Chapter 5

Captain's log; stardate 54735.7: I've just found out that the Hawking will not be arriving to assist us in the study of this anomaly, nor will they be able to help us recover the starship stuck inside. I cannot wait any longer. We are now required to make an attempt to assist this starship.

Lindsey was on the bridge staring at the viewscreen. The entity was in front of them, and although the viewscreen was not a window, Lindsey knew the Orion was facing the entity and the viewscreen was set to a display the forward view. It was almost as if she could sense the entity just outside the ship.

Lindsey had mentally begun calling it the entity instead of the anomaly, because she was now personally convinced that it was a living entity. And whatever it was, it was responsible for her temporal displacement, if that was what you could call it.

Capt. Taylor came onto the bridge from her ready room. She had just entered her captain's office to take a call from sector command. Lindsey found herself entering old habits as she turned to face her captain.

"The Hawking will not be coming," said Capt. Taylor. "This task falls to us alone." Lindsey was slightly relieved. She did not what to have to explain her situation to another crew of another ship. The more people who found out, the harder it would be to uphold the Temporal Prime Directive. Capt. Taylor sat in her captain's chair. "We were ordered to wait on the Hawking before taking any action, but I for one am no longer willing to wait. As long as there is a starship possibly in distress, I plan on acting. Suggestions."

"I don't even know where to begin, Captain," said Lt. Okimoto. "We don't have the first idea of how to dispel this anomaly."

Dispel the anomaly?! Lindsey felt herself cringe. If she was right, and this was a living entity, they couldn't just dispel it. And if it was dispelled, it might leave her stuck in this time period? There was no way she could maintain the timeline while being stuck here!

"What about that starship?" asked Taylor. "Has there been any sign of life on board it?"

"Our sensors can't penetrate the anomaly," said the tactical officer.

"There are other ways to test for life," said Taylor. "Has the ship moved?"

"No, Ma'am."

"What if we could communicate with it?" asked Cmdr. Gonzalez.

"Communication signals cannot penetrate the anomaly' barrier," repeated the tactical officer.

"But our probes can," said Gonzalez. "We've sent three of them, and they appear to have made their way into the anomaly."

"And then we lost communication with them," insisted the tactical officer.

But Lindsey's mind started working. If physical matter could enter into the entity…

"What if we tried a hard wire communication link?" asked Gonzalez.

"A hard wire?" asked Lt. Cmdr. Geoffrey MacDonald, the Orion's chief engineer.

"Yeah," insisted Gonzalez. "Attached a wire to the communication hub of a class four probe then send it into the anomaly."

"Could it be done?" asked Capt. Taylor of her engineer.

Lt. Cmdr. MacDonald nodded his head. "It would take a while to replicate the wire. It would have to be a heavy-duty cable. And I suggest that we shield it with whatever materials and energy shielding we can."

"How long?" asked the Captain.

"Two days if I took the time to do all I would want to do," replied MacDonald. "Or I could give you a fairly decent version in seven hours."

"Seven hours?"

MacDonald answered Capt. Taylor. "To make enough cable to reach near the middle of the anomaly all the way to the Orion; seven hours is a rush job."

"How can we reduce the time?"

"Who says we need to connect the cable to the Orion?" asked Gonzalez. "We just need it to be outside the anomaly."

"Yes," added MacDonald. "We could attach the cable to a shuttle which can get much closer to the anomaly. The crew of the shuttle could then transmit the communications to the Orion over standard frequencies. I could have the probe, the cable, and a shuttle ready in three hours."

"Three hours it is," said Taylor. "Unless I hear a better option, I say we proceed."

Lindsey had been half listening. Once Lt. Cmdr. MacDonald mentioned a shuttle, an idea came to her mind. It was a stupid idea. But she couldn't stop thinking about it. The entity was responsible for her being here at this time. And several times Lindsey felt it calling to her.

Lindsey looked up at the entity on the viewscreen. It was calling to her. Begging her to help it. She had to help it. She had to go to it.

"Captain," spoke Lindsey suddenly. "I suggest we use two shuttles."

"Why?" asked Capt. Taylor.

"A redundancy. Or rather a contingency. What if the anomaly tries to pull the shuttlecraft in?"

"We could use the Orion's tractor beam," said Gonzalez.

"A second shuttle could respond quicker," countered Lindsey.

"I'm confident in our bridge crew's ability with the tractor beam," replied Gonzalez.

