Iridescent
Posted on Sat Jul 26th, 2025 @ 2:32pm by Lieutenant Rio Kholin MD & Commodore Wilkan Targaryen & Commander Zhora zh'Roothi & Lieutenant Commander Ash Randall & Lieutenant Commander Kuzos & Lieutenant Commander Sevek & Lieutenant Urvasi Elandorn & Lieutenant Amber Laurell & Director Aamis
Edited on on Tue Jul 29th, 2025 @ 11:55pm
6,154 words; about a 31 minute read
Mission:
Gaia
Location: Main Bridge, U.S.S. Enterprise
Timeline: 2439-06-14, 15:45
Captain's Log, Supplemental Entry:
After several hours of high-speed travel, Enterprise is preparing to arrive at Gaia to begin its mission on behalf of the Federation's Department of Temporal Investigations.
"Are we there yet?" Commodore Wilkan Targaryen asked, half-jokingly, as he passed through the open corridor access on the starboard side of the Bridge.
Urvasi returned the quip with a household servant type response, "Almost, keep playing with your puzzles, young master, we will be there shortly." She sensed out through through the quantum slipstream warp drive and she knew it was too fast for her anomaly detection. They needed to be at the destination and at impulse before she could really help in hopefully keeping the Enterprise safe when piercing the field. She had run through several simulations, and all were dependent upon her being able to ignore the Enterprise piercing the barrier high signature to those eddies and slip stream temporal instances that would be created nearby that the ship needed to be steered clear of to enter the planet successfully through the barrier.
Urvasi added, "I am prepared to look for the finite behind the bloom, Commodore. I will do my best."
Commander zh'Roothi who'd been occupying the central seat in his absence stood at Targaryen's arrival. She exchanged a brief smirk with him at Urvasi's comment: "I was just about to alert you, we're coming up to the coordinates now."
"Glad to hear it," the Captain of the Enterprise answered as he approached his Captain's Chair in the center of the Bridge and passed Commander zh'Roothi. "While we've been waiting I've put together a plan to begin rotating shifts amongst the Enterprise's crew," he handed a PADD off to his XO that detailed the plan that personnel would start rotating between the four different watch schedules. "Let me know what you think."
The Andorian Commander glanced at the contents momentarily before responding with a firm nod. "I'll let you know."
Looking around the Bridge, Wilkan noticed that the Assistant Chiefs were primarily present on the Bridge for his arrival. Enterprise was firmly in Beta Shift so that was to be expected. With the ship soon to arrive at Gaia he knew that he'd need his senior officers to be available, "Let's get the Department Heads up here so that we can be prepared for this arrival."
"Of course Captain," the XO acknowledged. "I'll summon the senior staff immediately."
"Helm, since we have a few minutes you can invite our passenger up," Wilkan continued.
Urvasi called out, "Aye Aye, Sir." She motioned for Lt. Silas to come over to relieve her. With everything happening, Urvasi was making sure a Helm Relief was on the bridge to gain experience for each shift. They performed the exchange of information as Joshua relieved Urvasi. With Joshua at the helm, Urvasi made her way to the turbolift.
Urvasi got off on deck 2 and headed towards Director Aamis' VIP assigned quarters. She touched the annunciator and waited for a reply.
Sitting at the table in her cabin, the Director of the Department of Temporal Investigations had been so engrossed in the contents of her datapad that she barely registered that someone had hit the doorbell. Glancing at the chronometer, the Vulcan knew that they had to finally be approaching the planet. Rising quietly from her table, Aamis turned and walked purposefully to the door. Pressing the control, she opened the door
"Lieutenant Urvasi," the Director greeted, "It is agreeable to see you again. I take it we are preparing to arrive at the planet Gaia?"
Her whiskers moving to 45 degrees along with her ears cupping towards Aamis, Urvasi did her races peculiar curtsy with a respectful head nod as she returned the greetings. "As it is agreeable to see you as well, Director Aamis. You surmised correctly, the Enterprise is nearing Gaia. Would you please follow me to the bridge?"
