Now What

Posted on Sun Feb 7th, 2021 @ 12:02am by Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Mila Lynn

2,536 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Chapter III: The Hunt is On
Location: Shuttle Bay, I.R.W. Ourainavassa
Timeline: 238701.30

Ash's mind was still reeling from the events of the past week or so. A ship from the future and alternate universe that was possibly piloted by an alternate version of herself would be enough to throw anyone for a loop, but the universe decided to throw her ex-fiance back into her life. And if that wasn't enough, trying to help Hatham and the rest of the Romulan contingent on the ship save their families had also consumed her focus. Oh and not to mention her boss has been in a funk since her ex? reappeared as a Temporal Agent who apparently knows Alternate Ash and now Raven went off on her own mission after promoting Ash. She took a deep chug of her coffee and rubbed her eyes. She definitely needed more than coffee but it was entirely too early for that.

She walked into the shuttle bay to see Mila tinkering with the ship that started this mess, "Hey kiddo... sorry I haven't been around as much, life had been a little crazy. Any updates to this bucket of future bolts?"

Getting the schematics to the little ship, apparently called an Epoch-class, had made all the difference. With Rehana's engineering skills and Mila's knowledge of science, the two had worked together and finally restored the little fighter to working order. Well, mostly. Conveniently, the schematics provided by their mysterious benefactor had left out the systems that allowed the little craft to travel through time. Still, Mila had begun reverse-engineering both the little communicator/projector that the schematics had been delivered with, and the haptic holographic interfaces used for the controls of their little find.

When Ash entered the shuttle bay, Mila was in the cockpit. The console in front of her had been pulled open, and she was carefully examining the wiring, when the recently-promoted Major spoke. Luckily, Mila had started to make a habit out of leaving her implants on while she was working, as the majority of the crew didn't seem to be all that aware of her deafness.

Mila carefully pulled herself out of the gaping hole in the small craft's dashboard, and wiped a stray strand of her bright turquoise hair out of her eyes. "Hey Ash. Well, we got the reactor working. The blueprints were missing the bits that make the time travel go, but I'm not surprised. Just making sure all the wiring for the controls is right."

Ash looked at the disassembled cockpit and raised an eyebrow, "You look like you've been busy... no time travel, eh? I suppose that's for the best." She ran her hand along the disconnected console, wondering what her alternate self was doing on this thing... "So, is this space worthy now?"

Mila chuckled. "Does it look spaceworthy to you?" She shook her head. "Just kidding. Once it's all put together, then yes. It should be, anyway. The reactor works and supplies power, and the systems diagnostics show green across the board, Well, apart from the temporal drive, anyway. Even its phaser cannons are apparently operative." She returned the console panel to its usual place, and began connecting the systems. "So, yeah, should be good to go for a test run soon."

Ash nodded in appreciation, "I think you've been hanging around me too much... even getting the phaser cannons working..." She reached out to help hold pieces of the ship in place as Mila continued to reconnect the componenta. "Did you find anything else on board that could help us figure out what this thing is done here... and now? Other than something about Hobus?" Ash is wracking her brain, trying to think about what she would do in such a situation. Maybe her alternate self would leave some kind of clue. But then, if her alternate self was anything like her, there probably would be a trace of anything useful.

Finally, the last connector clicked into place, and Mila locked the console into its fittings. "There we go. Thanks for the help." She sat back in the pilot's seat as the little craft's systems came to life. "See, told you it works. But the logs and everything are completely empty, apart from the Hobus coordinates. Even the vessel identification is blank."

She tapped a few commands, and a projection of the Terran Empire's symbol appeared. Beside it, where the identification of the vessel should be listed, was a string of random characters, and a simple message - "DATA NOT FOUND".

Ash sat in the seat behind Mila and ran her hands along the controls, "If some version of me was the last one to fly this thing, that doesn't surprise me. I'd wipe this thing so clean that even Kaol would be willing to perform surgery on it." Looking at the panels finishing their startup sequence, she grinned at Mila, "Want to take this thing for a joyride? I'm in charge.... I give us permission...."

