Episode 64: "The Assignment"

Timetravel. Every Starfleet officer knew that it could happen to them. There had been countless examples of Starfleet crews travelling backwards or forwards in time. Still, it is strongly forbidden to actively seek out a way to travel through time, because of the risks involved. What if you suddenly change the past, thus creating a whole different reality?

 

For the crew of the USS Gibraltar, travelling through time once had been enough. They had gone to the past, where aliens were collecting people and objects of all times. The Gibraltar crew had managed to prevent any permanent changes to the timeline, but it'd been an experience they didn't want to go through again.

 

So when Ensign th'Ane at Operations reported that a temporal anomaly was forming nearby, the first thing on Captain McMillan's mind was: "Not again." He quickly ordered Ensign Petrov at the Helm to avoid any contact with the anomaly. . . but unfortunately for them, the anomaly wouldn't take no for an answer. It started following them.

Natural anomalies, as far as the Gibraltar crew knew, wouldn't do such a thing. And several temporal anomalies in a couple of weeks? This couldn't be a coincidence anymore. There had to be an intelligence at work. Still, that kind of speculation was best left to the Bureau of Temporal Investigations, so McMillan ordered evasive manoeuvres, to prevent the Gibraltar from interacting with the anomaly.

It didn't do them any good though. Within minutes, the Gibraltar was engulfed by this anomaly. A bumpy ride later, the Gibraltar crew found themselves. . . in the future, near a spacestation of some sorts. There were no lifeforms coming from that station, but the Gibraltar did receive a message from an unknown source:

"Watersupply is poisoned. Beam down and fix the problem."

This, the Gibraltar crew decided, was some sort of distress call, even though it could have been worded differently. Future or not, temporal anomaly or not, they decided that they'd beam down, and see what they could do...

To be continued...

((mostly because SL was acting up... we'll continue next week! Because who knows what awaits us? Stay tuned...))

Episode 63: "Taken from Time"

Captain's Log, Captain RoBobby McMillan reporting.

Time is a strange thing. We believe it goes in one direction, but it's been proven time and time again - pardon the pun - that past, present and future can collide. The words of the Temporal Investigation department still ring in my ears: "Preserving the timeline is paramount. It's more important than anything else, including the Prime Directive." It's hard not to take those guys seriously, I have to say... I've been in difficult debriefings before, but never something such as this!

Of course, after the two months being trapped in a timebubble with the rest of the Gibraltar crew, I thought I would have had my share of temporal anomalies, timetravel and strange time-missions. But no. When Commander Braveheart and myself were at Starbase, the Gibraltar had done some research on the temporal anomaly we had found. They had detected strange readings and even messages form the past. Once I was back on board, I ordered the crew to head back there, and see if we could discover more.

Well, we did. There were old fashioned radiowaves coming through that anomaly. After some modifications to the communications array, we realised we were listening to advertisements from the past: 1969, to be exact. This anomaly was a wormhole of some sorts, but not just through space, but also through time!

I knew something had to be done. This anomaly had a direct connection with Earth, or rather the moon, of the past. It could change the timeline. We needed to check to see if this was or wasn't the case. It wasn't an easy decision, but I finally called the bridge crew to the transporterroom. It was a voluntary mission, to travel to the past, but not surprisingly, just about everyone agreed to come along.

When we rematerialised, it was clear we weren't actually on Earth's moon at all. There was water here, but more importantly, it seemed we had arrived in a gigantic hole or something. There was also an ancient machine standing here, apparently belonging to 'NASA'. According to Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax though, it was a 21st century machine. Did we somehow travel to the 21st century?

As we tried to find out where we were exactly, a bright flash delivered another person here. This man was dressed in an ancient spacesuit, with the NASA logo attached to his suit. He seemed quite surprised that we were here, which was understandable. After some questioning, he said that his name was Colonel John Fearguis. He believed the year was 2022. Could this man be an ancestor of Lieutenant Commander Dave Fearguis, former XO of the Gibraltar?

 

This colonel didn't have the patience that my former XO had, though. Since we refused to answer any questions - we couldn't risk altering the timeline any further - he started overloading the nuclear core inside that 21st century device in order to blow us all up. After all, he said that his government had been warned by an unknown source that enemies would come.

 

Sadly, he wouldn't say anything else. Something needed to be done quickly though: I ordered Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax to disarm the device, after which I told the Gibraltar to beam Fearguis up to Sickbay. I realise it was a drastic action to take, but it needed to be done: he had to have his memories removed.

Once Weatherwax had disarmed the device, I told Ensign Phantom to take all the readings he could possibly get from this place. Someone was obviously collecting people and devices, and we had to know why. When the scans were complete, I ordered the Gibraltar to beam us up.

 

It wasn't long after that, that we could beam colonel Fearguis down to his own ship again. The timeline, as we know it, hasn't changed, so we got lucky. This time. But at least now we know that someone or something is visiting our past. That needs to be stopped.

Right now though, I'm preparing to receive another delegation of the bureau of Temporal Investigations. I can't say I'm looking forward to it...

Computer, end log.

Episode 62: "The Discovery"

Last time, the Gibraltar was hit by chroniton beams. After a careful inspection of the ship, no residual chronitons were found, so the Gibraltar was sent out again, this time without the Captain and XO, who stayed behind on DS19 to give a report to the dreaded Temporal Investigations department.

The Gibraltar, under command of Lt.Cmdr. Richardjrn Weatherwax, went back to the anomaly from which those beams were fired. When they arrived, they found that there was a large amount of chroniton particles present.

Before they could run a complete scan though, they detected an unusual signal nearby. It seemed to be a probe of some sort, which had come through the anomaly. The crew didn't recognise the alien configuration of the probe, but it was clear that it was sending out a signal. Was it trying to make contact?

If so, it was impossible to know who it was though, but that didn't stop Lt.Cmdr. Weatherwax from wanting to find out what the probe was signalling. He ordered power boosted to the communications array.

The message they finally received, was one single sentence:

"It's one small step for man... one giant leap for mankind."

To be Continued!