A Cup of Water From the Oceans
A Cup of Water from the Oceans
Starbase Independence- Year 2372
"You know, Captain, Temporal Investigations would flip if they knew what you were about to pull. I've had a look at their file on you: Seventeen separate temporal violations..." Admiral Garrett smirked.
Kirk chuckled. "Only seventeen? I guess someone wasn't paying attention."
"Well, we both know how potentially dangerous this mission is."
"But necessary," Kirk replied. "Starship crew don't grow on trees. As for Temporal Investigations, as Spock once said: A difference which makes no difference is no difference."
"Speaking of the Ambassador, how is he?"
"He's fine. He and Captain Spock have been training together. They tell me they are certain they can close the loop on their end. Hopefully, Captain Satak will be open-minded."
"Hopefully," Garrett agreed. "And Captain Scott? has he finished installing the cloaking device that Kang sent us?"
"He wasn't exactly thrilled with it but he's got it running."
"I'm not thrilled either. I sacked Eric Pressman for violating the Treaty of Algeron and here I am, with all the best intentions. violating that same treaty."
"Well, when we get back, we'll ship it back to Kang and you can drink a bottle of Romulan Ale in penance," Kirk replied. "But Scotty's complaints are more about the cross-patching he had to do to get the thing hooked up, to begin with."
"Ah! Well, as long as it works then, I can live with it." She answered. "Have you decided your targets? We can't exactly justify snatching Judge Crater, after all."
Kirk nodded. There had to be limits on the stunt they were planning and one of those limits was that the targets of interest at least had to have potentially useful skills to justify possibly shedding his engines on. That placed the extreme limit at the mid-22nd century. Kirk and his officers decided that the year 2161 was a practical limit to their exercise.
"We came down to five possibilities. The earliest and easiest would be the USS Essex NCC-173. We know where she went down and when her last contact with Starfleet was made. We can head her off and evacuate the crew. There's no way a Daedelus class could survive Warp Breakaway. We'll have to scuttle the ship."
Garrett nodded. "And the others?"
"I gave serious thought to the USS Defiant, NCC-1764. We had very strong arguments for intercepting the ship before she reached Tholian interspace. We could save the ship and her crew. The Defiant was practically a new ship, fresh out of spacedock and she could definitely survive Warp Breakaway. Morally... Knowing now where the ship went, we could yank the teeth on a dangerous reflection of our own selves. Prevent centuries of slaughter and oppression."
"But..."
"But that would directly affect my own timeline. There is a small but definite chance that would affect my judgment on the Sunset Files with my experiences no longer including that particular set of memories."
"And potentially undoing all the good we've done."
"Yes. I don't like it. But we can't save the Defiant."
"And the others?"
"Possibly..."
***
2267
"Captain's Log: We are fast approaching planet Omega IV. Given the time index on the logs recovered from the Exeter, we should arrive soon after Captain Tracey's beam down. As soon as his landing party beams back, we will begin jamming subspace frequencies. I will then attempt to make contact with the Exeter's crew while there is still time."
Captain Kirk switched off the log and turned to Spock. "Preliminary scans?"
"The Exeter is currently in orbit. Life signs indicate that the crew is quite alive, Captain."
Kirk stood up from his command seat and went over to the science station. "Very... good, Spock." He turned to Communications. "Commander M'Ress, begin tapping the Exeter's com system."
"Aye, Captain." Her arms stretched over her console almost reflexively. After a moment, she almost seemed to grin predatorily as the Exeter's MC1 circuit chattered through the air. After a few minutes of routine intraship chatter, they finally picked up the signals they had been waiting for:
"Landing party to Exeter, Commander Nash here. Prepare to beam us up. Captain Tracey will be staying ground side for a bit but we've found the source of the signal. Looks to be an old Earth survey drone. Check the database for anything on the ECS Philidelphia."
"Acknowledged, Commander. Beam back at the original coordinates then sir?"
"Affirmative, lieutenant."
"Exeter standing by."
"Five to beam up! Energize!"
