USS Gibraltar 2016 - Episode 1: The Beginning

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 29^th 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 24^th century, McMillan decided he'd take his former crew to the future... the 29^th 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...