Hoping for a Way Home

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

 

Anna had left the Bridge. The Captain's orders for the Science department were very clear--find a way back. Sooner rather than later. There was already looking to be more traffic in this area than they could be reasonably comfortable with. They were a terrible temporal accident waiting to happen. It hadn't been comforting to see Captain McQueen's expression as he'd contemplated the damage they could inadvertently do. And so...here she was, back in the lab, sitting glumly in front of a work screen while the data they scanned from the distortion was twisted and pulled by the computer through more convoluted contortions than a piece of taffy.

 

Caroline was feeling at loose ends, and had been for some time. While she had never had any particular interest in advancing her medical degree beyond the confines of psychology, she couldn't help but envy some of the doctors in the medical department; at red alert, they had a definite job -- prepare for casualties. Caroline, on the other hand, had no particular place in the middle of sickbay during a crisis, and her office was not likely to be seeing many customers while the red alert lights were glancing off the walls (after they stopped, of course, was another matter altogether). She had been somewhat glad to get off the bridge, which had been tense as a taut wire as Captain McQueen had described the situation, one that would have unnerved anyone.

 

However, with nothing else to do (besides sit and wait in her quarters) she had ended up wandering around the ship and had ended up in front of the science labs again. Anna had been sent back to the labs to do research, she remembered, and tapped the door open immediately. She doubted Anna would have any compunction in telling her the labs were too busy for visitors, and if they weren't, Caroline had a feeling they would both appreciate the company right now.

 

Anna glanced up as the doors to the department slid back and it was with some surprise that she saw Caroline standing there. "Dr. Curtis," she said with a smile, "What brings you down here? Come to see if we've been driven crazy by yet another anomaly?"

 

Caroline grinned, stepping into the room and letting the doors close behind her. "Don't tell me you're going to disappoint me...I was counting on it!" she said dryly, then cocked her head, glancing at the console over which Anna had been bent when she came in. "I hope you don't mind a visitor; there's not much for me to do in sickbay at the moment."

 

"Don't be silly," Anna answered, her smile only widening, "you're always welcome--at anytime." She stood up from the workstation giving the screen one last rueful glance before looking back to Caroline. "The computer is offering many possible reasons why the distortion appeared but is not so generous with back to the future options. We're working on finding all the variables and running simulations."

 

Caroline walked over and settled onto another seat in the room, glancing curiously at the console as she saw the look Anna directed at it. Her heart sank a little; unfair as it was, she realized she'd hoped the younger woman's department might somehow work a miracle at once. "And why does it think the distortion appeared?" she asked, with as much honest curiosity as desire to take her mind off things. "If its comprehensible to someone with a rather different degree?"

 

Anna took the seat in front of the workstation and swiveled it so she was facing Caroline. "It's not actually that unusual for a space/time distortion to occur. A weakness in the fabric of subspace is not uncommon, and in cases of severe weakening a tear can occur. The distortion is most likely caused by a tear and it in turn has formed a wormhole...but not to another sector of space--a wormhole in time. The gravimetric distortions we encountered were a precursor to the opening of the wormhole and unfortunately, our sensors were overwhelmed and were unable to perceive the event horizon. We were through it before we even realized what was happening."

 

Anna flicked a moody glance back to the data on the screen. "What I wouldn't give to have an accurate reading of what we encountered as we went through. It's very frustrating to have all this technology that always seems to crap out at the worst possible time."

 

Caroline bit down a grin. "Yes, I would imagine so," she said, nodding. "I don't pretend to be an expert so forgive me if this sounds incredibly foolish, but...we can't just go back the way we came?"

 

"That doesn't sound silly at all, Caroline. It's practical," Anna replied. "When sensors came back on line, the distortion was no longer apparent and we had to get the heck out of that area so as not to be discovered by ships of this era. At some point, we have to go back but in the mean time, if we can figure out how it was triggered, we may just be able to repeat the sequence of events that are now giving us a front row to history."

 

Caroline nodded slowly, her face displaying a certain amount of disappointment. "I hope so. I doubt many of this crew would enjoy being stuck here; it was tense enough on the bridge after only ten minutes."

 

Anna realized, with little surprise, that Caroline felt the burden of the crew's emotions very keenly. "Nobody wants to stay here. Obviously there is the chance that we could do something that would upset the timeline but then there are the personal considerations--our lives, the people we love, they're all ninety-four years in the future." Anna thought of Jon, and her expression softened. "Of course, one of us risks meeting himself if we stay here. I can't help but feel that needs to be avoided."

 

Caroline's lips twitched. "Oh, I don't know...I've always been a great proponent of self-examination."

 

"Well, maybe you have the temperament for it," Anna retorted with a grin, "but I know myself and I can tell you that I wouldn't appreciate hearing what I did wrong from future me. I'm sure she wouldn't be at all diplomatic."

 

Caroline laughed aloud at that. "You're probably right. Luckily, as of right now, you haven't been born yet."

 

"There's that silver lining that's been so elusive." Anna stood up and stretched till she felt her back crack. "Oh, that's better." She glanced down at Caroline, and asked, "What will we do if we are stuck here? We'll have to let Starfleet know. Won't we? Or would it be wrong to do anything more than try to disappear? We would be the Reaent H...the ship that mysteriously disappeared like the original Reaent...the Reaent A."

 

"From my admittedly loose understanding of the Temporal Prime Directive..." Caroline said slowly, glancing down at the decking, "We would have to make ourselves as scarce as possible." She winced. The idea of herding this crew -- any crew -- through such an ordeal, with no hope of return to where they had come from, was not a pleasant one.

 

"We would never give up trying to get back. We might grow old in the process, only to finally return to the point in time we left to find the people we left behind still the same as when we left--as if no real time had passed at all." Anna abruptly sat back down. "It sounds like one of those scary stories I collect."

 

"Well, there's no need to give up on a happy ending just yet," Caroline said with a faint smile, catching Anna's gaze as her friend retook her own

 

"Yes, of course, you're right, Caroline," Anna nodded vehemently and then met the other woman's gaze. "And I wasn't giving up, not really. I think I just felt a little morbid for a moment." She smiled then and added, "I would never give up...I'm far too stubborn."

 

Caroline grinned at the expression of determination that had shot into Anna's eyes at the mention of giving up. "Well, I'd say we're in excellent hands, then."

 

Anna laughed, Caroline's sense of humor always enjoyable but then her smile faded and she shot a quick look to the other woman. "I am glad that Commander Ridire and Debbie weren't on board when this happened. If, well if for whatever reason we can't make it back, they'll stand for us and they'll be able to continue on with their normal lives."

 

Caroline's thoughts drifted to Merina, the Caitian doctor who had been left to take on command of sickbay for the first time now, in Deb Matthews's absence, and to the loss that the Reaent's XO and his wife would be left with, not even having the luxury of knowing what had happened, and privately she reflected that there were downsides to this as well. But she nodded. "Yes. It's good to know we have something of us left behind."

Edited November 2, 2009 by Annabelle O'Halloran