Star Trek: Odyssey: Chimes at Midnight

The USS Alexandria ran alongside the Excelsior class USS Crazy Horse near Deneva. Two men beamed aboard the Alexandria. They wore grey and black suits and headed for the bridge. One was taller with dark hair and the shorter one had blonde hair. They had no smiles on their faces for they meant business.

Commander Merriell sat in the center seat on the bridge. He was watching over things as Captain Allensworth sat in his ready room. He heard the turbolift doors swish open and he swiveled around to see who was stepping onto the bridge. He was a bit taken back by who he saw but then he realized who they two men were. He stood up to greet the two men.

"You must be from the Department of Temporal Investigations. I'm Commander Merriell."

"I'm Dulmur." The blonde haired one said.

"Lucsly." The taller one said.

"Where's Captain Allensworth?" Dulmur asked.

"He's in his ready room." Merriell said stepping aside allowing them to walk through. As they approached the doors to the ready room, Merriell stepped up to the engineering console where Lieutenant Commander Zofchak and his wife, Hoshi were standing.

"They must be here for what happened last week." Merriell said.

This was the third time that Temporal Investigations had come to the Alexandria. The first was when The Alexandria had gone back to an alternate 2165 and brought back multiple crewmembers of the NX-01 Enterprise. The second time was when Captain Allensworth, Commander Merriell and Lieutenant Commander Zofchak went back in time through the Guardian of Forever to stop an agent of the Terran Empire from killing Captain Kirk during the Khitomer crisis. They didn't even bother investigating the incident when Q sent the bridge crew back to different brutal periods in Earth's history.

Captain Allensworth sat in his ready room when the chime sounded. "Come in." He said. The doors opened and the two agents from Temporal Investigations stepped in. "Ah gentlemen, please sit down."

"Tell us, Captain. Why did you and your crew go back in time?" Dulmur asked.

Allensworth leaned back in his chair and interlocked his fingers as his elbows rested on the chair's armrests. "I'll tell you it wasn't a pre-destination paradox."

"That's good. We hate those." Lucsly said.

"This will take time to explain though." Allensworth said.

"Is that a joke, Captain?" Dulmur asked.

Allensworth looked up at them innocently. "No, it's not."

"We hate those too." Lucsly said.

"On stardate: 45959.1, the crew of the Enterprise-D was informed of the head of one of their officers in a cave underneath San Francisco. Their investigation led them to Devidia Two and the Federation's first encounter with the Devidians and Triolic waves. We were near the Romulan Neutral Zone in the Devron sector when our sensors picked up a large amount of Triolic waves."

FLASHBACK

"Sir," Ra'chel spoke up as her eyes read the Ops console. "Sensors are picking up large concentration of Triolic waves."

"Triolic waves?" Allensworth said standing up from his command chair. He approached the Ops station and looked over Ra'chel's shoulder at the sensor readings. "What is causing them?"

"Undetermined. However, I am picking up something at the source of the triolic waves." Ra'chel said. "It looks like a starship."

"Romulan?"

Ra'chel shook her head. "It's putting off a Federation warp signature."

"What ship is it?" Merriell asked standing up.

"USS…Challenger."

"I thought they were on assignment to the Donatu Sector." Allensworth said.

"Not that Challenger." Ra'chel said. "This Challenger is an NX-class."

"The NX-oh-three?" Dustin asked. "That ship was launched in twenty-one fifty-five but it was destroyed when the captain activated the self-destruct sequence to destroy a Romulan warbird."

"If that's the case, then what is it doing here?" Allensworth asked. "Has it been a drift all this time?"

"Maybe it was captured and it was falsely reported of the captain setting the self-destruct." Nycz said.

"It's a possibility." Allensworth said.

"If that's the case then why go to the trouble of saying the ship was destroyed?" McKenzie asked.

"So Starfleet would not go looking for it." Merriell said. "If there was a Starfleet ship still out there in Romulan hands then Starfleet would send its ships out to get it.

"Regardless of anything that happened in the past, the ship is here now and we must figure out why there are Triolic waves emanating from it." Allensworth said. He lowered his face to Johnson. "Ra'chel, are there any life signs aboard."

Ra'chel entered the commands on her control board and then shook her head. "Sensors are having difficulty penetrating the Triolic waves, Captain. However, the only system that seems to be running is life support. However, even if someone was alive over there then long term exposure to Triolic waves would have deleterious effects on living tissue. Only species with microcentrum cell membranes are immune to the effects."

"That would also suggest that these things are shapeshifters." Merriell said.

"The only time that Starfleet has ever encountered Trolic waves was in 2368." Dustin said leaning on his engineering console. "More specifically Devidia Two in the Marrab Sector. It could mean that the Devidians are involved."

"Could it be possible that the Devidians are time traveling again and they pulled an entire starship into this time period?" Merriell asked.

"Only if there were enough Triolic waves." Ra'chel said. "So far, Triolic waves have only been found on Devidia Two and in a cavern on Earth that was connected to Devidia Two by a temporal door."

"That temporal door was closed by the crew of the Enterprise-D who used photon torpedoes that were modified with phase discriminators." Dustin said.

"Well, there's only one way to find out." Allensworth said. He turned to his first officer. "Alex, I want you to lead an away team over and investigate."

Alex nodded and headed for the turbolift. "McKenzie, Ra'chel, Dustin, Hoshi. Doctor Plumley, meet us in transporter room three."

"On my way." The doctor said through the intercom.

The six members of the away team walked into the transporter room. Once they had checked their gear and had deemed themselves ready to beam over, they stepped up into the transporter chamber.

"Beam us onto the bridge, Chief." Merriell said.

"Locked on to the bridge." The transporter chief said.

"Energize." Merriell said.

All six members of the away team dematerialized from the transporter room in a swirling blue sparkling light.