S1 M4 "The Temporal Variable"

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Main Engineering]

James listened to Lizzie as she explained the diagnostic.  He was still kicking himself he had been around Zed long enough to know how emotions affect him.  He would never lie to him or anyone else on purpose and if he did was a faint attempt to answer the obvious.  He had a Warp Core to eject and now he had more duties probably take over the redistribution of auxiliary power.

James looked at Normandy was placed in the strecher and wondered how much he was to blame.  He needed to keep his emotions more in check  so people would not be hurt.  James closed his eyes and thought to himself I am sorry   The words he wanted to say.

He felt Lizzie patting his shoulder, and trying to conform him.  As much as she explain it was not his fault James could not feel that he was one of the people if not the primary person at fault.  She explained he would have a full recovery but still he was down foe the  near future.

James looked at Lizzie and just said "Thanks, Lizzie, but I know I am at fault...just take care of him....I need to focus on erasing those innocent people from existence"  As he finished he looked.

James then at the crew and said "Prepare to release the warp core"
As he finished James took the controls where the last button was.  He said to himself "I am to become death...the destroyers of world"

As he finished he finished the last command the eject the core...

Engineering

Lizzie waited and watched in fascination as James, along with he other engineers, ejected the Warp core. As soon as it was done, she turned to go and was almost knocked off her feet by what felt like phase fire. She had no sooner steadied herself than the Red Alert klaxon went off and she headed as fast as she could back to Sickbay.

Sickbay

Lizzie ran in and surveyed the scene. There were already a dozen or more crew members there who had been caught by the attack. Thankfully none looked seriously hurt. She turned to the Charge Nurse.

"Report!" She ordered.

"Mr Masters is resting comfortably but is showing no signs of waking up yet. The rest are all minor injuries. Should we start triage?" Lt Knarr, her Bajoran Charge Nurse replied.

"Yes, check the incoming and get all urgent cases over to the Beds. I'll see them there."

"Yes Doctor." Knarr replied, taking out a tricorder and began efficiently assessing the injuries.

Since none of the injured looked serious, she decided to assist until she was needed elsewhere.

[James A. Hawke]

[Bridge - Other Tempest]

"What?!" Alexis exclaimed to the Operations Officer who had just informed her of a Warp Core Dump on Tempest Prime. "What do they think their doing! We can let them do that!"

She turned to face the Tactical Officer "Match their shield frequency and fire phasers! Make sure they don't leave!"

------
[Space]

Moments after the order was given a phaser beam tore through an unoccupied section of the ship. It was only a warning shot and hoped it had been received.

[Main Engineering]

Right as James was going to press the button he felt the ship being hit.  His body moved slighly forward as it made impact.  If the ship wanted to fight it needed to maintain his warp core.  He looked at the ship and wondered about how they got through with shields.  It then reminded him "Shields" he figure he had another idea.

Hawke to Warring, I need instructions before recovering n't recover the core, we won't have much power to fight...Sir, I know this sounds crazy, but they can't destroy us or kill us.  We don't need to fight them.  What if....we give them temporal shields and then dump the core.  They would exist outside of time.  I have an idea to force them to listen to us.  I just need the comm chanells to be pointed at Main Engineering

James went to the nearest station and pulled a Type II phaser.  The then increased the setting to Kill mode.

[Klizh]

[Conference Room]

"Naga and K'lizh, please compose a message to Columbus requesting a tow and standby to send after we dump the core. Lizzie, I want you to head down to Sickbay. I am unsure how the other crew will react to use effectively changing their past so prep Sickbay for possible conflict."

Naga remained silent through most of the rest of the conversations.  She'd spoken her piece, and now she was merely waiting for the decision of their commanding officer.  She personally couldn't see why many of them were having such a hard time with this.

"Yes Sir."  She saluted him before turning to K'lizh.  "Are you ready to go, Lieutenant K'lizh?"

"Aye, Commander," K'lizh said, and stood up to follow his Gorn crewmate out. "After you," he said.

