[Jaxom & others] Back In The Saddle, Part 3
Clifford
“Back In The Saddle, Part 3”
or
“What Caused This?“ or "Who The Hell Is This?"
Captain Jaal Jaxom
Commander T’Vrel
Lieutenant Commander Tale Gilohesh
Lieutenant Commander Diane Doctrine
Ensign Joann Meyers
==Bridge, Deck 1, USS Montgomery NCC 72706==
=45 minutes later=
Captain Jaxom was pacing around the bridge checking and rechecking readouts and the readiness of the Montgomery’s systems and bridge crew. He didn’t say much, just an occasional ‘good job’ and curt, affirmative nods to those who updated him verbally.
Diane, Tale, and Joann stood out of the way near the port side spare science console, discretely observing Jaal.
“Does he ever sit down?” Diane asked Joann. They had only been on the bridge for the last half hour although it seemed like longer. Most captains would be sitting in the center chair and observing from there.
“Can’t honestly say,” the red head replied, “I’ve never been on a ship where he was in command before. It’s been nearly a year since he’s been brought out of stasis and rescued. I suspect he might be a bit nervous and just wants this assignment to go well. It’s interesting to see someone of his caliber at work.”
“He’s auditing,” Tale mumbled, watching Jaal like a hawk. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see what her trained eye could. “He’s only making sure that everything is happening in the order in which he thinks they should be. He doesn’t trust the ship yet, nor his place in it. Give him some time, he’ll lighten up.”
Diane nodded, “Ah, I should have known better.” She mentally chastised herself for not picking up on it. Some intelligence officer she turned out to be. Time to get my head back in the game, she told herself.
“He will lighten up,” Joann added, “He just needs to regain his sea legs… or space legs considering we’re not at sea. During some of our sessions I found he’s remarkably resilient and knows how to get out of sticky situations. HIs record speaks for itself.”
While they talked Jaal continued his orbit around the edge of the bridge while he occasionally glanced at the trio. When he finally approached them he told them, “You know I know you’re talking about me.”
Tale offered a small, genuine smile, completely unabashed. "Good," she said simply. "Then you heard the part where we all agreed you're competent and will settle in. It's better than whispering that you're in over your head."
One corner of his mouth turned up, “The Nova class has one of those bridge layouts that lets sounds from one side echo over to the other because of the way the ceiling is shaped,” he pointed from one end of the room to the other with one fore finger, “It doesn’t work if I sit in the middle though.”
"An architectural flaw for any captain who enjoys a good secret," Tale mused, her smile lingering. "Or a feature, for one who likes to stay informed."
“I don’t consider it a flaw,” Jaal replied, “While I do enjoy a good secret now and then I prefer to stay informed… and prefer the people around me to be informed as well… and for the record, I don’t think I’m in over my head… yet.”
"Captain, we have arrived. Dropping to sub-light in ten seconds." T’Vrel announced without any fanfare while awaiting further orders.
Jaal straightened up and faced his first officer, “Power up the sensor suites and prepare the probes for launch.” He then made his way to the center of the bridge. He glanced around at the crew who all looked ready for anything. Seeming satisfied he finally sat in the captain’s chair. “Let’s see what we find.”
The starfield on the main viewscreen snapped from streaks of light to steady pulses of stars in the inky blackness of space. The anomaly hung there, significantly smaller than before like an iridescent ribbon coiled upon itself, occasionally unfurling and recoiling into itself in a slow winding pattern, throbbing in a weak arrhythmic light.
“Probes one through four away, Sir,” reported ops.
“A full sensor sweep initiating,” Ramanujan added with a curt nod from his station. “I am reading significant degradation in the chroniton field. Structural coherence is down to eighteen percent.”
The probes shot toward the phenomenon on the viewscreen, their little engines leaving white trails behind them in their wake.
“Bring up multi-spectral analysis overlay,” T’Vrel ordered without looking away from the viewscreen.
Jaal was on the edge of the captain’s chair. Officer’s more familiar with history called the way he sat the Kirk Pose. His left arm rested on his left knee with his right elbow on his right knee while he peered into the main viewer demanding it reveal the secrets of the universe.