"Then we mustn't delay," the Vulcan answered as she grabbed her PADD and started down the corridor for the Bridge.
Urvasi stepped back from the doorway to allow Aamis to exit her quarters, then stepped beside her to go to the Turbolift. She quickly stepped ahead near the turbolift to make sure the turbolift doors opened to accept the Director, then she followed in. Grabbing the handle, she stated, "Bridge."
As the Bridge was on Deck 1 and they had come from Deck 2, it was a very short ride. Once the Turbolift doors opened, Urvasi stepped ahead to announce, "Esteemed Guest, Director Aamis, on the bridge." She immediately headed towards the helm to relieve Joshua.
"Welcome to the Bridge, Director," Commodore Wilkan Targaryen, sitting in the center seat on the Enterprise's Bridge, greeted.
"Thank you, Commodore," the Director said, enunciating every word as she said them. Approaching the center seat, the DTI representative seemed to be analyzing the room.
Wilkan looked puzzled, "Is there a problem, Director?"
Still looking around the Bridge, "Apologies, Commodore, but I am uncertain where I should sit. Typically, in my experience within Starfleet, the Bridge of a Starship incorporated seating within the center for a Mission Specialist alongside the Commanding Officer. I was unaware that the Enterprise eschewed that tradition."
"Ah, yes," Wilkan said looking to his left, where a Mission Specialist's chair would normally have been placed. He nodded, "Enterprise is configured more traditionally to the 23rd Century design ethic and its role was based on that of the Constitution Class of the era. Even my First Officer," he motioned to Commander zh'Roothi, "has a secondary role aboard this ship."
The Vulcan turned toward the Andorian Executive Officer seated at the Ops console. She lifted an eyebrow, "Puzzling. I would have anticipated that the First Officer would be at your side and that you would not be isolated in the center of your Bridge."
"You two have clearly been talking," the Commodore teased. "At any rate, I will take your comments under advisement, but if Starfleet reconfigures this Bridge again my crew may revolt. In the meantime, please feel free to take the Mission Ops Station. It would allow you an opportunity to better monitor our activities."
Aamis looked at the Mission Ops station, then turned her head to the parallel workstation on the opposite wall, "Please excuse this request, but my preference would be to monitor from a Science Station. My understanding is that you have three available on the Bridge of this starship," she looked directly at them.
Intrigued by the Director's connection with the planet that felt in zh'Roothi opinion wasn't professional the Andorian cast a glance towards the pair and discussed.
With his Senior Staff starting to arrive and take their stations, Wilkan knew that the ship was ready to slow. Glancing at the Science consoles, the Enterprise's Captain nodded to approve the Director's request and then looked to the Helm, "Slow to Impulse, half ahead." As the Enterprise slowed to half impulse, the planet that they were on approach to appeared in the distance. Barely perceptible at this range, Wilkan continued issuing orders, "Magnify."
On the viewscreen the far away image of the planet became larger in the wink of an eye. The planet itself was like a miniature version of Earth. Even from this distance it was easy to make out the major land masses and the variety of climatic and surface conditions, like the tundra and desert. Where it was unique was the presence of the Quantum Barrier. It was enormous in size and easily enveloped the entire planet in a cloud of ethereal energy not easily explained. It would be beautiful, if the mission weren't so mysterious.
Commander Randall had manned the Engineering station after being summoned and was triple checking the preparations when they dropped warp. Ash didn't need to look at the main viewer to know they were at their destination. The Engineer sighed, audibly, and closed her eyes to focus on blocking out the quantum/temporal distortions being thrown off by the Quantum Barrier lest she be overwhelmed by the cacophony that filled her senses. "We are very near being within the outer limit of the temporal effects." Ash commented, her eyes still closed.
At the Helm, Urvasi's tail was not moving as it bristled from feeling the energies of the Quantum Barrier. Within her mind, she could feel the nearby blooms of energy shifting about, many getting too near the Enterprise. She called out, "Captain, Helm, I concur with Commander Randall. May I request full stop for sciences to map the area around us before we get to close sir?" While Urvasi could not directly detect the temporal, she could detect the hyperspace fluctuation piercings caused as a direct result of the time shifts within the quantum realm.