Spock turned to his station. "They're beaming aboard now, Captain."
"Commander M'Ress, begin jamming communicator frequencies."
"Beginning jamming," M'Ress answered. "I'm sending an ionic pulse into the atmosphere. That should scramble dirtside communication for a while."
"Good. Hopefully long enough to convince those people over there what just happened... Hopefully, their own words just might convince them..."
***
"I just can't believe it..." Commander Nash shook his head sadly as he read the report. "I never would have believed the Captain would go that far."
"Not your fault, Commander," Doctor Carter told him as they sat in Enterprise's main briefing room some several hours after Captain Kirk's hail. "You've been aboard six months. I've worked with the man for years and I wouldn't have predicted it." He turned to Kirk. "I guess we never know what we're truly capable of until we're pushed to the limit."
"Well, speaking for myself and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise... We wouldn't have survived without your courage, doctor."
"So what happens next, Captain?" Nash asked.
"Starfleet needs good officers, Commander... Even in the 24th century. We have some stops to make first but eventually, we'll be in the year 2372. You'll be asked to renew your commissions and if you do, you'll be trained on new equipment and then reassignment to a new ship."
"So... Captain, that Emergency Medical Hologram," Doctor Carter noted. "Is that standard?"
"I know what you're thinking, Doctor. For a program, he has his moments. But rest assured that we need flesh and blood physicians as much as holographic ones."
"Good to know, Captain."
In the meantime, copies of the Exeter's logs from the mission that so nearly had been, were now being entered into Exeter's computer, and Spock had gone aboard with a copy of Doctor Carter's log, ensuring that the Surgeon's log would be found when the Enterprise boarding party arrived in six months time. The bigger task had been to lay out the empty uniforms and piles of chemicals to complete the scene. An unsettling task to be sure, but one that needed to be done correctly...
In the briefing room, a chime sounded.
"Bridge to Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Stadi here. We're now entering system L-374..."
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11179591
They lost the license in 1988 so they were in the official loop up through the first year of TNG but not after that. So I would hope that alongside Franz Joseph's Saladins and Ptolemys, there might be Larsons and Chandleys. Given the ground combat that seemed to factor into the Dominion War, the Chandleys would be especially welcome with their Marines and large transporter arrays.
Not to mention the impact on DS9 and/or STO. Don't give a rip about DISCO but that would be borked to high heaven screwing with the Definent's loss.
Making a black fleet of renown now. With the amount of Federation Crews that die before an Enterprise arrives that could be saved before hand. Not the ships, but the crews.
The Yamato's crew springs to mind. So long as they can fake the message to the D, they could save a lot of people before the Iconian virus takes her out.
That was a necessary move. Still I wonder how the entire V’Ger incident will play out.
11181682
They actually DID save the Yamato. See Ambush at Betazed
I admit, you’ve gone far beyond my casual knowledge of Trek lore. But I understand what you’re going for, and I do appreciate the idea.
11181723
It's been a while, they saved the whole ship? Well never mind then
Good chapter, as per usual. ;) A shame about the Defiant, but as you say, sadly necessary. :(
They can save almost all Mary Celeste episodes, maybe even those stories that didnt make broadcast, as long as the side effects didnt create the main timeline itself?
Why not use cloning tech. We know they have it. Make clones to replace the crew. May not save the ship herself but her crew sure.
11182145
Well, I know Archer did it once to save Trip and what Janeway did with Tuvix was in a similar vein but Starship Captains don't like 'creating life' in order to kill it... Even if for the best reason.
On the other hand... IF they could pull off a variation of 'Operation Mincemeat' and replace the Defiant crew with trauma fatalities... They'd have to alter the ship's personnel files but in theory that could indeed at least save the 430 members of the Defiant's crew.
Make no mistake, it would still be a ghoulish undertaking but it COULD work. It doesn't seem as if Kirk knows the Captain or anyone else on the Defiant. Spock would know if visual scans were made along with other readings. If so, the bodies would need to be altered to match.
