Any fan of Silversun back in the day would have been severely disappointed with the ending. It was a cliffhanger, for one thing, and a nail-bitingly exciting one at that. When I found this site, I couldn't resist writing the next episode. If anyone reads this and is interested, I'll write the continuing episodic story. If you don't remember what happened on the show, I suggest you watch it.
Silversun
Episode 41
Time Away
The Infinity was drawn through the wormhole at a tremendous speed. The ship barely held together as the tidal forces began to deform the hull.
"Strega!" Yelled Tane, pulling his comrade away from the Infinity's controls, "Are you crazy? You have no idea what you're doing." Julian turned to his closest friend.
"I can fix the future from here, before the Infinity hits the asteroid." He said, "Don't you see? The wormhole is my opportunity to clear my name! Darius blamed me for his own... incompetence, and the rest of the crew believed him, but now I can record the coordinates he feeds me, and prove that it was his fault."
"Julian; I get it, and I believe you, but no one has ever traveled through time before." Tane placed his hand on Julian's shoulder, "We have no clue what could happen if you started to interact with your past self, or anyone else. For all we know, the universe could explode into smithereens, or you could make a paradox, or time could get stuck in an endless loop, or anything."
Julian pushed his hand away. "Even if I wanted to go back, we can't." He explained, "The ship took heavy damage in the asteroid collision, and then when we flew through the wormhole twice. If we go through it again, the ship will rip into a million pieces."
"Are you saying that you stranded all of us in another time, with no way back?" Screeched Zandie, glaring at Julian, "What did you expect us all to do? Just wait to die?"
"Alright," Mara interrupted, "We're not going anywhere near full speed in this ship unless we want to get blown into space through the first hull breach." Julian smirked.
"Don't you think I realised that?" He gave her a condescending look, "The outside of the ship might be totally messed up, but between the hull and the interior, the polarised Schrodinger inverters stop outside gravity from affecting the inside of the ship. The escape module is completely safe."
"And what about the hundreds of people in the hold, including your crew?" Degenhardt pointed out aggressively, "You just want to leave them here?"
"Their past selves are all on board the Infinity from this time." said Julian, "If we save the ship before it collides with the asteroid, their existence won't matter, or even be possible."
"Then how are we here now, to change the past in the first place?" Zandie asked. There was a pause. Mara broke the silence.
"Look, there's no point trying to figure this stuff out now." Mara interjected "The risks of what Strega is suggesting are too high. We need to find a way to bring the Infinity back to our time without interacting with anything here."
"There's no way back." Julian proclaimed, "We have to finish what I started."
"What if we extended those Malaric dingo converters around the outside of the hull?" Zandie suggested, "Wouldn't that stop it from ripping?"
Mara frowned. "They're polaric- oh, never mind."
"If we did that, the effects of the wormhole would bend around our ship, and we'd go straight past it without going through." stated Julian.
"She has a point, though." Mara looked to Zandie, "If we time things just right, we could extend the inversion effect to the outside hull right after we enter the wormhole, and then retract it right before we exit the other side."
"Great!" Degenhardt exclaimed sarcastically. "We'll just do that."
"Does anyone here know how one of these things works?" Asked Mara, looking around.
"I do." Julian looked at her resentfully, "Obviously."
"Then we need you to make those changes." Mara requested firmly.
"No way!" Julian raised his voice, "We're here, now, in the past. This will be my only opportunity to prove my innocence, to clear my name! I won't let you destroy it."
"You're wrong, Julian." Tane looked up at him, "You can clear your name here, by helping us get back." Julian thought for a moment.
"Alright, I'll help you on one condition; you make sure that I'm not punished fort anything I didn't do when we get back."
"I can't help you with that, since Cyriax already doesn't fully trust me, especially in regard to you." Tane gestured toward the rest of the group, "If Cyriax is to believe your change of heart, we'll all have to vouch for you."
"I'm willing, if you'll get us back to the Star Runner." said Zandie.
"Me too." Agreed Degenhardt.
"It's completely against protocol..." Mara sighed. Tane turned to her.
"There's no protocol for time travel." He said.
"Fine, I'll vouch for you, that is, if I can honestly say that you've learned from your mistakes." Mara made her decision.
