My USS Kelvin fanfic (episode 1)

[CaptainWacky]

My USS Kelvin fanfic (episode 1. FEATURING CAPTAIN ROBAU)

Episode 1
'The Unusual Incident At The Noodle Nebula'

'Captain's Log, Stardate 1004.7. We are on our way to the seventh planet of the Pran system to provide aid to children who lost their parents fighting in the Dust Wars.'


Captain Richard Robau hated recording the captain's log. He never felt like he was giving enough detail. He sat back on his captain's chair on the bridge. It wouldn't be long before they arrived at the Pran system now.

"Transmission coming through from Admiral Burger, captain," said Communications Officer Rice.

Robua smiled. He knew of Burger's dislike of him and it amused him no end. There was nothing Burger could do to him out here. "Put him through," he said to Rice. The fat face of Admiral Burger appeared on the bridge's viewscreen. Robau was almost tempted to wave sarcastically, but he just continued to smile. "What can I do for you, admiral?"

"Why was this put through to the bridge? I requested a private audience with you, captain! Did your incompetent communcations officer not inform you, or is this a deliberate insult?" Robau shot a quick look to Rice, who looked scared.

"Captain, I..." She was sweating. The poor girl. She was not such a bad officer, but her self confidence was low and she she sometimes made these type of minor, awkward mistakes. She had something wrong with her foot and walked with a limp. Maybe that wast he cause of her problems? Robua made a mental note to try to make her feel more comfortable. He decided to let her off on this infraction.

"I'm the captain, it was my decision and I take full responsibility," said Robua, not smiling anymore.

"Then to your Ready Room, now, or I may be forced to report this incident to the Federation President himself. I have sensitive infromation to relay, captain, and it can wait no longer!" Burger actually slammed his fist on his desk. Almost everyone the Bridge, Lt. Rice, First Officer Kirk, Helmsman Johnson, the deltan naviagator Yutti, even Alnsochloss K'Bentayr in his own way, looked somewhat awkward after this. Only the vulcan science officer T'Poo did not react.

"Guess I better hurry then," said Robua to his crew, with a smile. The tension lifted slightly. Robau got up and headed for his Ready Room.

"Computer, relay the admiral's transmission to here," he said, and Burger's fat face insantly filled his desktop monitor.

"Do we finally have privacy, captain?" asked Burger in the most mocking tone he could.

"My apologies," said Robua, through gritted teeth. He could not believe the unprofessionalism of Burge, nor how he had managed to rise to the rank of Admiral. "You said you had urgent information of a sensitive nature?"

"Your ship is to go to the Noodle Nebula in Sector 216 at once," said Burger.

"Admiral, we are on a mission of mercy to Pran 7 - "

"Your mission in the Pran system can wait. Those orphans will still be orphans when you get back. This mission is critical. The Space Pirates from the planet Zetron have been operating in the nebula. We know without a shadow of a doubt that they have a base there, thanks to our operative in their organisation. We also know that they are building ships and arming them with a terrible new weapon. We strongly believe that the pirates are responsible for the disappearances of several ships in that area over the last year. Our intelligence shows their new weapon can destroy a starship in a single shot."

"That science vessel, the Obama, it disappeared there," said Robua. "I had...a friend on board." Her name was Lisa.

"Then you understand the importance of this mission. You must go there and stop the pirates, destroy their base and ships and end their reign of terror! Intelligence shows their ships and base were recently damanged by an anomoly in the nebula. They will not be prepared for an attack. You must destroy every ship their, those deadly cannons cannot be allowed to leave the nebula. No matter what it takes."

"Sir...the Obama was there to investigate those anomolies. My friend and the Obama's captain both believed that those anomolies were responsible for the recen tdisappearances of ships in that area and apparently had strong evidence to support this."

"Yes thank you captain, I am aware of those reports! Nothing was ever confirmed regarding those anomolies and with this new information we STRONGLY BELIEVE that the pirates are responsible."

"Still, perhaps once we arrive some further investigation into the anomolies..."

"There will be no further investigation! You shall stop the pirates, wipe them out and destroy their new super weapon! Your ship is not the best armed in the fleet, but it is the closest to the nebula and more than capable of stopping the pirates and their inferior weapons. If it wasn't for the advantage the nebula had been offering them they would never have been able to even damage a Federation starship. Now they are damaged themselves by the anomolies. You will stop them. Too many lives have already been lost. Is that understood? Will you carry out your orders or must I send another ship?"

"No sir. The Kelvin shall take care of it." But Robua felt very concerned. "Sir, as this is a combat mission perhaps it would be best to drop off non-essentail crewmembers at Starbase TK81..."

"No!" boomed Burger. "You have no time for that, it would take you a day to reach Starbase TK81 and another day to get back here...that's two more days for the Zetrons to repair their ships and leave the nebula!"

"It's just that there are children on board..."

"Well there shouldn't be!" said Burger and Robau couldn't argue with that. He did not like the fact that George Kirk's son was still on board. Everytime they were at Starbase George and his wife discussed her staying there with the boy, but when they left again both were still on the ship. "You must set course to the nebula now. It is a dangerous mission, I won't lie to you, but I know your ship and crew are more than capable of carrying it out. The question is, are you?"

"Yes, sir," said Robau, firmly.

"Good. Perhaps if you carry out this mission to my satisfaction I may finally be able to send a favourable report to Starfleet! Burger out." And he was gone. In the privacy of his Ready Room, Robau rolled his eyes. His faith in Starfleet command was questioned every time he had to take orders from Admiral Burger.


Captain Robau returned to the bridge. "I'm so sorry, captain," said Lt. Rice as he entered. Robau smiled to reassure her.

"Give it no further thought," he said and turned to Yutti, the ship's Deltan Navigator. "Ensign Yutti, I assume you know the quickest possible route to the Noodle Nebula?"

"Captain, I know the quickest route to anywhere in the galaxy," said Yutti. His intense eyes locked with Robau's for a moment and, as always, it was disconcerting. The sexual potency of the Deltans was, of course, well known to all in Starfleet. News of it had spread fast after first contact had been made with them. When Robau had been told (with a wink and a smile from a fellow captain) that he was soon to receive a Deltan navigator he had assumed, quite resonably he thought, that it would be a female officer. Yutti was male. Very male. Yet his sexual power held sway over even the staunchest heterosxual on board ship. Yutti himself saw little distinction between genders. They were all part of the same sexual adventure for him. But he did not use his disarming potency and limited telepathic abilities to take advantage of the humans and other aliens on board the Kelvin. He prefered to be on equal footing with his sexual partners. Of course, that was hard with such sexually immature species. For Deltains sex was like a handshake, but it was so for most species. He had to restrain himself frequently from driving them insane with his techniques.

"Then plot a course, ensign" said Robau, after a pause.

"We're going to the Noodle Nebula?" asked Commander George Kirk.

"Your powers of observation are impressive, commander," said Robau. "No wonder I made you my first officer!" He patted Kirk on the shoulder.

"Maybe I'll get to prove myself before this mission is over," said George. "I've heard interesting things about the Noodle Nebula."

"Sounds like a fairly dull place to me," said Ensign Michael Johnson, the ship's helmsman. He appeared to find most things dull and most of the crew felt the same way about him.

"I've heard we might find it rather interesting," said Robau, grimly. "Is the course set, Yutti?"

"It was set as soon as you asked me," said Yutti, with his usual confidence.

"Then engage, mister Johnson!" said Robau, pointing with his right index finger somewhat dramatically. "And don't tell anyone about that, any of you," he hastily added.

Alnschloss K'Bentayr walked over to the captain and discreetly said "may I talk to you, sir?"

"Of course," said Robau and the two stepped into his Ready Room. Alnschloss K'Bentayr was the ship's security officer and the crew called him AKB for short. They claimed it was a nickname, but in truth most of them simply had a hard time pronouncing his full name. Robau wondered how Alnschloss K'Bentayr felt about this. If it bothered him, he did not show it. But Robau had read about AKB's species, the Edassians. They were known to be a highly serious people (well, that and the fact that their females were five times as large as the males and lived in caves) and they placed a great deal of value on names. It was likely that the name Alnschloss K'Bentayr had some deeper meaning to them, a meaning humans would not be able to understand. When AKB spoke, Robau always listened. He had proven himself to be a wise adviser.

"Captain, may I ask why we're going to the Noodle Nebula? My home planet, as you know, is relatively close to that nebula and my people have travelled through it in the past. Does our mission have anything to do with...the disappearances?" It was hard to tell how AKB was feeling from his stoic, alien expression, but Robau could have sworn that he looked worried.

"The space pirates of the planet Zetron are believed to have a base in the nebula," said Robua. "They may be responsible for the disappearances. Starfleet intelligence believes so."