"I agree," said Capt. Taylor. "Lindsey, I see no reason to use a second shuttle."

Lindsey gave up her argument. "Understood, Captain." But Taylor gave her a very suspicious look.

"Proceed as planned," said the Captain. "Let me know when you are ready."

The shuttlecraft from the Orion was waiting for them on Betazed just as Cmdr. Thrim had said. It was the shuttlecraft Roma, a Delta Flyer class shuttle. The original Delta Flyer was designed by the crew of Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. These shuttles were more costly to build than standard Starfleet shuttlecraft, but Cmdr. Hickensen had insisted on having at least one on the Orion. This made Frank happy. The Roma was faster and more capable than any other auxiliary craft in the Orion's shuttle bay. And it was more comfortable. Frank and Alivia boarded the vessel. Alivia took the controls. Frank usually let his wife fly. Neither were pilots by trade, and their skills were about equal, but Alivia was the engineer. It seemed fitting to Frank that a woman who spent her day maintaining these shuttles should be the one to fly them.

"Preparing for atmospheric ascent," said Alivia. She lifted the Roma off the ground and eased power to its atmospheric thrusters. Once they were clear of the city below, she put more power into the thrusters. When they left the atmosphere of Betazed, Alivia kicked in the impulse engines. Lastly, when they were well clear of the planet, Alivia activated the shuttle's small warp core. "We are cruising at warp 5. We will arrive at the Orion in three hours."

"Three hours all to ourselves," said Frank.

"Yes, three hours without parents or in-laws or commercial transport passengers," said Alivia.

"What do you want to do for three hours?"

"What I want to do and what we need to do are two different things," answered Alivia. And Frank knew what she was saying. "We need to talk."

"About the job or about the conversation with my parents?" asked Frank. "I'm sorry they were so pushy on the topic of children.

"I don't mind it," said Alivia. "My sister has already provided grandchildren to my parents. Your parents are not so lucky…yet."

"Yet?" asked Frank. "We've kicked around the idea of adoption for some time, but are we serious?"

"You are," said Alivia. "You've wanted to bring a child into our marriage for over a year."

"True, but I don't make the decisions." Frank pointed back and forth between him and his wife. "We make the decisions."

"I'm serious too," said Alivia. "I want children. And I want to adopt. My parents adopted me. Without them who knows where I would be. I would like to provide a home for some orphan children, perhaps even an Orion child. But I didn't think a starship was the best place for us to raise an adopted child."

"Which brings us to the topic of the job," said Frank. "The Utopia Planitia shipyards seemed very interested during your interview. If you submit a request for transfer, I'm sure that Capt. Lander would sign off on it, and the folks on Mars would gladly take you."

"I know. And it's my dream job," said Alivia. "I applied for the chief engineer's position on the Orion because it was a new ship, fresh out of dry dock. I thought it would give me some real-world experience on an operational starship. With that on my résumé, I could get the Utopia Planitia job building the new ships with an eye towards their real-world function."

"Then this seems like a great opportunity," said Frank. "You get your dream job. I can resign my commission and begin my anthropology studies. We could raise our children on Earth while you commute to Mars." Frank paused. He knew what his wife was thinking, but he needed her to say it. "So, what's holding you back?"

"The Orion," said Alivia. "When I started there, I thought of it as a steppingstone. Four or five years and then on to the next thing. But I didn't expect it to mean so much to me. I didn't expect to fall in love and get married. And I didn't expect to make such good friends. Capt. Lander has become a mentor to me. I've made friends: Selina, Melinda, the entire women's officer group, even T'Sel. Then there's Samae. That Bajoran girl is like a little sister to me. I never expected that leaving the Orion would be so hard."

"It would be hard for me too," said Frank. "Henry and I are dear friends. I will miss the guys in security. And my best friend in the entire galaxy, besides you," added Frank quickly. "Is Lindsey Lander. We've served together for nearly nine years."

"Oh my," said Alivia. "Jealousy rising." Frank knew she was joking. Alivia was well aware that Frank had once considered dating Lindsey Lander. That was before she became captain and before he met Alivia. "Don't get me wrong, but I am glad that you never asked her out."

"I almost got the nerve once," said Frank. Alivia looked at him. "I think she figured out what I was doing."

"What did she do?"

"She got nervous and left the room."

"Ouch!" said Alivia. "I didn't realize that she rejected you."

