[Jaxom/Meyers/Doctrine/Golihesh] Detour On The Way Home, Part 2

[Clifford]

“I’ll beam them over as soon as I can,” Jaal relayed to Joann, “We’ll catch their runabout in a tractor beam and tow it wherever they’re headed.”

Tale, Diane, and Toby, were whisked away from their runabout and found themselves materializing aboard a different vessel.

“Detour On The Way Home, Part 2”

The reluctant Captain Jaal Jaxom

Ensign Joann Meyers

Lieutenant Commander Tale Gilohesh

Lieutenant Commander Diane Doctrine

and her son Toby

Jaal stood and turned around to face them when the transporter sequence was finished. “Welcome aboard. Sorry to beam you over without letting you know first, but your runabout’s structural integrity is about to fail. Whatever you went through made it unspaceworthy without some major repairs.”

Tale’s neural implant still thrummed from the anomaly. She squinted her emerald eyes as she surveyed the ship. It may have just been a shuttlecraft, but it seemed lived-in somehow. Her ears perked up to the sound of the warp coils, every minute sound hammering into her all at once. She gave Jaal a small nod. “Yes, thank you Captain,” she said as graciously as she could muster. “I thought we were goners.”

“Neither of us are doctors but there is a starbase not too far from here,” Jaal informed Tale and Diane, “Are there any injuries we need to take care of right away?”

“Do you need to sit down?” Joann asked as she left the pilot’s chair, “We have a passenger area in the back, there’s even a bed.”

“I’m a little wound up for sitting or laying,” Diane mentioned while holding her head in one hand. After a warning glance from Tale she added, “All right, you could probably talk me into sitting for a bit.

”C’mon then, let’s get you comfortable,” Joann led Diane to the passenger area in the back of the shuttle.

”I’m going where mom goes,” Toby announced and followed them.

”As well you should,” Jaal nodded approvingly. Then he looked at Tale, “Are you all right?“

Tale nodded slowly. “I think so—”

”And can you tell me what happened?”

“That’s the thing Captain,” Tale dropped her voice to a low whisper. “I don’t think I even could if I tried, but I will do my best anyway—”

Jaal nodded for her to continue.

She recounted the situation from the space station onward, not omitting a single detail as far as she was concerned. However, Tale’s let her gaze take in her surroundings as she did so. It was as though everything was slightly askew to what she once knew. Even the Starfleet logo wasn’t quite the same as the one on her catsuit and she was keeping it covered with her cardigan. Goddess forbid these were those Terran Empire people she’d read about. Best not make any waves. 

“That sums it up Captain,” she said quietly. “It was harrowing to say the least.”

“It definitely sounds like it,” the Trill conceded, “The sensor suite on this shuttle doesn’t have the power to scan this entire anomaly. We’re going to have to send what data we collect to the Starfleet Scientific Bureau and let them take it from here. I’m actually headed home but we can drop you off at a starbase on the way… oh, and don’t worry, there’s no Terran Empire in this reality.”

“Are you a mind reader Captain?” Tale looked at him with a little confusion. 

“I’ve watched the way your eyes shifted around while we’ve been talking,” he offered with a wink.

“I see,” she replied with a little exhale. “How observant of you–”

“I’ve also noticed you and your friend’s uniforms are slightly different from the Starfleet ones I’m used to seeing,” Jaal went on. “To find out just how far out of your own time or dimension you are, you’ll need to be scanned by an actual science team. Speaking of which, can you tell me what year it was before you came through whatever that anomaly was?”

He leaned forward, the overhead lights casting his Trill spots into bright focus. The shuttle's ambient hum seemed to fade and Tale's implant throbbed. Her temples felt engorged. "Stardate 79346.21. Though I suspect that number means something different here." She watched Jaal's pupils dilate slightly. “Just a theory.”

“Interesting,” he replied while not giving anything away at the moment. “We’re in the middle of 2389 by the Modern Terran calendar. You’re from around…” he took a minute to do the math in his head, “... around 2406 or so… our current stardate here is 67886.23.” He considered the implications while watching her with narrowed eyes. “That’s quite a trip you’ve taken.”

“Quite a trip from where?” Joann asked as she entered the cockpit area. She looked from Jaal to Tale and back again.

“Well, it seems our new friends here have either come from our future or another timeline’s future. We’ll have to compare some historic references to figure it out.” Jaal looked to Joann, “How are the other two?”

“Diane and her son are resting in the back. I think she might need some medical attention. She took a nasty whack on the head. She’s laying down and I gave her something for her headache. We’re not that far from Starbase 55. Perhaps we can drop them and their ship off there?”