"Captain, I will admit I do not know much about the Zetron, but these disappearances have been happening for decades, perhaps centures. Our people even speak of ships being lost there and showing up years later..."

"Have your people made contact with any of these ships?"

"Well, no, they are unconfirmed stories, but...captain, I would strongly advice caution. If we go to the nebula looking for pirates and ignoring the anomolies we could end up lost in the anomolies ourselves...and possibly lost in time."

"Lost in time?" said Robua.

"These ships which returned...it is said that their crews were unaged despite the passage of years. They were thrown forwards in time."

"That's astonishing," said Robau.

"I am not jesting, captain, I fear it could happen." Robau could tell AKB's fears were real.

"I take your advice very seriously, Lt. Commander," said Robua.

"Aye captain," said AKB.

"I'll order Yuttti and Johnson to be extra careful. I'll get stellar catography on it too," said Robua. AKB smiled at this. His species did not normally smile, but AKB had learned to do so in order to better communicate his feelings with the humans on board.

"Thank you, captain" he said.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Wionna Kirk hated visiting sickbay. It wasn't so much because of the Chief Medical Officer doctor Slod, though he certainly did not help. A memember of Trax species, the only member of that species to ever make contact with Starfleet in fact, Slod was about the most unusual alien Wionna had ever met. His skin looked like diamond. It appeared to shine, but it was not beautiful, it was cold, forbidding. His eyes were completely black, and beady and deepset. His nose looked to Wionna liked a lump of coal. She knew she should not make the comparison, but she could not help but think of him as a snowman. An evil snowman. It was wrong, of course, to judge an alien, or anyone, based on their appearance. Luckily there was a lot more to judge doctor Slod on than just that. He was rude. It wasn't even that he had an abrasive bedside manner or anything minor like that, he was downright rude and dismissive at all times. He appeared to hate humans, Vulcans, Deltans and every other species on board. Yet he was a great doctor and he always carried out his duty, even if you had to put up with some insults along the way.

No, it wasn't because of Slod that Wionna hated visiting Sickbay, it was because of the nurse, her identical twin sister Jackie. Wionna loved her sister, she really did. She even liked spending limited time with her. Up until the age of about twelve they had been inseperable. Then they had went different ways. Jackie would describe herself as fun-loving and thrill-seeking. Wionna would have described her sister as selfish and irresponsible. Wionna and George had been together since their teenage years and had married young. Jackie had never had a long term relationship. Wionna had went to StarFleet Academy. She had became the Science Officer on board the Kelvin, though her duties had been cut down since the birth of her son and the Vulcan officer T'Poo had taken over as chief science officer. At the same time Wionna was going off to the Academy, Jackie had went to work on Riza. That's why Jackie had been so amazed when Wionna had come on board as a non-commissioned officer and became the ship's nurse. Ironically, she had a more important position on the ship now than Wionna, who now held the official title of the ship's chief botanist (which took up little of her time.) Perhaps this was why she disliked being around Jackie now, Wionna thought. Just pure envy. Perhaps she secretly wanted to be free and single herself. She sighed, looking at the Sickbay door.

"Hurry it up, mom, my arm's killing me!" said young George Samuel Kirk Junior. He had hurt his arm playing holo video games in his quarters, which was what brought them to sickbay. Wionna didn't like him playing those games, but sometimes she needed time to herself. He was quite a hyperactive boy, requiring near constant stimulaton. The holo games were sometimes the only option. Some of them were violent, too violent for a four year old certainly, but he had managed to overwrite the parental controls in the past and Wionna suspected he'd done so again. She hated that she would have to explain how the injury had happened to doctor Slod, she just knew he'd sneer. Jackie would be sympathetic and understanding and that would almost be worse. She always spoiled George Junior. Finally, Wionna entered sickbay with George following. Jackie was sitting on the edge of a bed looking bored.

"Wionna, little Sam!" she said, running over and hugging George.

"It's George Junior and watch his arm!" said Wionna as Jackie hugged him tightly.

"I like being called Sam and my arm's fine, mom. Hi aunt Jackie!" said George. Well if his arm was fine why had he been crying and asking to go to sickbay? Surely it wasn't just to see his cool aunt.

"You hurt yourself playing holo games again, Sam?" asked Wionna.

"Yeah," he said, sadly.

"There should be more things for kids to do on this ship!" said Jackie.

"The Kelvin wasn't really meant for chldren," said Wionna, and it was true. The ship was not the ideal environment in which to raise a child, but George had been offered the position of first officer and Wionna had told him not to turn it down. She had stayed on board, not wanting to raise George Junior...Sam now apparently, away from his father. There wasn't much for Sam to do on board, other than play his holo games. There was a bowling alley on board but Sam wasn't interested in that. There was only one other child on board, a Vulcan, but George didb't mix well. Besdies, Stovak was a few years older and Vulcan children matured a lot faster than human children. He was T'Poo's sonn, and Wionna resented how T'Poo managed to raise him and still serve as ship's science officer, even though Wionna had had to step down in the same position. Wionna always worried that she was hurting Sam's development by raising him on the ship. When the mission was over, she told herself, when they next returned to Starbase, she and Sam would stay behind, with or without her husband George. Of course she had told herself this every time they were due to return to Starbase but had always ended up returning to the Kelvin. One time they had stayed at the Starbase, her and Sam, without George for a month. It had not went well.

"I'm sure little Georgie will be fine with you and your first officer husband raising him!" said Jackie, cheerily. She was being sincere, Wionna could tell, there was no hint of sarcasm. But for some reason the way she spoke still angered Wionna. What did Jackie know of raising a child?

"Where's Slod?" Wionna asked, changing the subject.

"In the morgue, looking at Commander McDougal's corpse again," said Jackie, matter of factly. Sam looked at his mother.

"Is doctor Slod a bad guy, mommy?" he asked.

"No!" said Wionna. "Jackie, don't talk about corpses in front of George, please." Commander McDougal had died of a mystery illness a few months before. It was very rare for crewmembers to get seriously ill under Commander Slod's care, and for someone to die of an illness on board the Kelvin had been unheard of...before McDougal's shocking death. Slod had spent many hours alone with McDougal's corpse since, cutting it up, trying to figure out just how it had happened.

"Sorry," said Jackie. "He's probably seen worse in those holo games anyway."

"I banned him from playing those," said Wionna.

"Sure you did, mom," said Sam, laughing and winking at Jackie. Wionna almost shouted at Sam, but restrained herself. She was not that kind of mother and she certainly wasn't going to be that kind of mother in front of Jackie of all people.

"Is Slod in a good mood today? Every time I come he seems nastier..." said Wionna.

"No, sis, trust me, you want him to be in a BAD mood. It's when he's in a good mood that he's at his nastiest. If he's having a really good day then he can be so creative and cutting with his remarks that, well, I've seen commanders leave here in tears. Honest to God. When he's in a bad mood he can't bring himself to say anything. He just shuts down, his personality anyway, becomes mechanical, gets his job done. You want him on a bad day and, luckily, today seems to be one of those...he hasn't even commented on my hair this morning."

"Because I have been averting my eyes from that monstrosity," came the ice-cold voice of Slod. Wionna was startled and she could tell Jackie was too. He was standing there, in front of the door that led to the morgue. He had not made a sound as he had entered. How did he do it?

"Doctor, I was just..."

"You're not a psycho-analyst, Nurse Bombad, and you never will be. Do not attempted to get inside my head. I assure you that the contents of my brain would be incomprehensible to such as you. Now, what seems to be the problem with your idiot nephew?"

"Hey!" said Sam. Wionna stormed over to Slod and almost poked him in the chest with her finger as she spoke.

"You will not speak that way about my son, you twisted..." She was about to say snowman but quickly realised that would be racist. "...doctor," she finished lamely.

"I do apologise," said Slod, his dark eyes meeting Wionna's own. "I should have been more creative than to simply call him an 'idiot'. It has, as your former womb mate said, been a bad day and it's only worse now that I have to tend to your...child's little injuries. If he was a Klingon child he would go without reporting his broken bones, let alone crying about them. Think about that."

"He's not a Klingon," said Wionna. She had to admit to herself that "womb mate" had been quite clever. "He's a four year old human and he's hurt. Are you going to help him or aren't you?"

"Why of course," said Slod, now smiling, an icy mockery of a smile that made Wionna shudder. "I live to heal."


