Pondering the future of the past

[JJLexi 0]

There was something to be said about meditation. In some regards, at least for Jyrd, it was better than sleep. Long gone was the energy force of Brythton existence known as The Song. But, JJ adapted. As opposed to the veritable symphony of consciousness, he found ways to focus on the whispers and murmurs of the minds around him. There were no words, only notes. Notes and tones. Each person on board the Reaent gave one off, some "louder" than others. In most of them, there was an underlying theme of apprehension. The same apprehension that JJ himself was feeling.

 

It wasn't necessarily the fact that they were heading to Wolf 359 that necessarily troubled him. It was the way in which the destination was seemingly chosen that gave him pause. Since their departure from the planet which held the Guardian of Forever, JJ could really only think of two methods of thought behind the Captain's decision.

 

The first mode of thought revolved around the Captain randomly choosing Wolf 359 off the top of his head. They needed to escape, Wolf 359 was the first system that popped into the Captain's mind, ergo, he belted it out to JJ in a bout of desperation to escape the pursuing Federation task force. It made sense given the immediate situation. But there was so much that seemed tactically wrong with the choice. First off, Wolf 359 was less than 8 light years from Sol, putting the Reaent within shouting distance of most likely half of Starfleet in every direction. It wasn't exactly the best place to stick their proverbial head in the sand.

 

Which led JJ to the second possible mode of thought. The Captain was, by all indications, a smart man. In the time that had elapsed between their escape and the present time, he would have realized such a situation and ordered the Reaent to another location. Being that he hadn't done that. There obviously was some purpose behind the location. Some purpose that was unbeknownst to JJ, and quite possibly the rest of the crew. JJ hadn't had much contact with any of the away team who encountered the Guardian, so he wasn't sure if any information had been bestowed upon them which led to the Captain's decision. . .Or if there was something the Captain knew that no one else did.

 

Which would be strange. . .

 

JJ took a few moments to ponder McQueen himself. A good Captain, no doubt. He was essentially the only Captain that JJ had really had that much contact with. JJ had come on board prior to the Proxima incident as member of the gamma shift, meaning his contact with Captain Michaels had been utterly minimal until his transfer to Alpha shift. It was his first day on Alpha shift that saw the Reaent return to Romulan space and subsequently be destroyed. . .or so he thought. After the events that followed and their subsequent arrival at Starbase 1123 to regroup, Captain Michaels was immediately removed from command.

 

Enter Patrick McQueen. Polite. Charismatic. He immediately won over the crew by renegotiating their impending assignment from patrol of the Romulan Neutral Zone to a simple dispersal of probes around the Cestus system, not too long before their journey to the past. Since then, McQueen had kept them alive considering the situation they had been thrown into.

 

For the moment, JJ had nothing to really doubt about the man, he hadn't given him any reason to. It was probably best then to let things run their course and trust the Captain's judgment, whatever it was based on. Besides if he turned out to be wrong, they'd probably end up dead before they had any chance to react to it anyways. Not the most comforting thought, but it was probably the truth.