Tale chewed her lip. If her memory served her correctly, Starbase 55 was destroyed during the Dominion War— she gave Jaal a tight smile of appreciation. Nothing in either his or Joann’s suggested deception on their end, but she still felt a pit of unease. “It is incredibly generous Captain, thank you,” she said with a nod.

“I’ve got a feeling some admirals higher up in the food chain are gonna wanna talk to you,” Joann said sheepishly.

Jaal agreed with a soft, but firm tone, “Yeah, they’ll want to make sure you’re not in our reality or timeline to screw things up.” He looked at Tale with an expression of curiosity, “So, are you?”

“Am I what?” Tale looked at him with a little tilt of her head. Her mop of deep olive green hair dropped out of her bun. “Here to screw things up? You think we’d bring a kid along to do that? That’d be some sloppy work Captain— we’re not that stupid.”

A sly half-grin grew onto his face, “Just checkin,” he replied in a sure, sing-song tone. Or the kid could be a Miran, Jaal thought to himself, and was the one actually leading their little excursion. Stranger things have happened, he reminded himself.

Turning to Joann he went on, “Let’s get their runabout in a tractor beam and make best speed for Starbase 55. We can sort out the rest there.”

Joann shrugged, “Okay…” She set herself in the pilot’s chair and started working the console. “Our best speed towing will warp six point seven… our ETA will be in about fourteen hours.”

Jaal nodded. “All right then. He looked back at Tale, “Any questions?”

Her shoulders finally relaxed some as she fixed her hair. “Do you have any tea on this ship?”

“Sadly, just the replicated variety,” Joann answered.

“C’mon, I’ll show you where the replicator is.” Jaal stood up and walked to the rear of the shuttle. He passed the small transporter pad, a couple of smallish cabins, the head, and finally, at the rear was a dining area. He waved at the alcove, “There ya go. Should be able to get anything you want.”

“Great,” Tale said with a smile. She wasn’t a big fan of the replicator’s interpretation of tea, the substance that was like, but not entirely unlike tea, wasn’t exactly something anyone ever wanted to ingest on a good day— however, she wasn’t about to scoff at a different dimension’s replicator before trying. “Thank you Captain, this will do just fine.”

“Great.” Jaal sat at the table while her beverage materialized. “So, care to share or compare any historical events our timelines might have in common?” 

The replicator hummed to life, synthesizing a steaming cup of liquid that vaguely resembled tea. Tale caught the scent of Earl Grey, but with a synthetic tang that made her Orion senses recoil. Still, she wrapped her hands around the warm mug, letting the heat run throughout her as she took the seat across from Jaal. She  studied him over the rim of her cup. The overhead lights caught the edges of his Trill spots, revealing subtle patterning differences than what she had noticed before. "Let's start simple," she said, keeping her tone breezy. "The Dominion War. How did it end for you?"

“We won with some help from some unexpected allies,” Jaal answered while feeling like he might be being tested somehow. “Are you testing me?” he asked after a beat.

"I wouldn’t say I was testing you, per se, more just establishing baselines." She took a cautious sip. The tea was bitter, with an aftertaste of over-processed bergamot. "In our timeline, Starbase 55 was destroyed during the war. Yet you're taking us to a functioning one."

“Yes,” Jaal answered firmly, “While our Starbase 55 survived, two others were lost during our Dominion War. Now I’ve got one for you. At one point the Hydrans, Breen, and T’Kith’kin ganged up on the Federation thinking we hadn’t yet recovered from the Dominion War. We call that one the Triad War. Anything similar happen where you’re from?”

“The Triad War?” Tale set the cup down with deliberate calm, the ceramic clinking on the tabletop. “No— After the Dominion War, we had the Mars Uprising when the Synth Ban went into effect…” She watched his pupils constrict at the unfamiliar terms. "But an alliance between the Hydrans, Breen, and T'Kith'kin?" A dry chuckle escaped her. "That'd be like the Gorn joining the Talarians for tea with the Tholians."

Jaal’s head moved slowly from side to side. “No… it wasn’t,” he said flatly. His tone was devoid of any joy or mirth and there was no mistake he was serious.

She watched Jaal’s thumb rub a spot on his wrist as she could see him dissociate for a fraction of a second as his head moved. The way his vocal intonation leveled. Clearly, the casual Captain had seen some things. She put her tea down in front of her. 

“So… what was it?” Tale said softly without pushing.

“It was bad,” Jaal answered, trying to let go of the feelings he still had about being captured. “Near the end I spent some time as a POW. Not fun as you can imagine. I’m still… still recovering from it you could say.”

“He is getting better though,” Joann piped up as she entered the smallish galley. “Even if he doesn’t think so.”

She was followed by Diane was looking for a bite to eat. “Toby finally decided to take a nap. Poor kid has had a rough day.”