Bridge
As they stepped onto the bridge, though, they were rocked by the other Tempest's warning shot. "Red alert!" K'lizh screeched reflexively, even though he didn't have the rank to call it, and the ship automatically went into alert mode under fire anyway. Staggering over to the Ops station, he plunked himself into the seat and began transmitting, not a request for a tow to Columbus, but a mayday informing them they were under fire. Time to get to work. He interupted the sensors' in-depth scans of the other ship and redirected them to start feeding the standard targeting data to the Tactical station.

"They punched through our shields, Sir," he informed Waring, "But they hit an unoccupied corner of the ship."

[James H. Hawk]

[Briefing Room]

Will had just watched the Cadet leave when he felt the ship shake and klaxons sound. He had a pretty good idea of what was going on and he wasn't about to let it continue.
[Bridge]

Will entered the Bridge and made his way to the center of it. "Tactical, please inform the Torpedo Bays to prepare a full spread, maximum yield. I don't intend to be shot at again without being ready to give it back."

He directs his next orders to the Helm, where he found Ian. "Cadet, please align us as to provide a clear line of fire to the other ship's Engine Room."

[Bridge]

"Aye, sir. Torpedoes are already armed and read to fire on your mark," James said relived that Commander Waring was willing to do what was nessasary. "Sir, if I may, I believe that they are bluffing. They need us alive and well to do what they want us to do so I'm willing to bet they aren't willing to engage us in a full on battle and even if they were their ship, although the same class is inferior to ours as ours in in perfect condition whereas theirs is quite aged," he paused to let the XO think about it before continuing, "I would recommend we call their bluff and demand their total and unconditional surrender. They might not be willing to fight but we should be if nessasary."

[William Waring]

[Main Engineering]

Right as James was going to press the button he felt the ship being hit.  His body moved slighly forward as it made impact.  If the ship wanted to fight it needed to maintain his warp core.  He looked at the ship and wondered about how they got through with shields.  It then reminded him "Shields" he figure he had another idea.

Hawke to Warring, I need instructions before recovering n't recover the core, we won't have much power to fight...Sir, I know this sounds crazy, but they can't destroy us or kill us.  We don't need to fight them.  What if....we give them temporal shields and then dump the core.  They would exist outside of time.  I have an idea to force them to listen to us.  I just need the comm chanells to be pointed at Main Engineering

James went to the nearest station and pulled a Type II phaser.  The then increased the setting to Kill mode.

[Bridge]

Will understood James' want to save the crew of the other ship, mostly because Will himself wanted to save them as well although he knew the repercussions well.

=A= We can't give them Temporal Shields. Not unless we want Temporal Investigations snooping around. Keep the core. You have one chance. =A=

He pressed a series of commands on his chair and opened the comms to Engineering.

"Aye, Commander," K'lizh said, and stood up to follow his Gorn crewmate out. "After you," he said.

Bridge
As they stepped onto the bridge, though, they were rocked by the other Tempest's warning shot. "Red alert!" K'lizh screeched reflexively, even though he didn't have the rank to call it, and the ship automatically went into alert mode under fire anyway. Staggering over to the Ops station, he plunked himself into the seat and began transmitting, not a request for a tow to Columbus, but a mayday informing them they were under fire. Time to get to work. He interupted the sensors' in-depth scans of the other ship and redirected them to start feeding the standard targeting data to the Tactical station.

"They punched through our shields, Sir," he informed Waring, "But they hit an unoccupied corner of the ship."

"Get Damage Control Teams onto containing the damage." He said in an exasperated tone. "Do we have an ETA on an escort back to Columbus yet?"

[Bridge]

"Aye, sir. Torpedoes are already armed and read to fire on your mark," James said relived that Commander Waring was willing to do what was nessasary. "Sir, if I may, I believe that they are bluffing. They need us alive and well to do what they want us to do so I'm willing to bet they aren't willing to engage us in a full on battle and even if they were their ship, although the same class is inferior to ours as ours in in perfect condition whereas theirs is quite aged," he paused to let the XO think about it before continuing, "I would recommend we call their bluff and demand their total and unconditional surrender. They might not be willing to fight but we should be if nessasary."

