Making Sense of it All

Posted on Thu Jul 16th, 2020 @ 7:51am by Captain Cynthia Jackson & Lieutenant Arev

1,025 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Coming Full Circle
Location: Bridge

Arev walked onto the bridge to take his shift. He briefly stopped and looked around, as he always did, before heading to his station. It was always wise to review a situation before walking into it.

Relieving the individual from third shift, he paused before reaching out to the station. He knew he was supposed to be here, but it all seemed foreign and familiar to him at the same time. He knew what was expected of him both from within and from without, but how did he get here? He knew many around him, but he didn't recall actually meeting them. Maybe it had to do with all that he had gone through and going to a spot that was a focal point of Nero's activity.

He accessed his console and called up the results of a simulation he had began last night before he went to bed. The results weren't what he was expecting.

"Captain", he said. "I would like to show you something."

After being cleared by the doctor, Cindy had to clear her theories with science. Part of her thought that she already discussed these things with Neza, her Chief Science Officer but something else said that she had not.

The moment that she opened the door, she strode in and new that someone else was her Chief Science Officer, a Vulcan, Arev. It was an unusual name for a Vulcan. It did not begin with an S, for one. For a second, it had some sort of meaning about a desert, she seemed to recall.

Cindy laughed at the Vulcan, "Are you ever going to call me Cindy, rather than Captain, Arev?"

"Probably not for some time", Arev said. "Calling a superior officer by their first name in public suggests a certain level of familiarity amongst my people that you and I do not have yet and it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable to do."

"Uncomfortable?" Cindy asked with a bit of hope. "Are you stretching out for some emotions now? Why, Arev! You're growing!" Cindy beamed her pearly whites at the Vulcan, her eyes turning a lighter shade of green.

"Because Vulcans do not allow their emotions to rule them", Arev said calmly. "Does not mean we do not have them. Plus, your request for informality could get crew members in trouble under the right circumstances."

"I cannot imagine how that is true, Arev. We're all the same crew and I've permitted it as Captain." She shrugged, not expecting an answer, figuring that the Vulcan would just disagree and cite proofs. "However, we have more pressing concerns. We have people appearing and disappearing that crew members remember somehow that are on Legacy or were on Legacy that apparently never existed. I have had similar experiences with these apparitions. Have you?"

"To an extent", Arev replied.

"What's more, the occurrences of these events seem to be getting greater the closer we get to what was Vulcan, as do the time-spatial anomalies. I have some theories but I would like to hear yours."

"The destruction of Vulcan has had numerous impacts, felt as far away as Andoria", Arev said. "The destruction caused intense gravity fluctuations, which of course impacts light and time. In addition, the presence of the red matter as Ambassador Spock called it, is still being studied. Then there is the impact of not only one, but two vessels breaking time barriers locally. I am sure if we were to plot chroniton readings, there would be relatively weak readings where the Enterprise destroyed the Romulan mining vessel that would steadily increase in strength as we move closer to Vulcan. Those readings also are being impact by gravity trying to re-establish an equilibrium that was disturbed by the destruction of Vulcan."

"All that is true," Cindy conceded. "However, none of that explains these feelings of deja vu or the knowing of people and appearance of people that were supposedly never on this ship. Can you account for that?"

"Dimensional shift seems the most logical at this point without further information", Arev answered. "Time is a dimension, so if gravity is distorting it, then dimensional shift is possible. In addition the destruction of Vulcan itself created at least two alternate dimensions per se. So, the crew could be experiencing shifts between dimensional boundaries."

"That was my thought, as well, that we're experiencing a number of different dimensional realities. If the red matter caused two, there is no reason that it could not cause more. But worse, what if this was continuing to expand and tear space apart. How would we know which reality is our correct dimensional reality? We need to know that and how to stop it. Do you have any thoughts on how we can do it, Arev?"

"I have a theory for a tracer that we could inject into people that is coded to those of this dimension", Arev said. "I would need assistance from medical and possibly engineering to create these. And of course, permission from people to inject them."

"You have my permission," Cindy replied. "Coordinate your efforts with the Executive Officer, as well. I will personally assist you. But coding is enough. We have to eliminate the other realities from ours."

"Very well", Arev said. "Captain, this is a theory. The closer we get to the anomaly causing these cross-overs so to speak, my theory may break down. Time and dimensional rifts are very fluid."

"But the theory seems well grounded from the facts that we have before us. It isn't going to be long until we reach Vulcan. Let's code our crew and figure out a way to stop this from continuing. I am concerned that if it is radiating out from Vulcan that eventually this will start affecting more than just our ship."

Arev nodded, "I will connect with my colleagues so we can start right away."

"Thank you, Arev. I will be back soon to help you. Get medical and engineering in here with you immediately with the coding process and then we can all theorize how to separate the realities and end this problem."

"Aye Captain", he replied with a nod.

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