Chapter Three – Starbase Investigations
Caleb Tester, one of the ten cadets still on Starbase One, dropped and rolled… then fired his phaser. The small device emitted a Pfssssssst sound, as a thin beam of blue light streaked out of its emitter crystal. The beam found its target, causing the Velocity disk to change red, and start flying toward his opponent Garth DeJesus. Garth saw the disk coming at him, and started in a sprint towards the rear holodeck wall – running away from the disk. Everyone in holodeck observation room laughed, for it looked like he was retreating. Just when it looked like he was going to ram into the wall, he jumped up and planted his foot in one of the hologrid cross emitter bars, and did a back flip – landing behind the disk and shooting it. The disk turned green, and started back towards Caleb.
"Not fair!" Caleb grunted, as the disk made a mad dash towards him. He fired at it and missed, causing the disk to smash into his arm.
-Round winner, DeJesus. Game winner, DeJesus. Game over. The computer announced.
"Good game, Caleb." Garth said to his classmate, as he walked over and patted him on the back. Their phasers disappeared, as well as the holographic wall separating the holodeck from the observation room. The crowd of fourteen people stood up and applauded.
"I want to know how the hell you did that back flip off the rear wall." Caleb whispered under his breath as they both waved to the crowd of people.
"If your nice I might show you sometime." Garth replied, as they walked out of the holodeck. They walked in silence for a few minutes, until they entered a turbolift.
"Deck seventy-two." Garth said once inside the lift.
"Deck eighty-four." Caleb said after him. "You know, that was a very interesting meeting earlier." Garth laughed at him.
"Interesting? It was crazy. Nobody knew what to do."
"They still don't."
"Good point." The boys fell silent again for a moment, listening to the thrum of the turbolift making its controlled descent.
"How long do you think they will let us stay here?" Garth broke the silence.
"Can't be sure… I would guess for as long as we are useful."
"I wonder what happened?"
"Happened?" Caleb questioned.
"You know, after the timeship got there. I mean it just happened a day ago from our perspective – but it actually happened about two hundred years ago. I mean the temporal shields on the station protect us, or else we might not be having this conversation. Hell, we might have ceased to exist without those shields." Garth finished, causing the two to become silent again.
-Deck seventy-two. The computer announced, as the lift stopped and then doors opened.
"Here is my stop." Garth said, as he started out of the lift.
"See you tomorrow." Caleb said to his friend, as Garth exited the turbolift. Suddenly he thought of something, and stuck his hand in between the doors to stop them from shutting. "Hey Garth, I have an idea."
--
Alroy Tekon sat on a couch in the main lounge of Starbase One. He was staring out at the empty docking bay, when his eyes were diverted by the space doors starting to open. He watched them fully open, and a sleek ship slid through them. He squinted his eyes, and read the small letters on the hull. NCV Timeless. He chuckled at the name, thinking back to when that ship was put in commission. The Timeless was the very first timeship built by Starfleet, and by far the most seasoned. He watched the space doors close, and saw the Timeless flash blue for a moment indicating that the temporal shields had gone offline.
"She's a beauty, isn't she?" Alroy jumped from being startled, then mentally scolded himself from not being aware of his surroundings. He turned around and saw an old friend.
"Captain Chad Ryan, is that you?" Alroy said as he stood up to greet his friend.
"The one and only that I know of." Captain Ryan replied, and gave his friend a hug. The two had gone through many years at the Academy together – and after Chad received a promotion to be in command of the timeship Nova, they had somewhat lost touch.
"Is the Nova been called here?" Alroy asked as they both sat down.
"Sure has. We are in docking port nine. This whole thing with the Dakota has gotten everyone shaken up…"
"You have got that right. We have people working around the clock right now studying the timeline to see what is happening back there. Only thing is that it takes a while for temporal changes to bleed through, it could be a few more days before we learn what happened."
"I know. Hey, no one ever cleared this up for me, why couldn't we get them out of there with the temporal escape safeguard?" Chad asked, as he looked out the window at the Timeless.
"Their transponder was somehow damaged. We couldn't get a stable enough lock to bring the whole ship back to our timeframe… in their transmission they said that they suspected sabotage."
"Really?" Chad said with concern. "That is not good, if someone is trying to undermine the time program…" He trailed off thinking. "Anyway, it was great to talk to you for the moment. We both have a meeting with the Temporal Integrity Commission this afternoon, I will see you there." Chad departed leaving Alroy alone with his thoughts.