The two ladies went to the replicator and ordered a couple of hot beverages. Once they materialized they joined the other two adults at the table. Deciding to start gathering information about their new situation, Diane asked, “Did I overhear someone say they were a POW?”

Jaal glanced at her sideways. “Yeah. I was captured. Psychologically tortured, then stuffed into a status unit for two years before getting found.” He glanced at Joann who offered a small nod. Then he added with a sigh and mock optimism, “And on the road to recovery.”

Diane’s eyes narrowed, “Who captured you? I missed the beginning of the conversation.”

This time Joann spoke up, “The Breen. A few years ago, they, the Hydrans, and the T’Kith’kin hive banded together to try and topple the UFP. They thought they could. They thought Starfleet was weaker than it actually was after the Dominion War.”

“Interesting,” Diane was rubbing her chin as she listened.

“That’s the short version,” Jaal spoke now. He looked at Tale and then Diane and asked, “So, there was no such conflict where you two are from?”

“That’s correct,” Diane answered. She decided it was time to get their temporal bearings straight. “When you say Dominion War, are you talking about conflict with beings, we called them changelings, from the Gamma Quadrant?”

“Yeah,” Joann answered, “They brought their own foot soldiers, called the Jem Hadar. They convinced the Cardassians to join them. Starfleet convinced the Klingons and Romulans to fight on our side. We won.”

Diane nodded in acknowledgment, “It was the same for us.”

Jaal pursed his lips and chewed on the inside of his cheek once before saying anything. “Okay, I’m going to take a stab at guessing how this is going to go. When we reach the Starbase and tell the brass what’s happened, they’re going to want to interview you two exhaustively. They’ll also want to get everything bit data they can from your runabout and our scans of that anomaly that  brought you here. They’re going to want to know everything they can and compare to what’s happened here. Also be certain they’ll send a starship or two to check out what’s left of that portal that you came through.”

“The latest scans show the anomaly is slowly dissipating,” Joann added, “My best guess is it’ll be completely gone in around seventy hours… but I’m a counselor, not a scientist.” She looked to Diane and Tale, “We didn’t witness the opening, it was hidden on the edge of that nebula, how did it happen on your end?”

“From my understanding, it was just a blip on long range sensors when they were running standard diagnostics. By the time we noticed there was gravimetric distortion, it was already too late,” Tale ran her finger around the edge of her teacup. “The Montaunnet’s engines were locked into a constant feedback loop, every attempt to escape just pulled us in further—- as though the damned thing was herding us inward.”

Jaal listened without taking his eyes off Tale. “So something was resonating with the engines.” He cast a look to Joann, “Why didn’t it resonate with ours? We were pretty close to it,” he asked.

The redhead shrugged, “I don’t know. Someone that knows science much better than the four of us needs to look at all our sensor data then I bet at least a hypothesis can be formed.”

”Anomalies like this don’t just pop up out of the blue do they?” The Trill asked a mostly rhetorical question.

”Typically, no,” Diane offered, “But as far as we can tell, none of Starocca Base’s sensors were detecting anything unusual.” She paced around the table with a look of concentration on her face. “Unless… the anomaly in question was caused by something on the space station.” Diane’s eyebrows rose.

Tale's implant chose that moment to flare, sending a jagged pain through her temples. She barely suppressed a wince as fragmented sensor data flashed behind her eyes: chroniton signatures, tachyon bursts, everything was too fast for her to even make sense of it.

"Whatever it was," she interrupted, massaging her temples, her green eyes meeting Jaal’s. "It wasn't just at the station. It seemed to want something— whatever that may be.”

Jaal’s eyes focused on Tale, he spoke slowly as he wasn’t sure he was believing the question he was asking, “Is there a chance, I mean, could you be suggesting… that there was some kind of… intelligence mixed in this whole thing?”

Tale exhaled slowly. “I wouldn’t dismiss the idea, honestly… the whole thing is just bizarre,” she picked her mug back up, staring at the lackluster contents. “If I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t exactly know, but there was something and that is what I’m not out right dismissing.”

Jaal became quiet, as if thinking about some deeper implications concerning what he’d just heard. His head slowly turned to stare out the rear viewport of the shuttle.

Diane recognized the expression on the Trill’s face as one of a person that wanted to ask questions of someone who wasn't present. In this case, she was correct.

Joann, not one to enjoy long silences, suggested, “It sounds like we need more data. Maybe something will be found when all the sensor readings we collected can be analyzed.”

“I would imagine so,” Tale said. Truthfully, she had no idea. This was not her area of expertise whatsoever, she just futzed with her tea like she knew what she was doing, hoping that they were getting closer to the Station.

The four adults continued their conversation comparing differences in their universe’s history the rest of the way to their destination.

TBC…