At his chair, Wilkan watched the readouts closely as the Enterprise neared its destination. They were on approach to Gaia and the Commodore, for one, was very interested in getting this mission going. He heard the recommendation, and carefully considered it, when he was interrupted by the Chief Medical Officer.
Kholin arrived on the Bridge in response to the summons and reported to the CO as soon as she was in front of his Centre Chair. "Medical reporting in, Commodore" she told him brightly and stood to attention.
Wilkan didn't answer the Chief Medical Officer immediately, instead realizing Ash wasn't herself. "Doctor, check on Commander Randall, please."
"Sir!" Rio spun to look at Ash who still had her eyes closed and was looking somewhat wobbly with her prehensile tail wrapped around her own chair - rather to tightly for normal.
~She's not balancing as she should~ Rio thought in the split seconds that she was assessing what the scans and her observations were telling her. ~her eyes are closed and she looks as if she might slump or tilt soon.~ Taking her medcorder from her belt at once, she ran a quick scan but the fit officer wasn't showing physiological malfunction. Her system was working as normal.... other than....
~Her breathing is fast and she's giving off pained electrical impulses.~ Rio noticed.
The CMO put a steadying hand on Ash's slender shoulder and knelt on one knee beside her chair to do more scanning and to better to speak directly and softly, not interrupting the ongoing Bridge functions but taking an educated guess at the most likely possible reasons for this very healthy officer to show such a sudden weakening at this particular moment in time and space.
"Commander?" she asked. "Do you feel cold?"
When she didn't get a response, Rio asked another question. "Are you suffering from side-effects from our arrival here? My medcorder tells me you're physically well but clearly you're no such thing, so my immediate alternative is taking you to Sickbay so you can lie down..... " she continued to update the seemingly conscious but suffering Ash, hoping for her to be able to contribute to the diagnosis with some information about her symptoms and the measure of their severity.
The Engineer was unresponsive for a few seconds but then put her right hand over that of the doctor, on her shoulder, in a reassuring manner before turning her head and opening her eyes to look at the CMO. "Thank you for checking on me, doctor." She said, quietly, her eyes looking at Rio, pupils dilated to black orbs fringed with green. "I am having difficulties focusing past the sensory input of the Quantum Barrier." She stated, quite clearly. "The temporal shielding will help." She added, helpfully.
"Are you well enough to continue Ma'am?" Rio responded, her medcorder still registering as she was speaking. "I could advise a recouperation in Sickbay if you're not ready? How much do you think the shielding will help?"
Ash was silent, for a few seconds, before she answered, her words quiet and measured. "Once the temporal shields are up the sensory input will be muted." She replied, and slowly nodded a few times in emphasis. "I will be fine and able to continue my duties unhindered." She added.
"Very well Ma'am" Rio accepted the reassurance. "You know where to find me if anything were to change that situation Commander." she added softly and stood, returning to her own Bridge Console.
"Bring the Temporal Shielding online," Targaryen directed to their Chief Tactical Officer.
Urvasi's tail fur slowly laid back down into its more normal patterns and began to swing gently side to side. The nearby bloom effects had greatly lessened in their intensity of being near the ship, as though without the ship's presence being felt, they no longer had an impetus to grab onto and could eddy away to nothingness. Urvasi called out, "Captain, Helm, within my empathic senses, the growing Temporal Eddies near the ship are moving off and dissipating, Temporal Shielding seems to be in effect around Enterprise. I await sciences confirmation."
Once the temporal shielding came up Ash visibly relaxed and took a deep breath as if a very, very heavy weight had been lifted from her person.
Wilkan was about to answer when he noticed the Counselor.
Exiting the turbolift onto the bridge Amber offered an apologetic smile as she made her way across to the environmental station. “Apologies Commodore, I was in the middle of an appointment.” She sat down turning her attention to what was happening.