The main viewer shifted, the visible light image of the anomaly now overlaid with a riot of false color representing tachyon densities, gravimetric shear, and subspace distortions. It was a confusing kaleidoscope of color to the untrained eye. Ramanujan leaned forward, his voice hushed with awe. "Captain... the structure. Commander Gilohesh was correct. The energy patterns aren't random. Even in its decay state, you can see the latticework—-”
“You’re saying this whole thing was orchestrated somehow then,” Jaal answered while glancing back at their guests from the other timeline. His expression was a mix of worry and concern. Why would someone want to displace two, from what he could tell, very capable and competent officers. Could someone have wanted them gone so bad that they went through the trouble of transporting them to an entirely different dimension?
Jaxom swung around in the captain’s chair to check the readouts again. “Theories on how, whoever is doing this is… doing it?”
"Two primary hypotheses present themselves," Ramanujan looked serious. "The first is a targeted chroniton cascade. By manipulating a pre-existing temporal filament, a naturally occurring 'frayed thread' in spacetime, one could theoretically weave a resonant structure like this. It would require precision, but it is possible."
From the engineering station, Lieutenant Sh'rokrohr shook her head, her antennae twitching skeptically. "Possible, but messy. Like using a sledgehammer for watchmaking." She turned to face the command chair. "My money is on the second theory: a forced quantum superposition. They didn't “move” them; they redefined their quantum state to be congruent with a point in our universe. The 'door' Commander Gilohesh described is the visible evidence of that state-collapse. It's cleaner. More... elegant."
"Elegant?" Koreel grunted from tactical, his eyes fixed on his threat board. "It's a kidnapping. The method is just the weapon."
"Precisely," T'Vrel stated, turning from the viewscreen. "And identifying the weapon is the first step in identifying the assailant. The level of technological sophistication required for either theory narrows the list of potential suspects considerably."
Jaal mentally digested all that was said. Joann could see the gears whirling in his head as he thought through possibilities and scenarios. He pinched the bridge of his nose as the center chair spun slowly around to face the two misplaced ladies. “So,” he let go of his nose and looked directly at Diane and Tale. “Who do you know that can pull that off and is pissed off enough at both of you to do it?”
“That would appear to narrow things down quite a bit,” Diane surmised, “However, it’s still possible that it was meant for just one of us and it was a coincidence that we both fell into the trap.”
Jaal peered at them. “You two work together a lot?”
“We have worked together on some assignments but not what I would consider a lot,” Diane replied not sure she liked this line of questioning. She turned to Tale, “What do you think?” Then to Captain Jaxom, “What do you consider a lot?”
“A lot is enough for someone to think you both need to be shoved into an entirely different dimension so their machinations can continue because they knew you two had the means to stop them.”
“If I had to ascertain your train of thinking. You seem to think we have pissed off a narcissist so profoundly that they,” Tale adjusted her sleeves. “Felt the need to extend their ego into shoving the two of us into the great unknown. I’ve seen Admirals use their fleets as an extension of their ego. Ambassadors that use diplomacy as means for monologuing their ID, scientists that don’t believe ethical boundaries apply to genius and captains that use their ships as their own measuring devices for things that I’m sure you’ve seen as well.”
The Orion cracked her knuckles one at a time as she looked at Diane with a little tired smile, diagnosing this theoretical problem. “That narrows it down to someone who isn't just powerful in rank or influence. They have to command a clandestine project, something off the books. A pet project with unlimited funding and no oversight. Someone who could take a theoretical weapon, like Diane mentioned, with the quantum tunneling and turn it into housekeeping.”
Jaal listened while tapping his lower lip with his fore finger. Tale’s deductions were brilliant and made sense. “Impressive when you think about it,” he mentioned. “You may as well add guinea pigs. The experiment worked, you’re out of their hair. If it didn’t work, you’d still be out of their way.”
