Alone with his thoughts

[Tabor Nansk 0]

Tabor watched Will charge out of the flight office on his way to sick bay, leaving him alone to ponder their situation. The Reaent was at red alert, rushing headlong into a confrontation of unkown consequences. Tabor believed to his bones that they were not in their own timeline, and thanked fortune, he was not alone this time. Will had been convinced and agreed to take up the task of making the case to others. The communication with Anna had mixed results. She didn’t jump at the possibility, but she didn’t outright dismiss it either. In fact, Will seemed energized by the exchange. He had a medical way of determining the appropriateness of this timeline and rushed off to see Dr. Merina. That was the good news. The bad news was the ship was not stopping, or even slowing down to make the relevant tests possible. The Vulcans onboard must be going crazy, the twist of logic necessary to rationalize this course of action assaulting them. History clearly showed the Kithomer conference producing success, thanks to the actions of Capt. Kirk and the Enterprise.

 

 

If this were truly their own timeline, then despite one cloaked BOP or four, the Enterprise makes it through, and the official records are correct. And based on Tabor’s own experience with…let’s say the more shady side of SF Intelligence, he could easily understand how three other BOP’s “disappear” from the records. Unless one subscribes to the circular logic of “been there, did that, so we need to do it again” of temporal physics, then the Reaent’s best course of action is to do nothing – stay out of the way and get out of here as quickly and cleanly as possible. This was the foundation of the Temporal Prime Directive.

 

 

And if this were not their own timeline, what arrogance to think that history played out the same as ours, or that intervening somehow will have an effect on our own. Or worse, that intervening will make things “better” for them. How many wars have been fought with that rationalization? Tabor couldn’t understand how, what with the Reaent’s own recent history of the anomaly and time shifts, that anyone wouldn’t take a hard second look at what was happening now. Maybe that was the problem – Capt. McQueen didn’t have that history. Nothing drives home the complexities of time jumping like seeing your ship blow up and half the crew killed and then reappear like nothing has happened.

 

 

Again, Tabor thought of his visitor while in the brig. He wondered what was in the sealed orders he gave to the Captain. Something in them must have been favorable since he was allowed back aboard the Reaent. Could he gamble that there was more, that he might have access to the Captain’s ear? What the hell, he thought, only one way to find out. “Computer, open a private channel to Capt. McQueen. +McQueen+ Captain, Lt. Tabor Nansk here sir. May I have a word with you?”