The year: 2397
The place: Meraki Station
Starfleet Command could sometimes be a
strange and puzzling organisation, Kieran Braveheart reflected. Take
today, for instance. One moment he was sitting at his desk, doing
research for Admiral Janeway – same thing he'd done for the last
two years, since the USS Malta was destroyed and his resulting
demotion to Commander – and the next moment, an uptight young
Lieutenant handed a PADD with new orders from the Admiralty. New
orders... for him? That just didn't seem right. For the last two
years, Command had been pretending like he hadn't existed. They'd
ignored his pleas for a chance to get out there again, and downright
rejected a transfer request. Now that working on Admiral Janeway's
team was unfulfilling, mind you, but... well, he used to be a
starship captain. Riding a desk now seemed... wrong, somehow.
The orders themselves were strange too:
report to Meraki station and wait for further orders. What kind of
orders would those be? Why couldn't Starfleet Command be more clear
in their orders?
Still, when you received orders, you
followed them. So, now Braveheart found himself lightyears away from
his desk, out in space again for the first time since his demotion,
docking a shuttlecraft at the Meraki starbase that was located well
inside Federation territory. The only question on his mind: why did
Starfleet send him here?
That question was soon forgotten though
– or at least changed a bit – when he entered the meeting area,
and saw who else was there. Before him were 5 other people... and
only one of those he didn't know. The unknown person was Dr. Brent
Grady, but the four others... "Sophie, Duke, Renari, Deia, what
the hell are you doing here?"
Sophie – not surprisingly the only
person not sitting down – looked at him with a gaze that Braveheart
remembered from his Malta days. "We could ask you the same
thing."
"I received orders to come here,"
Braveheart replied.
"Same here," Duke shrugged.
"You don't happen to know why they sent us here, do you?"
"Not a clue," Braveheart
sighed, taking a seat himself. While he didn't like the mystery of it
all, he did thoroughly enjoy seeing his old Bridge crew again.
 |
| Reunited... but why? |
"Perhaps Starfleet wants us to go
through the Malta destruction *again*," Renari said as she
whipped her tail in frustration. "I swear, it's been two years,
and still Starfleet can't let it rest!"
"You're preaching to the choir,
Ren," Braveheart said as he pointed to his three rank pips.
"You're no longer talking to Captain Braveheart..."
Any response the others made was
drowned out by a strong wind suddenly blowing in the room, followed
by a bright flash. Immediately the wind died down, and much to
everyone's surprise, where the flash had been, now stood a man. A man
in a strange looking uniform, wearing protective eye gear. A sturdy,
well built man with a confident attitude. A man with a weapon in his
hands.
 |
| Who's that man, appearing out of nowhere? |
The man looked at everyone. He didn't
seem at all surprised to see the six crewmembers sitting here. In
fact, at the sight of everyone, he smirked. "Sorry about this,"
he stated, as he raised his weapon.
And then he fired.
But nothing happened. Or at least...
there was a blue glow, but other than it being bright, Braveheart, nor
the other crewmembers, were worse for wear. The strange man didn't
seem to mind though, as he started running... just in time to dodge a
phaserblast coming from where a moment ago there'd been nothing. The
man aimed his weapon at a wall, fired it, and jumped through the
portal he had just created. He was gone.
"Damnit, Seelowe!"
Everyone now turned to see where these
words had come from. With a similar portal closing just behind him,
former Gibraltar Captain RoBobby McMillan stood there, tugging his
phaser back into his holster. Sure, he was wearing a different
uniform than the last time anyone saw him, but it was definitely him.
"Captain?" Braveheart was the
first to speak. "Captain McMillan? Is that really you?"
It was as if McMillan only now realised
who his audience was. "Kieran! My god man, it's you! And Sophie!
Duke! Ren! Deia!" His surprised smile told Braveheart that
McMillan had no idea they'd be here. "What are you doing here?"
"We could ask you the same thing,"
Sophie Johnson muttered.
"First things first, is everyone
alright?" That was Dr. Grady talking. He'd already whipped out
his medical tricorder, and started scanning the room.
Braveheart ignored him. "Captain,
you've been missing for two years! You and the Gibraltar were
proclaimed missing in action, after you disappeared at the Jo'gon
nebula!"
 |
| The missing captain returns... |
McMillan frowned. "A lot has
happened, and I'll tell you all about that later. Right now, I need
your help. That man who escaped, Aimhigh Seelowe... he's a dangerous
renegade, and I need to find him. With your help, and this starbase's
sensors, we might be able to track him."
It seemed McMillan was adamant in his
desire to find this Seelowe character. Moments later, the crew all
entered the station's Operations facility, where they started several
scans. Well, most of them, anyway: Renari and Duke were feeling...
dizzy. Luckily Dr. Grady was here to help.
 |
| Dr. Grady checking in on Renari. |
As the rest of them scanned away,
McMillan explained what had happened in the last two years. The
incident at the Jo'gon nebula was no accident: the Starfleet Temporal
Department from the 29th century had brought him and the
Gibraltar to the future, making it look as if he'd disappeared into
thin air. They did this because they had a mission for him: find and
neutralise a traitor: Aimhigh Seelowe. Apparently, Seelowe had
deserted, and was now working for an opposite faction. He needed to
be stopped, or all of time could be seriously damaged. It wasn't
after a few months, when McMillan realised he couldn't get back, that
he accepted the assignment. He's been hunting Seelowe ever since.
 |
| The crew is scanning for temporal signatures. |
Just as McMillan finished the story,
Duke let out a grunt of pain. His headache was getting worse.
Alarmed, McMillan asked what was going on... and then Braveheart told
all about Seelowe firing his weapon, but not actually injuring
anyone.
A shocked McMillan quickly pulled out
his tricorder and scanned everyone in the room. "Damnit, I
should have seen this coming," he muttered under his breath. It
turned out that Seelowe had fired his temporal displacement device at
everyone, causing the molecules in their bodies to initiate a
temporal shift. It turned out to be a slow process, and one that
might last a long time... but in the end, it would mean that the
person shot by such a device, would find his or her atoms scattered
through time...
Since there was no cure here, in the
late 24th century, McMillan decided he'd take his former
crew to the future... the 29th century had to have a cure
for this. Quickly, the starship captain tapped his commbadge, causing
the USS Gibraltar to appear outside. The Gibraltar had been refitted
with a temporal device, making timetravel possible in order to aid
McMillan with his hunt for Seelowe. Now, they'd use the ship to get
back to the future, in order to save his crew.
After they beamed on board and set up a
low level polaron field to minimise the effects of the molecular
shift, they engaged the engines... and headed off, into the future.
 |
| Onwards, to the future! |
To be continued...