Kuzos arrived on the bridge a few moments later, He was now firmly convinced that the federation had more meetings, gatherings, get togethers than any other species. It was amazing they had advanced as far as they had. He moved to the tactical station, "Board is green Commodore."
"Thank you, Commander," Wilkan answered with a nod as he turned his attention back to the Helm. "All stop, Lieutenant, let's get those scans run." He turned to his Vulcan Science Officer, who was flanked by the Director next to him, "Mister Sevek, your show."
Urvasi's hands moved over the controls as she called out, "All Stop, Captain, station keeping initiated. 50K Klicks from Barrier and holding."
With a couple of slight adjustments zh'Roothi made sure the temporal shielding was at peak before the Commodore gave the inevitable order to proceed forward once more.
“Commodore” Amber looked towards Wilkan. “There are a lot of nervous people onboard, given where we are might I suggest a few words from you? Just to put the crew’s minds a little more at rest.”
"I wouldn't say I've ever been good at them, Counselor," Commodore Targaryen answered honestly, thinking back to all the speeches that he'd given throughout his lifetime. He sat quietly a moment before tapping the intraship communications button.
"Attention, crew of the Enterprise. I know that our mission has come as a bit of a surprise to many, but there's one constant that we have in our universe and that is each of you. Enterprise is crewed by the best and brightest that Starfleet have to offer, so I know that anything that comes our way I know that we can handle because of each of you. We're approaching the barrier now, so let's all look sharp and show the galaxy what a Century Class starship can do. Targaryen out."
Urvasi nodded to herself at Wilkan's words. She had already faced multiple scenarios with the simulation overseen by Zhora and Dylan. Except, this time, the Temporal Shielding was in place, helping her in her quest to see what is beyond the Enterprise to guide the ship past those Time Eddies trying to ensnare and shift the ship away from this current timeline and seeing what is truly there. She had faced the abyss, and this was less thanks to the shielding. She was ready.
Amber nodded and smiled as she looked towards Wilkan. “That’s definitely had an effect.”
"Hopefully a good one," the Commodore answered with a half-smile.
With the sensory input of the barrier now muted by the temporal shielding Ash resumed her work as if nothing had happened and everything was as it should be. Systems were nominal and holding with no issues. The temporal shielding, aside from acting like sun glasses and ear plugs for, Ash, was doing what else is was supposed to by protecting the ship and crew from the temporal fluctuations that threatened to toss the ship to anywhere and when. Ash could still see, hear and feel the barrier through the shielding and, in the odd moment while she worked, the Tuansee Engineer 'took it all in' now that she was not being overwhelmed.
Amber looked over at Ash curiously. “Commander Randall, are you sensing something? It’s just…what I sense from you is curious to say the least.” She offered a smile. “I feel emotions, and hear voices in my mind, but that’s as far as it goes.”
Ash glanced the direction of Lt. Laurell for, a second or two, and then looked back to her console. "Just taking it all in, lieutenant. I have never encountered an anomaly that feels like this. There is more to it than just the energies involved." The Engineer, replied, and glanced back to Amber. "There is a presence..." She added, and nodded. "...yes, presence is the right word I think." And looked back to her work.
“A presence, fascinating” Amber smiled, any further questions would have to wait until they had time. Right now she needed to let Ash concentrate.
Urvasi kept her psi sense out past the Enterprise in looking for any building time eddies trying to shift them to else when and/or where. She knew that the barrier had an effect on Ash, but not to the extent where the CEO could feel into and with the barrier. Well, that helped the survival of the Enterprise and the crew, so Urvasi kept an ear towards Ash even as her other ear kept moving to pick up instructions and information from the rest of the bridge. Right now, with the Temporal shielding up, the barrier was not reacting to the Enterprise, which was a good thing. She kept to station keeping and herself.
At the Science Stations, Director Aamis was busily typing on the Science II workstation monitoring the data coming in from the Enterprise's sensor telescopes. The central monitor of the console showed a display diagram of the barrier surrounding the planet, with a more intensive analysis than the Defiant was able to uncover. "Fascinating," she said in a near whisper.
