Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

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Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

April 18, 2022, 06:45:34 PM

Time. Time was something that consistently changed, and that once thought could not be altered. But as few could attest, it could be changed with right circumstances or technological advancements. Hell, she had been the casualty of a temporal incident by accident and it wasn't a particularly fun time either.

Alana Pierce sat back in her chair, drinking her cola slowly, allowing the caffeine to hit her bloodstream as she reviewed the files she came across while on her previous shift. The data however was highly encrypted no doubt to prevent someone who wasn't allowed to view it to see the information. But the intelligence department was somewhere she thought she ought to be able to read it. To say the least, it was rather alarming yet not at all unexpected with the recent arrival of Alistair at the mission on Praxis. Data courier to the present day from a future Starfleet based source. The codes all checked out, so it had to be legitimate data. Nevertheless, it made her feel uneasy in the pit of her stomach.

Brushing the crimson hair from her cheek, she aligned it carefully over her ears as she continued on in stark interest. Subconsciously, her finger twirled the hair she had near her ears as the curiosity piqued in her mind. She oculd gather that the document itself had plans in them based on the sheer size but most of the data however had been encrypted with codes she wasn't familiar with. Or didn't have yet. Damn temporal mechanics.

She reached over to the console and tapped it since her combadge is ineffective once in the confines of the Central Intelligence Suite. She'd have to do this through secure channel only via internal CIS comm systems. "This is Lt. Pierce in the CIS. Lt. Morali, and Lt. Leavitt, I'd like for you to meet me here at your earliest convenience. There seems to be something I need your specific expertise on." Her finger clicked off the comm system.

Alana's fingers tapped the desk as she stared at the screen in question. Something was brewing and she had to get to the bottom of it. It had to be time travel related with the recent buzz about the ship. Her eyes kept finding details of a TDG referenced in acronym only over the little data she could discern from the contents brought back with Alistair Leavitt. What it meant, she had no idea yet, but she intended to find out.

In the meantime, she gathered what little data she had and the encrypted files to a PADD but synced with the CIS computer system as she waited. Again, on time, to give her the answers to her questions.

OOC: CIS Layout in Chief Intel Office - [Show/Hide]

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #1 – April 19, 2022, 04:42:20 PM

[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Library and Research Room | Deck 15| Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Griff @Pierce
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The start of Sarresh Morali's shift found the former Ash'reem currently seated in one of the reading nooks of the ships research library, having just finished the departmental morning meeting. He had wanted to review some of the historical records that had recently been uploaded to the ship, courtesy of the Klingon's Hall of Records, to cross verify a few points of recent history between Starfleet's files and Imperial records. There was something nagging at the back of his mind, a notion that he could not fully explore, but one that he was certain would prove vital. Even if he couldn't understand the how, nor the why Not yet in any event.

A lot of information had accidentally leaked into Sarresh's brain over the last few weeks, ever since he had first met the ships new Chief Diplomat. Added to that, the seizure he had experienced when a temporal doppelganger of Lucan Nicander, from another time line, breached reality while Sarresh was on a mission in the Council Chambers of the Klingon High Council, and it was hardly a surprise that he was getting impressions without context. Such moments of insight were common place to the time traveler, slave that he was to the memory engram encoding that had been left in his mind after his assignment to the Theurgy, encapsulating his memories of the future behind a firewall that was only supposed to open up in times of need, or temporal breaching.

At least I'm not seizing up in the middle of the morning briefing, he thought ruefully. He brought a cup of the same Bajoran tea that he'd often seen the late Ryuan Sel drinking to his lips, and savored the spicy flavor, recalling a morning two days prior. That day had started with a much more bitter brew, metaphorically and literally. He recalled the meal he shared, and smiled a bittersweet smile. He needed to follow up with the Security petty officer, as he'd promised to do, checking in on her.

He was just setting his mug aside and picking up the PaDD he'd downloaded relevant files to, with every intention of putting off that work and pulling up duty rosters for the security department when his combadge went off. A few heads turned in the sparsely populated room, before a glare in their direction sent the various researchers back to their own efforts. This was not a request that he'd expected to get, needless to say. He could count on one hand the number of times someone had asked him to come down to the Central Intelligence Suite. Or go up to, as it were, considering he was ten decks down.

There was also the little matter of the other name that had been summoned: Alistair Levitt. Their newest time traveler, a man plucked form the near future and deposited back just in time to assist crews from the Theurgy in dealing with a threat brewing in the debris of Praxis, the Klingon moon that had suffered a catastrophic explosion in the late twenty-third century and ushered in the first Khitomer Accords, sewing peace between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. Had the Relativity - which had not bothered to warn me it was sending help - not intervened by putting Leavitt where they had, the events in the debris field would have unfolded in a far less satisfactory fashion for Sarresh's compatriots.

What does an intelligence officer need with two time travelers? Nothing good, he concluded, standing up and tucking his PaDD under one arm. He rapped his fingers across his communicator, and issued a terse, "This is Morali, I'm on my way," before departing the library, pausing only long enough to deposit his tea mug in one of the replicators for recycling and re-sequencing.

