Episode 39: The Rupture Zone - Act 2

Game was 10/1/20. Although there was a lot to keep track of, I think it went well and the players loved the Malacari.

Ssleestak exclaims, "Captain, it's happening again! We may need fruit!" Mel is confused for a second, but then she realizes the second sentence is a reference to Peel. She turns to Shan'taar and orders, "Launch the probe." Shan'taar complies and they watch as Cliff the probe shoots out from under the primary hull and then sails into the Rupture Zone. Almost immediately Cliff splinters and is duplicated seventeen times! Eighteen different feeds start routing back to the Varich and Jessa announces, "I don't want seventeen twins!" Shan'taar adds, "I concur."

Fal, Ssleestak, and K'tral all turn their talents to the sensors and the engineering systems respectively. Fal discovers that the eighteen streams are not temporally contiguous, but instead are scattered across multiple timelines. Some streams are ancient, dating back thousands of years, while some seem to be transmitting from the future. Others seem to be relatively stable, temporally speaking, with the Varich. Fal goes about trying to arrange the signals in a sort of temporal order. Ssleestak discovers that Cliff's duplication is because he immediately slipped into a subspace rupture and was essentially scattered, like light going through a prism. He and K'tral also determine that the power fluctuations throughout the ship are accidental, not deliberate. While they continue work, Fal realizes over ten thousand years of astrological data is being uploaded by the original probe. He reluctantly shares this data with Alexandria, figuring her expertise in astrophysics will be invaluable.

Ssleestak informs Mel that travel within the Rupture Zone will be safe if the ship maintains a warp shell. Mel gives the order, and Phillip engages the impulse engines. The Varich enters the Rupture Zone and almost everyone feels the effects immediately. Some parts of the ship shake, but some do not. They each experience with the time of the transit differently. The transit itself takes maybe three minutes, but for some people the transit seems to take an hour while others only a few seconds. Once across the threshold into the Rupture Zone, time seems to flow normally, although everyone catches images of things that are not there and occasional afterimages of people's movements. Most of the bridge crew overcomes the deleterious effects although Commander Hall is a little unsteady. Lieutenant Merek'miir is also a little concerned, but in contrast Shan'taar doesn't even seem to notice.

As the Varich continues into the Rupture Zone, Phillip decides to subtly show off a little. The flight is a perfect straight line, smooth as silk, until he makes a few subtle gestures and essentially carves his initials in one of the subspace tears. He adds 'Esq.' at the end and then a little heart. Ssleestak and K'tral realize the source of the problem when it comes to the power fluctuations; some of the components appear to be doubled. They inform the captain and theorize that whatever happened to the original Varich, her successor salvaged some of the parts and installed them. Due to the unstable temporal nature of the Rupture Zone, these duplicated parts are causing the fluctuations. Ssleestak calls out, "Sola! Ah, shit." They compile what they can and apply buffers, filters, and everything else to determine the directions that these power fluctuations are going.

While the engineers work, Fal announces, "Captain! I'm getting life form readings! It appears to be several members of the crew but duplicated. The clearest signal is Ensign Kras, but I've also identified another Phillip, another Jessa, another Thal'tirian, another Doctor Vrax, another Peel, and this last part's interesting, captain. I'm picking up a second Lieutenant Merek'miir!" Merek'miir looks horrified, but Mel realizes, "All of those people, except for Jen and Merek'miir, were originally meant to serve on the Varich. I wonder if they're from a different timeline where they did go straight to the Varich." Ssleestak announces, "Captain, I believe we can track the power fluctuations back to the Varich-A." Meanwhile, Jessa and Armina keep a weather eye on the rest of the bridge crew.

K'tral takes the lead and manage is to track the power back to the Varich-A, gaining access to their systems! She informs the captain and then Fal adds, "Captain, I think I have an explanation. I think because of the duplicated components and people, the two ships are being attracted to each other. I fear we may soon occupy the same space." He continues scanning, now in hardcore analytical mode. Alexandria joins him and he quickly gives her an update. She examines the readings and then approaches it from a temporal mechanics standpoint. Mel asks, "Can we get a message to them?" K'tral replies confidently, "Yes."

