"Temporal Insanity Part XI: To The Last Syllable Of Recorded Time" 2 of 2
1 Hour Remaining...
Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.
Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.
Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.
We have no time to lose,
and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.
And thus it is that time goes by
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.
At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet there is time. - Tagore
Lizzy and Evelyn watched glittering particles moving towards them. They caught it easily but Lizzy had been so awed by it never having seen anything like it in her life, she had almost forgotten to start the process on safely destroying the omega molecules. She looked inside her breath catching in her throat...
The wave of white hit the planet with exactly the correct amount of force, Quentin felt the lurch as the planet's speed increased, this was perfect he thought as he monitored the velocity on his console. Wait… no it wasn't his mind raced. They were slow, too slow. They needed to pick up speed by an increase of 0.7 and if they didn't; this planet was going to fall short of the exit location. This was all out of his hands now and he watched with baited breath. The velocity seemed to increase as the full force of the shockwave hit the planet, the increase in the planet's magnetic field meant that it simply burnt up but as Newton's law of motion was proved the speed increased and the planet went hurtling into the rift, the future and the unknown.
"Ensign Dicari." Shiarrael stood up as the planet hurtled into the rift "get those Engineers back aboard." She spun on her heels and looked at Shrisnar standing tactical "arm a pair photon torpedoes and target the chamber. Once the engineers are back aboard destroy it. We don't have time to bring it in."
"Yes ma'am," Cyrin responded as he set the transporters to get the engineers back on the ship.
Lizzy felt rather then saw the transport that got her out of there along with Evelyn with the safe transport Erin and Robin were already making their way back via the shuttle they had been using to make sure nothing went wrong with Eve and Lizzy. now they were docking...
Lizzy stood on the transporter pad with Eve slowly removing her helm as she turned to look at her friend. What she had seen was one of the most beautiful and one of the most dangerous sights that could be described...
It was a strange sensation Quentin thought to himself as the planet raced along a predetermined trajectory, the future thankfully hadn't expanded installations or ships to this sector and thankfully no-one had noticed a spatial rift or a planet flying past. He couldn't help but briefly pause and wonder what the future would have in store, what the people were like. Thoughts that were quickly shaken as it was nearly time to fire the array on the planet; he just hoped it worked. He ran outside into the freezing dark wasteland and moved slowly and cautiously up the sliding hill towards the array platform and console. This was it… the defining moment of the plan. Had this planet been saved or had he condemned them to death? He pressed the button and covered his eyes as he looked up, the bright intense beam of chrono particles mixed with inverse tachyon was beautiful as it weaved up through the atmosphere and in front of the planet slowly but surely creating a rift. The wonderful thing about a chrono-deflector was that dates could be pre-set. This was certainly important as without that he couldn't guarantee where exactly the planet and him would end up. He now waited, the planet was moving closer to the small rift but it needed the Charon and the Klingon ship to fully open it from their side, without them getting there quickly the planet would simply pass through the small rift and probably break up on impact.
Shiarrael fell back into her chair as the chamber exploded. Once the fireworks display was gone the first rift was immediately sealed "good work everyone. Helm, set course for the" she paused and smirked "for the Rufo-Tyrax system, maximum warp, and go."
The Commodore's statement earned her a quirked eyebrow from her helmsman, however Sakarra was rather too busy to waste more than 0.8 seconds on being mildly amused. With the course long since plotted and laid in, she engaged the engines.
The Charon turned away from the explosion and burst into warp. On her tail the IKS Ya'Vang followed suit. The following minutes were tense with expectation. Shiarrael started to massage the armrest again- she did her best not to claw at the upholstery. Finally the Charon dropped from warp and directly in front of her a massive anomaly churned with multicolored clouds of glowing energy. Directly behind the anomaly was a burning sun which created a bright halo effect framing the anomaly. It was certainly a majestic and awe inspiring scene "the entrance to Vorta Vor? Or perhaps Areinnye?" Shiarrael smirked wondering if this crew was ready to follow her into hell. Suddenly the anomaly seemed to heave outward and from its depths the planet surged forward. Flailing bursts of energy poured out from the anomaly and several of them lashed out at the Charon. Shiarrael quit massaging the fabric and gripped the armrest tightly as the Charon heaved from the impact of the energy bursts. Lights flickered and a few consoles exploded sending smoke and plastic bits flying everywhere.