--
"So why are we here again?" Caleb asked as he and Garth stood facing the entry doors of holosuite twelve.
"We are doing research." Came the response from Garth, as he pressed a button on the computer panel near the door. "Computer, can you show us a holographic bridge of the starship Voyager?
-There were three ships to bear the name Voyager. Please specify between the original, the second and the third. The computer announced.
"The origional." Garth said back.
-Program complete. Enter when ready. The starbase computer said.
"Well, lets go say hello to our past." Caleb glared at Garth as the doors opened, and the two walked through. They instantly found themselves walking out of a turbolift, and on the bridge of a ship.
"Well its bigger than I thought it would be." Caleb said, as he walked down to the center of the unoccupied room.
"Sure is… man look at all this outdated stuff! Their TCARS system looks so old." Garth said, as he walked to the tactical station and studied the console. Caleb walked up the helm and pressed a few buttons.
"That's because it isn't TCARS, that hasn't been invented yet. They are still using LCARS. You know Garth, this ship was one of the most advanced of the day. This was the first ship to use the bio-neural circuitry of the time. Oh and they had the holographic Doctor, the EMH Mark One." Garth nodded.
"Good point, they were pretty advanced for the time. What about the propulsion?" He asked, as he joined Caleb by the helm station. He pressed a few buttons, and brought up the propulsion specs. "This thing can only go warp nine? If only they new about the sub-galactic drives we use today, like the axxom core."
"Um they probably do know about it now."
"What?"
"Yeah, remember the Dakota? They had an axxom core. If the Dakota was exposed to Voyager, there is no telling how that could effect our past… and future."
The two boys stared at each other for a moment, then looked around the bridge of the ship.
"We need to do something about this. First, lets learn a little about the people of Voygaer."
"Does the starbase computer have their profiles stored?"
"I guess we will find out. Computer display the bridge crew of the time, and run program."
-Program parameters are not complete, run program anyway?
"Yes." Immediately, a holographic crew appeared. Tom Paris at helm, Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay in the command chairs, Tuvok at tactical, and Harry Kim at ops. Suddenly, the simulation thrived with life.
"And so anyway," Janeway was saying, "I had the replicator programmed to make roast beef – and Mark and his folks were knocking at the door. So, I told the replicator to make the food while I let them in. When they all walked in I smelled something burning, and the replicator had completely liquefied the roast, and it was running everywhere! I swear Chakotay, I don't have good luck with those things."
Caleb and Garth glanced at each other. Suddenly, the bridge of Voyager shook mildly. The holocharacters ignored it.
"Computer, what was that?" Caleb said.
-Unknown. The computer replied. The two boys looked at each other with concern. "Computer, end program and exit!" The Voyager bridge vanished, and the boys ran out of the room.
--
"What is that?" Alroy Tekon asked a lieutenant on the command deck of Starbase One. Before the man could respond, Fleet Admiral Monroe walked out of the turbolift.
"Report!" He barked as he walked towards the center of the command room.
"Sir, I am detecting multiple ships approaching our position at high warp."
"Whos ships are they? Can you get a visual?" He replied, as he frowned.
"No visual link yet sir… but they are approaching way to fast. The warp signature is Starfleet but I cannot identify the ships. Sir, I cant even tell how many there are!"
"Red alert, arm defenses!" He said, as he sat down in his chair.
"Sir, they are dropping out of warp."
"On screen." Admiral Monroe said as he stood back up. Four enormous ships dropped out of warp, right in front of the starbase. The floor vibrated underneath everyone.
"The vibrations are their residual warp trails, because they dropped out so close to us." The lieutenant said. "Sir, they are backing off." The four ships fired reverse thrusters, and backed to a safe distance from the starbase.
"Hail the lead ship!" Admiral Monroe said from his standing position.
"They are hailing us, sir."
"Onscreen." The image flicked on the screen to a bridge of an unfamiliar ship; and a very confused Captain. "Identify yourself!" Fleet Admiral Monroe said, clearly unhappy. The man on the viewscreen cleared his throat, frowning.
"I am Captain John Banner, of the Starfleet Evac Ship Glory. Sir… I'm not sure what's going on here, but your station as well as earth were destroyed three years ago."
Authors Note:
Hey. So, I don't know if I liked this chapter or not. Still trying to decide. Anyway, your comments and reviews would be appreciated. Happy New Years, everyone.