Five minutes later, he found himself in front of the doors to the CIS, scowling over at the posted security guard. As he wasn't a regular member of the Intelligence department, he couldn't just stroll into a secured area of the ship. The irony was not lost on him that he spent most of his days curled up in a lab as secure as, if not more so, than the CIS, and generally speaking no one was permitted in that room without his express permission. Being on the other side of that equation did little to ease the worry that had bubbled up on the turbolift ride.

"Morali to Lt. Pierce. It seems you need to come fetch me if I'm to join you." Why the guard couldn't have paged the woman who'd summoned him to begin with was beyond him. Whomever the crewman was on duty, it wasn't a security officer Sarresh knew personally, given there were only three of those, and this man was neither a woman, an Andorian, or a Betazoid.

You really need to get out more. Scowling, Sarresh told the little voice in his head to shut up.

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #2 – April 20, 2022, 04:26:00 PM

[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt | Bridge | Deck 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Brutus, @Pierce

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When the call came in, Alistair had barely been on the Bridge for twenty minutes. Sitting at Ops, he took a moment to shake his head in bemusement. Three days of preparation to stand his first duty shift. Three days of studying ship systems, protocols, architecture, procedures and a thousand other things. Save for the brief distraction with Enyd and the lengthy work helping prepare for the CIWS (which coincided with the studying anyway), Alistair had worked his butt off, painfully aware of how different it was to man the Ops station of a Theurgy-class multivector dreadnought compared to a tiny Nova-class frigate.

And only twenty minutes in to that first shift, he was being called away. Still, 'at your earliest convenience' was Starfleet code for 'get your ass down here right damn now', and based on who Lieutenant Pierce was calling, it was clearly important, almost certainly about the Relativity intelligence. Alistair couldn't help a little irritation; would it have been so damn hard for Ducane to just make it all obvious and simple?

"Leavitt acknowledging, I'll be down in a few minutes," he said in resignation. After someone relieved him, Alistair duly set out for the Intelligence offices on Deck 15, only getting lost once on the way. He was just arriving when he caught a fellow lieutenant making a call.

"I guess she'll be collecting me too," Alistair said as he walked up, getting a good look at the other man, and frowned in confusion. "Lieutenant...uh...Morali? Right? I'm sorry, I had heard that you were Ash'reem so I was expecting...urgh, anyway, I'm Alistair Leavitt. Nice to meet you."

With that, he extended a hand, smiling awkwardly.

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #3 – April 29, 2022, 03:13:02 AM

It didn't feel like it had been that long to be honest, but she was lost in her thoughts. Thinking about the cards time had dealt her over the years. What started out as a winning hand, turned into something that she wouldn't have even imagined in a compounded situation. Nor would she wished for it to happen. Nevertheless, she landed back on top despite it all. She leaned back getting slightly comfortable when she pulled her arms back behind her head to stretch. A yawn escaped her lips as she closed her eyes to rest for a moment in her thoughts when her combadge chirped.

"Morali to Lt. Pierce. It seems you need to come fetch me if I'm to join you."

She leaned forward again, brushing her crimson hair back. "Pierce here. Acknowledged. I'll be right there."

Shaking her head, she stood up, straightening her uniform jacket. Damn security officer at the gate. Probably didn't even pay them any attention either. She marched out of the Chief Intelligence Office, turned the corner and headed to the entrance as the officer looked up startled seeing the glare from Pierce.

She looked at the other two time travelers as she glanced back sharply. "I'm sorry for the delay, please come with me." She tapped the security officer's desk and looked him in the eye before walking off with the others.

"Once we get to the office, I'll seal it off for external surveillance. What I discovered appears to be rather delicate." She lead them into the office and sat down at the desk in front of them. "Please sit down. What I brought you here for today is this..." She turned the terminal towards Morali and Leavitt.

"This has a temporal codec assigned to it. Which tells me it's delicate information but I need help deciphering the access codes. Leavitt, I believe you appeared from the Relativity at Praxis during the mission there and had this intel on hand. And Lt. Morali, I gathered that you'd have the most experience on these sort of items based on what I was able to access in your file."

She sat back in her chair and sighed. "Gotta love time travel. Something that I can honestly say I haven't had to deal with before hitting the 24th Century. It certainly complicates things." She brushed her hair back behind her ears as she crossed her arms below her bust, only accentuating it as she rested her arms there.

"What experiences do you both have with time travel as a whole since we seem to be the foremost experts on that experience? And what do you think we can glean from this data? As far as I can tell, it is a schematic of some kind but the data is scrambled."

