The Exile, the Outcast, and the Bullseye
=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=
Talon had fallen asleep in the Captain’s chair, the
same Captain’s chair Mysty took from the old Mystic. Mysty’s Avatar
was currently at the conn station as Talon opened his eyes, “Mysty
how long have I been asleep?”
Mysty looked over her shoulder, “Twenty two hours, when
was the last time you slept?”
Talon looked deep in thought for a minute, “Six days,
seven hours, and twenty one minutes ago.”
Mysty seemed taken back by his figure not being a rough
estimate, “Just like your father, do I have to start using a hypo to
get you to sleep?”
Talon, “Funny, my mom use to threaten me like that
growing up, said I reminded her of my father…”
Mysty moved over to Talon and sat in the XO’s chair, “I
know you won’t tell me where she is, how you ended up in the future
or why it took you six days, seven hours, and twenty one minutes to
finally go to sleep; but you will tell me how you know that figure
to the minutes.”
Talon, “I have a Photographic Memory just like my
father, that and my whole body is laced with a system of nanites
that keep me perfectly fit, in excellent health, and aware…
unfortunately they can’t fix lack of sleep.”
Mysty looked strangely at Talon, “How did you get the
nanites in your system, the future?”
Talon shook his head as he spoke, “No my sister and I
have had them since birth; as near as my mother could tell my
father’s Borg nanites made their way into her womb and bonded with
the fetus’ due to the similar cell structure. Since we were still
developing though, our bodies not only bonded with the nanites, but
overrode their Borg programming. Since birth they have taken care of
us even to the point of fixing wounds. I’m not sure what would
happen if we lost a limb but I’m in no hurry to find out.”
“Let me get this straight your bodies defeated and
enslaved the Temporal Borg Nanites that were in your system?”
“Yes Mysty they did, in fact my sister and I are immune to the Temporal Borg’s nanites if
exposed to them directly.”
Mysty had an amazed look on her face, “How did you find
that out?”
Talon, “I’m sorry the Temporal Prime Directive
prohibits me from telling you how since it could change this ship’s
future outcome.”
Mysty gave up immediately and went back to the Conn
station, “Fine, so where to Captain we can’t stay cloaked here
forever.”
Talon straightened his strange clothing he was still
wearing and looked to Mysty who was still in a 24th Century
Starfleet uniform, “Set a course for June 28th 2382, earlier this
year, I want to go after a Klingon former Borg whose file was in my
father’s personal log in the database. Apparently he was thinking of
retrieving him to head R&D.”
Mysty, “Course laid in, temporal shift starting,
engaging engines.” As the ship traveled Talon had a strange look on
his face, “The Temporal Engines are out of alignment, the sub
converters are shot, and the main processor is only working at half
speed.”
Mysty quickly corrected Talon as she put the ship back
in cloak, “I knew very little of Temporal engines when I installed
it, the damn thing has no sub converters they are an upgrade we
hadn’t the chance to install after our 26th century refit, and the processor
is working at its best speed.”
“Sorry, guess I got use to different time engines than
this. Let’s make sure we get a decent engineer to install the
converters as soon as we can. It’s a two man job so Charnok won’t be
enough.”
“Captain, we will be in opposite orbit of the patrol
ship that monitors Charnok in ten minutes. I have to step us down
from slipstream to warp slowly we still have major bugs in the system
since I fixed it as best I could.”
Talon reclined the chair closed his eyes and seemed
lost in though as he spoke in his mind, “Alana I’m coming for you,
you won’t need to be frighten or alone ever again.”
Mysty tapped the controls as she watched the readings
while stepping down the engines, over the next Ten minutes she had
shifted them down to Warp three and was able to switch to sublight
speed without any problems. Once in orbit she heard Talon sit up in
the chair then stand up, “Mysty beam me to the surface my
personal communication implant has a built in scrambler to mask my readings from
anyone who doesn’t know the proper frequency. I have already
programmed the frequency into the ship’s sensors so don’t worry.”
Mysty was about to say something till she reminded
herself whose son Talon was so instead she created a hologram at ops
tapped a few buttons and beamed Talon to the surface.
As Talon reached the surface he quickly found a
Bat’leth at his throat, the Klingon former Borg holding it quickly
spoke, “Who are you and why are you here?”
“I am Captain Talon Tekon of the USS Mystic, a Timeship
whose purpose is to defeat a threat to the timeline know as the
Temporal Borg who are from an alternate reality where Starfleet
never existed. I am here to give you a chance to escape your exile
and work for us, I know you hate Starfleet but while we were
Starfleet we are now simply Temporal Agents and report to no one but
ourselves.”
Charnok lowered the Bat’leth, “If you are here for me
then you must have a file so you know all about me; the question is
how far ahead are you from?”
