Arrows or Olive Branches

Posted on Sat Jul 24th, 2021 @ 5:40am by Willian Targaryen & Commander Jasmine Haynes

2,266 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Short Treks
Location: Ready Room, Starfleet One
Timeline: 0000-00-05, 07:45

Admiral Willian Targaryen sat at his desk looking at the readouts on the screen and wishing that they had been better. It had been several days since they first got stuck in this new frontier and the ship was still barely functional. They were doing better than they had been, but they were still heavily at risk. Worse, when their Andorian guest sent out his message it had garnered the wrong kind of attention. Even though he'd risked the Coaxial jump and moved the ship out of the region they still had attracted some fans.

At least they had the opportunity to start studying Mister Biss' ship thanks to their little maneuver. It was, for a shuttle, a dangerous little combatant compared to Starfleet One. Ash was busily studying it using the A500s under the guise of making repairs, but the damage was quite extensive. They believed that they could get the phasers and shields up to similar levels using the data that they'd uncovered, but they wouldn't last long in a fight. At least Starfleet One had some hidden assets powering her that would come in handy.

He rested in his chair for a moment and thought about his wife. They had been able to get a stasis unit in place to stabilize her for now, but she was of course still unconscious because of all that had happened. He missed her more than he imagined. They had been apart before, but never like this. She was in the restored Saucer Sickbay, but it felt like she was a lifetime from him. When they finally contacted Starfleet they would be able to help her. He was sure of it. His mom was watching her life a hawk though, and Willian knew she felt guilty for leaving her. It wasn't her fault, he knew that, but both of them had needed some time apart. She and his father were watching the twins from the Admiral's Quarters and he was staying in the Ready Room.

The door chimed. He paused for a moment as he debated answering the door. he refastened his uniform tunic, knowing that this was a meeting he needed to quit avoiding. "Enter."

Jasmine walked into the ready room of Targaryen. She was still waiting on answers. So far, she felt like she was kept in the dark. Which was not a pleasant feeling for her. She was the president's chief of staff. She should be apprised of all actions happening on Starfleet One.

Jasmine was not sure what to make of the Admiral's demotion. She noticed it instantly on his uniform. "Captain?" She called out in a confused tone. Granted she was no longer an active member of Starfleet, she knew what a demotion looked like.

Willian nodded, "That is correct, Commissioner. For the duration of this mission - until we can get things straightened out a bit - I have decided to take a temporary grade reduction to Captain for the remainder of this mission." He sighed as he read a bit of information on the PADD he was carrying. He tossed it up on the table and rested his head for a moment before continuing. Realizing she had been injured during their incursion he quickly regrouped, "Where are my manners? Please sit." He motioned to the chair opposite his, "I would offer you a refreshment but the replicators are still down."

"It's understandable, Captain." Jasmine said, thinking in her mind it might have been a bit premature to demote himself down to Captain. Unless he knew something, that the rest of them did not. She was not sure, but she wanted answers. "What is the mission at this point, and where is the president?" Jasmine asked him. She could not find him anywhere on the ship.

"I had hoped that you were briefed by Captain Walsh," Willian said as he rose from his desk and went over to a nearby cabinet. "Maybe we should have a drink after all." He pulled a bottle from inside the cabinet and poured two glasses of the blue liquid, "Romulan Whisky - highly illegal by Federation standards. Right now not in the slightest." He looked at the bottle closely, "I could probably pick up a pretty penny for it being from 700 years ago."

He handed her one of the glasses, "The wormhole from our engine imbalance sent us forward in time. We are currently in the 32nd Century, the Federation has been destroyed, and the entire galaxy is pretty much the wild west." He lifted the glass toward her. "Cheers," he downed it in one swallow.

"How do you know all of this? Have you made contact with Starfleet?" Jasmine asked, a little surprised to hear the news that she did. From her perspective, only a short time had passed. Where was he getting his information, and how well could it be trusted.

"At present we've been unable to raise Starfleet or any Federation world. From what we have been told the entire galaxy experienced a catastrophic disaster known as 'The Burn'. All dilithium in an active matrix lost cohesion and led to uncontrolled warp reactions that detonated the vessel. This has also damaged subspace, limiting communications and sensor function. While we've been limited in range, we have detected a graveyard of starships not far from here." He rested in the chair as he looked at his former Security Chief, "We have taken aboard a passenger who has brought us up to speed on this information."

"I assume appropriate steps are being taken, as a precaution?" Jasmine asked the captain. She had another major question on her mind. How were they going to get back to their century. And could this guest of theirs help them out?

Willian nodded, "Mister Biss has a guard escorting him pretty much everywhere he goes aside from the head, and the guard can hear him there thanks to his enhanced hearing. I'm not as worried about him now as I was a short while ago." He set aside his glass and looked at the Presidential Chief of Staff for a moment silently. "That's only one of about half a dozen mysteries we're contending with these days. There is another one that I was hoping you could help me with though. The mystery of Jasmine Haynes. At the moment we're 700 years from home in a galaxy that is more alien than we could possibly imagine. This is the strangest of new worlds that we've ever been to, and they're the Federation's backyard. With there being no Federation what do we have you do now?" He handed her a datapad, "I would like you to serve as a Mission Advisor - for now - until we come about to some semblance of normalcy. Between the two of us we know a lot of the Federation's secrets from eras past. Maybe, just maybe, we can use that information to try to get this ship back to fighting shape."