"She didn't reject me," said Frank defensively. "It just wasn't a good time. She wasn't really herself at that time, or so Dr. Randle told me. She caught some bug on Betazed. It caused her to do strange things. I didn't take it personally, but it did cause me to hold back in my advances towards Lindsey." Frank paused as he thought of Lindsey lying helpless in sickbay.

Alivia must have been thinking the same thing. "I hope she's okay."

"Thrim didn't seem concerned," said Frank.

"You and I both know Thrim doesn't have a poker face. He's concerned."

"I know," said Frank. It was true, Ser'rek Thrim was not the best liar. His antennae were his tell. Frank noticed in the communication that they were stiff with stress. Alivia must have also noticed. "Let's hope that she's better by the time we get there."

Lindsey remained on the bridge. She walked up to the tactical console and asked permission of the officer there. "Lieutenant, I am nervous about not having that second shuttle. Do you mind if I double check the tractor beam?"

"Be my guest," answered the officer. He let Lindsey work beside him. Lindsey pulled up the tractor beam's status. She glanced at the tactical officer. He was focused on something else at the moment. Lindsey paused for a second in decision. Then she disabled the tractor beam, locking it out with Capt. Taylor's own person command codes.

Lindsey knew Capt. Taylor's command codes because they were still active on the Orion-A when she had taken command of it, since that ship reused the computer core from the old Orion. Lindsey had never deleted them. It had become a bit of a game for her to try and guess Capt. Taylor's codes. It had helped her once to take back her ship from the Borg, and it would help her now.

"The tractor beam looks fine," said Lindsey. She stepped away from the tactical console and retreated to an engineering console. She watched the bridge for a few seconds. Capt. Taylor and Cmdr. Gonzalez were in a discussion. Lt. Okimoto was doing scans of the entity. No one was paying attention to Lindsey. She turned and exited the bridge via the rear turbolift.

She took the lift down a few decks and then proceeded to the shuttle bay at the rear of the saucer. She walked through the shuttle bay doors with a stride that implied that she was supposed to be there. She stopped about five steps in and evaluated the layout.

The bay doors were open, but a forcefield was raised to prevent the atmosphere inside from escaping into space. On Lindsey's left, facing the open bay doors, was the shuttlecraft that was being prepared for connection to the probe. On Lindsey's right was a second shuttle.

She walked up to the first shuttle. "How much longer before you are ready to launch?" asked Lindsey of the pilot and engineer.

"Ten minutes," said the engineer.

"We've already reported to the bridge," said the pilot.

"Sorry about the redundancy. You know the Captain often likes one of her officers nearby." It was true. Capt. Taylor often sent a bridge officer to liaison with away teams or work crews. Both crewmen nodded.

Lindsey walked away from them. She walked over to a storage compartment on the walk and removed an emergency medical pack and one other piece of equipment. Then she walked over to the second shuttle and opened its side hatch. She climbed into the pilot's seat and powered up the ship's systems. She began the warmup sequence of the impulse engines. She hoped that the sound of the first shuttles engines would mask the sounds of the second. Her hope was almost fulfilled when a voice interrupted her. "Lindsey, what are you doing?"

"Frank! You startled me," said Lindsey. It was true. Her friend suddenly appearing in the of the shuttle had made her jump. He was just inside the doorway, about two arm's lengths away from Lindsey.

"Sorry, Lindsey," said Frank with an apologetic note. But then he spoke again. "But I have to ask what you are doing."

"I'm warming up the shuttle. Captain wants two shuttles for this mission."

"Strange. I was told there was to be only one shuttle."

"The orders must not have been specific," said Lindsey. "Yes, there is to be one shuttle connected to the probe, but the second is to monitor the first in case of emergency."

"No, Lindsey. The orders were very specific. There was to be only one shuttle," said Frank. "A second shuttle was expressly forbidden. I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to step out of the shuttle, Lieutenant."

Lindsey thought her heart had stopped for a second. Frank was a security officer. His job would require him to enforce the Captain's orders. There was only one way out of this corner Lindsey had maneuvered herself into. No, there had to be another way. She could still talk her way out of this one. "The orders have changed. Cmdr. Gonzalez prevailed upon the Captain, and she changed her mind. There will be two shuttles now."

Frank seemed relieved that he didn't have to arrest his friend. But Lindsey felt her relief crushed as Frank spoke. "I'll have to check it." His hand drifted towards his commbadge.