“The ships skeleton is from later this year, a lot of the systems
are from 2492 as is the advanced A.I. but the physical avatar is
27th century and was made during
our last starship’s voyages before the old ship was damaged beyond repair. I
am from all over the timeline and the crew from the old Mystic is
scattered across it.”
Charnok look curiously, “So you stole the sovereign
class vessel end of 2374 I thought it was Section 31?”
“Actually Section 31 did steal it, but for us, you can
learn more about our past though from the ship’s computers.”
Charnok went into the prefabricated Starfleet dwelling
and began packing his cases as he spoke “Its nice to see Starfleet
eventually started using the advanced A.I. design I created, I though it
would end up getting shelved indefinately.”
Talon tried to hide his look of shock, “You mean you
created the ground work for the advanced A.I. systems?”
Charnok finished packing one case and moved to the
next, “Yeah, from your tone I’m assuming Starfleet R&D took credit.
That’s ok though I never did it for the fame, just the fun.”
“Our A.I. Mysty will love to meet you, is there
anything I can help you with?”
Charnok finished the second case by putting his
klingon weapons in it and finally a picture of his deceased trill wife
Lori Shar. As he closed it he grabbed both cases, “Nah, I’m ready
when you are. My only stipulation is I keep my rank of Lt
Commander.”
Talon mentally activated his personal communication
implant, something most people would have to tap behind the ear to
use, then signaled
for beam out turning to Charnok, “That’s fine I want you
to
Head R& D anyway; besides counting the avatar your crewman number
3.”
As they beamed up Mysty’s avatar stood up from conn and
walked over to Charnok holding out her hand, “I’m Mysty, Avatar for
the USS Mystic.”
Charnok looked at the hologram at ops then shook her
hand and was shocked at the warmth coming from it, ‘Wow this
Avatar has surpassed my expectations, and the personality displayed
shows amazing upgrades on my original designs.”
“Talon what is he talking about?”
Talon smiled, “He created the ground work for all
advanced A.I.s in a sense he’s your Father.”
Mysty stood shocked for a moment, “I….I’m….”
Charnok picked up his bag he set down to shake Mysty’s
hand before interrupting her, “Mysty just call me Charnok, besides
I’m more like a Great Grandfather.” With that Charnok chuckled as he
headed to the turbolift alongside Talon. Mysty stood on the
bridge till the turbolift doors closed before moving; on the
turbolft Charnok spoke again, “I want a room as close to R&D as you
can, I like to be close to my work.”
Talon though for a second, “That would be deck
fifteen secondary hull,
R&D is on Deck 19; you will be on the same deck as the Secondary
Shuttlebay and transporter rooms 6 & 7.”
“Well I guess that will be efficent enough, are we required
to wear Starfleet uniforms or is it general dress like you two?”
Talon looked down at his clothing, “Sorry been too
preoccupied lately to change, yes we will be wearing 25th century
Starfleet uniforms for consistency you can get them and rank pips
replicated from the system.”
Charnok exited onto deck 15 and found quarters right
near the turbolift, “This will do if that’s ok.”
Talon tapped a few keys registering the quarters to
Charnok, “There it’s all yours now, feel free to look thru the
system and review the ship information. When you get a chance take
the tests that show up in your folder on the system. The recharger
for your portable regeneration unit can be beamed to your quarters
from the surface at your liesure” Talon left Charnok to unpack and headed to the
bridge.
On the bridge he found Mysty taking the ship away from
the planet under impulse. Mysty spoke without looking back, “Charnok
beamed something up from the planet we are heading out to avoid the
patrol. Why
did you give him rank without a CFT?”
Talon sat in the Captain’s Chair, “Eventually I’ll have
him join in on someone else’s Command Fitness Test and just call it routine. I want him
to get settled in and ready to work first.”
Mysty was about to speak when a Temporal blip showed up
on her sensors about three light years away. “Sir, I am detecting an
anomaly about the size of a shuttle. Going to warp and changing
course to intercept.”
Talon got up and headed to the Captain’s ready room,
“I’ll be right back I’m going to go replicate a uniform and pips
after I’m done you can change.”
By the time the ship reached the anomaly Talon and
Mysty had both changed into uniforms with Mysty having no Rank and
Talon attaching the Captains pips. Mysty looked at the reading
and adjusted the course. “Sir the anomaly is moving I'm reading it
as an Argo class heavy transport. Temporal reading show its from….”
Talon sat up, “From where Mysty?”
“From December 15, 2491; it’s Lt. Quince Anir on the
Argo 1 a ship that vanished while the kinks were still being work
out, about a month before the Mystic disappeared.”
Talon pressed a button opening ship to ship comms,
“This is Talon Tekon of the USS Mystic to Lt Quince Anir please
respond.”
Seconds later a male voice could be heard speaking,
“Talon Tekon? I though it was Sharek Tekon?”
“It’s a long story son, the old Mystic and its crew are
gone, Sharek was my father. The Mystic you know was lost in time
about a month after you disappeared. We are currently in the year
2382. I am opening the secondary shuttlebay, come aboard and meet me in the
conference room off the bridge.”