"Reinforce shielding!" Shiarrael shouted through the cacophony of sounds that echoed through the bridge. She released her grip on the armrest and pressed her commbadge "Ensign Rufo close that rift as soon as the planet exits! I don-" Another burst of energy hit the Charon. The forward view screen cracked causing the image to fizzle out. Poor Lieutenant Shrisnar was thrown over the tactical console as the Charon rocked violently. Shiarrael reached out grabbing the flying Andorian's arm and casually tossed him into the empty executive officer's chair. "You should hold on tighter Lieutenant."
"Maximum power to the structural integrity fields and main shields!" Ch'Krang shouted as the Ya'Vang was struck by one of the energy bursts, the bridge crew was thrown around and the old Klingon ended face down on the deck, his face cut lightly in a few places, he pushed himself up and stood leaning against a console.
"Fascinating." It took the young half-Vulcan a few seconds to steady the ship and get them back into a position to implement the rest of their plan. Astonishingly enough, they were all still alive to try.
"Ensign activate your program to shut the rift." Galen shouted at the Ensign he was impressed that it worked but would be more impressed if the sealing of the rift was as smoothly as the opening the rift.
"Not now it's still too early if we close it now the planet well be stuck." Eve said looking at the count down clock she created using calculations to come up with an arrival time, "I just need a few more seconds." She added as she typed away at the console to make sure she just had to hit one button to activate the program to close the rift. Four seconds later Eve hit the one button and within a matter of seconds the rift was closed.
It was working, on his viewer he could see the rift and the planet passing through. Still with baited breath he watched the amazing scene of a planet emerge from no-where and be flung successfully in an orbital path. The planet naturally slowed as gravity did its work and Calhoun fell back in his chair and laughed to himself. It had worked; this crazy, mental plan had gone and worked. "One amazing ride" he said to himself still chuckling with relief and partially deliria caused by exhaustion.
"Commodore the rift has been closed I'll need to run a few scans and make sure everything is in order." Eve said.
Finally everything settled and Shiarrael pressed her combadge "good work." The acrid smell of smoke filled the bridge but the atmospheric vents had already cleared most of the particles out of the air. Shiarrael leaned back in her chair relieved that the Charon was still in one piece. When she relaxed she felt a stinging sensation emanating from her left cheek. She carefully felt of it and realized piece of console had embedded itself there "how bothersome" she sighed and pulled it out. A small stream of emerald blood flowed down her cheek and dripped onto her uniform "is everyone okay?" She stood up and stretched while looking over the bridge personnel who all seemed haggard. Shiarrael smirked and then laughed "how pathetic you all look. Unless you're dying I want a situation report. Lieutenant Haruhi contact medical and engineering. Have them send teams up here and find out if Calhoun is alive. I feel like hitting him for scratching my ship."
Pathetic? Tilting her head in slight bemusement, Sakarra turned and saw the CO looking rather ruffled herself. She decided this had to be another form of humor that eluded her and favored the Commodore with an eloquently raised brow. "Helm is functioning adequately, Commodore." aside from a few minor nuisances which weren't worth mentioning, like a few burnt out relays and starboard thrusters that seemed to suffer from a type of hiccup. "Standard orbit over Lyrilia in 1.73 minutes."
"Good job Ensign. Science." Shiarrael glanced at Cadet Doyle "scan the planet and report."
