Game was 9/17/20.

With eighteen hours before departure, the senior officers prepare for the transfer. Chief engineer Lieutenant Ssleestak decides to leave the majority of his personal effects on the Solstice, but he does pack a small bag and brings his smaller heating rock. Chief science officer Lieutenant Commander Fal Marik decides to reset his circadian rhythms and grabs some extra sleep. Beyond that he keeps a loose eye on his science department and draws up a proposal for the restoration of the shower-phasers, which he then submits to Captain Melva Deline.

Chief flight control officer Ensign Phillip Dade spends his downtime with gamma-shift tactical officer Ensign Peel Atuun, and they go to the holodeck. Phillip expects some Capellan clan battle, but Peel tells him, "Your turn." Phillip thinks for a moment and then decides to recreate a small skirmish in feudal Japan. The skirmish features more bladework and finesse, and Peel truly enjoys it. She admits to Phillip, "Ever since our dinner with Cidhela, I have been quite curious about Japanese history and culture."

Mel spends her down time eating, resting, and checking up on all of the niggling details of a transfer while junior counselor Ensign Jessa Tyr walks her dog Raj, holds office hours, and gets as much sleep as she can. Operations manager Lieutenant K'tral resumes some repair work, while acting executive officer Commander Christopher Hall settles in. Chief of security Lieutenant Shan'taar th'Vorish orders a level-2 diagnostic on all the Varich's weapon systems, while chief medical officer Lieutenant She-Who-Swims starts drawing up plans in case sickbay on the Varich remains configured for bipeds.

The senior officers gather at 0745 hours in the conference room on the Solstice; once again, Ssleestak brings cinnamon rolls. The officers take their seats and Commander Christopher Hall opens the meeting. Ssleestak reports that he is completed a level-2 diagnostic on the Varich and while he intends to double check everything, all results show their new ship is ready. The other officers run down their respective departments, and when it gets to science Fal does bring up his request for shower-phasers. Mel laments, "I would approve, but SCE has put the kibosh on any of that. However, I do have a solution. Take a phaser, and duct tape it to the wall."

Shan'taar insists, "Captain, someone will get injured." Ssleestak remains guardedly neutral, while Armina, Swims, and Shan'taar all look pointedly at Mel. Ssleestak asks, "Is duck-tape made from Terran ducks?" Fal explains the idiom while Mel provides a bit of context. Shan'taar reveals that the security department has two betting pools currently going. The first is if and when Alexandria Tovan even notices she's on a different ship. The second is if the Varich accidentally leaves Lieutenant Stephane Park still on board. The meeting breaks up shortly after that and Ssleestak hits the gym to get some exercise. He still covets a heavy disruptor to deal with changelings but realizes the only way to find a black market on Starbase 212 is to first create said black market.¹⁾

At 1130 hours, the crew of the Solstice meets in the observation lounge directly in front of the Varich. Lieutenant Merek'miir also attends but it is very clear that she has no idea what is going on. Ssleestak informs her, "This is the most important religious ceremony!" K'tral interjects, "Shut up." As the Varich's first captain, Mel has the honor of the christening. She slots a bottle of champagne into a small launcher and aims for the upper hull. She fires and the crew watches as the bottle arcs end over end gracefully until it explodes right on the NCC! With that auspicious sign, Admiral T'konra officially transfers the command codes to Mel and the ceremony is briskly concluded. Merek'miir is still really confused so Ssleestak tries to explain, but K'tral keeps kicking him when he misinterprets things.

The newly transferred crew boards the Varich and takes their stations. At Mel's command Phillip disconnects from the umbilicals and uses maneuvering thrusters to pull away from the docking berth and towards the spacedock doors. His flight is a little showy, but not overly so. He's also a little unused to having Merek'miir to his right. The Varich exits spacedock and increases speed to full impulse. At 12:45 hours the Varich reaches the edge of the New P'Jem system. Once clear, Phillip goes to warp. This is the first time the Varich has tested her warp engines, and Ssleestak and K'tral are eyeing their stations carefully. However, there are no problems in the EPS grid, and Phillip gently increases the speed from warp one all the way up to warp nine in less than three minutes without a single power hiccup. Lieutenant Merek'miir plots a course to the Rupture Zone and Phillip announces, "At warp nine it will take eight days to get there. It's roughly thirty light years from here." Mel decides not to push it and orders, "We'll stick to warp nine for most of the trip, with a few bursts just to test the engines."