“Well this is going to be one hell of a story from what
I heard so far. I’ll meet you there Anir out.”
About twenty minutes later Mysty, Talon and Quince left
the conference room after finally finishing catching him up to date.
Quince spoke first, “Well I’ll take my old Assistant Engineering
Officer spot I
have no ambition to be Chief of Engineering right now; I have my own
problems to work out. Tell this Charnok to meet me in Engineering in
about an hour. That should give me time to unpack my belongings once
you dig them out of storage; you do have them in storage?”
Mysty just nodded as her and Talon went back to their
posts and Quince went to his assign room on deck fifteen. By the
time he got there he
found two small crates sitting on the floor. As he opened them he
saw everything from the room he was in just a few hours ago in
another life. About an hour later Quince walked into
engineering to see Charnok already standing there, as soon as Charnok
saw Quince he spoke, “Your five minutes late you said an hour.”
Quince walked past Charnok, “I said about an hour
lighten up, now lets get to work I want us to run diagnostics of
every system in detail so we can figure out what needs fixed,
upgraded, or replaced.”
Charnok smiled, “I already started the scans 42 minutes
ago anticipating you. It should be done any minute now.”
Quince heard Terminal X’s voice from the main
engineer's station, “The scans are complete you can view them when
your ready. I am starting to compile alternate methods for creating
replacement parts, and the outlines needed to upgrade the temporal
engines as per the Captain’s request. Charnok looked over at
Terminal then at Quince, “Be glad your not former Borg Terminal
keeps contacting me thru my implants and its getting annoying.”
“Better you than me, I got enough problems of my own.”
Quince said as he though about the fact that he couldn’t recover his
lost trill symbiot memories. The two began looking thru the scan
while putting their ideas on pads as they read; once finished they
switched pads to look at each others ideas.
Charnok quickly finished and spoke up, “You know what
your doing I’ll give you that, but you need to use some imagination
simply fixing and replacing parts will only keep things at the
current progression of technology.”
Quince finished and spoke in a raised voice, “At least
my ideas keep things moving, if you had your way we would be
creating replacement systems for half the ship. Your ‘upgrades’
would have the ship out of commission for months using the man power
and crew we have now. Besides some of your ideas are unnecessary.”
Charnok, “At least I have ideas instead of doing my job
like I’m following a manual. I mean develop a personality before you
try giving advice.”
Talon walked into engineering and couldn’t
believe the argument he heard from the hall, “Mysty, I need a
Security Hologtram to help stop this fight before they start hitting
each other.”
“But sir we don’t have an ESH, should I just chose a
program entity to use?”
Talon watched Quince push Charnok and quickly said,
“YES”
Charnok swung his right fist toward Quince but instead
connected with a now materialized hologram named Ensign Ken
Bullseye. Bullseye’s head cocked to the side with the blow as he
stumbled backwards. Quince prepared to roundhouse kick Charnok as
Bullseye walk back between them saying, “Please cease your agres…”
but was interrupted by a kick meant for Charnok to the head. This
time you could obviously see Bullseye’s jaw off track. As Bullseye
put his jaw back in place he heard Charnok say, “Get out of my way
photon breath” Charnok went to sweep Quince’s legs and instead got
them both sending Bullseye down first and Quince landing on top of
him. Before Charnok could act Quince sprang to his feet landing on
Bullseye’s chest before stepping off. As Bullseye attempted to get
up he caught Charnok’s foot in his side almost tripping him. As
Quince attempted to use this opportunity to strike back Bullseye
stood up receiving a solid hit to his spine.
As Charnok solidified his footing he spoke up, “Look
Anir we could go on like this for hours or we can concentrate on
fixing the problems to the engines and performing the instillation
of the converters to the Temporal Engine. After that you can do your
thing and I’ll do mine.”
Quince eased his posture, “Fine lets get to work.” With
that Quince went to get tools and Charnok headed for part storage;
leaving poor Ensign Bullseye standing there while his program fixed
itself. Talon walked over to Ensign Bullseye, “Mysty merge this
personality matrix with the base Emergency Hologram protocol in our
database and give him all the Security and Tactical training he
needs to be the ships Emergency Security Hologram.”
Mysty’s voice could be heard a few seconds later as
Bullseyes hologram shimmered, disappeared then reappeared, “Done,
Ensign Ken Bullseye is now the ship’s ESH.”
Bullseye finally spoke, “Thank you Captain Tekon, I’m
only sorry I didn’t realize I was a hologram sooner otherwise I
would have turned my pain receptors off.”
Talon winced for a second, “That’s fine Bullseye, head
to Security and run a performance check on all the weapons and
systems. Send a report to myself and Mysty when done and I’ll get the
information to those who need it.”
