Chapter Six
Quantum Universes And The Realities Of It All
Note: A serious and heartfelt thanks to Major Diarrhia for the input on quantum universal mechanics and theory of the day. He helped me a lot and I appreciate it very much. I have a few theories of my own which are mentioned here as well, but I'll stick to ST Cannon for the most part. It still may not be correct but I will deal with it as I understand the subject better. Also any questions you have put them in the reviews and I will get to them-provided that they aren't related too much as to what is going to happen next. I can't spoil it for you.
Captain Koral and the crew of K'mpec's Honor were suitably impressed by the power curves of the two ships vectoring in on them. So far, there had been nothing in this part of the galaxy that had given them any sort of real one-on-one challenge and he was anxious to see what these ships could do. First, he intended to give the Narns an escape route.
As for G'Kar, he was appalled at the destruction of his ship by these newcomers. Every loss represented a further depletion of his already meager defensive force. "We must help them before they are destroyed!"
The Klingon captain was in complete agreement. He had no intentions of leaving his comrades to the mercy of these new ships. The Narn shields were holding, but the enemy's firepower was destroying their integrity very quickly. Hunting in this part of space was over. They had stayed around too long, their actions anticipated.
"The other ship," Koral said, pointing at the screen. "Move towards it, maximum impulse."
The navigator, quick to obey, plotted a course and literally flew in between the two-surprised Drakh, who were expecting it to flee from them, as had the larger Narn warships. The large Bird-of-prey skimmed past them, taking a massive salvo from the two attackers, its shields flaring brightly. Quickly, the ship accelerated to full impulse. Recovering from the surprise, the two cruisers followed.
"Shields down to seventy-five percent," Worf gloriously bellowed to anyone who cared to listen. "They're using some form of quantum energy discharge."
The Captain grunted his acknowledgement. "Target that ship," he ordered.
"Pulse disruptors locked," the gunner yelled. Photon torpedoes locked!" The targeting computer began to whine as the lock became more and more distinct. And then he began to sing and was joined by the others.
"Shields are building back up."
"We are Klingon!"
G'Kar looked at his allies with the sort of shocked expression that revealed the depth of the revelation that had just been revealed to him. These Klingons truly loved battle, even more so than he had imagined. No one in their right minds would have gone through the amount of fire they just had while singing as they had just done.
Worf growled, acknowledging G'Kar's silent observation then turned his attention back on the Drakh Raiders and Destroyers just now becoming aware of the danger behind them. In that moment of confusion, the Narn survivors began powering up their jump engines. The startled Raiders vectored away, trying for a new attack position at the oncoming Klingon warship. Ignoring them, and taking long distance fires from two other Drakh vessels, the K'mpec's Honor fired barrage after barrage of photon torpedoes into the targeted enemy ship then continued the pounding with its disruptors. Powerful as it was, the unshielded ships armored hull couldn't withstand the attack and the large ship violently broke apart, before exploding.
"Shields down to fifty-three percent!"
"The remaining Narn have jumped," G'Kar yelled, adding his voice to the others.
Distracted, the Raiders weren't in position to add their firepower to stop the fleeing Narn ships and were now vectoring towards the Klingon ships portside even as the Destroyers closed in.
"Cloak and wrap three, any direction!"
***
The Drakh Commanders watched in silence, coldly assessing their intended prey as it simply faded away and escaped using that strange form of FTL propulsion. One of their main ships had been destroyed and two of their Raiders had been critically damaged. Instead of decapitating the pirates, most of the Narn ships had gotten away. Even with the supplied data, the resilience of that small vessel had surprised them. However their own weaponry had been found to be effective in beating down the shields, given enough time. And at the next opportunity, they would hunt down and kill that ship.
***
Captain Picard, inside his Ready Room started pacing once more. He'd received the transmission from Captain Sisko and to say that he was dismayed would have been a gross understatement. His first impulse was to push this revelation into the back of his mind and deal with it at a later time. The Centauri and Drakh forces were gathering and would probably attack within the hour. Preparations were ready and Number One and Lieutenants Data and Yar were more than ready to handle any immediate crisis and of course, he in the room right next to the bridge.
Rubbing his neck, he sat in his chair and hit the comms. "Lieutenant Yar, open a channel to the Ambassador and patch it through."
"Aye, Sir."
A few seconds later, Captain Garret's face appeared onscreen and it looked as strained as he felt. "I just got the report," she said without preamble. "I can't believe that we're trapped here. It's like being victims of a tired joke."
"I refused to accept this. Our future is not written. I will not accept that we cannot return to our home."
"You don't believe Ben's report?"
The information Captain Sisko had passed on to them hadn't come as a complete surprise, but the details had left them somewhat stunned. If true, then everything that they remembered, everything they knew and all that they had left behind was gone.
As soon as Picard had read the report, he realized the implications. As he understood it, admittedly not as well as some of the experts but well enough, their particular temporal reality shouldn't have existed in the first place. The specific quantum reality was still there but their temporal timeline was essentially reabsorbed by the so-called 'mainbranch' quantum reality.
There were those who believed that one's decisions, for example turning right rather than turning left, or even nor moving at all, could and did produce divergent realities-different universes if you will, that co-existed side-by-side with one another. That produced an endless number of alternate universes existing next to one another but never quite touching, as they each possessed specific and unique quantum signatures. And scientists had discovered a certain validity of that theory as in the so-called mirror universe Kirk and his people were temporarily trapped in. However the theory had certain inconsistencies and as yet unexplained quandaries. Yes, the quantum branches did exist and were independent, but there had to be some regulatory system in place to keep the multiverse from becoming infinitely cluttered with alternate realities.