“I’m not entirely sure it worked,” Diane mentioned, “As we were escaping, the starbase was losing structural integrity. When the station command realized what was happening and gave the evacuation order it might have already been too late. We have no idea who made it out nor where they ended up. Based on our recorded readings while we were trying to fly away, I don’t believe the starbase survived the event.”
Diane’s last words hung heavy in the room. Anyone that knew anything about Federation Starbases knew they were built for the long haul and nothing trivial could cause one to lose structural integrity with ease, much less destroy one.
Captain Jaxom stood up and began pacing around the center chair with his hands clasped together behind his back.
After several steps, he spoke, “Sacrificing an entire starbase… everyone aboard… not to mention the means with which this… experiment was carried out… IF its origin was, in fact, your starbase.” he stopped pacing and peered at Tale and Diane once more. “That seems like an awful lot to get two pesky people out of the way.” He resumed his pacing, “It would seem much easier to me to have you both kidnapped… or otherwise led into a trap… and then done away with… wiping out an entire starbase for the sake of two thorns in the side,” he shook his head, “No… that’s just too much of an enormous waste of resources…”
He stopped pacing once more and he stared at the main viewer, “If I’m an evil genius, a mentally disturbed villain, or even some random mobster that’s just far far too much trouble to go through.”
He faced the two ladies once more, “That’s just plain dumb.” He held a finger up in the air and declared, “It’s got to be more like an Occam’s Razor thing. A coincidence.” He put his hands behind his back once more and took a moment to gaze everyone on the bridge in the face. “Thoughts?”
Joann spoke up first with a simple, “I can’t see anything wrong with the simplest explanation. It makes sense and seems legit.”
Diane was next. “Both theories are possible, but I have to admit, the simpler one does seem more plausible when stacked against the waste of resources mentioned.”
“Even the most criminal minds are not immune to logic,” T’Vrel added, “Given the evidence as presented, I for one, believe the perpetrator would have to be far removed from sanity to cause such destruction when a simple phaser shot or a bit of poison would suffice.”
“To add to the choir. You’re putting an awful lot of credence into the theory that there was thought put into this at all,” Tale said with a sheepish shrug. “Most people seem to go off half cocked before thinking things through.”
“I try not to do that,” Jaal replied evenly.
“Sir,” a calm voice came from the tactical station, “A small craft traveling at high warp has been picked up on long range sensors,” Lieutenant Koreel looked to the captain, “It’s on a direct intercept course.”
“Can you identify it?” Jaal asked tersely.
“She shows up as a Venture Class runabout, one occupant.”
“Hail them.” Jaal ordered.
“Aye sir, hailing.”
“They’re answering,” Koreel reported.
A woman appeared on the screen. Everyone looked at her, then at Diane.
Then back at the screen.
“As exciting as all this is,” Captain Jaxom was saying, “Would you mind telling us who you are?
The woman on the screen tucked a tuft of stray hair behind her ear. “I’m Lieutenant Diane Doctrine of Starfleet Intelligence.”
She was definitely Diane Doctrine, but she looked around ten years younger than the Diane seated next to Tale and Joann. “I was afraid this might happen,” she said quietly in an aside to her Orion companion.
Jaal stood up and folded his hands behind his back. “Great. Would you mind telling us why you’re on an intercept course with us?”
Diane, the one on the viewscreen scoffed, “Really Captain? After seeing me you can’t figure that out on your own?”
Jaal smirked. After seeing Diane’s doppelganger on the viewscreen, he knew exactly what the reason for this particular intelligence officer’s visit was, or at least a very reasonable suspicion. “Humor me… for the official mission logs. I might also warn you to steer clear of the anomaly we’re studying.”
“I can tell by the look on your face you know I have some questions for my doppelganger and to find out what happened, why she’s here, and what she knows,” the younger version of Diane with a tone of authority.
He glanced at the older Diane on his bridge, then back at the younger Diane on the viewscreen, “We’ll hold our position until you get here.”
“See you then,” the younger Diane on the screen replied. Then the screen went blank. Jaal turned to face the older Diane on his bridge. “This certainly spices things up.”