into Joseph Washington's office to push forward orders he already had ready to go, adding "urgent" to them, and sent them off to the Veritas to get them to Havley's Hope maybe a week earlier. It had *finally* taken after months of being in limbo, but not in the way he'd expected. And it was responsible for his temporal dysphoria.::

::He added "Washington's office" after "Kallo", drew another horizontal line next to it and a diagonal one underneath it, labeling the top "Ekal" and the bottom "Montreal". He'd have to add more to it later.::

Rahman: Response?

::To the point, then.::

Ekal: I come from 2491, where there is an institution employed by Starfleet to make minute adjustments to the past in an effort to better our present - we're a civilian agency called the Temporal Integrity Commission.

Rahman/Delano/DeVeau/del Vedova/G'var: Response?

Ekal: It'd take to long to explain the exact state of affairs. Sufficed to say . . . it's not good. Which is why Starfleet is indirectly responsible for our being. Initially the TIC was created to combat a race known as the Sphere Builders, but the longer time went by, the worse our situation with the Tholians became. So the TIC was asked to hopefully change history, just a little, to lessen that extent.

Rahman/Delano/DeVeau/del Vedova/G'var: Response?

Ekal: After restoring your memories, I returned to my native time to report back to the Commission's chief of operations - she dismissed me from the Commission, despite us still waiting on a potential change to the timeline, and spoke of a final plan.

Rahman/Delano: Response?

::He looked away for a brief moment, formulating his answer.::

Ekal: The Veritas was at the initial event that caused the Tholian conflicts I live with in my time. The idea was to push certain aspects in a different direct - maybe to change the course of the conflict you have with them. I'm responsible for most of these changes - small things that might not seem large overall. Helping a civilian ship get a sensor upgrade on schedule, for example. But one thing that we were never supposed to resort to was destroying a ship, or saving it from it's eventual fate.

Rahman/Delano/DeVeau/del Vedova/G'var: Response?

::He looked down, glancing up at the six Starfleet officers in the room with him. Of those six, only five would make it out of this conflict alive.

::There was only one way of them taking his claims seriously - and that was telling the truth of what happened to the best of his abilities. Even if it was less than positive news.::

Ekal: Soon the Veritas will approach the Tholian border. For reasons I'm still not clear on, the ship will fire upon a Tholian vessel with a quantum torpedo. Of the 220 crew, a little more than half survive the encounter. Captain Roshanara Rahman will attempt to buy escape pods time with the help of a smaller team keeping the ship together, but . . . the Veritas gets destroyed, with it's captain. Some escape pods, too.

Rahman: Response?

Ekal: I found a plan in place for the Veritas's premature destruction. The Commission's chief of operations is using it as a last ditch effort - she seems to think that because the Veritas fired on that Tholian vessel, then it's directly responsible for the state of my galaxy. So if the Veritas never *gets* to that encounter, and looks as if it's been destroyed through some other means, then that crisis is more or less averted and the Tholians go about on their merry way. Except that it's not a fool proof plan, because it's not been properly calculated - there's over a hundred and twenty unaccounted people immediately taken from my timeline that could have any number of consequences. By my understanding, it'd make the situation worse than it already is. But they believe this is their last choice, so they're going ahead with it anyway.

::He spouted a lot of words, even for him, and he had to take a couple seconds to take a breath.::

Ekal: That's why I'm here. I can't stand by and let an entire crew be murdered through the blind efforts of those without hope.

Rahman/Delano: Response?


Tbc . . .

Jhalib Ekal
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