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #4 – May 27, 2022, 07:38:15 PM

[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Central Intelligence Suite | Deck 5| Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Griff @Pierce
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He had just begun to ponder the practice of contemplating his navel as he waited - which in truth had not been nearly as long as he was making things out to be - when he and Mr. Stoic across from him were joined by the other man summoned to this impromptu meeting of temporally displaced souls. The two men were roughly the same size, though Leavitt did have an inch on Sarresh, though Sarresh seemed to win out in the hair department. The latter flicked his kaleidoscope eyes over the other and gave a short nod of his head. Rank was never something he cared about, but others did. Handshakes were another one of those things that were common place among Starfleet officers - one of Humanities cultural exports to the rest of the Federation. And sadly, looking like one of those humans meant he couldn't pretend to be an aloof Vulcan for whom physical contact was a cultural taboo. Or whatever their excuse was.

Repressing a sigh, Sarresh took the other man's hand and gave it a quick squeeze. Nothing fancy, certainly not half assed, but no attempted test of dominance that humans still seemed to have lingering as a hind-brain holdover from their ancient past. "Ducane said something similar the first time he saw me after sending me here. Don't go swimming in a lake full of acid, Lieutenant. You'll wake up looking like the wrong species."

Every time someone asked him about his change he tried to find new and horrifying ways to shock them. He shouldn't enjoy it as much as he did, and yet, here he was.

Further idle banter was (mercifully) cut off. Salvation - temporary though it might have been - came in the form of a well-proportioned redhead in a collar that matched the hue of her hair, sporting a pair of golden pips. Like Alistair, she was a full lieutenant, making Sarresh the junior man in the group. Delightful he thought, reminding himself that if he had been called here, and Leavitt had as well, then clearly this was going to be something about time travel, and that made him the de-facto expert. (Of course, he had no idea about Pierce's history, but even if he had, his own ego would still have classified him as such, among two gifted amateurs whom simply ended up going along for the ride).

Just because he was trying to be a better man did not mean he actually was one.

Morali arched an eyebrow as he followed the others in, approximating a few Vulcan's of his acquaintance, as Lt. Pierce gave notice that all surveillance would be killed within the confines of her office. He supposed that wasn't much of a surprise, but started to wonder if, even with all of its technological advantages, perhaps the CIO suite was not the proper place for what was about to happen. There was a little itch behind his right ear, and he absentmindedly reached up to scratch at it, as he began to worry all the more about what this briefing was going to entail. Tucking himself into the chair, Sarresh at least felt some gratitude that he wouldn't have long to wait.

Processing the data flowing across the screen, Sarresh could already feel a headache starting to build. He rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes for a moment, silently cursing. Something about what the redhead said, the way she spoke about the '24th century' nagged at him, but he was more conferenced about the information behind the temporal firewall than the word choice of the intelligence officer. Though every other word out of her mouth made that had.

Opening his eyes and shifting his gaze to her, he noticed her posture, what it accented, and forced himself to move past that to take in her expression instead. He glanced toward Leavitt, and then to the screen. "You're on the right track, Lietuenant but you wont be getting any answers to that little puzzle in here. I recognize the scrambling pattern. We're going to have to march back to my lab to unlock it. Damn bloody quadratic-temporal lock out codes."

Even to him the words sounded like conveniently thrown together babble to come off as smarter than he was, but that was really the proper term, and he hated it, more than a little. "I'd be curious to know how much of my file you could read Lieutenant, but suffice to say, while i was born in the early part of this century I've spent most of my adult life - far more years since my birth than the current date - in the 29th century. My views on Time-travel are rather...unique in that aspect. Even among other time travelers. I know he's displaced," he jerked a thumb in the direction of Leavitt, and then shifted to point at her, "And judging by your tone, unless you've got an advanced degree in temporal mechanics - in which case you'd have my nominal position on the ship - you're displaced to."

Which does not necessarily make either of you experts on whatever is that encrypted data file, he thought to himself. No point in saying that aloud. For one, he might be wrong, and for another, no one enjoyed the implication that they were somehow lacking. But given the nature of the encryption algorithm currently in play, Sarresh certainly wasn't going to be reaching out to anyone else to help him with whatever had been hidden away inside the PaDD Leavitt had arrived with. So these two were the colleagues he had to work with. So be it.

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #5 – May 27, 2022, 09:54:12 PM

[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt | Central Intelligence Suite | Deck 5 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus, @Pierce

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And just like that, the magic was gone. The banter and handshake were all well and good (even if Alistair winced in embarrassment at his faux pas), but as soon as they got to business, Sarresh seemed to revert to type: arrogant, dismissive and not in the mood to coddle the primitives of five centuries past. By the time Sarresh was done, Alistair's good mood was very much gone, replaced with irritation. Only a month prior, Alistair might've let the rudeness slide, but things were different now. Alistair briefly thought about the others, their faces flashing by in his mind's eye; Captain Jiji, Commander Cak, Lieutenant al-Hamza. He hadn't survived an apocalypse and lost so many crewmates just to dismissed as irrelevant by some temporally displaced asshole.

"It'd really be helpful if you didn't refer to me in the third person when I'm right next to you," Alistair said coldly, leaning forward and glaring at Sarresh. Alistair glanced at Pierce apologetically before returning his focus to Sarresh. "You're half right, Lieutenant. I was displaced, along with my crew, from a couple of months ago to six years in the future. We saw the aftermath of a galactic mass extinction event. The Federation was gone, Starfleet had been wiped out, Earth and all the other worlds were assimilated or destroyed, the Borg were everywhere...you get the picture."