Panic allowed Lindsey to move quickly. She placed her left hand on the pilot's console, and pulled herself towards Frank, quickly bridging the distance between them. With her right hand she swatted his hand away from his commbadge. Then grabbing the handle above the doorway, she pulled herself up and delivered a double-footed kick to Frank's chest. He fell backwards out of the shuttle and landed on his rear. Lindsey then grabbed the piece of equipment next to the medical pack and pointed it at Frank.

The look of shock on Frank's face as he looked down the business end of Lindsey's phaser nearly broke Lindsey's heart. "I'm sorry, Frank." Lindsey pressed down on the phaser's thumb trigger. The orange energy beam shot out and hit Frank square in the chest. He lay flat on the deck, stunned.

Lindsey quickly closed the shuttle door. The comm indicated that the first shuttle was exiting the shuttle bay. She turned her shuttle around, careful not to hurt her stunned friend on the deck floor. Out the forward window she could see the first shuttle about to pass through the forcefield. She had to launch at the same time or else she would be trapped in the shuttle bay. She activated the thrusters and drove her shuttle at reckless speeds towards the first shuttle. Her proximity alert sounded, but she ignored it. She banged into the side of the first shuttle just as it passed through the forcefield. Both shuttles tumbled out of the shuttle bay.

Lindsey didn't wait. She pulled the shuttle up and into a tight 180° turn. Then she kicked in the impulse engines, and flew over the Orion's saucer, towards the anomaly.

"Security alert!" said the tactical officer. "Weapons' fire in the shuttle bay."

"Weapons' fire?!" Capt. Taylor stood up and faced the officer behind her.

"Yes, Captain. It looks like a phaser was discharged." The officer suddenly looked panicked. "Unauthorized shuttle launch! A second shuttle exited the shuttle bay with our communications shuttle!"

Taylor searched the bridge with her eyes. "Where's Lander?" she asked.

"She was here a few minutes ago," said the tactical officer."

A movement caught Taylor's eye. She looked at the forward viewscreen just as a shuttle zoomed by and made its way towards the anomaly. "Tractor beam! I want that shuttle stopped."

"Tractor beam is inoperative. It's been locked into a one-hour diagnostic."

"Override the diagnostic!" shouted Luis.

"I can't. I've been locked out," said the tactical officer.

"Who could lock out my chief tactical officer from the tractor beam controls?" asked Taylor.

"You, Captain," replied the officer.

"That's ridiculous. Why would I do that?"

"But you did, Captain. These are your command codes locking me out."

Taylor ran around the bridge railing and starred down at the tactile console. The lock out codes were her own. She had to cycle through various codes before she found the right one. Finally, she unlocked the controls. "There. Now stop that shuttle."

"No good, Captain. The tractor beam needs five minutes to exit diagnostic mode."

Taylor looked at the viewscreen as she walked back to her chair. As she sat down she said in a low voice. "It's Lander. She's in that shuttle." She looked accusingly at Luis.

"Was I supposed to watch her?" asked her first officer.

"Yes," said Taylor insistently. "How did she know my command codes?"

"Maybe it was that forbidden knowledge she mentioned," said Luis.

Taylor looked out at the viewscreen as the shuttle flew ever nearer to the anomaly. "Lindsey, what have you done?"

Lindsey flew the shuttle directly at the entity in front of her. She could feel its call, but as the shuttle drew closer, Lindsey began to second guess her plan. But it was too late to change.

The edge of the anomaly was hard to see out the forward viewport, but Lindsey knew she was drawing nearer. She felt a pressure on her mind that was growing. Then the shuttle shook violently as if it had hit something. And the pressure turned into pain. Lindsey held her head in her arms and fell from the pilot's chair.

Warning buzzers sounded throughout sickbay as Capt. Lander's vital signs unexpectedly jumped. Her heartrate was at 150 beats per minute and climbing. Dr. Crusher acted instantly. "I need improvoline, now!" A nurse handed her a hypospray of the sedative, and Dr. Crusher applied it to the Captain's neck. "Call Dr. Bashir. Tell him to get here STAT!" Crusher and Bashir had been taking turns monitoring the Captain's condition. "We need to slow down her heartrate."

"What's happening?" asked Cmdr. Hickensen.