Nathanial scanned the planet; he knew the first thing that she would want to know about was the Omega situation. He scanned the planet for Omega, the view screen came back with a confirmation of no particles found. He ran a few more scans, planet composition, stability, life signs. The planet had been through a lot, but miraculously it had survived. He turned towards the Commodore and noticed Sakarra out of the corner of his eye also looking his way. Dropping her a quick wink, he then shifted his attention to the Commodore in full "All scans show that Omega is no longer on the planet, and the planet itself is stable."
Quentin was relieved that this was over. He stepped outside of this bunker and looked up at the natural sunlight beaming down on the planet surface, for the first time in however many days he felt warmth. Relief. Relaxed. He let out a huge sigh as he took off the cold-weather mask and closed his eyes for a brief second as the sun hit his haggard, gaunt features and for that brief second he felt like seven-of-nine all those decades ago on Voyager when she saw and felt perfection with Omega. He opened his eyes and headed back inside where suddenly things turned for the worse. Violently and without warning he vomited inside the bunker, with nothing in his stomach he retched as bile and blood spattered on the floor. He felt strange, burning up for some unknown reason and the world around him spun. He managed to slam his fist on his combadge and talk briefly. "Charon, one to beam directly to sickbay" he croaked as the blue light engulfed him and sent him home. Just as the transport was engaged he pressed a button on the console and as he passed into tiny particles he saw the bunker, the array and all Starfleet technology explode. Then he blacked out.
[Finale]
Commodore Shirrael Rehu
Commanding Officer
USS Charon
Lt. Commander Quentin Calhoun
Chief Engineer
USS Charon
Lieutenant Elizabeth Johnson (apb APB Kai)
Assistant Engineer
USS Charon
Ensign Galen Rufo
Stellar Cartographer
USS Charon
Ensign Cyrin Dicari
Chief of Operations
USS Charon
Ensign Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helmsman
USS Charon
Cadet Nathanial Doyle
Assistant Science Officer
USS Charon
Ch'Krang HoD
Commanding Officer
IKS Ya'Vang
1 Hour Remaining...
Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.
Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.
Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.
We have no time to lose,
and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.
And thus it is that time goes by
while I give it to every querulous man who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.
At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet there is time. - Tagore
Lizzy and Evelyn watched glittering particles moving towards them. They caught it easily but Lizzy had been so awed by it never having seen anything like it in her life, she had almost forgotten to start the process on safely destroying the omega molecules. She looked inside her breath catching in her throat...
The wave of white hit the planet with exactly the correct amount of force, Quentin felt the lurch as the planet's speed increased, this was perfect he thought as he monitored the velocity on his console. Wait… no it wasn't his mind raced. They were slow, too slow. They needed to pick up speed by an increase of 0.7 and if they didn't; this planet was going to fall short of the exit location. This was all out of his hands now and he watched with baited breath. The velocity seemed to increase as the full force of the shockwave hit the planet, the increase in the planet's magnetic field meant that it simply burnt up but as Newton's law of motion was proved the speed increased and the planet went hurtling into the rift, the future and the unknown.
"Ensign Dicari." Shiarrael stood up as the planet hurtled into the rift "get those Engineers back aboard." She spun on her heels and looked at Shrisnar standing tactical "arm a pair photon torpedoes and target the chamber. Once the engineers are back aboard destroy it. We don't have time to bring it in."
"Yes ma'am," Cyrin responded as he set the transporters to get the engineers back on the ship.
Lizzy felt rather then saw the transport that got her out of there along with Evelyn with the safe transport Erin and Robin were already making their way back via the shuttle they had been using to make sure nothing went wrong with Eve and Lizzy. now they were docking...
Lizzy stood on the transporter pad with Eve slowly removing her helm as she turned to look at her friend. What she had seen was one of the most beautiful and one of the most dangerous sights that could be described...