Alistair paused, looking away in discomfort. Why am I so angry? This isn't me. "The Infested caught us, beat down our shields, then tortured and killed my crew. The Relativity saved me and a handful of other survivors at the last minute. I was the only one who hadn't been injured or partially assimilated, so Captain Ducane sent me back to Praxis, a week ago, to help save Qo'nos."

The anger was fading, so Alistair took a steadying breath, suddenly feeling quite embarrassed. "The side benefit is that I'm assigned to the Department of Temporal Investigations. I'm trained and qualified as a temporal field specialist. I also have a masters degree in computer sciences, specifically quantum and positronic networking, so I'm probably the most qualified person within a hundred lightyears, besides you, to deal with this data. So...uh...there it is."

Now Alistair's cheeks were properly warm and flushed, and he sat back in his chair, fervently wishing that he could be displaced somewhere far away in that moment.

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #6 – June 02, 2022, 08:24:51 PM

Pierce took note of the two Starfleet officers in her midst as they peered over the data she'd spent the last several hours looking over. Morali was a bit of a wild card but from what she could tell, he was on the up and up when it came to temporal issues and information. Definitely from the future whereas Leavitt was more attuned to this time. It almost made her give a chuckle thinking they had Past, Present, and Future sitting amongst each other as they peered into this technological feat of engineering.

She didn't pretend to understand his words however when he mentioned the quadratic-temporal lock out codes. "What does that mean?" She said quickly but was cut off slightly by his response of technobabble answering mostly her question. His mention of being from the 29th Century and her and Leavitt being displaced triggered a memory which she quickly batted away.

"Long story short, I'm originally from the late 23rd Century. I can surmise that regardless of either of our statuses, you're likely the candidate most familiar with this data. Given our differences in time travel and the intel department, I figured we are the most capable of the task at hand."

Turning her attention to Leavitt, she spoke to him acknowledging his comments too. "I can't imagine the weight that you've had to carry with that burden. Countless friends lost. But, with any luck, we can rectify that."

She could feel the heat of anger coming from his face as he let the descriptions of what he had to endure in his time frame. After he gave his equally important qualifications, she answered again. "Again, it seems between the three of us, we should be all the team we need in this situation. I wanted to convene with those of us who are most familiar with the antics and trouble that comes from time travel and the temporal prime directive. Although I think in this situation, that's mostly out the window so long as it aligns with what history states is true."

Alana paused, releasing the hold she had on her arms and leaning forward to get another look at the screen as she swiveled it back to her vantage point. Her mind firing off in all directions. Likely one of the 'perks' from her transformation after the time travel incident. Her mind never seemed at rest and this was another thing added to the mental toll placed upon her narrow shoulders.

Glancing back at the two before her, she clasped her fingers together before speaking once more. "Lt. Morali, you mentioned that you have a lab we can go for further investigations on this. And since it's clearly data beyond our own computers here on the Theurgy, I think this deems a second look under the microscope so to speak."

Pausing briefly she pondered an experiment that was posed to her from the counseling department aside from her discomfort at the concept. It was suggested she confide in others and form new friendships... Something she wasn't sure if she wanted but likely needed.

Releasing her clasp, she stood up and motioned to the two officers. "Let's head on out and if you'd like, we can discuss our various time travel related benefits and woes along the way. It was suggested to me a while back that it might be a good idea to confide in others, but until now, I figured I was the only one suffering from my time displacement. Clearly we all have our own issues. I figure it can help us to work more cohesively. Would that be welcome or beneficial for you both?"

Lt. Pierce escorted them out of the room before she approached the guard to the Intel office. She looked over at him. "Next time someone is here for me, do your job and let them in. Or next time you'll find a transfer to the maintenance deck, is that clear?"

The man looked up and nodded in a scared manner as the trio left the Central Intelligence Suite.

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #7 – June 13, 2022, 04:55:44 AM

[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Central Intelligence Suite | Deck 5| Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Griff @Pierce
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While he was unsure exactly when and where he had first heard the phrase, Sarresh was well aware that the human's had a saying about putting one's foot in one's own mouth. Such a saying had always struck Sarresh as odd, and he imagined it had some weird fetish connotation associated with it, because humans, but he had never looked further into it. All the same he understood that it was a way of describing the act of saying something quite stupid only to realize it immediately after the fact. He appeared to find himself in such a position as the man that he had presumed was simply Ducane's messenger boy, used out of convenience (it would hardly be the first time Ducane, or his predecessor had done such a thing not because a person was eminently qualified in the field of Temporal Mechanics, but because they were in the right place at the right - from a certain point of view - time). Instead, the Lieutenant took the time to rectify Sarresh's misconceptions.