Before Mel can say anything else, the turbolift opens and they all hear a deep base rumble, "I swear to you, there is another Starfleet vessel out there! Wait, I smell a Romulan. And it just peed itself." The bridge crew turns to see a massive lupine alien standing at the back of the bridge. This creature is nine feet tall with yellow eyes and midnight black fur; it sports an operations-gold sash with a Starfleet combadge attached, but no rank pips. Next to the unknown alien stands Jennifer Kras, but this Jen is a few years older and has lieutenant's pips.

The other-Jen and the lupine suddenly realize they're not on their own ship and eye the rest of the crew with a mixture of suspicion and strange familiarity. The lupine immediately identifies Jessa as the counselor and Phillip as the pilot; he informs Phillip, "Thanks! Carving your initials into subspace allowed us to break through!" Phillip slides down his chair a fraction while Mel demands, "How did you get here?" K'tral realizes that the lupine alien is psionic while he asks, "What ship is this, who are you, and what is the stardate?"

Mel immediately identifies herself and her ship; she notes that other-Jen and the lupine twitch very slightly. The lupine provides their stardate which translates to September 2380 versus the current June of 2372. The lupine introduces himself as Hey'yooth and other-Jen as Counselor Kras, and then takes a deep sniff. He suddenly brightens and informs other-Jen, "Great news! This Phillip is smarter!" Other-Jen eyes Hey'yooth and replies, "Smarter?" At flight control Phillip protests but Hey'yooth replies with a firm nod, "Yep. I can smell it!" Mel demands, "You can smell intelligence?" Hey'yooth deflates slightly and explains, "No, but I can smell consequences of recent actions." Other-Jen snickers and Mel quickly figures it out.

Jessa eyes Hey'yooth and has an impulse to scratch his ears. Although she says nothing, Hey'yooth immediately bounds over to her and lowers his head. Jessa swiftly realizes that the lupine creature is psionic and then follows through on her impulse. His fur is exceptionally soft, and once Jessa hits the right spot his leg starts thumping against the floor. Mel haltingly brings up the other probe and both Hey'yooth and other-Jen wince. Hey'yooth exclaims, "I hope you got the message! Well, the message from the captain anyway."

Mel replies, "We got both. Why is your Peel so angry that she threatened to castrate someone and stick their testicles in the opposing eye sockets?" Other-Jen replies bluntly, "She was having an argument with Delmonte, our chief engineer. Our Peel is not getting laid." She shoots a pointed glance at the back of Phillip's head but then K'tral leaves Ops and heads over to Hey'yooth. Hey'yooth quickly reads her surface thoughts and then kneels for another head-scritch. K'tral scritches with abandon and repressive several giggles.

Mel eyes other-Jen and asks carefully, "When were you born?" Other-Jen immediately throws up shields and dodges the question until Mel reveals but there is a Jen Kras on this ship. That confuses both other-Jen and Hey'yooth, and eventually other-Jen admits that she was born in 1986. Mel explains that their Jen was brought to 2371 with Iconian technology. Although Mel is deliberately vague, everyone on the bridge hears the stream of Andorian cursing coming from Shan'taar. He growls, "I just figured it out. They're what happens if Jen came forward at the 'correct' time."

Mel curses as the pieces start to fall into place but then other-Jen and Hey'yooth's combadges suddenly beep. Everyone hears Captain Shay'taal demand, "Where in Uzaveh's bountiful universe are the two of you?" Hey'yooth quickly explains the temporal dislocation but then gets an idea, he bounds forward to operations. He then reverses course and bounds towards tactical instead, and other-Jen yells, "Do not give them quantum torpedoes!" Mel looks at other-Jen in confusion, and she explains, "He is from a race called the Malacari. Not only are they psychic, but they have an incredible affinity with technology."

