Meeting the Boss

Posted on Wed Apr 7th, 2021 @ 4:13pm by Major Ashley Rogers & Captain Freya Mannerheim

1,247 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Chapter IV: Unravelling the Mystery
Timeline: 238702.15

Commander Rogers sat in her quarters and took a breath. The past day or so has been chaotic and costly for this crew... and they've yet to scratch the surface of why she was here in this universe. She shook her head and finished her daily report to Captain Mannerheim. But this time, before she hit transmit, she called her boss.

"Captain Mannerheim, I hope I'm not disturbing you," the Terran said through the screen.

Life on the I.S.S. Amelia had been busy in the Commander's absence. The third officer, a grumpy Saurian by the name of Lennox, had taken over as acting number one, and the crew had continued to dig for leads into the Tal Shiar's involvement with Hobus. So far, they had not found any new leads. They had raided Romulan outposts in the 25th century, pirate bases in the 27th, and even a Terran Resistance outpost in the 23rd, but they had learned nothing.

Freya was exhausted. They still hadn't heard from the I.S.S. Discovery beyond a ping somewhere in the 24th century of a parallel universe created by the incursion of a Romulan mining vessel following the supernova. Contact with the Terran-Federation Joint Temporal Task force had been difficult, as their headquarters, based on the Imperial flagship I.S.S. Georgiou in the 29th century, had come under attack from enemy forces. The Temporal Cold War was heating up. The Captain was sitting in her ready room, reading through the day's report, when her console pinged.

"Commander Rogers, it is good to see you," Freya said with a smile as she took the call. "How is life on the Ourainavassa?"

"It's interesting. The crew seems to be rather tight knit for group of mercenaries. A lot of... interpersonal... drama. I have to admit working with my counterpart is... disconcerting. They recently suffered some losses protecting a convoy from someone named Vulture with Tal'Shiar ties. It is possible that all of this is tied into my mission here. We are continuing to investigate after our repairs are done. The Colonel would like to speak with you though. I have to warn you, Raven is.... volatile. And recent events have definitely affected her."

The Captain nodded. "I expected she would want to speak with me eventually. Very well. But before we get to that, what is your current status, and that of the Ourainavassa? I take it you have now seen the ship in combat, how would you evaluate its capabilities, and those of the crew?"

Rogers nodded, "I'm doing well. Some of the crew distrusts me... I can't blame them though. The Ourainavassa took some heavy damage in battle, it's currently undergoing repairs. But once its fully mission capable again, it is a formidable ship with an equally formidable crew. I would go to battle with them without hesitation."

"That's what I wanted to hear, Commander. Now, I have some news for you myself. We've analysed the data you sent about the vessel your counterpart encountered at Hobus. Interestingly enough, it's a redesign of a 25th-century redevelopment of the Mogai used by the Romulan Republic, designated the Morrigu-class, with elements seen on Zhat Vash ships in the late 24th and early 25th. The Ourainavassa will be outclassed, as will any other vessel of your time period. We don't know how many of those are at Hobus, or otherwise deployed in this time zone, but these ships are further evidence that we are dealing with a severe temporal incursion."

Rogers rubbed her head, "Not exactly the news I was hoping to hear, but not surprising. Seems like this is going to be a much larger problem than we thought. So what's our play here? Stop them here and now? Or is there another point in the timeline that would be more effective?"

"I am awaiting instructions from Command. Until then, the operation will proceed as planned. We went into this knowing that we would likely have to deal with difficulties like this. The disruption in the timeline has been traced to this time zone, to Hobus. If we were able to stop them elsewhere, elsewhen, we would have. But the chance of an irreparable paradox is too high. We will have to deal with this here and now. You say the ship is currently undergoing repairs. Where are you located?"

"The homeworld of two crewmembers on board, teenagers, if you could believe that," the Commander replied. "Cera. My counterpart would appear to have earned some goodwill here because of her taking the children under her wing. Do you plan on meeting us here?"

"Cera. That's an unaligned world, right? How much longer do you expect to be in dock?"

"Yes, it's unaligned and I think they intend to remain so. Given the damage, we will be here a while. The crew needs the time off too. They took some casualties during the battle. We will need them to be fully ready so they should take as much time as they need," Rogers replied.

"How are they with strangers arriving on their doorstep?", the Captain asked. "I don't want to jump us into a place where we'll be met with open hostilities. We don't have time for that, and it certainly is not our mission to go provoke a neutral world. It would make for an excellent opportunity to test the Spore Drive though. We've only ever used it for interdimensional and temporal jumps, knowing that it works point-to-point within the same timezone would be a crucial asset."

Rogers shook her head, "Let's not surprise them. Major Rogers has a good rapport with the planet, I'll have her let them know to expect your arrival per Raven's request." She smirked, "You love that Spore Drive, don't you?"

"And you don't?," Freya responded, laughing. "Being able to jump from one place to another in a blink of an eye... that just opens so many options. I mean, I get why the Feds classified the whole thing after the Discovery affair, and denied it ever existed, but hell, it is an asset and a half. But you are right, we shouldn't surprise them. We'll jump to just outside their long-range scanners and then warp in. We're in the middle of the Delta Quadrant at the moment, going there by regular warp would just take too long."

Rogers nodded, "It is an amazing piece of technology. But yes, coming from conventionally would be ideal, we need as many allies as we can get. I'll let Raven know you're on the way and tell the other me to let Cera know to expect you."

"Very good, Commander. We will be there tomorrow, I shall have Lieutenant Commander Slavik get the Spore Drive ready. Is there anything else to report, before we meet in person?"

Rogers shook her head, "No. But, be prepared for the other me. We are.... quite similar and it's been irritating to everyone involved." She then smiled, "You've always said you wished you had more people like me..."

The Captain chuckled. "Very well. Please ask your Colonel to call a meeting with you, your counterpart, and your Chief of Security for when I arrive. I believe I should speak to all of them. Our mission is at a crucial stage, and we must begin to prepare for the endgame."

RSS Feed