Much to security's amusement, the Varich did indeed leave spacedock with Lieutenant Park still on board. Ssleestak slots him into a duty roster and ambles down to sickbay. He finds the entire medical staff casually going about their business, but everyone eyes the lieutenant under another panel, waiting for him to even notice. Ssleestak slides under the console next to Lieutenant Park once again and says, "Lieutenant, advise me of your progress." Lieutenant Park replies distractedly, "I think I'll be done in another three hours, sir. I've almost got the proper balance."

Ssleestak grins and informs him, "You've been assigned to temporary quarters on deck four. Cabin 443, I think. Dinner tonight is meatloaf. Here's your duty roster." Lieutenant Park whips his head around and immediately recognizes Ssleestak. He insists, "Wait, sir. I'm not going with you." Ssleestak's grin grows deeper as he says, "Oh yes, lieutenant, you are now. We're already at warp." Park groans and mutters, "Oh shit." He gets up from under the console and Ssleestak follows to find K'tral standing there. Ssleestak begins informing Park of his new duties, but Park replies weakly, "I technically report to her, sir. I am operations." Ssleestak shrugs good-naturedly while K'tral takes and modifies Ssleestak's paperwork and hands it back to Park for his authorization.

On the bridge, Christopher informs Mel that they have once again abducted an engineer. Mel groans, "Did we even check?" Christopher grins and replies, "Yes."²⁾ Mel orders Shan'taar to send a message back to Starbase 212. He complies and then reports a few moments later, "Captain, we have their response. It just says, 'We know.'"

Phillip reports to Armina's office at 1615 hours and finds it empty other than the two of them. Armina gestures for him to take the couch and then she activates the privacy screen, separating her part of the office from Jessa's half. She settles in and says, "Let's start simply. I want you to relate to me the first disjunction you experienced." Phillip immediately replies, "There was a hamster." He explains how he was briefly in Daphne Hatfield's body, her hamster at flight control, and how the Solstice was fighting someone called the Tokari. He finishes with, "And then we blew up."

Armina moves on to the second temporal disjunction, and Phillip responds, "It was a matter of moments." He talks about the details of the knife until Armina asks, "What happened exactly?" Phillip hesitates and then describes where he was standing, the terrain all around him, the flora and fauna, the clothing he was wearing, the clothing his dead opponent was wearing, and even the clothing that the crowd was wearing behind him. It takes him several minutes before he finally admits, "When I got there the knife was already heading for his chest."

Armina gives him a few moments to calm down before she asks, "You have not told Peel?" Phillip retorts, "I'm still alive." Armina leans back and reminds Phillip, "Remember what Meridian told us. These temporal disjunctions are other timelines. In our timeline, our history, Peel's father died of poisoning." Phillip remains deeply uncomfortable and Armina asks, "Is this the first time you took a life?" Phillip retorts hotly, "I've been in many space battles and I've helped blow up many ships." Armina says gently, "So have I, ensign. But there's a big difference between destroying a starship from hundreds of kilometers away and seeing someone's life fade away right in front of you."

it is 1645 hours at this point, and Armina offers, "We can pause here, or we can keep going." Phillip really does not want to talk about this, but Armina says, "I understand, Phillip. But you have to. It will eat at you, until you do. I want you to come back tomorrow, at the same time as today. I'll see you then." Phillip departs the counselor's office and realizes he cannot go back to his cabin. He considers playing a game of basketball, but then decides to head down to the shuttlebay. Once there he performs every single busywork detail he possibly can, double- and triple-checking everything. Thankfully, his crew can tell something is wrong, and they offer no complaint.

After alpha shift, Fal decides to invite his entire department to Two-Forward for a drink. Unfortunately, the invitation comes out super awkward and ends with, "If Two-Forward even exists on this ship." Thankfully, it does, and the Ferengi Paj has already set up shop. The science team gathers and then must inform Alexandria they are already on the Varich after she asks, "Why is the carpet different? Is it kinetic-absorbing?" After explaining the new ship, Fal decides to test if the carpet is actually kinetic. This leads to many scientists drinking synthehol and throwing themselves onto the floor. Paj mutters, "You are all insane, but a kinetic carpet? I can patent that."

