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...))