Rewind

[Chirakis 1]

Rewind

 

“Zero nine hundred hours, 1 November, 2387,” Lt Kital replied. She had the same confused expression as most of the crew in the CnC. Except...

 

“ Mr. Harada, check the nearest buoy for time and date,” Captain Chirakis snapped from frustration as much as confusion.

 

Harada paused mid-tap and looked up. “Hm? Ah… if you say so, Captain.”

 

Kirel eyed him. He didn’t bear the same expression as Lt Kital, or the one she, herself, must have had. “Confirmed,” said the tactical officer, “Nine hundred hours, first of November, 2387. Planning for someone’s birthday, Cap’n?”

 

“No,” she snapped, shifting into a swift visual assessment of the command center.

 

One by one, reports from those who had been with her “elsewhere” came in to operations. Lt Lawliet, Ens Morgan, SubCommanders Jorahl and tr’Korjata, Dr Pavilion, Dr Sandero, and Dr Schawnsee. It was a select few. Why that select few? Why anyone at all? And more importantly, what happened?

 

The image of the ever-changing planet, its crystal city, the descending staircase, and especially the mute species she had never seen before rolled through her brain like a bad dream. And the stone that fit perfectly into the life-sized idol in the underground… room? Meeting Hall? Sanctuary?

 

“Captain, are you all right?”

 

Doctor Davis’s question jerked the captain out of her fog.

 

“We are not sure, Counselor,” she replied, listening to the away team report from TKR-117 as she turned to Harada for a review of the security files.

 

“Something the matter, ma’am?” Asked Harada.

 

“That’s what I want to find out.”

 

“Jyl, what is going on?” whispered Dr. Davis, obviously concerned.

 

“There was a strange experience a number of us had, Counselor. That’s about all I think any of us knows at this point. So, the medical scans and such.” The operations officer turned to the comm as Dr. Pavilion reported no ill effects among medical personnel who were transported.

 

“A strange experience?”

 

“Sounds like some bad mojo,” added Harada. “Care to share?”

 

“I think that’s all any of us could definitively say,” Jyl replied, still working, still listening to reports as the captain turned from the screen.

 

“Did anyone besides myself and Lt Kital experience anything unusual,” Kirel asked, “anything at all?”

 

“Well, no,” the counselor replied, “not I.”

 

And so it went for the better part of an hour. The captain looking for a stone, the away team reporting in, the medical department beginning a complete review of the personnel who had been “somewhere else,” and those who had not been whispering among themselves while giving strange looks to those who had.

 

Soon there came a jarring silence, that awkward moment when everyone stops talking at once. They paused, looked around, then resumed their duties as though nothing had happened.

 

Answers? There were none. At least not yet.