Robau sat in his Ready Room chair, listening to a country music song he hadn't listened to in ten years, trying not to think about Lisa. Of course, if he really didn't want to think about Lisa he wouldn't be listening to country music and certainly not this particular song. A soppy love song they'd both pretended to hate but had secretly loved. They had known each other through most of their time in the Academy, but hey had only admitted their feelings for each other and gotten together three months before they had both been sent off on their seperate missions. Robau had quickly risen through the ranks and Lisa had been in line for the first officer position on board the Obama before the disappearance. They had both been with other people since going their seperate ways, she had even had a serious relationship (Robau had been in several relationships but he wouldn't class any of them as "serious" compared to how he'd felt about Lisa) but they'd kept in frequent contact. He missed her so much. It had been two months now and he missed her as much as when he'd first heard of her ship being lost. More, even. He didn't want to lose that feeling of missing her. He'd feel like he was betraying her if he did. He couldn't help but think about what AKB had said about the nebula. Lisa's ship had been investigating the anomolies, the same anomolies which AKB believed could send ships through time. Robau knew it was no more likely than any other explanation, but the possibility, no matter how small, that Lisa could still be out there somewhere and that he could find her again...he had to cling on to it.

But for now, he had to put it aside. Their orders were to stop the space pirates and the space pirates certainly were a threat, though Robau wondered if the admiral was perhaps over-stating that threat. Their usual weapons were simple lasers, not powerful enough to penetrate the ship's shields. Still, if the Admiral's information about a super weapon which could destroy a starship in a single shot was correct then that certainly had to be destroyed. Robau wondered who Burger's source for this information had been.

He wasn't going to find the answers with that song still playing.

"Computer, discontinue music," said Robau.

"WORKING..." said the computer. Blast these upgrades! Sure, the computer was now far more powerful than before, could store more information, had a more sophisticated artificial intelligence...but the downside was that it had to warm up every time it was called on! Fortunately this did not happen in critical scenarios, only for mundane things like playing music where the AI interface was used...but it was annoying. "MUSIC DISCONTINUED," the computer finished. Okay, it had only been a few seconds, but with the older computer it would have been instant. Ah, the price of progress...

The intercom beeped. "Come in," said Robau. George Kirk entered the room. "What can I do for you, commander?"

"Captain, I was thinking about our mission to the Noodle Nebula," said George. "Now I have the greatest faith in Starfleet command but I must say that some of Admiral Burger's commands as of late have been rather...odd."

"You're saying this on the record, commander?" said Robau, with a serious look on his face.

"Off...off the record, if possible, captain," said Kirk, trying not to look worried. Robau smiled.

"It's always good to ask to speak off the record when you're about to question your superiors, George. Just a little tip for you." Kirk relaxed a bit at this. "And I do agree with you. But the orders aren't so unreasonable that I could turn them down."

"Sir, would you ever do that? Turn down orders?" asked Kirk, intently.

"Would you, commander? Would you turn down my orders, under any circumstances?"

"Regulations do allow it, if the captain is impaired in such a way..."

"What if I wasn't impaired?" asked Robau, interrupting. He did not want to hear George just reciting regulations.

"If I was morally opposed to an action and I felt there were alternatives you had not given proper consideration? Yes, captain, yes I would."

"Good to know," said Robau. "And I already knew that would be your answer. You're not the fastest rising first officer in Starfleet for nothing."

"Well, luck may have played its part," said the ever modest George Kirk. Luck had very little to do with it, thought Robau.

"If you keep it up you could be the youngest captain in the Fleet some day soon," said Robau.

"I'm not ready," said George and there was no modesty this time. Robau nodded.

"Perhaps not," he said. "But in a few years."

"The Kelvin is a hell of a ship and I'm loving being first officer," said George. "That's enough for me."

"Still, one of those new ships would be tempting, wouldn't it?" asked Robau.

"The Constitution Class?" said George and there was a glint in his eye when he did. "They're still a while away...the size they're going to be when they're complete makes me doubt they'll ever finish one..."

"By the time the first one is finished you just might be ready," said Robau.

"I have to admit, it would be good to be on a ship that size now, with Wionna and Sam...of course, some would say that any starship is no place for children." He paused for a moment. "We're likely to see combat on this mission. I should have asked to have Sam dropped off at Starbase...Wionna too."

"Burger wouldn't allow it," said Robau.

"I should have insisted!" said George. "If I was a good father I would have."

"We are a science vessel," said Robau, with his usual calm. "Now regulations say that children can stay on board a science vessel at the captain's discretion. But given the nature of some of our missions perhaps...look, I can't tell you to raise your son, sorry..."

"Captain, it's fine. Wionna and I do need to find a solution, at least for missions like this or into unexplored areas of space. It's just that the last time they stayed on Starbase it didn't work out too well and...we'll think of something. I should be talking about it with her, not you."

"You don't have to speak to me as your captain if you're talking about family, George," said Robau. "You can speak to me as a friend." Robua wondered her Admiral Burger would react if he could hear him now. Robua had to admit that it perhaps wasn't the best idea for a captain to be close friends with his crew. A certain level of camaraderie was encouraged, but real close friendships could possibily interfere with command decisions concerning those officers. That was the official position of Starfleet and one Burger certainly subscribed to. But Robau played by his own rules and went with what worked for him and his crew. Burger didn't know what it was like, out here. Robau's friendship with George had not interfered with the running of the ship so far.

"It is good to have someone to talk to about this," said George, relieved. "Captain...Richard, you told me you lost someone you were close with on board the Obama. Do you, err, want to talk to me about that?"

"Her name was Lisa," said Robau. "She was special to me. That's about all I want to say about her right now." Kirk nodded.

"I should return to the Bridge...sir," said Kirk, standing straighter now. "We should be arriving at the nebula in just under an hour."

"That quick?" said Robua. "Yutti really is a miracle worker."

"I'm sure half the women on board would agree...a lot of the men too," said George, smiling, and he left.

 

[CaptainWacky]

AKB watched as George walked from the Ready Room to his chair on the Bridge. He looked at George's muscular (even through his uniform) human male body. He never could have expected he would feel this way about an alien. He felt nothing but desire for Kirk. He did not want to feel this way, but he simply could not help it. He had not talked about his sexual preferences to the rest of the crew. He was not like Yutti the Deltan. The humans would not judge him for his attraction to Kirk, he knew that. For humans in the 23rd centuary, sexual relations between members of the same gender were just as accepted as relations between opposite genders. The Kelvin's chief engineer Commander Baakon, for example, was the child of a human mother and Tellerite father. This was unusual, but Baakon was a popular memeber of the crew and treated the same way as everyone else. But there was more to Edassian sexuality than simple homosexuality...

Females were for breeding and that was all they were for. It had always been that way. It wasn't as if the males had ensalved them, the species had evolved that way. The females were vastly different from the males in appearance and in size. They were like a different species, almost. The males did not relate to them on any level. The females lived in caves and never left the planet; the men in lived in cities and had travelled deep into space. They did not see each other apart from at the breeding time. There was no love between the males and the females of AKB's species. But love did arise between males, it was normal, encouraged. It was the only kind of love AKB had known. To be on a ship like this, with so many alien females...it had been a struggle, at first. He did not talk about his species' sexual practices with anyone on board. Perhaps they knew, some of them must have, the humans had been in contact with AKB's people for over twenty years.

AKB certainly was not going to tell the crew how he saw George Kirk as the sexual ideal, despite him being a human. In George he saw the vision of sexual perfection he had held in his head since he'd first had sexual feelings, despite having not met a single human then. It was not coincidence. It was destiny. Yet George was married to a human female and there did not seem any way for AKB to win his affections over from her. Not yet anyway. All AKB could do was wait.


Wionna did not like Sam with Slod, but Jackie was there and, as much as Wionna found her sister annoying, she knew that Jackie did genuinely care about Sam and wouldn't let Slod hurt him. Not that there was any real reason to believe Slod would do so, other than the general unease all crewmembers seemed to feel around him. Sam was inside a special chamber Slod had in sickbay which could heal his arm (it had turned out to be genuinely injured, a small fracture) in a matter of hours. Wionna wanted to stay with him the whole time, watch over him, but she had to admit there was little point, she couldn't see him inside the chamber and he would be in an unconscious state for much of the procedure. Slod had bluntly told Wionna that he did not want her sitting around his sickbay the whole time and Jackie had assured her that Sam would be okay. So Wionna was now on her way to stellar cartography to visit her friend Ensign Dukat, the first Cardassian in Starfleet.

Not much was known about the Cardassians. Formal first contact had not been made and Cadassian warships patrolled the borders their space, frequently warning Starfleet not to enter. The planet was apparently in a state of political upheaval which had been going on for many years. Dukat and her brother were political exiles who had fled to Vulcan ten years before. Her brother was a poet and a renowend one at that. Wionna herself had been moved to tears by his work. He specialised in creating bleak, doomed scenarios, offering a hint, just the the smallest glimmer of hope, that somehow everything would be okay...then cruelly shattering that hope. He repeated this theme again and again in many varied and subtle variations. Each time Wionna could not fail to be caught up in that feeling of hope, even though she knew how it would end. His poems haunted her thoughts at times, she had to stop reading them, but when a new one was published she could not resist reading and falling into the same trap all over again.

