Running Out of Time

[Annabelle O'Halloran 0]

Will rubbed his neck, tired from the day's events and none to happy to say the least. He got up from the desk and left the Flight Office. Will knew exactly what he needed. "Computer, locate Lt. O'Halloran." Will frowned slightly when he heard that she was still in the lab. He entered the nearest turbolift and let it whisk him away toward the love of his life. When the lift doors opened, he walked toward the science lab. When he got to the door, he wondered if he should hit the chime but decided against it and entered the lab unannounced. When he saw Anna at her desk looking a few things over, he came up behind her and rubbed her shoulders, "Hey, beautiful. Come here often?"

 

"Quite often, as a matter of fact. Long, lonely hours because my guy is a workaholic," she teased lightly, without turning around, before murmuring, "Mmmmmm...that feels so gooooood." Anna sighed blissfully, her eyelids slowly closing as Will's fingers worked their usual magic.

 

Feeling the knots in her shoulders, Will gently worked his magic on her for a few minutes before looking at the notes on her desk. "So, this is the buoy that was recovered. How did you come to the conclusion that what we are dealing with is time travel?" He wanted to know how they managed to get into another problem having to do with time and why his pilots were placed in such jeopardy in, what he considered, a reckless way.

 

"Wade tested the buoy after a partial decoding of the logs," Anna began, swiveling her chair so she could look up at Will. "Some of the log entries are heavily damaged, and so far are indecipherable but the time stamps on the last entries are twenty-five years into the future. The buoy's battery, which should really only have been running for hours by our calculations of when contact with the Ithaca was lost, shows signs of having been running for years and is almost at the end of its life. Whatever sort of 'pocket' the Ithaca fell into--time within that area is running much faster than normal."

Will's gaze drifted off a bit as he thought about what Anna said before looking down at her again, "So that's why the Reaent flooded the area with chroniton particles so that we could find this 'time pocket', right?" When she nodded, he asked another question. "So, if and when we find this pocket and the Ithaca, how do we get them back?"

 

"I don't know," Anna answered softly, her gaze once again fixed on the log fragment displayed on her workscreen. "So many of their entries are damaged that it's difficult to get a clear picture of what the Ithaca's circumstances were when it became trapped in the anomaly. We have to find the ship first and go from there."

 

Will frowned again and moved away from Anna so that he could get a better view of the data. He shook his head, "It was reckless..." his soft tone full of regret mixed with a bit of anger. Anna could see that he was not happy and that he was thoughtful about the entire situation.

 

"What was reckless?" She leaned back in her chair, eyes on the broad back now bent over her desk.

 

Turning, Will pulled a chair from the front of her desk and sat next to her, answering, "Sending out our fighter patrol like that. We should've sent probes instead. If my Alert 1 fighters had accidentally stumbled into this pocket that holds the Ithaca, I'd be down two pilots." Will tone was edged with anger and worry. "I can't rely on sheer dumb luck to continue to protect my pilots." He rolled his head around and rubbed his shoulder, trying to loosen some of the tension in it.

 

"We flooded the area with chronitons as soon as we deciphered the Ithaca's situation. The fighters were already out, Will." Anna stood up and walked behind his chair; this time it was her turn to rub his shoulders. "The hope was that the chronitons might reveal the pocket within which the Ithaca was trapped, but...they didn't." She leaned her head down, keeping her voice soft as she told him, "I even suggested to Commander Ridire that the fighters be used to scan the chroniton saturated area because I had no confidence that our sensors are at all effective in this case. We might have to rely on what we see with our eyes and not our instruments if we're to find the Ithaca."

 

She straightened out, her fingers resuming the massage, almost wincing at how rocklike the muscles in his neck and shoulders felt. "He refused of course--we did the saturation but he nixed the use of the fighter scans as being too dangerous. And he was right. I should never have suggested it. The fighters were immediately ordered in for their safety."

 

Will considered her words and sighed softly as the tension in his neck and shoulders began to subside. "You may be right,Anna. Its just the idea that we...I sent those fighters out there into a potential minefield completely blind. Dumb mistake on my part." The more he thought of the situation, the more he wanted the CAG position. He loved this squadron and he wanted to lead it the best he could. He closed his eyes and leaned back a bit into Anna as she continued to massage his tension away. "Thank you, Anna. I feel much better." He turned his head and kissed one of her hands gently as he looked at the data on the screen.

 

"I'm glad," Anna replied softly. "The thing is, Will...there was no way to know about any potential danger as we approached the Ithaca buoy." She retook her seat and turned it so she was facing the side of his chair. "Sensors didn't pick up anything unusual. The unknown is always a part of the equation out here. You're beating yourself up for something you have no control over."

 

Will nodded. "I know Anna, its just that I am acting CAG, which means these are my pilots and I am responsible for their safety. One of them gets hurt or...God forbid...killed, it's my responsibility and my job to send home a letter to their next of kin explaining why their son, husband, wife or daughter isn't coming home." He looked thoughtful and sad. "If I am named CAG, I understand that that unpleasant task is part of the job but the idea of losing any good pilot to something like this..." He waved to the data that was on her screen, "...just makes me sick to my stomach." He looked at her with a tinge of sadness in his eyes, though looking at her did help him smile a bit.

 

"The Ithaca crew manifest lists 168 names," Anna stated as he turned and met her gaze. "I think that the risks taken for 'something like this' are worth it. Per the time stamp on the newest logs that we can decipher, that crew has aged at least twenty-five years in less than a day. That means their CO is now 82. The Ithaca crew is going to run out of time all too quickly if we can't figure out how to get to them." Anna swallowed thickly, forcing herself to push back the panicky feeling of time running out. It was a distraction and didn't help her think. "I know you feel the weight of responsibility very keenly, Will. It's who you are and the pilots are lucky to have you to lead them. I just want you to understand that there are other lives in the balance, too and we may be their only chance."

 

His smile brightened a bit as she spoke. "You're right of course." Will looked at the data when a thought occurred to him, "Anna, do the logs we've recovered from the buoy show any navigation data from the Ithaca before, and up to the time it disappeared?"

 

"Yes, they do," Anna replied, her smile in response to the lightening of his mood rather than the report she was able to give. "The Ithaca has remained on their original course for the Benecia System and, in fact, it's noted that they have been unable to change course and their impression was that they were actually standing still. As if they've been running in place for 25 years. They finally were reaching the end of their supplies and it was decided to abandon ship. They set the buoy and a log entry notes that they plan to use whatever shuttles they had available to try and make it to the next system. That's the final entry. There's a lot of damage to the log record after that and auto postings from ship's systems doesn't confirm that they left."

 

Will was intrigued by her response, "So if we have their original course, or even just a part of it, couldn't we extrapolate where they started to run into trouble and mark that as a good place to look for this pocket and the Ithaca?"

 

"I've determined that because of where the buoy was found and the fact that they weren't moving once they encountered the pocket...that's enough evidence to suggest we're right on top of the Ithaca...we just can't see her."

 

Will nods, "Alright then, if they are here, then all we have to do is find some way to get to them, or at the very least communicate with them. Lets take another look and maybe inspiration will strike."

Edited January 30, 2011 by Annabelle O'Halloran