The other trick would be in making the swap in a timely fashion.
11182208
They are alreadt breaking rulrs and doing this would save an experience crew. If they are that desperate to gain cre2s to scavanged.for lost crews.
Ohh they could save those lost on Excalibur during the M5 trial.
11182215
Now THAT one I'm gonna say flat no on. Pulling anything with the Excalibur crew would be right in front of Four other Federation Starships, including the Enterprise. Defiant could do a Mincemeat because no one will know. But not so on Excalibur or Farragut's lost 200.
11182239
Why not. Getntheir before the Excalibur joins the fleet. Make a hologrsms to take over communications and automatic her for the excerise. Can't help the other ship but Excalibur sure.
11182246
Of all the reasons this wouldn't work (And there are a number), the most dangerous one is that you are trying to pull a fast one on a mentally unbalanced supercomputer. Any miscalculation there could actually change history to where the M-5 Kills the Lexington or the Hood or Potemkin instead... OR never decides to shut itself off and History is screwed following the loss of FIVE Constitution-class starships.
You found a possible way to save the crew of the Defiant. That's good. But even this scenario has limits on what can be done.
11182302
okay what about Yamato?
11182326
That one was an easy save. With the knowledge that a wipe of the computer and replacement from protected backups is required, (The procedure Geordi realized when Data reset himself), Yamato purged the Iconian program while the system failures were in the 'annoying' stage. (And yes, the requisite Sunset File was placed in a secure location, in Captain Varley's ready room terminal which was specially insolated from the main computer for just this event.) Varley was then instructed to wait for the Enterprise, where Picard was instructed on how to destroy the Iconian gate.
Yamato was then decommissioned at Starbase Independence and work began on converting her into the first Yamato X-Class Dreadnought, followed later by Odyssey and Enterprise-D
11182816
Wouldn't she Enterprise C since there is no reason to have a connie A.
Oh the crew of Contellation. just beam them off planet. maybe even Commadore Decker if they get the timing right
11182850
Nope! They did their best to keep things on script WHEN possible. (I mean, the new Connie Ent-A was going to exist under SOME name) So following a training cruise in 2283, she was decommissioned. The official reason reported to the Federation council for ships such as the Enterprise, the Reliant, and the Grissom was given as 'poor material condition'. This was a catch-all excuse used whenever a ship saved by Sunset information was required to 'retire'.
On very rare occasions, it has been required to allow individuals such as the Federation President to be privy to Sunset level information. Disclosure being made to the President of the Federation in 2283 and again, to BOTH the President and Chancellor Gorkon in 2293. Sarek of Vulcan AND Sarek of Vulcan both being very useful allies in this regard.
So, again, Enterprise was decommissioned and stored at Starbase Independence while the Enterprise-A served for another ten years. This is simply necessary to build up the secret fleet that would eventually serve in the Dominion War (Otherwise you couldn't justify the Ent-E either as the Galaxy class ship would simply have continued to serve ... Even if she would have lost to the Borg.
11182974
Would have E-D lose during First Contact? Pucard knowing the birg would still hit the weakness. Sovereign only exists because they wanted a better model to shoot with.
11183007
Actually, Yes. Because going 'in-universe', the Sovereign-class is faster than the Galaxy So Worf would have been killed in the opening battle. Assuming that the Galaxy has equal firepower to a Sovereign (I don't think it does but we'll say it does), the Borg will assimilate much of the ship, (Hopefully Picard separated the saucer so those families don't get assimilated0 They complete the beacon because without Worf, Picard dies during the Spacewalk.
Borg Win.
11183324
that is if they keep her at the neutral zone rather than be with the fleet. fire power wouldn't mean much in this instance. with the files their are so many erros to fix. Picard getting better consueling then what he intially got. starfleet knowing it's better to have him there then not. I get they can't change everything thing but can do tweaks with ease for this time.
11194650
and that was their problem. at midway Yorktown left with basically Saratoga's air group.
11181677
Or the Makin class assault landing ship.