Temora Dukat, in contract to her brother (or the idea Wionna had of her brother anyway, she'd never actually met him) was a cheerful, spirited young woman. She had wanted to join Starfleet as soon as she learned of its existence. Cardassians did not explore outside of their own space, but Dukat had yearned to do. So she had told Starfleet and the top brass had been excited about the idea of having her in Starfleet, to help with relations when formal first contact with Cardassia was finally made. There was only one problem. She was not a very good Starfleet officer.

Had she received help getting through Starfleet Academy? Those on the ship could only speculate (and had done so many times.) Maybe she did get through the Academy on her own merit. She was intelligent and perfectly capable, when she applied herself. She was just...easily distracted. When she had been assigned to the Kelvin Robau had had great difficulty finding a position for her. She had (eventually) expressed a desire to be helm officer, but when put in that position she had found it hard to follow the course set by the navigator and had taken her own courses, which would always end up delaying their journey. She had shown some aptitude towards medicince, but after one shift in sickbay Slod had refused to ever let her return. She had ended up in stellar cartography, mainly because she wouldn't be endangering anyone's life there. And she did like it. She enjoyed looking at the holographic starmaps. She enjoyed it too much. She usually got so caught up in exploring the starmaps in that room that she ended up not charting the region of space the Kelvin was currently travelling in. Still, Wionna liked Dukat very much and, from the broad grin on Dukat's face when Wionna entered Stellar Cartography, the feeling was more than mutual.

"Wionna!" Dukat said, running over and hugging her. "How are George and little George?" Wionna told her about George Juniour's injury. "The poor boy!" said Dukat.

"He'll be fine," said Wionna. "Oh, and you're supposed to call him Sam now."

"Aww, that's cute!" said Dukat, apparently so excited by this news that she had to spin around in a circle on the spot.

"Uh huh," said Wionna. "So, George, my husband George, told me we're going to some place called the Noodle Nebula? What do you know about it?" Wionna had contacted George to tell him about his son being injured before coming to Stellar Cartography, but he'd told her he couldn't come to see him right now as they had an important mission ahead. Yet it would still be some time before they got to the nebula. Couldn't George have come to see his injured son even for a few minutes? The Kelvin wasn't a large ship, it wouldn't have taken him long to get to sickbay. And why had he warned her that things could get bumpy when they arrived at the nebula? Was this a dangerous mission? With Sam on board? Wionna had asked for more details but he'd given her nothing.

"Uh, the Noodle Nebula? I don't know, just some nebula or something. There's some asteroids that look like noodles...I think. Moons? I don't know how moons could look like noodles...something that looks like noodles anyway. I haven't looked at it yet. But hey, look at this! The Trachtenbergian Cluster in the Gamma Quadrant! These images come from a Deltan explorer who visited, it took him twenty years to get there and another twenty to get home! Can you imagine that! And I thought some of our missions were long, hehe!" This was absolutely typical of Dukat, Wionna thought. Knowing that they were on their way to the Noodle Nebula, the logical thing to do would be to research it. But not Dukat, she was thinking about the adventures of some Deltan explorer. She needs a push, Wionna decided.

"Don't you think, maybe, since we're going to this Noodle Nebula, you should perhaps research it...now?" asked Wionna. Dukat thought about this for a moment then smiled cheerily, as always.

"Good idea!" she said. "Maybe you should be in Stellar Cartography instead of the ship's botanist? You could let Sam run around in here!"

"I don't think captain Robua would want a child running aruond while I was doing my job," said Wionna. And yet, she cruelly thought to herself, even with looking after Sam at the same time she'd probably still do a better job than Dukat.

"Well, let's just take a looksy at that silly sounding Noodle Nebula..." said Dukat, and it appeared on the holo screen.

"I can see the noodles," observed Wionna. The anomolies took a winding, noodle like shape. Dukat was reading from a screen.

"For centuries various species have reported losing ships in the nebula...and strange damage to their systems. Some have reported individual crewmembers disappearing into nothingness. Wow!"

"I don't like the sound of that."

"It's quite exciting! Then there's the tales of old ships showing up decades later, but there's a note saying these reports are unconfirmed."

"I don't want to get lost for years in there," said Wionna, looking deep into the projection of the nebula. "I've been on this ship long enough."

"No," said Dukat. "You don't understand. The ship would be thrown forward in time. We wouldn't age."

"Maybe we'll travel forward to a time when this mission is over and me and Sam can get off this ship," said Wionna. "I'd like that."

"And George would be off the ship with you as well, right?" asked Dukat, innocently. Wionna said nothing.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Robau stepped onto the bridge. "Time until we're in the Noodle Nebula, Mister Yutti?" he asked the navigator.

"Five minutes, 38 seconds exactly, captain," said Yutti.

"So you claim," said Johnson. "Did you really tak everything into account? Subspace winds? Power fluctuations? Me arguing with you? You can't know exactly!"

"I took everything into account including your cynicism," said Yutti. Rice laughed. Yutti smiled at her and she blushed. Robau took his seat and watched the stars fly by on the viewscreen. AKB walked over to him and discreetly handed the captain a PAD.

"Captain, here is everything I could find about the Zetron pirates," said AKB.

"Thank you, commander," said Robau, looking at the PAD.

"I could find little we don't already know," confided AKB. "Captain, they are no match for any Federations starship, not even a science vessel like the Kelvin. And there is no report of them having..." AKB looked around. Robau hadn't wanted everyone on the bridge discussing the possibility of some super weapon, not yet anyway. "...any kind of great weapon," finished AKB.

"But if they are working on one, they must be stopped," said Robau.

"Of course, captain," said AKB. "Still, it goes against most of what we know of them. They are scavengers. They have no plans of conquest or expansion that I can see. In fact as far as I can see they are quite desperate people, their homeworld was struck by an asteroid a century ago and they have been struggling to survive ever since."

"Thank you," said Robau. "I'll keep that in mind. I'm not going to go in with all guns blazing." AKB nodded, another human gesture he had picked up, and returned to his station.

"Coming out of warp, captain," said Ensign Johnson. "Earlier than you said, Yutti."

"It is advised to come out of warp before entering a nebula, Mister Johnson," said Yutti. "And this nebula in particular, with its anomolies...warping straight into it would be suicide. Don't worry, I've already plotted a course for you to take us inside."

The Kelvin came out of warp and the Noodle Nebula was displayed on the viewscreen. "Hold us here, Mister Johnson," said Robau.

"Aye, captain," said Johnson. Then he gave a smug look to Yutti. "Looks like we're not going to be arriving insie the nebula on your timescale."

"Mister Kirk, our sensors were updated when we last visited Starbase, were they not?" said Robau. It was well known that sensors head trouble in the Noodle Nebula. The upgrade could perhaps change that. "See if you can scan inside the nebula from just outside it. Mister Johnson, take us closer." Johnson did so.

"Scanning, sir," said Kirk. "Sensors are so far detecting no other vessels...wait. There's something...it's gone."

"Another ship?" said Robau.

"Impossible to know for sure, captain," said Kirk. "But it wasn't an anomoly, it was something else."

"And how are the anomolies?" asked Robua.

"Some are stable, but there others, small ones, which seem to appear and disappear. Navigating them will be extremely difficult."

"Sounds like a challenge," said Yutti, who had been working on his console since the scanning had begun. "Captain, I have a route that can take us in..."

"But even you can't know where the smaller anomolies will be," said Johnson.

"No," admitted Yutti.

"Then that will be your job, Mister Johnson," said Robau.

"We'll probably die," said Johnson. There was a long moment of silence. "I'm just being honest," he added.

"Will you carry out your orders, mister Johnson?" asked Robau.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I!" Johnson sounded almost excited at the prospect of them all dying.

"Then take us in," said Robau.

"I'd reccomend thrusters only," said Yutti.

"One sixteenth impulse should be fine," said Johnson.

"Thrusters only," said Robau.

"Are you trying to get us killed, Johson?" said Yutti to the helmsman, quietly.

"Hey look, turns out you were almost exactly right, six minutes and we're in the nebula finally," said Johnson, not looking at Yutti. The Kelvin headed into the nebula. Their sensors began to malfunction almost immediately. The ship started to shake.

"Steady going, Mister Johnson," said Robau.

"I'm a safe distance from the anomolies, as far as I can tell, captain," sad Johnson. "This whole region is unstable. I'm not trying to get us killed, but going in here by choice almost is sucide, if you ask..."

"Enough, Mister Johnson," said Robau. "Keep us as steady as you can." The viewscreen briefly cut out. When it returned, there was something which looked like another ship in front of them, though it was hard to make out through the distortion.