The dressing down might have made Sarresh feel bad if he actually gave a damn about the rank difference between the two of them. In point of fact, Sarresh hadn't thought he'd been that rude. Sure, he had misjudged the other mans qualifications, but he had raised a good point of his own, in that if the man were more of an expert than he, Sarresh likely would have lost his position. Given that the other lieutenant was in Operations and not taking over his role, it had been a reasonable assumption. He certainly hadn't meant to be insulting, though he might be able to see how one could possibly read that into his tone. Simply put, Sarresh was used to being the only one that knew a damn thing about time travel in any room, and since he was the one that recognized the algorithm encrypting the data, he could but presume to be the eminent authority therein.

Regardless, and begrudgingly, he would concede the point that he had acted without the full spectrum of facts. This concession manifested itself with a tightening of his shoulders and a terse nod at the other man. No verbal apology was forthcoming. Sarresh was trying to be a better person, because one man could only remain so bitter for so long without turning to ash, but he wasn't a better person yet.

Sarresh kept his peace for the moment, and listened to what the redhead had to impart. There was a great cosmic - Or temporal, I suppose - irony at play, in which three time travelers were the ones to have the keys to unlocking whatever was encapsulated in the PaDD. The odds were higher than Sarresh wished to spend any significant effort in calculating, and simply decided this was all by design. Not 'Intelligent Design' by any means. He was pretty sure he knew the asshole responsible, but he couldn't remember which asshole it was, just that he'd served with them in the past. Future.

There was a headache starting to form from it all, and he brought a hand up to rub his temple as he sighed, and looked at Alistair.

"Nice to know Ducane is still capable of acting in the betterment of others, not just his own machinations," Sarresh drawled after a moment, adding, "For what it is worth, that particular nightmare of a future has already been stopped by our actions in the Azure nebula, to the best of my ability to forecast here. I'll forward you that data later. We are of course looking at completely new and horrific futures and I'm sure we'll learn all the more about it all from that." He gestured to the data PaDD in question.

"For what it is worth I think you are right. It is going to come down to the three of us to deal with this."As I'm sure was intended, he thought, but held that back to himself. He frowned a bit at the notion of 'discussing their various issues with time travel' or however it had been put, but then he shrugged. If it was going to be a contest of who had it worse, he probably needed a stiffer drink than he was going to get. Not for the first time he missed that he would not be able to go rack up a few drinks with the late Blue Tiran. But there was nothing for that now, and he repressed the urge to sigh.

Standing up and falling in line with the others, Sarresh gave a small nod. "The Lab is down on deck 9. Shouldn't take much time." He bit back a smirk as the Intelligence officer dressed down the door guard, locking his hands behind his back and strolling on jerking his head gently to the left to point the others in the direction of the nearest lift.

"So, temporal displacement..."

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #8 – July 03, 2022, 10:07:02 PM

[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt | Corridors | Deck 5 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus, @Pierce

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"...sucks," Alistair finished sourly as the three of them headed down the corridor. "Temporal displacement sucks." He still felt uneasy for having lambasted Morali, but the other man seemed to have been...somewhat...accepting of his error, if not contrite. "You know, I used to dream about time travelling some day. It sounded like the most brilliant sort of adventure. I paid attention at the Academy and during my DTI training, when they rammed it down my throat that you should take time travel seriously, should never voluntarily time travel, all that stuff. I was foolish enough to figure that I understood. Turns out that you don't really understand it until...well...you know."

The three of them entered a turbolift which was the precise moment when, upon glancing at Sarresh as the other man directed the turbolift to Deck 9, Alistair thought back to his comment about Ducane. "Uh...since you mentioned Ducane, and you were part of his crew, I feel like I should tell you now. Both of you, since this stuff comes from him." The turbolift reached its destination and Alistair stepped out first, turning back to the others. "You might not like Captain Ducane, Lieutenant Morali. I don't either, honestly. I'm pretty sure that he could've saved my entire crew if he wanted, but I think he waited until we saw the Infested with our own eyes. That way, any survivors that he rescued and sent back to this time would be fully committed to the mission, and wouldn't have to be convinced of the threat."

Alistair sighed. "Regardless, Ducane and his crew are suffering from the early stages of temporal psychosis. From what I saw, they're barely holding on to what sanity they have left."

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #9 – July 25, 2022, 08:30:47 PM

Pierce chuckled when she heard the other time travelers complaining about displacement. "Displacement? That's an understatement how much it sucks." She said motioning to her body. She tuned in to Alistair's commentary on his dream of time travel. She mused it would be fun had she not had so much go extremely wrong on re-entry. And the fact it wasn't her choice at all when and where to go. "I can understand that Lieutenant. It's rough on re-entry being chosen by time and not choosing it oneself."

Alana was puzzled on this Ducane, but clearly gathered that he was their contact in the future. Something she currently lacked. Despite her being investigated by DTI on re-entry and the board of paper pushers and scientists and medical staff prodding her. It left a lot to be desired. Her thoughts somehow staying focused while multi-tasking was still something she wasn't quite used to having a brain that doesn't shut off.