Mila hesitated for a second. "I mean, I kinda promised Miles that we'd take him along, but he's out with Gedak on the runabout, so." She shrugged. "Tough luck for him." She indicated for Ash to take the pilot's chair, and sat in one of the two passenger seats behind it. "Just a quick lap around the station to see if it works, right?"

Ash got a mischievous glint in her eye as she looked at Mila, "We can start there.... what do you say about a little road trip to Hobus?"

"I mean, maybe we should make sure everything works, first? I mean, I definitely want to see what this Hobus stuff is all about, but definitely do a shakedown run first. And we should tell someone where we are going, just in case." Even after all the time she had spent with Ash, Mila wasn't quite as reckless just yet.

Ash exaggeratedly sighed, "Fine...." She took a look at the console as she took the pilot seat, glad there was a simple joystick and rudder. She powered everything up, watching everything light up. "I'm assuming you know what everything does, right?" she asked Mila as she pulled on the joystick and backed the ship into a pile of cargo containers. "Okay... point taken... let's go around the block a few times...." she then whispered, "Don't tell Rehana I did that..."

Mila chuckled. "I do, I hope you can figure it out, too!"

After the little hiccup, Ash figured out the controls... despite never having flown a vessel like this, it seemed to have fairly predictable handling and the controls felt like they were set up for her. She requested clearance for launch from the shuttle bay and it was granted. She guided the ship into space and looked over at Mila, "Alright, kiddo... what's next on the shakedown checklist? I'll try not to hit anything else..."

"Right. So, just fly around the station a bit, get a feel for how she handles, try out the impulse engines properly and such. I'll check the shields, scanners, and all that," Mila explained, as she activated the control panel next to her and raised the little fighter's shields.

"This is a pretty amazing little bird," Ash said as she maneuvers the ship around Drozana. "Controls are responsive... engines are pretty peppy... I'm not letting Miles anywhere near this. I totally call dibs..." she said with a giddy smile as the ship zips around Drozana, buzzing around the other docked ships. "Is this warp capable yet?" she asked Mila.

Mila held on to her seat as Ash was putting the little fighter through its paces. It certainly had an impressive performance. "Shields reporting all fine," she commented. "As for the next test, you have two options. Warp drive, or weapons. What will it be?"

Ash's eyes lit up, "Weapons?" She smiled at Mila struggling to stay in her seat as Ash continued to test the maneuverability of the craft, "Oh weapons.... always weapons. What do I get to blow up and with what?"

The young scientist grinned. She'd guessed right as to what Ash's preference was going to be. "Ah, spoilers," she replied, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I'm sending you a nav point at a safe distance from the station. There's a whole load of junk swirling around this system, I'm sure you will find plenty to shoot at. And I might just have a few surprises for you."

Ash took a look at the coordinates, "Hold on to your seat, I'm going to take the fun way over there.... for science, of course." She winked at Mila as they banked and inverted and twisted their way to the coordinates. Mila was right, there was plenty of targets to test the ship's weapons on. She looked at the controls and then at Mila, "Any recommendation for which button to press?"

Mila chuckled as she held on for dear life. "Whoever built this thing obviously decided inertial dampeners were an unnecessary luxury!" She shook her head. "Well, isn't there some sort of trigger on the controls? This thing is designed like a proper old-school fighter, after all!"

"After my little oops in the shuttle bay... I just wanted to make sure..." Ash said a little embarrassed. "I don't want to accidentally set the self destruct..." She then squeezed the trigger as the phaser cannons unleashed a barrage of destruction on an asteroid. "Whoa..." was all Ash could manage. "That was.... awesome!" she yelled. She then did some offensive and defensive maneuvers around different targets. "Mila... you are my favorite. Don't tell your brother... or do... but this ship is amazing!"

"Just wait until we find out what ammunition is compatible with the torpedo launcher," Mila replied, giggling. She was definitely beginning to enjoy herself, too. "Still, I reckon we should move on to the navigation systems and warp drive tests? I reckon a quick lap around the edge of the system should do the trick?"

