Evaluating the situation

Posted on Mon Oct 25th, 2021 @ 5:26pm by Captain Freya Mannerheim & Major Ashley Rogers

1,338 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Chapter V: The Calm Before The Storm
Location: Captain's Ready Room, I.S.S. Amelia
Timeline: 238703.03

Now back behind her own desk, Captain Mannerheim couldn't help but sigh. The sudden and unexpected departure of the Colonel had brought both crews into yet another troublesome situation. Subcommander Kaiae's inexperience, coupled with her and Lieutenant Hatham's Romulan paranoia, was sure to be causing some trouble in the near future. Without doubt, they would assume the Terrans had something to do with their commander's disappearance.

She shook her head, and looked at Commander Rogers, who had been transported straight to the ready room with her. "Commander," she said, carefully considering each of her words. "How much sewage do you believe we find ourselves in right now? Up to our chests, or even higher than that?"

The Commander chuckled, "Given what I know about this crew, I'm surprised it went as well as it did. The Romulans are paranoid and the others are loyal. Where is the other me, by the way?"

"Probably just arrived on Terra. Or 'Earth', as they call it here. To look for Perez. I tried contacting her and the twins, but they don't seem to be on their shuttle any more, and their badges don't have enough range to contact them from here." Freya sighed. "So, for the next few days, the Subcommander will be in charge, and I sure hope she doesn't somehow manage to rip our alliance apart. It's on thin enough ice as it is."

Rogers scoffed, "They're a logical group. As long as we don't give them more reasons to distrust us, I think we should be able to continue to work together. The Romulans are focused on trying to save their people. The best we can do is let them focus on their efforts and be prepared to assist when needed."

The Captain shook her head. "You're confusing them for Vulcans. No, Romulans share quite a few Terran traits, including paranoia. Often to an unhealthy degree. Raven's disappearance, although entirely unexplained and definitely nothing to do with us, will look to them as if we are trying to take over their ship. Which makes us a potential threat to their goals that needs to be eliminated. We need the other Rogers back, as soon as possible. Kaiae's inexperience could well cause trouble."

"I'd argue we are logical people too. A healthy... or unhealthy, dose of paranoia doesn't change that. But it serves no tactical purpose to create a enemy out of nothing. I recommend we defer to the Subcommander and take no actions that may make them trust us less. They have larger problems than us just being here. As long as we don't do anything provocative, we should be able maintain our delicate alliance," Rogers countered. "I'll.... even.... try to behave."

Freya couldn't help but laugh out loud. "I would pay a good amount of credits to see that. Do we have any idea what it might be that pulled the Colonel away so suddenly? Have we had any luck trying to track her trajectory? Anything at all?"

"None, granted I wasn't exactly in the best place to track anyone's movements after you sent me to my room.... with all due respect," Rogers said with a smirk. "I could go through some sensor logs if you think that would help. But if she wanted to leave no trace. I'd assume she would actually leave no trace."

Freya tapped around on her console, and brought up the sensor logs. "Well, we might as well have a look at the logs now." She scrolled through the logs, until she found the point where Munin had been detected leaving the hangar. About two minutes later, the logs showed a temporal distortion.

The Captain cursed. "How good is your temporal dynamics, Commander? I'm sure you are aware of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and how it relates to temporal displacement. In our case, we can know either where something is going, or when. And I have a feeling the latter is the more important part here."

"I wish my counterpart was here, she knew Raven more than I do. But I were to hazard a guess, based on what I've seen, perhaps she's trying to fix something in her past? Her ex?" Rogers postulated. "But then, if she's anything like the rest of this crew, they all have a lifetime of issues they'd probably want to resolve through time travel..."

Freya nodded slowly. "And I get the sense that she does know better than to mess with time for trivial things like this. Nobody likes a bootstrap paradox, especially since once you manage to cause one, you are locked into that new timeline you created." She shook her head. "No, that's not it. Wait a second." Something in the data about the displacement had caught her eye. "There's a quantum signature shift in this displacement. She hasn't travelled in time, she used the ship's temporal drive to cross into our universe!"

"What the hell is she doing in our universe?!" Rogers exclaimed. "And here the Romulans thought we were being the aggressors when their Captain has snuck into our universe!"

The Captain slammed her fist on her desk. "Commander! That is nonsense, and you know it. She went there on her own, in a small craft, while we came here with a fully armed and crewed battlecruiser. Who appears more threatening, the pack of wolves walking into the chicken coop, or the sole chicken entering the wolves' den?" She shook her head. "She must be looking for something there. Or it could have been an accident, after all, I doubt she is particularly familiar with the controls of an Aeon-class."

Roger shook her head, "You don't need a fully armed and crewed battle cruiser to inflict damage. That's how I earned my rank." She sighed, "I am trying to consider all of the options. I would be derelict in my duties if didn't. And you know I don't like to mince words. Regardless of her motives, we need to find her. She will either need to be stopped or she may need assistance. I don't know her well enough to even hazard a guess as to what she was thinking when she did this."

"I agree," Freya replied. "But we have no idea where in our universe she went - or even when. We will have to wait until Major Rogers is back, she knows the Colonel better than either of us, maybe she can tell us something. In the meantime, check if any transmissions were made from this ship to the Colonel, as well as from the old Amelia. Pay particular attention to any messages that might have come from Ellie Greaves. I have a hunch that she might have been looking into something before her death."

Rogers grumbled subtly, "Greaves..." before nodding, "Yes, ma'am. History is full of people doing stupid things for love."

"Indeed. Who knows, she might even have found something out. Either way, if she sent a message to the Colonel, we need to find out."

"I'll get right on that," Rogers said. "Should we involve this crew? It might... encourage.... trust if we were to work together to find their leader."

The Captain paused for a moment. "Let us not make a decision on that just yet," she finally said. "Let's see what you find, first. I'll discuss it with Subcommander Kaiae once we know more."

"Very well," Rogers said. "However, if anyone asks why I'm going through the communications, I won't lie to them. If this alliance is to not implode, this isn't the issue to be secretive about."

Freya smirked. "If any of their people find out you are going through communications sent from this ship, we've got other issues to worry about than keeping secrets from them. We need to get to the bottom of this, and we need to do so quickly. The sooner we find the Colonel, the better. Get to it, Commander. Dismissed."

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