"Shields up!" said Kirk.

"Hail them, Miss Rice," ordered Robau. He squinted at the viewscreen, trying to make out just what the vessel was.

"No response," said Rice.

"Keep trying!" said Robau.

"Captain," said the Vulcan science officer T'Poo, finally looking up from her gooseneck viewer. She was so silent most of the time that Robau and the rest of the crew often forgot she was there. "I have been analysing our limited scans since we entered the nebula. The dust between us and the other ship is blocking communication. We need to get closer.

"Sir, if they're hostile, if they are the pirates, even with our shields up they could do damage if we're close enough," said Kirk.

"I need to know who they are," said Robau. "Mister Johnson, take us closer.

"Aye, sir," said Johnson, and the Kelvin began to slowly move in the general direction of the other vessel.

"Captain," said T'Poo. "Scanners are now showing a transponder signal coming from that vessel..a Starfleet transponder signal!"

"Which ship?" asked Robau, wanting the answer to be the Obma.

"Unknown," came T'Poo's disappointing response.

"Shield breach!" said AKB, suddenly. "Something just passed through our shileds and now through our forward hull!"

"Damage report!" said Robau.

"No damage, sir," said AKB. "But sensors showed something passing through our hull."

"From the other vessel or the anomolies?" asked Robau.

"Sir, if it was from an anomoly it could have...consequences," said AKB.

"Which area of the ship was along its trajectory?" asked Robau.

"Stellar Cartography," said AKB.


In Stellar Cartography, the main holo display started to flicker. Dukat was busy reading a poem written by a Vulcan poet about the Noodle Nebula.

"This is really good! My brother taught me a lot about poetry and I can tell that this...is really good!"

"Umm, Dukat, something's wrong with your holo display," said Wionna. But then something moved out of the holo display. It was like a flickering box moving through the air, distorting in appearance as it went.

"What is that!?" said Dukat, staring in wonder.

"I don't know, but I don't think you should let it touch you!" said Wionna, pulling her friend to the ground. The box moved over them and passed right out of stellar cartography through a wall.

"I need to contact Captain Robau," said Dukat.

"The way it was heading...sickbay's right in its path!" said Wionna, running out. "I need to warn Sam!"

"What do you think it's going to do to him?" said Dukat, but Wionna was gone.


Robau received Dukat's report on the bridge. "Understood, ensign, if you see another such distortion I reccomend staying as far away as possible." He looked intently at the viewsceen. There was no sign now of the other vessel. Nothing much could be seen on the screen. Then, suddenly, it was almost perfectly clear.

"My God!" said Kirk at what they saw.

"At ease, Mister Kirk," said Robau, but he felt just as shocked. There were two vessels on screen now. Both looked almost exactly like the Kelvin. An anomoly distorted the space in front of one, but it appeared to be identical to the Kelvin. The other had two warp nacelles.

"Two nacelles!" said Kirk. "How is that possible?"

"The time anomolies," said AKB. Everyone looked at him.

"Are you suggesting that ship is us...from the future?" asked Yutti.

"Oh please!" said Johnson.

"They both could be!" said Rice.

"The Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that time travel is possible," said T'Poo. "It took a lot to convince them."

"We don't know anything yet," said Robau. "I see no point in speculation...take us closer, mister Johnson. But keep a...." There was a crashing sound. An alarm went off.

"Shield breach!" said AKB. "Another smaller anomoly."

"Engines are down!" said Kirk.

"Robua to Baakon!" said Robau on his communicator, contacting the ship's chief engineer.

"Baakon here, captain, it's a real mess down here," came the reply. "There was an overload in the main propulsion system, it came from nowhere."

"How soon can you fix it?" asked Robau.

"Captain, I don't even know what's wrong yet," replied Baakon.

"We've got two vessels here, possibly hostile," said Robau. "I need the option to leave as soon as possible."

"Understood," said Baakon.

"Commander...do you think at any point in the future the Kelvin could be fitted with a second warp nacelle?"

"Never, sir! Ships with two nacelles are a thing of the past."

"But the Constitution class..."

"They'll change their minds about that, captain, mark my words. Before the first one is contructed they'll have made revisions. Two nacelles, pah! Might as well have two saucer sections! Why do you ask?"

"No reason," said Robau. "Robau out."

"Sir, an anomoly!" said Johnson. It had appeared on the screen now, in front of the other two ships, bearing right down on the Kelvin.


Wionna raced to sickbay. She almost caught up with the box of distortion. She saw it passing through the sickbay wall. She ran in through the doorway just in time to see Slod calmly side-step the distortion. Sam was still in Slod's chamber, his arm being repaired. The top of the chamber was open now and Sam's head was sticking out of it. He was awake. Jackie was standing by him, unaware of the distortion. Slod said nothing.

"Jackie, Sam, move!" shouted Wionna. Jackie turned round then ducked under the box of distortion in shock. But Sam was held firm in Slod's device. The box of distortion enveloped him. And Sam was gone.


"Evasive maneuvers!" said Robau, knowing it was too late. Then...the anomoly stopped. It just hung there in space. "What the hell," said Robau.

"Captain, one of the...other vessels is firing on the other!" said Kirk. The Kelvin with one nacelle was firing on the Kelvin with two.

"Sensors," said Robau. "Can we tell if either ship is really...us, yet?"

"Sensors still aren't functioning, captain," said Kirk.

"But ship to ship communcations are back online!" said Rice, urgently.

"Hail them both!" ordered Robau. "This is the captain Robau of the USS Kelvin, identify yourself."

"The ship that's being fired on is broadcasting a distress signal, standard federation frequency...it checks out, captain."

"Then they must be us from the future!" said AKB. "Captain, that other ship is going to destroy them, we must..."

"Transmission from the other Kelvin, captain," interrupted Rice. "The one with one nacelle."

"...past...will fire...must enter...anomoly...believe me...Lisa..." came the transmission, breaking up and distorted. But what could be heard sounded like Robau's own voice.

"Lisa..." he repeated.

"Captain, please, the time jumps are real, that is our future self about to be destroyed!" said AKB. "You must...

"Something's happening to the two-nacelled ship," said Kirk.

"I see it," said Robau. Some kind of cannon had just retracted from between the two nacelles. It initially pointed at the Kelvin which was firing on it...then turned until it was pointed towards Robau's Kelvin. It fired some kind of projectile.

"Evasive maneuvers!" ordered Robau, immediately.

"Captain, the only way to avoid it is to enter that anomoly," said Johnson. And then Robau finally understood.

"Do it," he said.

"Sir?" said Johnson. "There's no telling what that could do to us!"

"DO IT," repeated Robau. Johnson's hands hovered above his control panel, but he did not move them. Yutti reached over and took Johnson's controls. Johnson just stared at the distorted image on the viewscreen as the Kelvin pulled up. No one said anything.

They were consumed by the anomoly.


"Sam, where are you!" shouted Wionna, frantically moving around Slod's chamber. "If you can hear me, come to my voice!"

"He just...he's gone," said Jackie.

"Shut up, just shut up, he's here...he's somwhere..." said Wionna. Dukat ran into Sickbay. Slod did not look at her. He showed no sign of shock at what had happened to Sam. He calmly walked over to where Sam had been.

"Nurse, lower the lights," he ordered. Jackie did so.

"What are you doing?" asked Wionna. Dukat came over and took her hand.

"Can you see it?" asked Slod. "Can your inferior human eyes at least see the outline?" With the lights lower, the square of the small anomoly had become visible again.

"It's a diruption in space and time," said Dukat. "I think."

"You think correctly, for once," said Slod. "And the boy is inside it."

"Can you...can you get him out?" asked Wionna. She didn't know why but she thought somehow he had the answers.

"If you want him back," said Slod.

"Of course she wants him back!" snapped Dukat. Slod smiled. Wionna, Jackie and Dukat shuddered.

"Then you can have him," said Dukat and he plunged his diamond hands into the anomoly without warning. He felt around with his hands, then pulled them out. He was holding a shaking Sam Kirk. "That was easy," said Slod, to himself, before handing Sam to Wionna.

 

[CaptainWacky]

The anomoly seemed to pass right through the Kelvin. The ship shook violently for a moment. Rice fell off her chair. George Kirk staggered back, but AKB caught him. T'Poo slipped from her gooseneck viewer for a second, but quickly right herself. Then it was over and the viewscreen was back online.

"Captain, we've moved," said Yutti. "Correction, the other two ships have." The cannon on the Kelvin with two nacelles was now gone. The other Kelvin was now further back. An anomoly was bearing down towards it, but it stopped before it hit and hung over them.

"Why aren't they firing?" asked Kirk. "Why isn't their canon retracted anymore?"