Ash double checked the controls, disappointed that there was nothing to launch out of the torpedo launcher, "You left me an empty torpedo lube?" She almost pouted at Mila.

"Well," the young scientist replied defensively. "We haven't yet been able to acquire any torpedoes that actually fit this thing, you know."

Ash sighed and put in coordinates to the edge of the system, "Alright, let's see how fast this baby can go. Anything I need to know before kicking it into warp? See? I'm learning... asking questions before doing something regrettable."

Mila shrugged. "Hit it. Worst case scenario, we won't have to worry about it any more anyway."

Ash shot Mila a look before shaking her head, "I'm starting to think that I'm a terrible influence on you and your brother..." The kids are way too young to be so jaded... but then they did have a bit of a rough start to life. "Here we go..." she said as she engaged the warp engine.

The ship started to shudder and shake. Ash grabbed the controls and tried to stabilize it, "What the hell?!?" She found herself fighting the ship to keep it on course as she looked at Mila who was struggling to stay in her seat and also looked as confused as she did. "I don't like this.... dropping out of warp before we get too far," she announced. "Brace yourself."

The ship dropped out of warp much smoother than Ash thought it would, "I'm going to have to have some words with Rehana if this is the kind of work she does...." She got up out of the pilot seat to physically inspect the ship, "I hope me running into the cargo bins didn't shake something loose..."

A cursory physical inspection of the ship didn't reveal anything that would have caused the rough ride. "What the hell happened..." Ash muttered as she now looked at the displays. "That can't be right...." she said as she pointed at what she was seeing. "Mila.... You're the scientist... how are this far from Drozana.... before we even left?"

Mila checked her console. "Well, whatever we did seems to have activated the time travel thing?" She shrugged. "I have no clue. I mean, we only went back about ten minutes. I'd say we should head back at impulse speed. That's what, a three hour flight? Not too bad."

Ash furrowed her brow in confusion, "So, right now... there's another set of us... flying around on this exact ship.... but if we go back using the impulse engines, we don't run into them and we preserve the space time continuum, right? But if we don't leave before they get here, they'll see us? And we shouldn't do anything or touch anything or else the universe can be affected...?" She rubbed her eyes as these thoughts started to overwhelm her. "Let's get out of here before I break anything else..." Ash said as she set a course for Drozana. "10 minutes to not change the timeline... no pressure. And a nice 3 hour long trip home... are there replicators or did you bring any snacks?"

"Ash, we already are here. History doesn't repeat on an endless loop, once it's happened, it's happened. Yes, there is a copy of us jumping to warp, but that's us. So they won't arrive here when we are here, because they already are. Because it's us. Time travel into the past really only gets complicated once you start interfering with events that take place." Mila shrugged. "Didn't expect we'd need snacks, and this thing has no replicators I know of. Sorry. Might be able to get the computer to play some music?"

Ash stared at Mila blankly. She really hated temporal paradoxes, even if they didn't create one, the possibility just made her overthink and overanalyze. "Well, not destroying our timeline makes up for lack of snacks... but yes, music would be nice. I have some eccentric tastes in music... I don't think ancient Earth classic music would be too exciting for a 3 hour journey. What do youths these days listen to?" Ash asked.

Mila shrugged. "You listen to what you want to listen to, if it annoys me I'll just turn off my hearing and take a nap," she replied with a chuckle.

"Good to know, next time we take a trip together I'll be sure to bring my guitar...." Ash chuckled. "And can we put a replicator in here?"

Another shrug. "You will have to ask the engineer, not me." She tapped a few commands into the console, and some classic, late 20th-century Earth Rock music started to play. "This is by a guy called Tom Cochrane. Life is a Highway.. The name makes me wonder if he's any relation to Zephram." Mila leaned back and made herself as comfortable as comfortable. "When Miles and I were travelling, this was our play list. But feel free to change the music."

Ash leaned back in her seat, and put a foot up on the console to stretch out, noticing a slight scuff was already there. Guess her alternate universe counterpart did the same thing. "Nope, sounds good to me..." she said as she started bobbing her head to the beat.

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