"The barrier, Commander, the phenomenon doesn't have a defined center or outer edge, navigational subsystems are unable to give coordinates on the barrier, yet it is and isn't there," the older Vulcan explained. "Most peculiar. We should begin a tomographic imaging scan of the barrier, Commander, it may provide additional details that the other sensors have been unable to provide."
"Agreed Director." Sevek replied as he realigned the sensors to do a tomographic map. The Vulcan watched as the map changed on his screen.
Standing at the tactical console, Kuzos ventured a question. "What of you Lieutenant Laurell? What do you think of all this? Have you sensed anything out of the ordinary?"
Amber shook her head as she turned to look at Kuzos. “No, I haven’t. My abilities are empathic and telepathic in nature, I don’t have the same range to my senses as Lieutenant Elandorn. Though I’ll admit I’m curious.”
Kuzos nodded as Amber explained her senses. "I see. Thank you for explaining Counselor. I hope you don't think I was prying." He said charmingly.
“Not at all Commander” Amber offered a polite smile. “Besides the Dominion already know what Betazoids are capable of after the war.”
A rapid series of beeps came from the Tactical console at that moment.
"Report," Wilkan looked over his shoulder to issue the order.
Kuzos looked at the instrument console. "Readings are coming in now. It's ship. Wait more information is coming through the console." He paused as he took in what the data was telling him. After a moment he looked at the Commodore. "Commodore, it is a Federation starship. To be more precise it is a Defiant class starship." He stated, letting the information sink in to the bridge crew.
"Tomograpical map coming on the screen now Commodore." Sevek said turning his chair to also look at the viewscreen.
On the viewscreen the colors within the barrier began to change, swirl, and shift rapidly as an object began to appear within the quantum barrier. Barely visible amongst the energy field, it was clearly a ship but identification was impossible as no signage could be clearly discerned. The design of the ship was difficult to make out, but there was no mistaking the lineage. It was a Defiant Class starship.
"Helm, bring us in as close as you can to that ship without accessing the barrier." Wilkan turned away from the viewer, "Science or Tactical, get me an ID on that ship."
Urvasi called out, "Captain, Helm, moving in to 10Kklicks." Her hands moved across the controls to set the Station Keeping from 50,000 to 10,000 kilometers, or just outside the inference zone of the Quantum Barrier. The ship began moving towards the planet.
Kuzos looked at his console again, "Commodore it is the USS Defiant." He said calmly.
With the ship identified Commander zh'Roothi turned at her station looking back towards both the Vulcan Director and Commodore Targaryen with mixed feelings.
The Commodore gripped the sides of his chair, slightly annoyed by the presence of the Defiant yet perplexed at the same time. The Defiant of the current era was a Valiant Class starship that was assigned to his wife no less. The previous Defiants were all destroyed, save one that was on display at the fleet museum at Athan Prime. Could this be why everyone had been so squirrely when it came to this mission? Could they have expected as such to encounter the Defiant?
"Director?"
At Science II, Director Aamis turned in her seat toward the Commodore. Her voice betrayed no emotion, "Yes, Commodore?"
"Care to explain?" Wilkan asked, wondering just how far the conversation would go.
"I am at a loss to explain the presence of the Defiant, Commodore. The status of each Federation starship named Defiant is well documented," her reporting had been no different than if she were letting them know the space weather.
Targaryen looked at the ship on the viewscreen, the speck becoming much larger as Enterprise closed in. "We know that there are parallel realities, the planet is surrounded by a quantum barrier with temporal properties, a whole myriad of other possibilities. Director, is it possible that the Defiant traveled through time?"
Aamis lifted an eyebrow, "Superstring material is present that could lead to the formation of a Kerr loop and high-energy interactions are occurring in the vicinity that would support such a phenomenon; nonetheless, I am not prepared to hypothesize at this time that the Defiant has traveled through time. Her logs do not indicate that she had traveled forward in time, while they did attempt to fulfill the incident that initially propelled the vessel 200 years in the past, Odo's machinations prevented that fate and Defiant returned to Federation territory after traversing the barrier without completing a temporal incursion."
