A Matter of the Timeline

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

Anna left the Captain in his ready room, his decision to maintain their current accelerated rate of speed precluded dropping out of warp to retrieve a sample of RNA. Will and Tabor were in agreement that since it was an established fact that all matter in the universe resonated on a quantum level with a unique signature which could not be changed by any known process, then a comparison of RNA from this Reaent's crew should not match that of a sample taken from anywhere in this time period--if this Reaent was not from this universe. There was no doubt that Reaent had slipped back in time when she'd gone through the distortion, but Will and Tabor believed it possible that she'd also slipped into a parallel universe and maybe in this universe...there were four cloaked BOP's. And just maybe...Reaent was about to screw up this timeline royally by lending a helping hand. She crossed the bridge and stepped into the turbolift, tapping her comm badge as the doors slid closed in front of her.

 

"Will, I've just spoken with the Captain. Where are you?"

 

Will tapped his commbadge, "I'm in Sickbay. I'll wait for you here."

 

"Deck 19," Anna said aloud, sure that Will had already conferred with Dr. Merina. He wasn't going to like what the captain had decided and she wasn't looking forward to telling him as she stepped off the turbolift and walked towards the doors of Main Sickbay. Uppermost in her mind though, as she entered the heart of the medical department, was that they would only have nine minutes of stealth before the cloak would fail and they would be revealed. She was no tactician but nine minutes didn't seem long enough to take out three Birds of Prey. He was sitting with his back to the doors, his focus on a work screen. She came up behind him and softly called his name. "Will."

 

Will turned and smiled when he saw Anna's beautiful face. He allowed an instant to reminisce. It seemed that Anna was becoming more and more important to him everyday. The Chief Science Officer had caught his eye when they first met but unlike other women he'd been with, he didn't just want a quick fling but perhaps more from her. His smile faltered when he saw the expression on her face. He knew it wasn't good news. "Tell me." He stated.

 

Anna's own smile bloomed in response to his and she caught her breath, momentarily distracted by the warmth in his green eyes. Her response to Will was always a little disconcerting to her but the urgency of their current situation easily intruded and her smile quickly faded. "We're going to intercept the Klingons in less than three hours and Captain McQueen will not slow the speed of our arrival for anything, including dropping from warp to attain a sample to test its quantum resonancy against our own."

 

Will sighed and looked at her again, "If he attacks those BOPs and we are in the wrong universe, we'll be violating the Temporal Prime Directive. Doesn't he realize that?" He kept his tone civil because this was Anna he was talking to but she could hear the frustration in his tone.

 

"That's not his overriding concern," Anna replied quietly, recognizing the barely veiled frustration evident in his expression and tone for what it was--a combination of fear and anger. Fear that they were about to commit a colossal blunder that would have enormous and possibly terrible consequences for a timeline that might not be their own and anger because McQueen didn't feel the time could be spared to verify whether the timeline was their own--that the history they were so desperately going to try and enforce was, in fact, the correct history.

 

"His thought is that he's not willing to take a chance on stopping for anything with the time to intercept so close." She didn't tell him that McQueen's exact words to her had been, I'm not willing to take a chance. Knowing if we are in the wrong universe is an issue for getting home. Right now, I'd rather change someone else's timeline if it means making 100% sure ours doesn't. He'd said that in the privacy of his ready room and she didn't feel it right to quote him on it to anyone else. There was also the fact that a part of her selfishly agreed with him. Something she was going to have to think long and hard on. "There's too much danger in our presence being discovered if we drop out of warp and we can't afford to lose the element of surprise." Anna paused for a second, but then continued, holding his gaze even as she deliberately pushed back the anxiety that had been growing since McQueen had told her about the limitations of the cloak.

 

"And Will, there's something else--Angel will be getting this information and passing it along but I'm going to tell you now. Jontilles Shamor has been working with Engineering on adapting a piece of tech he has--something called a personal shield that has been modified to act as a cloak for the entire ship. The problem is--it looks like it's only good for nine minutes." She didn't say anything else. Three ships to one, even if the Klingon ships were ninety years older and that much less technologically advanced was still bad odds and the man standing in front of her would be tasked to protect the ship by leaving it and putting his life on the line. Not for the first time did it occur to her how inherently dangerous Will's job was.

 

Will listened stoically as Anna laid everything out. His frown deepened at everything she told him. Tactically it was a dicey situation at best. Will knew that even with their advantages in technology being outnumbered this badly, especially by Klingons was ALWAYS a bad thing. He looked at Anna and saw the worried expression in her face. He knew that she was worried about the situation but it wasn't until he gazed deeper that he realized that she was worried about him. He couldn't help feeling a little glad that she was worried. He didn't want her to worry but that meant that she cared for him. He smiled slightly and caressed her cheek wishing he had the time to express how much he cared about her. Meanwhile his mind was working on alternate methods of getting the data he needed. He whispered in her ear, "Everything will be alright. I promise." After brushing his lips against her cheek, he left sickbay headed for the nearest TL. As he walked, he brought up the star charts on his PADD and plotted a course to the nearest body that sustained life.

 

Not noticing that they'd drawn a few stares from the medical staff, Anna stood for a moment, watching Will leave. He hadn't said anything more than 'Everything will be alright' followed by a very sweet kiss on the cheek, and while she very much appreciated his attempt at reassurance, she was extremely puzzled by the fact that he hadn't said anything else. Over the comm, both he and Tabor had passionately conveyed how important they both felt it was to prove that Reaent was in the correct timeline before any attempt was made to protect the Enterprise and ensure that it made it to the Khitomer conference. She'd expected that Will would have expressed his misgivings at the very least. She left sickbay lost in her thoughts, her mind switching gears as she took the turbolift back to the bridge. Will's odd reaction she filed away, her attention turning to other mysteries, such as why the buoy left at the coordinates of where they'd exited the distortion had stopped transmitting. Perhaps Tobias and Wim had discovered something in her absence.