Using the communications equipment at tactical, Hey'yooth manages to rig up a live signal between the two Varichs. The main viewscreen switches on and Mel and her crew stare at the bridge crew of the Varich-A. Captain Shay'taal sits next to a human woman in command red¹⁾ while flight control is manned by three people: Phillip, Merek'miir, and an unfamiliar female Vulcan.²⁾ Lieutenant Peel Atuun eyes then warily from tactical while Lieutenant Thal'tirian mans their science station. Captain Shay'taal quickly figures out the two ships are from different timelines and Hey'yooth exclaims, "Yep! Their Phillip is smarter!" Both Phillips protest but Mel overhears Captain Shay'taal mutter, "Thank Uzaveh for that."

K'tral and Ssleestak are able to stabilize the relay and Ssleestak unabashedly asks, "Captain, can we keep him?" Far from taking offense, Hey'yooth preens a bit, but Mel declares, "No. We've already kidnapped one engineer." Captain Shay'taal says wryly, "I get three guesses. Lieutenant Park, Lieutenant Park, or Lieutenant Park?" Mel smirks and nods, but she notes however that Captain Shay'taal doesn't seem to look directly at her at any point and dodges any questions about her. Mel's concern increases but she asks, "Have you ever heard of the Krenim?" Captain Shay'taal admits that he has not, and Mel declares, "Be glad you don't; they're deeply unpleasant. Also, this is not our first time fuckery rodeo." Captain Shay'taal replies, "It's not ours, either."

Mel asks him about what local powers his ship has encountered; Captain Shay'taal replies, "The Wabai Unity, the Dai'Loq Sphere of course, and even some weird offshoot called Federation Secundus." Mel nods and asks, "What about the Tokari?" Captain Shay'taal admits, "I have heard of them, but only in rumors and local legends." Hey'yooth suddenly exclaims, "I have an idea! Both ships are temporally attracted to each other, but we can use that to our advantage. We can cause a subspace implosion with the two warp shells!" Ssleestak is immediately enthusiastic but Mel demands a risk assessment. Hey'yooth admits, "Ideally, we will snap back to our respective time periods, but there's a small chance however that one of us may emerge in the other's timeline." Mel does not favor that idea, but Hey'yooth insists he can make it work. Ssleestak is also eager to try so the two of them and K'tral perform an emergency beam-out to main engineering.

Mel then hears other-Jen ask, "Are you alright?" She turns to see other-Jen eyeing Alexandria, who is openly staring. Other-Jen quickly realizes that Alexandra is terrified of her for some reason and demands, "Lady, I don't even know you. I've never seen you before my life!" Mel mutters, "You'll find out eventually," as she motions to Jessa. Jessa immediately heads over and gently guides Alexandria off the bridge. Other-Jen is totally lost but Shan'taar motions to Mel. Mel joins him at tactical and he hisses, "We need to tell this Jen!" Mel hesitates, and Captain Shay'taal asks, "Is there a problem, Captain?"

Fal continues scanning but notes that other-Jen doesn't seem to know him at all. He continues recording everything while Phillip and other-Phillip share the exact same 'what's up' head-nod to each other. The bridge crew then notices other-Phillip has a faint network of scars across the right side of his face; they're not immediately noticeable unless the light catches them, but Mel immediately realizes the scarring as a near miss from a disruptor! Captain Shay'taal asks, "Ready room?" Mel replies immediately, "Yes!" The two captains get up to relocate to their respective ready rooms while other Thal'tirian declares, "This doesn't make a lot of sense. I've just scanned our temporal signatures, and we are a 99.99 to the 12th power match to each other!" On her way by, Mel declares, "Talk to Fal!"

Both captains settle into their respective ready rooms and switch over to a secure channel. Shay'taal immediately asks, "What's up?" Mel quickly explains how they got their Jen and her belongings stuffed in a Romulan crate. She adds, "Even her dog!" Shay'taal frowns and replies, "Simon? My Jen told me he died in a fire!" Mel nods and admits, "Stuff here is out of order, but I need to ask you, has your Jen had any run-ins with the Bajoran Prophets?" Shay'taal shakes his head and replies firmly, "No, not at all. Why?" Mel provides a summary of how they encountered their Jen via the Romulan-hacked Iconian technology that brought her here. She stresses that Haran Tovan is absolutely insane, and his mission was to pluck Jen Kras out of time and brainwash her to be a sleeper agent against some future calamity.

