Star Trek Hunter
Episode 7: The Great Mushroom
Scene 16: A Mushroom in Reverse
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7.16
A Mushroom in Reverse
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"Now that that's settled, it's time to address the elephant in the room," Justice Irons said. Just as Pep cleared his throat, Irons added, "Or I should say, the mushroom. We all had the visions. Even Lieutenant Dolphin - and before he broke the seal from the tactical unit, meaning he had not breathed Hunter's air. So we can probably rule out spores. So the question is, what is causing these premonitions?"

Dr. Carrera said, "We don't have enough information - or maybe we do, but it's spread around. We all need to know what everyone saw and when they saw it."

"I think I might have been the first," said Dolphin. "About a week ago at our last senior staff meeting, I was talking about a dream. It didn't mean anything to me at the time, but that vision we all had of Tauk coughing blood, I had that exact vision in my dream. That was before I even knew the Hunter was going to Pillo and even then I didn't know that I would link back up with you before you broke orbit."

"I saw Pep with a hole in his chest - his heart had been removed," Dr. Carrera added. "It was a bizarre dream - a nightmare really."

"Sounds to me like a premonition about me getting stabbed," Commander David Pepper responded.

"Is your heart missing?" Irons asked.

Pep patted his hands about on his chest as if to make sure. "Doesn't seem to be…"

"But in the dream, even though there was a hole, he said his heart wasn't missing," Carrera responded.

"Did any of you feel that you were contacted by an intelligence?" Irons asked.

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Her question elicited only confused looks.

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Irons described her dreams involving the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the dying brown dwarf star, although she omitted the part about Mlady.

The room was silent for a moment, but only Dr. Carrera seemed to be taking it in.

"It does sound like an intelligent contact. But there's a lot to unpack here. You said they were feeding stellar material to Pi 110?" Carrera asked.

Irons nodded. "I couldn't even begin to describe the technology."

"That would have to be billions of years in the future. That star should have an exceptionally long life-span."

"I got the feeling that it was a far distant future," Irons replied.

"Here's my guess - and please observe the caveat that it is a wild guess…" Carrera leaned forward in his chair, clearly excited. "I suspect we are in contact with a vast intelligence that has not yet become sentient - but will in the far distant future. This could be an example of symmetric causality."

This statement earned Carrera blank looks from everyone except Tauk. The little ferengi took a drink and cleared his throat. "So something in the future is causing what we are experiencing?"

"It sounds counterintuitive, but only because we have evolved to experience causality past to future. But an intelligence could conceivably experience causality from what we would consider future to past. Causality - assuming it happens at all - and our universe makes no sense to us if it does not - must run both directions. We have demonstrated this effect over and over at the subatomic level, but it must apply as a general rule. In fact, it is what makes recursive warp drive – our zip drive – possible. So let's assume for a moment that is what is at work here."

Carrera paused a moment to let everyone else catch up. "Our intelligence is, in our experience, accidental. We have deliberately furthered it, but its origins were what we would call accidental. But our friend - let's assume for the moment it's the mushroom - could not have achieved sentience without a series of deliberate actions, among the first of which would be to create the potential for a symbiotic relationship with sentient bipeds - the colonists of Pillo."

Dr. Tali Shae looked as if she had received a sudden shock. "Are you suggesting that the reason the colonists found an environment ready-made for them, complete with oxygen, potable water and carnivorous mushroom showers, is because this mushroom instructed itself in the distant future to create this environment in the past?"

"It sounds exotic when you put it that way. But think about it this way," Carrera mused. "Creating these environmental potentials are among the last sentient acts of a being that would be in a condition we would compare to senility. Gone are the halcyon days of its youth at the other end of space-time from our perspective. And now, in these, as we would consider them, early days of our universe, but to our agaricaloid friend, its last moments as a sentient being, it hangs onto the one task it must accomplish to make what we would refer to as its final form possible."

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Pep turned to Dr. Tali Shae. "Doc, whatever you're prescribing for him, I want some too…"

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Irons smiled. "I can see you have the bit between your teeth. If you're not careful, this idea of yours might end up garnering another honorary doctorate for you." Irons took a deep breath. "Whatever this intelligence is, it seems clear others could use it to make mischief. I am going to recommend that Star Fleet establish a permanent presence and garrison this system with sufficient resources to prevent the Nausicaan Collective or any other bad actors from taking over this system."

She looked around at her directors. "I want each of you to think through your experiences and provide a detailed report not only of your own visions and experiences, but also for your staff - in as much detail as possible. Let's leave Pep and Tauk to rest. Both have surgeries ahead of them. And please try not to gather any more injuries for now. We will remain in orbit of Pillo until Star Fleet can dispatch an appropriate relief vessel for us. We are adjourned."

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