The turbolift that the trio had entered hummed with life as it quickly jolted them towards Morali's lab and through the guts of the massive starship. "Temporal psychosis you say? Can't say I am extremely knowledgable on the matter, but I gather it is a death sentence from multiple incursions. Is it the method or the frequency that causes that?" She grimaced as she pondered the scenario of slowly losing one's mind as they did their job. Not a future she wished to live out herself.

Within moments the turbolift stopped and Pierce stepped out. "Lt. Morali, please direct us to your lab. I'm ready to get this data scanned in. If it's something sent back to help us, it has to be a dangerous piece of tech or information that we have to guard and implement. Especially if the future boy scouts sent it to little ol' us to implement." She said sarcastically, putting on a sweet southern drawl to make her point at them being regarded to bumpkins in this century compared to those believing they held superiority on them.

She laughed warmly as she straightened up. "Sorry, I can't help but feel that if they're asking us for help, something didn't fare well on their end and they need us to do it. Unless it's a pre-destination paradox. Don't even start on that front...." She said pushing one palm against her face in a near face palm but rubbing manner.

Falling in line, she awaited direction from Morali on their destination.

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #10 – August 21, 2022, 12:51:55 AM

[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory | Deck 9 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Griff @Pierce

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Eloquent, Sarresh thought, the sarcasm dripping in his mind as Lt. Leavitt provided an accurate, if rather blunt assessment, knocking down the target that Sarresh had set up. He could find no fault in the assessment either. It did, in point of fact, suck. He listened as the other man continued, nodding in all the right places - after all the human wasn't saying anything that Sarresh didn't agree with. It all sounds so wonderful, going back in time, seeing things unfold as they really had, but the consequences...oh, the consequences.

It was not lost on Sarresh that he himself was a walking, talking consequence. Ducane had been gobsmacked by his appearance, his whole species having been changed, wondering if it were due to some causality shift even further in the past. It certainly could have been, he supposed, but knew that it was simply a last ditch attempt to save his life - and more so the precious knowledge trapped in his mind by the Memory Engram encoding that he'd undergone to keep from utterly riddling the Temporal Prime Directive with gaping wounds. He was supposed to be a surgical tool, not a weapon of temporal destruction.

Reflecting on the outcome in the Azure Nebula, and the ground breaking changes to the future there, all he could think was, Yes, so sad. Moving on.

A ghost of a smile passed over Sarresh's face at Alistair's words, and the thought, hard, horrible even, that Ducane was only getting what he deserved certainly surfaced in his mind. But the flickering mirth died away. Ducane was an ass but no one deserved that. "Yes, I am aware of his current condition. He was barely holding himself together, in every sense of the phrase, when we last talked, and seeing me in my current state, compared to how he remembered me at our previous encounter could not have done much to help him. I can only imagine that it has progressed further, given changes to the timeline."

Even if they undid the damage done by the Infested, the timeline that Ducane came from and the one that he would have when all was said and done would be different. He wondered how much that would impact it all, and shrugged toward Pierce. "There are ways to counteract that to some extent, or at least they had been working on it when I had accepted this assignment. I remember that much at least. I imagine it is more an issue of drift between the way time line is supposed to be for the crew of the Relativity, but then again, they could be having to intervene in so many places so much that the more traditional cause is the culprit. Honestly it's hard to say." Losing one's sanity and grip on reality was not something to wish on anyone at all. He'd much rather Ducane understand why it was that Sarresh was going to knock his jaw off, when he did it, than think it was yet another psychotic break.

"Its not too far, this way, if you please,". Gesturing the others to follow him, Sarresh led the two full Lieutenants down the hallways. There was no marked guard in front of Sarresh's lab. It just appeared like any other science lab, save that the door was locked and there were additional biometric sensors that would only allow certain officers inside. He waved his hand over a seemingly blank portion of of the wall and there was a series of tones that emitted, before the doors slid open to reveal the impressive array of data banks and displays encircling the room, as well as one of the stabilization chambers tucked away in the corner. The lights came on, and he stopped, holding his arm out to keep the doors from sliding shut. "Since neither of you are currently coded into the access database you'll need to hurry across. You won't be able to open the doors yourself. Oh, before I forget. Computer, initiate protocol Sarresh-Tango-Theta-3."

There was a series of flickering images that spread out across all the screens and control panels in the room, the ambient light fading to something more akin to a planetary twilight, before everything settled back in. There was the barely perceptible hum on the edge of their hearing, and Sarresh nodded to himself. "The chamber is now temporarlly shielded. Or at least as best as I can manage with the current level of technology. I do miss the more malleable holographic interfaces I'm used to but one must make due."

He walked over to one of the other stations and motioned for the others. "For the record, just putting the notion of a predestination paradox out into the universe almost guarantees it'll happen. If it does I'm blaming the headache that will follow on you." He was mostly joking, as he called up the interface protocols to being unlocking and decrypting the hidden data packet. "Please place the PaDD here if you would, and otherwise....best not to touch anything. The controls are safe to sit on, but an accidental key stroke could flood the whole chamber with Chronotrons - again - and then we'd all be moving slightly out of synch with everyone else around us."