It was a strange sensation Quentin thought to himself as the planet raced along a predetermined trajectory, the future thankfully hadn't expanded installations or ships to this sector and thankfully no-one had noticed a spatial rift or a planet flying past. He couldn't help but briefly pause and wonder what the future would have in store, what the people were like. Thoughts that were quickly shaken as it was nearly time to fire the array on the planet; he just hoped it worked. He ran outside into the freezing dark wasteland and moved slowly and cautiously up the sliding hill towards the array platform and console. This was it… the defining moment of the plan. Had this planet been saved or had he condemned them to death? He pressed the button and covered his eyes as he looked up, the bright intense beam of chrono particles mixed with inverse tachyon was beautiful as it weaved up through the atmosphere and in front of the planet slowly but surely creating a rift. The wonderful thing about a chrono-deflector was that dates could be pre-set. This was certainly important as without that he couldn't guarantee where exactly the planet and him would end up. He now waited, the planet was moving closer to the small rift but it needed the Charon and the Klingon ship to fully open it from their side, without them getting there quickly the planet would simply pass through the small rift and probably break up on impact.
Shiarrael fell back into her chair as the chamber exploded. Once the fireworks display was gone the first rift was immediately sealed "good work everyone. Helm, set course for the" she paused and smirked "for the Rufo-Tyrax system, maximum warp, and go."
The Commodore's statement earned her a quirked eyebrow from her helmsman, however Sakarra was rather too busy to waste more than 0.8 seconds on being mildly amused. With the course long since plotted and laid in, she engaged the engines.
The Charon turned away from the explosion and burst into warp. On her tail the IKS Ya'Vang followed suit. The following minutes were tense with expectation. Shiarrael started to massage the armrest again- she did her best not to claw at the upholstery. Finally the Charon dropped from warp and directly in front of her a massive anomaly churned with multicolored clouds of glowing energy. Directly behind the anomaly was a burning sun which created a bright halo effect framing the anomaly. It was certainly a majestic and awe inspiring scene "the entrance to Vorta Vor? Or perhaps Areinnye?" Shiarrael smirked wondering if this crew was ready to follow her into hell. Suddenly the anomaly seemed to heave outward and from its depths the planet surged forward. Flailing bursts of energy poured out from the anomaly and several of them lashed out at the Charon. Shiarrael quit massaging the fabric and gripped the armrest tightly as the Charon heaved from the impact of the energy bursts. Lights flickered and a few consoles exploded sending smoke and plastic bits flying everywhere.
"Reinforce shielding!" Shiarrael shouted through the cacophony of sounds that echoed through the bridge. She released her grip on the armrest and pressed her commbadge "Ensign Rufo close that rift as soon as the planet exits! I don-" Another burst of energy hit the Charon. The forward view screen cracked causing the image to fizzle out. Poor Lieutenant Shrisnar was thrown over the tactical console as the Charon rocked violently. Shiarrael reached out grabbing the flying Andorian's arm and casually tossed him into the empty executive officer's chair. "You should hold on tighter Lieutenant."
"Maximum power to the structural integrity fields and main shields!" Ch'Krang shouted as the Ya'Vang was struck by one of the energy bursts, the bridge crew was thrown around and the old Klingon ended face down on the deck, his face cut lightly in a few places, he pushed himself up and stood leaning against a console.
"Fascinating." It took the young half-Vulcan a few seconds to steady the ship and get them back into a position to implement the rest of their plan. Astonishingly enough, they were all still alive to try.
"Ensign activate your program to shut the rift." Galen shouted at the Ensign he was impressed that it worked but would be more impressed if the sealing of the rift was as smoothly as the opening the rift.
"Not now it's still too early if we close it now the planet well be stuck." Eve said looking at the count down clock she created using calculations to come up with an arrival time, "I just need a few more seconds." She added as she typed away at the console to make sure she just had to hit one button to activate the program to close the rift. Four seconds later Eve hit the one button and within a matter of seconds the rift was closed.