"They're trying to work out which one of us to fire on," said Robau.

"Captain," said T'Poo. "Judging by our positioning and the positioning of the other two vacelles I'd say the reason the canon isn't retracted is because that hasn't happened yet. We have been thrown back in time two minutes."

"Then that means we're about to fire on the Kelvin with two nacelles," said Robau, putting it all together. "AKB..."

But AKB had just opened fire on the two-nacelled Kelvin.

"You did not receive an order, hold your fire!" snapped Robau.

"I was wrong," said AKB. "But we have to fire on them because we just saw ourselves doing it!"

"Captain, receiving a hail," said Rice. Robua just nodded at her. He knew what it was going to be. She opened a channel.

"This is the captain Robau of the USS Kelvin, identify yourself," came the hail. It was Robua's voice.

"That was your hail!" said Rice.

"Hail them back, immediately!" said Robau. "This is Captain Robau from a few minutes in the future...now a few minutes in the past. The other ship will fire on you, you must enter the anomoly when it does. Believe me, I am you...remember Lisa."

"There seemed to be some distortion, captain," said Rice.

"Of course there was," said Robau. On the viewscreen the cannon retracted from between the nacelles of the two-nacelled Kelvin and fired at the other Kelvin.

"Fire, target their weapons," said Robau.

"Finally," said AKB. And the Kelvin fired all weapons on the fake Kelvin.

"So the other Kelvin we were looking at...that was us, doing this," said Kirk, to no one in particular. "And that other ship is us from a few minutes ago about to...it's gone!" The other Kelvin had indeed vanished into the anomoly.

"Captain, the two-nacelled ship's other weapons are only firing lasers," said AKB.

"Concentrate all fire on that cannon," said Robau. The cannon was now turned in their direction. "Mister Johnson..."

"I know, I know, evasive maneuvers," said Johnson. The cannon fired, but this time there were no anomolies nearby and the Kelvin could move freely, while still firing all its weapons on the cannon. The Kelvin easily avoided the first projectile and didn't even have to avoid the second as it fired wide of them.

"They're just firing wildly," said Kirk. "Like they're panicked." The Kelvin scored another directed hit on their cannon.

"Their cannon has been disabled, captain," said AKB.

"Let's see if they want to talk now," said Robau.

"I just don't understand why we'd ever be firing on our pasts selves!" said Rice, obviously distressed and more than a bit confused. "When it's the future and we have a big cannon I'm NOT letting you fired on our poor past selves, captain!"

"Oh you idiot, that's not us, it's a pirate ship that's been made to look like us!" said Johnson. "Even Kirk's figured it out before you!" Yutti and Kirk both gave him death stares.

"Mister Johson, when this is over I'll be having a word with you," said Robau.

"What? It's obvious," grumbled Johnson.

"I have a transmission from the other ship," said Rice. "Putting it through..."

"We are citizens of the planet Zetron and you are trespassing in our space! We demand an explanation!"

"Their space!" said AKB, outraged.

"This is Captain Robert Robau of the Federation starship Kelvin," said Robau. "As far as we were aware this space is unclaimed."

"Well we have claimed it, update your records!" said the Zetron captain.

"Update the records, Kirk," said Robau.

"Err, right away, captain," said Kirk.

"You and that other federation starship have trespassed! We had no choice but to open fire on you...no choice at all!"

"There's only one ship here," said Robau.

"That's impossible!" said the Zetron captain. "There were two!"

"We would be happy to discuss it with you," said Robau. "There is another matter we wish to discuss, however, the recent disapearance of a Federation starship in this area..."

"We know of no such disappearance! This is a dangerous area of space, your ship was probably destroyed by some phenomena," said the Zetron captain, dismissively. And Robau thought to himself that the captain actually did sound genuine when he said he knew nothing of the disappearance.

"Well perhaps you could tell us why you appear to have copied the design of this starship," said Robau. "And why you have added such a powerful weapon."

"We have taken your design and improved on it, that is all! It is not your job to police space, we can have weapons as powerful as we want to defend ourselves!" said the captain. "Now leave us in peace!" Robau signalled to Rice to cut transmission.

"I don't believe that cannon is just to defend themselves," said Kirk.

"Captain, we can not allow them to leave," said AKB. Robau though of the orders he'd received from the admiral, to destroy the Zetron ship at all costs. Yet they had disabled the ship's weapon and there was no reason now to destroy the pirate ship. They were no longer a threat and it would go against all Federation guidelines to fire upon them.

"Let's try talking again," said Robau. "Put us through."

"What do you want now!" said the Zetron captain.

"Perhaps we were wrong to come into this area of space without checking if it had been claimed," said Robau. "For that, I sincerely apologise on behalf of the whole of Starfleet and United Federation of Planets."

"Well...apology accepted," said the Zetron captain.

"Captain, it is the duty of all Federation starship captains to seek out new life and new civilisations and establish friendly relations with them. That is what I would like to do with you. I know something of the Zetron species, a very proud and industious people. I know of the recent calamity which befell your home world. I believe an alliance between us could be of huge benefit for both parties...and perhaps eventually lead to the Zetrons joining the United Federation of Planets." There was a long pause.

"I have heard such words before," said the Zetron captain.

"You have?" asked Robau, interested.

"Do you think this is the first time the Federation has made us an offer? How else do you think we got the plans to your starship? But that admiral went back on our deal, he abandoned us here..."

"Admiral? Which admiral, captain? If a rogue admiral has been making you offers the Federation must know."

"Why should I tell you? Why should I, why should my crew, trust you?"

"Because I am a starfleet captain and I give you my word. Now I know you may have been lied to in the past by someone representing, or claiming to represent, the Federation. And for that once again I apologise. But if you tell me the name of this admiral and the specific nature of how he wronged you, I will see to it personally that he is held responsible for his crimes."

There was a long pause. "We don't have much, captain. Not after what happened to our planet. This admiral gave us materials and blueprints to make and modify our ships in imitation of your own. He paid us handsomely, with food replicators...we did this for our people, captain. We have many hungry people scattered on ships throughout this sector. This is the only way...he promised so much. He said one day he would call on us and would have need of our ships."

"Did he say what that need would be?"

"He never returned. Nor did he send us all the materials and replicators he had promised. He told us to wait, Captain. That it was vital our ships were not seen, that we should wait in this nebula for him. Three our ships, a small starbase we had here, were all destroy after a violent anomoly struck them. The ship I am on is all that is left."

"We did not here news of the disaster which your planet suffered until recently. Perhaps it is something the Federation could aid you with."

"We did not want you to know. We have heard stories of your Federation, from the Klingons mostly, about how you are an expansionist power who would exploit our homeworld...of the Klingons themselves then tried to do that and we had to fight them. "

"I give you my personal guarantee that I will contact Starfleet Command and have a ship sent to your homeworld," said Robau.

"You would do that? You would not conquer us as the Klingons tried?"

"I can assure you we would not, captain. I don't know what lies you have been told by Klingons and even by other Starfleet officers, but all member worlds are a part of the Federation voluntarily. Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Deltans...there's members of each of those species serving on this ship."

"As your slaves?"

"As equals! In fact you don't even need to be from a Federation memeber world to join starfleet. We have a Cardassian on board, a Nosebastard and our doctor Slod is actually a Trax, a little known species which you may not have heard of..."

"The Sentinels of Silence? ONE OF THEM SERVES WITH YOU"?

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean," said a confused Robau.

"DIE! ALL FRIENDS OF THE FOLLOWERS OF TRAXTOR MUST DIE! YOU WOULD EAT THE UNIVERSE!" The transmission abruptly ended.

"Captain, they're firing all weapons on us!" said Kirk.

"Ha, the fools, they only have lasers and some rusty old missiles," said an unconcerned Johson.

"Direct hit with their lasers...no damage," confirmed AKB. "Should I return fire?"

"If you could shoot their missiles out of the sky, perhaps," suggested Robau.

"Captain, sensors show severe power overlaods aboard the Zetron vessel. Firing all their weapons at once so recklessly is putting major strains on them," said AKB.

"That ship was constructed with scavenged parts, it's no wonder!" Robau turned to Rice. "Miss Rice, hail them again, tell them they must stop firing and offer them any assistance..."

"Captain!" said Kirk. Robau span back round to look at the viewscreen. The Zetron ship's weapons were starting to explode. A chain reaction kicked off. Then the whole ship exploded.

"No," said Robau, sadly.

"No life signs," said Kirk. "But with the anomolies, it's possible there could be a mistake..."

"They're dead, all dead," said Johnson. "What idiots. Entirely they're own stupid fault..."

"MISTER JOHNSON, MY READY ROOM, NOW," shouted Robau. Johnson looked shocked for a moment, then got up and went to the Ready Room.