"I can almost guarantee that they're bluffing." He grabbed the Bridge of his nose as he finished "Let's give Hawke a chance to do what he asked first."

He just wanted to sleep, an odd feeling for him. The want to sleep. Sadly he would be up all night with night terrors like always, and this certainly wouldn't be helping them.

[Klizh]

[Bridge]

Will understood James' want to save the crew of the other ship, mostly because Will himself wanted to save them as well although he knew the repercussions well.

=A= We can't give them Temporal Shields. Not unless we want Temporal Investigations snooping around. Keep the core. You have one chance. =A=

He pressed a series of commands on his chair and opened the comms to Engineering."Get Damage Control Teams onto containing the damage." He said in an exasperated tone. "Do we have an ETA on an escort back to Columbus yet?""I can almost guarantee that they're bluffing." He grabbed the Bridge of his nose as he finished "Let's give Hawke a chance to do what he asked first."

He just wanted to sleep, an odd feeling for him. The want to sleep. Sadly he would be up all night with night terrors like always, and this certainly wouldn't be helping them.

"Something about this system's sun is disrupting subspace and garbling our long-range transmissions," K'lizh said, "garbling" being a well-known and highly technical term. His fingers danced across the console, retracted claws clacking rapidly across the touch-screens. "I'm diverting a small percentage of power to the Deflector array to blast the message out and punch it through the interference."

"Sir," K'lizh spun in his chair and looked at the Commander. "We are going to be hearing from Temporal Investigations one way or another. As much as I argued for getting out of here, if we do have the option to preserve their existence and save ourselves, we should take it." He was surprised to be arguing in support of Hawke's plan, but he was not totally without compassion for the people in that other ship. "Commander Waring, we are Starfleet officers. We can handle bureaucracy."

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

Ian listened to yet another disagreement break out between the seniors with half an ear as he focused on keeping the future Tempest centered in the viewscreen to make targeting easier for tactical.

"Is this what movin' up the chain is all about, a never endin' row of what we can and can't do? One might think that stayin' below decks might not make life easier."

[Vasilisa Belmont]

Sickbay

Lizzie ran in and surveyed the scene. There were already a dozen or more crew members there who had been caught by the attack. Thankfully none looked seriously hurt. She turned to the Charge Nurse.

"Report!" She ordered.

"Mr Masters is resting comfortably but is showing no signs of waking up yet. The rest are all minor injuries. Should we start triage?" Lt Knarr, her Bajoran Charge Nurse replied.

"Yes, check the incoming and get all urgent cases over to the Beds. I'll see them there."

"Yes Doctor." Knarr replied, taking out a tricorder and began efficiently assessing the injuries.

Since none of the injured looked serious, she decided to assist until she was needed elsewhere.

[Sickbay]

Lisa had been directing the medical team ever since the members of the other Tempest had left. She never stopped working and worked as rapidly as possible in order to help the injured crewmembers and partly to keep her mind off of the thought of her descendent. She saw Lizzie at one point and thought she saw her leave. Briefly she wondered why the woman hadn't tried to get her attention, but then she decided that she should have been the one to report instead of acting oblivious to what was going on around her designated area of sickbay. The appearance of Zed Masters distracted her for a moment as a quick glance told her that he was unconscious. Since she saw no physical injury she deduced that his brain functions were compromised by an overload of emotions, something she had seen happen to him before. A brief flash of empathy and concern caused her to take her mind off her current task. But he was being taken care of, there was nothing to worry about.

Lizzie began assigning triage and she responded quickly, taking charge of her own area but letting the CMO dedicate tasks to the others. Most of the injuries were minor anyway, but Lisa was still glad to have the comforting distraction.