It was working, on his viewer he could see the rift and the planet passing through. Still with baited breath he watched the amazing scene of a planet emerge from no-where and be flung successfully in an orbital path. The planet naturally slowed as gravity did its work and Calhoun fell back in his chair and laughed to himself. It had worked; this crazy, mental plan had gone and worked. "One amazing ride" he said to himself still chuckling with relief and partially deliria caused by exhaustion.
"Commodore the rift has been closed I'll need to run a few scans and make sure everything is in order." Eve said.
Finally everything settled and Shiarrael pressed her combadge "good work." The acrid smell of smoke filled the bridge but the atmospheric vents had already cleared most of the particles out of the air. Shiarrael leaned back in her chair relieved that the Charon was still in one piece. When she relaxed she felt a stinging sensation emanating from her left cheek. She carefully felt of it and realized piece of console had embedded itself there "how bothersome" she sighed and pulled it out. A small stream of emerald blood flowed down her cheek and dripped onto her uniform "is everyone okay?" She stood up and stretched while looking over the bridge personnel who all seemed haggard. Shiarrael smirked and then laughed "how pathetic you all look. Unless you're dying I want a situation report. Lieutenant Haruhi contact medical and engineering. Have them send teams up here and find out if Calhoun is alive. I feel like hitting him for scratching my ship."
Pathetic? Tilting her head in slight bemusement, Sakarra turned and saw the CO looking rather ruffled herself. She decided this had to be another form of humor that eluded her and favored the Commodore with an eloquently raised brow. "Helm is functioning adequately, Commodore." aside from a few minor nuisances which weren't worth mentioning, like a few burnt out relays and starboard thrusters that seemed to suffer from a type of hiccup. "Standard orbit over Lyrilia in 1.73 minutes."
"Good job Ensign. Science." Shiarrael glanced at Cadet Doyle "scan the planet and report."
Nathanial scanned the planet; he knew the first thing that she would want to know about was the Omega situation. He scanned the planet for Omega, the view screen came back with a confirmation of no particles found. He ran a few more scans, planet composition, stability, life signs. The planet had been through a lot, but miraculously it had survived. He turned towards the Commodore and noticed Sakarra out of the corner of his eye also looking his way. Dropping her a quick wink, he then shifted his attention to the Commodore in full "All scans show that Omega is no longer on the planet, and the planet itself is stable."
Quentin was relieved that this was over. He stepped outside of this bunker and looked up at the natural sunlight beaming down on the planet surface, for the first time in however many days he felt warmth. Relief. Relaxed. He let out a huge sigh as he took off the cold-weather mask and closed his eyes for a brief second as the sun hit his haggard, gaunt features and for that brief second he felt like seven-of-nine all those decades ago on Voyager when she saw and felt perfection with Omega. He opened his eyes and headed back inside where suddenly things turned for the worse. Violently and without warning he vomited inside the bunker, with nothing in his stomach he retched as bile and blood spattered on the floor. He felt strange, burning up for some unknown reason and the world around him spun. He managed to slam his fist on his combadge and talk briefly. "Charon, one to beam directly to sickbay" he croaked as the blue light engulfed him and sent him home. Just as the transport was engaged he pressed a button on the console and as he passed into tiny particles he saw the bunker, the array and all Starfleet technology explode. Then he blacked out.
[Finale]
Commodore Shirrael Rehu
Commanding Officer
USS Charon
Lt. Commander Quentin Calhoun
Chief Engineer
USS Charon
Lieutenant Elizabeth Johnson (apb APB Kai)
Assistant Engineer
USS Charon
Ensign Galen Rufo
Stellar Cartographer
USS Charon
Ensign Cyrin Dicari
Chief of Operations
USS Charon
Ensign Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helmsman
USS Charon
Cadet Nathanial Doyle
Assistant Science Officer
USS Charon
Ch'Krang HoD
Commanding Officer
IKS Ya'Vang