Wilkan listened to the Director's answer, wondering if she had intentionally been obtuse to overwhelm him and throw him off the trail to her answer. It was possible that she was also being genuine because temporal mechanics wasn't an easy concept for even the best trained scientists in the Federation. It was a lot to think about, and even more to worry about.
The range reached 10Kklicks and the Enterprise once more entered station keeping. Urvasi called out, "Captain, Helm, 10Kklicks off the field and station keeping."
"As soon as our sensors can penetrate it, I want a better feel for what the Defiant is going through crew wise. Get interior scans, Sevek, and supplement with life scans for Doctor Kholin."
“I can already sense life aboard the Defiant Commodore” Amber looked towards Wilkan. “I’m sure Doctor Kholin will be able to confirm.”
The Vulcan turned back towards the science station and adjusted the scanners for interior scans. "Hull is intact Commodore. Life support and most internal systems are working. There is damage, but not compromising to the hull." Sevek said reading what his scans said.
Rio's fingers flickered swiftly across the LCARS on her console as she set the focus for the required scans. The readings came back almost instantaneously, such was the sophistication of the sensors on the Enterprise. "I can indeed confirm that, Commodore." She nodded at the Counsellor in acknowledgement. "I'm reading 52 life signs, some of whom seem to be showing shallower signals, as if hurt or weakened, perhaps?"
The Captain crossed his arms and turned back toward the viewscreen, "Ash, review the Defiant from an engineering perspective for me, please. See if there's an engineering component that supports whether this is the Defiant or a doppelganger."
"Analysis in progress, Commodore." The Chief Engineer announced, almost immediately, the multiple screens of the engineering station now flashing through schematics, repairs, upgrades, modifications (official or otherwise) down to individual damage assessments from its many, many encounters, the data and images an incomprehensible blur to the unaccustomed eye. Ash flicked the occasional diagram, wireframe or data stream of interest, to the side, as things continued to stream for nearly a minute.
The Captain turned to the Vorta, "Commander, analyze the Defiant to determine if she's been in combat recently. Weapons fire can sometimes open a temporal vortex. Maybe that's the case here?"
Kuzos made no reply he simply bent over the tactical console and ran various scans of the Defiant. After several agonizing seconds he straightened and faced the Commodore. "Scans reveal no evidence of weapons fire Commodore."
"Even though it goes against my better judgement, start working on a way to penetrate the interference that we've detected in the area. I want to talk to them," Wilkan looked at his XO as he gave the order.
zh'Roothi acknowledged and begun to unravel a method to breakthrough the interference.
"Commodore," Aamis turned from the Science Station. "I object to this course of action."
Wilkan was puzzled, "You object?"
"You have encountered a vessel that is potentially lost in time, Commodore. Any attempts to communicate with that vessel would be a violation of the Temporal Prime Directive."
"We're here on a mission for DTI, Director," Targaryen reminded.
The Vulcan countered, "All the more reason to follow regulations without question."
Wilkan sighed and looked at his XO, considering carefully how to proceed. They had a ship out there that was potentially lost in time, but they were potentially trapped as well. He crossed his arms when a rapid alarm sounded.
"Assessment complete, Commodore. It is the Defiant. It is identical down to the documented microfractures in the tritanium of its dorsal superstructure." Ash announced, quietly. "I see a possibility it could be a quantum duplicate." She added.
"I'm receiving a signal," zh'Roothi announced from the forward Ops station. "There's too much interference to make it out clearly," she frowned while keying the console to clean up the message. "It's on a repeating cycle, possibly a distress signal Captain."
Amber looked around between Aamis and Wilkan. “Are we just supposed to sit here and ignore them?”