"May I assume that our mission is getting home." Jasmine asked, in a calm and collective voice. She was not mad, or annoyed. She was curious, where the priorities are. She heard him say, get the ship in fighting shape. She hoped that was a metaphor for being back in pristine order, and not a declaration of hostile intent.

"Right now our mission is simply survival, Commissioner," he answered honestly with a defeated sigh. He looked out the window at the familiar stars, "The ship is in pieces, a gentle wind may make it snap in two, and we have lost nearly half of our antimatter supply in the transition to this time period. Plus, we have a skeleton crew remaining so everyone is doing double duty. Hell, I just started working on engineering tasks myself," he smiled at the comment and wondered how different his life would've been if his father hadn't pushed him into command. "You may have joined the civilian government, but once you've been a Starfleet Officer it isn't something that just goes away." He smirked, "It's like the saying on Old Earth 'Once a Marine always a Marine' and applies here."

Jasmine could sense where this conversation was going. "Perhaps, your right. But we do not belong in this time period. Our priority should be to return home. I am surprised that the DTI has not paid us a visit yet." Jasmine said to Willan. Where were they, she wondered. And why was the Captain so eager to get the ship back into fighting stance. She paused then went on. "While I understand that the mission for the time being is surviving this reality that we find ourselves in, we can loose track the fact that we are in the wrong time period and we need to get home." Jasmine said to him, hoping that he had not lost focus on that. She knew deep down, they did not belong in the 32nd century. They had loved ones that needed them. They had families and obligations to uphold. They swore an oath to Starfleet of the past. Not to its future.

"Commissioner," he used her civilian title instead of the Starfleet one, "I have no desire to remain in this timeline any longer than we have to. The very fact that the Department of Temporal Investigations hasn't shown up to slap us back into our reality is reason enough for me to be terrified of this era. The easy answer is that, right now, this ship can't go back. I have already run secure simulations using what little computer function we have. With our current status - factoring in structural integrity, available engine resources, our skeleton crew, and processing ability - every simulation has the same outcome: this ship is destroyed during transit back through time. Slingshot around the sun: we lose structural integrity while en route. Converting the Main Deflector to a Chrono Deflector: the tachykinetic energy discharge overloads the warp core; as does trying to form a temporal conduit. With us not knowing the status of the Klingon Empire going to Boreth and trying to get a time crystal is out of the question. Navigating the temporal distortion to reach the Guardian of Forever leads us to lose structural integrity before we even get within transporter range. Need I go on?"

Jasmine heard the hard reality of the situation. She knew by listening to his tone. That he was being sincere. "No you do not, and I digress for now." Jasmine said with a concerned look on her face. She adsorbed what he had to say. "Temporarily speaking, I think it would be best to reactivate my commission as a Starfleet Officer, and assist you. As you said, we are short staff sir." Jasmine said, in a calm and collective tone. She knew she would be needed, especially since they were short staffed.

"I think that may be the best idea as well. Right now we have more chiefs aboard this ship than anything and crew are pitching in where they can. I just spent the better part of the day poking through conduits trying to restore computer function to maximum levels. It's certainly a brave new world that we're living in," he said with a sigh.

He typed on the datapad, "Your commission has been reactivated, Commander Hayes. Mission Advisor/Operations Officer effective immediately. Now we begin the hazardous trek of figuring out how exactly to put this ship back together again. I'd like you to begin researching potential emergency depots, things that people probably wouldn't look at, and we're going to start traveling to them and salvaging what we can."

Jasmine had always served as a security officer. Granted she had some basic information about operations, she would not classify herself as an expert. But with that said, she believed she could easily handle the duties of an operations officer. "So you want me to work with Commander Bishop's team, and coordinate my repair schedules with them?" Jasmine asked asked the Captain.

"I do. With your role as being a Mission Advisor I am going to rely a lot on your knowledge from the time of President Gruzy. While I know of some of the hidden depots and resources Starfleet had put into play, I'm sure there are ones that you'll know that I don't. Still, we're a couple centuries behind the times but some of them still have to be out there filled with resources that we can use. We need to get to them. At the very minimum we can try to salvage some of their technologies and integrate with Enterprise."

"Yes Captain, I can assist with salvage operations, the Enterprise repairs are my top priorities." Jasmine suggested to him. She was eager to get home, and back to her new normal life. This life was also new, but it was not one she choose or wanted to do. But she understood, that they were short staff, and all surviving crew were all hands on deck.

He nodded in response, "Mine too. Rest assured that I will do what I can to get us back home, Commander, it's just going to take some time. If you'll excuse me though I have to get down to Engineering. Ash has some ideas to try to stretch out our anti-deuterium and I want to see what her ideas are."

"Yes sir, lets hope we are successful." Jasmine said, thinking in the back of her thoughts, that she was not looking forward to meeting up with the DTI, once they returned to the past.

[Tag/End]

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