Mel adds, "This is why I didn't want to say anything on the bridge. I've seen too many movies, including the Manchurian Candidate." Shay'taal concedes, "I guess I can't blame you at all for that. So, are we talking like full Romulan mind control device?" Mel nods and Shay'taal slumps back and grumbles, "Thank you for letting me know, when she gets back, I'll have Hey'wooth look her over." Mel looks confused, and Shay'taal explains quickly, "Hey'wooth is Hey'yooth's mother. I've got four Malacari running around my ship!" Mel mutters, "How do you keep up?" Shay'taal laughs and replies, "Not easily." He sobers and then admits, "Captain, in my timeline, you are dead. The Solstice was lost with all hands back in 2371. You were not in command in my timeline; that went to someone else."

Mel guesses, "Alberic Selense?" Shay'taal's expression sours, and Mel explains the story of her Alberic. Putting the pieces together Shay'taal realizes, "That's the turning point. The point where the two timelines split off. Jen, it was Jen. In your timeline you got her safely. In mine the Solstice was responding to some sort of temporal incursion or breach when she vanished." They discuss the ramifications for a few moments and then Shay'taal looks a little cagey as he asks, "By the way, how's Earth?"

Mel explains the current situation and her suspicions; Shay'taal remarks, "I apologize, Captain, I don't want to withhold information from you. But the Temporal Prime Directive is definitely a factor here." Mel makes it clear that she agrees, and Shay'taal informs her, "When all of this shakes out, keep an eye on a certain Selense." Mel snorts, "I wouldn't worry about him, he's in a Starfleet Intelligence box." Shay'taal shakes his head and replies, "Not Alberic. The other one." Mel then realizes that Shay'taal is referring to Admiral Victor Selense, and Shay'taal admits, "The loss of his nephew drove the admiral to make some bad choices." Mel admits, "Here, Alberic's disgrace has definitely dinged the admiral's reputation. Unfortunately, I think that makes him more dangerous." Shay'taal immediately agrees.

Down in engineering, Hey'yooth looks around and announces, "This place isn't big enough for quantum slipstream drive, but we can still make do." Ssleestak is very intrigued and Hey'yooth jokes, "Watch out! There's an unsupervised Malacari in main engineering!" He then dives for the warp core while the rest of the engineering crew is still trying to figure out why the dinosaur and the Federation's shortest Vulcan brought in a werewolf. Within moments the warp core is laid open, pieces have been rearranged, and there is a set of soothing blinking lights now running along the outer casing. Hey'yooth looks up and asks Ssleestak, "What's your favorite type of music?" Ssleestak hisses happily, "I really like Terran music, especially the band Rush." K'tral groans but Hey'yooth grins and replies, "Great! Soon you get to surf space time to Tom Sawyer!" Ssleestak hisses again with pleasure and shows a toothy grin as the two of them start work on Hey'yooth's plan, although Ssleestak isn't completely sure what he is doing to the warp core. K'tral does her best to keep both on task.

Back on the bridge Merek'miir turns to Phillip and demands, "Is this a normal day for you people?" Phillip replies immediately, "Absolutely." Meanwhile, other-Thal'tirian bombards Fal with heavy math. He asks, "Have we met before?" Other-Thal'tirian states, "No, I don't believe so." Fal admits, "My Thal'tirian is a historian. And a sociologist." Other-Thal'tirian brightens and gushes, "Oh I am too! I just branched out in past few years." Fal is intrigued but then asks, "Are you familiar with this region of space?" Other-Thal'tirian admits, "Not especially. This was our first time into the Rupture Zone, and we got stuck on this subspace sandbar. We're pretty confident we would be able to escape, and I'm sure whatever Hey'yooth is doing is going to accelerate that greatly."

