What In the Universe?

Posted on Sun Jun 30th, 2024 @ 12:53pm by Commander Michael Murphy & Captain Jackson Adams & Lieutenant Steve Ryan & Lieutenant Kestra Ral & Lieutenant Stuart Mann

Mission: Through the Looking Glass

The Montana settled from whatever had just occurred, and it appeared that the ship was not in the same place as it was before.

"Lt, Mann, where are we?" asked the Captain.

Mann looked at the helm station, "Sir, I think we are about a day from earth station.."

What about the Romulans?

"They are not behind us," someone said...

That had been..... Awful. Her head hurt, and she felt sick. Kestra's hand went to her forehead she must have hit it on the console at some point. "A day from Earth Station? " she shook her head slightly, confused at the reading that was coming in. "These are incompatible with the reading we took as we left for Romulan space." She blinked, trying to block out how afraid the crew was because it was overwhelming.

'Then where are the Romulans?' Murphy wondered. "Are we getting any reports of ship damage?" he asked aloud.

Lt. Mann responded, "Sir, from what I can see, the helm is in good order."

Kestra shook her head. "Perhaps the science console was damaged in some way? My readings aren't. " She stopped speaking then frowned, " the polaric energy wave coming from the explosion might have altered things...." she left off finishing that thought. It could have done any number of things she thought. "There had been many theories surrounding polaric energy. None of them had been good. Sir."

The Captain continued, "we need to figure out where the heck we are. Commander...."

Before the Captain could finish his sentence, a Science Ensign said, "Captain, sir, this is weird.. according to our readings we are where we are supposed to be, in Federation space. However, at the same time, the galactic constant has changed."

At these words Lt. Ryan rose an eyebrow.
"Does that mean what I think?" he asked hoping to be mistakenly assuming the ship time-traveled.

Kestra nodded "that's what I was trying to explain. All if our reading are not as they were just a week ago. I mean every is off." She turned to the Ensign "start running a chronometer calculation. Is it time related or... dimensional. WE could be in an alternative timeline or in the mirror universe or a temporal anomaly. Past or future? None of the possibilities seemed all that fun to me."

Maybe it didn't seem fun to her, but to Murphy it was fascinating. Of course this meant he might never see his brother or parents again, but now was not the time to dwell on that.

Steve shook his head and took a deep breath.

Kestra blinked as she felt fascination coming from Murphy for thier predicament. She turned around and raised an eyebrow that would have made a Vulcan proud. If they could have felt that emotion she amended in her head. "If we are in the past then anything we do, any interaction we have could change the future as we know it."

The Ensign from the science department nodded her understanding "the butterfly afect."

Kestra smiled, "Correct now if we are in the future time line well. We really can't mess up our future. Possibly someone else's." She gave a little shrug " Mirror universe well that has its own unique problems. Then there is trying to go back to our correct time line but we have to figure out where we are first. I will need the whole science department on this. " She bit her lip.

Kestra sent assignments to her different departments within the science division. As the data started to come back Kestra frowned "Well I have good news and bad news. Good news we aren't in the past. So no messing up our future... " She let the relief settle over her for a moment before she continued with what they had found out "bad news we are in an alternate universe. It's why everything that is a constant in our universe isn't the same here. Sir at this time I don't know how to get us back. "

"Could we recreate the event that got us here?" Murphy asked. "Would that definitively send us home, or is there the possibility that we would end up in another unique place instead?"

Kestra stood up and paced a few steps then turned back. "To recreate the event, we would need to explode that ship again. The shockwave from Chaltok IV. The Romulan ship that chased us, then finally a black hole to enter. And, no, I couldn't guarantee we would be in the right time or universe. We are going to have to go over all of the data collected. Maybe that will shed some light on how we got here. That black hole wasn't there when we entered Romulan space. So maybe something happened here to open it. Was it just me or did anyone else feel like there was another ship sharing the same space and time as we were?" Kestra rubbed her forehead feeling a headache.

"That means we need to find that romulan ship in this reality." Steve pointed out "What if romulans in here didn't get to the point to experiment with polar ion propulsion? Are we stuck here till they start experimenting with it and build the ship we sabotaged?" he asked.

Kestra sighed "at this point I don't know. After we study the results it might be something simple. I am more concerned about the ship we change places with. What is it doing now in our space and time?" Kestra was handed a padd after reading it she nodded "looks like a few ships have made the trip into this universe and back, but the information is considered classified." She looked to the captain wondering if he could use his clearance to unlock it.

Commander Murphy contemplated the possibility that the other ship had initiated the switch, and that the polaric explosion, torpedoes, and black hole on their end had just been a coincidence. He looked to the Captain to hear his answer to Kestra's question.

The Captain approached the Computer and said, "Computer unlock requested data... Captain Jackson Adams, alpha, pie, delta 33.21, enable."

The Computer replied, "Access granted. It will take 3.2 hours to have complete data ready for access."

Kestra smiled then gave a nod as she sat down at the console. It must have been a huge file for it to take that long but would it help them get home? Perhaps she should get some coffee while she waited?

Perfect, thought Murphy. Now they just had to be patient.

____________________
OFF:

Captain Jackson Adams,
Commanding Officer, USS Montana

Commander Michael Murphy
Executive Officer, USS Montana

LT. Kestra Ral
CSO, USS Montana

LT. Steve Ryan
COO, USS Montana

Lieutenant Stuart Mann
Navigation Officer, USS Montana
NPC