"Why did they do it, captain?" asked Kirk. "They seemed be listening to you, then you mentioned Slod's people..."

"I don't know," said Robau. "I doubt it had anything to do with that..." But Robau wondered to himself if that was true. Why had they reacted that way at the mention of Slod's race? Still, he did not want to say anything in front of the crew. Slod was not a popular crewmember as it was. Perhaps he would talk to Kirk in private...and perhaps he'd ask Slod who "Traxtor" was.

"Captain, the anomolies appear to be intensifying since the explosion," said T'poo. "I'd recommend plotting a course out of here..."

"No," said Robau, for a moment thinking only of Lisa. "I want this nebula explored as fully as possible. We'll travel as slowly and carefully as need be. I must contact Admiral Burger, I'll be back soon."
Robau went to his Ready Room, where Johnson was waiting.

"Captain..."

"Shut up," said Robau. "Why do you do it, Johnson? The little remarks, the constant digs at your fellow crewmembers?"

"I...I don't know, sir."

"Don't you enjoy being in Starfleet?" asked Robau.

"Sir...of course," said Johnson.

"It doesn't seem like it sometimes," said Robau. "I need to talk to the admiral but we'll continue this later. Get back to the bridge, Yutti is waiting for you."

"Yes sir...and I'm sorry, sir, for my behaviour." Johnson did sound genuine, Robau thought, but he had a feeling this wasn't over. Johnson left and Robau opened a private channel to Admiral Burger. He got through on the third attempt. Burger looked somewhat surprised to see Robau when he appaered on screen.

"Captain Robua...have you reached the nebula yet?" asked the Admiral.

"We're there now, admiral," said Robau. "The mission is complete." He waited to see how the admiral would react.

"That's...that's good, captain," said Burger. "Did you have any trouble?"

"The Zetron's had built a replica of the Kelvin...with some modifications," said Robau. Burger did not react to this.

"Was the vessel destroyed?" he asked.

"Yes," said Robau. Burger smiled.

"Excellent! You have done well, captain, they were a danger to the entire quadrant."

"Yes, they had some kind of cannon," said Robau, nodding. "We managed to avoid its projectiles."

"Good thing, too," said Burger. "Our intelligence shows that you would have been destroyed by a single shot."

"Our scanners didn't show anything unsusual about the projectiles," said Robau, which was something of a lie, but he had a feeling . Burger paused.

"Scanners don't always work in that nebula, as I understand it," he said.

"That's true," said Robau.

"And their weapon was probably designed to, umm, evade such scans."

"Yes, probably," nodded Robau. What was Burger trying to cover up?

"Well, you did what had to be done, captain. I'll let Starfleet know, they will be impressed," said Burger.

"Actually, we didn't destroy the ship. Its weapons overloading and it self destructed," said Robau. "In fact they actually talked to us before they perished." Burger definitely looked worried at that.

"What...what did they say?" asked the admiral. Robau hadn't seriously thought that Burger was the rogue admiral the Zetron captain had spoken about. He was a blowhard, yes, but he did not seem capable of such deceit, of such plans (whatever the plan had been.) But he definitely knew something.

"Just made threats against Starfleet...said they wanted revenge. I don't know what for," lied Robau. He did not want to show his hand yet. He would do some investigating first, before he confronted Burger over this.

"Probably because we have infringed on their smuggling operations," said Burger, dismissively.

"Yes, probably," said Robau. "There is one other thing. I promised to send a starship to their homeworld to aid them. They have suffered terribly recently, I know you must have heard the recent reports."

"Why...why would you want to help them? They're pirates!"

"Not the entire race. They need help and we can provide it."

"Well, I'll take your suggestion under advisement."

"I made a personal guarantee to their captain."

"But he's dead!"

"I still want to keep my word."

"Like I said, I'll think about it..."

"Do I have to take this to Fleet Admiral Hershlag? Get him involved?" Robau was through with taking Burger's crap. Hershlag was Burger's direct superior.

"I...I don't think that will be necessary. I'll make sure a starship is sent to aid the Zetrons."

"Thank you." There was some interference in the transmission after that.

"Captain, it is dangerous in that nebula, I urge you to leave immediately."

"I didn't quite catch that," said Robau. Then he turned his monitor off and went back to the Bridge.


"Well, aren't you going to thank me?" asked Slod, coldly.

"Say thank you, Sam," said Wionna. But Sam said nothing.

"He looks traumatised!" said Jackie, alarmed.

"I imagine being in a time bubble could do that to a boy," nodded Slod. "If he's still in this state tomorrow then take him back to me and I'll give you some medication. Now, could you and your son - oh, I forgot about the affirmative action Cardassian too - please leave? The nurse and I have work to do."

"Don't you need to check him for...something?" asked Wionna.

"No," said Slod. Then he simply began to ignore Wionna, Dukat and Sam.

"How did he do it?" Wionna whispered to Jackie.

"I don't know," said Jackie. "Maybe any of us could have just reached in and pulled Sam out."

Wionna looked at Slod. "I doubt that," she said. Slod looked at her and Sam for a brief moment, with something resembling a smile on his snowman face. Wionna could feel Sam shudder.

"I...I..." begain Sam.

"Sam, you don't have to speak, I think you should go to bed and get some rest, you've been through..." But Sam was shaking now.

"Get me away from the bad man," he said. And Wionna, Dukat and Jackie all knew he meant Slod. They took Sam out into the coriddor.

"Sam, doctor Slod rescued you from that time bubble," said Jackie.

"He's a hero! A creepy hero!" said Dukat.

"I saw him!" said Sam. "There was...there was thousands of him, all in a row. Like an army! They were coming for us. Coming to get us all. And there was something behind them! I don't want to see it!"

"It's okay, you probably just imagined it, or had a dream, the time bubble..." Wionna tried to make him feel better.

"No! It was real. Mommy, it was real!" Sam held on tight to his mother. She tried to tell herself that he'd been imagining it, that when Slod had reached into the time bubble it had somehow caused him to appear distorted to Sam. But as she held her son she felt chilled to the bone.

"Gosh!" said Dukat after a long awkward silence.

"I need to take him back to his bed," she said to Jackie. "Look, sis...be careful around Slod. Please."

"I...I will be, Wionna," said Jackie. Wionna nodded to her. She suddetly wanted to tell her sister how much she meant to her. How, even though they had grown apart in recent years, they would always be twins, they would always have a special bond that nobody could understand.

Instead she said nothing and went back to her quarters with Sam.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Eight hours later on the Bridge. Extensive scans of the nebula (in areas where scanners were operational, that is) had still turned up nothing. Probes sent out by the Kelvin had found nothing either, and some had been lost (one had returned to the Kelvin before it had even been launched in a time paradox which had confused everyone and made Rice cry a bit.) Robau sat on the Bridge, staring intently at the viewscreen. If the scanners and probes had found nothing, then maybe it would take the human eye to find the Obama...to find Lisa.

Yet he saw no signs of it on screen. He saw nothing at all.

"Captain, were are about to enter an area of the nebula dense with anomolies," said Yutti. "Too dense to move through, I think."

"Have you attempted to plot a course through?" asked Robau.

"Captain, I do not believe it would be possible..."

"I have faith in your and Mister Johnson's abilities," said Robau. "Plot a course."

"Aye, captain," said Yutti.

"Captain, may I speak to you in your Ready Room for a moment?" asked Kirk. "It's a...personal, matter."

"Make it quick," said Robau, getting up and heading into the Ready Room. Kirk followed.

"Think Kirk's telling the captain that his faith is misplaced?" Johnson asked Yutti.


"What is it, George?" asked Robau when they were in the Ready Room. He sounded distant and did not look at his first officer.

"Captain, if I can be frank..."

"Fine."

"I know that you and the officer on board the Obam you told me about were close. And if Wionna or Sam were lost I don't know how I would react. But..."

"Mister Kirk are you suggesting I have allowed personal feelings to interfere with my duty as captain?"

A small pause. "Yes," said Kirk.

"Hmmph," said Robau, knowing that Kirk was right, feeling frustrated at knowing it and feeling even more frustrated at himself for feeling frustrated. "That first ship we saw, the one sending a Federation signal from its transponder, we never found that."

"Captain, that was likely just the Zetron ship."

"But we never got a good look at it. We don't know for sure."

"I'm pretty sure," said Kirk, boldly.

"There is a chance the Obama could still be out there. And as long as there is a chance I'll keep looking."

"Captain...there is no chance. We have searched all parts of the nebula where the Obama would likely to be. The only other parts of the nebula are so dense with anomolies that there is no way any ship could have survived there."

"Perhaps they are trapped, moving between the anomolies, needing someone to go in and steer them out?"

"Sir, the Obama is smaller and more manoeuverable than the Kelvin. If they can't get out then there's no way we'd be able to steer them out."