Fal carefully asks about any planets nearby that the Varich-A may have encountered; other-Thal'tirian reveals, "We've been to a planet a few light years away." Fal asks, "Kordikar?" Other-Thal'tirian shakes her head and responds, "No, I don't think so. Where's that?" Fal rattles off the astronomical data and system features of Kordikar; other-Thal'tirian exclaims, "Oh, you mean Starbase 501!" Fal launches into a detailed breakdown of their temporal adventures on Kordikar with the Tizit and doesn't realize that every member of the Varich-A bridge crew is staring at him. He details the Krenim attack, the Iconian temple, and the multiple timelines; he states, "The temporal variables are definitely a Jacob's Ladder phenomenon."

Both captains walk on to their respective bridges at this point and Captain Shay'taal reclaims his seat and asks, "Sarah? What's going on?" His XO replies, "Our Bajoran friend was explaining their recent adventure to a planet which hosts Starbase 501. Except in our timeline this planet was never inhabited." Other-Thal'tirian insists that that cannot be possible due to the very close temporal coordinates both ships share, but Mel and Shay'taal eye each other and he asks, "The Krenim?" Mel nods and realizes, "No Solstice, no one to stop them. The people of Kordikar were erased from history. Maybe even the entire Tizit Consortium!" Shay'taal states, "I've never heard of them. Anyone else?" His entire bridge crew shakes their heads.

Merek'miir blurts out to her counterpart, "Wait, there's no Tizit Consortium? How large is the Wabai Unity?" Other-Merek'miir blinks in surprise and replies, "About one hundred fifty cubic light years, with seventy-five inhabited worlds; we're currently allies with the United Federation of Planets against the Dai'Loq. Why?" Instead of answering, Merek'miir turns to Mel and asks, "Request permission for a nervous breakdown?" Mal replies, "Denied." Merek'miir turns back and hisses to Phillip, "Is this really a normal day?" Phillip retorts, "You'll notice I haven't batted an eyelash at any of this."

Jessa leads Alexandria back to her quarters and does her best to gently calm down the hyperventilating Romulan. Alexandria suddenly bolts into the head where she is violently sick! She staggers out and starts weeping, a sight that is unusual to see. Jessa pads to the replicator and gets her a glass of water; she advises, "You should really change your uniform." Alexandria gulps down the water and rasps, "Menu option 2A on the replicator." Jessa lets her clean up with some privacy while she heads to the replicator. She tries to access the menu option, but gets a message demanding her clearance code and a reason why she is replicating a Romulan uniform. Jessa punches in her code and realizes that on the Solstice, Sola would just normally override this.

She brings the fresh uniform to Alexandria; the Romulan then strips down in front of her without shame or hesitation. Alexandra starts donning the new uniform but is still severely rattled as she puts on her shirt and then tries to put on her bra. She quickly figures out that reversing that is the better order and when she is finished, she declares, "I need to talk with the other Jen." She then bolts out of her quarters leaving Jessa flatfooted for a second; Jessa then barrels after her and taps her combadge to hail Mel. Mel responds immediately and Jessa warns her, "Head's up. Alexandria is on her way to talk to Jen. And she's closing the turbolift on me. I'll be there in a moment." On the bridge, other-Jen asks, "Who is Alexandria?" Mel replies, "Your new Romulan friend." Other-Jen asks, "Why does a Romulan have a human name?" Mel replies bluntly, "Because that's her name."