Picard speculated that his temporal universe may have run afoul of that regulatory system. After all, if he understood Guinan's information correctly, his universe had existed for less than seventy-two hours. When his ships went through that temporal aperture that very well may have initiated a collapse of that timeline. It could have been absorbed, or frozen, or even completely eliminated to maintain multiversal balance. He would probably never know the truth. And that created more possibilities and problems.
If they could get back before the Enterprise-D and C went through the temporal 'rabbit hole' then there would be duplicate sets of Picards and Garretts trying to correct the time line. What would happen to if they succeeded? Would that timeline go on, continuing to exist, or would it be re-absorbed? If it didn't cease, then there would still be a second Garrett, his Garrett, stuck in the wrong time. If she went back with all of the modifications on the Ambassador, then the time line would still be polluted.
He didn't even want to think about the possibility of creating a recursive temporal loop.
If they went back after the event then because of their identical quantum structures, they might well be eliminated in favor of the original residents present whether in the original or modified timeline-because they weren't supposed to exist in the first place. They could, if the had the ability to, travel to a similar quantum universe and suffer no effects, but it wouldn't be theirs. And he had his crews to think about. Their safety was in jeopardy here, however getting home may- and he stressed this to himself, because he wasn't convinced yet-be inviting certain obliteration. Even if they somehow made it to the original universe, in which the war with the klingons never occurred, Garrett would still be in the wrong timeline. Alive, but lost in time. Getting home had been their main concern. Now the worry was, what would happen to them if they actually succeeded.
"I will not take the word of a race of unknown aliens telling us that we cannot return home." Once more he rubbed his neck. "What are we to tell our crew, that we are not real? Shall I inform them that we are simply fragments of a reality that no longer exists?"
The concern he had for his crew was evident and she understood exactly how she felt. She understood the implications as well. "Unfortunately, much of what he has says fits with what we already know. And we know that the future timeline that the Ambassador found itself in should not have existed in the first place." She paused as the full import of the report began sink in. She smiled ruefully. "Words cannot describe how I feel about practical applications of temporal-spatial and sidereal theory. I truly, truly hate temporal-quantum mechanics."
Picard's frown in its way, completely matched the Garret's attitude. "As soon as we can, we all need to talk and decide a course of action."
"Acknowledged," Jean-Luc. "But if it's true and we're trapped here-permanently-then we need to keep this quiet until after this mess calms down."
"I believe I will have Mr. Crusher work out the details," he said. "A few months of research would do him a world of good. It will help balance him."
"And give him a few headaches."
"That, Captain, is what we do." He knew they were both trying to lighten the glumly mood they each were in. And it had almost worked, too.
Lieutenant Yar's voice interrupted. "Captain, the rest of the Earth Force fleet has arrived. You should see this, sir."
"Rachel, I have to go," he said. "It's starting."
She shook her head in acknowledgement. "Good luck," she announced, and then cut communications.
Picard entered the bridged and grimaced at what he saw. "Are those readings correct?"
Riker merely nodded. "They didn't waste any time, did they?"
"Scan those ships and find out exactly what what's going on."
"Hello," Yar murmured as she watched the information come in on the new Omega class Destroyers, along with two modified Nova-s outfitted with gunboats, exiting the hyperspace jump-point. "There're a total of sixteen of them, definitely derived from Shadow technology. All of them have a form of bio-armor similar to the type on the Shadow vessel we encountered. Weapons system specs indicate some type of fusion canon probably helium-based, very powerful. But I can't get much more detail. It's like they have some sort of scattering field interfering with our sensors. We'll have to get closer for a more detailed analysis but preliminary power ratings indicate that they can probably wipe out the Earth Force fleet protecting the base, Sir."
"Transmit this information to Commander Ivanova."
Commander Susan Ivanova, Second-in-Command of Babylon Five, Captain of White Star Two, slammed her fist so hard into the arm of her seat that she almost broke her hand. To say that she was livid was an understatement. To describe her attitude upon hearing the news as being furious, came much closer to the truth. "Captain Picard, Captain Chamberlain," she started quickly. "Those ships are a result of President Clarke's experimentation with two Shadow vessels that were found on Mars and Ganymede some time ago. The ship on Mars was rescued by another Shadow vessel, but we managed to destroy the one on Ganymede, but evidently not soon enough for his people to figure out some of the technology."
"I hadn't heard anything about this at all," Chamberlain confessed, disturbed by the images he saw on his view screen. "How did they keep something like this a secret for so long?"
"With President Clarke? Please!" Susan snorted. "What I don't understand is how did he rush into production so many, so quickly. He must have gutted the treasury for those ships." She was quiet for a moment, her initial fury fading. "But what I do understand is that he planned to use those ships to put his foot on EarthForce's neck. With that praetorian guard," she said, motioning in the direction of those hybrid ships, "no one on Earth could have resisted him. "He would have taken us out at B5 and we couldn't have stopped him."
"Excuse me, sir," Tasha added. "The ships power fluctuations seem to be unstable."
"Explain."
"Lieutenant Yar is correct," Data said. "Judging from the information coming from the hybrid Shadow-Omega vessels, I surmise that they have been rushed into production. They may not be completed or at the very least, field tested."
"That would be like Clarke to rush them into service before they are ready," Susan responded. "But as much as I hate to say it we may need them before this is over."
Next: The Battle of Proxima III