[William Waring]

"Something about this system's sun is disrupting subspace and garbling our long-range transmissions," K'lizh said, "garbling" being a well-known and highly technical term. His fingers danced across the console, retracted claws clacking rapidly across the touch-screens. "I'm diverting a small percentage of power to the Deflector array to blast the message out and punch it through the interference."

"Sir," K'lizh spun in his chair and looked at the Commander. "We are going to be hearing from Temporal Investigations one way or another. As much as I argued for getting out of here, if we do have the option to preserve their existence and save ourselves, we should take it." He was surprised to be arguing in support of Hawke's plan, but he was not totally without compassion for the people in that other ship. "Commander Waring, we are Starfleet officers. We can handle bureaucracy."

[Bridge]

Will let out an internal sigh. K'lizh was right, Temporal Investigatons would be here regardless. "Very well, Mister K'lizh, prepare a Temporal Shield Core. Tactical, stand down. Mister Galloway, return us to our previous position."

"Computer, go to Yellow Alert" He said as he settled back in the chair, for now.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

Will let out an internal sigh. K'lizh was right, Temporal Investigatons would be here regardless. "Very well, Mister K'lizh, prepare a Temporal Shield Core. Tactical, stand down. Mister Galloway, return us to our previous position."

"Computer, go to Yellow Alert" He said as he settled back in the chair, for now.

"Return to our original position aye Sir."

Ian replied automatically as he was still keying inputs to the helm to slowly back the Tempest to where the future version of the ship had fired.

"Sure seems ta be a lot of thinkin' and far less doin' on the main bridge than I would have thought, but I wouldn't be anywhere else in the galaxy right now."

Despite being fascinated by seeing how the command structure of the ship functioned, Ian's mind wandered once it became apparent that combat was not going to happen.

"I wonder when the results of the academy finals will post? If I get at least an eighty-five percent, I'll complete my field training and will finally be an ensign in Starfleet."

[Klizh]

[Bridge]

Will let out an internal sigh. K'lizh was right, Temporal Investigatons would be here regardless. "Very well, Mister K'lizh, prepare a Temporal Shield Core. Tactical, stand down. Mister Galloway, return us to our previous position."

"Computer, go to Yellow Alert" He said as he settled back in the chair, for now.

K'lizh accessed the ship's library and called up the species for Temporal shielding. It was an experimental, practically theoretical technology, based on scans of technology brought back from the Delta Quadrant. He had read about it in the Academy; apparently the information had "spontaneously" appeared in Voyager's databanks one day. The prevailing theory was a negated alternate timeline in which Voyager had developed the technology. Whatever the reason, most science vessels these days had the files buried in their archives, just in case.

"K'lizh to... rrrrr, other Tempest, stand down," he began to transmit, along with the technical specs. "We are transmitting specifications for a temporal shield we will build for you. It will protect you from changes to the timeline."

Switching the transmission off, he tapped his commbadge. =/\=Bridge to engineering. Begin constructing the temporal shield. He tapped his commbadge again. Short and sweet. He wasn't likely to be chums with their chief any time soon.

"Commander..." he spoke up again. "Just in case the other ship does not accept our solution... do you think our own command codes would work on that ship?"

[James A. Hawke]

[Bridge]

Will understood James' want to save the crew of the other ship, mostly because Will himself wanted to save them as well although he knew the repercussions well.

=A= We can't give them Temporal Shields. Not unless we want Temporal Investigations snooping around. Keep the core. You have one chance. =A=

He pressed a series of commands on his chair and opened the comms to Engineering."Get Damage Control Teams onto containing the damage." He said in an exasperated tone. "Do we have an ETA on an escort back to Columbus yet?""I can almost guarantee that they're bluffing." He grabbed the Bridge of his nose as he finished "Let's give Hawke a chance to do what he asked first."

He just wanted to sleep, an odd feeling for him. The want to sleep. Sadly he would be up all night with night terrors like always, and this certainly wouldn't be helping them.