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #11 – September 05, 2022, 02:05:35 PM

[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt | Temporal Observatory | Deck 9 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus, @Pierce

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After hurriedly hopping over the threshold, Alistair took in the laboratory like a child in a sweet shop. He looked around with more eagerness than was usually polite, running a hand over his shaved scalp as he took it all in. The lab wasn't that much more advanced than the facilities on Vulcan at first glance, but it was impressive all the same, and the detail that this was the workspace of a specialist from the 29th century only added to the mystique. Despite everything, despite what he'd said moments before, Alistair still felt that chest-filling sense of wonder that he'd been chasing all his life.

Still, Alistair sobered quickly, studiously standing away from the consoles but close enough to read the displays. "I have to admit, I am very curious about whatever this is," he mused, crossing his arms and frowning. "The PADD that Captain Ducane gave me already had a lot of sensitive information to help me accomplish the mission, much of it violating the Temporal Prime Directive on its own. The team on Praxis would never have believed me without that information." Alistair winced, remembering the pained look on Lieutenant zh'Wann's face; she might hold a grudge over what he'd done to prove himself, and he wouldn't blame her in the slightest. "I can't imagine what would be so critical that Captain Ducane would encrypt it and not even tell me it was there."

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #12 – September 06, 2022, 11:59:58 PM

Pierce made the jump into the secure facility. Some tech she was unfamiliar with was surrounding the room and she tried to decipher it all as she glanced around. Red hair flowing behind her as she attempted to gather her thoughts. "Interesting place you have her Lieutenant." She chuckled at the mention she'd made about predestination paradoxes and his statement that even mentioning meant likely it was to happen. "Regarding predestination paradoxes, I am familiar with the various instances where it's happened. I've read up on a lot of the time travel incidents of this era. Seems to be a trend."

Pierce placed the PADD on the pedestal and watched as the display sprung to life. A lot of displays breaking down various tech and coordinate parameters but she couldn't totally be sure to all of the details. There was mentions of something to the name of a Project Tempus Sigillum which was on the shielded portion of the PADD.

"I wonder what Tempus Sigillum is in reference to." She said examining the data the best she could. Folding an arm under her bust and the other resting on her folded arm while stroking her chin in thought. "Any ideas Surresh or Leavitt? Do we know what Ducane went to great lengths to send at their own peril? I see multiple mentions of the project and acronyms for the TDG."

Not wanting to intrude on the man from the future's personal temporal safety room, she stood back and pondered what all this data could mean for them, and for the Theurgy for that matter. Since they were waiting for the data to extrapolate further she decided now was as good as a time as any to swap further time travel stories.

"Any particular incident from time travel stand out to you? Something you wished you'd been involved with rather than a victim of it? For me it'd be that time that Captain Sisko and the Defiant were thrown back in time to the era of the original Enterprise. I miss that time to be honest. Simpler times for sure." A smile crept on her face as she thought of how it was the wild west back in the 23rd century with cowboy diplomacy. Nowadays it was very politically charged and battle ready everywhere. Danger lurking around every corner.

"So Lt. Surresh, anything good in that data?"

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #13 – October 03, 2022, 12:54:38 AM

[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory | Deck 9 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Griff @Pierce
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Repressing the urge to snort at how the more senior officers were dazzled by the lab he was in (it was rather impressive after all) Sarresh instead focused his efforts on the decryption algorithm and the fractal decoding chain that would need to be synchronized with their temporal location relative to that of the Relativity when Ducane originally encoded the files. Nothing too difficult for the time traveler, though it was complicated by the level of technology he had to work with, versus that which had done the actual encryption. Then again, his former crew uptime had well known what the basic level of tools he would have at his disposal would be had - mostly - accounted for that. The situation was far too dire for any of them to affectionately fuck with him by making it more challenging than it should be.

Who might do that, and why he was certain that someone would if given the chance in less intense matters, Sarresh could not remember. Just another bothersome inconsistency in his existence. At this point he was fairly certain it'd done some damage to his sanity, but then, he had to be insane to begin with, given that Ives and Ducane both insisted he volunteered for this mission.

"I'm curious as well, Lieutenant, given that I have the secrets of tomorrow locked away in my head behind some Memory Engram encoding. Surely whatever is in there is already in here," he tapped the side of his head. "One nasty seizure away from being at our fingertips."

He was about to mouth off again when a holographic display sprung to life in front of him, dates, figures, equations all spattering out into the room. Pierce took it all in stride, admirable he supposed, and engaged in temporal small talk, a proclivity of all time travelers: if you could do it on purpose, what would you do? What would you sit in on. Apparently for Sarresh, it was this nightmare, but then, he had other things to focus on and missed what the redheads actual answer was. A shame, as he would have gained some insight on her desires to go back and see things they way they ahd been for her. He never wanted to come back to this god forsaken age, and yet...and yet...

A shiver ran down his spine and for a moment he stopped seeing the data in front of him, seeing something else. Snippets of a conversation, sound manifesting in color and taste. He tensed up, shoulders hunched, and everything felt as if it was going sideways, before the deck seemed to right itself once more. His ears popped and his mouth went dry, before he let out a raspy gasp.