Ssleestak decides to grab some dinner. He enters Two-Forward and sees the scientists bodily throwing themselves onto the floor. He stares at Fal incredulously and Fal explains, "We're testing to see if the carpet is kinetic." Ssleestak says nothing, but he knows the carpet is definitely not kinetic. K'tral confirms the room assignment for Lieutenant Park and then decides it's time to test the replicators in Two-Forward. She enters to see the same inane sight, and asks Ssleestak, "What are they doing?" Ssleestak explains what's going on, and K'tral replies, "I see. Haven't they figured out yet that the carpet is not kinetic?" Fal comes over and insists, "Please be quiet, someone might catch on!"

Mel walks into Two-Forward to get something to eat and does a double-take. She assesses the situation and realizes the scientists have got quite an audience at this point. She sidles up to Fal and asks, "Is there a problem with the gravity?" Fal insists, "We are operating at 100% functional gravity. We are approximately 97.6% convinced that we do not have a kinetic-absorbing carpet." To emphasize his point, Fal immediately throws himself on the floor. Mel asks, "if we don't have a kinetic carpet, why don't you invent it?" Fal gets to his feet and his face lights up as he declares, "We need to do science for this!" Mel agrees and crows, "Think of the carpet prestige!" Fal immediately grabs his entire science department and starts working on a kinetic-absorbing carpet while Paj walks up to Mel asks, "Why are you encouraging them?" Mel insists, "I'm not encouraging them, I'm directing them."

Meanwhile Jessa takes Raj to the arboretum for a walk and runs into the temporally displaced Ensign Jen Kras and her dog Simon. Raj is overwhelmed with all of the new smells and places to pee, while the older Simon promptly chooses several critical trees to mark with his scent.

A week passes as the Varich continues at warp nine without a single problem. The science department is consumed with creating a kinetic-absorbing carpet, with the "hard" scientists working on the physics and the "soft" scientists writing papers about all of it. Phillip continues seeing Armina and exploring Japanese culture and history with Peel; now that she has had a taste of the samurai code Peel is devouring everything she can about Japan and her warriors.

Jessa organizes several playdates for the dogs and tells Jen, "Desrai misses you." Jen grumbles and Jessa tells her of hologram shenanigans, little Arcadian fans, and other hijinks she's been up to. Jen retorts, "Isn't there a patient you should be stalking?" Jessa replies cheerfully, "Nope! I fobbed Phillip off on Armina." She diverges to yet another topic, and Jen asks, "Are all Trill this irreverent?" Jessa jokes, "No, I'm one of a kind. And so far, no explosions this time!" This sidetracks the two women as they realize Crewman (1st-class) Chilp has probably named all the new torpedoes. Jessa wants to go down to the torpedo bay to find out but Jen retorts, "If you get within a foot of that door, Shan'taar will jump you." Jessa does not argue that point and decides to bring Jen to Two-Forward for dinner.

K'tral and Ssleestak spend the week bored out of their minds. They are not repairing anything, and the Varich is running completely smoothly. Ssleestak spends time in the gym to bulk up more while K'tral decides to pester Fal with questions about the Bajoran religion. Luckily for her, Fal is more than open to discussing his faith. During his conversations with K’tral, Fal focuses more on the historic aspects of his faith and economical law, specifically referring to the recent Aattainder of Darsic Kor. As their conversations continue, K’tral notes that Fal has adapted his faith to be able to serve in Starfleet. He has become less orthodox in some aspects, but to compensate he's become more orthodox in other aspects. She also notes that Fal himself is not consciously aware of this adaptation.

At one point she asks him point blank, “What about the children?” Fal refers to his other lifetime as Ota Veric, where he raised several children and grandchildren in context with a hasperat shop. He notes the cycles of parenting, especially how he was strict with his children and then his children were more open to his grandchildren, thus restoring the equilibrium. He also brings up Jennifer Kras but adds a disclaimer about this being an unprecedented situation, as she is an off-worlder that has been declared a Hand of the Prophets. They have several conversations over the week of travel and K’tral shamelessly plies Fal with liquor to keep him talking. However, Fal has no problem with any of that. As the conversations continue K’tral forms a thesis and starts planning a paper to write.