"If they're in distress, doesn't that chance the situation within the priority of the relevant Directives? Saving lives where we can must surely take priority over any we don't want to change their timeline possibility. Their timeline or experience of it would all be moot if they were to die?" Rio added in her plea for attempting to save whatever number of lives might be at stake here. Possibly as many as 52 in all? It was a horrible situation to have to decide on and Rio couldn't help but thank the stars that, other than offering her two-pennies-worth of supposition, she wasn't the one who would have it on her shoulders.
"There are no coincidences." Ash offered, with a look, directly at, Aamis. "We have a ship that IS the Defiant with a crew of 52. We KNOW the Defiant and her crew returned from their encounter with the barrier. This Defiant is stuck and sending out a distress signal and I am of the opinion it is a Quantum duplicate of the Defiant we KNOW left this place and is, therefore, not a temporal incursion. It is of this timeline and stuck, like a fly in amber, waiting to be found, perhaps rescued, or freed to fulfill its destiny." Ash elaborated, quietly, and then went back to monitoring her station.
"Precisely the reason we must leave them to their fate," the Vulcan answered coldly. "Duplicate or not, their presence in this time would be a temporal incursion if they traveled here from the 2370s. Commodore, we must withdraw," the Vulcan insisted, with what almost sounded like emotion in her voice.
At the helm, Urvasi's ears moved according to who was speaking, while always one ear, always, was trained on the Captain for his orders for helm. She kept her breathing very controlled as she kept herself calm and ready to hear the order to enter the barrier. She did not think about that entry yet as that would only add to her trepidation of not wanting to experience that overwhelming sensation again, however, she must, and thus, breath, be calm, listen for that order.
Wilkan listened to the Vulcan Director of the Department of Temporal Investigations, hearing the inflection in her voice that almost sounded like a peaking out of emotion. What could possibly have happened to the Director? She had been in Starfleet, and she would know that they didn't leave people behind. "Let's hear their message, maximum filters."
This is Captain Benjamin Sisko of the Starship Defiant to any allied vessel. We have been trapped inside this quantum energy field and require immediate assistance. We've lost warp drive, shields are critical, and life-support is failing."
"The fact that he'd make the request knowing that the Dominion weren't too keen about him or the Federation is telling," Wilkan commented as he looked to Kuzos, "No offense meant, Commander."
Ash listened to the, back and forth, of the conversation between the Director and the Commodore, while she accessed her personal, secure, shipboard data storage and brought up the details of a proposed project called Funhouse. It was an interesting idea involving the use of Static Warp bubbles to house temporal environments where relative time was dilated to be either faster or slower in relation to normal space and time. Though Ash never was approved an official project it did not prevent the engineer from doing her own, unofficial, project where she established the viability of the technology and, most importantly for their current situation, how to communicate into and out of a static warp bubble so configured. Satisfied she recalled the details of the communications protocols, the Chief Engineer began configuring the required, temporal, filtering for their communications array.
"Sir, I believe I have a communications solution for contacting the Defiant." Ash announced, quietly.
"By all means, Chief, proceed," Commodore Targaryen approved.
"Aye, Sir. Implementing temporal filtering for the communications array. You will have audio and video." Ash replied, while she passed the protocols to communications. "Commander zh'Roothi, 11 to 13 kHz is your target frequency range." She added.
The details appeared on zh'Roothi console and she pondered them momentarily. Once again she was struck by how knowledge and resourcefulness their chief engineer was. "Eleven to thirteen," she repeated.
With the communications link established, Wilkan nodded to his crew, "Excellent work. On screen please."
On the viewscreen, admit the occasional burst of static, Captain Benjamin Sisko appeared on the display before them. He was a tall, broad-shouldered dark-skinned man who had an imposing build. Wilkan had known Captain Sisko around the era that this Defiant was from and he was known for his shaved head and goatee, but he looked a bit more disheveled than Enterprise's Commander remembered him being. His goatee was flanked with stubble and his bald hair was replaced with tightly cropped hair. Even though he was imposing, there was warmth in his smile.
"I didn't know you were out this way, Captain, but I'm glad to see you all the same," Captain Sisko said with kind warmth in his voice. "You're dressing a bit informally I see."