Ensign Bullseye saluted Talon, “Mysty transfer my
program to Main Security.” As soon as Bullseye disappeared Talon
spoke up, “I’m almost sorry for him, my mother told me he was a
running death gag my father created, but you do have to see it to
really understand.”
Mysty, “Well at least we have a few crewmembers to help
with the work. If anything those three will make things interesting
to say the least.”
Talon headed to a turbolift, “That they will, now lets
figure out who we want to retrieve next for our band of misfits.”
The
Scrounger, the Prisoner, and the Shell
=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=
=/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\= =/\=
Talon was in
the ready room padd in hand, looking thru the files of possible crewmembers to salvage,
compiled
by his father Sharek Tekon. As he sped read he spotted a bio his
father had started a history search of thru normal file references,
looking deeper he saw what Sharek saw.
The bio was of a female human ops officer
acting as scrounger for a federation ship during the Dominion War, well beyond supply lines
who liked to work alone.
After getting a
distress call from a border station being attacked by the Dominion the
Starship arrived to late, the Dominion were gone and the station was
in Chaos. Believing there is great opportunities in chaos she beamed
over to the station where she found out the station was about to
explode. Unable to reach her on comm, the ship had no choice but to
escape to a safe distance when they detected the immanent explosion.
Still reeling from the shockwave of the exploding station their young
scrounger was reported as dead and a funeral service was given.
By the end of the 24th century it was discovered that this same
scrounger as well as at least a half dozen persona’s before were all
altered data wise using top of the line computer hacking and meticulously
careful job placement using security loops only an admiral would know about.
Sharek took this information and did a search for any suspicious
deaths before any of the fabrications took place. Unfortunately Sharek
only managed to meet a bunch of dead ends, none of which helped to
come to a conclusion. Sharek’s last note in the file sparked some interest in Talon. It
read ‘Possible Chameloid?’
Taking the search into his own hands Talon
opened a Section 31 back door link and started to hack into
the Federation Database of 2382 and began the search anew setting the
parameters to go back at least a century. Within ten minutes his
search turned up an incident involving an Admiral in the year 2295
where an Admiral was ‘Vaporized and the Vulcan pilot failed to save
her. The Admiral seemed to have a very private life and then suddenly
volunteered to go on a dangerous mission that involved a hostile world
that was to be signing the Federation charter in exchange for policing
help for its population. Talon then searched the Vulcan’s life
which suddenly turned private with another diplomatic flight
mission that resulted in the Vulcan’s death while saving a Captain.
The Captain soon after became more of a recluse over the next two
years until the ship was destroyed by a klingon ship while on border
patrol. Finally Talon had a match the earliest false identity was of a
Human female rescued after escaping on a hijacked Klingon shuttle.
This didn’t prove who the person was but proved it was a
shapeshifter and since Changlings were not seen until the later half
of the 24th century it looked like a possible Chameloid but more
research was needed. So he took a look back at the first identity Admiral Jamie Grant,
a distant relation to the Brant family saved by the Old Mystic, and traced her life back to the day she was
accepted to Starfleet.Academy. After an incident at a ‘mixed’ species
nightclub she testified that a fight broke out and she exited
following as
quickly as possible, seeing someone go down an alley she continued but all she found was
his phaser. A few eye witness account labeled as hearsay or drunken
rambling told of her arriving with another female friend who carried
her lifeless body out of the bar. Here Talon found the first incident,
unfortunately he couldn’t trace it back any farther, this only meant
one thing... time to pick up another crewmember.
Talon walked onto the bridge and saw Mysty’s avatar in her
rank-less Starfleet uniform at the Conn station with a hologram at
Tactical and another at Ops. “Mysty set a temporal
heading and course change, April 22, 2374; the location we need to be at
before we shift is,” Talon walked to his chair and punched in the
coordinates of the Station from the reports he read. “along the
border of Cardassian / Dominon space during the Dominion war. The
station will be nearing a power overload resulting in the Station’s
destruction.”
Mysty, “Is this the Chameloid you have spent the better part of
the past few hours tracking down?”
“Yes Mysty, I’m surprised you didn’t read
over my shoulder, or should I say from your memory banks.”
“I figured you’d tell me once you figured
your father was correct in wanting to keep that file in the database
as a possible crewmember.”
Talon walked to the turbolift as he spoke, “My father had many
good ideas, and even better plans of action. What he lacked was moral flexibility
when it came to Starfleet regulations one thing my… journeys have taught me well.”
"Wouldn't
6 days earlier be safer in case we need to engage the Temporal
Engine again, it will take us that long to get there anyway?"
"Thats fine," was all he got out as the
turbolift dorrs closed and the ship temporally phased to its
destination.
Mysty engaged Transwarp, which Quince Anir had reportedly worked
the kinks out of, as the engine powered up and engaged Mysty smiled
thankful that there was an engineer around to work out the system
problems she didn’t have the time or knowledge to work out.