"Perhaps their engines have been damaged..."

"If that wast he case, one of the anomolies would have reach them by now."

"Well perhaps they have been swallowed by an anomoly, as we were. Perhaps they will be spat out again at some point."

"And how long do we wait, captain? A week? A month? A year? What happens to us in the meantime? What happens to the orphans on Pran 7?" Robau took a step towards Kirk now. Kirk felt the desire to take a step back but resisted. He had to stand his ground.

"The mission shall continue until I say it is over," said Robau. "Is that understood?"

"I think you're making a mistake..."

"IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?"

"Yes, sir!" said Kirk. And he turned and left the Ready Room before he said something he would regret.

"Shouting at your officers is highly unprofessional, captain," said a voice. Robau span round. How could someone else be in his Ready Room? It wasn't possible. But there, sitting in his chair behind his desk...was an old man. An old man who looked a lot like Robau himself.

"You...who!?" asked Robau.

"You, yes," said the older Robau. He had a white beard. He looked between fifteen and twenty years older, perhaps more, perhaps less. It was hard to tell, for the part of his face which seemed most different was his eyes. Robau could not hold their gaze.

"How did you..." began Robau, then remembered that he should call security. But already the older Robau was already speaking.

"Computer, lock the door and do not allow communcations with this room, authorisation Robau Omega Gamma Beta Slektwag!"

"That was my code! How did you know!" said Robau, pressing the control panel next to the door. It would not open.

"You don't have to worry, I'm not here to hurt you. Would be pretty silly of me to hurt my past self. Would be a kind of grandfather paradox, wouldn't it? You know, if you travel back to the past and murder your own grandfather you won't be born so there'll be no you to travel back and kill your own grandfather anyway...you know how it goes. I got stuck on the part about murdering my own grandfather. Why would I want to do that? He was a nice old man. Remember that old style tractor he had on his farm? That thing wasn't even legal! But he let me...let you ride it all those times."

"You're not me," said Robau, even though on the inside he was shaken by the story. "It's a trick...by the Zetron's...by Burger." The older Robau laughed at this.

"Come on, by Burger?" The younger Robau laughed too, despite himself.

"Okay, maybe not by Burger."

"He's just a pawn, just...sorry, can't say any more," said the older Robau.

"You're really me?" asked the younger, looking back into his eyes now. What had those eyes seen?

"I know you'll want answers..."

"Lisa," said the younger Robau.

"I was going to say you'd want answers about how I'm here, about the special properties of this nebula..."

"Lisa, is she out there!?" The older Robau looked sad for a moment.

"She was never found," he said. "And you're putting your ship and crew at risk every minute you stay in this nebula."

The younger Robau wanted to argue but he knew deep down that this was true. He'd known it even before his older self had appeared. "I suppose you've forgotten about her by now," he said, coldly, to his older self.

"I think about her every day...and everyone I've lost."

"Who else have you lost?" asked the younger one, concerned.

"I shouldn't have come," said the older one. "I've had years to think about this and it was a mistake."

"Well why did you? Why are you here if you can't tell me anything important? If you can't tell me what Burger's got himself involved in? If you can't tell me the secret behind Slod..."

"Keep an eye on Slod and be careful around him," warned the older right away.

"He's the ship's doctor! He has access to the entire crew!"

"He'll do his duty. He prides himself on that. Just...be careful."

"Why can't you tell me more?" asked the younger.

"Because I remember experiencing this moment from your point of view, sixteen years ago to this day," said the older. "And the person sitting where I'm sitting now didn't tell me any more than this."

"That...that doesn't make any sense," said the younger, frustrated.

"That's what I said," said the older. And both found themselves laughing.

"So I live another sixteen years anyway," said the younger.

"Well, perhaps...current research into time travel by the Vulcan Science Directorate suggests that it's possible every time you go back or forward you're travelling to an alternate reality...so you could be living in a reality where you actually do die."

"Oh, that's comforting," said the younger sarcastically.

"The best years of your life are ahead of you," said the older, seriously now. "You'll face many trials, you'll be tested like never before. Sometimes it will seem like too much to take. But you can get through it all. I'm proof of that. And the rewards you experience along the way will make it all worthwhile. But you can't do it alone either. You need your crew with you, the best possible crew you can have. They're with you now, aboard this ship. Make sure they're at their best and that they're all together, that they're all as dedicated to this ship and its mission as you are. With them...you can do anything." He stood up.

"Well I suppose that was worth hearing," said the younger, wryly. The older extended his hand and the younger shook it. He felt a shiver run down his spine. "Thank you." Then the older was gone, vanished, not like in a transporter beam, simply there one moment and gone the next, like he'd never been there at all.

The door to the Ready Room almost instantly flew open and Kirk and AKB burst in. "Captain, are you okay!?" asked AKB, holding a phaser, scanning the room.

"I'm fine," said Robau, still staring at the spot where his older self had been. He turned to face his two officers. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"The computer showed that you tried to contact the bridge but were cut off," said Kirk. "AKB scanned the Ready Room and sensors showed another life reading in here with you."

"Well, do you see anyone else in here?" asked Robau.

"No, captain," said Kirk. AKB was still looking around though, as if his eyes could not be trusted.

"The nebula is probably interfering with internal sensors and ship's systems now," said Robau.

"Perhaps," said AKB. He looked at Robau. Could he know? How could he possibly know.

"Well, I have something to say so I'll join you both on the bridge," said Robay, and the three went back out together. "Mister Yutti," said Robau. "Plot a course out of the nebula. Safest route possible. Then onto the Pran system. We're long overdue."

"I already have several in mind," said Yutti.

"Very good," said Robau. "Whichever you feel best then."

"Course plotted, sir," said Yutti.

"Mister Johnson," said Robau. He paused, taking one last look at the nebula on the viewscreen. "Engage."


Later, George and Wionna watched Sam sleep.

"Big day for him," said George, smiling. "His first space anomoly." Wionna looked horrified.

"You think this is funny? You think this was all just one big adventure for him?"

"Sam came out of it okay."

"What if he hadn't!?"

"But...he did."

"He's your son, George. He could have died today because the captain took this ship into a dangerous area of space..."

"Hey, captain Robau is a great man, don't blame him," said George.

"Oh I don't blame him, George. I blame you. And I blame myself. After Sam was born we should have gotten off this ship, stayed at starbase, requested a place on a less dangerous vessel..."

"Honey, this is a science vessel, it's not..."

"A science vessel travelling unexplored areas of space, being sent into dangerous nebulas, and having firefights with pirate ships!" she interrupted. George was silent for a moment.

"Okay, granted," he said. "I've got six months left on my tour of duty, then I'll have the option to..."

"I want off this ship now. You too."

"I'm the first officer, you can't ask me to..."

"What's more important, George? Your Starfleet career or your children's safety?"

"Children? We only have one."

Wionna touched her hand to her belly when he said this. "Not for much longer, George. I took the test when I got back from sickbay. I'd been putting it off for days. I think I knew inside what the result would be. I'm pregnant, George. And I'm not raising another baby on this ship. I want to go back to Earth with you."

"Back...to Earth?"

"Back to Riverside Iowa," she said, firmly, then walked out, leaving George alone with Sam.


In the morgue, Doctor Slod stood over McDougal's corpse, reading Captain Robau's medical records from a PAD in the dark with his superior eyesight. He smiled coldly to himself on reading something. "So it shall be," he said to himself. "When the time comes I shall do what is asked of me, what is required of all the Sentinels of Silence, the servants of Traxtor. It will be the most worthy moment of my small existence. All glory to Traxtor."

He looked at McDougal now. The dead officer's eyes opened. They were black like Slod's. "All glory to Traxtor," said McDougal in an unhuman voice. He then shut his eyes again.

"Yes," said Nurse Jackie Bombad, stepping out of the shaodows, her eyes as black as Slod's and McDougal's, no expression on her face. "All glory to Traxtor."

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
CaptainWacky

 

[CaptainWacky]

So...

What can I do to get people to read and reply in the future?

(I posted it on another board too where I did get replies, and I do plan to continue the story, so I'll post it here too if anyone's interesting...will be a while though.)

 

[biotech]

Don't stop now, this rocks!

 

[USS Fardell]

This is good. I wonder what is up with the 'Traxtor' thing?

 

[CaptainWacky]

First of all, thanks for the bump.

This was my first attempt at Star Trek fanfic. It started off kind of at a joke an another message board, but I decided to actually try to write it (at least semi) serious. I have five other episodes planned in this "season" and the Traxtor story (and the mystery of the pirate ships made to look like Federation vessels) will gradually unfold throughout...if I ever write them.

 

[Harkley]

This deserves to be read - it's excellent!