"I'm not sure, Commander," said Crusher. "But I need space to tend to your wife." Cmdr. Hickensen fought his instincts and backed away.

She had just gotten the Captain's heartrate down when Dr. Bashir arrived. "What's happening?"

"I wish I knew," said Dr. Crusher. "Her neural activity and her heart rate just skyrocketed. I managed to bring her heartrate down, but the shear intensity of neural activity is overwhelming her brain."

Dr. Bashir took a quick look at the monitors. "Her synaptic pathways cannot handle this much stress. We have to find a way to reduce it."

"Captain! The anomaly!" shouted the tactical officer.

Capt. Taylor had just watched as Lindsey's shuttle crashed into the anomaly. Now she was watching the shuttle slowly be pulled through the anomaly's outer boundary. But the anomaly itself was reacting. Its boundaries were fluctuating.

"Captain, should we back off?" asked Luis.

"No, not yet," said Capt. Taylor. "But be ready, helm. Lt. Okimoto, I hope you are recording all these sensor readings."

"I am taking it all in," said the science officer.

Capt. Taylor stood watching. Not the religious type, she found herself saying a silent prayer for Lindsey.

"Report," ordered Thrim. From his place on the bridge, he could see the changes in the anomaly.

"The anomaly is changing," said Sensor Chief Shelton. "We are getting various readings. The chronitons are intensely varying. There is no discernable pattern."

"It's like it's in pain," said Ens. Rikka. "Or at least it is reacting to something."

"Something we did?" asked Thrim.

"We've done nothing," answered Rikka. "Whatever it is reacting to, it's not us. It might be occurring at a different space-time."

"You speak as if it is alive, Ensign," observed Thrim.

"That is my current hypothesis, although I don't have the evidence to back it up yet," replied the young science officer.

"Commander," interrupted Lt. Selina Chaput-Mikkelson. "Message from sickbay. Something is happening to the Captain."

"We are approaching the Orion's location. I'm dropping us out of warp early to avoid the anomaly," said Alivia.

Frank watched his wife work the controls. The shuttle dropped out of warp. "I'll contact the ship," said Frank. He activated the comm and spoke. "Shuttlecraft Roma to Orion, we are here and on approach under impulse power."

"Negative, Roma," came Lt. Mikkelson's voice. "Hold position. The anomaly is having some kind of reaction."

"Reaction?" asked Alivia. Frank saw his wife's expression, a mix of curiosity and concern. "What kind do you think?"

"I don't know," said Frank. "Can you display in on the monitor."

"Sure." Alivia did so. "Not much to see. The Roma doesn't have the most powerful or sophisticated sensor array."

"Does it still have the tachyon sensor patch that I suggested?" asked Frank. Back when the Orion used to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone, as security chief, Frank had insisted that every axillary vessel have some ability to detect cloaked ships.

"If this were a standard shuttlecraft, I would say no. But since this is a Delta Flyer class shuttle, I knew it could handle the higher-powered sensor equipment. And I saw no reason to remove them after we left the Neutral Zone," said Alivia. "Powering up tachyon sensors. Whoa!" Frank saw it too. The tachyon-related chroniton particles were all through the anomaly. "How did you know?" asked Alivia.

"Because I've seen this anomaly before, seven years ago on the old Orion."

"Heartrate is stable at 90 beats per minute," said Dr. Crusher.

"But her neural activity is still off the charts," replied Dr. Bashir. "If they get any higher or even maintain this rate for too long, the patient will receive permanent neurological damage."

T'Sel remained silently to the side. She had come as soon as she heard. Her science station was recording all the information, but there was little she could do besides watch and listen. It was logical to let the doctors do their work. At least she thought it was logical. Was there something more that she could do?

"Crusher to the bridge. Whatever you are doing to the anomaly, it's affecting our patient."

"This is the bridge. If someone's affecting the anomaly, it's not us," replied Cmdr. Thrim.

"Great!" said Bashir. "We don't even know the cause of this."

"We don't have time to speculate," said Crusher. "There has to be some way to lower her synaptic activity."

"How?" retorted Dr. Bashir. "Without knowing the cause? With what little that we know, I don't see any way to reduce the brain active below tolerance levels."

Dr. Crusher had a thoughtful look on her face. "What if we didn't lower the synaptic activity? What if instead we raise Capt. Lander's tolerance?"

"Allow her synaptic pathways to handle greater loads?" asked Dr. Bashir with an interested voice. "That would work. How do you propose we do it?"