"Oh fuck me. That's what you want us to do? Ducane are you insane..." He stepped away from the console, raking his hands through his hair and pacing to the other side of the room, planting his hands on his hips, balled into fists, and slowly, audibly, counted back down from 10. "We are so fucked. If we mess this up everything is boned I mean, everything. This stuff is highly classified even in the 29th century. The kind of security level that doesn't even have a name its so deep, dark, secret. Pivotal stuff. I don't think even Ducane is really supposed to have the specifics of this. Damn."

He turned around and saw the confusion on their faces, then gestured back to that mess. "We don't talk about the TDG. Ever. It is the single greatest moment of change in temporal history. The defining moment that put an end to the Temporal Cold War and will eventually lead to the Accords. It's the Temporal Defense Grid, and it is the game changer when it comes to the history and stability of the future. The moment it went live, incursions stopped." He thought he began to see understanding dawning as he pressed forth. "All across the galaxy, all at once a network of....satellites were deployed. They formed a grid, A network, that rebuffed attempts to muck with the timeline from that point onward. Time travel into the past was only possible to points that existed prior to the grid"

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #14 – October 04, 2022, 10:37:55 PM

[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt | Temporal Observatory | Deck 9 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Brutus, @Pierce

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"I don't believe it," Alistair said hoarsely, eyes wide as he took in the sheer scale and importance of what he was looking at. "There were rumours in the DTI...guesswork about the Temporal Cold War, fantasies, nothing substantial...I never even imagined..." He raised a hand to his mouth as he struggled to take it in. "This is the single most idangerous data file...ever. And Ducane had me carrying it on a PADD. In a warzone. That Infested Klingon was this close to me...if they get their hands on this, we're done. Everyone is done. I don't even want to think about what they could do with technology like this."

More frightened than he thought possible, Alistair slowly stepped forward, tapping controls as he skimmed the file. "This project...if Captain Ives approves this, it's going to be huge. We'll need people...they're listed here...oh. I'm there." Alistair blinked in surprise at his own name: Commander Alistair Leavitt, Federation Department of Temporal Investigations, temporal software specialist. Time of contribution: 2404-2409. "Well, I guess that's why Ducane really rescued me. He never really cared about the rest of the Eclipse crew."

After a few more moments of reading, his stomach roiling uncomfortably, Alistair turned to the others, still somewhat in shock. "Making this grid a reality while keeping it secret from the Infested is going to be...I have no idea."

Re: Day 06 [0824 hrs.] Time Travellers Anonymous

Reply #15 – October 04, 2022, 11:35:31 PM

Pierce was awestruck with the details surrounding this discovery. Not only had Surresh unlocked the contents, but he very well may have had the key this entire time. "Let's hope they don't get that information." She remarked about the information in his head. She didn't even want to think of what may happen if they did...

The holographic display piqued her interests more as she watched the data unfold before her. She'd be lying if she knew what all of it meant being from the past and all. The Temporal Cold War not something she was familiar with although she'd heard rumblings. Not realizing that her thoughts still drifted to the past and what may have been...

The sudden stop however with Surresh was enough to give Alana alarm as he spoke next. "Oh fuck me. That's what you want us to do? Ducane are you insane...We are so fucked. If we mess this up everything is boned I mean, everything. This stuff is highly classified even in the 29th century. The kind of security level that doesn't even have a name its so deep, dark, secret. Pivotal stuff. I don't think even Ducane is really supposed to have the specifics of this. Damn."

She looked confused at the man from furthest in the future. "What? What is it? And what does that mean? What's the TDG?" Her brow furrowed as she leant on a console looking at the data and schematics.

His alarm at the temporal defense grid, the accords and the like was enough to get her fully focused. "Wow, so that means that we could go back but not forward theoretically until this is deployed? The infested could cause a lot more havoc than they likely already have."

Alistair's shock was just as alarmed as Morali's and her own. "Thankfully, we have the contents and all that happened worked as it was supposed to. Now the question is, what do we do with it?" She peered into the contents and found her own name in there. Not the same time frame but definitely there as A. Pierce. Meaning she still had a role to play into all of this no matter the original date of execution. "From the looks of it however, we're more involved than we were led to believe. Meaning some of our history and how we ended up on Theurgy, were not an accident but a purposeful movement of the pawns of time."

Slapping her face and rubbing the irritation from her eyes she looked back at it. "Regardless, we need to get this to the Captain and make sure no one outside of this room and the senior staff see this information. Lt. Morali, if you'd be so kind as to represent this to the senior staff since you are the foremost knowledge on this data, I'd really appreciate it."

Preparing to take her leave of them she turned towards the door and looked back at them. "Somehow I doubt this will be the last time we meet under these circumstances and for these reasons. It was nice getting to know you both. But looks like we all have work to attend to. Thank you for meeting with me and sharing our temporal histories." She smiled and chuckled before turning back around and walking out the door, leaving the report to the captain in capable hands.

-FIN