During the journey Mysty could feel Anir working on the Slipstream
drive trying to stablize a part damaged during the last encounter
with the Temporal borg while she felt Charnok refit the ships
weapons systems with some modifications he had worked out. The
sensation of actually feeling people work on her ship form thru her
Avatar body was incredible and a new experiance for her.
When the appointed time came upon them Talon retrieved a
Type 3 Phaser Rifle mark III with isolinear tag format and a personal cloaking
device from the Secondary Armory, and reached
transporter room two as the ship was came out of Transwarp. Ensign
Bullseye appeared at the transporter controls, “Sir, I will be here
the entire time you are on the station ready to beam you up. Should
the individual your after decide to come along just give the signal, I
will have a phaser ready just in case something happens upon the
return. Mysty has the ship cloaked and you will be arriving exactly as
she arrives, from this point you have ten minutes until the station
explodes, eight until we have to leave. Mystry is handling the
transport of any tagged supplies while Charnok and Anir work on
building the parts they need for the next major ship refits.”
Talon nodded to Bullseye and stepped onto the pad
and quickly beamed
onto the station in a narrow corridor 15 feet away from the suspected
Chameloid. Engaging his cloak he followed her as she ran around the
station placing old fashion isolinear amplifiers near items to beam to
a waiting ship of this time period. As she continued on Talon would
shoot the tagged items with his isolinear tags and move on as the Mystic beamed
aboard crates of alcohol, food, basic engineering parts, and even 10
kilometers of carbon fiber coated super conducting aluminum cable.
Finally as time was growing short Talon saw a bulkhead come down onto
the Chameloid knocking her out cold. Quickly he ran over dropped his
cloak and grabbed her hand while activating his subdermal comm.
“Bullseye two to beam up directly to sickbay.”
As the scenery changed they were now in sickbay with her on a
biobed and him standing next to her holding her hand, Ens. Bullseye
appeared directly after along with a Hologram of Mysty. Quickly he
strapped down her hands and feet knowing she would wake up soon.
Talon took her comm badge opened it up and disabled it as the Mystic
went to warp to escape the blast. Mysty activated the ships EMN or
Emergency Medical Nurse program and then disappeared. The
nursed started some scans as the Chameloid woke up
and tested her bonds, “Who are you and why have you abducted
me?”
Talon looked at her as he set the comm badge down, “I didn’t
abduct you, I saved you, the station’s engines went critical and it
exploded. Your ship is safe but to them you are dead, in fact they
should be talking about your funeral right now if you want to watch.”
“Okay if you saved me then why am I strapped down?”
“I wanted to see how resourceful of a Chameloid you are. I have
traced back many of your persona’s and have found your ‘career’ quite
interesting.”
“I am not a Chameloid and I have no idea what you are talking
about.” She said angrily while trying to hide her nervousness. The EMN
finished her scans stepped back and waited for orders.
Talon walked over to a padd, “I am very interested in why you
decided to take on the identity of Jamie Grant as well as why you
lived her life for so long.” Ensign Bullseye looked at the EMN, walked
over to a terminal and deactivated her out of sympathy.
Knowing she wasn’t getting out of this she shifted into her child
form slipping out of the bonds and turned so she was sitting on the
edge of the bed then shifted into her normal adult form. “Fine, I’m a
Chameloid but that doesn’t mean I’m going to answer your questions, Mr?”
“Fair enough, I am Captain Talon Tekon of the Feder...
of the Timeship
USS Mystic. Now you have two options, as my father use to say you can
either join my ship where you no longer have to hide your identity or I can place you on an unknown
planet we call Liberi 5 where you will live out the rest of your life,
however long that may be. I only ask you help me fill in the major
holes of your Crew bio.”
“Hmm, well to start my name is Celeste Vagara and I am 129 years
old I was born on April 20, 2245 the same year the original USS
Enterprise NCC-1701 was built. When I was three the planet where my
parents and I lived was attacked by Klingons due to its location along
their border. My parents were killed and I was left to fend for myself;
over the years I moved from one Refugee Camp to another due to my own
sense of survival. When I was 16, I stowed away on a freighter by
beaming up with the cargo they were taking with them. The freighter
stopped at an Andorian Colony where I departed with the Cargo and
changed my appearance to look like an Andorian. While there I…
‘Scavenged’ for basic possessions and tried to blend in. A year later
when the opportunity presented itself to barter for passage on a
Starship heading to Earth, I left. "
"Once on Earth I got an apartment with a young Earth woman who was
trying to get into Starfleet. Over the next year we became good
friends and the Earthling Jamie Grant even started to help me hide my
Chameloid existence. The evening of Grant’s acceptance to Starfleet we
went out to celebrate at a popular human / alien nightclub. That
evening a fight broke out in the establishment and Jamie was
fatally shot. Clutching her dying corpse I apologized for failing to
protect her and promised to make her name mean something. Taking the
body to the same alley the shooter went into I turned into my Male
Brute Form and killed the shooter, taking his phaser I vaporized both
bodies and shifted to assume my friend’s identity. "
" Do I need to go on or do you know the rest?”