"Genetic modification would take too long," said Dr. Crusher. "And be illegal. No, offense, Doctor."

"None taken," said the genetically enhanced Dr. Bashir.

"Perhaps we could do so chemically. A drug of some kind," suggested Dr. Crusher.

Bashir came up with an idea. "There is a chemical discovered in the Gamma Quadrant that has mind augmenting abilities. The Vulcan Science Academy was sending research ships through the Bajoran Wormhole to study it."

"Do you have access to any of this drug?" asked Cmdr. Hickensen.

"No," answered Bashir."

"Can you replicate it?" asked Crusher.

"Again no. It is naturally occurring and has thus far eluded replication."

T'Sel stopped listening to the doctors. When the Captain's condition first began, she had studied the Orion's stores of neurological medicines. None of them would help in this circumstance. And if there was a replicable drug that would help, the two doctors had a better chance than T'Sel to figure it out.

But there was one thing T'Sel knew that would help augment Capt. Lander's neural pathways. But it was dangerous. Preserving and improving life was logical, but so was self-preservation. Was it logical to risk one's own life and/or health to save another's? Certainly in some situations. Was this one of them? But T'Sel also had another factor to consider. Hers wasn't the only life she would be risking. Was it logical?

The two doctors were looking at the monitor with the neurological readings. The nurses were looking at the doctors, waiting for orders. The only one at that very moment looking at Capt. Lander was her husband, Cmdr. Hickensen. T'Sel walked to a position alongside the Captain's head. She looked right into the eyes of Cmdr. Hickensen. His eyes grew wide as he realized what she was about to do. His emotions were clearly contradicting themselves, but he didn't stop her.

T'Sel reached for Captain's head with both her hands. She placed her thumbs on Lindsey's jawbone, her index fingers on her cheek bone, and the rest of her fingers on her temples. "Your mind to my mind. Your thoughts to my…"

T'Sel didn't even finish the words when the entire weight of Capt. Lander's mind fell upon her.

Dr. Bashir had taken his eyes off the patient for what seemed to be only a second. His attention was returned by the distressing sound of a woman screaming. He turned around to see the Vulcan scientist with her hands on Capt. Lander's head. Dr. Bashir had only seen a Vulcan scream a few times during the Dominion War. But T'Sel was screaming in pain. Her entire body was shaking.

Dr. Bashir jumped forward to pull her away, but Dr. Crusher shouted. "No, don't separate them! They are linked. Breaking the mind meld now could cause damage to both of them." Dr. Crusher gave an order to one of the nurses. "I need another cortical monitor." The nurse handed one to Dr. Crusher, who then placed it behind the Vulcan woman's head. "We need something for her pain."

Dr. Bashir selected a pain reliever. He wanted to use a more powerful one, but he didn't want to affect T'Sel's ability to hold the mind meld. He applied the hypospray to her neck. "I don't know what she was thinking," said Bashir.

"I do," replied Crusher. "Look. The levels of synaptic activity had decreased in Capt. Lander. Cmdr. T'Sel is using her Vulcan telepathy to share the load. It's extremely dangerous, and not the type of medicine I would approve of."

"Nor I," said Bashir. "But we were getting nowhere." Bashir looked back to the monitors. Now both Capt. Lander's neutral activity and Cmdr. T'Sel's were displayed. Bashir noticed the problem right away.

However, Dr. Crusher said it out loud first. "The Captain's synaptic activity levels are still too high. And Cmdr. T'Sel's synaptic activity is reaching levels dangerous even for a Vulcan." Crusher looked at Bashir, and said somberly, "They can't keep this up for long."

"Commander," came a male voice into Lindsey's mind. "Commander, this is Dr. Bashir. If you can hear me, you have to lower the pressure on your mind."

Lindsey found herself standing over her own body. Her body was lying unresponsive on a biobed. Lindsey was reaching out to her body and had her hands on her body's face.

"Captain!"

"Who's there?"

"It's Cmdr. T'Sel."

"Where are you?"

"With you in sickbay. Our minds are melded. Your thoughts are my thoughts."

"A mind meld?"

"Yes, Captain. You were experiencing extreme mental stress. Your synaptic pathways were degrading. They still may be. Do you know what is causing this?"

"Yes, T'Sel. It's the anomaly. I am attempting to pass through its barrier in a shuttlecraft."

