The very existence of what those crews in the know referred to jokingly as the Zeroth Battle of Alpha Centauri goes ten million years as a dread secret. But for those who were there, the reckless charge of the Lion into the fray is the stuff of legend. By far the most nimble ship in the system, its impulse engines flare hot as it pushes inertial dampers to the limit. By closing to point blank, it bypasses the trump card of the Mentat, and her phasers rake the hull of the ship, burning out the shield generators. Finally main power goes out on the Blank Slate, and the Mentat Betarre, fists clenched and tears in her eyes, surrenders her crew. It was hardly a moment too soon, as no sooner had the last crew been beamed off and into brigs across the impromptu fleet the Blank Slate immolates itself in a terrifyingly large blast.
-
With the Mentat's mission completely foiled, the little task force of starships Enterprise, plus one Lion, begin the trek back to Aga Carmide, a much more sedate, less stressful voyage in this direction. The crew of the Blank Slate is debriefed. Unsurprisingly, most of the regular crew not only didn't know the mission, but didn't even know they had gone back in time. The officers, meanwhile, are a fifty-fifty mix of mentats and Arcadian Imperial Navy, who knew of the last ditch plan. But the knot of Mentats that know of the actual temporal anomaly is small and fanatical. For a long time, they resist any effort to coax the information out of them. In the end, it wasn't the science officers who extract the details, but the Engineers, a few bottles of definitely-not-synthehol, and a casual chat.
-
"The damnedest thing, sir," says Scotty. "The conditions for the temporal anomaly have always existed in Aga Carmide, but the actual anomaly itself never existed until 2315 ... at which point of creation it flowed backwards."
"Backwards?" repeats Kirk.
"Aye, sir, backwards," the engineer affirms. "It will cease to exist in 2316. However, with the destruction of the temporal engine on the Blank Slate it is starting to flow forwards again, but it's lost a lot of stability. We need to hightail it back to to Aga Carmide, or we'll be stuck here. And frankly Captain, it's already too late to meet the dinosaurs, so I'm not sure if there's anything I'd be interested in seeing on ten million year old earth if we got stuck here."
-
"So what happened to the research colony?" asks Nash on a subspace comm to the still barely-functional Enterprise-B.
"They were still caught in some manner of closed loop temporal pocket, having been caught right on the fringes of the anomaly," explains the science officer. "I was able to figure out what happened, because it nearly happened to us when we went through. I had had to make some very rapid changes to the deflector dish to get us through without a disaster at the time. A lot of things that we didn't have a chance to look into at first. But with all the very slow going repairs we had some time."
"It's back now?"
"Yes, Captain, but, uh..."
"Don't leave me in suspense now."
The science officer grimaces. "They'd spent a solid twenty years stuck in their temporal pocket. On the other hand, they've made some astounding advances in temporal research? And some other stuff they tell me aren't save to tell me about."
-
It is with considerable resignation and defeatism that Mentat Betarre shares the trick to matching temporal wavelength signatures with the anomaly, and the NX-01 returns through it to its original timeline. Not long after that, the Ranger-class Enterprise reactivates the anomaly and it too passes ten million years into the future as if through a wormhole. But as the wormhole closes behind the NCC-1701, it collapses to a very low energy state, threatening to strand the rest of the Starfleet crew. It takes the accumulated temporal research of the Aga Carmide staff to devise a way to use the massive antimatter storage of the USS Enterprise-B to open the way home again in a titanic blast of energy. But with the use of that energy, there is no way to form the subspace field that will propel the Enterprise-B back to safety. Samhaya Mrr'shan's final act as Captain of that proud ship is to declare an anti-matter based self-destruct, to sacrifice the Enterprise to eradicate all trace of human involvement in the system ten million years in the past, and to allow the USS Lion to return home triumphantly, with Maria Volkov, Samhaya Mrr'shan, Nash ka'Sharren, and Mentat Betarre on the bridge.
-
"One thing I want to know," you say, as you look around at the legends of yesterday, waiting for news of Nash. "You two fellows from Intelligence, what are you here for?"
"We handle Temporal Affairs, Admiral," says the first, a very nondescript human.
That answer makes you frown. "What office are you from?" you ask.
"Unofficially, Admiral, it's Office 0," answers the unmarked officer. "Officially, there is no officially."
"We don't have an Office 0," you reply sharply.
The two Intelligence operatives exchange a look and Linderley coughs. "That's ... not entirely accurate, Admiral."
You give Linderley a very flat, unfriendly look. "Vice Admiral, what did you do?"
Linderley gives you a look of pure surprise. "They've been here since well before my time. Well before zh'Rhashaan's time, as well."
"Then when was this office formed?" you ask instead.
"Two years from now, from the researchers of the Aga Carmide research colony," says the intelligence officer matter-of-factly.
You stare at him and finally look down and rub at your temples in frustration. "I know how you feel," you hear McCoy say. "I have a hypospray loaded with analgesics that will help with that headache."
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Arcadian-Federation War has fully transitioned from being a Starfleet concern to an FDS concern. May be a future cause of issues.
LBZ now requires, for the next few years, a garrison of 20 Defence.
The USS Enterprise-B has been lost during a temporal anomaly, however, all ship and crew have been recovered. An option will be presented to either wholesale move the crew to a new ship, which will commission as Veteran, or to split the crew up and give three +1 Crew Rating bonuses. The USS Lion Miranda has returned from a temporal anomaly, and has been re-added to the fleet register.
For actions securing victory within six months, Starfleet gains +125pp, +75rp.
[ ] Redeploy the fleet, to take effect 2315.Q3
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QM/N: I'm going to try to keep things moving through years faster, and reduce events and interruptions for a while. They've nice to do every now and again, but we've had a glut of them, and it's starting to bog things down I feel, and I'd like to start seeing the years tick over again.