Talon walked over to the replicator and pressed a few buttons
creating a new comm badge, “I already know most of the rest, I can send
you what I have and have you fill it out better for the record.,
“Talon approached her and handed her a comm badge, “Welcome to the
Mystic, Ensign Celeste Vagara, you are our new Supply Officer.”
Celeste morphed her uniform to match Tekon’s,
displayed one pip for ensign, and put on the comm
badge, “Another words you want me to be your scrounger as well as a
general officer to work from department to department.”
Talon laughed as he made his way to the door, “Actually I beamed
aboard everything you picked out on the station so you were already
working as our scrounger before you even said yes.” Ensign Bullseye
disappeared as the two exited sickbay.
Celeste followed the captain till they reached a turbolift
there he spoke only their destination "Deck 4". After exiting they started walking down the hall the
Captain picked a set of quarters and programmed in her new identity
code and had her memorize it. “There this will be your quarters feel
free to use the replicator and redecorate as you see fit, if you need
me I’ll be on the bridge.”
Celeste spoke quickly before the Captain got to far away, “Sir
how many crew do you have on board?”
“Counting our Emergency Security Hologram and the ship’s
Advanced A.I.
Avatar… you make number six.” With that the Captain left quickly only
to be stopped with Ensign Bullseye’s appearance on the turbolift.
“Sir, I must insist you speak to Charnok and Anir again I took a
left hook and a kick to the ribs before they stopped arguing about the
retrofit for the cloaking generator Charnok is ready to do. He has
the parts thanks to the supplies beamed aboard, but Anir won’t
let him dismantle it. In the end I had to have Mysty change course to
a nearby nebula so we could uncloak there and let Charnok work on the
redesign. Mysty is going to have three of her holograms assist him so it
will only take two hours instead of five. He says its needed before it
fails completely in the middle of an important mission since this
missions was overtaxing it.”
Talon smiled, “Sounds to me like you already took care of
everything, but I will have another talk with them about the
violence.”
“Thank you sir.” And with that Ensign Bullseye disappeared.
=/\= Two Hours later on the bridge =/\=
Talon walked out of the turbolift onto the
bridge finally, he spent two hours helping Quince
Anir with multiple ship repairs and tune ups near and in the warp
nacelle housing during this opportunity to power them down. “I tell
you Mysty I’ll be glad when we have a larger crew.”
Mysty was still at Tactical and Ops with her
Avatar at Conn, Mysty turned around in the Conn chair and smiled, “Well I think
someone has already found another crew member for us.”
Suddenly Celeste walked out of the Conference room
Tekon's crew padd in hand,
“Sir I have been looking thru the possible crew files your father left
behind and think that we need to retrieve a Scientist from this list
who dealt in Temporal Science a field almost nonexistent in his time,
he also minors in engineering. Without
a temporal science officer aboard we could run into problems with many
system most of which I’d be guessing if I tried to say I understood
what the controls did let alone how they worked.”
Talon thought for a second, “First off if its who I’m thinking of
then you mean Vashard Trent who disappeared from a Starfleet prison he
didn’t belong in, in the first place. Second how the hell did you get
access to my office when it was locked?”
Celeste, “The maid let me in.”
As Talon was about to speak he saw one of Mysty’s holograms in a
French maid outfit appear behind Celeste then disappear just as quick,
“Mysty you really need a hobby, as hard as it seems to believe, the
ship needs a hobby; now Celeste let me see that padd.”
Celeste walked over to Talon and handed him the padd, Talon read
as he mumbled, “Hmmm, great scores, fifth in his graduating class.
Served on his parents ship the Saratoga, they died at wolf 359 where it
blew up, he didn’t make it to the ship on time when it departed for
the battle and was sent to prison.
Fell thru a crack in the system and was left in prison to rot. Hmmm…
earned another degree in Theoretical Science while in prison and killed a guard before disappearing… this I gotta see, especially since
he was a pacifist. Mysty were heading to
March 14, 2369; he
disappeared on his 29th birthday.”
Talon sat
down in his chair and Celeste moved to Tactical as the hologram there
disappeared and Mysty entered in all the necessary information needed for the
jump. The transwarp activated, the ship Temporally shifted as the comm chirped, “This is Lt. Anir
down in engineering Slipstream is up and running. Charnok has the
redesigned cloak installed and we are back in business.” Mysty upped
the speed to Slipstream as she heard Talon get up and head to the
turbolift.
“Mysty, I’m
going to transporter room one have Ensign Bullseye retrieve the personal
cloaking device I left in engineering and a type 3 phaser rifle mark 3 just in case.”