She sidles back to Shan'taar and says quietly, "Get someone else up here fast. Just in case." Shan'taar nods and murmurs, "I think Peel might be a bad idea, so let's go with Virgil." Mel immediately agrees. Alexandria exits the turbolift a moment later and walks right up to the other-Jen. Jessa comes out of the next turbolift, followed almost immediately by Lieutenant Virgil Thon. Alexandria asks other-Jen, "When you were growing up, did you ever meet a guy named Harold? And maybe his little girl?" Other-Jen rears back in surprise but replies, "Yeah, absolutely. Poor crazy Harold. Yeah, he once dropped off his daughter for several weeks out of the blue. Wait, why are you asking me this? How do you even know this?" Alexandria replies softly, "Because I was that little girl. When you get back to your ship, you need to go to sickbay immediately. Then give them this." Alexandra hands the other-Jen a small Romulan chip and then says, "Good day." She pivots and heads back to the turbolift, leaving the other-Jen utterly confused.

Down in main engineering, Hey'yooth hails the bridge and announces that he is ready. He also adds, "I'm really sorry I can't install quantum slipstream drive or give you quantum torpedoes due to the weird Temporal Prime Directive you all seem to follow, but I can give you a little something! You'll find a file in your main computer that details how to construct a kinetic-absorbing carpet! I noticed that your science department had started work on one." Ssleestak asks Mel again, "Are you sure we can't keep him?" Mel replies in the affirmative, but on the Varich-A, Sarah leans into Captain Shay'taal and asks, "Could we leave him with them?" Mel replies firmly, "Nope, everyone who comes over is going back. Them's the rules." Captain Shay'taal agrees and retorts to Sarah, "Besides, do you want to be the one to tell his mother?" Sarah wisely decides to not pursue this course of action.

Hey'yooth adds over the open channel, "Oh, don't worry about the counselor and I getting back! I've rigged up a subspace transporter!" Ssleestak asks, "Where is your planet?" Mel hisses a warning but Hey'yooth replies, "That's complicated. There's actually two groups of us and… yeah, it's complicated. Our original homeworld was destroyed, but my group is from the Gamma quadrant!" Ssleestak probes, "Which part, specifically?" but Mel shuts those questions down. Hey'yooth admits that Starfleet makes first contact with the Malacari in 2375 and exclaims, "It was so cool to meet you!" Ssleestak returns the enthusiasm and then Hey'yooth informs other-Jen, "Time to go!" Other-Jen asks, "Is it safe to do this?" Hey'yooth replies cheerfully, "Nope!" He taps a button as Jen starts to say, "Goddamn-" but beams away mid-word. They beam back safely on the bridge of the Varich-A, and then Chief Edgly hails Mel. He starts to explain, but Mel interrupts him, "Yup. It's from the future." Wisely, Chief Edgly decides to find something else to do.

Hey'yooth and Ssleestak simultaneously push the command button and then Rush plays! Rush plays throughout the entire Rupture Zone and through multiple levels of subspace as there is a flash of white light, a subtle jolt that pushes the Varich approximately one meter to port, and then… nothing. The Varich-A is gone, and main engineering seems undamaged. Ssleestak tasks his crew with restoring the warp core but decides to keep the pretty blinking lights on the outer casing. Reports come in from all decks of the Varich and everyone reports that everything seems normal. K'tral returns to the bridge and confirms that the EPS grid is now functioning completely normally.

Fal finds the file for the kinetic-absorbing carpet and then groans when he sees the author is Fleet Admiral Thorir Atli Bjornson, with a note of thanks to Lieutenant Commander Fal Marik of the U.S.S. Solstice. He tells Mel and she mutters, "Goddamnit," Fal notes the carpet will sparkle. He peruses the data and muses, "Fascinating," as he finds several references to Ssleestak in the document.³⁾

Commander Hall asks, "Orders, captain?" Merek'miir howls, "What the fuck!" Hall jokes, "Believe it or not, Lieutenant, this was a most productive day!" The Wabai lieutenant screams in inarticulate rage, and Mel offers, "Do you want to leave the bridge?" This is a lot to process." Merek'miir insists, "No! I'm here to navigate, so I must navigate until my shift is over! What is our destination, captain?" Mel muses, "So our choices are pirates or a lost world." Phillip points out, "There's also the second system!" Mel retorts, "Oh yes, the system where no one has ever returned from. Let's not go there. I don't really want to deal with pirates right off the bat, so set course to the third planet and engage when ready."