"Tane, I'll need your help rewiring the Schrodinger inverters." Julian beckoned to him as he walked to the corridor. Tane followed him.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him." Tane whispered to Mara as he passed.
"I'll have to get rid of Strega's mess in the cryonics systems." Degenhardt left the bridge, with Zandie close behind.
"I guess I'll just... stay here." Mara looked around the empty bridge. "Hold the fort, I guess."
After ten minutes of sitting on the bridge, twiddling her thumbs, Mara decided to check up on Julian and Tane.
"Hi, boys." She looked over Tane's shoulder at the work they were doing, "How long before we can go through the wormhole again, do you think?
"We should be done here in about half an hour." Tane replied.
"You're blocking the light." Said Julian.
"Err... Sorry." Mara moved away.
'Is there really nothing useful I can do?' She thought to herself.
She wandered around the Infinity, generally toward the hold.
"How is it coming along?" Mara asked Degenhardt, upon her arrival.
"We're making slow but steady progress." He explained, "We can only fix one unit at a time, and they each have to be corrected manually."
"Oh, can I help then?" She offered.
"Not really." Degenhardt declined, "There are only two keys, and Zandie is using the other one."
"Oh. Okay." Mara returned to the bridge.
'I can't believe even Zandie is doing something useful. There must be some way I can help.'
Soon enough, Julian and Tane entered the bridge as well.
"Thanks to some brilliant shortcuts the Julian managed to take, we're ready to go back through the wormhole, but we'll need a good pilot to navigate and time the extensions of the Schrodinger inverters." Tane reported.
"Good." Mara nodded, "When can we go?"
"We're ready right now." Julian replied.
"Alright." Mara turned to the console and activated the ASKO. "Degenhardt and Zandie, we're ready to return through the wormhole. Please report to the bridge."
When they arrived on the bridge, Julian took the pilot's seat.
"Alright, this could get a little bit shaky, so hold onto something." He warned.
The ship began to move toward the wormhole at an ever increasing speed.
"Three... Two... One... " Julian raised his hand, "I'm extending the Schrodinger inversion... Now!" He slammed a button on his right.
The stars became suddenly distorted and wrapped into a circle in the distance. The circle came closer and closer, until the micro-meteoroids of the Sargasso disk were visible. The stars moved back to there normal positions in the sky, and the Infinity exited the wormhole.
"Good job, Julian." Mara congratulated, "Now, where's the Star Runner?"
Tane looked at his computer screen.
"It's directly ahead of us, outside the Sargasso disk." The group sighed in relief in unison.
As the crew walked out of the escape module, and onto the Star Runner, Leonella was waiting in the corridor.
"Tane!" She exclaimed upon seeing him. She ran into his arms, and drew him into a long embrace. "I was so worried."
"So I suppose this means you forgive me for lying." Tane inquired.
"Of course I forgive you, but from now on, please; no more lying or secrets or anything." She affirmed.
"Strega!" A stone faced Commander Cyriax called, "You're going to explain what just happened."
"Don't worry, Julian, we'll tell him you helped us get back." Degenhardt said as he passed by.
"I wish I'd done more to help today." Mara sighed as she climbed into her bed.
"What do you mean?" Asked Leonella, "I'm sure you did lots."
"No, Degenhardt and Zandie fixed the Cryonic pods, and Tane and Strega modified the Schrodinger inverters." Mara explained, "I had no useful qualities whatsoever when we were in the past."
"You could have helped me, if we had another key." Zandie noted.
"I suppose." Mara was unconvinced, but by now, so tired, she could hardly think anymore. "Good night." She yawned.
"Good night." The girls each returned.
"Do you believe their story?" Lillian asked Cyriax after Julian left.
"I have no reason to doubt Degenhardt and Zandie." He replied. "And after what I've seen on this journey in the first two years, it doesn't surprise me."
"So do you intend to punish Strega?" She inquired.
"I'll leave Strega's future in the hands of his superior officer." Cyriax explained, "I'll get Degenhardt to thaw the crew tomorrow morning."
"Sheng will be disappointed that he wasn't there to witness the wormhole trip." Lillian supposed.
"Oh, I'm sure that when it comes to interesting science out here, we've only scratched the surface."
Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what you people think of this episode, and tell me if you want me to write more of these.