By the time
Talon made it to the transporer room the ship was pulling into orbit
cloaked after finishing its time jump. Putting on the Cloaking belt
and slinging the Phaser rifle Talon stepped onto the padd, “Bullseye
get me into the hall behind the guard with enough time to cloak before
he stops at the cell.”
Ensign
Bullseye set the controls and nodded as Talon was transported to the
surface. As soon as he arrived Talon turned on the cloak just in time
to see the guard stop at Vashard Trent’s cell.
Guard, “Your
pathetic, had you actually made it to the ship you wouldn’t have
disgraced your uniform, abandoned your parents to die, and could have
made a difference at that battle; you betrayed Starfleet and
everything the uniform stands for.”
Vashard
looked up at the man unaware of Talon standing next to the cell door
as Vashard spoke, “You’re the pathetic one who has disgraced
Starfleet, otherwise they wouldn’t have put your ugly excuse for an officer in a prison guarding a man who isn’t guilty of anything
except being late and letting himself down.”
Guard, “Well
you finally talked after two years, too bad those will be the last
words you ever say; no one talks down to me, NO ONE.” The guard
dropped the cell’s force field as Vashard walked to the cell door.
When the guard pulled up his Phaser rifle
Vashard grabbed the the rifle pulled the guard into the room wrapped
his hands and arms around the man’s neck and snapped it. Vashard looked down at
the guard and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Picking up
the phaser rifle he slung it on his shoulder as he reactivated the cells
forcefield only to hear Talon’s voice behind him as Talon
uncloaked, “I didn’t think you had it in you, being a pacifist and
all.”
Vashard spun
around and swung the phaser rifle up, “Judging from your uniform and
the upgraded look of your rifle I’d say you’re a timetraveler. I
didn’t want to kill the man but I had no choice, now if I did
something wrong you better speak now.”
Talon smiled,
“No I’m here to recruit you to serve on the USS Mystic a timeship with
a unique crew and history. I am Captain Talon Tekon and I already know
all about you.”
Vashard
lowered the rifle and walked next to Talon, “You could have saved that
man’s life had you been here a minute sooner.”
Talon
signaled the ship then looked at Vashard, “I was here a minute sooner,
I just had to see it to believe it.” Once transported to the ship
Ensign Bullseye took the phaser rifle from Vashard and Talon handed
over the
personal cloaking device. “Vashard this is Ensign Bullseye the ship’s
Emergency Security Hologram.”
Vashard,
“Well his programming supports my theory but this ship appears
late 24th
century in nature.”
Talon handed
his phaser rifle to Bullseye and took a padd from an alcove
near the transporter room door. Throwing it to Vashard he walked out
of the room, Vashard used the padd to access the ship’s schematics and
crew manifest and well as back history as he followed Talon into the
Turbolift before Talon could speak Vashard spoke out, “Deck 11.”
Talon smiled
as they went to deck 11 where Temporal Science was located at. Walking out Vashard led the way obviously following a diagram,
once
inside the main Temporal science lab he put the padd down and walked
over to the main terminal. “Okay I get the ship now, and I see why you
need me, what I don’t get is, now that you have this ship why don’t you
find a time period that will support you and get a new crew that way?”
Talon watched
as Vashard press one button then seemed deep in thought, “My father
decided from the beginning that the Temporal Borg were too great a
threat to involve anyone but the Mystic in and I will respect those
wishes, besides the only one on the damn ship that could go home is the
A.I. and the rest of us don’t belong anywhere anymore.”
Finally
Vashard pressed a second button and the Terminal came alive and
Mysty's voice could be heard, “Diagnostic running please give
finishing parameters.”
Vashard spoke
out as he picked the padd back up, “Realign all sensors, defrag and
analyze the
main running system, and send any Temporal Core adjustments to
Engineering to fix.”
Talon,
“Amazing, how did you figure out how to do that.”
Vashard
shrugged as he headed for the door, “Well I used a 42 hexadecimal
count to find the first then cross referenced the controls using a
pixilated binary sequence.”
Talon
alomost laughed,
“You guessed didn’t you?”
Vashard,
“Actually I used Temporal Mathematics along with my knowledge of the
way consoles seem to have advanced over the years. Beside those two buttons
seemed unique for that console.”
Talon finally laughed
as they left Temporal Science and headed for the living quarters, Talon
just shook his head, “How many buttons did he have to hit to fix
everything, two.”
Once they
reached the quarters on Deck 11 to be assigned to Vashard, programed
in his security codes, and configured the room to
his identity they went inside. Vashard walked over to
the replicator and made a uniform fitting the Mystic and a comm badge.
“Well Sir, I have one question I still can’t accept the answer to. Why
did you let me kill the guard?”
Talon replicated an Ensign insignia and
handed it over. “I needed to
know you could kill, lets just say it’s a requirement considering our
mission and our lifestyle,” and before Vashard could answer Talon left
him there. Heading to the bridge Talon walked out to find Celeste gone
but Mysty still at Conn and Ops and back at Tactical. The ship was no longer in orbit
and was in slipstream, “Mysty is everything okay you seem to have set
course without consulting me.”
