The Trouble with Time Travel

[WadeFKnight 0]

With a stack of data PADDs in hand, Wade stepped out of main engineering and headed down the hall towards the small conference room where Captain Spock waited for him. He noticed a blue-shirted science officer headed down the corridor with her back towards him and shook his head. Undoubtedly everyone wanted a piece of the Vulcan while he was here, and while he couldn't say he blamed them it was still a source of anxiety for him. Predestination or not, any more interaction with their guests than necessary could be a problem. Temporal Investigations was going to have a field day with this little adventure, no matter how many people interacted with their guests. Wade shrugged and carried his burden into the conference room and set it on the table next to Spock, then took a seat across from him.

 

Spock did not look up to see the young Lieutenant settle himself into the seat. "Welcome back, Mr. Knight," he said calmly, reaching across to take one of the PADDs and quickly scan through its contents. It took every bit of the half-Vulcan captain's self-control not to allow himself to become preoccupied with the intricacies of the futuristic interface which was laid out before him; it responded to his touch in ways which were unfamiliar to him and would, in any situation other than this, have borne close analysis. Instead, he found himself in the somewhat surreal position of having to learn as little as he could from his surroundings; the potential temporal implications of the presence of this ship within his sphere of knowledge were not inconsiderable. Instead, he focused on the numbers; comforting equations in their familiarity. He had seen most of them -- written some of them himself, in a moment of great need for his own crew not so long ago.

 

"You have been quite thorough in your approach given the resources at your disposal; you are to be commended, Lieutenant," he said after a moment, glancing up to meet Knight's eyes.

 

Sitting across the table from one of the twenty-second century's greatest minds was one thing, but being complimented by Spock was quite another. Wade wasn't really sure whether to sing or leave the room before anything else could be said. He settled for a courteous nod. "Thank you, Captain." he said shortly, looking down at a PADD of his own. He wasn't really sure what else to say, so caught up in his mind about what he could say and what he couldn't. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how he could've ever thought of himself as the man for this job.

 

Spock's eyebrow arched up slightly but he made no other response, merely set down the PADD and steepled his fingers thoughtfully. "As you said earlier, the difficulty seems to arise from a lack of power in your ship's propulsions systems to make established equations practical under these circumstances. Given the variables in play, it seems logical therefore that your approach vector should be our point of adjustment -- it is the only variable which is not dependent upon the ship's capabilities and can be considered a relatively fluid quantity."

 

Wade's eyes bounced back and forth between his own PADD and Spock's unflinching gaze before finally settling on the Vulcan. Wade nodded thoughtfully and set the PADD down on the table, scratching his chin. "Of course. Though altering the approach vector would invariably mean altering variables in other parts of the... grand equation."

 

The eyebrow arched higher and Spock's voice took on a somewhat dry quality. "Such is mathematics. But I believe it to be the simplest method of approach." His fingers began to tap lightly across the console, testing a few simple adjustments to the equations as he looked up to catch Knight's eye again and added, "And I'm sure you would agree that in engineering, as in hard science, the principle known as Occam's Razor is often applicable -- and useful in preventing...headache."

 

Wade found himself grinning in spite of himself and almost made a joke that would have ultimately ended up convincing Mr. Spock that everyone in the future had headaches, but closed his mouth before the words could escape his lips. As his features returned to their pragmatic and stoic norm, Wade nodded in agreement. "Of course. Let's start with the approach vector."