"Captain, that is illogical. You are not in a shuttlecraft. You are in sickbay."

"My body perhaps," said Lindsey. "But my mind has traveled back seven years to my younger body."

"I see," said T'Sel with surprising understanding. Then Lindsey realized that they shared minds. T'Sel could understand exactly what Lindsey was saying. "Captain, I need you to show me where you are."

"How?"

"Remember. What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was in the…"

"Don't tell me. Show me."

Lindsey understood. She was linked to T'Sel's mind and could see what T'Sel could see. But it could also work the other way. She tried to focus on the shuttle. Her vision changed and she was lying on the floor of the shuttle. She tried to look around. From her position she could see the distortion outside the shuttle's forward viewport. "We are still in the anomaly's external barrier."

"We must get out," said T'Sel.

"No, we must get in," said Lindsey. She tried to reach forward but couldn't.

"Together, Captain. The thruster controls."

Lindsey tried with all her effort to move her body. Her head felt like it was on fire. And it throbbed horribly. She was extremely dizzy. But she felt her body move. She also felt T'Sel's mental effort. If it wasn't so incredibly painful, Lindsey would have thought it was the most surreal thing she had ever felt: two minds trying to control one body.

They army crawled their way to the pilot's console. They tried to pull herself up. The first attempt failed, but the second succeeded. Then T'Sel focused her mind on holding herself up, while Lindsey tried to work the thruster controls. Finally, she got the thrusters to fire forward. She could only hope the shuttle was still pointed into the anomaly. Both she and T'Sel allowed her body to slump down to the shuttle's floor. After another agonizing couple of seconds, the pressure on Lindsey's mind was relieved.

"Captain, I cannot hold the meld much longer. I need you to open your mind, so I can understand."

"Yes, T'Sel. You need to understand."

"Yes, Captain." Lindsey allowed T'Sel unrestrictive access to her mind. But Lindsey also saw into T'Sel's mind. Lindsey's arms went automatically into a protective position above her abdomen, and Lindsey knew exactly what that instinct meant.

"I'm sorry, Captain." Lindsey could feel T'Sel's pain. The Vulcan woman had risked a lot in this mind meld. "I cannot stay with you."

"Go. Tell Henry and Ser'rek what is happening. And look for my signal from inside the anomaly." Then the mind meld was ended, and Lindsey's link with T'Sel was severed.

Before she could fully contemplate when might have been the first Vulcan mind meld to be conducted across time, the shuttle's comm buzzed.

"Shuttlecraft, this is the USS Mercury, do you read? Are you alright?"

Lindsey pulled herself into the pilot's seat and beheld in from of her a Starfleet Intrepid class starship with 'Mercury' written above its hull number. She had done it! She had made it into the anomaly! And the crew of the Mercury was alive!

"Shuttlecraft, please respond."

"Mercury, this is a shuttlecraft from the USS Orion. I am alright, but I would like to come on board."

"Are you here to help us?" asked the crewman from the Mercury.

"Yes, I am."

Henry watched as T'Sel conducted her apparently extremely painful mind meld. Lindsey would have been furious at Henry for letting the Vulcan woman conduct such a dangerous meld, but Henry didn't care. T'Sel had just risked her own life and/or sanity for his wife. The gratitude he felt was immeasurable. But there was still no guarantee that it would work.

After what seemed like an eternity, T'Sel finally relaxed. Henry saw the line graphs for both T'Sel's and Lindsey's brain active drop considerably. Both Dr. Bashir and Dr. Crusher breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Crusher reported, "Synaptic activity is decreasing in both patients. Dropping into a tolerable range…now. Everything is stabilizing."

Dr. Bashir came and attended to T'Sel. Her body was literally being held up by nurses as she was near to a collapse. "The mind meld is not over yet. We have to wait until T'Sel releases the meld." Another couple of seconds passed. Finally, T'Sel released a gasp, opened her eyes, and collapsed into the nurses' arms. "Easy there," said Bashir as he and the nurses helped her onto a biobed.

"The Captain…" began T'Sel.

"You need to rest, Commander," interrupted Bashir.

"The Captain…" continued T'Sel. "Temporally…displaced. Seven years…Old Orion. Ser'rek and Rikka…Now."

Henry didn't care that he was relieved of duty. He tapped his commbadge. "Cmdr. Thrim and Ens. Rikka to sickbay immediately."