As they travel, the Varich drops subspace buoys to allow for real time communication with Starbase 212. Thanks to this, they receive frequent updates about the situation on Earth. They learn that there has been no Dominion invasion fleet, although Starfleet troops remain on the streets of every major city on Earth. Captain Benjamin Sisko has gone into seclusion with Starfleet Security.³⁾ Most of the crew checks in with friends on Earth, with Ssleestak sending messages almost daily. He also scans everything the Wabai Unity have on the Rupture Zone. Ssleestak also gets daily assessments from SCE and real-time communication with Sola. Meanwhile, Mel is leery about the situation on Earth. Nothing checks out properly, and her suspicions continue to increase.

Lieutenant Merek'miir joins the senior officers for the staff meeting. Once again, Christopher oversees the meeting but cedes to Merek'miir when everyone has run down their departments. Merek'miir explains that the Rupture Zone consists of three known star systems and encompasses an area of roughly seven light years. The crew can see the Rupture Zone from here with the naked eye, and it looks like space is just an ugly, purple bruise. Merek'miir states that there are routes through the subspace ruptures that do allow for warp travel but going faster than warp five or six is extremely inadvisable. She lays out the piracy that plagues this area and admits that the Wabai Unity learned how to build isolytic subspace weapons from studying this region of space.

Merek'miir goes on to reveal that someone seeded the Rupture Zone with probes. These probes do allow for navigation and have been here for thousands of years. They have never been removed, and no one can get an accurate sensor reading from them as they phase in and out of subspace constantly. However, there is one probe that is remarkably consistent and marks the entrance to the Rupture Zone. This probe emerges from subspace every five minutes and remains mostly in real space for another five minutes before vanishing.

Merek'miir explains that the probes are so old and so heavily distorted from subspace interference that no one has been able to translate the language of the original builders. However, the primary probe has distinctly two voices, one feminine and one masculine. She admits that many local legends have sprung up around this probe, with several cultures calling it 'The Lovers.' A comparison to the Klingon Empire leads Merek'miir to ask, "What's a Klingon?" Mel replies, "A volatile and passionate people. One of the pirate groups, the Raa'Kuul, consist of dishonored Klingons." Merek'miir asks, "Like the Dai'Loq?" Mel concedes, "Similar," but Shan'taar insists, "Don't make that comparison around the Dai'Loq."

Merek'miir says the first inhabited system is the one that is most explored but is home to the multiple pirate groups. The outer system is relatively well charted and consists primarily of thick asteroid belts splintered off from the system's Oort cloud. She admits, "The inner system is a little trickier. Due the subspace distortion we've been able to ascertain that there are two inhabitable worlds there, and a third marking the boundary between the inner and outer systems."

She continues, "The second system is a complete and utter mystery. Every expedition, every traveler, every scout that has gone to the system has never returned. No one has an idea what is actually there. As for the third system, it's the most isolated due to the subspace interference, but there are steady subspace signals that indicate at least there was a civilization there at one point. Unfortunately, no one knows if they're still there."

She concludes, "All three systems could theoretically provide a stable base for this Dominion. The first system has the most options and I think the inner core of that system is the most likely location. The third system I will concede is also strong possibility, but I don't think this Dominion set up a base in the second system." She then uploads all the navigation data she possesses to the Varich's main computer. With that, Commander Hall calls for the end of the meeting.

Ssleestak heads down to main engineering and starts devising and running drills for subspace ruptures, knowing how dangerous they can be to any ship at warp. Mel orders Phillip to maintain course and then she and Fal head down to the torpedo bay to speak with Chilp. The Bolian listens to their concerns carefully and then decides, "If you want a marriage of durability and maneuverability, I think Cliff is your best bet. Give me a few minutes so I can program Phillip's evasive maneuvers into him. Actually, give me two hours so I can upgrade him with some additional armor." Mel swiftly agrees and they leave Chilp as he reaches for his tools.

Mel and Fal return to the bridge and Mel notes that after eight days, Armina has still not acknowledged Christopher Hall in the slightest. Christopher starts sliding over to the XO's chair, but Mel calls out, "Armina, can you join me in my ready room?" Armina gets up as Christopher reverses course. Armina follows Mel into her ready room but refuses to sit down when offered the couch. Mel asks her, "it's obvious you're not happy that Commander Hall is here." Armina's face remains blank, but her voice has an edge as she explains, "Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hall was the tactical officer on board the U.S.S. Phoenix. When Captain Maxwell entered Cardassian space illegally and I objected, it was Christopher who marched me off the bridge at phaser point. He was blindly following orders."