[Main Engineering]
James heard his instruction and nodded. He pressed his comm badge and responded

Yes, Sir=/\=

He knew he needed to do something and he figured the attention would be drawn to him shortly.  James turned to his Assitant Chief Engineer and said "You are to tractor beam the core back into place...and place it online...regardless of what happens to me"

As soon as he heard the comment he yelled at his assistant Chief Engineer "Tractor the Core Back in place ASAP"

"Yes Sir"  Responded the Assistant Chief Engineer

The Image went to James as he conversed with the other ship "Tempest this is the other past or ancestor Tempest[/i.  Your current actions seems of one of desperation and despair.  But, I want to say if you are the decedents of us you truly dishonor us.  I am pretty sure Will or Lizzie did not teach you, to put you interest ahead of individual freedoms.  By shooting at this ship, you pretend to deny us of the dignity of choice...to let us choose your destiny...and I know that the people in this ship would not deny strangers that dignity.  I am ashamed by your recent behavior"

James then nodded at a individual and grabbed the phaser.

"Think of what you have been taught your culture and values...think about that for a second.  You have a unique opportunity to work with someone to save yourself...there is a chance we might succeed.  At this singular moment in your life and in the universe, we have the opportunity to make something special.  Stop attacking and join us, let's us find a solution together"

He then grabbed the phaser and said as he pointed in his Temple "My guess here is you don't want me dead...I am willing to give my life for my belief and for the Federation...and if you don't think I am crazy enough to do this...then think again...you either surrender or I will kill myself...no one else is dying as I told Elizabeth...I WILL FIND a way to save everyone"  James finished his statement with determination.

HE then heard the following comm

Engineering to Medical....we might need someone here...Hawke's as a Phaser kill setting on his head and threatening to kill himself

[Lizzie Vaughan]

Engineering to Medical....we might need someone here...Hawke's as a Phaser kill setting on his head and threatening to kill himself

Sickbay

Lizzie had finished treating the minor wounds of the injured crewmen when the call came through. It caused her to drop the hypospray she had been holding.

"O fy Nuw!" She said, before grabbing a med kit.

"I'm going to engineering. Cover for me!" She said to Lisa as she left Sickbay at a run.

Main Engineering

Lizzie entered Main Engineering and saw exactly what she expected. James standing in the middle of the room with a type 2 against his temple. She took a step towards him.

"James please!" She said, loud enough for for both him and the crew of the other Tempest.

[Zed Masters]

Engineering to Medical....we might need someone here...Hawke's as a Phaser kill setting on his head and threatening to kill himself

[Sickbay]

It was all foggy. Like the worst hangover he'd ever had. His eyes slowly flickered open as heard the message come through from engineering. "Dear gods..." Zed muttered as he slowly sat up. "Where...? Sickbay. Right, I must have passed out." He pulled his legs off the biobed and tried to pull himself up to a stand.

[Vasilisa Belmont]

Sickbay

Lizzie had finished treating the minor wounds of the injured crewmen when the call came through. It caused her to drop the hypospray she had been holding.

"O fy Nuw!" She said, before grabbing a med kit.

"I'm going to engineering. Cover for me!" She said to Lisa as she left Sickbay at a run.

[Sickbay]

At the rate that Lizzie was popping in and out of the place, Lisa could hardly speak a word to her.

"Understood-" her voice faltered as the doctor was already gone.

[Sickbay]

It was all foggy. Like the worst hangover he'd ever had. His eyes slowly flickered open as heard the message come through from engineering. "Dear gods..." Zed muttered as he slowly sat up. "Where...? Sickbay. Right, I must have passed out." He pulled his legs off the biobed and tried to pull himself up to a stand.

Right after Lizzie left she heard a muffled voice and turned to find Zed struggling to get up. In a couple steps she was next to him, gently pushing him back down on the bed. She grabbed a medical tricorder and took readings, but shook her head.

"You're not well enough to get up just yet, and don't try to argue with me."

She knew he was worried about Hawke but in his state she couldn't let him get out of bed. The only thing she could do was keep him as calm as possible, and keep her own concern for Hawke out of the way.