“As soon as
the Temporal Science computers completed the sensor alignment we got a
hit from the Omega Flyer on a looping signal frequency only the Mystic
would know to look for. I set a course and we will be there in ten
seconds.” Talon took his seat as he watched Mysty bring the ship out
of slipstream, cloak it and glide into orbit around a planet in a solar
system not far from Wolf 359.
The look on Mysty's Avatar was a mixture of enjoyment and
anticipation as the planet loomed below them.
Talon hit a
few keys and scanned the surface finding the Omega Flyer very easily,
“Talon to Terminal X work with Mysty to beam the Omega Flyer directly
to the Shuttle bay.”
Terminal
simply responded, “Transport currently in process, Charnok and Anir
are on their way there now. One of the Scorpion Attack fighters was
detected inside its cargo area and there is a pattern being held in the transporter
system.”
Talon stood
up and was beamed to the Shuttlebay before he could even ask Mysty to
do so, as he materialized he spotted Charnok and Anir entering the
Omega Flyer.
Charnok used
a padd to start an energy transfer to the obviously power drained and
heavily damaged Omega Flyer as Anir looked at the wiring job done to
keep the distress message as well as the transport signal from
degrading.
As Talon entered Charnok spoke up first, “The Temporal Borg really
damaged this baby but with alot of work we can get her good as new. The underside and
the nose will need to be redone though, looks like the auto pilot
failed halfway through decent to the planet surface.”
Quince
activated the transporter sequence and watched as a tall, built Human
male in and Marine Uniform materialized in a laying position, “Sir,
records show the signal was programmed in by an Ariss Zorran and this
gentleman I recognize as William Sterling one of the old Mystic’s
best Marines.”
Talon spoke
up, “Ariss Zorran was the Mystics XO and Marine CO picked by Sharek after their
first encounter with the Temporal Borg, as for Sterling, have him
transported to sickbay in one of the isolated labs. Have Celeste,
Vashard, and Mysty meet us there as well, this is something I want
everyone to be made aware of.”
Ten minutes
later everyone including Ensign Bullseye was standing in the isolated
medical lad looking at Sterling hooked up to life support in an
obviously comatose state. Mysty spoke up, “William Sterling was not a
Genetically Altered human as we were led to believe, he was in fact the
Avatar for a 31st century warship that was with the old Mystic when it
made its escape into the past blindly.”
Talon
interrupted her before she could continue, “I know for a fact that the
USS Sterling was destroyed, its wreckage was amoung the pieces of blown
up ships found after the Old Mystics final confrontation. I also know Sterling here was unaware of
being an Avatar when he served aboard the original Mystic. I can only
assume that he was uplinked to his ship as a way of subconsciously
staying one step ahead of anything that could uncover his true
origins, beyond that I’m only guessing.’
Charnok
walked over to Sterling, “Wow the avatar is so advanced it can pass
for Human physiology effortlessly. This is only a theory but I’d say the destruction of his ship
was about to overload his circuits and his higher functions shut down
in defense.”
Quince spoke
up, “How the hell do you reactivate an Avatar that can pass for a
Genetically Altered Human who is currently in what appears to be a
comma?”
Ensign
Bullseye spoke up getting several looks of amazement from people as he
did,
“Well if you can figure out how to hook the ship up to his Avatar form
using the Secondary Avatar Room,
Mystic could try to enter his mind and do a reboot from inside.”
Vashard
thought for a second, “Well there is no way anyone in the future will
give us that knowledge and it could take years just to learn how to
hook him up to perform the download.”
Celeste took
her turn to speak, “I say we leave him here while we do more research,
obviously our equipment can keep him alive and I’m sure I can scavenge
for any new equipment we may need to perform the download once your
guys figure it out.”
Breaking the
brain storm that seemed to be flowing around the room Talon spoke up,
“You could always give him a kiss Mysty,” As everyone looked at him
strangely, “What in worked on Sleeping Beauty in an Old
Earth Fable.”
Slowly
everyone left the room until finally only Mysty remained, making sure
everyone was gone Mysty bent over Sterling’s body and Kissed him on
the lips. A few seconds later after seeing it not working, Mysty left
the room only to see Talon leaning against the wall next to the door.
Talon
chuckled as he spoke, “Didn’t work, did it Mysty?” Mysty blushed as
Talon walked away down the hall without letting her respond.
Mysty fought back tears of both saddness
and joy, a mix of emotions that she was struggling not to show. She
was happy Sterling was alive but his comatosed state brought a
saddness very differnt from any she had felt before. As she walked
the corridor slowly she felt a tear roll down her cheek from her
eye; she wiped it onto her finger and looked at it confused as she
thought to herself, "I know this Avatar is a close replica of a
human, but I shouldn't be able to create tears, should I?"
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