Mel concedes, "Having a phaser in your face can be traumatic." Armina insists, "You don't understand, captain. It's very different when the person holding the phaser to your face is wearing the same uniform as you." Mel considers Armina's words and concedes, "Having never experienced that, I believe you are correct. It's just that your reticence to engage him has made things uneasy on the bridge." Armina replies, "in all fairness, he has evolved. The reason that I could serve under Colin Buldini was that while he supported Captain Maxwell, he hesitated, and he had doubts. Christopher Hall did not. However, if my presence is disruptive, I will leave the bridge."

Mel replies, "That is not necessary. I was worried about my friend." Armina replies blandly, "Very well, Mel. As your friend, see Jessa for therapy." Mei insists that she does try to make time for Jessa, and she is not opposed to counseling in any way. The topic shifts to Phillip, and Mel asks her, "Will you relieve Phillip of duty?" Armina replies, "Not right now. I'm worried about him and his relationships, but at the moment, he can perform his duties. But I want to be clear, the instant he cannot I will relieve him of duty." Mel insists, "I wouldn't have it any other way."

At 1130 hours the Varich drops out of warp and proceeds at impulse to the very edge of the Rupture Zone. Up close, this region of violent, twisted space fills the entire viewscreen. As predicted, a faint signal transmits from the probe as it partially emerges from subspace. Shan'taar plays the transmission over the speakers as Fal immediately records the message for analysis and comparison. The message is only a few moments and Fal realizes there are actually two messages, and both have been compressed into data streams. Once he decompresses the first stream, the senior officers and bridge crew can hear two heavily distorted voices, one male and one female, as Merek'miir stated.

The senior officers listen carefully, and then Mel frowns and asks, "Do you hear that? The male voice? I think it's speaking Bolian!" K'tral runs several filters and manages to isolate the female voice. The entire bridge crew rears back when they hear Peel Atuun's angry voice spitting curses in Capellan! The main computer starts translating the words, and everyone shudders when they hear Peel describe in detail how she is going to castrate the person she is talking to and shove their testicles into their eye sockets!

Everyone turns to Phillip, and he admits, "I've never heard her this angry." Merek'miir exclaims, "This doesn't make any sense. We have records of this probe being here for thousands of years. Yet this is the voice of the angry large woman?" She turns to Phillip and asks, "That is your mate, correct? How are you still alive?" Several officers snort as they've asked the same thing in the past. Mel has a theory, and asks Merek'miir, "What is the Unity's position on time travel?" Merek'miir rears back and insists, "Time travel is a fiction. Isn't it?" Mel allows, "Up until it happens to you." At that moment, the main computer finishes translating the male voice and they hear, "Thank you for sharing your opinion, Lieutenant Atuun. Now follow your orders and do it anyway."

Mel turns to Fal and he reports, "I've detected thirty-seven separate chroniton streams emerging from this area of space alone. The ruptures here are so bad that the entire space-time continuum is affected." Mel wonders, "Could the Rupture Zone have been created by temporal events?" Christopher orders, "Fal, K'tral. I want intensive scans on that message and whatever you can get from that probe." Fal states, "There is a second message compressed in the stream under the first; I shall attempt to separate it." K'tral assists him with multiple filters to remove the white noise and they manage to get a closer scan of the probe. In doing so, they inadvertently provide an uplink, and the probe immediately starts uploading all of the data it has collected. With this linkup, Fal reports, "This probe is Starfleet, captain! Identification code states it belongs to the U.S.S. Varich-A!"

Fal works for a few minutes and then the second message plays. The bridge crew hears over the intercom, "I am Captain Shay'taal of the Federation starship U.S.S. Varich. We have run aground on a subspace sandbar. Do not attempt a rescue. I repeat, do not attempt a rescue. This region of space is so destabilized, another attempt could have vast repercussions. We believe a subspace implosion may allow us to escape. We have dispatched a network of probes to scan the region and to warn off anyone else from entering." Fal reports the timestamp on the message is 57636.42;⁴⁾ eight years uptime from now. Lieutenant Jericho MacDougal's voice echoes form the intercom, "Engineering to bridge. Captain, we're getting unusual energy readings throughout the ship, almost identical to the energy ratings from Kordikar." Ssleestak begins a thought experiment of trying to undo the entire Rupture Zone until he registers MacDougal's report.