Glancing over at Aamis, Wilkan decided to play along, "Sorry to catch you off guard, Ben, but we picked up your distress call and rushed here to help you out."
"Wilkan, what happened to the Armstrong? Your ship's clearly not an Intrepid and your uniforms," Ben paused as he thought back, remembering a distant memory, "I've seen those uniforms before. Years ago, when I was trapped in time and went to the future. What year is this?"
"Have you any idea what happened to the Defiant?" Commodore Targaryen asked as he walked toward the viewscreen.
Sisko showed a bit of the ferocity he was known for, "I insist on an answer."
As Commodore Targaryen was getting ready to answer, Director Aamis left her workstation and approached, "He's not authorized to answer that question, Captain."
Captain Sisko looked carefully at the Vulcan Director, "Lieutenant Aamis?"
Wilkan looked at the Director, "Lieutenant?"
Aamis looked first at Commodore Targaryen, "It is what Humans call a long story." She turned toward the viewscreen, "Captain, please hold your position and await instructions."
"The Defiant's not going anywhere, Lieutenant," Sisko answered with anger in his voice. "Defiant is trapped in the Quantum Barrier surrounding this planet and has been trapped here for almost a year. Dax and O'Brien have been able to push us through this far, using calculations you helped to complete, but we've lost our engines and can't fully escape. I have a feeling we've been stuck here longer than we thought, though. Please, one Captain to another, what year is this?"
Before Aamis could object, Wilkan answered with sympathy, "Ben it's 2439. Defiant's been trapped here almost 66 years, give or take a month or two."
Defiant's Captain was silent for a moment as he looked at them across subspace, considering the enormity of what he was being told. He looked off screen for a moment then noticed Commander Kuzos, "What happened with the War?"
"The Federation won, Captain, we've been at peace for years," Wilkan himself glanced at Commander Kuzos, "We have both Jem'Hadar and Vorta serving aboard this ship."
"Commodore, that is enough," Aamis protested.
Wilkan looked at the DTI Liaison then back to Captain Sisko, "We'll be talking, Ben. Targaryen out." Turning back toward his crew, "Examine the Defiant's predicament, please. I'd like plans to extract them from the Quantum Barrier." Feeling Aamis preparing to object, Wilkan looked at her, "I'd like to speak with you in my Ready Room, Director. Exec, please accompany us. Ash, you have the Bridge."
"Aye, sir. I have the bridge." Ash confirmed as she relinquished her engineering station to take up position at the command chair.
After the Director, Captain, and XO left the bridge, Urvasi turned around in her chair to face Ash. "Commander Ash, as we are planning on piercing the barrier anyways, and with our Temporal shielding, do you think we could put the Defiant into the Enterprise's Cradle to remove her from the Temporal Stasis and into our direct Time, besides under our care? It might require some matching of frequencies from one ship, or both, but, it is an idea that should be able to work?" Urvasi was thinking of the maneuver to nestle a smaller ship aft of a Federation Vessels saucer section and between the Warp Nacelles, bringing that ship fully within the shielding as well as warp bubble of the larger ship for protection and rescue, and this surely was an instance of rescue.
"That is the most likely scenario for removing the Defiant form their current predicament and should prove effective if the choice is made to act." Ash replied, quietly, looking to Urvasi. "The Defiant will piggy-back rather easily given current conditions." She added, the older vessel being fraction of the size of the Enterprise.
Urvasi nodded, replying, "Thank you for that confirmation, Sir." She swiveled to face the helm console once more. She added, "I am working on trajectories for three scenarios.... Low planet orbit beneath barrier, Cradle with Low planet orbit beneath barrier, and Cradle with 150K Klicks outside of Barrier. I will be ready, Commander Ash." At the same time, Urvasi's body began tensing as she steeled herself for that initial penetration to then transverse the barrier or add a way point to then transverse inside or outside. Everything around her quieted, except for her ears that continued to listen for the orders that were to come.
"Very good." Ash replied. "Options are good." She added, quietly.
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