It's about Time

[Atragon9 0]

::Sitting in his Ready Room, which is looking more like a Science and Engineering worklab than anything else, the remnants of the shower can be seen - ripped out, but not patched over::

 

Computer, open personal log, Admiral Atragon-9, Commanding Officer, USS Manticore, NCC-5852, Stardate unsure, password *********

 

[whirr, click]

 

Driven, that's one of the nicer terms I've overheard being used about me lately. I can only imagine the more colorful ones being whispered among the crew! It's been a year since that Dark Spring day - that day that Sovak's daughter was born, that day that Claire Eason died, that day... that day I found out that Manticore caused the destruction of all life in the sector. Since that day, I've had one goal in mind - go back and make it never happen!!

 

Sure, we were always planning on returning to our time, or at least some of us were. We would go back through time, somehow, and try and pick up our lives where we left off. Now we have to go back through time to BEFORE we left and make sure we don't cause the catastrophe that killed tens of billions of sentient lifeforms.

 

::looking around the room at the charts and PADDS:: As best as I can understand, our use of the emergency Warp jump while just inside the event horizon of the black hole caused a sudden and violent outgassing of the singularity's energy. Something like poking a pin from the inside of an extremely inflated balloon. Unbelievable power was released and the subsequent energy spike created a super-heated "wash" that literally erased all life in its path. Chief Goad has been very patient with me, trying to explain it all, and I'm sure there are aspects that I just don't have correctly. However, between the detailed sensor logs extracted from our initial departure and the physical evidence of the "pooled" metals on Earth's surface and the date reference we can get on the planet's flora regrowth, there can be little doubt.

 

So, what must we do? We have to repair the ship as much as we can and be 150% sure of the Warp engines. We don't have the luxury of rebuilding these Warp engines again if we fail and failure is not an option. Chief Garnoopy has been ready to test the engines for months now and I just won't let him. I need another 8-12 months of his test results before I will feel safe in having him fire them up. Then what? So, we'll have a Warp capable ship - next we have to go back in time, and in a controlled fashion so we don't overshoot our target. Two nearly impossible tasks and all for what??

 

If we go back to our time, will we be doomed to repeat our mistakes? If we go back in time, will we remember this time in the future? If we go back in time, can we save the Earth?? Will Claire somehow return to life - I don't see how. What about the people that decide to stay on the future Earth when we return, what happens to them? Do they just cease to exist "back then?"

 

::sigh::

 

We have been here for four years now and I won't even allow the engine tests for about another year, so time marches on. But will time mean anything if we can go back 5000 years and correct our mistake? Will time mean anything if we die trying? Will time mean anything if we go back and cannot change the past? Time is our enemy and time is all we've got that can save us.

 

Computer, EOM, EOT

 

[whirr, click]